Happy New Year!
Jan. 1st, 2006 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ricardienneWell… January 1, 2006.
I went to the Changing Hands 25% off sale, today. I spend about an hour browsing and avoiding the increasingly long line, then another 45 minutes standing in said line. But it wasn't too bad at all. They had people wandering around handing out cookies, I was surrounded by fellow book-lovers, and I passed the time by reading the introduction (and then, because I still was quite far away from the cashier, the first act or so) of a paperback Measure for Measure I picked up. So then when I got up to the checkout, I felt guilty about just leaving it, so I bought it (it was only a dollar). I was expecting to see more people I knew than I did. C. Bennett was going to look for me (and I her), but I didn't find her; and I would have expected to see Natalie, or Bethany, or both. But I only saw Cami. I recognized her at first, but as we talked, she began to look less and less familiar. Weird.
I've been recommuning with my 1947 Singer these past few days. I finally buckled down to work on my Renn Faire costume for this year -- assuming that I'm going to be home while it's running (and that I actually finish the costume). I'm going to do a proper Elizabethean one: not one of those generic Wench costumes like I've done twice, or my 13th century dress from last year.
It's funny, 16th and 17th century isn't really my period of interest, but the costume has always interested me. It was the first stuff I came across when I started looking for historic costume information on the web, and it always seemed the most obsessive about period construction and period detail and period whatever. Probably because they're the first eras where there actually is documentation…
Anyway, I started looking at pictures again this semester when I should have been writing papers. So I'm going to do it properly, starting with the undergarments and going from there.
I drafted my corset pattern from these instructions based on the corset worn by Queen Elizabeth's Tomb Effigy. It was the easiest drafting experience I've had. It took me maybe two hours to get a workable pattern. Now I'm just a little worried that I've sewn the boning channels not quite the right way. But we shall see. I spent this afternoon overcasting 36 eyelets in the front (while reading James Shapiro's 1599); I still have 36 more to cut and overcast in the back. Oy.
UPDATE: It's now quarter to one, but I've finished all 72 eyelets! And, of course, I had to pin the sides together and lace the backs and fronts to try it on. I suspect that it may be a little too big (as usual), but I've read that adding boning makes it smaller, so I can hope. It's also a little bit high cut. That doesn't matter too much, as I'm planning on making a dress with a doublet bodice anyway, but I might try to fix that. Or, as I've already finished the neckline, I might not.
I went to the Changing Hands 25% off sale, today. I spend about an hour browsing and avoiding the increasingly long line, then another 45 minutes standing in said line. But it wasn't too bad at all. They had people wandering around handing out cookies, I was surrounded by fellow book-lovers, and I passed the time by reading the introduction (and then, because I still was quite far away from the cashier, the first act or so) of a paperback Measure for Measure I picked up. So then when I got up to the checkout, I felt guilty about just leaving it, so I bought it (it was only a dollar). I was expecting to see more people I knew than I did. C. Bennett was going to look for me (and I her), but I didn't find her; and I would have expected to see Natalie, or Bethany, or both. But I only saw Cami. I recognized her at first, but as we talked, she began to look less and less familiar. Weird.
I've been recommuning with my 1947 Singer these past few days. I finally buckled down to work on my Renn Faire costume for this year -- assuming that I'm going to be home while it's running (and that I actually finish the costume). I'm going to do a proper Elizabethean one: not one of those generic Wench costumes like I've done twice, or my 13th century dress from last year.
It's funny, 16th and 17th century isn't really my period of interest, but the costume has always interested me. It was the first stuff I came across when I started looking for historic costume information on the web, and it always seemed the most obsessive about period construction and period detail and period whatever. Probably because they're the first eras where there actually is documentation…
Anyway, I started looking at pictures again this semester when I should have been writing papers. So I'm going to do it properly, starting with the undergarments and going from there.
I drafted my corset pattern from these instructions based on the corset worn by Queen Elizabeth's Tomb Effigy. It was the easiest drafting experience I've had. It took me maybe two hours to get a workable pattern. Now I'm just a little worried that I've sewn the boning channels not quite the right way. But we shall see. I spent this afternoon overcasting 36 eyelets in the front (while reading James Shapiro's 1599); I still have 36 more to cut and overcast in the back. Oy.
UPDATE: It's now quarter to one, but I've finished all 72 eyelets! And, of course, I had to pin the sides together and lace the backs and fronts to try it on. I suspect that it may be a little too big (as usual), but I've read that adding boning makes it smaller, so I can hope. It's also a little bit high cut. That doesn't matter too much, as I'm planning on making a dress with a doublet bodice anyway, but I might try to fix that. Or, as I've already finished the neckline, I might not.
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Date: 2006-01-02 05:46 am (UTC)I saw Bethany, too, but I didn't get a chance to say much more than "Hi," because she was working the register. :P
I hope you had a good New Year's!
And your Elizabethan costume sounds wonderful! Can I see it when you're finished? Please?
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 07:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-03 01:43 am (UTC)Speaking of which, if I can ever make it to the Fiber Factory when it's open, I'm starting an artsy-craftsy project of my own. I'm going to knit a blanket for my cousin's baby (due in June). Of course, given that I usually get about halfway through with these things and then forget about them, it might end up being for her next baby or something.
Presuming she has a next baby, that is. :P
no subject
Date: 2006-01-03 05:16 am (UTC)Actually, I'm currently stuffing my corset full of broom straw. And really regretting doing all those eyelets without a break, as they killed my hand.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-03 06:55 am (UTC)Anyway, that corset looks like a lot of work. Good for you!
no subject
Date: 2006-01-03 07:45 am (UTC)When you finish, we should all meet up and go to the Ren Faire in costume. I can lend Natalie a dress, and then we can all be like WHOA COSTUMES. Or something.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-03 07:46 am (UTC)THERE MUST BE HATS.
AND VEILS.
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Date: 2006-01-03 10:24 pm (UTC)