Time-Honored Traditions

The lake at Hunter's is a favorite for over-warm children (and over-warm fighters!) Moms sit in the shade up on the hill, chatting and sewing and resting, the kids laugh and splash and don't technically swim, because that's not allowed without a life guard. Wading though? Wading is fine. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum, kids.

It Wouldn't Be a Project...

...without cat hair.

Additions to the Toy Bag

I just raided Aurora's bookshelf for a few titles to slip into the "mom, I'm bored" bag I plan to bring along to events...

I don't think she's ever actually read them of her own volition, so they'll be novel (hah!) when she pulls them out at events.

I chose:

A Medieval Feast
by Aliki

Chanticleer and the Fox
by Geoffrey Chaucer

Elidor and the Golden Ball
by Georgess McHargue

As she gets older I'm looking forward to including other titles such as Eleanor, from the Royal Diaries series, (as well as Elizabeth, Mary and Isabel!)

A Blue Velvet Cap

Do not look even remotely surprised when I tell you that Shakespeare in Love is one of my favorite movies. It's one of a few (along with Ever After, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, and Knight's Tale) that I refer to as my "Garb Movies" - movies I throw on in the background while I'm whiling away the hours working on garb projects.

Shakespeare in Love, however, is also a source of much dismay to me, because of one very stupid line which somehow became an obsession, during rehearsals when Fennyman says:

"I have a blue velvet cap that'll do well. I've seen just such a cap on an apothecary. Just so."

And now, dear reader, I will be damned if I don't want desperately to have a blue velvet cap for my apothecary's daughter persona. Now you're saying, "Wait, I thought your persona was the daughter of a painter and a midwife, what happened?" 

Nothing, it's just that before I decided he'd been a painter, I'd wanted him to be an apothecary, and I've already had that velvet in my stash for years.

At some point I was convinced that there had to be some historical significance to this- that surely apothecaries somewhere, at some point, wore caps of blue velvet. Or caps of velvet. Or caps of blue. SOMETHING. But I have found little, if nothing, to support this idea.

There's no question that apothecaries wore hats, as most people did. Below are two depictions of an Apothecary at work, and both are topped off.

 
On the right, the woodcut appears to be of an apothecary and his apprentice, and the apprentice appears to be wearing a fun twisted headband which may or may not have a fabric crown (thereby making it a hat, not just a band.)

As you can see below, velvet caps are no strangers to menswear of the 16th century...

However, you might have noticed by now that these are all men, in men's hats. Which, you know, that's fine. If anyone were to compliment my fine cap, I could say, "It was my father's! The cholera took him, God rest his soul."

My persona is Dutch, married to a German, and living in the former half of the 1500's. A Landsknecht look would not be remotely wrong for her, and neither would something of a somewhat Flemish origin. I admit to being delighted by the Landsknecht starfish hat, but don't have enough of the velvet in question to pull it off. Things to think about...

Moving Along

So Aurora's cloak is almost done. Obviously as you may have noticed by now, I really do straddle a line between fantasy costuming, and what would be period. For example, I'm pretty religious about using only natural fibers in my garb, with a rare allowance for blends if they're comfortable and good looking. But I'm as willing to use cotton, which is not period, as I am silk, wool and linen, (which would all be perfectly accurate.)

My designs are somewhere between Pre-Raphaelite and accurate, and honestly, I'm okay with that. If I have a desire to do something historically accurate from the ground up, I will, but most of the time I'm satisfied with just looking fantastic. I'll put the work in, it's not that. I'm not one of those people wandering around in an unhemmed poly-cotton t-tunic and jeans, fuck that noise. I'm going to look like I tried, and tried hard, but so long as the SCA doesn't have accuracy restrictions (like one would see in a typical reenactment camp) I'm not going to lash myself to perfection. I would rather see brilliantly executed fantasy than poorly executed period any day of the week.

I've got a massive fabric stash to use up, and use it up I will.

The point of this diatribe is that very obviously this cloak is not period, the velveteen is cotton, the pattern is Kinsale (late 19th century) if it's anything, the stripes are so Rennie, and everything about it just smacks of fantasy. But I'm okay with that- I'm great with that! I think it looks great, and that's what matters to me.

So all that's left to do now is add the mink collar, make the button loop, and sew that and the button on. I'm not 100% pleased with how the grow-stripe got stitched down, it's a little lumpy here and there in the front, but she's six and if she has this cloak on she'll either be a) in the dark, or b) running around (these two things are not mutually exclusive.) So I don't think many, if any, will notice that.

I got all of this done in 4 episodes of Lost. Awesome.

In other news, I've been cannibalizing all of my old underkirtles and overkirtles into over-and-under-kirtles for her. This lucky kid is going to be awash with silks and linens and all kinds of lovely things.

Thinky Thoughts

Spring/Summer Menu

Drinks:  Lavender Cardamom Tea, Spearmint Ginger Lemonade.
Breakfast: Sweet Cheese Buns, Strawberry Cakes, Blueberry Pudding.
Spinach and Mushroom Quiche, Bacon and Cheese Quiche, Onion Rolls.
Lunch/Dinner: Cool Turnip and Leek Soup, Spinach and Mushroom Quiche, Bacon and Cheese Quiche.
Dessert: Fruits of the Forest Tartlets, Butter Letter, Whole Hazlenuts in Dark Chocolate.


Fall/Winter Menu

Drinks: Pumpkin Egg Nog, Mulled Cider.
Breakfast: Sticky Nut-Buns, Cranberry and Orange Cakes, Apple Pudding.
Wild Mushroom Quiche, Meat Hand Pies, Onion Rolls.
Lunch/Dinner: Hot Venison and Winter Vegetable Stew, Wild Mushroom Quiche, Meat Hand Pies.
Dessert:  Pumpkin Pies, Spiced Pear Pies, Hot Roasted Candied Nuts.

Aurora's Cloak

 Started Aurora's cloak today- pulled the following out of my stash- purple cotton velveteen, purple cotton, a strip of purple silk (to use as a button loop), a shell button and the fur collar. The shell button is actually quite sparkly with lots of colors flashing through, but you can't much tell in the photo.

Took her measurements- she's 37" from shoulder to floor, so I measured a cloak 45" long and am going to fold over an 8" grow stripe and sew it down. I figure a 45" cloak will last her several years, and the colors and design are mature enough to see her through several phases of her girlhood. I'm planning to sew the lining (a recycled duvet cover) in by hand, and possibly use a contrasting shade of thread for that. ::rubs chin:: Perhaps a fun marigold color? Or an olive green?

I discovered in the middle of my work that the two velvet panels I had (recycled curtains,) were two different shades of purple, even though, omfg, they came from the same damn set of curtains. One was a dusky plum, the other was a richer wine shade. So I cut each panel into quarters and then sewed them back together, alternating. As you can see, (with my husband holding it up for me,) the outcome is whimsical without being jester-esque and obnoxious.

She's sick and run down with a fever, so there won't be much of me holding things up to her and asking her to repeatedly turn around so I can see how they look. But a cloak is just a rectangle, what could go wrong?

(Famous last words.)