Good News Everyone!

Well, they bushwacked me again and hit me with a Purple Fret at Val Day two weekends ago.  I'm proud of myself, but still find myself a bit of a fraud.  I would not have recommended me for that award, but it seems I deserved it.  I really do just play this game to have fun and play dress-up and buy wool.  Any subsequent volunteering is really only a means to a wooly end...

My giant, red, wooly rear end trembling before Their Majesties as the herald reads my scroll out.

Photo by Dan Peacock

Anyway, I have a few other updates!  I finally found an incredible job that I love to death and that allows me to not only have time for sewing (ironically), but the drive to sew and the money to do it.  What I do is inconsequential, but I really am enjoying myself and enjoying being financially stable finally.

I'm delving deeper into the research and starting to ask the right questions of myself and my persona, I think.  I'm very much trying to narrow my kit to a specific time period and to basically create a living history kit to wear at specific living history functions.  I've actually been considering joining a living history group more specific than the SCA for this purpose, but there's nothing incredibly local right now and I've got a few years until I can afford that type of travel anyway.  I'd never leave the SCA, but I would like a more specific outlet for my research tendencies.

We're doing Golden Seamstress 10 as a low-key, no-stress, low-competition endeavor this year to build Jahanara her tourney garb to match Berach's to keep us in the game since we didn't compete last year and we want to compete intensely next year in Heian Japanese again.  I'm really rather excited as it her garb a really interesting mix of Norse and Levantine or Jerusalem Arabic.  I'd love to win our category, obviously, but we really just need the practice and team cohesion.  It's also our last year to get Emma on the team for a while so we're looking forward to that.

Last June, I posted an updated garb project list and I wanted to go back over it again and do another update!:

Garb Updates!:

• The blue tunic is on hiatus until further notice.  I hate it more and more every time I look at it.
• In the picture above, I'm wearing the red wool hand sewn gown.  It's really gorgeous and I get compliments on it constantly.  I took the first length of tablet weaving I ever made and used it as wrist and neckline trim.  I think it looks amazing.
• The experimental hangerrock is sorta weird, but I like it.  I need to fortify the top edge with a backing of some sort either on the inside or trim on the outside so my brooches don't ruin it.
• The brooches are great, but I'm now trying to find a substance that will allow me to hang my beads and things that won't break and scatter my beads like an em effer.  Tried silk, wool, linen, and now I've moved onto wire.  Next step is plastic-coated wire for modern beading.
• I didn't make the Birka coat (but I have one in the planning), but I did change an old wool Middle Eastern Caftan into a Rus Kaftan, lol.  I'm currently reworking it once again to fit better and hand sew it instead of machine sew it, and to let the seams out so I can line it.
• No Thorsbjerg trousers yet, but I'm still planning them.  I've got 4 pairs of braises that I'm sticking with and this spring, I'm buying more linen to make more.
• Still haven't learned to spin or naalbind, but this Pennsic I should be able to buy my equipment and take some classes.
• Still working on the extant find map/timeline thing.  There are so many that are in other languages that progress is slow.
• The hand sewing class has 1 beginning part.  In teaching it a few times, I discovered that it really needs to be split into 2 classes for the very beginiest of beginners.
• Tension on the tablet weaving continues to ellude me.  Will keep trying.
• Loving the organization scheme and it's helping me finish things one at a time instead of trying to start 50 projects at once.
• Garb repairs done, but garb upgrades continue as my skills improve.
• Sorting Gold Key like a crazy person and accumulating more, much to my chagrin.
• I'm playing with natural dyes now and I've found it incredibly interesting.  I posted a whole series to my Facebook page on tests this past summer.  Maybe I'll transfer that over here.
• Am now bound and determined to purchase a custom or semi-custom sports bra for fighting.  The period alternatives will not work until I lose some weight and have less chest to heave around so that's on hold indefinitely.
• I'm currently lacing my lamellar together and doing slow work in the Bellatrix style of fighting training.  Wish me luck in my newest endeavor.  I'm planning a tunic for wearing underneath and I'll post pictures of the progress on that once I'm beyond design stage.
• I recently took on the MOAS position in the canton as well as the chatelaine.  I'm excited and really pepped to do 
• I entered my first A&S display at Val Day.  I got lots of nice comments and it was really good practice writing the documentation.

So that's all my updates for now.  Look for new pictures and writing in the next few months.

Where the heck have I been?

Well, I'll tell you I've been incredibly busy and life has been happening and etc, etc.

Besides having a writing habit that goes in spurts, I've been trying to cope with the Michigan economy and the very nonexistent job prospects here. So, I started my own business as a seamstress doing alterations and making soft goods, costumes, and clothing for commission clients. That line of occupation is slowly chugging along.

The more exciting news is that I've been doing a lot of sewing and research for this SCA habit. I've been mainlining wool for about 6 months now.

I'll back up a little. I finally found a culture that I'm comfortable in for my SCAdian game and I'm considerably more committed to the research for Norse culture. It's been a long road for me, bouncing from a newcomer to 14th century English to 12th century Anglo-Saxon, to dabbling in Safavid Persian and Ottoman Turkish, to finally 10th century Hiberno-Norse. I feel like I've landed at home and I've not looked back. There is the rather difficult aspect of changing my name now that most people know me as Gillian, but it's been a transition and I feel like it's starting to work.

So my new fascination in Norse culture has led me to a very specific interest in using the proper materials for my garb. There's less wiggle room in Norse culture for fudging with silk and linen to save money, so I've been searching high and low for deals on wool. Luckily, it's been a wool-heavy modern season or four and I've built up enough of a stock to start fortifying my kit with real wool. In my heart, I want to be spinning and weaving my own wool for clothing, but modern woven will have to do for now.

To this aim, I've been trying to learn as much as possible about textiles and am starting to dip into textile production. I've also been sinking further into tablet weaving as that's what Norse women do when they aren't spinning and weaving and sewing and cooking. It's a busy life being a Norse woman!

Garb Updates!:

• The blue tunic in the previous post is still not finished because I ran out of stupid DMC floss in that color and I've been too distracted to go find more. I also have no documentation for the embroidery style and I made the seams before I knew how to properly flat-fell seams. It will languish until I have more energy for it.
• I'm nearly finished with my first hand-sewn wool kyrtle (gown/dress/whatever) and will find the time to post pictures when I have it fitted properly. I also need to do a little fulling on the seams to prevent unraveling and to lock the wool together to seal the seams. It's still lacking a hem and a neckline finishing--is anyone surprised?
• I'm preliminarily finished with a experimental hangerrock in a style I think is possible based on the Birka finds. It's made from basket-woven, multicolored hounds-tooth wool.
• I finally have a pair of brooches to hang my wealth from and hold up my hangerrock. Purchased from Raymond's Quiet press and based on a find from Yorkshire, UK.
• I'm in the planning stages of a Birka coat and a cloak based on the Valkyrie images.
• I now have enough serviceable underwear to stop having to wear modern pants and shorts under my garb. I based the first ones I've made on braises, but the next stop will be Thorsberg trousers.
• I'm planning on finding someone *cough*NYM*cough* to teach me to spin and also someone to teach me to naalbind. For this, I'll need spindle, whorl, maybe a distaff, and a bone needle. It's time for me to make Norse stockings instead of using the 12th century hosen.
• I'm putting together a map and time-line of the major archaeological finds that include textiles for the Viking Age. Probably to be submitted as an A&S project at some point. I have never seen anything like this, so I'm hoping it will be well-received.
  
• I'm developing a 4 part series of classes dedicated to hand sewing and focusing on Viking Age stitches and techniques. The first part is finished and I attempted to teach it at Squire's, but no one showed up to the class. Still debating on whether or not I want to teach it at Pennsic next year in the full 4 parts. I'd like to teach it a few times just to see how it goes first.
• I just finished my first real tablet woven project. It's pretty rough-looking. Tablet weaving is definitely an acquired skill, but I'll keep chugging at it.
• I sorted and arranged all my garb stash fabric, decided what I would use it for, and labeled it all. This was part of a huge organizational project for my office. I also hung up all my garb and arranged my upstairs spare bedroom into a garb and SCA stuff storage room.
• I made all the repairs on all the garb that needed it.
  
• I sorted out all the garb I don't need anymore and added it to the Ealdnordwuda Gold Key that is now in my possession. I also sorted all the Gold Key by type of garment and labeled the boxes so it's easier to find people garb they can wear.
  
• Last summer, I did a huge RIT dye project and dyed some of my older, yuckier garb more acceptable colors. I'm so much happier with it now. The two unbleached chemises I made for my very first Pennsic in 2005 are still in use as camp scrub garb and now they're dark red and salmon pink. They've been reworked since that Pennsic (thank goodness) and are now just very light t-tunics with short sleeves.
• Still halfheartedly searching for a period alternative to a bra that will give me support and not make my chest look like a swamp monster. I fiddled for several years with a princess-cut thing, but it mashed my boobs up funny. I'm back to modern bras for the sheer saving of my neck and back, but the search continues slowly. I think some sort of fabric wrap will be the next attempt, but then I'll need aid in getting dressed. I especially need something to go under my armour so I can comfortably swing a sword. Budgetary concerns and this bra issue keep the armour front stalled as well.