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.

Someday tent project

I want to build the tent with the pine branches and the wooden door on it in this picture from the Romance of Alexander (Bodley 264), c. 1338-44.

*sigh* So many projects, so little time.

I've been working really sporadically, but still furiously on my Flemish kit. More updates on my Flemish blog.

Yours in Service to The Dream,
Gillian
(Gille? Gill? Giles? <--That's my name when I'm in armour.)

Persona Identity Crisis

So I know I'm not the only one who changes or wants to change or has changed their persona, but I'm in a real pickle here. I've got eighteen thousand projects in various stages of development currently and they all seem to be from different eras and places. It really puts me in a bind as to who Gillian wants to be within the Society and what Melissa wants to spend her mundane time doing.

I've always had the goal in the SCA to avoid MPD--Multiple-Persona Disorder--because I think it's tacky if done wrong. But I also like being able to blend in with my surroundings and having a multitude of options. I have this sort of obsession for the accurate and documentable. It's not enough for me to know how things were done, I have to achieve it too. I guess it will help to list and describe the projects that are pulling me in these many directions.

Let's go in order of importance:

1.) Rework "Beyond the Wench: Mid-16th Century Garb on a Budget" to fit a 30 minute class time by the end of April, including my own sample researched Flemish outfit from the skin-out, including headgear with a budget of $30. I only have the research, drafting, and chemise finished (and the chemise isn't truly finished--HEMS!).

2.) Finish gambeson, surcote, chausses, braises, and other non-garb elements for my fighting kit.

3.) Finish test samples for toddler garb for eBay. I need the cash and I need to free up the space that my less historic fabrics take up for my new nest of delightfully expensive new textiles.

4.) Use some of the new wool flannel to make a winter peplos so I can play as a Celt sometimes.

5.) Use the new silk to make a simple 13th C. Persian-inspired garb for ME-themed events.

6.) Use new linen for making another 13th century gown, surcote, and ruffled fillet/barbette for summer courts.

7.) Use new wool and linen to make Viking dress and apron (and coif), respectively.

8.) Use new wool for making another 13th c. gown for winter courts.

9.) Make fabric stamps for sample 14th c. drawstring fabric pouches. That would preclude me actually making the sample bags as well.

10.) Make some simple Byzantine garb with research and extant examples/paintings/other art because I feel like it isn't well-represented in this area (or in the Midrealm for that matter).

11.) Repair and finish all garb in my wardrobe. This include hems, cuffs, and neck scyes.

12.) Organize sewing materials and notions and give them their very own area in the apartment, with a distinct sewing table. Go through fabric collection. Put aside fabrics for the Canton newbie garb event next Fall. Consolidate scrap bags. Sort fabrics by type into separate tubs. Sell fabrics with value, but are of no use to me. Use older/yuckier fabrics in my collection to make Pennsic junk garb that I can destroy without feeling guilty.

13.) Die of overwork and take 10-day vacation at Pennsic with all my garb finished AT LEAST 3 weeks beforehand. (HA!, yeah right.)



I'll stop there because it's my lucky number, ironically. Legend has it that Friday the 13th is considered unlucky because the Knights Templar were attacked en masse and destroyed on Friday, October 13, 1307 by King Phillip the Fair of France. There is no documented date of the incident though, so don't listen to what History Channel tells you as it is often very, very wrong.


YiStTD,
Gillian