Welcome to my project page. I hope to keep updated pictures on my various projects.
I am currently a member of the An Tir Costumers' Guild and the An Tir Embellishers' and Embroiderers' Guild. I hold the rank of Junior Student in both. I am currently working on my Senior Student ranks.
I also plan on entering the Barony of Madrone Arts and Sciences Championship eventually. I can use some of the projects I am working on for guild ranks in the championship.
I also do alot of sewing just to keep myself in garb for SCA events. I will probably keep a list of those projects here, but may or may not post in-progress pictures.
If you have any questions about the construction or research of my projects, please feel free to write me.
1480 His and Her Florentine
February 18, 2003 - I am currently working on two complete outfits from the end of the Quattrocentro of Florence, Italy. I have a large project page in the works and will post it as soon as I feel it is ready. This project is taking up most of my conscious and subconscious brain at the moment. Its almost an obsession (almost?). I will be making the outfits from head to toe, including hats, jewelry and shoes. If its feasible for me to make it from scratch, I will be. This, of course, has led me to take on new hobbies as I need the skills to make the new items. It looks like shoe making may be the most challenging as I need to carve my own wooden lasts for both me and him.
How to organize the project page is almost as much of an obsession as putting the outfits together. Thus I am awake at 3 a.m. as my last thought before going to bed was "How do I want to incorporate this into my project page". My brain gives me no rest.
June 6, 2003 - I haven't been working on this for the past several weeks as my friend announced that she wanted a Victorian wedding in a few months. As a member of the wedding party (Maid of Honor) I have to make my own dress, and with the short time allowed me I put my Florentine on hold. Now the exact date of the wedding is up in the air, as her Army fiance didn't get the requested date correct. So I'm going back to my Florentine until I hear when the wedding is supposed to be.
July 10, 2003 - The Victorian thing threw off my game a bit, but Im ready to get started again. However, I just lost 45 pounds over the past several months, so I need a new duct tape dummy made. Plus, Im still losing weight, so I don't want to work on anything major for my outfit until I stabilize my weight. So I'm going to get back to working on Darling's shirt and then probably onto his doublet. I may do some minor stuff for my outfit, its depends on how the mood strikes me.
November 10, 2003 - Okay, finally able to start sewing again. I finished the Man's camacia/shirt this past weekend. And I started my gamurra today.
March 20,2004 - Most of my updates will now be found only on the dress page.
Spinning
March 20,2004 - All of my spinning projects will now be found on my Naalbinding page
Naalbinding
July 16, 2002 - Naalbinding is my big thing lately. I am currently starting my third pair of socks. I stopped working on my first pair so that I could get my second pair done for family reunion's gift exchange. My darling's father won them, but he is allergic to wool, so his mother gets them.
I plan on finishing the ankles on my first pair in time for Costumers' Guild challenges in August. I hope to post pics of my second pair, done in a denim blue wool, soon. My third pair is my first foray into silk/wool. I bought a rose and a burgandy skein of 40% Silk/30% Wool/20% Cashmere/10% Nylon yarn. I hope to have them done by October. Other than the occasionaly slub, the yarn is VERY nice to work with. I can't wait to make myself a pair, they are so soft.
September 16, 2002 - I decided that I didnt have time to finish the socks in time for October, so I am trying out my first pair of socks done in the Russian variant of the Mammin stitch.
February 18, 2003 - I have few pictures of my third pair of socks up on my naalbinding page. I have actually finished one sock and have started the toe of the second. Hope to borrow a camera soon to show more pictures.
August 9, 2003 - Got some pictures up of my fourth set of socks, currently in progress.
March 20,2004 - All updates will now be on my Naalbinding page
Household Regalia - Turkestani Coats
February 18, 2003 - I have been working on Darling's coat for a few months now and all I need to do is sew the binding on. I am slowing gathering the material for my coat and also plan on eventually holding a sewing party to show the rest of the household how to make the coats.
Stockings
February 18, 2003 - A couple of weekends ago I took a linen stocking class. I washed the fabric for my mock-up this past weekend and hope to start cutting it out soon.
March 2, 2003 - Stockings are DONE!!!
Medieval Fabric Dyeing
April 14, 2002 - I have decided to research Fabric Dyeing for my science project for Baronial A&S. It kills several birds with one stone, as the Costumers' Guild wants you to have a familiarity with period dyes. I will actually dye several pieces of fabric using period recipes and enter this into the competition along with a small documentation paper.
September 16, 2002 - I have my first project done. I hope to have the write up on it soon. Meanwhile I have begun plans on my next projects.
February 18, 2003 - Still haven't gotten around to actually posting the write up on my first project. I also haven't done any more dyeing as I am still gathering the materials and scouring them. I did plant some daffodil bulbs in the Fall and they are now poking their heads up. I also gathered some bark from nearby oak and apple trees. I just need to finish sorting my fiber and then I can start mordanting.
The following projects have not been worked on for awhile and I don't have any immediate plans to continue.
Lucet
August 13, 2001 - I just bought a Lucet. I am having too much fun with it. I bought it to make cording for my Assisiwork Sweetbag and to make bodice lacing and other costume ties.
Go check out my Lucet Page for links on where to buy them and how to do it.
Here is a picture of the cord I have made so far. The green is what is currently in the lucet
Here is a close up of the green cord so you can see some detail. 
February 18, 2003 - I recently bought a new book on lucet cording and have been working on each "lesson". I hope to have some pics posted soon.
Embroidered Nine-man Morris Boardgame
16th C. Irish Dress - Brown
Assisiwork Bag
16th C. Irish Dress - Purple
I broke three sewing machine needles attaching the skirt, only to find out that I had bunched up the material in the back. The bodice also doesn't fit right and the split skirt hangs crooked. So off I go with the seam ripper. And after all the angonizing hours I have already put in it. Bleh!
I bought some decorative nailheads to put on the half-sleeves to approximate the DeHeer picture. (Don't worry, I thought the term 'nailhead' was a little odd, too, until I saw what they were). I made the half-sleeves wide enough to button at my wrist. I learned how to make period wooden buttons recently, so I need to buy some wooden beads of the right size and cover them with embroidery thread. I was astounded to find DMC floss in two of the shades on the dress, especially considering I had over-dyed the fabric. I have started to cover the grommets with these two shades and they are disappearing into the fabric. I love it.
This project is for my barony. The main symbol on the Barony of Madrone's device is a madrone tree, ie, a tree with a red trunk and branches with green leaves. I designed the four tree motif for the center of the gameboard. It is entirely worked in split stitch. The lines of the gameboard will be worked in double running stitch. I will then making a matching bag for the gameboard and game pieces. The bag will have a slightly larger version of the madrone tree.
Finished the center motif and now on to the doublerunning stitched gameboard lines. This shouldn't take me too long. I need to finalyze the drawing of the large Madrone tree that will be worked on some linen and then appliqued to some brocade. This will be the game bag.
Im working on the main motif now, but it may all be for nothing. The baroness that commissioned the piece just stepped down, and the new herald pointed out that the Madrone tree is the symbol of the Order of the Red Branch and therefore only members of the order may display it. So now I need to talk to the new baroness and see if she has any use for it.
(Last updated February 18, 2002)
September 16, 2001 - This is a dress that a friend of mine made for me when I first joined the SCA. It is a very pretty rough linen dress with wide stripes of three alternating colors. the warp is a nice cream and the weft alternates with the same creme, a coffee brown and black. It is lined in yellow linen and I wear it with a red underskirt and my orange and black check leine. It is fully (and then some!) boned and is very uncomfortable. We also lost the original fabric for the half sleeves so we used left over scraps and they are a little short and very narrow. I have also gained some weight since then. I plan on tearing the skirt off and pulling out all of the boning. I then plan on cutting a length of the side of the skirt to use to make the bodice bigger and fix the sleeves. I will then reattach the skirt.
Pics of details of the dress can be found here
September 16, 2002 - The skirt has been ripped away from the bodice and I am in the process of ripping the sleeves off. This is probably going to be put on hold until I get some summer garb made. I roasted this summer and this dress is more winter, early summer, early fall.
This is going to be a little bag that I can hang from my belt, in the style of the sweet bags of the 16th & 17th centuries. I picked two patterns out of Vinciolo's Patterns for Lace and Embroidery from the 16th century reprinted by Dover. I will do the outline in double running stitch and the background in long armed cross stitch. To learn more about Assisiwork, go to my Assisiwork page.
This is the second attempt at this project. I was much further along but I had to tear out ALL of my work. I originally wanted to use DMC perle cotton #8 but I couldn't find it in color #321 so I went ahead using the thicker #5. I outlined the bottom border and half way up the sides. I then proceeded to fill in the background with long armed cross stitch. The pattern disappeared. So now I am outlining the pattern in one strand of DMC's six-strand floss and filling in the background with the #8 perle cotton, I originally wanted to use. I had to special order it, because evidently the distributor for Western Washington doesn't seem to hand it out much and the local needlework stores kept telling me it didn't exist in color #321. Well it does, and now I have it. I would have used perle cotton #12 for the outline but that positively doesn't come in color #321.
This is my first attempt at making an Irish dress entirely on my own. I found some really horrible 70's jean demin and over-dyed it with Rit Black Plum, but only left it soaking for 10 minutes. It came out a wonderful heathery purple over the original cream background. The original yellow and green stripes are very mutted now. I lined it with hot pink linen. The underskirt is a brown paisley cotton and I will wear it with my orange and black cotton leine I made a few years ago.
I wore this to a feast and the back of the bodice dug into my neck. There is no choice but to tear everything apart. I was hoping to only have to tear out a few sections and then resew. oh well
(Last updated April 14, 2001)
