Threads

Since I started making lace, I've been using cotton thread. Yes, I've used silk thread before. I've used linen thread before. The silk is expensive (I have to order it online), and the linen is hard to work with. The cotton is easy, it's cheap, it's easy to find. And it goes through the washing machine without any worries. So I've stuck to cotton except for competition projects (and sometimes even then)

However!!!! Several people in SCA were saying, "you need to give up cotton thread. You're never going to be a Laurel if you don't give up cotton thread." Well, frankly, I'm not terribly worried about being a Laurel. And if the fact that I like cotton thread is going to be the go/no-go on being a Laurel, I don't think the Laurels would like me very much. so that's not an argument that's going to work for me.

However. I do want to get my work more period. And I do like the way the period threads look and feel when they're made into lace. So a couple days ago, I finally bit the bullet. I'm going off cotton as my primary thread. to celebrate, I purchased a volume of linen thread, and I am committed to using it until I get past that "difficult to work with" situation.

My stubbornness WILL win out over that *^&%#* stuff!

I won't be getting rid of cotton entirely. I still will want it for my experimentation; I refuse to use an expensive thread when I will likely be throwing stuff away, or pressing it in my experiment book. Also, for certain clothing applications, cotton is better: it's tough, and it survives the washing machine. But I'm not going to use it nearly so much.

Keep your fingers crossed for me. And don't listen to closely to the swearing and snarling that may be echoing across the Oaken Region of Middle Kingdom over the next few months....

Black Lace Pouch

I've recently joined the Midrealm Guild of Withie and Woolmongers, a Textile Arts guild in the Middle Kingdom. Right now, we're doing a group project of pouches, to be given to the Queen, so they can be presented to OTHER queens, at Pennsic.

I took Artemisia as my pouch, as I have friends in Artemisia. There device is gryphons, sable and or.

This is a picture of what I came up with. It's a black velvet pouch, with a yellow lining. The lacis field is black perle cotton; it nearly disappears against the black velvet, granted. The darning is with gold thread. I found the pattern in an OOP pattern book, "Filet Brode."

The most difficult part was NOT the lace. It was doing twelve buttonholes across the top, to run the drawstring (not pictured) through. I HATE DOING BUTTONHOLES!!!!!

New Dress

Here is my new dress, the FCAO dress. It's made of blue damask, entirely hand-sewn. The front lacing was new and different for me; I worked buttonholes by hand, and then had to teach myself how to do that ladder lacing. There is no corset under there; I lightly boned the front of the dress itself, reed boning.

The structure is an experiment on my part. There has always been a bit of discussion on the Courtesan list about how a dress could be open up the front, like this Venetian style, and still not show the corset. I thought, why not skip the corset altogether; just give structure to the dress, and lace up directly over the camicia.

So what white you see on the front is just my camicia. Under that, me. No over camicia/corset/undercamicia layering. As you can hopefully see, the camicia pleats up beautifully, under the pressure of the dress closing around it.

The lace on the sleeves is mezza mandolina, five-count Floating Square. It was a quickie on my part, and I wasn't sure it was going to work. But I'm pleasantly surprised by the way it looks.

The hat? Well, the hat is actually two hats. A blue caul to match the dress (you can't see it very well, because of the posing), and then the flat cap on top. The cap is made of black corduroy (left over from another project), lined with very heavy brown corderoy (from another project; I was out of canvas and didn't want to spend any money on an experiment). The hatband is beading, and the feathers (also not easily visible, because of the pose) are peacock wing feathers (not the flashy eyed feathers, just a brilliant green-blue).

My good friend, Lady Sara de Lindley accuses the hat of having a deplorable excess of personality. But, after some initial doubts, I've decided I like it. It's not TOO big, and it's a nice difference from what I usually wear. Besides, now I keep my hair cut short, going without some sort of hair covering is simply not an option.

My son and I together made all the jewelry for the outfit. That includes a blue beaded girdle, the necklace, two matching bead bracelets, and then earrings (not pictured). I"m thinking it's a bit too much blue, but what the hey? I like blue.

I like this dress. My family swears it's the best dress I've made yet; I think it's the color. I've always been a big fan of blue.

Tweaked Criteria

The Midrealm has tweaked their criteria for a number of A&S competition categories. I'm mostly worried about lacemaking, so that's what I've noticed.

The new criteria are posted at http://www.midrealm.org/moas/criteria/contents.html

To ME, it looks like they've made the criteria a little simpler, a little easier to score with. Is that a good thing? I don't know. For example, "Substitutions of modern materials for materials which are no longer readily available will not be penalized so long as an effort has been made to substitute materials with a close appearance and drape/hand to the original."

Granted, I use a lot of cotton thread, and have competed with cotton thread lace in the past. But I might never have ventured into working with linen and silk threads, had it not been for the criteria. I wanted to score well, so I made myself learn how to work with period threads. Now, it MIGHT be read by somebody that it's not really necessary to learn to use period threads, because it won't affect my score.

Then again, I could just be acting the noodge. If loosening up a mite on the rules means more people might be willing to compete in A&S, then that should be a good thing.

I don't know.

Black Widow Dress Images

Full Length


Black Widow Dress


Sleeve Detail

Black Widow Dress is Finished

Yep, it's finished. I know, I know, it's been a long time since August. What can I say? I've been distracted and busy.

I decided that I wanted to go with a multilayered look. But the idea of wearing a red velvet dress under a black velvet dress sounded a little hotter/heavier/more uncomfy than I was prepared to go. Plus, there's the fact that I didn't have enough red cloth. So I cheated: I made a jabot of the last scraps of my red velvet; they'll fill the space at the neckline, make it look like there's a whole dress under there.

I know, not period. Don't care.

More Progress on the Black Widow

I've been down with migraine since lunchtime yesterday. When I get migraines, sleeping is out of the question. So is close needlework; no lacemaking. So most of the afternoon yesterday, I worked on the Black Widow dress.

The skirt is attached to the bodice (one of the VERY few machine-sewn seams in the thing; I basted the skirt into place, then went over it with the machine. I don't trust my handsewing to hold up against the weight of a skirt). The skirt is fairly sparse; it really needs another panel to achieve proper fullness. But I can't get any more cloth, so I'm stuck for it. Maybe I'll use a small bumroll to fake the fullness.

I sewed down the lining this morning, and finished the last of the handmade buttons. Now all I have left to do is ... well, still a bunch of things. Do the button loops, finish the sleeves (still have one sleeve to cutwork and sandwich), finish the underskirt. Then accessories.

But the nice thing is, I'll have the thing ready in time for Coronation. Heck, if it's not too warm, I may take it with me to Harvest Days.

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