Nudity is Only Skin-Deep

Today's sewing project was a Greek peplos, which is essentially two giant rectangles sewn together. I needed more summer wear for LARP, so this should do the trick. I based it roughly off these instructions.





I used plain raw cotton, and a cotton tablet-woven belt. The neckline is sewn together using hand-made glazed clay buttons (not made by me, but purchased at a Medieval fair).

Two weeks later, and I think I'm finally over this cold. My lungs are still tetchy, but I am thinking of giving them a test drive by going for a run shortly. I've also finally scheduled an appointment with a sports doctor about my ever-problematic foot. I sure hope he can figure out a solution. Last week, it blew up after a dance class and was hurting like whoa and basically feeling like it was filled with a bunch of randomly-placed bones and tendons. When my foot is acting up, I can't dance for shit, not even floorwork.

I attended an ATS class with mystress yesterday. It was nice to dust off some old moves I haven't thought about in over a decade. I'd forgotten all about the tribal variations of the camel. I always liked those! It's too bad I won't be able to attend all of the classes, but at least I'll get a refresher. And now I am thinking about breaking out the kasiklar for the first time in ages. I used to play those, sometimes even in performance. I remember once combining them with floorwork, even, which was kinda neat!

I've been doing so much dancing lately, and I love it. I'm intrigued by the differences between contemporary dance and belly dance. Right now, the fashion in contemporary seems to be in keeping the movements clean and unadorned, whereas in belly dance, so much is decorated with flowery arm or hand movements. I want to look into taking regular technique classes, but think I might have to travel to Guelph to do so. I guess I have some research to do!

In case I haven't mentioned it, f00dave got hired on at a sweet job, and now I am planning on going back to school for the winter term. I only want to go part-time, but I'm excited. I'd start in the fall term, except that I'm going to the UK for a while in mid-September, so that screws up the term. In the meantime, I'm studying outside of a university environment. I'm taking dance, yoga, and art classes. My first sumi-e class is this Friday, and I'll be starting an advanced yoga class on Thursday. I'm excited! As for university, I'm thinking of fine arts, classics, and/or Latin.

I'm also looking forward to continuing my adventures in textiles and costume design. I currently have no projects on the go, but that's partially by design. My office is in a dreadful state, and I'd like to get some semblance of order before I mess it all back up again. That being said, I think I'll try my hand at making a Viking hat, next.

I'm contemplating putting together an introductory workshop on tablet weaving. I want to experiment a bit more, first, though, so I can figure out how to fix other people's fuck-ups. I could also put together a workshop on how to make Rus-style poofy pants, or how to make a Viking tunic, but I think those might be less interesting to most people.

I've been doing quite a bit of crafting lately. Not only have I made more Viking clothes (a pair of poofy Rus-style Viking pants, most recently), but I've also continued experimenting with tablet weaving. ( Here are some photos of my most recent creations: )

And the finished products (so far). I take no responsibility for those horrid white socks. Heheheh....

Here are a few costuming links that I found useful. You might find them handy, too.

Basic Clothing Guide: Headgear: Helpful illustrations.

Kit: Hats, hoods, caps & wimples: Descriptions, photos, and links.

Basic Clothing Guide: Female Clothing: Description of standard Viking/Dark Ages garb.

Female Headgear: Caps: I used this to make my caps, but increased the dimensions an extra 10 cm because I have a huge noggin.

Short Glossary of Medieval Clothing Terms: Doesn't supply links or pictures, but just definitions.

Fiber and Needle Guild: Tailoring: Links to all sorts of costuming sites.

Garb Patterns: More links. Many are dead, but a few are extant.

Greek Dress: Peplos and chiton.

Naalbinding tutorial: Video is not in English, but I could still follow along.

Historiska världars dräkter: Guess what? Not in English! But has full outfits (head to toe) of a variety of historical garbs. Includes 2 male Viking outfits, and one female. Patterns are included.

Othalacraft: A shop that sells all sorts of lovely Viking clothing. No patterns, but lots of inspiration.

Raymond's Quiet Press Historical Recreations from Jewellery to Helms: What it says! Lots of reproduction metal work. Covers Romans, Vikings, Celts, Romano-British, Normans, and more.

.......

Botswana’s metal fans are perfecting the Thunderdome chic: And now for something completely different.

Making a Miniature Book: Ok, not costuming, but it is prop creation, which is related, in my opinion.

And here is the finished coat. I say it's finished, even as I make the decision to add a bead and loop closure. I was all about the fibula closure, but since this is a synthetic fabric, I don't think it is forgiving enough to be pinned over and over again. I don't want the coat to get all mangled. So now I need to find an appropriate bead or button. Hmm....

The coat is not perfect, but the mistakes are minor and are on the inside of the garment. Mistakes I made on my own dance coat were not repeated on this one. I'd say I've leveled up again. This one was much faster to make. Of course, it's also a simpler design. I'm already tempted to make another. I'm proud of this coat. I think it looks really nice, and I used no pre-made patterns from it, just my own measurements and proportions based off diagrams and photos I found online, and my own hard-earned understanding of how to sew gussets.

I have lots of the trim left over, and a few decent scraps of the green fabric. I may have to make myself a dance costume with it, eventually. Ha!

I still want to make a complete Viking men's costume. Well, maybe not the shoes. I don't enjoy working with heavy leather enough for that. But I do want to weave a belt, and potentially weave winingas, too. I want to learn naalbinding so that I can make stockings and a hat, but that might not happen for a long time. I'm pretty awful at naalbinding. I still want to make a tunic, trousers, foot bags (like socks, but not), a cloak, and a hat. I still have fox fur left. Perhaps I'll trim the hat with it.

And then there's the woman's outfit, which I haven't even begun thinking about, yet. Oy.

This is the best photo I have of the whole ensemble, so far. That's the coat I've been slaving over for the past couple of months, and I made the cowl, too.

The coat continues. Here's where I'm at, now.



I've been hand-sewing silk/Merino wool yarn onto the edges as trim. It takes a while, as I'm sure you can guess. I'm attaching clasps. I still need to do the armpit gussets, and then finish the lining along the bottom, and hem the whole thing up. I want to add trim to the sleeves, and I also want to figure out how to get them from hanging funny. valkryor is awesome, and showed me how to line sleeves. These sleeves were fine, but for some reason, they're not hanging neatly anymore. So weird. They were fine at her place. I think I'll have to do some tacking up near the top of the sleeve. I just hope I can find a way that looks ok.

Eventually, I want to sew the yarn as stripes all along the body of the coat, but that's a long-term project.

I hope to have this done in the next day or two, because then I want to finish knightky's coat. So much sewing. So many coats....

I've hit a snag with my coat. I can't get the sleeves to hang right with the lining. They look all bunchy. I believe I chose a project more ambitious than my sewing skills can handle. I don't have any more of the silver fabric for lining. I used up everything but the tiniest scraps.

If worse comes to worse, I can take the sleeves off altogether and have a lovely long vest. But I want those sleeves. Especially since I'm dancing outside in March.

I need a sewing fairy godmother to sweep in and make everything all better. Augh.

More trim from Celtic, Renaissance and Medieval Trims. This time, for the Viking coat I'm making. Oh boy! knightky, you're gonna be so purty!

I'm knitting a cowl scarf to go with my coat. I managed to match the colours perfectly. Yarn is Louise Harding's Willow Tweed, a mix of alpaca, Merino wool, and silk. It is very soft and lovely to work with.