Sewing

I decided to make a couple of hats for the Bloodtree Festival. I made them out of wool, rather than using buckram and linen as well. That way if it rains, they won't get wrecked. I had planned to make some cloaks to sell at Bloodtree, but I ran out of time. I am going to make some for Festival next year and anything I don't sell at Festival, I can sell at Bloodtree. I did get one cloak basically done, but with no embroidery. I will work on that for next year.

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Rain Day

It's been raining non-stop for the last three days, and not that wussy drizzle rain either, it's been bucketing down, which made for a very wet ANZAC Day.

I worked on my brown coat. It took longer than I expected. I always underestimate the time these things take. Got the stripes on the sleeves done. Got the sleeves in. Then sewed the lining in, and then handsewed the last bit of sleeve lining in. So, all that needs to be done now to get it to the wearable stage is to do the hem. Then to get it totally finished, some trim around the front opening, the pocket slits and the fur hooks. I am hoping to get that done by the weekend.

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Fair and More Sewing

I weakened and decided to have another look at the fair on Sunday before gathering. What a mistake! I've seen school fetes with more stalls and things of interest. Total, total rip off. Never again. The sad thing is there were heaps of people their, so if someone did decide to do a proper job of it, there would be an audience. I just hope this guy hasn't wrecked it for everyone else.

On a more positive note, I finally got around to starting to put the stripes on the sleeves of my brown coat. It is basically the same style as the green one, but with long sleeves, decorated with diagonal stripes. I won't be using boning in the sleeves of this one. I think this will be my sunday garb - keep it in the car and use it when it gets cold!! If I make a matching hat, I could be in garb with very little effort. I got one sleeve done, but ran out of black wool trim. So I am going to have to make some more. I love when I get craft cross over - time to break out the quilting rotary cutter.

Cleo, originally uploaded by Jane Stockton.

I came home this afternoon and couldn't find Cleo. After a little searching, I found her snuggled up in my green coat, underneath some tracing paper. She looked very comfy.

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Green Coat Finished

I finally got around to fixing the green coat. It only took five minutes on the overlocker to trim the collar to the right shape. I spent the rest of the night sewing the trim back on. I love wool. Even though the collar had been narrowed, the trim still fit, I didn't have to cut it or make any major changes, just sewed it back on. I am now declaring this item of clothing officially finished, with nothing more ever to be done to it!!

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Belt

Worked on the belt today. It's black georgette cut into long strips. I've overlocked it into a tube. After turning under the hems, I've sewn into place two medium sized black rayon furnishing tassles. I know it sounds tacky, but they look just like the tassles in the drawing I am basing the coat on. And the added weight will make them hang nicely.

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Finishathon

In an effort to curb my bad habit of getting something 99% done and then starting a new project, I had a bit of a finishathon today. I've been working on my green coat for a while. It is basically done, but there were a couple of minor alterations I wanted to do to it to make it perfect. I needed to add some pocket slits on each side. These are then outlined with black wool trim. This is now done. I also want to narrow or more properly fit the front bust area. Not done, but everything set up so I can do it one night after work. Tomorrow, I need to buy some stuff to finish off a couple belts to go with it. It's the little things like the belts that make the outfits.

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New Blog - 16th Century Clothing Images From Flickr

I've developed a new blog. I've been finding lots of cool 16th Century English Clothing images on Flickr but there hasn't been a way to easily share them with people. So I've developed this blog:

16th Century English Clothing - http://plainattyre.blogspot.com/

Come and visit. Or let me know about other images I can post there.

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