On a personal note...

I figured it's probably best for me to let folks in general know some developing information.  It's with a heavy heart to inform all, unfortunately my marriage has become irrevocably broken. I do hope that you will give me a lot of patience, prayers and space at this time. However I will share a little bit of what's been going on in general my life currently

 So I've been dealing with separation of household including division of items. I have unfortunately not been able to do any creating as of late. And I have not made any further progress on the Tudor rose embroidery I was working on last post. Though I am doing research and looking in books for patterns in regards to future projects.

In the meantime with the moving of items, a positive thing has certainly come out from the separation. Which is the decluttering of my living space and crafting space. I can actually walk in my front room now and actually have space to move. Reorganized my fabric stash and going to put my Skein winder and my Spinningwheel out in the living room as soon as the bookshelves are moved. The space is looking more like mine every day which is very comforting.

Still have a lot more cleaning and moving of items do but I've been working on that as I've been moving items so it is not so overwhelming and their is progress. After I get my home reorganized I will be able to start working on embroidery and other scadian projects again. In the meantime in a little bit of limbo at this point in time but I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Regards,

Maureen

Crewel Twists

It's noted in an inventory from the Victoria & Albert Museum, that there is a waistcoat embroidered in red wool embroidery on linen cotton twill fabric. Though my waistcoat is done as wool on silk, there's at least one instance where wool was embroidered on these waistcoats in the late 16th century. I contacted their textile in costume department to find out if they have a full-length picture of this garment, there was no full-length pictures showing this particular waistcoat. So waiting to see if they will correspond back.   From what I know also sarcenet is a type of silk fabric that was used also in these garments. Though the surviving examples most seem to be linen based ground fabrics. Granted it is one instance out of many garments made, were made but many that didn't make it through time. This leaves a realm of possibility some creative aspects in the design of these jackets did occur, from made of the colors to the fibers chosen did vary, a little food for thought.

It's my goal to have my waistcoat completed by the New Year. It's been far too long to let it go unfinished. I just recently acquired some spangles for the finishing touches. Over the last month I replaced all of the wool functional stitching with matching colored teal stitching. Now I am working on the embroidery all over the body of the waistcoat, with spangles after that. Then linen lining added and fastening ribbons or hook and eyes. Light at the end of the tunnel at long last.

In the meantime I've been doing other sample embroidery with silk to get used to its characteristics.  Some of the projects to try out will work with some new stitches from an Elizabethan stitches book. I'm also looking into some gold work stitches to make some smaller projects like a set of cuffs for gloves, an embroidered polychrome coif, a monochrome coif with gold work and other projects.
So lots of stitching and my future and looking forward to many a unique project to be made.

On a different note the First Annual; Lake Augusta Renaissance Festival was a success. There was a lot of compliments on how educational and family friendly this event was for the public.  It's different this Renaissance Festival is compared to commercial festivals. I think we had a very good crowd the weather was nice, I spent most my time embroidering and  helping out in the arts and sciences tent.

Regards,

Maureen

Work Hard...Play Hard

Found gold organza gold embroidered placemats on Ebay, been eyeing up these for a while. I figured a partlet was possible but didn't realize there was enough for a matching bonnet. These have some Tudor like embroidered flowers, gold seed and bungle beads on gold embroidered leaves and swirl edge with scalloped edging. This was a lot if fun to make, though it was a lot of assembly and careful stitching. Organza is not very forgiving on fraying, so had to negotiate the gorgeous gold shiny fabrics carefully. These were made from placemats, as seen by the photo below. Took an evenings worth of hand sewing to complete.

It's ironic that once I bought this and started assembling it, into a new to me partlet/bonnet set, that one later gown I purchased would match it. A couple weeks after buying the placemats for my birthday, bought two Elizabethan gowns in partial completion for a steal of a deal. It had a small amount of binding tape the same color as the burgundy in the partlet flowers. I found a merlot burgundy fabric to line the sleeves, which there was enough fabric to complete the sleeves and guards. I have to add the burgundy trim that I have, which was from an SCA auction in large quantities. Figure I can try a few different combinations of laying trim and see what looks nicest.

 Here is what the fabric looks like.  The bodice was complete but needed to add a back panel, sleeves, skirt and eyelets. It comes out as a similar to side back lacing on me.  So I will have more control over the fit and not squeeze into a gown too small.  The picture to the left is a good photo of the color and damask pattern variation.  It's very beautiful in person. Lining with the burgundy fabric really punches it up, all because I followed the same color binding tape on the gown bodice. Right now besides setting sleeves and laying the trim. Looking into laces for these but still lots of finishing to be done before looking to lucet laces and points.

I have a second gown with puffy sleeves and yardage for a skirt. It's burgundy with gold lozenge pattern. Though there are laces on the front, maybe to attach a placard. I have to set a back panel to make this side back lacing to fit. Sleeves fit and length is good. Looking for pleating the skirt, attaching it to bodice.  I need to figure out if I can find hundreds of freshwater seed pearls to accent the lozenge fabric. Not sure if I want to make an open from skirt or keep it closed.  There is black binding  on the bodice and the black laces. So got to figure out this war puzzle of fun.

So collecting real silk for A&S projects.  Finishing off these partial gowns and accessories for something new to wear. For now just keep up working on these and thoughtfully plot my next A&S project for the coming months.

Regards,

Maureen

Time to myself

I did a wise thing when planning my vacation in January.  Took the day before and the day of my birthday off.  Which makes me happy because in the middle of the summer being as busy as I have been with work, it is nice to take some time for myself. Which I plan on this being a lovely sewing/ embroidery extravaganza at home. I may just plan it again this way next year as well as plan in some long weekends to disburse out my vacation days.

In the meantime, I have one panel of my embroidered waistcoat full of flowers, spangles to be added

soon. So progress be at slow is being made, photos to come. My research continues more into these garments. I definitely can say no more now about these garments that when I started this project. I had mentioned about not making any more large scale embroidery projects. But with my knowledge that I have now,  might actually change my mind. Though nothing is certain at this point I have a few projects in mind but nothing that needs to be started right away. With the anniversary of my birth soon approaching, been trying to figure out what I want to get for my birthday. I'm not exactly sure at this point but fabric is always on the list.Actually books are also on the list of items that are great for birthday gifts. I acquired two new ones on embroidery that I find really fascinating. Thereby the Glasgow Museum one on 17th-century embroidery, by Rebecca Quinton and another book by the same author in regards to samplers..

My birthday wish is to learn to be more historically authentic with all of my garb. It definitely have crating the historical silhouette but I believe that to really achieve the next level in my historical tailoring, it is now time to work with all period materials, as much as possible. Focusing on more authentic materials, techniques, and finishes in my garb.  So I've been looking for silk at good prices that either I can dye or find ways of using in smaller amounts. I do have some wool that was gifted to me that I have to put to some good use. These are huge yardage amounts maybe 3 to 5 yards but it's definitely something I can use and work with. I know that I will need to stock up on the following: some silk organza, silk taffeta or dupion, and medium and tissue weight of unbleached linen.  I will need to also stock up on buckram, cotton wadding, and some millinery wire to make some hats.

It's not to say that any of the interesting synthetic fabrics that I already have, are not to get used. Though used in projects that are not to be arts and sciences based. When I use the synthetics for garb, there definitely just garb, not arts and sciences related.  I have some synthetics purchased recently that are going to make great Italian gowns for warm weather events and maybe Pennsic in the future.

Finding out more about the portrait that I'm interested in replicating. There is a portrait of Mary the I that has these beautiful coral silk sleeves done with goldwork and a matching fore-part skirt that is just gorgeous. So I have enough silk, I believe to make the four sleeves the skirt and a strip enough to do make a hood too. This is one the projects I want to get a good start on during my birthday break. The only item left that needs to be found in some sort of goldwork needlelace that seems to be on the edges of the fore-sleeves. I also need to get it hold of about 3 to 4 yards worth of black silk velvet.

Have the black silk fabric and the coral silk fabric at this point so I have about half the materials collected. The beautiful embroidery on the collar which house is believed to be copied on wrist cuffs underneath the fore-sleeves would be easy to replicate. So this is the next gown to be made,  unlike the rushed predecessors I think this is going to take most of the year to make.

In the meantime on another crafting front, made a hand strung, hand-knotted freshwater pearl necklace. I'm looking for some nice closures for it and more findings to make a pair of earrings as well. The other pearls I have leftover are going to be made into an awesome looking snood. Looks very regal.Well that's pretty much it for now, little things to keep me amused and out of trouble. Besides working a very busy schedule at work.

Keep Looking Up,

Mairin

So Many Pretties and So Little Time...

 
It is now that wonderful time of year again where I am deciding what I want to make next. I have a custom order pending, I'm waiting to hear some details. Custom orders are always a challenge and joy, I'm very excited to get started.
Included better photos of the embroidery box that I recently completed. The pictures before were a little dark. So cropped these and lightened them up so the detail is more distinct.

 I believe from what I can gather it's going to be in accessorizing late period gowns with a possible hat order depending on the customer. Which is always a good challenge to match up existing outfits to find proper accessories to give it that period finished look . So far my idea is to hand strand and knot a long freshwater pearl necklace on silk. I have some fantastic silk cord at home that will work great for this project. I also have some gold over silver ear wires that I will be able to use for dropped pearl earrings. I have to locate the proper size and weight freshwater pearl drops for the planned earrings. These two accessories are very commonly seen in anything from an Italian late period through some Spanish late period and English late period clothing. So these two items are very much something that you could transition through multiple gowns if need be. For the different time periods I play with within 100 year span I find it these transition pretty well from time period to time period.

I still have one late Italian gown that I want to make that is white silk with coral edging.  I have a  late Tudor in red velvet with brocade sleeves and inset skirt with foresleeves that are decorated. These two are gowns that I still have on my mind, that I want to make. Which I'm going to include the following pictures as inspiration from portraits. So these are pending projects but there's no deadline on when to get these gowns done. I have some red velvet but it is a  polyester nature. And it would behave for the well, it is the perfect shade to the red velvet in the portrait. Unfortunately it is not the content that I would be needing to make a arts and sciences based project. The other pieces I have for the foreskirt and the foresleeves is a similar pattern but not extact. But it would be a viable option to Pearl and finish them in a period method with lining them properly. I have some fantastic coral velvet that I would love to use for the coral and white and Italian gown. The portrait itself does look more like a silk fabric, in Italy silk was popular considering the climate. So I'm trying to find a viable trim that will simulate the white with pink embroidery we see on the gown. Trying to find a white silk that will suit the composition of the portrait. So I do want to hold off till I can find the right silk with undertones for this project. I do not normally make white gowns but this is one that I have admired for some time.

So on the garb plans for this year, projects waiting in the eaves.  I believe that these 2 gowns will occupy most of this year sewing time. Right now I am focusing on finishing my embroidered jacket.  I have decided to take out the coral wool stitched edging that I've been putting in for some months. Using matching teal thread in very fine small stitches around the teal trim. I am not able to take off the blue edging on outer edges of the jacket otherwise it will not fit properly. This occurred because of a improper patterning and sizing issue when I had created the project. Though at this point I know that when is complete it will look fantastic. I will be able to wear it over myself teal gown and it will match beautifully.  The silk downs that I bought off of eBay have proven their worth time time again. They are consistent with their fit in sizing, they work great as an under kirtle, since they're fully lined and boned, for Italian or English gowns.

Everything has a learning curve and I've learned very much of the past few months especially from a Ice Dragon on the areas I need to improve upon. So I'm trying to take this time to carefully choose the projects I want to do next. And see how close I can get to a proper historically accurate project. And I believe that working from portraits is really going to help me try to get that finished look. I do get quite a few compliments that I have stepped out from a portrait with my gown as is, but I want to make my silhouette more historical accurate and impactful if I can. 

Living the dream,

Mairin

All work and no play...

It's been a hectic month, finally finished my work. I took on additional work to help with accounts needing serviced. Very successfully completed them before my deadline, which makes me happy. Turns out these locations I trained at over 9 months ago, so soon as I entered; recognized them immediately.  Finished them in time to make the trek home to meet up with hubby for us time, yay!

With my extra time was able to watch Maleficent in 3D with hubby yesterday. We had free tickets due to our loyalty club membership. It's not how I expected it to be but was interesting how the story danced in detail around the original animated feature from 1959.  I wish some of the story wasn't so rushed to workout the iconic scenes. Though overall I liked and the animation effects and such were dazzling. Out of the live action films so far I would say this is the best sticking to the original with a twist being from the villain point of view. It uses the first telling as a tale woven through time and the facts were lost in translation, which does happen in history. 

Since I had the rest of the weekend to myself despite being on call, I was able to finish up a small embroidery project that I had been working on for some time. This is the embroidery box that I created as inspired by the 17th-century embroidery caskets used to store embroidery items tools notions. Now this one is just a simple square box,  I was able to cover it over with Aida cloth and some of the edging is a strip of cross stitch fabric, the strip was decorated  for a bell pull.  I used it to go all the way around the edge of this particular box, as well as accent the top cover. I added some looped lace on the top cover for interest.I was able to also add one of my patches of my heraldic arms, there are two sequined peacocks with cockleshell's pearls and glass beads accenting flowers around the sides all done with silk. Most of this is a conglomeration of items that I already had in my embroidery stash of awesome. The peacocks I purchased specifically for this project and they would be considered tree ornaments in their original state.

Contemplating the next project. Though it's best for me to go back to the embroidered jacket to make actual progress on it. Came too far to turn back now, it will look great when done. I just wish it could embroider itself sometimes. Brings to mind my favorite scene in the 1959 movie Sleeping Beauty is, when the fairies are making the dress and it magically sews itself while waltzing in the air. I kind of wish there was that type of magic for creating my renaissance gowns as easily. The gown making scene by birds and mice in Cinderella was good too.
Wishing there were more hours in a day,

Mairin

Pear Drops of Fickle Rain

Recently participated in the Lewisburg arts festival with my shire, hosting the medieval encampment

16th Century Replica Paternoster 

that we do every year. Was well organized, though it being the weekend had a little work I need you before I left.  The call did hold me up though there was a spot waiting for me I was able to set up some youth activities like our heraldry game, coloring and heraldic color matching. Wore my teal Elizabethan with Mary Queen of Scots heart shaped hat gown and got to work a little bit on my embroidery on my waistcoat in between families visiting.

 A beautiful demo is always the weather was very fickle. It couldn't decide to rain or if it wanted to be sunny out. This concern caused a few of us to pack up a little bit earlier than expected and then the sun came out for the rest of the afternoon.  So we finish up the day on a high note and luckily not a wet note.

Tricolor Pearl Necklace

On another note while I was at the festival, I did  get a little bit of shopping and I only found one item that I wanted to purchase which was a strand of pearls. Though these are three color alternating strand of pearls with lavender and light pink pearls as well as white pearls. So this gives me something to kind of play with and enjoy there in fantastic shape and I got them for less than I bought my white pearls a Ice Dragon a few years ago.

As far as my pearls go I do want to get a pair of black pearl drops to go with the black pearl strand that I have so I can use that with garb. I have to figure out whether not I want to get a different color drops earrings for this strand. I'll have to check about colored pearls in renaissance period. Whether not I may want to matches up with some of my shades of pink garb.

Playing with some more  beads I also decided to look up and create a replica-based 16th-century

Teal Silk Elizabethan Gown

Paternoster.  The strands of beads are the precursor to the modern-day rosary. Most of them tend to have a 50 beads, though there are many period extant pieces showing beads in various different numbered strands. Most are strands are on silk thread, with no knots in between each bead, there looser set so you can move the beads as you pray, a large majority have have a tassel on the end. Extant show straight strands and other ones were looped and later paternoster a have a small drop of about five beads. This was not added till about the 15th or 16th century.  Some paternoster had larger or different colored dividing beads between the decades of 10. These were for the our father, still others do not even have this feature at all. I went for something I was a little bit fancier since my persona is 16th-century so I have three decades that's 30 beads plus the our fathers that is 33 on the loop and 7 on the drop. I was using all of the available freshwater pearl, brass filigree, and coral rose carved beads that I had available. Might be total on the strand is 43, but I need to see if I can find more of these rose carved coral beads, planning on restringing this paternoster to have the 50 beads. Since that is common set up, is still debatable whether not I will use the drop at this point but right now I'm just kind of playing with the concept.

Special thanks to Livia for taking this photo at Lewisburg Arts. I tried to crop out the background a little bit and it's a tad bit blurry but you get the idea.

Regards,

Mairin

Greetings from the Twin Cities

You know you're in a really posh hotel when...,they have ducks in the lobby. Not only is this a beautiful courtyard styled hotel but there happens to be a waterfall with little ponds in the courtyard, it happens to be some ducks to live there.What a fantastic place to spend a relaxing week of study.

 The flights and were not very long but I found out that the pressurization of the cabin is something that I can't stand. It makes my head feel like cotton and turns my stomach. I did get sick on my connecting flight unfortunately, not pleased at all. I liked my lunch very much where it was, in my stomach.

Other than that I was able to meet one of my other district teammates to here for

training. It is good to get to know one another, he's newer so to try to help him as I can. I will still have a week full of classes and plenty of training for myself to do so we will see how this all works out. I don't know what it is going to look like in the evenings but other than studying, I do hope to get a little bit of embroidery time while I'm here. I did manage to bring all of my supplies with me on my carry-on with no issues. Realized I forgot my non slip work shoes. They are at home in the living room, some good they are doing me at home. In the mean time, I have black satin slip-ons that fit the uniform standard.

After getting my clothing ready for tomorrow and getting settled then it's a time for a long nap. I will see if there is any crafting based things I can find or historical items I might be able to repurposed while I am out here in St. Paul. They will have to fit in my carry-on bag and fit TSA criteria but you never know what one can find.  I just hope that after visiting the mall and things like that, I will be able to get everything in my bags. I know that I have a three ring binder with information I get to take with me . And a 3 ring binder with pest ID to got to put in my bag as well. I think a lot of these things will have to go in with my embroidery.

I can see Ecolab corporate office from my balcony, very neat! Lots of studying and information to learn . It's gonna to help me be a better employee. Went to the Mall of America, nothing like seeing  an amusement park in the middle of the mall. There was a lot of interesting things that you got to see, do other than shop  and lots of different stores. Found out the entire loop of the mall was about a mile and a half . I walked the whole first floor than headed to some shops I wanted to see.  I found out that the craft stores about 7 miles away from where I'm staying. To get to them would take a lot of time and effort in the evening,  they didn't seem to be any uniquely interesting fabric shops a lot of them are your general chain stores.

Though I was able to fine are few unusual things, like a llama for example. I found a stuffed animal made from a skin and from wool of a Llama.  Sales of items are used as direct donation to lama herders to provide them ways of affording what they need.  Such wonderful store, great items out of wool. Wish I could afford a flock, these are the llamas really cute. So i took opportunity for some charity.

Most the stores I went to visit happened to be ones that were already closed or were not available the time that I visited. So there's was a bead store in the mall; bought some unique cloisonné beads I can't get anywhere else. On my list was an European import store was closed, one another is going out of business.  So as you can see my visit to the mall was pretty short.   They did happen to be Lego world and amusement park in the middle of the mall but I was not really interested in those particular. I was looking for some interesting and unique, which there were several stores.  Definitely a lot of territory to cover. After my visit to the mall a few things, I went and to my company store to get myself polo shirt and other branded items. Around other items I can use for work.

Fixing and Creating

I received the embroidered jewelry box in the mail from Ebay. It's lovely embroidery looks to be inspired Jacobean with 3D elements, made in India.  There were a few issues with this particular piece. The back panel as you open the box made the lid slide around and was unstable. So I took some matching colored thread and stitch the corners on the back panel to make sure that it was much more secure. Which did really help make sure that you could open and close the box without much trouble and not stress the panel with readjusting of the lid. If this was not fixed it would eventually have the lid ripoff. All these details were disclosed by the seller so I knew what I was getting, new little bit of decorating and some fixing was needed when I purchased.

It's really a pretty piece, larger than in the photo, which is great needing lots of space. I added a few of the berries I made to add some more color, looks nice, not sure if I will add more stumpwork elements or not, guess will see.

I am still creating my personalized embroidered sewing box.  Took photos of the crate I am starting with, bought at the thrift shop for a few cents. It looks like it was a display a bath and body works, though any of that will be covered with fabric.  I am debating a few period designs, for this project but it's best to draw them out to see if they will work for  my intentions for this sewing kit. Brainstorming is my favorite part, making items is fun too but time consuming. Though one doesn't get work done just thinking about it.

Finshing my training at work, packing for my trip to corporate headquarters, lots to do and so little time.

Regards,

Maureen

17th century Respite

Machined Embroidered Jewelry Box

You never know what items you may use until you find a use for them. My poor home has a collection of various different items that I found it through the years that I knew I was going to use for project in the future, I just didn't know when. Mostly when I am out shopping for various different pieces of needlework notions, beads and other findings inspiration strikes and another project is added to the already long list of items I want to create. Luckily I do my best to try to make sure the items that I purchased our ones that I will eventually use. A lot of them came together with the 16th-century embroidered waistcoat, that I am still working.

Embroidered Waistcoat 

I have's been seeing a new project put on by a great site; thistle-threads.com, about a course called cabinet of curiosities. Though unfortunately I do not have the amount of money to take the course or for the materials. However I do like the idea of the course topic, and it has inspired me to see if I can make a needlework sewing box of my own. This is going to be somewhat of a spinoff on the same themes as my embroidered waistcoat and will be 16th century needlework heraldry based themes and motifs.

Found the wooden box that I needed for the base as a piece that I had picked up for dollar at a thrift shop, it is a small slatted display box for soap. I am going to get all of the exact measurements off of this box, drawout on my linen the exact measurements that I need to create a needlework outer cover for this box with lining. Then after all the patterns are laid out, I am going to needlework them on the frame, then pad the work with a thin layer of cotton batting. Then stitch all of the pieces together around the wooden slatted box. Pad also the inside with the same cotton batting and then lined the lid and line the interior of the box. This box is not nearly as deep as I would like. Though I'm not finding the other varieties of a deeper box that I feel I could sufficiently needlework in a timely manner.  This would definitely be a useful piece for me to store my small sewing items at home and have it near my favorite sewing chair.

17th C Embroidered Casket

It however will not be a 17th-century replica, as well as the fact that it would not be something that I could document for an SCA related project. These sewing caskets made by young ladies in the 17th-century are post period. Would not be very good to document for the SCA since these are post 1650. This would be one of those projects I would keep to myself and making enjoy as a inspirational-based project, and might be used for gifts for friends and other inspirational based needlework. It seems for some reason I am really inspired lately by things that are passed 1650. I'm guessing that it is a phase, and  I'll be getting back to finishing off my SCA related projects. All artists go through a creational respite from the normal routine. That it does not hinder my ten year long fascination with Tudor and early Elizabethan topics. I found a fun one made commercially that I plan on using for more sewing supplies, which will still be fun to use. Not sure if I will add stumpwork elements or not, will decide when I get the

Besides this gives me another wonderful used to do more fantastic ideas with stumpwork as well as a excuse to use more peacocks, and put my heraldry on something which is always fun. This larger project may give rise to smaller decorated trinket boxes, I could see having something like this with a very personalized name put upon it would be a great gift.

In the meantime I am repleating my ruff and cuffs, resetting then in their bands and we will see how it works out.

Regards,

Maureen