Real Sewing!!

Hi there person reading this!

OHMYGOODNESS!!

*dramatic pause*

I did *Real* sewing!!!!

started fixing my fitted gown.!

I've been fixing the cartridge pleating on the back so its now a straight line!

tonight its onto the sleeves! * nervous*

then onto the hem line!

Okies bye!!

Me Myself and My SCA Persona

Hey there!

Ok suppose its time to introduce myself, My name is Lady Cara di Lupo. I've been in the SCA for nearly 3 years now. I have a device I have my name registered and I have my AOA, I have some average garb and a lot of half done garb and that's about it!

Lets start with the name. I LOVE WOLVES! I'm crazy about them, I'd love one as my best friend and companion - even as my "registered emotional companion" thanks to an episode of 2 broke girls. However, I could never cage a creature that is meant to be free, I wouldn't want to be caged or controlded. And that is why I want a malamute, because its the closest thing! Back to the point, I love wolves, thus I needed a name that had something to do with wolves.

In my first year and a half of SCA I was heavily into Italian, maybe because my favourite film was Ever After. that was actually set in France, but had Italian clothing. Decision made, I wanted to be Italian. Now my name was easier enough, Lupo. The hard part was the first name, I tossed up a lot of things, but after decided upon Italy I browsed the Academy of St Gabriel until I found a name I liked, It also had to be simple so people wouldn't forget me! =D

And that's when I came across Cara. Now for all you Terry Goodkind fans out there I may have been decided by one of his characters, just a little. I was a huge fan of his series and was sort of in love. Anyway here is the character:

She is a Mord-Sith. They were so Bad-Ass I just wanted to be that Awesome. Besides who doesn't wish they were that good looking enough to wear skin tight red leather. HOT! (Cara's the blond)

So, with my name picked out, I have automatically picked myself a location: Catasto of Florence of 1427. I never had a back story to Cara, but I always wanted her to be a traveller or have rich family and just be adventurous or something.

Then, I came across Tudor and I fell in love! Maybe Cara will be from Italy but her father is English and her Mother is Italian. Maybe she is born in the 15th century and her mother thought it nice to use a very old name like Cara?

Anyway these are my musings, I definitely Love the Tudor error more than Italy, not that I don't love Italy too of course, but Tudor doesn't make me look pregnant all the time.

Here is a pic of my in my second Italian dress and opposite is its inspiration:

DECISION! I'm taking nice pictures of me wearing all my garb from now on. I don't have enough photo's of me at events any more where I'm not drunk =/

So Long For Now!

About Those Plans...

Hey there person reading this!

OK! so plans!

Firstly Sleeve is major plan followed by dress etc... but more importantly there is a camping event coming up: Anealan 25th Anniversary! Oh My Gosh! finally! a camping event I can go to! So as such, I must be uber prepared and look great!

I might start with a list of garb and half made garb I have and what needs fixing and then move onto what I need to do!

• Green Kirtle
• Blue Kirtle (Not too happy with this one but wearable)
• Purple Petticoat - in pieces because I put on weight! =(
• Waistcoat - need the hem line re worked
• Coat - needs sleeves made and hem line fixed as well as pockets
• Black Tudor
• Blue Italian with puffy sleeves
• Blue and Silver Italian
• Red Coathardie - needs A LOT of work. Sleeves fixed, lacing, zip removed, bust fixed.
• Yellow and blue Coathardie - I didn't make this one but it was made for someone with a larger bust. 

Also some chemises and smocks and a shirt.

what I would like is more hats, a hood, a partlet made of wool and fur, and one just thin one some proper hose - not just nice wool socks, some shoes (but I think I should buy these) jewellery were possible. 

Also I've been lusting over this dress for almost 2 years now: 

I saw this the other day and wanted one! Its like the hood I've been after. I wonder if they had hoods in Tudor times?

Maybe I'll just do it anyway?? I could always wear it with my cote when I finish that.

SO...What I really need to focus on is my Tudor fitted coat, but I can't decided what sleeves I want! =(

I've always liked the idea of detachable sleeves, and then short, puffy sleeves on my coat, but really after festival, my arms needed more warmth and i'm thinking large loose sleeves....maybe I'll put some trim on them like I originally planed. I'd have to dig that trim out first.

So much study to do atm as well....Maybe planning garb is not the smartest Idea right now! haha!

OH! ALSO I've been wanting a cute, simple little apron for a while now. just like a plain white one. maybe I could embroider a border or something too.

Next post: Me, Myself and My SCA Persona. 

 

Making Plans and Stuff

Hi there person reading this!

So, what's that?! I've decided to make plans?....not sure what yet but I thought I might a plan to make plans....

expect them soon! (well you will probably just link to them now)

Also a plan that IS going to happen: Festival 2013!! WOOO

also: here is a picture of an AWESOME hair tie my best friend gave me:

They are thistles, but I keep seeing pineapples. I love it!


oh and here are some buttons I REALLY want to do something the same friend got me I have 30! =D

Aren't they the cutest!?!

Sleeve Documentation

Hi there person reading this!

Here is a copy of what I wrote for my Documentation on my Brechin Sleeve

What it is

This sleeve is my allegiance piece to Clan Brechin. Clan Brechin is a Scottish household set in YEAR, so I wanted to reflect my piece to reflect that. Originally it was meant to be a pair of simple yellow silk sleeves embroidered with the clan’s device, a Lion rampant. The idea has expanded over time as I wanted to incorporate blue. This Sleeve would have existed in the mid 16^th Century in Scotland and England. A very wealthy or high born Lady would have worn something like this. I plan to complete not only the matching sleeve but a matching Tudor gown and partlet to match, similar to picture 1 below of Mary Queen of Scots.

About these Items in Period

Fabric

The fabric people used in the 16^th century showed specific ranks within society of the time (Mikhaila and Malcolm-Davies 2006, 35). “Restrictions were set no only as to the type of fabric permitted by also that amounts that could be used in a single garment” (Mikhaila and Malcolm-Davies 2006, 35). To be permitted to have a whole dress made out of silk would signify that you were a person of high birth and of large wealth. Silk was used for a variety of different clothing, including gowns. In 1540 Anne of Cleves acquired 17yards of Silk Taffeta, perhaps to have a dress made (Mikhaila and Malcolm-Davies 2006, 36).

Cyprus, a mix of fabric was usually silk and linen and used to as a lining. (Mikhaila and Malcolm-Davies 2006, 36)

Stitching Techniques

Back Stitch was a popular stitch in the 15^th and 16^th century on household linen and during the Tudor and Elizabethan era for black work. Split Stitch was a more popular stitch for embroidering a design. Designs were usually sewn onto a linen backing and then attached to another fabric such as silk. (Stockton n.d).

Couching

Couching was rather popular in court and noble clothing as well as goldwork during the Tudor period according to (Stockton n.d). Stockton (n.d) also goes on to say that silks and rare and expensive fabrics were used as the common base for couching. Figure 2 in Stockton’s (n.d) document is very similar to the couched pattern I have used.

Beading

Both pictures to the right are of Mary Queen of Scots at different ages. In both pictures beads have been used to create even lines along her gowns and sleeves. It could be inferred that from these portraits that beading was popular during 1542 – 8 February 1587, which was when Mary was alive. Beads upon garments such as these may have been used to signify wealth and power, as she was the Queen Regent of Scotland and Queen Consort of France for a time.

About My Item

For the Lion I used back stitch to outline the lion and to fill in the lion to show the texture of the lions ‘fur’ with the stitches. I didn’t use split stitch or stem stitch because I wanted to show the texture of the lion’s fur. I didn’t embroider my lion onto a piece of linen and then onto my silk sleeve because I wanted to have the lion flat on the silk and didn’t know how I would attach linen onto the silk without it being obvious.

The blue lines are couched on with blue thread. I couched them on because I wanted to have a continuous line, not small visible stitches, also because I’ve never couched anything on and wanted to try it. I used cotton embroidery floss for both the lion and the couching because silk or linen thread would have been far too expensive for me to buy.

I used the colours yellow and blue because they are the household colours. Bright YELLOW silk and blue cotton couched lines as well as blue silk, linen lining.

I used ‘twisted rice’ glass blue beads and yellow pearl plastic beads to decorate the sleeve. I chose these two because they were cheap. Although plastic didn’t exist in period and technically these would have been pearls that was far out of my price range. Sewing the beads on was probably the hardest part because there were so many. Originally I started out without knotting my thread after or before any of them, only at the top and bottom of a line. Halfway through realised they would pull off and look loose. I had to go back are tie knots before and after every bead making sure they were secure and wouldn’t come off. In this process I even lost a few badly attached beads. I also had to re-couch most of my blue thread down to prevent it from escaping their neat lines.

For the lining I used a dark blue silk-linen, which according to the Tudor Tailor (Mikhaila and Malcolm-Davies 2006) was a popular choice for lining garments.

The Pattern for the sleeve was from the Tudor Tailor (Mikhaila and Malcolm-Davies 2006) page 69 – a plain sleeve for a kirtle or gown.

 

References

(Chicago Author-date style)

Mikhaila, Ninya, and Jane Malcolm-Davies. 2006. The Tudor Tailor – Reconstructing

sixteenth-century dress. London: Anova Books Company Ltd.

Stockton, Jane. n.d. Five Period Embroidery Stitches.

http://www.sca.org.au/collegium/notes/jane_stockton_basic_stitches_indepth.pdf

Picture 1:

Bass, Trystan L. 2010. Trystan’s Costume Closet – Historical, Gothic, & Fantasy Dress

Diaries Run Amok. http://trystancraft.com/costume/tag/mary-queen-of-scots/.

Picture 2:

2010. Mary Queen of Scots, Tragedy Figure or Failed Machiavellian Princess.

http://historyplanet.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/mary-queen-of-scots-tragedy-figure-

or-failed-machiavelli-princess/.

Sleeve!

Hi there person reading this!

So early last year (2011) I had a bit of a falling out with a friend of mine (Thank God we're friends again now!! =D). In that time I decided to leave the local college and join a household. I joined a household called Brechin, which required me to show allegiance in some way. For example, make some piece of garb. This was quite the dialema because their colours were blue and yellow! Blue, I love, but yellow?! EW! does not look good on my at all, what with my pail and red colouring. After much thought I decided upon a simple pair of yellow sleeves with an embroidered lion on the top half. Here is Brechin's device:

 I decided to go with a simplified Lion:

and that is what I started embroidering onto BRIGHT yellow silk!

OK, so my embroidery technique is a little bit cheating, I take the image I want, print it and pin it to the fabric and the proceed to sew it on, well, outline it. then once I've done that i start to tear off the edges of the paper very gently. I doesn't look PERFECT! but I don't know another way other than drawing it onto the fabric witch would probably work but I can't draw that good! That's what I did anyway, and it turned out quite well. Obviously after that I filled in the colour of the lion and bellow are all the pics to prove it works well!

Around April 2011 I went to Rowany Festival in Sydney, and one of the guys who was looking after us before the MOST AMAZING CAMPING EVENT I'VE BEEN TO took us to this bead shop called "I Love You Beads." Well, I think that's what its called anyway. Back to the story, I wanted beads and I had money to burn! THEN! out of nowhere I had an idea! I'll put blue and yellow beads down my sleeve and I came up with this:

I would couch on blue lines, and then sew blue beads on them and tiny yellow beads in between/
Then after Sydney, I started sewing, and I soon realised I started sewing my blue lines way too close together and I would never finish!

here are some progress shots:

Half way through I started to panic. It looked way too Spanish with its lines, and the household is Scottish and so I did some research and found this picture of Mary Queen of Scots and was over the moon happy!

I finally finished one sleeve in October for the Anealan ball, and I was going to enter it into the arts and sciences completion. I wrote all my documentation and was so excited to enter but when I got there lo and behold, there was not A&S comp.

Shortly After that I decided two sleeves wasn't hard enough and started forming ideas for a whole dress! but I can't wear yellow so I came up with this....

I'm nowhere near this stage yet, I'm not even finished my second sleeve. Mostly due to other commitments like work and uni and that and I really need to save a lot of money to buy good quality blue silk. Also I'm going to post my documentation in another post! =)

So long for now Mr Interwebs!

Also here is a pic of me that I like.

New Beginnings

Hi there person reading this!

So, I've had this blog sitting here for a really long time with a few silly posts. Nothing really that interesting.
I've decided, After looking at other garbing blogs that I need my own space to share all my garb experiences. Well... by share I mean post here into blank cyber space.
I've decided I don't want to share this blog with anyone, but keep it more of a secret and well done for anyone who happens upon it and knows me.

Currently I don't have any HUGE major plans for my SCA game, but I do have a few. Here is my list:

• I wish to finish off my sleeve! (post after this). Its a very, very long term goal.
• Plan some actual garb (Maybe in the uni mid semester break?)
• Buy or Sew my own Period Tent and for that matter create a very authentic camping footprint!
• I want a bed, and internal furniture like chests and hanging space and tables etc... 

• I've been planning a heart shaped hood for ages! but I'll obviously need some fancy tudor to go with it!
• Finish all my half sewn together garb
• plan something for my AMAZING bright red wool (I have just over 5meters from memory)

More Recently I've tried my hand at calligraphy! I went a little bit insane in an art supplies shop and bought a small set on an impulse and now I've spent at least $300 on stuff! =/ I now have loads of differnt nibs a few pens, amazing paper, loads of different coloured inks and I even bought a few wax seals. One with an A for Aimee, and then the other an L for Lupo. I wasn't really sure how it works with the "di" before the "Lupo" in my SCA name. I'll need to do some research on this.

Here is my First attempt! (I'm so proud of it!) A birthday letter to a friend of mine - can you see my spelling mistake? hehe. Yep, If you've got this far you probably notice I'm not to great at the grammar and spelling and such I just hope you can look past it!!

And this one is my wax Seal! So pretty! =D

... and I think that's everything! If anyone I know ever finds or reads this they should totally let me know!! = p