Tailcoat V2.0

Despite all the shit that I have experienced this year, I have still been excitedly looking forward to Victorian Christmas. Especially now that I live in Bellefonte! I haven't really made anything for myself, but I was tasked in making a tailcoat for Cas, and I'm not failing at it! I used the same 1950's pattern I'd used for Dan a couple of years ago for Rocky, and made some modifications.

First of all, Cas is significantly straighter up-and-down than Dorito Back Dan, and it would be nice if the shape preceded the pattern by, oh, 60 years. The easiest fix for both of these was to change it from a one-button to a three-button front, and to make the tails rounded and not pointy.

And then there's the fabric. Oh, the fabric! Surplus City had this gorgeous greenish teal/oxford grey cross weave wool blend that has such a nice hand to it. The interfacing isn't giving it as much structure as I had wished, but the lining steps up to the challenge. And oh what lining ::swoon::

Dapper AF

Sleeves can still go fuck themselves.

I ended up not affixing these buttons because they were too big for the proportions of the coat, and I (mostly Dani) didn't have anything 3/4" in stash.  But that will be a quick fix one of these days.  I also made a cravat out of the leftovers of my Idris dress.  The crosswoven blue looked fantastic!  But damn did those fucking fabrics refuse to iron flat -_-

As for my dress, Dani and I went Thursday to The State Theatre for an early showing of the new PBS show Victoria, and a test run of our dresses.

I felt the beaver was four inches too long and kept getting caught in the bustle, so of course I woke up at 8 am and made myself a new circle skirt and let Nicole wear this one.

Salmonella or botulism?

Hopefully neither.

Pennsic, once again, is on the horizon. Having recently bought a car, bought a house, and lost my job means this year will need to be extra cheap.  So I'm canning eggs.

I picked up a case of 7.5 dozen eggs from Sam's Club for $11, 18 pint jars from Ollies for $12, and a gallon of apple cider vinegar for $3. All of the spices and canned beets were already in my pantry, and the jars are reusable, so it's pretty much $15 for an epic amount of portable, shelf stable protein.

In my research, I found everything from canned eggs lasting years in the basement to OMG EVERYTHING WILL KILL YOU, so, whatevs.  I don't plan on them surviving more than a month, so I'm not terribly concerned about over sterilizing everything.

I found a life hack that you can bake eggs at 325F for 30 minutes instead of having to deal with bringing water to a boil and whatnot.  It mostly came out ok!

1. Preheat oven to 325F (or 350F if your oven isn't reliable) while you place eggs into cupcake tins so they don't roll around.  Cook for 30 minutes.

• Normal cupcakes are ok, but mini cupcakes will let you fit twice as many.  My new oven is huge, so I can fit two trays on each rack, for a total of 8 dozen eggs at once.
• Unfortunately, I only had three mini cupcake tins, so I tried using a regular cupcake tin with two eggs in each cup.  Some of these eggs came out with soft spots >.>
• The eggs that were fully cooked had small charred brown spots where they were touching the tins.  It is ok and doesn't affect the rest of the pickling.

2. Pull cooked eggs out of the oven and cool down.

• Placing them in ice water helps the flesh retract from the shell (and keeps you from burning your fingers).

3. Shell eggs and place five in each pint jar.

• Some websites made a huge deal about only using unblemished eggs because pitting and splits are focus points for bacterias THAT WILL KILL YOU.  I don't think I managed to get more than half of them unscathed. 

4. Add spices and vinegar to jars, making sure to cover the eggs completely (because vinegar is a magic barrier, apparently) while leaving enough space at the top of the jar to create a vacuum.  Put lids on jars, leaving the rings loose so air can escape.

5. Put jars in canning pot with enough water to reach the top of the jars and bring to a rolling boil, making sure the contents of the jars are also heating up.  According to the Kuntz Family, who's canning instructions I was following, you want to make sure the contents reach 200F and are kept there for 15 minutes.

6. Use the forceps to pull the jars out. Unscrew the rings to give the jars a final burp, then screw them on tight again. Beware of molten brine shooting out in every direction >.>

7. Let cool on the counter top and await eagerly to hear the lids pop!  Now that the eggs have been pasteurized and sealed in a harsh environment, they should be safe to eat for at least a year if kept in a cool and dark environment.

Now, remember when I said some eggs came out with a soft spot?  You can microwave the peeled egg for 30 seconds to heat it up, but it won't heat enough to cook.  You can heat it up another 15 seconds with no problem, but once it hits 16, there might be a slight boom that blows the microwave door open.  Just so, like, you know.

The fun part will come in two weeks when we eat all of them in camp.  I made four jars with beets and twelve with six different spice combinations.  I will do my best to do a write up of the critique and spice blends when I get back.

Indigo dying

 

Today was pretty fantastic!  I had a couple of yards of [mystery plant fiber (cotton?)] fabric that I got to experiment dying from indigo that Rosemary grew in her own yard.  I love how even the dye took, and definitely want to make more of it.

First-ish belt

I have a bad habit of starting weaving projects and then never finishing them because I hate this inkle loom. But I think I finally managed to get the string heddles to play well. I appreciated the simpleness of this pattern without being plain.  I liked the crochet cotton, and hope I can try fancier materials some day.

Helmet!

Pretty pretty pretty please let me get a helmet that actually fits this time and doesn't suck.


1A. Head circumference around the forehead:  23 5/8"

1B. Head circumference around the nose:  24 1/2 

1C. Head depth at forehead:  7 3/8 

1D. Head depth at nose:  8 1/4 w/hair 

1E. Head height - crown to chin:  8 3/4 

1F. Head height - crown to neck base:  10 3/8 (NO armor) 

1G. Center of eye to chin:  4 5/8 

1H. Center of eye to crown:  3 7/8 

1I. Head width between temples:  5 1/4 

1J. Head width between ears:  6 1/2 

2A. Neck circumference at collar:  14 1/2 neck, 17 3/4 WITH braid 

2B. Shoulder length:  5 1/4 

2C. Length of neck:  3 1/4

 

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ETA: What I ordered March 2016:

What I got in April:
 

AEthelmeark Coronation 1560's Venetian gown

Dani somehow managed to sucker me back in to formally participating in the SCA and going to Nithgaard meetings and shit where she was teaching how to sew Venetian gowns and needed some assistance.  Dani also suckered me in to joining Pinterest.  So, after about three months of obsession and several long nights indoctrinating me in Game Of Thrones, we made dresses for Coronation.

This portrait was my main inspiration, and what really got me jonesing for punched sleeves.

Just like my Curious Purse, this gown was a Proof of Concept.  In 1560, they would have used a felted wool that had been lightly backed with wax to better keep it from fraying when it was punched.  I was lucky to find a synthetic fabric at Surplus City in a perfect black/rust crossweave.

First I made the bodice with a layer of canvas duck and another of a cheaper and thicker canvas I'd been storing for about eight Pennsics.  I sewed channels for boning and then added the decorative fabric which was hand stitched in place.

I bought ten yards of boning and failed miserably trying to cut it with regular snips. Luckily a hefty pair was $12 at Lowes and I'll probably end up using them for a lot more things in the future.

I made sure I got a very sharp point in the back of my bodice, and that all the channels were properly closed so the bones didn't escape.

 

 

In theory, the front should be able to come completely closed at the bottom and have a five inch gap at the top.  This looked well and dandy on the floor, but I did not like this proportion once I put it on.  I should have brought the top in a couple of inches for a more vertical line.  Meh, it's not the end of the world.

Next came a shitload of cartridge pleating.  It was remarkably simple and faster than it probably should have.  After reinforcing the pleats, I attached the top front edge to the bottom of the bodice.  This could have been great, but it definitely needed some help to stick out.  Either the stiff band that everybody tells you to add but you are still going to be too lazy to do, or a bum roll.

Then, came the sleeves.  I took full advantage of this being synthetic and used a pyrograph to cut through the fabric and melt the edge so it wouldn't fray.

Like I said, this was a proof of concept.  After everything was cut out, I had to sew this to a fake chemissette sleeve for it to hold its shape.  It is then that I realized that the beautifully intricate pattern was going to be a little bitch and curl away from my arm at every possible chance.  So I proceeded to tack down every other tab. Meh, whatevs.  I also didn't like visually how open the design was (which was originally what I thought I wanted).

Three strands of pearls and a $2 hair extension later, I was ready to roll.  Mind you, I had to wrap my braid around my head so it didn't get caught in the seat belt.

Too bad I didn't get a picture of the extra long braid encased in "pearls".  It was glorious.

PS: Hand sewing is bad for you.  I left a very significant hole in my finger from several continuous months of projects (not that I'm complaining that I'm finally sewing again!).

Jane Austen (not) Con (but Annual Society Festival)

I am a sucker for cons.  So when my friend Meredith asked me to Jane Austen Con (despite me never having read any of her books), I said yes! So, much to the complaints of my cat, Meredith and GilgaDave came over to my house for two weekends while we sewed and watched All Of The Movies.

We used Sense and Sensibility's Regency era patterns, which were pretty well done and easy to follow.  Mer is very much not a seamstress, and the most difficult part for her was probably taping together all the print outs.  Though I probably cheated a bit and just plowed through everything.  And she has a fantastic tutorial.

Again, I was able to take full advantage of Surplus City's amazingly cheap fabric!  Which is very necessary, because there are too many layers.

 

Chemise from the Underpinnings packet.  We didn't have time to ALSO make stays, so we cheated with a balconet bra.

 

A second under dress who's name, for the life of me, I can't remember. My best guess is petticoat.  This is the third of the white layers that I made and I greatly preferred the lines in these gathers.

(Edit: yes, it is a bodiced petticoat)

Long sleeved Regency gown, lined.  The cotton fabric has really cute white flowers on a slightly sheerer white base.

Pelisse.  Yes, this fabric is synthetic, but it was $2/yard!  I got it in a fantastic steel blue and should have gotten it in dusty purple when I saw it in january, but they were sold out by the time we decided to go ahead with this project.

I had some fantastic rusty red microsuede for a spencer, but we ran out of time.  Mer ended up taking everything home to hem and button herself and trim with lace and embroidery and EVERYTHING!  I had also managed to cut out a gown for myself in a lovely dusty pink I had in my stash since about five Pennsics ago, but that fell to the side for me to make on my own time.

So we're in the process of closing up shop and reevaluating my schedule (and deciding whether I wanted to miss a derby game or not), when I understand that this is, in fact, not just "Jane Austen Con", but the Jane Austen Society of North America, Pittsburgh Region's Annual Festival, with a door cost of $90 plus $25 for the ball.  Seeing as how I have never read any of her novels (though I did grow quite fond of the movies and mini series), I decided it best I bow out.  

I also didn't yet have a job, which I finally have one now! And it even has to do with all of my degrees!  Too bad I'm currently employed through a temp agency that is probably skimming way too much out of what the company pays me (which would still not be what I should be getting if I axed the middle man).  But, at least I've finally been employed for the past ten weeks and it even looks like they have no intention of firing me.