I want to sew sew sew!!

So, today I went downtown to the yarn specialist store and bought me some linen, err...., knypplingstråd (I have absolutely NO idea what this translates to; but you use little spools of thread, a cushion and many many needles to sort of free-hand-tie lace and stuff). Then I went to the paint store and got me a little plastic mug of pure beeswax and a small ceramic dish in which I will pour the melted wax for it to form into a nice sized cake to use for waxing my new linen thread!

What does this mean; it means I will be able to handsew the linen shirt that will go underneath my doublet (that is in the planning stages still) with linen thread. I might also be able to handsew a chemise with linen thread to go under my current project, the gothic fitted dress. I have no fabric for this garment yet, though a friend of mine is planning a trip to a nearby town with a good store for reenactor's fabrics and hopefully I'll be able to get some nice linen there.

A chemise for the gfd really needs to be full length, and for it not to be stupid I need it to be fairly full in the skirt as well. Maybe I don't have to gore it, like I did the GFD, but I do need to angle out from the waist, and with full-length that means I probably need somewhere in the region of 2.5 or 3 metres to be on the safe side. The rumour is that linen costs 70 SKR/metre (actually 35 SKR for half a metre) at this store, so x3 that would mean 210 SKR.

While walking and pondering this, I also thought I should take out the body blocks I used to construct this gown, make sure the neckline is good, take pictures and scan it. Then fiddle with it until I have produced digital version of the body block which I can use to do layouts on fabric on my computer. I could use 1 pixel = 1 centimetre and would be able to accurately calculate how much fabric needs to go into a garment. Wouldn't that be the coolest? Yes, I am a computer geek, but I still think that'd be awesome. I had such fun doing the layout for my bliaut on the computer last summer! And yes, that picture is to scale.

To get back to my linen thread - I can't wait to use it, I want to sew right now! Luckily, sewing circle hostess decided to add an extra meeting this Saturday, so I will get the chance to sew in two days, rather than in a week and two days as would otherwise be the case. (I've been very good about not sewing when I should be studying - not so good as to actually study all the time I should be studying, but at least I haven't been sewing!)

A book tip

Lest I forget, I WANT this book:

Ross, Barbara, ed. and trans. "Accounts of the Stewards of the Talbot
Household at Blakemere 1392-1425."   Shropshire Record Series, vol. 7.
Keele:  The University of Keele, 2003.  Pp. v. + 219. $27.00 (pb).  ISBN:
0-9536020-4-4.

There's a lengthy review of it in the Yahoogroup aotc's message archive, msg #5608. First Margery Kempe and now the accounts of a well-off household from my main period of interest - Awesome! I found a site that professes to sell this, and other books of the same series - but I'm not entirely sure I trust it, although £20 (260 SEK) for overseas purchase (£15/195 SKR for UK) including shipping is not expensive at all.

I have such a nice father...

Look what he's made for me now: Mugs!



http://swein.campus.luth.se/gallery/mugs for a couple more pictures. I like the shape of the one on the left best, it has a bit of a curve to the narrowing, whereas the second cup he made, slightly bigger though it is, really only looks blocky. The curve adds the elegance I think. And resembles the originals more. The wood is some sort of fruit wood, I think he said, but he didn't know exactly.

The inspiration for these came, actually quite a while ago, from some objects I found in the Louvre's online pictures: a couple of gorgeous pewter goblets from my main period. I have no idea about the scale of the orignials though, there is no information about their sizes on the site, but my father downloaded the images and in Autocad determined the proper proportions, so those will be right, even if the height will be determined by the material he can get to use on his lathe.

Is my father not fantastic? He is also talking about possibly beating one out of metal for me :) But I think that's in the far future; if it will ever happen.