Calontir Clothing Challenge - January Update (and a new family member)

 

There are still a few days to go on this Challenge, but I *know* I won't get my projects finished. My plans have been completely derailed this month by the arrival of a new family member. 

This little Bean is the best sort of disruption!

It has been seventeen years since I dealt with a puppy, so I am well out of practice and underestimated the destructive and disruptive impact 😊

I didn't get to finish anything from the Challenge this month, but I did achieve the following overall:

* camicia cut out, embroidery marked out and underway

*coat pattern drafted, cut out and underway

*gown pattern and gown sleeve pattern underway

*linen partlet complete

*patterned partlet mostly complete (just needs a small amount of hemming)

*knotted partlet underway

*jewellery made

*masks made

Not even close to what I had hoped, but not too bad considering the massive amount of administrative work I was doing for the first two months, then Christmas projects, and then.....puppy!

I have also got a lot of ideas and inspiration from the other participants and I am looking forward to seeing the completed entries.

I'd like to thank the admins, judges and entrants for giving so much time and energy to this project to inspire others. I would certainly enter again, and even though I couldn't finish this time, I would definitely recommend it as a great way to focus time and energy for new projects.

Calontir Clothing Challenge - December Update

Once again, the month got away from me and I didn't achieve what I had planned. I didn't beat myself up about it too much because December is always a crazy month with festive preparations, and time seems to go extra fast in the lead up to Christmas.

I cut out my camicia panels and marked out a design for the sleeves. This motif is taken from Richard Shorleyker's 'A Scholehouse for the Needle' published in 1608 and 1624. Several pages from this English pattern book can be found reproduced on Pinterest and more information is available here https://trc-leiden.nl/trc-needles/texts-films-customs-and-event/designs-and-design-books/schole-house-for-the-needle

Similar designs can be seen on extant Italian undergarments, as well as paintings from the region. My real problem was deciding on the colour of the embroidery; red, black and blue were very popular colours, and there are extant examples of gold, purple, pink and green as well as polychrome. In the end, I decided on classic black, and started working the motifs in split and double running stitch.

I experimented with a partlet made out of silver grey ribbons. I used an existing rectangular partlet as my guide. The inspiration portrait has diagonal ribbons or knotwork, and I already have a partlet like that in the works, so this one is set with the ribbon going horizontally and vertically. It is tedious work.

In amongst all the other projects, I painted some faux blackwork on masks for an event. It was predicted to be a warm day, and I didn't want to have to add a fourth layer to account for the embroidery holes, so I tried painting the designs. I did not have my good paint bushes at the time, so had to use a very poor quality craft brush that was much too big for the task. Considering that, I think they turned out alright. (The paint was acrylic mixed with fabric painting medium.)

I made some beaded necklaces for gifts and made a blue and white one for me, to wear with this outfit. It has 4g seed beads on tigertail wire.

I also got a small amount of sewing done on my underskirt.

Woven, wooden- base buttons

 December and January have been very busy. A small, portable project that I was working on in December was making some bound buttons (as per my photo tutorial here:  https://broidermebethan.blogspot.com/2014/01/woven-button-tutorial-back-stitched.html  ). I haven't put the final decorative decoration on; I will do them all at once.

It has been quite some time since I made this sort of button, and it took me a while to get back into the swing of it and get my speed up. A sturdy needle with a large eye really helps. I am using crochet cotton for these buttons. I've found that mercerised crochet cotton is the easiest to use if you can get it. I'd also like to try silk thread.