I was going to start this post with a cute “One year, $XXXX in fabric, and uncountable stitches later” but actually calculating how much I’ve spent on fabric in the past year was seriously anxiety provoking so I gave up.
Twelfth Night 2019 has come and gone!
Thanks to Heather for the great photo of my display and the derpy photo of me– I guess by this point in the afternoon my dress had decided it wanted to be SIDEWAYS. No clue.
Ok, ignore the fact that I am pointing at…. something… but here’s a slightly less derpy photo of my whole outfit. Overall I’m pleased with it– it’s not a particularly complicated dress (especially compared to the ~4000 people who showed up in Landsknecht) but it’s pretty, relatively comfortable, and I still love this fabric. Weirdly after about 8 hours of wearing it I started to feel a sensation exactly like a bra strap sliding down my shoulder and pinching into my upper arm, except I wasn’t wearing a bra, and that doesn’t happen with just the brial. So something about the layers eventually felt a little constricting, although taking the overdress off and putting it back on definitely helped.
Why do I have incurable derp syndrome. Why. Sometimes I would just like to look elegant in pictures.
Overall it was a good event– I attended absolutely no court, which I am fine with, and got some embroidery done and had some good chats. I was concerned about my display, especially as I shared my table with someone who does INSANELY GORGEOUS illumination, the kind of thing that draws your eye from across a room. Thankfully my fear that people would just look at her work and then skip my smaller, more subtle pieces was pretty much unfounded!
While there were other embroidery pieces on display there were not any other blackwork or counted pieces, although one of the other embroiderers has done blackwork and we talked a bit about what fabrics we liked and how we got into it, so that was nice! A lot of people initially thought that the V&A motif replica was drawn with pen, not embroidered, which would honestly have saved me a lot of time.
T got asked to join the Order of the Pelican, which is amazing! He will finally be a peer! Sadly I’m going to miss his vigil since of course it’s while I’ll be in Scotland because that’s kinda just how my life works. Still, I’ve got a plan for a (I think) kick-ass gift for him!
The drive back to my parent’s place this morning was a little harrowing– I now know what hydroplaning feels like, and the answer is fucking terrifying— but the good news is I took the opportunity to borrow my dad’s camera and take some Actually Good pictures of my embroidery!
And the new one:
Eventually this will be a coif, covered in this motif
This is from one of Da Sera’s modelbooks, mid 16th C, but I got it from Design Elements of Renaissance Embroidery, which is available as a PDF from Antique Pattern Library. If you can’t find a copy of The New Carolingian Modelbook for a reasonable price definitely check out this book– it’s free and covers a lot of the same motifs.
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