My right wrist gave an almighty crack this morning and then stopped hurting! My left still hurts but I'm right handed so we're moving back into sewing. Weirdly my wrist doesn't hurt but the muscles in my forearms are still tight so I'm going to keep heat-packing and massaging those. Despite the fact that I [...]
Adventures in Alcega
We're moving on to Part II of "weird shit Callie does while not sewing." For today's nonsense-- trying to make some sense of the 1589 Tailor's Pattern Manual by Alcega. This, along with Hispanic Costume, is the resource for 16th C Spanish clothing-- a surviving manual on how to lay out all variety of garments [...]
Past Notions
I've been having some hand and wrist issues since Sunday-- luckily it doesn't seem to be carpal tunnel, but I'm being good and not sewing and wearing my brace so here's a little side project I've been thinking about for a while now but has been low-priority: I'd like to have a period sewing kit [...]
Mah Christmas List
Yes, I know, it is still November... but when you like crafty things from small businesses you need to start planning this early. So. If you are interested in purchasing me a gift! That would be awesome! Here are some ideas! My Etsy favorites This book, if you can find it Yup, it's another book [...]
Dickens Round II
The second historical costume I ever made and the second historical costuming event I ever attended was the Great Dickens Christmas Fair, late last November. For those who aren't familiar with it, Dickens is a little like Ren Faire but for the 1830s-1860s. Last year I did 1856 as best as I could with the [...]
The Zen of Counting– And Reversibility
I'm officially obsessed with 16th century blackwork embroidery. I've done a little bit of it before, but I'm not sure it ever made it to the blog. However this has recently exploded into complete insanity--fueled, unsurprisingly, by a trip to Britex Fabrics. Britex is a high-end fabric store in San Francisco, and a total icon. [...]
Year 1 Lessons
Ok, to be fair, my year 1 was actually about a month ago, but this only occurred to me yesterday and it's 5:30 in the morning and I can't sleep. Blog post time!!! I feel like I'm in a weird place with costuming because I've done other textile arts my whole life, so I can [...]
GWW and a unified theory of bobbin lace
I am recently returned from my first ever war in the SCA-- overall, a pretty good time! Saionji-sensei was my ride to and from the event, as my health problems prevent me from driving a car for more than about two hours without difficulty. She was repaid in Elizabethan lemon curd and conversation about old [...]
Period Lace and How to Find It
Psst: this is both a practice for me in getting my brain organized for my class in two weeks, and also to accompany said class with pictures, links, etc. Enjoy! Hello, welcome! My name is Axera Coscolano and in the mundane world I work at a lace museum and nerd out over trims a lot. [...]
East Egg, West Egg
Every year the Art Deco Society of California throws a massive picnic party on the grounds of the Dunsmuir-Hellman Estate in Oakland, and about 1300 people are invited in their finest summer wear from the nineteen twenties through the early nineteen forties. This is the Gatsby Summer Afternoon, or as most people call it, "Gatsby." [...]
Not Another Costuming Blog 