Organising the back

Those of you who have been to my house know the back part well, even those who haven't have seen parts of it in pictures as that is where we normally sew. It has been a bit of a dump.. no strike that a huge dump. For ages as there is no organised storage everything is temporary partly because we were planning to take the floor up in the last bit to finish the underfloor heating. Those who know us know we have too much stuff so not having places to store stuff is fatal however big a house you have.

Well the news is Jon has started on the heating again and has decided he hates taking floors up so much he has worked out how to do it from underneath. This means we can get on with sorting the rest and it also means we can keep the original floorboards and sand them back. Those floor boards are in pretty good nick though we do need to patch in a few where he has removed the hearth from the no longer used chimney, leaving it would have been visible and coursed a cold patch.

For those who don't know the layout of downstairs is as follows. The front door is at the side of the house and you come into a hall with the stairs in front of you. To the right is a sitting room which goes across the whole of the front of the house. To your left is a door into the kitchen and straight ahead is a door which goes into what is now a tiny second hall with the utility room under the stairs off it and another door into the back of the house. The whole of the back of the house is open plan and is a bit like a horseshoe ie from the middle of the house you can enter into two areas (one the kitchen) with a wall between them, both of which open up into a large area across the whole of the back of the house. A huge amount of work had to be done to get the house like this including knocking about the whole area, new doors, windows, putting in beams to allow walls to be taken out, raising ceilings, redoing floors, including putting in underfloor heating and so forth. The main work was done a while now and the kitchen was finished the beginning of this year at which point we ran out of steam.

Now however we are getting on with things again all be it slowly at times. I am determined to get the back sorted and for it to become our main living area before Christmas hits and before it gets much colder so we don't have to huddle round the wood stove in the front room. Also mum is retiring at the beginning of next year so we HAVE to go and collect my gran's dining table which we said we would take and some other furniture as she is downsizing big time and can't store it any more.

To help spur me on I have decided to sign up to The 30 day Organizational Challenge. There are prizes and everything though most I'd either not get or would find out if they would send to friends in the states. The real prize would be to get the area sorted. Basically the idea is to pick a room, cupboard whatever that needs sorting and spend the month gradually doing it.

So what is it like currently? Well a few pictures in a mo. It is actually slightly better than it was at the beginning of the month as we tidied on, around and under the table as we had friends round for Saturday dinner. Currently it is a mix of building materials, sewing equipment and random tat. It all needs decorating as well.


Looking from the utility room into the area that needs the heating put in. As Jon is working under the floor now I can sort this bit. I think we are leaving sanding the floor till the spring but the rest needs painting and so forth before I can furnish it.

You can see right through the back area, to the right of the window the house goes back farther and believe it or not there is another window back there plus a back door at right angles to the window, or rather a boarded up space for a door as we need to get it fitted still.
Looking back into the same area. Much of the building supplies, mostly boards against the wall, will disappear under the floor shortly. The white pile in the for ground is hiding my industrial sewing machine. That needs to stay for now but hopefully come the new year I will be able to move it to a workshop a friend of ours is planning to get at the end of the road which he is happy for me to share.


This is the area round the corner, the other half of the main back area next to the kitchen. It is slightly better than the rest but not much. The floor in this part is concrete with the heating pipes screed into it. We plan to cover it with reclaimed wooden flooring but again that will have to wait till the spring I think as we need to be able to clear the room completely which will mean furniture outside in the day at least. You might just be able to see the fabric I have bought for curtains in the corner next to the french doors.

I think that is enough for one post I will post my plan for the month tomorrow.

Ravelry

Ok it might sound mad to join something about knitting and crochet when I don't do either but I would really quite like to try again.. well crochet anyway, knitting I can do but am not so sure it's worth my time as I found it boring last time. That said it was about 20 years ago and things have changed ! Maybe it's a nesting instinct or something.

So got my membership through today and will see how it goes.

I will have to catch up with either Julie or my mum so they can help me get started as I seem to have a bit of a mental block trying to use a book. Should consider going to Knitwits again as well that might help.

Clerical garb

Lots of posts all at once.. remembered I never posted tis picture of the outfit I made for the last maelstrom. This is the new Cardinal of Mill'en. Being a roleplaying game I specifically went for colours that were relevant to the game world not real life but kept the clerical feel so it is obvious what he is. Must sort him a hat before next season I think. We also talked about an shoulder cloak but I have run out of the wool and as yet not found a nice matching brocade.

Another shot of him can be found here.

patterns

A few pictures of the pattern stash I just got. The top picture s two of my favorates.

I filled one box with patterns on edge here.. the rest are still on the table.

In the second picture what isn't clear is that the higher pile at the back are on top of a smaller box a bit bigger than a patten layed flat which is also filled with patterns stacked on edge.

Crochet top

I don't crochet, one of the very few fibre arts I've never learnt though I am weakening. This pattern for a top is certainly breaking down my defences, of course I want to do a pattern ladled experienced I don't want to bother doing the more basic stuff first.

That said I teach peple to sew and we start with what they want to make which is often not something basic so the question is how badly wrong would it go if I tried? Probably should at least get someone to show me the basics first. I did try from a book and got as far as a line of basic stitch but couldn't work out how you moved to the second line which is probably easy but I couldn't get my head round the instructions.

Patterns galore

The inlaws were back today with the last couple of bags of fabric. I haven't gone through them properly yet but there is certainly some nice looking wool and some linen or linen-look in there that looks good.

However the main bit of this delivery was the HUGE box of patterns. It was a large box with the top taped up high and another piece of card over the top and it was full to bursting.

The patterns cover almost everything you can think of . They range in age from the 1960's to probably the 90's I think and cover almost everything you can think of. The normal range of dresses, trousers, tops, skirts, coats, suits from skimpy tops to floor length evening gowns and several full gypsy style skirts. Also underwear, hats, dolls, bags, menswear, boys clothes and babywear including the sweetest buttoned together sleepsuits. If I had to pick one pattern as my favorate it would be one of the early ones for apron, with fitted bibs and patch pockets, very much back in now.

Knitting site

I don't even knit and I was very tempted.
Sorry Julie blame one of my friends on LJ.. haberdashery danger zone.
click here if you dare.

Fabric Haul

Yesterday the In-laws turned up with about a dozen bags of fabric from a friend of theirs who's wife died a year back. He wanted her stash to go to a good home and they suggested me.. They did ask first.

The bags have a huge range of stuff in them including a fair few clothes though unfortunately pretty much all are too small for me. The clothes vary in design and style a lot but there is some quite nice bits in there. A few i think I will keep and re-fashion such as a black and red cord skirt with roses on. If I undo the panels and insert extra black ones I think it will look really good.

There are some beautifully made suits, the sort elegant old ladies wear but in some cases that actually makes then quite fashionable at the moment. Unless one of my smaller friends likes them most will probably end up in the charity shop. there is one skirt i really want to find a home for.. it's floor length white and black gingham with red smocking at the bottom to make a frill.. very silly, wonderfully so but too small for me :(


Everything is damp as it's been in black plastic binliners in a barn but none seems actually mouldy so the next few days will be spent airing it all. !! The clothes are probably going through the washer first.

The fabric is pretty much all good quality and ranges from several yards of some to scraps of others. There are several really good size pieces of quality wool, some silk, chiffon, satin, lots of cottons of all sorts, lining fabric and some synthetics though they are mostly skirting fabric and a few slinky dress fabrics. The lady who owned it all used to have a fabric shop and had a reputation for good quality and i can see why. Not everything is to my taste and some of it a bit to older lady for most of my friends too but much of it will find homes I think.

I also have a bag full of cones of thread and bulk polyester (the fluffy thread you get on t-shirts). Huge reals of elastic and curtain header by the ton. Even a bag of linen thread which went straight into the leather working box.

more costume

Made less than i planned but what has been made is not bad.

Firstly a coat and waistcoat to match. It's an 18th Century Banyan in other words and informal coat styled on a kimono. This is for a very rich merchant character. It is shown worn with the lapels open but has buttons up on side and can be worn done up to the neck. The waist coat is a basic waist length one which you can just see at the neck in the same fabric as the body of the coat.


The other item is a shift or under-dress. There is an over dress to go with it but I'll wait and see if there are pics of it on the person it is for because the pics on the dummy look a little weird. This came out very well and I am tempted to do a shorter version for myself in a lighter fabric.

Flowers.

Had some flowers in varses so decided to shoot some photos of them.. I think they came out well... lovely smelling peonys and red and white roses.

jacket

Jacket from the charity shop trawl. I liked the fabric but the length, very unfitted style and horrid gold buttons were very Madam Bucket as Tom said.

Cut 7 inches off the bottom, kept the arm holes and above exactly the same as that fitted well. Took in the side seam on a taper from the arm hole to the bottom. ie none at the arm hole about 1.5 inches at the waist. Also put in a bust dart in the front of the jacket on each side. Finally bound the lower edge with black satin bias binding and changed the buttons to more subtle ones.

I might use the 7 inches I cut off the bottom to make a matching bag.. you can never have too many handbags!

Bag

I have done well on my refashioning the stuff from the charity shop, in fact apart from trying the red jumper again at a hotter temp to see if it felts I have done everything now. I will do a second post for the jacket.

Made the jeans into a bag for my sister's birthday which was well recieved. I made a small purse to go with it too. The strap was rather an after thougth and next time I think I will recycle an old belt or if I have fabric the rest of the jeans. As it was I added a padded bit to stop the cord digging into the shoulder.

This bag I put a bottom in and then did a re-enforcing panel. ie a thick piece of card covered in fabric that sits in the bottom to keep the shape. It is tacked in and she has instructions to remove it before washing the bag. the small purse can be seen on the top of the dummy. It loops onto the red and white tap you can see at the back of the bag keeping it from getting lost in the bottom.
Everyone seemed to really like when we met at my Aunties so i am tempted to make some more and see if they sell. They arn't hard and they are quite fun.

Charity shop hall and Felting experiment

We went on a charity shop trawl at the weekend and i got some bits.. I got a camera bag which will get revamped as something else, a sweet little cruet set which will go with my Denby. Two short sleeve silk shirts to wear open over T-shirts (I don't do butteoned shirts well due to my bust). A pair of stripy jeans to make a bag out of. A pink and black tweedy jacket which i plan to hack and slash till it works and definetly change the buttons plus two pure wool jumpers.



I washed both jumpers at 60 (and a third one himself was chucking) The patterned one shrunk very well the other two didn't so i plan to try again at a hotter temp. The patterned one shrunk from 41-43 inch chest to just the right size for small one who is nearly 4. I cut it down the front and it is now a boiled wool jacket for him.. result.

Red Coat update

Apparently this should be subtitled Ming the Mercyless!

Dave gave me back the coat as it was not fully finished last time and we agreed the collor needed changing as well. It is now done apart from a couple of buttons becouse he didn't bring them all over and possibly heming up a bit which he is happy to do himself.

The collar now comes round to the front and has five bones in the stand so it is not flopping whatever he does in it. I forgot to take any pictures of it on him but it does look very good, even if I do say so myself.

Outfits from Maelstrom Corination

Here is the outfit I made for Tom and the dresses I helped Nikki and Sarah make.. When I say help it was mostly encorragement and yes you are doing that right than actual hands on help. They both put in a huge amount of work and I am very proud of them. The main bit I did was embroider the stomachers on my machine for them.

Maelstrom aftermath

Well it's over and went well i think. more on costuem later. Thought I failed to take pics of half the things i made or helped make. To busy being in character which is a good thing really. It was a huge amount of work but it seems well recieved.

some pics including both Nikki and Sarah's wonderful outfits that I only really advised on here

Tom's outfit I did all of the one with the unreasonablly long title which i probably got wrong.

Forgot to take a proper pic of the throne once it was finished though you can see it in part in the corination pics. Lots of work for something no-one was allowed to sit in but it was cool. For those that don't know the small one phys reps the majesta.. hence there being a Regent but the game rules do not allow him at the main games.. so we had a decliration he was majesta and a crowning of the Regent in his absence. Hence the empty throne.

Kit making marathon

We will start taking kit to site Wensday for the next Maelstrom event which we are hosting. We have tents to dress, an arena to built, a ritual site to dress and much propage for a play, a corination and other things, most of which is currently in the process of being made in our house though various other people are helping out with bits in other places or once we get on site.

We have bunting and flags and stuff in progress. Lots of costume from tabards and sashes for soldiers to a Corination cloak and various people's outfits for the ball in the evening.

As well as group kit and personal outfits from Tom and I there seems to be a new process where by someone comes and stays for a week or so and makes a dress with my help.. they go home and someone else arrives. Half the time they only planned to be here a day or so.. I don't mind and everyone seems to feel I and helpful for them. I find I work better with company so it is all good and we have enough room even with our excessive clutter for more than one person to work at once.

If i get the chance I will do an update ocne more stuff is finsihed off or at least WIP pics at the end of the weekend.

I have had a problem with my left shoulder and arm which i am beginning to think has to do with my tooth. To explain I lose a chunk of a molar and while it wasn't paining me felt it sould be dealt with.. i dislike dentists a LOT so this wasn't easy but I went and they drilled out the remains of the filling and some decay and put a temp filling it while an inlay was made. Que two weeks of very sensitive tooth. Now have the inlay and it has had a couple of days to settle and I realise it's the first time I've chewed using that side of my mouth in two weeks and my shoulder is less painful.. conected? time will tell.

Over kill Corset

I now have a set of 18th century stays. I used J.P. Ryan's pattern which works well. Sarah is now working on a set as well as a dress.

The stays are fully boned, every channel you see has a bone in it and all of them are metal of one sort or another. I used two widths of flat metal boning plus one type of spiral boing which mostly went in the sides. This is rather overkill but hey and I intend to convince certain refs it is armour. Considering I'd happly take a blow from a real sword across it I think that is fair.

I have also made a small bumroll and a matching skirt. This is all for my Maelstrom character Oriel. I/she is a Taylor for the nobility of Millen but I am looking to stress that i am aservant and she plans to blend into the background a bit this coming event, hence the monchrome look.

It worked quite well though there are things i could do better like the visible locking off stiches I should have finished the thread ends off by hand. I am making some detachable straps as well as I think I may feel i keep needing to pull them up fractionally. I think for now I will be wearing the outfit with a black jacket i already have and was bought off the high street a while back. Longer term i plan to make a black wool riding coat, probably with plates in the shoulders and possibly part of the skirts..(to add to the armour theme and to up the amount of armour I am wearing) Still need to hem the skirt .

Get out of Jail free

As most who read this will know I signed up for a pledge not to buy new clothes. Nikki has been here all week and we have been making costume for Maelstrom, digatising double headed eagles and so forth.

She has a couple of dresses mostly done and I have three corsets in various stages, 2 for me and one for himself. Plus two sizes of eagles sorted for liveries and the like. They look quite good after many hours of playing. I am gradually learning my way round the software.

We ended up doing some clothes shopping though and as happens talking each other into buying stuff. We both got underwear and belts and I got a new jacket as well. I rarely find jackets that fit well and this one did and had interesting details so I slipped off the wagon as it were. The pledge has made me think more about making things for myself though so i have signed up again for the next 4 months.

Jeans to Skirt

Pair of jeans I have liked for ages in a purple based denim but they have never fitted well, jeans never do I am too long in the crotch even being short in almost ever other way.

cut up and refashioned to a skirt which fits much better.

undid inner leg seams and part of crotch over lapped the undone part of the crotch then cut the remaining leg in half and used the lower part to fill the gap. Ended up with a fish tail look which was nice.

Fun dreads

dreads with leaves and things

These are great.. umm Gnoll at Maelstrom.Tom was talking about secondaries..

jacket and bag

This is the jacket i made for Stargate plus a bag i made from a pair of Dominic's jeans as i cut up one slightly smaller pair to patch about 4 others that still fit but have no knees left.. he has hit the small boy puts he's knees through stage and has his dad's spiky knees ! The Jacket is a heavy blue silk and lined with a cream linen with blue and grey stripes.

vintage style

I really like this dress

I also want to make an under bust corset and that would work well under that. Just have to find time to make it..

Oriental stuff

Now Stargate is over I can talk about the costume I made for the event. As some who read this will know my charater was kidnapped by a rogue UKGC agent. He then gave her to a Gou'ald for questioning.. not a nice thing to do and doubly so when she is a Tok'Ra. Said Gou'ald was japanese so me and my two fellow captives.. one of whom the other players knew nothing about, needed approprate clothing. Debs made a full kimono which looked wonderful but she was being held more as a trophy where as I was being interogated and killed regularly (the joys of the bad guys being able to bring you back to life in a sarcophogus).

I wanted something less formal. I already had a pair of oriental type trousers.. the sort that are split down the outside leg and wrap round front to back and back to front. I don't wear them as they open too much at the sides so i decided to sew them up a bit. I sewed them from about 10" below the waist to just below the knee which worked well.

I also made a short kimono out of calico. originally I planned to to use this just as a mock up but in the end wore it as a shirt which worked fine. I adjusted it so it has stright sleeves not hanging ones.

Pic of trousers and top.. badly taken as i wasn't allowed to let Tom know I was making it becouse he plays and I was under strict instructions not too let any players know who we were being held by.


Finally to try and not freeze to death (something I only partly achived) I made a Haori which is a jacket to wear over kimonos with a kimono sleeve, open at the front just held with a tie. This was made from a heavy blue silk I had just enough left from a different project and some cream linen with a blue and grey stripe. I came out quite well and i will probably keep the jacket and use it generally. i will post a pic of that later.

I ended up wearing the shirt and trousers all day sataday (we were finally rescued in the wee small hours of satday morning) before changing to combats when it got cold in the evening.

Picture time.

And now some pics of the finished outfits. For those that don't know this was for a wedding at a roleplay game.. so not a real wedding though I'd have been happy to dress people this way for a real one. I'm quite chuffed how good they looked.


More photos the wedding here including the very varied guests

Maelstrom wedding

The wedding went well. The costumes looked good if I do say so myself. I took lots of pictures then came home early as I was feeling really rough. I will put up pics once himself comes back with the camera.

Wardrobe Refashion

I have signed up for two months on Wardrobe Refashion. The idea is that you don't buy any new clothes and instead make or revamp them. I need to do this anyway to reduce the stash so seemed like a plan.

The pledge

I Esther pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 2 months. I pledge that i shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoated, recylcled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftyness brings! Signed Esther

Mum's visit, sewing show and Alpaca

Mum came to visit for a few days so we could go to the sewing show at the NEC. We never even got into the Hobby craft hall as we had run out of energy by then. We both got sucked in by tatting and lucet work and bought kits to do said crafts. Yes I know I probably have both somewhere but the tatting kit was only 3 pounds and the lucet had details on lots of different braids and i'm a sucker for braids.

I got some beading stuff, including a necklace kit i have promised to make for Mum, in return she is knitting me a stole which is lovely. Found places to get cravat pins for Tom though none had brought them to the show. Nearly bought some friendly plastic to make a Gou'ald hand device then forgot and ordered it on line when i got back !!

Fell in love with the babylock Embellisher for some reason no-one else seems to feel I NEED another specalist machine.

Mum is weaving plastic bag handbags at the moment. The base is old jeans.

That was Thursday. Friday we went over to Toft Alpaca before Mum went home and oggled the wool, yarn and ready made items. I picked up some leg wool to try felting as had been discussed at Knitwits a few weeks back and Mum bought a selection of yards to knits scarfs and the like from.

All in all a good few couple of days.

St patrick countdown - printables

Lisa Vollrath
is doing free printables as a countdown to St Patricks day. If you like papercrafts they look good so far.

Random thing from my stash

Found this half make item while I was looking for lining for Dave's coat. It was in a bag with more fabric that had a large sleeve pattern pinned to it plus calico lining. As you can see it is very wide, it has full length gores added in at the shoulders. I'm not sure if I meant it to be full like this or if it was originally to be a medieval robe which is heavily pleated in at the waist. I think I'll make it up as an over robe and see how it looks.

The marks are on the lens of the camera not the fabric

Red Coat

I spend the last part of the week make a coat for Dave, Julie's partner. I admit when he showed me the fabric which is a red uphostery fabric i wasn't convinced but it made up really well. It is lined with a polished cotton in a darkish karki from my stash as the first fabric I tried refused to dye.. good for mocking up but obviously too much artifical fibres in it but then what do you want for 50p a metre which is probably about what it cost.

Basic design was full length, gores in the centre back and sides of the skirt, double breasted fold over front. He wanted padding on the shoulders and elbows which I did with a thick layer of wadding and stitching over the top. There is a pleat in the centre back as he plans to wear it to fight I thought he needed the movement, it is sewn together at the waist to keep the fitted look..

The collar didn't work so well but I will re-do that for him. Partly a communication error and partly running out of time and doing it wrong about six times.. Actually it looked good on the dummy from behind but doens't come round the front enough and I think needs a couple of bones to keep it standing correctly.

I also didn't quite get all the buttons on but he is wearing leather armour over it this weekend and it does do up.

I hope he likes it.. i do and it looked very good on him.. It will look even better with a fixed collar though.. Has a warhammer / star trek feel to it some how. Here are some pics though only have them of it in progress as I was sewing till he rang the bell!!