Cave Woman costume

Just for silliness...

I'm part of a historical recreation group, that studies the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Usually. But...um...in the written guidelines, they never actually put down a starting date for our recreation. So once a year my local chapter gets really really silly, and puts on a Caveman Tournament. Our warriors toss furs over their Shining Armor, scramble for weapons in a pile in the center of the ring, and beat each other with sticks and rocks. Ugh! (Rocks in this case means tennis balls that have been duct taped together.) Winners of each round are Smart Cavemen, and get to start the next round with a newly invented weapon instead of scrambling in the pile with everyone else. The spectators dress in their finest cave couture, and much silliness and fun is had by all.

I woke up this morning and realized that I wanted a New Cave Woman Dress. I've been using fake fur wound around me the past few years, and that is very very hot in September in Phoenix, AZ. We're still hitting triple digits on a daily basis. So this afternoon, between painting scarves, I trotted out to the shed and pulled out several soft leather hides from my stash of neat stuff. The hides are thin enough to fit through my sewing machine. I stitched two of them together into one long rectangle, snipped two rows of holes, and ran two leather thongs through the holes as a drawstring waistband. That made a wrap-around skirt.

Then I put my tank top down on another hide as a general pattern, and cut around it to make a halter top. I used some more leather thong to tie the straps around my neck, and to make a criss-cross lace up back.

This is how it turned out.

You know what? It was actually really secure and comfortable. Nice and cool in the desert night, and soft soft soft against the skin. I think I'll be a cave woman for Halloween, just to give myself a good excuse to wear it again!

Ugh!

Sewing for Estrella, and modeling for life drawing

Oh man, am I sore again. This semester I'm working with 6 different teachers of life drawing classes, and this week I modeled for each and every one of them. It was only about 16 hours of work...but imagine if you worked out at the gym for 16 hours in a week's time. Yup. My muscles are talking to me. Mostly whimpering, and asking for the hot tub pretty please. But I'm kind of stubbornly proud that I can help the learning process in this way, and that even at 44 years old I'm fit enough to do the job well. Also? There were two paintings of me on display at a professional art exhibit this week. How's that for kind of making for weird feelings?? They were evidently done from class sketches like this one:



(Hopefully that one is work safe enough not to freak anyone out.)

In and among the class work, I've been able to get some more prep done for the upcoming Estrella War. (estrellawar.org) I still need to write the documentation for the fabric I wove for the arts competition, but I was really pleased that the matching linen (from fabrics-store.com) came in today. The hand woven will end up being a nice warm over-tunic, and the linen will be the under-tunic. I need to enter a length of fabric ready to be made into something for the competition, so the actual construction of the outfit will wait until after I get back. But won't it be beautiful? I'm so pleased the colors matched as well as I thought they might.



My husband is kind of hard on his clothes, and I hadn't sewn for him in a couple of years. So I made him the fingerloop braids (http://tangibledaydreams.blogspot.com/2011/02/tutorial-basic-finger-loop-braiding.html) to fix the cuffs for one shirt, and then sewed him another one. This is from the McCall's M4864 pattern. There were some fiddly bits around the cuff and collar with getting all the gathers tucked in correctly, but I'm pleased with the way the shirt turned out. And the XL fits my husband beautifully, with plenty of ability to move. Since he's not a small man, and is very active, that makes this pattern worth the little bit of fiddling and hand sewing. Yes, I really hate hand sewing. But I'll be using this pattern again. (And it looks better on him than it does crumpled up on the ironing board. Really.)



This was an easier project. McCalls Easy Stitch 'n Save M5738, minus the collars because Joann's didn't have enough of the yellow bias tape to go around. The dog coats run a little large for what the measurements call for, and I had to shift the placement of the belly strap for the smaller dogs. But the pups didn't mind wearing them. Actually, when I tried to put a coat on Kaylee, Wash tried to nose his way in to get the pretties instead. He even did the roll over and show his belly trick as a way to beg for the coat. I think maybe he just wanted all the attention for himself, but it was still cute to see them jockeying for who got to wear the new clothes. Luckily, I made up three of them.



You can almost hear them saying, "Ok Mom, we're in our new garb. Is it time to go yet???"

Sewing binge: new Cotehardie

I took my kids to the local fabric heaven last Wednesday, so my daughter's friends could find some material for kilts. For you in the Phoenix, AZ area, that would be SAS Fabrics By the Pound. We went to the one on 19th Ave. If you sew at all, it is worth the trip over to wander around the store.

I wasn't going in to purchase anything for me, mind you. Just playing chauffeur for the kids. Silly me. I do historical recreation, and several events are coming up in the next few months.

I found some maroon cotton for $2/yd, that would make a great under tunic for an outfit I already had planned out. It matched the trim I already had. Snag.

I found 20 yards of a muted green linen, at $3/yd. That is enough to make matching tunics and shirts for the whole family. Had to take that too.

And then I found the cotton moleskin fabric, which is not necessarily accurate to period but feels soooooooo pettably soft to the touch. And it drapes beautifully. They had 5 yards of a dark olive green. And then I found another 4 yards of taupe. And they went beautifully together.



And well, our local group's Solstice event was coming up this weekend. The dress popped into my head, full formed. I could see a cotehardie, the height of fashion from the 1300's, with buttons down the front. Long sleeves, form fitting through the torso, then flaring at the hips to a full floor-length skirt. Maybe just off the shoulders, in the French style of the time. And though there wasn't enough of the dark green to make the whole dress, I have run across a couple of pictures that showed a contrasting fabric in the gores of the skirt.

At $3/yd, I couldn't resist. So I took it home, and ran it through the wash while I finished up another project so I could clear room in my studio. Friday morning, I was ready to start work. I spent the day tweaking patterns, cutting fabric, swearing, and sewing.




It took me until about 4 am, but I finally got the last button sewn on. I collapsed into a heap of sleep. This morning, my husband helped me with the final fitting and alterations, and we finished up just in time to make the event. Got lots of compliments on the outfit!



My husband snapped this shot for me after we got home. I'm leaning against my antique loom, which my family has decorated for the season. (They figured I was too caught up in Christmas prep, and I wouldn't be weaving on it until the decorations were put away. You should have heard them giggling!!)

The planning stages of sewing? Lots of fun. Actually sewing is a chore for me, and I rush through it as fast as I can while the inspiration is still spurring me on. But having sewn, and then slinking around in my new dress? Priceless!