Not Allowed Any More New Projects. Who's with me?!

[gem]

Yeah, original list has been totally thrown out the window. LOL! I had very good intentions, but I ended up making entirely different stuff instead (but I did make stuff! And some of it was stash stuff!!). And I know the first cold day will hit, and I'll be back thinkin' about that Elizabethan jacket!

I am happy to say that I did finish the Outstanding Embroidery Exchange Project, however. And the new reversible fairwear bodice I made was loooong overdue and something that, altho' not on my list, I'd been talking about for at least two years. And used stash! So I'm feeling ahead of the game.

[Rani Zemirah]

Using stash is ALWAYS a good thing!  In fact... I think that should be my REAL goal, instead of trying to not plan new projects!  That would be soooo much more attainable for me!   LOL 

I would love to see the embroidery project, btw... and the bodice, as well! 

[gem]

Bodice is in the last page or two of the In Progress gallery, and the Outstanding Embroidery Project, now known as CenturiesSewing's Blackwork Pocket, can be seen right here!

How exciting that your friends are coming! You're brave to make garb for brand newbies (we usually just break out the loaner gear before foisting handmade originals on them! LOL)

[Rani Zemirah]

What amazing work, Gem!  Soooo many tiny stitches!!!  And I love your bodice, also!   

As for the hedge wizard's robes, well... he's just looking for something really simple to get started with, so I'm not too worried about it!  In fact, for what I have in mind there will only be a couple of simple cuts to about 4 yards of fabric, then all of the raw edges will be bound with bias tape... and he will have a simple long tunic to wear under it, which won't be much more complicated than the robe!  He could have borrowed my pirate garb again (we took them to our one weekend Medieval Festival this year, also), but he's set on being a wizard, so off we go...  LOL 

[LadyStitch]

I felt so proud of myself this weekend.  I managed to get 4 items off my UFO project list.  Three which were Ren related. 

The PP has taken to having me do things for his projects. IE sewing a shirt for a puppet, making the lining for his jewelry boxes. It has gotten so out of hand I ended up putting on the refrigerator a list of all my current projects.  If he wants me to do something for him he has to decide which project is more important.  That has helped curb some of his projects.  It has also helped me see what all I have going on. Hense the reason I was able to power through the UFO's this weekend.  I still have one more I would like to get done this week, but I can at least see where I am on all my projects now. 

[Kate XXXXXX]

Hehehe...  I cashed in my winter clothing allowance to make a wool and cashmere Burgundian with a linen lining and linen kirtle, for the Harvest Festeval at Empire next month!  Then I persuaded my hubby to let me have 5m of wool, silk, and linen mix suiting to make myself a suit for my nephew's wedding.  It was £19.99 per meter...  It's my birthday present, very early!  Sadly, they sent the coral rather than the teal.  But when I rang up and said so, they sent the 5m of teal out to me the next day, and told me to keep the coral as a gift for the inconvenience!  So no, I can't say no more personal projects yet!  (And that fabric was VASTLY reduced at £19.99!  The original price was £134.99 per meter!  So for £99.95 I got, basically, £1,349.90's worth of fabric!  And I am here to say it really IS worth it!)

[LadyStitch]

I marked of 2 and half more things on my UFO list.   Granted had an "oh crud" moment when I realized the fuzzlet didn't have a special birthday outfit for her party.  Enter Mommy and her mighty stash.  Nothing like cute broad cloth colors and appliques to make kids cuter. 

People ask me why I have such a big stash I tell them because you never know when you have to make something at the last moment, literally!

[Kate XXXXXX]

Stash rocks!  Sadly, I am having to reduce mine mightily, as I won't have the space to store so much once the loft gets converted.  And as I keep making stuff for different eras...  Next up is WWII!

[Rani Zemirah]

Kate, I am so envious of your amazing bargain!  I hope you'll be posting the Burgundian in the Projects threads, and the wedding suit in the mundane sewing thread!  I would love to feel that fabric! 

Stitch, you're just blazing through your list!  Stash really IS nice to have... if you actually USE it!  I just seem to keep acquiring it, and never get to even start anything!  I've been working on lots of other things, though... and I need to post a couple of things in the Hats thread... but my fabric stash keeps giving me dirty looks, and trying to trip me as I walk past!   

I hope you'll be posting pics of Miss Fuzzlet in her b-day finery!  I can hardly believe it's been that long already!!!   

[LadyStitch]

Rani you are right Stash is nice but you have to USE it. Given the late night calls I get from the theater about getting last minute items or even repairs having a sash helps.  Add in that sometimes having left overs from an old project can stretch the current budget helps even more.  I will say fabrics are not my weekness  ( ok spoonflower.com could be my weakness if I could buy anything there) but my real weakness is patterns.  Given all that I do, it is VERY hard to turn down a pattern sale. I won't say how BAD i was when McCalls were 70 cents at Joanns a couple weeks ago.   

[Rani Zemirah]

Oh, I'm bad about the $1 pattern sales, also!  I've never even SEEN any for .70!!!    The JoAnn's down in the City shut down a year or so ago, for some reason, and as far as I know, no others have opened up here... so we go to Hancock Fabrics, which USED to be my very favorite fabric store ever (because we don't have any sort of fabric district here, unfortunately), but ever since they went truly corporate I almost can't stand to go in there anymore!  No one who works there knows anything about fabric, and most of them don't even know where anything is displayed, or what is supposed to be on sale... and half the time things don't even ring up right, and it's always a struggle to just be able to get the sale price!  Oh, and now they will only accept competitor's coupons if you actually print them out, instead of accepting the mobile versions from a cell phone.  And the employees have become rude and unhelpful...

Now it makes me sad to go there... and generally raises my blood pressure.    I still go, because it's pretty much all we have besides Walmart or Hobby Lobby, and neither of those has enough of a selection to provide the things I need.  I just try to go in and not interact with anyone there until it's time to get my cuts and check out.  Their prices have pretty much doubled in the last few years, also... so I haven't been buying much there at all... or anywhere else, really, unless it's just too good a deal to pass up! 

What I really can't resist, though, is when I find something beautiful at a yard sale, or thrift store, for almost nothing!  That always comes home with me...    lol   

[Ser Niall]

I just saw this thread resurface and sadly I have not done anything on my list   I was going to do some more sewing earlier this year for this year's festivals, but real life got in the way and I had to retire the sewing machine for the time being.  I think it's about time to get it out again, I really do need a new shirt.  My current one is too bulky underneath my garb.

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

2 more gowns in my MUST MAKE projects list. An Elizabethan Gown I already have fabric and trims for to do a variation of. The other is a late Baroque Gown in the style of Queen Anne, youngest daughter of King James II of England.

So many projects, so little time.

[Rani Zemirah]

Oh, my... I am so much more a fan of the Baroque era than the Elizabethan!  I know that's tantamount to blasphemy in Ren circuits... but just LOOK at the line and the cut of that dress, and what it does for the female form!  Not to mention the embellishment, and the sense of romance it conveys...  It's breathtaking!!! 

[isabelladangelo]

The embellishment is also modern.  ;-)

It's not an extant gown.    This one, however, is:


1660s court dress [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], by Ludi Ling (Own work), from Wikimedia Commons

The gown is from the 1660s.  The forms of embellishment, for the most part, haven't changed since the late 16th C.  Lace, bows, and trims are all still used.  (The pleated trims and gathered self fabrics of the 18th C seem to show up in the 1720's, when all fashion heck breaks loose)

My favorite from the post Jacobean 17th Century of extant clothing has to be the V&A stays, like everyone else.  But I have always wanted one of those 1650s~1670s at home jackets you often see depicted in paintings.  Such as this: