Problem-solving: embroidered early 19th century shift

The University of St Andrews' special collections department has a rather wonderful blog, Echoes from the Vault, on which I was an occasional contributor between 2012 and 2015.

In 2014, their blog had a theme: 52 Weeks of Historical How-To's. Every week, a member of staff (or some enthusiastic volunteer) would choose an item from the collection and use it as an instruction manual to do or make something, and write about the experience. Some people baked, others brewed, some made paper cut-outs, others took baths, some made ink and paper, and still others went on holiday.

For one of my contributions to the blog, I dug up an 1825 tailor's manual and followed the directions to make a lady's shift. That blog post is here.

A few weeks later, I decorated it by following (more or less) an embroidery pattern in an 1825 ladies' magazine. That blog post is here.

Unlike when I write for this blog, however, I have deadlines when I blog for work. And hand-sewing and embroidery are not particularly conducive to meeting deadlines.

Recycling: black lace insertion tunic

I have an awful lot of unfinished projects.

Most of the time, I can trick myself into thinking my backlog isn't all that bad because there are only four or five things that I've actively been working on within recent memory, forming the top layer of clutter in my sewing room. I've been pretty good about following my "finish two projects for every one you start" rule, so the front of my brain thinks that I'm doing okay. Managing my addiction. But somewhere in the back of my mind, I know that's a lie.

Every once in a great while, I'll go through aaaaaallll of my unfinished projects, one by one, and find things I'd completely forgotten. This is one of those things.

Event-based Motivation: Spiffing Up Garb for Raglan

One of the good things about moving to Wales is that one of the biggest SCA events in the UK is (relatively speaking) right in my backyard. Raglan Fair takes place every September, when hordes of SCAdians descend upon on the grounds of Raglan Castle, set up camp, and proceed to cook, craft, shoot, and bash each other with sticks for ten days straight. For me, the upshot of this is that, for a week and a bit, I get to hang out with a significant number of people I adore but have very few opportunities to see in person. Last year (our first in Wales) I spent just one afternoon at the castle as a member of the general public, not as an attendee, but this year I decided to take a week off work and register for the whole event.

I've had friends in the SCA for most of my life, but I've always been more of a Renaissance Faire kind of girl. This means that most of my garb is a.) not overly concerned with historical accuracy, and b.) designed for 100+ degree weather. In other words, throwing together enough SCA-appropriate garb for a multi-day event was going to require some creativity and a little bit of sewing.

There's nothing quite like a looming deadline fuelled by fear of mockery to motivate me to finish a project. In this case, I used the few days before (and during) Raglan to spiff up a couple of old costume pieces and start one new one.

Really, Actually, Completely Finished. For Now.

*note: more/better photos coming.*

Among costumers, it is known that a sewing project is never actually finished. It is "wearable," or possibly "good enough," but there is always something that gets left off because it's 2am and your fingers are bleeding and the event is tomorrow morning and you have to wake up in 4 hours to drive another 4 hours to the event.

So maybe you get all of the construction seams done, and plan on binding the raw edges later. Nobody but you is ever going to see them, right?

Or you leave off that last bit of trim that would take it from attractive to fabulous, because nobody needs to know that you actually intended for there to be TWO rows of knife pleats and a line of beaded lace around that 6-yard hem, instead of just one.

Or you opt for the quick-and-dirty modern construction method instead of the well-researched and documented historically accurate method, because only the snobbiest of costume snobs will know the difference.

But there's always some little niggling thing that you mean to go back and finish later, once the time pressure is off.

So it was with my wedding dress.