Late June update: more sewing

Well, I had high hopes of getting lots of sewing done last Saturday ... but I left the draft pattern pieces for the apron dress at home! Drat! I was still able to be productive, though, by finishing up the hand-stitching on a late-period chemise that I started way back during the pandemic. (I think I'd intended it to be an entry in a virtual A&S competition, but I hadn't finished it in time, obviously.)

Now I'm hoping to go to town on garb work on Friday and Saturday, when Storvik has the Cheverly Community Center gym for two consecutive days. I'll finish basting the apron dress draft together, and, if it fits, I'll start getting the real dress cut out and assembled. On Saturday, my friend Laura will teach a class on making a Roman stola, another thing I've been wanting to do. I also have enough lightweight white linen to make a tunica to wear under the stola. Last year I bought some fibulae for the tunica at Pennsic. (See this link for what I'm talking about. However, I don't think I'll bother with the palla. Not in Pennsic's heat and humidity. Plus, my persona is that of a widow, so ... I'm looking!)

Yes, I know that Saturday is a special Fourth of July and Friday is the corresponding legal holiday. I have reasons for not planning other activities for those two days, but I don't want to fill this blog with mundane politics. Besides, this whole region will be baking in a heat dome over the next few days ... and the community center gym has frigid air conditioning.

June update: sewing

My mundane life has been keeping me busy this month. I'm not apologizing -- obviously I need to make money to support my enjoyable activities. I'll still try to write a second post before June ends next Tuesday.

I'm continuing my pivot from going to a bunch of SCA events to performing various activities to support my SCA life. Last weekend, I and five other friends visited Lady Mirabella's cabin in the woods of Aethelmearc (West Virginia) for a sewing weekend. Granted, with seven people in the cabin, and almost all of us needing to cut out pattern pieces or lay the pieces out to pin them together, table space was at a premium. Nevertheless, I cut out a complete set of pattern pieces for a Viking apron dress, based on my measurements of an existing hand-me-down apron dress that fits me well. (Why reinvent the wheel?)

Next, I want to baste the pieces of the new apron dress together to see how it fits. (That's the main reason why I cut the pieces out of an old bedsheet instead of nice brown linen.) Fortunately, between now and Pennsic I'll have five or six "project days" when I can work on my garb. Maybe I can have something new to wear to the War!