Last year, I made bags to be used by the retinue for my local SCA royalty. I had enough material left over, though, that I went ahead and made an additional pair for the prince and princess as well.
I handed them over to the coordinator this past on the weekend, on the morning of Crown Tournament. Coincidentally, this was just hours before close friends (including someone I'd asked for advice on the project) were crowned as said prince and princess.
So all the exciting projects I thought I might have time to work on this year? Probably not. At the moment, I'm rushing to make some very basic additional clothes (geometric-cut tunics) for my husband and I before the summer camping season.
07 May 2013
10 April 2013
How to handle Pinterest?
Pinterest, love it or hate it, is becoming an increasingly large part of the idea-space for all sorts of things, including the sort of historic costuming and re-creation things I post here. I'm probably late to this party, but I have noticed that a significant fraction of my incoming traffic comes from there (well, less so here than on my photo archive over at Flickr). For the record, I neither love nor hate Pinterest - I'm just trying to sort out how best to make use of it.
Let's be clear: I have no problem with my stuff being pinned. There are reasons why I post my photos under Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND specifically), and one of them is to allow people to use and share my work, with the major condition that it include proper attribution and linkback.
But there are a few things I'm struggling to figure out with Pinterest. One of the big ones is how to stay involved in the conversation about my work. If someone comments here, or at the photos, I get that feedback, and I can respond if I want to. If someone re-pins or comments on my photos on Pinterest, though, I may never notice. I don't see the traffic until someone actually clicks through, and my suspicion is that's actually a pretty small fraction of the activity. Do I continuously search Pinterest for myself to keep tabs on things (or automate that with Google alerts)? Would that even work (aside from the awkward vanity aspect)?
What about items that are pinned in ways that are potentially misleading? There's a dress of mine on a board that's nominally about a drastically different culture (different place, 400-500 years apart!) I'm not representing my work as being the style of that culture, but people who don't dig down might not know that. That's not even getting to the potential issue of things posted without attribution, and although I'm really hoping that's not a big issue, it's dark matter to me - if it's not attributed to me, I'll probably never see it. I get the impression, though, that users are getting a bit better about proper linking than they were in the early days of the site (wishful thinking?)
None of these things are really unique to Pinterest - they were all issues to consider before as well - but Pinterest has made it so much easier, so the volume is higher and it's harder to ignore. There's also the potential to leverage the site for additional exposure. I've considered preemptively pinning everything I post here, for example, on a blatant self-promotion board. Would that be in terribly poor form? Or just completely ineffective?
If there are any creators with input or suggestions about how to handle your work on Pinterest, I'd be interested to hear them.
Let's be clear: I have no problem with my stuff being pinned. There are reasons why I post my photos under Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND specifically), and one of them is to allow people to use and share my work, with the major condition that it include proper attribution and linkback.
But there are a few things I'm struggling to figure out with Pinterest. One of the big ones is how to stay involved in the conversation about my work. If someone comments here, or at the photos, I get that feedback, and I can respond if I want to. If someone re-pins or comments on my photos on Pinterest, though, I may never notice. I don't see the traffic until someone actually clicks through, and my suspicion is that's actually a pretty small fraction of the activity. Do I continuously search Pinterest for myself to keep tabs on things (or automate that with Google alerts)? Would that even work (aside from the awkward vanity aspect)?
What about items that are pinned in ways that are potentially misleading? There's a dress of mine on a board that's nominally about a drastically different culture (different place, 400-500 years apart!) I'm not representing my work as being the style of that culture, but people who don't dig down might not know that. That's not even getting to the potential issue of things posted without attribution, and although I'm really hoping that's not a big issue, it's dark matter to me - if it's not attributed to me, I'll probably never see it. I get the impression, though, that users are getting a bit better about proper linking than they were in the early days of the site (wishful thinking?)
None of these things are really unique to Pinterest - they were all issues to consider before as well - but Pinterest has made it so much easier, so the volume is higher and it's harder to ignore. There's also the potential to leverage the site for additional exposure. I've considered preemptively pinning everything I post here, for example, on a blatant self-promotion board. Would that be in terribly poor form? Or just completely ineffective?
If there are any creators with input or suggestions about how to handle your work on Pinterest, I'd be interested to hear them.
07 April 2013
Birgitta cap - wrap up
I had planned to put up a diagram for my interlacing pattern before I showed what it looks like on, but I just haven't had time to sit down and do the technical drawing. So here you have it, what the cap looks like in practice.
As you can see, especially with the folds at the sides, it's a little bit too big. I made mine noticeably bigger than the original, and I think that ultimately the right size for me would be about halfway between the two. But I really love it anyway :)
I have so many things I want to start next, and not enough time for any of them...
As you can see, especially with the folds at the sides, it's a little bit too big. I made mine noticeably bigger than the original, and I think that ultimately the right size for me would be about halfway between the two. But I really love it anyway :)
I have so many things I want to start next, and not enough time for any of them...
28 March 2013
Birgitta cap - pleating and embroidery
My cap is done, and was very well received.
Here's a close-up of some of the finishing details: pleating the bottom edge into the band, and embroidery on the band.
For the pleating, I did it as gathers onto a short running stitch, and then pushed together almost as tightly as possible. I'd sewn about 3/4 of the band on the first edge ahead of time, and then pinned the pleats down to it, and easing a little bit of a curve at the front corner. The flat parts of the band were attached with running stitch, but I switched to backstitch over the pleats to make sure each fold was caught at least once, and ended up sewing that section a second time to flatten down the folds.
With one edge of the band attached, and folds pressed to mark where it would be turned over, I free-handed the embroidery as described in Dahl and Sturtewegan's article. It's very simple to do, and really makes the edge pop. I'm very glad I ultimately added it, since I'd been debating leaving it off.
Once all that was done, the band was turned under and finished with hidden slip stitch.
Here's a close-up of some of the finishing details: pleating the bottom edge into the band, and embroidery on the band.
For the pleating, I did it as gathers onto a short running stitch, and then pushed together almost as tightly as possible. I'd sewn about 3/4 of the band on the first edge ahead of time, and then pinned the pleats down to it, and easing a little bit of a curve at the front corner. The flat parts of the band were attached with running stitch, but I switched to backstitch over the pleats to make sure each fold was caught at least once, and ended up sewing that section a second time to flatten down the folds.
With one edge of the band attached, and folds pressed to mark where it would be turned over, I free-handed the embroidery as described in Dahl and Sturtewegan's article. It's very simple to do, and really makes the edge pop. I'm very glad I ultimately added it, since I'd been debating leaving it off.
Once all that was done, the band was turned under and finished with hidden slip stitch.
18 March 2013
Birgitta cap, race to the finish
I've gotten a lot done on my Birgitta cap since the last time I posted, but apparently I forgot to take photos of any of it? My deadline for finishing is in just a few days, though, so for now the time goes to getting it done and writing up documentation, with a final set of posts here to come later.
17 January 2013
Birgitta cap - working both sides toward the middle
I can't overstate how much easier it has been to work the looping threads with a more open base.
Right now, I've got the fourth looping thread almost finished (two along each fabric edge), and I'm trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to finish the middle.
For anyone working from the article in Medieval Clothing & Textiles 4 (Fig 6.15 on page 137), please note that there are some errors in the diagram. The first two drawings on the left have a different under/over pattern from the one at the bottom (which is correct). And as far as getting from the second one on the right to the last one, it might as well say "magic happens here". I'm not entirely convinced that the final diagram is even a possible pattern of continuous threads - I'll be making mine up as I go.
Right now, I've got the fourth looping thread almost finished (two along each fabric edge), and I'm trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to finish the middle.
For anyone working from the article in Medieval Clothing & Textiles 4 (Fig 6.15 on page 137), please note that there are some errors in the diagram. The first two drawings on the left have a different under/over pattern from the one at the bottom (which is correct). And as far as getting from the second one on the right to the last one, it might as well say "magic happens here". I'm not entirely convinced that the final diagram is even a possible pattern of continuous threads - I'll be making mine up as I go.
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