chargirlgenius

Welcome to my journal! Most of the content (the interesting stuff, anyway) is friends-only. If you don't comment, I won't know who you are. :-)

I have quite a few filters set up. If you friend me, please post a note and provide me with a few facts about yourself so I can put you in the right places. I may or may not have active filters for all of these categories, but I reorganize things every so often. Comments are screened. Tell me if you want them to stay screened, in case I respond.

1. I don't always recognize lj-usernames. Have we met? Do we have friends in common?
   
2. Are you in the SCA (or interested)?
   
3. Are you otherwise a medievalist/costumer (or interested)?
   
4. Are you in the DC Metro area? Are you in the SCA Kingdom of Atlantia?
   
5. Are you a member of the Order of the Pearl?
   
6. Are you a member of the Order of the Laurel?
   
7. Are you female?
   
8. Would you be interested in NSFW (Not Safe For Work - read: smut) discussions?
   

Thanks!

I have finally gotten around to adjusting the stays, making the back side piece more flared and lobed. It's nice. I'm very happy. In fact, I feel like I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night.

( Pics under the cut )

Now I have to start thinking about order of assembly and boning. Ack! More thinking!

I was planning on going with reed, originally, but then I attended sarahbellem's boning class as CoCo. (I think I mentioned this already...) So I started thinking about cable ties. We went to Lowes tonight, but I'm not sure that what I found is the right kind. They seem wider and thinner than what she passed around class.


( here are the beefiest cable ties Lowes had )

Alternatively, I'll just stick with reed and try to dig up where to buy metal for some reinforcing. I'm also debating opening and lacing them in the front, too, but that would mean making a LOT more eyelets. Meh.

So, for some odd reason when I'm not sitting in a cubicle all day, I spend a bit less time on-line. Strange, that. I've also set up my laptop in the kitchen, so I'm only looking at it in passing and not plopping down on the couch and losing hours of time. That helps. But it means I don't do much but quickie facebook posts.

I'm also reading Dance With Dragons right now. Totally sucked in.

So... OMGEARTHQUAKE! It was awesome. And there wasn't major damage and there weren't major injuries, so I can just be excited that I actually experienced one in my lifetime.

The boys and I were out on a nature walk doing a scavenger hunt at a nearby state park, and were bent down over some spiders on the ground. Suddenly it seemed as if the sun dappling on the ground was shifting oddly, and I was having trouble focusing on it. I stood up, thinking I wasn't feeling well, and the ground swayed back and forth. Since we were in a heavy forest, everything moved in relation to everything else, and it didn't *look* like things were trembling. It was gentle. Rocking. Weird.

Right before the earthquake, we'd seen a fawn, and wrote "fawn" and crossed it out on our lists, so (after posting to facebook, natch') we wrote "earthquake" and crossed it off our lists too, and continued on our walk.

I was too distracted, though. I kept trying to call Jeff, and wasn't getting through. Reports kept coming in on facebook, and I felt stupid walking through the woods staring at my phone. Once I saw that people felt it from the Carolinas to New York, and not being able to call Jeff, I decided that we'd better head back to the car and the real world.

We traded stories with the ranger, who said that the cars were rocking wildly. It just didn't feel that bad in the woods. Yeah, I'm sure if trees had come crashing down I'd have said otherwise. We hit the playground, then came home to see if there was damage.

Nothing, really. The pendulum on our cuckoo clock had started. That was a little creepy.

I have to say, it's extremely disconcerting to stand on solid ground, real ground, not even in a building, and have it move on you. If the ground is not solid, what is?

In other news, I've been staying busy. I've been spending a couple of hours weeding and doing yardwork every morning. I've been sewing, cooking, baking, taking care of the boys and the house. It still doesn't feel like enough time. Maybe it will be when I'm done with my book. :-)

I started a third gown yesterday. This one is c. 1415, with golden chocolate fabric in a pattern fairly reminiscent of the golden gown of Queen Marguerite. Yesterday I got it cut, zig zagged the edges, and assembled the body pieces.

I kind of wish that I'd used a different pattern for this, like the "10 gore" Herjolfsnes gown. On fabric this stiff, the wide gores set in the quarter seams sit a little strangely. I moved the gore down in this gown, since it was pretty high in the fleurs gown, and I'm just not sure I like how it sits.

On the other hand, the reconstruction Golden Gown has a weird pooch at the back gore too. So I'm good!

Today, lorebubeck and molly_world came over so I could fit the latter for a GFD. I've owed her this for a while, and it was good timing, for me anyway! It's been a little while since I've done a fitting, so I took the opportunity to update my notes and see how long a standard fitting took. I was starting to feel really nervous about having only a four hour time slot, but I think it'll go ok.

I'll see how this dress goes. I don't want to sew up to the last minute, so I might put a deadline of Friday or so.

So, despite my medical malaise today, I forced myself to make progress on my dress. Once a project is on the table, I can sew through anything. But it takes a special alignment of the planets to get me to start anything. Anybody else like that?

Here is the fabric and lining. This is the 1470s V-neck gown:


(Since hardly anybody actually posts on LJ/DW anymore, does anybody actually care if there's an uncut reasonably-sized picture anymore?)

Jeff and I spent this afternoon out on the deck, soaking up the warm sun, and both sewing. Me on clothes, him on patten uppers. I hereby declare it spring. Sewing days were few this winter, what with the work on the basement it's been harder to send the kids down there. Hopefully now we can toss them all outside.

So, Sunday the 27th will be sewing/A&S day. If you plan on staying for supper, it's potluck.

I'll post again later, so you don't have to let me know yet if you're coming. I just thought I might *gasp* plan ahead for once. If you need directions, comment or PM me.

We have a dog, cat, kids, bird, and fish, so medicate accordingly.

A note on fittings... This isn't an official workshop, but if there are people I have outstanding appointments to fit, you're welcome to come out! Or we'll schedule a different time, that's fine too. For other folks who want to do a fitting, usually, I prefer that people come in pairs, work off of the tutorial, and then I provide additional guidance and help where needed. It seems to work out pretty well. If you want to come on your own, we can try having you do it up by draft, and then I work with you on the final tweaks.

The other day, I was lounging in the tub, reading Omnivore's Dilemma, thinking that it might be quite a challenge to try living without consuming corn* for a year. I could blog about it, then they could make a movie about me, a la Julie and Julia, and I'd be rich and famous.

That's why we do social activism, isn't it?

Anyway, I casually look over at my bath salts, and there it is. Zea Mays. Corn. In my bath salts.

I give up already.

*Fresh picked sweet corn eaten directly off the ear wouldn't count. That actually IS food.

I've only had a WordPress blog set up for MONTHS now, but a stupid error while trying to upload a header image kept getting in my way. I powered through it when I was home sick on Tuesday, and spent some of my time yesterday getting content plugged in.

I have most of the content from www.mathildegirlgenius.com moved over. Any new content will be posted directly to wordpress, without going to mgg first. This wordpress thing is just SO much easier!

Blogging there? I don't know yet. I already have DW and LJ going - I don't really need a THIRD place. I think it'll be mostly pages, no posts, but if I do post, I'll post them over at one of the other two places as well.

So, without further ado...

http://wp.bymymeasure.com/

I think once I have *everything* over, mgg will point to the same place. But I'm not exactly positive what the plan is.

Go visit! Tell me if you like the layout or think it's awful! I think I'm going to move the outside links out of the sidebar and into a separate page. And I have a LOT more content I want to put up. When I do, I'll rearrange. But links over on the right? Good? No?

I posted that the frilled veil was done, but now it's really done. I stitched the two layers together so they don't slide around on my head.

One thing I'd considered before making it was the choice between a rectangular veil and one that has a semicircle back. The rectangular veil needs some creative pinning to make work, which was a count against it. But the semicircular back wouldn't be a simple folded layer, and once you do the pinning, all looks just fine. I still have to play a bit with the pinning, but it's at the 80% point, I think.

And now I also have some pictures:

( pictures below the cut )

Hopefully, I'll have pictures of the whole outfit next weekend. Medieval hairpieces always look goofy with jammies. :-D

It's the first day of fall! Hooray!

But wait. The first day of FALL should NOT be 90 degrees. Summer is fired. You may leave the building now. Let this be the end of it.