home again home again
Jun. 13th, 2008 09:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7So i'm back. I have also preregistered for Pennsic, so hurrah. I'll be camping with Three Swans down in the swamp. I am psyched. I do not have anything like enough garb so I have to get my rear in gear on that. It's proven harder than I thought because I lack so many garment-construction fundamentals-- my decision to just make things I saw online is a tricky one because of the lack of instructions, given that I don't know basic things like, oh, how to make facings, or what order to sew seams so I don't wind up working against myself. Having made only one garment myself, and that with a lot of help, I lack the necessary fundamental knowledge of just how to simply make stuff, regardless of the construction details.
That said, I muddled through a red sleeveless kirtle while home and have only to make lacing eyelets in the front and figure out the lower hem treatment in order to have a completed, wearable garment, so that's good. Hopefully I can make a black one just like it in short order, and a blue one as well. Then I'll have three dresses, and three chemises, and then some more farby Renn Faire garb (elastic-waist skirts and moon-and-stars-print corsets, oh well) to tide me through, and hopefully that will be enough to have me basically clothed for most of the event. I hope to get more than that finished, but we'll see. I want a corset and that's proving tricky to get materials for. (Seriously. I want hemp cording to make a corded pair of bodies to keep my boobs in place-- this sports bra isn't cutting it, I spill out the top too much and I'm going to *have* to custom-make something. Where the hell can you buy 1/8 or 1/16 inch hemp cording? It's all sold with labels that give a "guage" and I have absolutely no idea what "guage" an 1/8th inch cord is. How the fuck do you figure that out?)
Anyway. I didn't come here to witter on about garb. I did score a bunch of camping equipment, including an 8ish-by-sixish-foot canvas tent of 18th century design. I also got a small air mattress and a nice dark-green rubberized-canvas military poncho that doesn't look hopelessly modern but will be serious rain protection. So my major worries are sorted.
It was funny how my parents, who generously let me paw through all their old re-enactment stuff, were so concerned that their gear would be out of period. My father wouldn't let me take certain things, not because they were valuable but because they were too distinctively 18th-century and, he was sure, would stick out like a sore thumb.
I guess the Brigade of the American Revolution is a bit stricter than the SCA at Pennsic. ("Oh, we had guys who had machine-stitched uniform jackets," Dad said, "but we didn't let them get too close to the tourists. I mean, they looked OK from a distance, sure, but the details, well-- you could see it.")
I admit, having spent my early childhood somewhat-anxiously watching my father participate in massive live-gunpowder re-enacted melees, I wonder what it's going to be like to watch a bunch of fellas in armor hit each other with sticks. I do look forward to it, though.
I didn't mean to go on about that so long. I came back to the computer to start uploading photos, but admit I don't know where to start. I guess I'd better get through London before I move on to Baby David. But here's a teaser one of him just to tide y'all over.
I didn't take that picture, my sister Fiona did. That's baby's first time driving a Jeep. He enjoyed it a great deal.
While home I was impressed with how pro-active and productive my whole family is. My retired father has a rigorous schedule of chores around the house, and I was inspired to attempt to set one up similarly for myself. I do get a great deal of satisfaction out of having a clean house, but in the past have become easily discouraged because I'd be there chugging along and there's Z sitting on his ass surfing the web. But now, he's working really hard, and I'm not, so I think that obstacle will be gone mentally.
And Z: He did try to clean the house while I was gone but got swamped when someone else's project was dumped on him shortly before deadline when it was revealed that they couldn't actually do it. His chagrin at bringing me home to a pigsty was genuine, and I could tell he'd started on more than one cleaning project before getting irrevocably interrupted. He hadn't had time to go to the grocery store either, and also had come down with a sinus infection. So I got home and the house was a mess and he was sick and exhausted and had been eating junk and had no clean socks left and was completely frazzled about work.
I felt very missed.
And inspired to clean the place up. We'll see if it lasts.
I promptly took poor Z out for sushi. Which was a nice welcome home.
I'll be back shortly to post more photos, but I do have a bit of laundry to do first. I did all my laundry at my folks' house-- babies necessitate a lot of laundry and it was easy to throw my stuff in there periodically to fill up the machine-- but poor Z did not have that luxury.
That said, I muddled through a red sleeveless kirtle while home and have only to make lacing eyelets in the front and figure out the lower hem treatment in order to have a completed, wearable garment, so that's good. Hopefully I can make a black one just like it in short order, and a blue one as well. Then I'll have three dresses, and three chemises, and then some more farby Renn Faire garb (elastic-waist skirts and moon-and-stars-print corsets, oh well) to tide me through, and hopefully that will be enough to have me basically clothed for most of the event. I hope to get more than that finished, but we'll see. I want a corset and that's proving tricky to get materials for. (Seriously. I want hemp cording to make a corded pair of bodies to keep my boobs in place-- this sports bra isn't cutting it, I spill out the top too much and I'm going to *have* to custom-make something. Where the hell can you buy 1/8 or 1/16 inch hemp cording? It's all sold with labels that give a "guage" and I have absolutely no idea what "guage" an 1/8th inch cord is. How the fuck do you figure that out?)
Anyway. I didn't come here to witter on about garb. I did score a bunch of camping equipment, including an 8ish-by-sixish-foot canvas tent of 18th century design. I also got a small air mattress and a nice dark-green rubberized-canvas military poncho that doesn't look hopelessly modern but will be serious rain protection. So my major worries are sorted.
It was funny how my parents, who generously let me paw through all their old re-enactment stuff, were so concerned that their gear would be out of period. My father wouldn't let me take certain things, not because they were valuable but because they were too distinctively 18th-century and, he was sure, would stick out like a sore thumb.
I guess the Brigade of the American Revolution is a bit stricter than the SCA at Pennsic. ("Oh, we had guys who had machine-stitched uniform jackets," Dad said, "but we didn't let them get too close to the tourists. I mean, they looked OK from a distance, sure, but the details, well-- you could see it.")
I admit, having spent my early childhood somewhat-anxiously watching my father participate in massive live-gunpowder re-enacted melees, I wonder what it's going to be like to watch a bunch of fellas in armor hit each other with sticks. I do look forward to it, though.
I didn't mean to go on about that so long. I came back to the computer to start uploading photos, but admit I don't know where to start. I guess I'd better get through London before I move on to Baby David. But here's a teaser one of him just to tide y'all over.
I didn't take that picture, my sister Fiona did. That's baby's first time driving a Jeep. He enjoyed it a great deal.
While home I was impressed with how pro-active and productive my whole family is. My retired father has a rigorous schedule of chores around the house, and I was inspired to attempt to set one up similarly for myself. I do get a great deal of satisfaction out of having a clean house, but in the past have become easily discouraged because I'd be there chugging along and there's Z sitting on his ass surfing the web. But now, he's working really hard, and I'm not, so I think that obstacle will be gone mentally.
And Z: He did try to clean the house while I was gone but got swamped when someone else's project was dumped on him shortly before deadline when it was revealed that they couldn't actually do it. His chagrin at bringing me home to a pigsty was genuine, and I could tell he'd started on more than one cleaning project before getting irrevocably interrupted. He hadn't had time to go to the grocery store either, and also had come down with a sinus infection. So I got home and the house was a mess and he was sick and exhausted and had been eating junk and had no clean socks left and was completely frazzled about work.
I felt very missed.
And inspired to clean the place up. We'll see if it lasts.
I promptly took poor Z out for sushi. Which was a nice welcome home.
I'll be back shortly to post more photos, but I do have a bit of laundry to do first. I did all my laundry at my folks' house-- babies necessitate a lot of laundry and it was easy to throw my stuff in there periodically to fill up the machine-- but poor Z did not have that luxury.
