muslin muslin muslin
Jun. 12th, 2011 09:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7I have allergies, somehow. It's surreal. I've never been allergic to anything-- except that pineapple burns my tongue, and sometimes smoke makes my throat itch pretty bad-- but of late I've just been having all kinds of weird symptoms. Weds I started getting a sore throat, and Thursday it was so bad all down in my chest-- and I mean, it hurt-- I was getting dizzy and having trouble breathing, and then Friday it was... totally fine. Not a cold. Gone.
Today my nose is almost swelled shut. I don't know, really. I have never had allergies before so this is kind of all new to me. What do you even take? I looked in the Sudafed aisle when I was at the grocery store Thursday night, chest sore like something had clawed the inside of it, but I had no idea. Claritin? Benadryl? I've no idea, I have never dealt with this before. I'll ask Liesl what she roofies herself with; maybe it'll help me at Pennsic.
I spent today working on the walls for the tent. I had bought 15 yards of it; a 10-yard bolt, then 5 yards more. I realized that the 120" sides were a weird odd number, so it was better to just do 3 1/3 yards for each side wall-- 126 inches, which covers shrinkage, overlap, and hemming allowance. So I cut three 3.5-yard segments, and had a 49" piece and a 110" piece left over. So the front wall will have a 50" piece at one corner, and then the 110" piece will come across from the other side and overlap by about 15", so I can fold it back to be the entrance, without just exposing the entire contents of the tent. I got all the side hemming done, and just have to re-measure to figure out how far to turn under the selvages for the top and bottom edges, and then where to reinforce to put on the ties, and then Bob's my uncle and I have a cotton-walled tent. Which will ensure that we won't have any hot nights this War.
I have a weird collection of these thick plastic rings salvaged from the paper rolls at work, which I'm toying with using as curtain weights. The muslin walls are light enough to be billowy in the wind, so I want to weight them down. If I use these plastic rings, I can run ties through them and pull them up by the ties, like draperies.
I also decided that I'm going to take 8-10" wide bands of heavier fabric, like canvas, and applique them to the outsides of the walls about 12-18" from the ground. I'll then put ties at the sides there, and use that to secure the walls in place-- if they're too long and drag on the ground, I'll hike them up a little at the canvas bands. That will then provide some weight, a good reinforced tying-off point, and some decorative interest (optionally), but won't make the bottom of the walls too thick or prone to getting wet.
This is probably boring, but it's really what I think about, lately.
I also made a muslin of a self-drafted pattern for a shrug jacket thing to wear with the tiger-stripe dress for the banquet. I have a length of silk velvet to make the final version from, but I have to dye it-- it's white now. Ideally I'll make two copies of this shrug-- one in blue, one in black, for the banquet and the wedding. But we'll see what I get to.
And then I started a muslin of a new pattern-- I'm tired of making cholis from the patterns I've found. I want something more substantial, and something a little more boob-shaped. So I combined a fitted bodice pattern I have, which squishes me something awful, then cut out the bra cup part and put in an insert from a bra pattern I made a while ago. The muslin didn't work out right-- the bra cup, I'd changed some curve very slightly and wound up with not-remotely-boob-shaped cups-- but I'm going to simplify it a bit and have another go. I have hopes for this thing. If nothing else I'll take a couple of old bras I have, cover them with fabric, and put them into the vest pattern-- et voila, supportive tops I can wear. I want more pseudo-Middle-Eastern swamp wear. Next up is to make semi-transparent chemise-like things to wear underneath, because why not? I'm totally over worrying about looking farby when everybody else is dressed like pirates or fantasy gypsies-- I'm going to rock the Swamp-Slut Aesthetic, only way hotter than most, this year. (I have had some Scotch, as I write this; that tends to make me arrogant.)
I also plan to wear booty shorts once the sun goes down-- glitter ones-- so fair's fair. Enough of trying to look 14th-Century French at 2 am in the Swamp when it's still 87 degrees and everyone else is wearing a chain mail bra.
Though another of today's accomplishments was finding an almost-completed linen-lined linen Supportive Kirtle, in 14th-Century French style. I almost finished it, brought it to Pennsic to put the final touches on, didn't sit down for more than 30 seconds all of War, and brought it home again. It needs sleeves and eyelets and a hem-- all, and I mean 100%, of the hard assembly and fitting work is done. I just need to finish the inside seams, too, which I don't at all mind doing by machine. It's a beautiful dress, pale blue linen with dark blue linen seam bindings around the front opening. I have to try it on, yet, and of course the eyelets will take like eighty years. But damn, it's almost done. Which increases my Topside-worthy outfits by like a third.
I had just better get both weeks off this year or I'llquit my job be really mad.
Today my nose is almost swelled shut. I don't know, really. I have never had allergies before so this is kind of all new to me. What do you even take? I looked in the Sudafed aisle when I was at the grocery store Thursday night, chest sore like something had clawed the inside of it, but I had no idea. Claritin? Benadryl? I've no idea, I have never dealt with this before. I'll ask Liesl what she roofies herself with; maybe it'll help me at Pennsic.
I spent today working on the walls for the tent. I had bought 15 yards of it; a 10-yard bolt, then 5 yards more. I realized that the 120" sides were a weird odd number, so it was better to just do 3 1/3 yards for each side wall-- 126 inches, which covers shrinkage, overlap, and hemming allowance. So I cut three 3.5-yard segments, and had a 49" piece and a 110" piece left over. So the front wall will have a 50" piece at one corner, and then the 110" piece will come across from the other side and overlap by about 15", so I can fold it back to be the entrance, without just exposing the entire contents of the tent. I got all the side hemming done, and just have to re-measure to figure out how far to turn under the selvages for the top and bottom edges, and then where to reinforce to put on the ties, and then Bob's my uncle and I have a cotton-walled tent. Which will ensure that we won't have any hot nights this War.
I have a weird collection of these thick plastic rings salvaged from the paper rolls at work, which I'm toying with using as curtain weights. The muslin walls are light enough to be billowy in the wind, so I want to weight them down. If I use these plastic rings, I can run ties through them and pull them up by the ties, like draperies.
I also decided that I'm going to take 8-10" wide bands of heavier fabric, like canvas, and applique them to the outsides of the walls about 12-18" from the ground. I'll then put ties at the sides there, and use that to secure the walls in place-- if they're too long and drag on the ground, I'll hike them up a little at the canvas bands. That will then provide some weight, a good reinforced tying-off point, and some decorative interest (optionally), but won't make the bottom of the walls too thick or prone to getting wet.
This is probably boring, but it's really what I think about, lately.
I also made a muslin of a self-drafted pattern for a shrug jacket thing to wear with the tiger-stripe dress for the banquet. I have a length of silk velvet to make the final version from, but I have to dye it-- it's white now. Ideally I'll make two copies of this shrug-- one in blue, one in black, for the banquet and the wedding. But we'll see what I get to.
And then I started a muslin of a new pattern-- I'm tired of making cholis from the patterns I've found. I want something more substantial, and something a little more boob-shaped. So I combined a fitted bodice pattern I have, which squishes me something awful, then cut out the bra cup part and put in an insert from a bra pattern I made a while ago. The muslin didn't work out right-- the bra cup, I'd changed some curve very slightly and wound up with not-remotely-boob-shaped cups-- but I'm going to simplify it a bit and have another go. I have hopes for this thing. If nothing else I'll take a couple of old bras I have, cover them with fabric, and put them into the vest pattern-- et voila, supportive tops I can wear. I want more pseudo-Middle-Eastern swamp wear. Next up is to make semi-transparent chemise-like things to wear underneath, because why not? I'm totally over worrying about looking farby when everybody else is dressed like pirates or fantasy gypsies-- I'm going to rock the Swamp-Slut Aesthetic, only way hotter than most, this year. (I have had some Scotch, as I write this; that tends to make me arrogant.)
I also plan to wear booty shorts once the sun goes down-- glitter ones-- so fair's fair. Enough of trying to look 14th-Century French at 2 am in the Swamp when it's still 87 degrees and everyone else is wearing a chain mail bra.
Though another of today's accomplishments was finding an almost-completed linen-lined linen Supportive Kirtle, in 14th-Century French style. I almost finished it, brought it to Pennsic to put the final touches on, didn't sit down for more than 30 seconds all of War, and brought it home again. It needs sleeves and eyelets and a hem-- all, and I mean 100%, of the hard assembly and fitting work is done. I just need to finish the inside seams, too, which I don't at all mind doing by machine. It's a beautiful dress, pale blue linen with dark blue linen seam bindings around the front opening. I have to try it on, yet, and of course the eyelets will take like eighty years. But damn, it's almost done. Which increases my Topside-worthy outfits by like a third.
I had just better get both weeks off this year or I'll
