Sabbatical, Day Two
Am sitting here enjoying Day Two of my joblessness. It's either not sunk in yet, or this is as sunk in as it's going to get and I was very mentally prepared for this. We'll see. In the mean time, I finished a couple of things for the 14th Century costume today...
I finally completed all of the embroidery on the hem of the veil. I'm aiming for the wife of a somewhat wealthy merchant prior to the crackdown with the sumptuary laws. I'm thinking along the lines of "this is my nice outfit that I wear when we're hosting our peers for dinner - but I have something nicer for hosting Peers." The costume would be something somewhat comfortable as the lady doesn't live a complete life of leisure, but there'd be a few nice details that were probably gifts from her husband following a particularly lucrative deal, hence the fur lining to the surcoat and the particular attention to detailing on the veil.
Veil is made with undyed 8mm habotai silk from Dharma (leftover from the kimono linings) and embroidered with Guttermann silk thread in white herringbone stitch with gold cross tack stitches. The veil is a rectangle folded in half and pressed for a crisp fold that hangs around the face. It attaches to the head with glass headed pins which anchor the veil to a strip of silk wrapped around the forehead and another which wraps under the chin. The chin strap is all that you'll see once the veil is assembled. Skipping the wimple as I'd rather show off a decorative collar to the surcoat. I do think I'll try to come up with some sort of circlet to wear over it to dress it up a bit and help hide the pins.
And then to transport the pins for anchoring the veil I pulled together a small needle book made out of undyed wool felt and a bit of wasabi dyed (stained?) raw silk and held together with tourquise silk thread and a wooden button. I put in enough pins for two veils plus a few spares and also included a needle and a bit of extra thread in case the costume needs a repair.
I finally completed all of the embroidery on the hem of the veil. I'm aiming for the wife of a somewhat wealthy merchant prior to the crackdown with the sumptuary laws. I'm thinking along the lines of "this is my nice outfit that I wear when we're hosting our peers for dinner - but I have something nicer for hosting Peers." The costume would be something somewhat comfortable as the lady doesn't live a complete life of leisure, but there'd be a few nice details that were probably gifts from her husband following a particularly lucrative deal, hence the fur lining to the surcoat and the particular attention to detailing on the veil.
Veil is made with undyed 8mm habotai silk from Dharma (leftover from the kimono linings) and embroidered with Guttermann silk thread in white herringbone stitch with gold cross tack stitches. The veil is a rectangle folded in half and pressed for a crisp fold that hangs around the face. It attaches to the head with glass headed pins which anchor the veil to a strip of silk wrapped around the forehead and another which wraps under the chin. The chin strap is all that you'll see once the veil is assembled. Skipping the wimple as I'd rather show off a decorative collar to the surcoat. I do think I'll try to come up with some sort of circlet to wear over it to dress it up a bit and help hide the pins.
And then to transport the pins for anchoring the veil I pulled together a small needle book made out of undyed wool felt and a bit of wasabi dyed (stained?) raw silk and held together with tourquise silk thread and a wooden button. I put in enough pins for two veils plus a few spares and also included a needle and a bit of extra thread in case the costume needs a repair.