Busy bee
So where have I been lately? Sewing! Well, mostly. First there were the allergies, which are still ongoing, but… I was asked to sew a sideless surcoat as a gift for the Queen before Gulf Wars. (Translation for non-SCA folks: for a lady in this medieval reenactment group I’m in.) Only I had no pattern. Or fabric. And had less than two weeks. At least I did have her measurements…
I got a pattern from a friend and ideas on what decorating bits to do. Normally I sew mostly in linen, but a sideless surcoat needs to be out of something stiffer so it won’t scrunch up weird in the front (due to not having any sides, see). Because of that and the time crunch, I went with a nice cotton twill. The only problem was that the local Wal-mart was out of the burgundy… I wound up driving 60 miles to the next city over to buy some. The yellow bits (and white bits) are linen, the yellow dyed that way from the white. It didn’t come out as deep a shade of yellow as I wanted, but it’ll do. All the bits (stars and suns and lion-dragons) are simply ironed on with Heat’n'Bond Ultra Hold. I sure hope it holds like it says it will…
While there are things I don’t like about it, they’re practically all things that I had to do because of the time issue. But since it went together so well and easily, now I’m back to thinking about making myself some new dresses, particularly since my “newest” dress is around five years old now!