June 2024: Back In The Saddle
June Goals
Research:
The Measure of Woman: This one is definitely a departure from my norm. It’s major topic is the experience of women in the legal system of the Crown of Aragon. I had brought this on my trip but decided not to start it because I wanted to take notes as I go through it so it’ll be June’s reading.
Classes:
Completing the Jewish food trends data project for updating the Nola class.
Re-record my Persona Pentathlon class
Record and post my persona development class (Summer University)
Garb:
Finish (?, this is probably a stretch goal) the Ocean Saya.
As soon as the 14th Century saya was done, I was in a really good sewing groove and started on the Ocean Saya. The bodice was almost entirely constructed in time to come to Summer University with me on the 8th, and spend the day doing trim work while taking classes. I’m so far really loving how this particular garment is coming along, and cannot wait to wear it around.
While procrastinating on my University slides review, I did also complete the ingredient comparisons for the Nola class. I found some interesting trends there in what was present and what wasn’t especially when compared to the ingredients that Jews, Food and Spain calls very strong markers of Jewish food ways vs. the ones that are merely correlations. I started to add these findings to my Nola class handout and am in the process decided to expand the handout to more closely mirror the flow of the class as it stands. I may need to re-record it at some point to include this new information. I’ll be teaching this class next at Pennsic in person and I’m very much looking forward to it.
I got very lucky at University and my persona development class went smoothly from a tech and audio perspective. I got a clean recording of the class on the first go! That is now up and posted on both my YouTube and in my classes section. I did not get around to getting my Persona Pentathlon class re-recorded this month, but have coordinated to make sure that happens the first week of July.
Most of the rest of the month was spent on my next saya for my summer wardrobe. I was able to get that done (minus the sleeves) by the end of the month, incorporating some of the beautiful trim I got on our honeymoon. This was an interesting project for me. It’s a lot more Italian influenced than I usually do. This isn’t uncommon in Spain (or to see Spanish influence in Italy as well for that matter) but it’s not something I’ve really explored in depth before. I made some adjustments to my usual patterns and in some ways it was successful and in others, less so. I’m still super happy with the final product and am happy to have it in my SCA wardrobe. I did decide to keep it sleeveless for heat mitigation purposes at Pennsic. After Pennsic, I’ll add the sleeves I intended to. I think with this dress, I’m really looking forward to having a readily wearable piece in my wardrobe that’s my favorite colors. I love the striped green saya I have but it’s really not something that can be worn regularly or at all outside. I still have not yet taken good pictures of the final product on Lady Catherine, but it’s done and the blog post is mostly done and will get done shortly!
I did distract myself a little bit with a small project to improve my period sewing kit. I got a cute little bentwood box and some tiny wood pots and turned those into a pin cushion and a more portable version of my sewing kit. I’m super happy with how those have turned out. I think they’ll look much nicer at events and less obtrusively modern overall.
Pennsic prep is obviously very much in the forefront of minds right now and I suppose I’m no exception. I’ve been reorganizing my home-storage system for SCA stuff to be more packing friendly overall, as well as a little more capsule focused. I’ve got it boxified pretty well now so I have bins for bedding/ambiance like table cloths, body linens, and everything else. I want to break it down further into a Summer Wardrobe and Winter Wardrobe box system eventually to make it even easier but for now, I’m pretty pleased with where things are at.
Because of the volume and time crunch on my Pennsic projects for July, I think I’ll be breaking my usual personal rule about hand sewing and do as much of these as possible on the sewing machine. Thankfully, the tranzados and cofias are very quick projects and can be knocked out rapidly in a day or so and I have some plane flights ahead of me for them. I spent the last couple days of June doing repairs to my existing stash of body linens and making major progress on two camisas towards my July goals. I’m probably going to run out of white linen before I run out of projects but I’ll get as far as I can.
July Goals
July is going to be all about Pennsic prep. I’m in fairly good shape over all, except on body linens.
Garb:
Finish all garb projects for Pennsic. I’ll need to make:
2-3 camisas
1-2 calzas
1-2 clip-on tranzados
1-2 cofias.
Classes:
Create additional class materials and figure out handouts for Pennsic class
Re-record my Persona Pentathlon class.
