November 2024: More Little Things
November Goals:
Garb:
Re-do the facing for Juana’s camisa
Hopefully finish Juana’s camisa
Classes and Research:
Continue work on the survey for the Juana outfit.
Write the description of the class I want to teach at Winter University and submit the class.
In true fashion, I started off November doing none of my November goals. I ordered a new slate frame with stand early in the month, and I wanted to wait to start the embroidery of the new facing for Juana’s camisa until that arrived. Additionally, there was the matter of the original facing that needed to be addressed. That is what I decided to open my month with. This was a really simple project, just hemming a rectangle, but I love this pattern so much that I am thrilled to use it in more than one place. It also made for a great event day project at Highland Havoc. Someday soon as another quick project, I’ll add a heavier backing onto it to protect the embroidery and give it some weight.
I also did some (read: a significant amount of) non-SCA sewing work, which is a departure from the norm for me. While they’re not super impressive, my parents needed some banquet table covers (not cloths, covers to store banquet tables in) and a cover for a bar cart, so I knocked those out this month. Those were an exercise in basic geometry and several arguments with my sewing machine but it’s nice to have some everyday use of the skills I’ve picked up over the years. They took more time and brain power than necessary due to some weird piecing and fabric availability and a stark reminder that precisely manipulating 8+ yards of canvas at a time takes more strength than it seems.
My new frame!
The next major hurdle was tackling the size/shape of the Juana camisa. The placement on her neckline is an interesting challenge. I don’t exactly have broad shoulders, and settling the camisa neckline in such a way that the whole embroidery is still visible while also making sure that the two saya layers are actually sitting on my shoulders is a very delicate balance. Ultimately, I decided to give myself an easy way out. I happen to have a mundane shirt that sits where I would want that neckline to sit, including the curved corners. So what I ended up doing was putting that shirt on a pillow, putting some paper between the shirt and the pillow, and using that to trace the size/shape of the neckline edge. From there, a seam allowance could be extrapolated, the design copied in, and the paper actually pinned to fabric this time to trace because of its much reduced size. I traced the pattern in with Micron pens this time, which are much easier to hide under thread.
Getting the neckline all set up in the new frame, naturally with the 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries on in the background.
As a special bonus to the ease of creating this neckline, I ended up getting a table sitting embroidery frame. It’s a beautiful piece of engineering that is going to make the act of doing this embroidery much easier on my back in the long run. It’s a pretty substantial construction, but I’m really looking forward to the added ease this will have for a variety of projects.
I did finally settle on my Winter University class as well. I’ve been playing with the idea for a while about the relationships between food and political power structures in Spain and how those developed over time. There’s some very clear connections that play a fascinating role in demonstrating how political power, religious coexistence or homogeneity, and food culture all interact as time passes on the Iberian Peninsula. I don’t know who wants to hear me babble about food culture as a political construct, but some folks will get to at Winter Uni in a class I’m calling “The Foods That Build Spain.” This isn’t a definitive list- it’s my list- but it’ll cover pre-Roman cultures through Spanish colonialism, and each food item will also have a recipe associated with it. I got some new, fun literature for the class that I’m diving into as reading material this month that I’m very excited for. All in all, despite it being dense, this class should be a fascinating one that I hope will be valuable to those who attend. It’s intended as part of a Spanish track at the upcoming University.
Because of how I want to structure this class, I need to work on a few different recipes, especially some from areas/times I am not familiar with. I want to do:
A compare/contrast over time for hippocras/clarea/spiced wines for the pre-Roman/Phoenician section
Panis quadratus for the Roman section
Something with oranges or orange juice for the Moorish section. I have a handful of Nola recipes that could be fun for this but I would rather look at some more accurate sources instead of extrapolating to Nola recipes.
A new Nola dish focusing on showcasing “pork” (I’ll write a pork version and a non-pork version) for the Reconquista section
Revisiting the hot chocolate recipe for the colonialism section
December Goals:
Garb:
Definitely finish Juana’s camisa
Classes and Research:
Continue work on the survey for the Juana outfit.
Work on the recipes for the Food That Built Spain class
Read Delicioso: A History of Food In Spain
