October 2024: Little by Little
October Goals:
Garb:
Finish the camisa for Juana’s outfit, including attaching the facing.
Write preliminary documentation on the camisa and the Juana project.
Work on the sleeves for the Ocean Saya
Classes and Research:
Continue work on the survey for the Juana outfit.
October was a weird month. I expected that with the High Holidays and staying home from SCA events that I would have a lot more spoons for working on project stuff instead of event stuff, and that I would get a lot done. I forgot, as I am wont to do, that events and having places to be is actually a big motivator for me to get stuff done. All this to say, I accomplished a lot less than I had hoped for in October.
The camisa is assembled, but the facing has not been attached, nor have most seams been finished or hems done. Which honestly, is a good thing, because in preparing for Tempore Atlantia at Crown Tourney on November 2nd, I came to the conclusion that the facing I’d made is way too big. It’s going to have to be entirely redone. I don’t really mind though, because it’s still pretty and I can turn it into a really nice piece of table setting as is. I’m planning on adding a backing to it and hemming those down together so I can use it for a display piece.
My display at Tempore Atlantia
It did, however, pose the major problem of figuring out the neckline. The Juana outfit in general is interesting/more complicated in that it is very low cut. Based on proportions, we’re talking, barely supporting/covering the things it needs to support. I overcompensated for this low cut when making my original facing, and in turn, also overcompensated on the width. In revisiting, I’m going to size down the facing by a couple motifs each direction, which should help with that. It may also make it a reasonable enough size to trace with pens instead of stamping, which would be really nice for the invisibility of the design. I did finally splurge on a new slate frame with a table stand to make this process a lot easier for this camisa and other future embroidery projects that I have my eye on (looking at you, Sisyphus’s camisa a.k.a. the Salome camisa that got me into Spanish in the first place).
Tempore Atlantia is always a fabulous time and I got to spend a lot of time judging A&S, something I don’t regularly do. It was great to get time to really sit and read documentation and look at some truly amazing works. I always learn something when I get to do this, and I’m glad that’s how I got to spend my day. It was a great excuse to start doing documentation on this particular project, and the link to that can be found here. I’ve got a long way to go, but I’m glad I’m getting that going even before it’s anywhere near finished. It did also give me a chance to put together a photo album of my progress pictures for this piece.
The only other thing I’ve really been working on and thinking on is what do I want to teach for Winter University. I have a pretty reasonable idea- the foods that built Spain class. But it needs fleshing out and it needs a description and a lesson plan before I’m quite comfortable saying “this is what I’m submitting.” I’m going to try to accomplish that next month and get it ready to be sent off next month.
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. This may just be the survey that doesn’t end until the projects are done at this point. I’m currently at 53 individual garments across 14 sources and that’s growing steadily.
Write the description of the class I want to teach at Winter University and submit the class.
