Corsets and Costumes

I'm on a bit of a costume kick and this year I'm feeling a little 18th century obsessed! I've gone to a couple rennesance fairs and of course made my own costumes and I must say I was very happy with them. My first costuming adventure began after falling in love with the Lord of the Rings, I began drafting my own patterns and hand sewing my elven dresses which all things considered I think came out very well. But when I made my first corset/stays for the renn fair, that was a game changer. I love the weight and the layers and the shapes created by the clothing of yesteryear, if I could wear them all the time I probably would.

Well anyways, a few years ago ... Okay about 5, I bought an actual stays pattern packet rather then drafting my own. I found that half done corset in a bag last month and decided to finish it, it was only then that I realized it was an 18th century design ( not rennesance). But I liked it, and I was determined to finish so I started researching 18th century clothing and oh is it lovely! I am so excited to finish the stays and beggin the rest of the costume!

I've almost decided to go ahead and wear it to the renn fair anyways, I mean really half the costumes there aren't historically accurate and lots of people don't even wear costumes! I think only a handful of people will notice and probably most of them wouldn't even bother saying anything.

So here is some inspiration from my Pinterest board on costumes! And yes, I do plan to make my husband wear a kilt. I'll be sure to post costume updates along the way and I'll tell you why I love corsets so much.

A Trellis for my Squash

So the spaghetti squash seeds I planted out (from the inside of an actual squash) have turned out to be viable seeds after all, with the first little baby squash appearing on the vine last week. That meant it was time to do something, a couple somethings actually! First I planted out some petunias to deter the squash bugs. Companion planting has been around for quite a while and it's a well proven fact that plants have friends, as you can probably see we also plant marigolds around the tomatoes. HereHere is a list of veggies that grow good together and here are some flowers that deter pests.Well after all that, it was on to making a trellis. Now of course you could go the traditional rout and just let them grow on the ground, but they can climb and do very well that way with a bit of help, also it looks more fun and leaves more room for other things. So I started planning and yesterday I finally got it done! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, I even got to use the tool set my dad bought me for my birthday!

Here is that first little squash I told you about, that little thing has caused a hole lot of excitement!

Not to mention all the mustard greens that have gone to seed

And the peas that have been left on the vine to dry out

And this, this is our Cherokee purple tomatoe! We got one last year and they are amazing.

And a surprise gourd, I thought the seeds were too old and wouldn't grow, so I threw them out and a month later tada!

A Gardeners Rant

I'm sure you've seen as many of these cute garden markers as I have, anything from old silver spoons to popsicle sticks. I love them because they're cute, and who doesn't love cute things. But they also kind of irritate me, I feel like the only reason you would need them is if you had so many plants you couldn't remember where you put what. On the other hand if you have that many plants and that much space you should be an experienced enough gardener to tell your plants apart. Thus the only good reason left for a gardener to use them is if you plan on sending a stranger (husband, child, or friend) into your garden to get something for you. Would you use Garden markers?

First Unravel

On my most recent visit to a local thrift store it was a particularly hot day and they had a large box of sweaters sitting outside marked at 25cents each. I grabbed a few nice wool ones for an experiment in unraveling. If you read my previous post, Drop Spindle Experiments, you'll know that I was playing around with the idea of recycling and repurposing old woolen items. So this is my first project and though not completely finished yet I couldn't wait to share.

I started out with this grey vest.

It's a nice soft gray, speckled in reds, blues and yellows.

Extra large and 100% Shetland Wool.

I started by opening up the seems

The ribbed neckline and armholes were separate so they were the first to be unraveled and rewound. Each of these three center pull balls is about 56 yards of fingering weight. When I've finished unraveling the entire vest I may ply it together on my drop spindle for a more easily used yarn or I might leave it at this weight for something warm and thin, perhaps mittens or socks.

Quilt Update 2

         

So I realized today that it's the third of May and I'd missed my first of the month quilt update. Obviously the update was not the only thing I forgot in the quilt department this month, as you can see I only managed to make 2 new blocks. Between the business of everyday life, a couple of big weekend trips, a cat napping baby and several other projects... I have plenty of excuses.

Drop Spindle Experiments

kurdistan woman

I recently learned about drop spindle spinning and I am so excited about it! I was at an old wood resale place a few weeks back and I noticed a spinning wheel and I realized that I don't actually know much about spinning and I decided that I probably should! Up till this point I had never heard of nor seen anything about drop spindle spinning though apparently  it is one of the oldest and most commonly used methods for turning wool into usable yarn. As I did my research and learned more about this art, I realized that I had to try it! But how could I "get my feet wet" without paying to much for the water. It's one thing to spend a lot of money on something you know you're good at and you know you love, it's another to spend it on a whim that you might end up hating. Besides all that, it's really just not my style! So I began thinking about what yarn is traditionally made from. Sheep's wool is a given, but I have no sheep, angora rabbits, alpacas ... but what else has soft fluffy warm fur? Cats, dogs... I used to have a cat similar to a Norwegian Forest Cat she had the most lovely long soft gray fur. Dogs such as collies, retrievers, hurding dogs and huskies also tend to have a lot of long fluffy fur! 

twining on a drop sindle

This however interesting still wasn't helping my cause much as I don't currently have any pets, fluffy or otherwise. So my thought process continued on to natural fiber, cotton and flax. Well near my house grows a lot of milkweed, and to be honest I know a lot of people with fluffy dogs. But it would probably be a long time before I ever get around to any of that. Drop spindles however, are also very good for twining. So I decided to make my own very ruff Turkish Spindle to give it a try and it was amazingly satisfying and relaxing, which in turn turned my thoughts to recycling and reusing. Why not take old, used, ugly, stained or holey sweaters, scarves and other knitwear from say your local thrift store. Simple wash, unravel, dye and re-twine to make new yarn that you can knit or crochet with! Here are my two cheaply made Turkish  spindles, one is made from sticks and string the other from tongue depressors and a chopstick!

Basket Case

I'm a bit of a basket case, I love baskets! Baskets of all shapes, styles and purposes. I guess one of things I like most about basketry is the textile nature of it. Woven, knitted, knotted, crocheted and sewn things have always been a favorite of mine and baskets are like a more solid version of that!

Before the interesting adventure of "pregnancy carpal tunnel" started last summer, I was having great fun with making my own little baskets! It started out with a terrible little thing made from dry and brittle day lilly sticks, but I soon had a brilliant idea. As with everywhere around here we have and almost limitless supply of this fast growing vine known as virginia creeper.  It's not  at all like poison ivy and though you wouldn't want to eat the berries, simple using the vines isn't going to give you any problems.





I was able to make two nice specimens before my fingers started giving me problems and I'm so pleased with them! I love gathering cherry tomatoes with the small one and the bigger is just lovely.So without further adue I shall share with you how easy it is to do!


First it's a good idea to make sure what you have is virginia creeper and not some other nasty fiend! Virginia creeper looks like the above picture, it's sets of 5 leaves make it very easy to identify.

Your next step would be to gather as many as you can or at least as many as you think you'll use.

After that's finished strip off all the leaves(I threw them in my compost pile).

Next choose the strongest straitest pieces of vine for your base, make sure these ones are thick but not dry or brittle. You have to have at least two but I'd suggest a minimum of four, this was going to big a bigger basket so I used 8. As you may be able to see, I took the four thicker ones and cut a slit in the middle about an inch long to pull the other four through before I began binding them together and weaving, you don't have to do this, but I think it makes it easier and stronger.

Beggin your weaving, there are a million posts and videos online about basket making so I won't go into to much detail.

Continue weaving till you get the size you want for the base, bend your base spokes up and add more if necessary. Weave upwords till you have the desired hight, make handles and bind off (sorry I don't have any pictures of these steps).

And there's the finished product! I love my basket.

Quilt update 1

So it's been a month and I've only gotten 3 more done ... Wich is less then one a week. A little sad, a little less then I had hoped for, but still better then nothing. I think I have decided to make the backs of them solid white and black, though I have yet to decide on a filler I was thinking of using old dryer lint in an attempt to make this a very recycle friendly kind of project but my mother pointed out that I would either have to wash it very cairfully or do something extra to the lint so it doesn't bunch up when washing ... Or I could use regular batting .... Or perhaps a few layers of old sheet!

Paper Piecing a Quilt

I like quilts, I like making quilts and I like hand sewing and for a good long while I've been wanting to hand sew a quilt. A few weeks back I was looking for some quilting inspiration on Pinterest when I cam across a method called english paper piecing.

The idea is you cut the geometric shapes of your patern out of paper, then slightly larger pieces of cloth. Using pins, fold and secure the edges of your cloth around the paper giving you a perfect shape. Then simply press the pieces and stich them together. There's a great little tutorial over here at  Buttons and Butterflies.

So the other day I started my own, and I'm going to post my progress on the first of every month. You see, ever since I was a little girl I've had this terrible habit of not finnishing projects. But I'm going to break myself of that and you all and my quilt are going to help me do it. Even if it takes a year or more.

Now, without further a due I present my humble beginnings! 1 down 100 ... Or so-ish to go.