STOP THE PRESSES!!!!

My sewing room is (mostly) organized!!


The voodoo goddess of the sewing room. (She often demands a blood sacrifice before the completion of any project. Otherwise, threads break, needles bend, and seams fly askew.)


The doors actually *close*!! This is the first time since I started moving my sewing things in! And some of the booty inside....Teh stash....it grows! (I'm not showing the other half of the closet. It's not nearly as neat as this side. One day, I'll get another set of shelves and set them up on the other side. (The shelves are about 2/3 wider than what can be seen in this pic.)


Moving clockwise through the room...the sweatshop table with multiple machines, the steamer and ironing board acutally put away! (The tunic is hanging from the steamser)


Continuing in a clockwise motion around the room....the main source of light in the room. (Thank you, sis!!) Then some tubs that will eventually be put away in the closet-O-doom. Then we have the corner desk for drawing, computering, and serging. Next to that is my reference books (oh how I love them), and Bertha, the DD, is hiding in her naked shame behind the door.

One day, I want to move the table to the wall with the tubs, put a loveseat or couple of cozy chairs in the bay window for handsewing. I am going to try to corral my crafting to this room only, and give up the coveted corner of the couch that has been overrun with pins and needles and large baskets of sewing gear. Central to this plan are the seating, and the installation of a television on top of the corner desk to listen to movies while sewing. If I can keep the room at a decent state of organization, I'll move my office in here as well. I really need somewhere I can close the door, especially for conference calls.

Oh Miss Hooooooooolly......look what I foooooooound!!!

**EDIT: Original link here:
http://mdzx.bib-bvb.de/codicon/Blatt_bsb00012873,00009.html?prozent=1

And another zibie:


So, my two main questions are these:

1. This book was illustrated by Erasmus Hornick, a Flemish printmaker/goldsmith, who lived in Germany..... IS HE ILLUSTRATING A STYLE OF ITALY, OR HAS THE ZIB PHENOMENON LEAKED OUT INTO THE REST OF EUROPE?

2. The book that contains these pictures is called "Ornamental Silverware Designs"......ARE THE ZIBS SUPPOSED TO BE IN SILVER?? (I've only ever seen them in gold)

Lame-y lame-head, and lack of posting....(and massive tunic update)

I got distracted.....again. Sheesh! I swear, I will finish a project! This time around, I was distracted by the thought of handsewing an entire outfit for mah honee. I started out with the tunic......I have one gusset and an underarm to sew up, hem, and I'm done. I've been totally lame and have not posted any pictures!

I made a slap-dash tunic for 12th night, and there were some fitting issues. I used the basic layout below: (rock on, Paint!)

This is pretty much a basic standard pieced tunics that everyone in the SCA knows.

The problem I ran into is the bit between the underarm gusset and the top of the gore....mah honee is a beefy man, and to make the large central rectangular piece big enough to go around the middle would make the shoulder seams go way too far down his arm. I was totally stuck, and it took me a little time looking at tunics and tunic patterns and thinker-ating to figure out how to get this to fit the way I wanted it to. This picture is the one I took for my patterning inspiration....(click pic to go to link)


The biggest inspiration is the side gore that goes all the way up under the arm....voila! I think the triagular sleeve gusset is supposed to go on the back of the arm....but with my construction method, I decided it would be better to have it under the arm, meeting up with the top of the side gore. Make sense? Nah? How 'bout a Paint picture?


(Left, a pretty Paint rendering of the pattern, Right, my scribbles and notes I used for cutting.)

Ok, so that doesn't make a whole lot of sense either. Basically the short side of the arm gusset attaches to the top of the side gore, making it a big long 'ole triangle with a funky-shaped top. The seam where the two meet makes up the underarm portion of the tunic. The sleeve cap sections are about 2/3 the size of the overall sleeve size, and with the gores inserted, it makes a nice fan-shape. Like-a so:

(Paint is a beeotch with perspective. The triangular gore is inserted, the sleeve seams are straight.)

And this is how it all went together....

(Left, seams and pieces marked out. Right, tunic viewing underarm gusset and side gore. Whoa! I need to steam this bad boy!)

I am not a hand-sew-ey person, but I remember at some point in the past, reading an article about the stab-stitch lines on either side of the seam. I've seen people machine sew the seam, and then either hand sew or machine sew on either side of the seam, catching the seam allowance. (I admit, I've done this, and for no other reason than I've seen other people do it.) According to the article, which I cannot place for the life of me, this is backwards to what it *should* be. The seam allowances are tacked down (or folded over and hidden, then the two finished pieces are whipped together. I really REALLY like this method! It's pretty dang fast, and super-duper strong. It seems like repairs would be a snap, too.

Hm, maybe one more Paint picture, and I'll stop blabbering! ;)


This is how I read and understood the mystery article. I may be completely wrong, but at any rate, this is how I sewed the tunic.

I'll post pictures of mah honee wearing it after I finish, and get all the wrinkles steamed out! (That steamer has been very handy!)

I've been thinking PieCrust thoughts...

"Pie Crust" hats, that is. Like-a-so:

(This particular pic is cut off at the top, but you get the idea?)

Anyway, so I'm thinking I want to make one. (After all the other stuffola, that is...or, when I need an easily-finished project) Here's the plan....

I'm thinking that I'll make it out of two pieces -- a doughnut that is 1/2" smaller in the center than my head measurement, and as wide as how tall I want the finished hat to be, plus 1/2".


Ok, so here is the progression -- the inside of the doughnut gets sewn to the bottom edge of the inside hat structure. Then, marked 1/8ths around the top edge of the hat structure, and around the outside of the doughnut shape, and tack those marks together.

I have no idea if this will acually work or not, I'll let you know when I do!

Wish me luck!