Artemisia's Disney Challenge!

Some of the participants at Midwinter Knight's Dream (photo by Jennie Fauss)

Lots and lots and lots of pictures. And none of them mine, so things might actually be visible. :)

I am just so overwhelmed by the creativity and beauty of the outfits made as a response to the Disney Challenge I issued to the Kingdom of Artemisia back last May. Just think of this as gramma with a big book of pictures running you down, intending to brag about every one of them.

Patchwork Sally (photo by Carol Jensen)

First up we have Tabitha de Luna with her Norse inspired by Sally from The Nightmare before Christmas. The tiny details are some of the most fun. Her horn spoon, skeleton beads, and wormswort jar were adorable.  You can read more about the entire design process and see more pictures on her blog.

Finishing details (photo by Carol Jensen))

Tabitha debuted her creation at Toys for Tots in Arrow's Flight and fit right in with our Fairytale theme. I am especially grateful that she wore her outfit for Toys, because I was afraid the Challenge wasn't going to happen. I was so caught up in getting the feast ready, that I hadn't promoted the Disney Challenge in the weeks leading up to Toys. so seeing her outfit was really encouraging.

Their Majesties Raven and Sajah also dressed for the occasion coming as Robin and Maid Marion from Robin Hood.They joked about finding the outfit in their closets. I was so thrilled that they chose to support the challenge.

Ooodle-lally, oodle-lally, golly what a day  (photo by Tabitha Mounteer)

Vigdis of the Keep also made an incredible Norse with astounding details. She wasn't able to attend an event with her ensemble, but her write-up of the process is an inspiration. I adore her take on the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. 

The Queen of Hearts (Photo by Vickie Lynn)

There's embroidery and tablet woven trim, hand dyed fabric, hand made beads and a pendant to bring everything together. Again, the attention to detail just floors me. Not to mention the creativity of translating the Queen to an early period.

Norse Wonderland (photo by Vickie Lynn)

Vigdis also made a monetary donation to the challenge and helped pay for some of the tokens given to the participants. They received carved stone hearts because "The Dream is a wish your heart makes."



There were a couple of other people with lovely ensembles who were not able to make either event where the Challenge ensembles were displayed. Hallerna Stjarnkona made a sweet Merida dress for her niece and posted pictures in the Challenge's Facebook group.

For a feisty girl. (Photo by Laura Lind)

Michelle of Harris-upon York made a Tudor gown based on Cruella DeVille's character concept. The acres of fur needed for the giant flip sleeves were just the place for 101 Dalmation puppy spots.

"Get me those PUPPIES!" (photo by Michelle Harris)

 I was most excited to see the small children who got into the act. My oldest daughter got tired of waiting for me to settle in and make her the Tinkerbell outfit I'd promised and got to work on her own outfit to wear to Toys for Tots. She cut some patches from scraps she found in my sewing room and convinced her grandfather to help her sew them into place. "I'm Cinderella before the ball." I was informed rather pointedly that I needed to get right on that bell gown, as it was still expected.

Here's my girl grabbing a broom, about to sweep the floor as part of the fairy tale obstacle course at the event.

Cinder-EL-LA!!! (photo by Tabitha Mounteer)

At Midwinter Knight's Dream, we had several children dressed up. A brother and sister arrived at their very first SCA event dressed as one of the triplets from Brave and Esmeralda from Hunchback of Notre Dame

Jingle, jingle, jingle (photo by Jennie Fauss)

"Tell that to my frying pa--" (photo by Jennie Fauss)

 Esmeralda was kind enough to give us a dance when I asked. Another brother and sister coordinated their outfits, coming as Rapunzel and Flynn from Tangled.  While her mom (Mistress Antonia) had made her outfit, I think Mychal was more excited about the opportunity to carry a frying pan than anything else. She certainly has the hair to be a perfect Rapunzel. Dame Varia Goff, pointed out that despite years in the SCA, making the outfit for Asher's Flynn was her very first try at a doublet. She has this crazy idea that garb should be comfortable. She showed off some of that comfortable garb with her Norse rendition of Han Solo in wool. Technically Disney owns Star Wars these days, so it counts. 

Han shot first! (Photo by Jennie Fauss)

Draaa-GON (photo by Jennie Fauss)

Another thing I was pleasantly surprised by was the number of people who started their introductions with "This was my first garb" or "I don't sew, but. . ." The great thing about the challenge was that it let people add accessories to create their character or just think about how they combined things already in their closet. It was wonderful to see people choosing to participate. We had a Mulan, who didn't sew, but had made a gorgeous mask and added some hairsticks to an outfit she already had in order to make an amazing ensemble.  Dumbo arrived as well, with a great mask, reminiscent of the Norse felt masks of sheep found at Haithabu.

"I can fly." (photo by Jennie Fauss)

The most outstanding "I don't sew" statement, however came from Kathleen of Otterdale. In addition to doing an incredible job as event steward (so she really had no free time at all,) she decided to come as the Sorcerer's Apprentice in her very first try at Burgundian. The pointy hennin and dress was fun, but her necklace was a stop you in your tracks stunner. She carved and cast a collar of buckets and brooms in pewter.

Yen Sid's Apprentice (photo by Jennie Fauss)

"You may think you're so powerful, well this is MY dream."

I think there were more than a few of us who wanted to quietly pickpocket it. Or just snatch it off her neck and run laughing maniacally into the night with our prize.

Or maybe that was just me. . .








One of the newest movies were represented, with an Elsa from Frozen turning up in wintery white.  Nessa Inghean Uilliam did an intricately appliqued and embroidered Norse Merida with horses running around the hem and across the top. The work was lovely and the colors were breathtaking

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Captain Hook put in an appearance as well. Bearing his trusty hook (made from the bread mixer of a Kitchen Aid,) the captain brought along some crew, with Smee press ganged into an appearance. Hook was very clear to point out to us that he was wearing late period Dutch with some nifty knots around his collar, and not in fact 17th century as so often happens with those fancy privateers.

Queen Grimhilde, the wicked queen in Snow White, was the earliest movie represented. It is hard to beat the very first Disney villain. Morgan du Marc was regal in purple and gold.

Merin McTigert showed us all what stealth is like, keeping us all guessing as to who she was portraying until she revealed all with a smile. Her Cheshire Cat was well executed both in attitude and in artistry.  The butterfly hennin ears were a great thinking out of the box touch.

I guess that just leaves me, the ringleader of the crazy. The Magnificent, Marvelous, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad. Madam Mim.  We had people introduce themselves with their reasons for choosing their inspiration. I chose mine because it was all about things that I am afraid of. I don't wear pastels, I don't wear white, and I fully believe pink is evil. I'm also terrified of very fitted and tailored garments and how they will make me look like I'm squeezed in to a sausage casing. However, wearing bright springy colors to be a cartoon villain who "finds delight in the gruesome and grim," seemed just up my alley. After all, she's an ugly hag so no matter how much of a mess I made, it'd work for the character. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I love the lilac loose gown and the bubblegum pink petticoat was more fun than I thought. I also may have become addicted to late period waistcoats.

Anyway, there is is; beautiful work by some people who superlatives aren't enough for. Thank you all for making my dream a reality and coming out to play with me.

I think I have a crush on Pellegrino

Plate from Pellegrino

As usual, I'm neck deep in modelbooks. I've been looking at various interlace designs for use on the Ursula dress, since the original pattern has some heraldic significance. The d'Este's got a fad going (as they were wont to do) and so there are quite a few examples of period versions to choose from. Right now I'm chewing at Francesco Pellegrino's La Fleur de la Science de Pourtraicture Et Patrons De Broiderie. Facon aribicque et ytalique.  (Full scan of Harvard's copy is available at that link, so you too can drool. Or maybe that's just me. . .) Kathleen Epstein mentions this as the first collected pattern book of this type of embroidery design for couched cord work in her introduction to German Renaissance Patterns for Embroidery, a facsimile of Nicolas Bassee's 1568 modelbook. Earlier strapwork and couched patterns certainly existed, and Durer had some published as individual sheets around 1506, but Pellegrino's 1530 book published in Paris seems to be the first collection.

Probably because I'm really not a counted blackwork fan (yes, I understand that it is heresy to say that) I adore the swooping curves and floral ornaments of these designs. More that that, however, I love the thought of how fast they work up with surface couching. Not to mention how much fun they would be to paint, since Arabic calligraphy is where the designs came from to begin with. They'd be lovely done in applique as well. The type is very similar to the pattern I used for the leather applique on my turquoise squirrel lined muff. Imagining similar borders worked up with cording and some wool or leather applique is rather exciting.

And then there's the girdle. I squeeed rather heavily when someone on the fabulous Facebook Elizabethan Costuming group posted links to a Flikr page from the V&A's blog containing gorgeous closeups of the textile girdle in the V&A's collection. You absolutely must go look at them.  The girdle is T.370-1989 at the Victoria and Albert Museum, dated between 1530 and 1580 and listed as either Italian or French. I've considered making it before, but the closeups of the knots and green silk convinced me it has to happen soon. Aurora from The Earth is Flat also reminded me of this 1530 portrait by Pierfrancesco di Jacopo Forschi with a similar girdle tied from cord.

Via

It is a 1530's gown with a similar style to my Ursula dress, so it has the amazingly unusual advantage of being a project I can do that is actually in line with my current project instead of a random tangent. See, it was meant to be!

50 seems like a nice round number

I still have loads to do on the mermaid bands for the camicia neck and cuffs, but they are coming along.  I have about fifty hours in to them at this point. I still have about a gryphon and a half to go with the backstich in the purple silk. Then there are four mermaids to do in the green silk. Then I've got to do some satin stitch and couching in gold. I have absolutely no idea how much more time it is going to take. I played with the gold on one cuff just a little in order to decide on whether to plan for gold, but I am nowhere near finished with what I want to put in. I'll probably put some gold on the centers of the mermaid tails and maybe some in their hair. The design looks a bit bare and I think it needs some bands on the edge, but there's not enough space on the linen strips, so those will need to be worked once they are attached.  It probably needs some lace as well.

I think this is needlelace with gold woven through

screen shot of the zoom of  16th century Italian camicia at the Met 

I am still without camera, but the embroidery is starting to come along.  I've got about 30 hours into it so far and the base work is done on the cuffs.  I've got loads of gold couching to do still, however.  Not to mention the neckband. Since I was feeling accomplished, I decided to go stare at one of the inspirations for my camicia, an extant shirt in the Met.  My first thought was that it was bobbin lace, especially because of all the color in the head or foot or whatever it is called.  Zooming in (after the pity party where I kicked stuff because I don't do bobbin lace) makes me think that it is actually needlelace, however.  I'm certainly seeing
what look like buttonhole stitches. The gold seems to be woven in.  It might in fact be something I can do. And now I'm wondering if I have a chance at finishing the dress sometime this year since I keep complicating the underwear.

Sirena Bicaudata

Mermaid from Egenulf, 1527

I decided to go the easy route and use the mermaid and gryphon band pattern I found first in the Ostaus modelbook for the bands for neck and cuffs. I did a quick sample at about 3 inches wide and it will be rather beautiful I think. The unusual style of the camicia makes it a rather long band however, and I don't want to use it for the spot motifs after doing all of that. Something simpler is in order. So, I've continued to look for design inspiration.

I hit the jackpot with search terms earlier. Sirena Bicaudata brings up some wonderful flickr pools of historical mermaids. There's a gorgeous series of them from a 12th century Swiss church that I'm in love with. Not to mention a 1513 siren by Durer that is totally fabulous (keep scrolling in the first link.) This group of images, many of them architectural, is also tons of fun to go delving into.

I also found a siren pattern in one of my favorite modelbuchs, Christian Egenulf's 1527 Modelbuch aller art Nehewercks un Strickens. I love the goofy book because it is so very hand drawn. It doesn't have the slicker more etchy look of so many of the other books. Nor anything as formal as grid lines.  It is inspiring me to simplify the mermaids for the motifs and to just go for it. The date is also helpful for my early documentation.

And just to throw in one more design inspiration and make sure we keep it 16th century Italian, despite my drooling over sirens hither and thither and yon, here's a roundel from a print made in 1460-70's Florence. It's held in the British Museum and the curator's comments state that it was probably reference for ivory or wood carvers.

Materials are here

Another mermaid from Ostaus 1567

I'm really hoping to FINALLY have something to look at soon.  My pretty, pretty purple silk arrived on Friday, as did my 3 oz linen. The hank of silk was gorgeous for about 10 minutes.  I put it out to start winding it into balls and then made the mistake of going to the bathroom.  And then my boys got to it. Now I have a giant mess.  All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not trying to knit with it. 1,600 yards of laceweight silk all tangled up. I pulled out enough to get started, and I can cut off long enough lengths to stitch with as I go.  I just don't get to enjoy the luxury of balls of beautiful silk, which is a bummer.

I spent some of yesterday sketching mermaids. I really like the look of the various patterns I've found, but I'm becoming concerned at how long they will take to stitch.  One or two would be one thing, but for as many as I need, it is a bit daunting. Not to mention the size required to get good definition. I'm going to have to do some samples to see just what I'm taking on and how much simplifying is going to need to happen. My plan is to try at least one today. I think I should at least be able to do the Ostaus mermaid on the collar and cuffs, even if I center one or two and do a simplified border. She's just so charming. I really want to make it work.

Well, that was fast

I woke up this morning to an email from a pictures library assistant at the Royal Collection with a nice high resolution picture of the portrait attached.  I can't publish it, but it gives me something else to stare at. It also just makes me so darn happy about how easy researching has become. Even when I was in school, a response like this would be unheard of, and now it is an everyday occurrence.  Ain't technology grand?

Also, in further news regarding the embroidery reference, I found this rather grumpy siren published in several modelbooks close to my target date.  The portrait is dated 1531, and the woodcut is published in Niccolo Zoppino's Ensamplario di Lavori published in 1530 and in Giovanni Tagliente's Ensamplario Nuovo daed 1531. It's found in several other later books, but those are both right at the correct date, so I'll take it. If you want to have a look at either Zoppino or Tagliente, Kathryn Goodwyn has both as pdf's on Flowers of the Needle.  The blackwork patterns in the same collections are of the stairstep type, however, so I'm still a little muddy on what I'm doing. Not that I can't use them, but I might need to do them polychrome, or just possibly in mixed stitches.  Still thinking on that.

Staring

Mermaid pattern from Sibmacher

Getting better reference pictures is always such fun. I have no idea why, but no matter how often I tell people researching things the best way to get information is to ask the museum, I always get a hole in the pit of my stomach when I make those requests. I guess I feel I'm being frivolous and wasting their time. But, an email has been sent, so we'll see.  I'd really like a better view of the balzo and the embroidery.

Right now I'm having a hard time determining if the balzo is one of the ones that looks like hair, or just highly textured, so better pictures would be nice.  I'm changing the embroidery anyway, but it would still be great from a documentation point of view to have a good look at the original.  It does sort of look like the collar has a pretty elaborate pattern, but I can't really tell as is.

I have 5 yards of 3 oz handkerchief linen ordered from fabrics-store.com for the camicia, and ordered a hank of 2/30 Gemstone silk from Halcyon Yarn for the embroidery. I decided on a purple color since there is such contrast between the pink and black of the dress and I thought it could handle the purple.  There's also an example of purple blackwork flowers with gold on a shirt in Patterns of Fashion 4.  I'd get a page reference, but my copy is still packed-- somewhere.  I've never used the Gemstone silk, but Laura Mellin uses it for her blackwork so I figured I'd give it a shot. When I did my last big blackwork project (the disasterous blackworked coif where I did everything wrong,) I tried both Gutterman silk and Rainbow Gallery's "Splendor." I wasn't really thrilled with how thin the lines were with a single strand and wanted a bit plumper look.  The Gemstone is supposed to have that. Also, because it is sold as a weaving yarn rather than an embroidery thread, it is less expensive. It is sold either in mini-cones of 250 yards for less than $9 or hanks of 1,600 yards for about $35. I bought the hank because I wasn't sure how much I'd actually need, in great part because I'm not sure if I'm settling for just the collar and cuffs or if I'm going to add spot motifs as in the portrait.  If there is some left, I can always do some fingerloop braided cords for various parts of the outfit.

I like buying supplies. I always feel like I'm making progress on something that way-- even if I'm not.

I'm still doing drafts of the embroidery patterns.  I'd like to find a few more mermaids/undines/sirens to alternate, especially if I go with spot motifs.  And yes, there is the concern that the motifs from the late modelbooks are too late for my dress dated 1531.  I'm still juggling that with the character concept issue.  Right now its a bunch of mush in my head.  You'll get an update as soon as I have a clue what I'm deciding on.

But at least it is the SAME tangent. Well, mostly.

Mermaid from Johan Sibmacher's 1597 modelbook

I really have been getting ready to start the embroidery. There's just the issue of finding the materials. I don't have any clue where my embroidery silks are, where my needles are, nor where my linen is. So, there's a bit of a delay.  Actually, I decided that I probably don't have the right weight linen or enough of any particular embroidery silk to do the camicia, so I'm ordering supplies. I am unpacking my sewing supplies, but unpacking to try to find something doesn't seem like it is going to bear good results long term for my organizational goals.

In the meantime, I'm back to reading up on the symbolism of embroidered mermaids. You may vaguely recall my dip into that pond before.  This time I found a really interesting article on traditional embroidery from Crete and its use of two tailed mermaids.  What I found most interesting about it was it's connections to a lot of the research I did for my Rus persona Praksedys. Mary Kelly has done some really interesting work on the goddess symbols in embroideries and has three books and several articles available on the subject in various areas. I actually own most of them. Rather intriguing stuff and it makes me even more excited to make the camicia. The book I mentioned in the previous blog on Venetian mermaids ties it all back together and makes me even happier about my cartoon themed embroidery since it can be easily tied to my persona. Praxilla's family is from Crete and she now lives in Venice, the city married to the sea.

I have 142 days to make this dress

Pattern from Giovanni Osthaus' Perfection of design 1567

I've been looking at my inspiration for The Disney Challenge and trying to map out what is going on with it so I can divide it into manageable chunks.  It is a pretty crazy dress and I A) want to do it justice so I'm happy wearing it and B) want to have something I'm proud entering as an Arts and Sciences entry.  My recent gowns have been made for wearing and being happy in, so B is new.


It was kind of a weird journey to deciding I wanted to make a dress to enter since that is usually the last thing on my mind.  I tend to think of research and other types of projects as Arts and Sciences worthy and dressmaking just sort of something that happens in the SCA since everybody has to wear something. When I decided to do this dress for the challenge I picked it because I wanted something that easily worked for a character concept yet was absolutely and totally accurate with no ifs, ands, or buts. I knew that many people were bound to dismiss the challenge as a bunch of fluff that didn't have any place in a re-enactment society and lump it with glitter, elf ears, and plastic Viking helmets. I didn't want that.  Not that I am not the first person to have fun with costuming, but I wanted to demonstrate that thinking out of the box would get people excited about looking at things through a different lens. I hoped that it would put excitement into an educational exercise and get some creative juices flowing. I really am a believer in "A spoonful of sugar." It's the frustrated high school history teacher in me, what can I say.

Anyway, wanting to do an accurate representation of the dress tripped me up first thing.  It is a MONSTER of a dress.  It isn't something I'm going to toss off in a weekend, wear once, and be okay putting at the back of the closet to wait for a bad garb contest or another goofy theme to happen.  My knee jerk reaction was to change my mind and just pick something else.  Something simple that I either could adapt for regular garb later or make and not worry about.  Then I returned to all my reasons for wanting to do this challenge and noticed that "making a silly outfit" was nowhere on the list.  Stretching my skills was on the list. Research was on the list. Adding to my persona was on the list. Being proud of what I create was on top of the list.

So, I'm making a monster of a dress and I'm going to do all the persnickity details. The accessories, the copious embroidery and handwork, the whole hog. Which is how we get back to figuring out manageable chunks and a schedule to match those deadlines.

Couching gold cord to the edges of black velvet is going to be a big part of the time since the overgown is incredibly intensive. There's more going on though. There's a detailed balzo, a lovely lapis lazuli paternoster, a gorgeous undergown with striped sleeves, and then there's the camicia. It looks like pinky peach embroidery on the collar, the cuffs, and down the body as well. Hmmm.  This is totally crazy already. NO!  Manageable chunks.

I'm starting with the collar and the cuffs.  I know myself pretty well and know counted embroidery would make me absolutely crazy, so I'm not going to stick with the blackwork pattern that is there. Instead, I'm going to take the opportunity to incorporate the character concept.  Pinky peach and floral made me snap to "Ursula's Garden" of enchanted merfolk. I know, I have a rather twisted mind since the twisted things aren't sweet flowers. But hey, it's a villainess' dress-- what can I say. To turn it back to historical accuracy, I decided to use the siren embroidery pattern from Osthaus. It is classy and perfectly elegant while still letting me Bwahahahaha! in the dark reaches of my mind as I consider the association that got me there.

Tomorrow's goal is to decide if I am using the gryphon and the rest of the original motif or adapting it some way and draw up the final design.  Then Saturday I will transfer it to linen and start with the embroidery. Here we go. First bite of this whale taken.

What have I gotten myself into this time?

Via

I can only blame IRCC withdrawal. Some part of me needs to be sewing along with people and creating arbitrary deadlines. I just volunteered to organize a sewing challenge in my SCA kingdom.  After seeing pictures of the Kingdom of Atlantia's Disney challenge, we've decided to do our own.

Using a character concept from a Disney movie, participants are going to make themselves an historically accurate outfit. I've decided to do Ursula from the Little Mermaid using this 1530's portrait by Guilio Romano as my inspiration.  It has been on my "I want to make that!" list for quite some time. The strapwork looks amazingly interesting, it is an underbust dress, and it has giant sleeves.  What isn't to love? Not to mention the strapwork is rather tentacle like and the balzo looks like she's wearing a sea urchin on her head.

There's a free article on strapwork over at History Unstitched.  by Alyxx Ianetta. I'm going to go re-read it and see what sort of crazy I have gotten myself into.