Starting to think about Solstice

Yes, I am in the middle of prepping a feast, not to mention trying to get garb made for my kids. They only go to a few events a year and they always grow in between so I have to start from scratch every time. I decided to take a break from all of the required stuff and took a break and played with some beads. It probably wasn't great for my schedule, but I certainly feel refreshed. After I got about half way into it I decided that it would be perfect to go with the red fabric I picked out for making my Solstice dress. Rather nice when playing around accidentally accomplishes something useful.

I grabbed a bunch of randomness from my bead box, but I'm rather pleased with how it worked out. I had bought the silver plated plaques to decorate a Rus hat several years back and they have been staring at me ever since. I very rarely use silver, so I didn't have any great ideas, but it also meant that I wasn't saving them for any reason and didn't have to dither about whether this was the best use of them. Often taking things from my stash can be a negotiation with myself and I'm afraid to use the good stuff in case some better use comes along. Anyone else have that problem? I hadn't planned on having silver with this dress either, but I very much like the girdle, so I'm reconsidering the color scheme for the dress. Besides the silver plaques, which are Jill MacKay that I got on something like 90% off clearance, there are two shapes of flame jasper, some silverish beadspacers that I'd sorted out of a bulk lot that was supposed to be gold but didn't have good plating, some magnetic hematite rounds, glass pearls in both white and grey that I got for 70 cents a strand, and freshwater pearls dyed an iridescent blue/green/black that I got on an 80% off clearance. It's wonderful when all the super cheap clearance purchases come together and actually justify themselves and the fact that I have a stash. As I need about twice the beads for a girdle that a non-plus sized person needs, making a girdle is normally a significant outlay of money. This one wasn't so I'm rather proud of it for that reason alone.

Now, on to the fabric in the background. That's going to be the dress for Solstice. I've settled on doing a veste over a sottana, like this portrait of a lady and her little girl from the school of Veronese. I had considered doing the more common style with a doublet under the veste, but to be frank, I'm afraid of trying to fit the doublet. I've already got a sideback laced pattern that I love and fits, so this way I can concentrate on the veste. I'm going with the red for the outer dress. Now I just have to decide on what color I'm making the underdress. Black and steel grey are not my normal choices, but I'm sort of drifting that direction. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any.

Via

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!

Dresses for my girls

I still need to make the smocks and the lacing rings, but I've pretty much got the girls' dresses done.  I put together a girdle belt for L so she can wear her zibaby from Sable Greyhound and then did a matching necklace and bracelet.  I'm running low on time, but I think I can still get the boys outfits done by Saturday. Cross your fingers.  The dresses are headed to the washer and then a solid ironing.  They'll look loads better on my cuties and I'm hoping to get pictures of the kids at the event.

Girdle is done

Jewelry always looks so much better in person than in my pictures. I should have taken some close ups. This girdle belt  is made of glass pearls, textured goldtone chandelier findings with amber crystals, and blue glass beads with gilding. One thing it doesn't have is a jumpring. They are my nemesis. I can never keep the things closed, even when I solder them. I've spent more time maintaining my last two girdles than wearing them. Except the pearl one. That one has stayed together wonderfully since it is entirely strung on wire.  This one is a combination of wire lengths and head pins. I'm hoping it will stay in one piece.

There's a frame on the end that I hope to eventually put a miniature of my husband in.  Just as soon as I get around to painting it.

Figured I'd finally show you the blue and gold girdle belt

Since I sat around most of my day waiting to hear from realtors, I didn't make much progress on the new dress plan, so, here's more of the backlog documentation.

Jewelry is an interesting thing in 16th Century Italy. Portraits demonstrate that women decked themselves out with girdle belts, necklaces, hair ornaments, brooches and other items, but the reality is that jewels were heavily regulated. Also of note is the fact that fake or paste jewels were forbidden. This is perhaps why the virtuous woman in my allegorical portrait has only the one large jewel that she really isn’t wearing and nothing else.
I on the other hand, love bling. Looking at other, similar portraits, I’ve decided to add a girdle belt, earrings, and hair ornaments. Large drop pearls are the most common type of earring. Girdle belts of this time period seem to be shorter than they become later and don’t have long drops as often. They follow the line of the bodice. Gold is a very common color. Jeweled hair ornaments also find their way into the decoration of ladies as well.
I assembled a variety of beads and findings I had in stash, adding some blue to match my dress.

The earrings are the same leverback findings I've been using with drop pearls and a small blue bead. I'm really happy with the little floral wreaths. I had been collecting a certain toggle clasp that was made of them and a hummingbird in order to have the hummingbirds for a different project for a lady with hummingbirds in her heraldry. I had begun to despair of using the wreaths. I think they're great in a girdle. The bits that are quadrafoils of hearts I bought bags and bags of at the bead faire back in June to attach to my armor. The other gold beads had been an impulse buy on clearance. I'm always amazed at what I can put together with "junk."

In wearing it, my only issue seems to be how tightly the headpins are twisted closed. I had several pop open because of the weight of the zibellino. I also gained a bit of weight from the time I assembled the girdle to when I wore it (as much as I'd like to say I just measured differently, the truth is holiday padding.) I needed about an inch more slack and so the wires had more pressure added than was good for them. Easily fixed with another link, but I didn't have pliers on me and didn't think to just dissassemble one of the four hair ornaments. Easily fixed and its all back together now. Hopefully I'll take off that holiday padding and can take the extra link out soon.

Pearls

I spent most of yesterday pearling the mantellino. Just 4 motifs left to go. As pearls were the theme of the day, I thought I'd go back and show you the first girdle I made as it is pearls and gold.

I had the circle disks hanging around after purchasing them on clearance and had oodles of freshwater pearls that I'd picked up cheaply from the Gem Faire back in June. The pearls are sort of a problem as the have holes too small for any of my beading needles and won't take a second pass of string through them and are far too large for embroidering with. As a result, they really haven't been all that useful. However, as I said, I have a lot of them. Making a girdle for me takes a lot of whatever it is I use, so they seemed like a likely candidate. The gold disks are set up to sit on two strands and two strands of pearls seemed pretty. One of my favorite Venetian necklaces in portrait has two strands of pearls. (Albrecht Durer's 1505 Portrait of a Young Venetian Woman.)

I'm plotting a green dress this spring and it is on my "must make" list.

However, pretty pearl necklaces being documentable does not mean pretty pearl girdles are. In looking over the portraits in my little chunk of time, it seems that they are all pretty much exclusively gold. Most don't have any visible "drop" either. Thick links at the waist seem to be the most common. However, in the portrait I just finished working with, Camilla's girdle had two drops that were very definite, one to the zibellino and one that her son is playing with. Its still very gold, however. I did find one portrait with a pearl girdle on a Venetian dress. Its from a 1565 fresco by Giovanni Antollio Fasolo. It might still be gold backed, however, with the pearls simply mounted to the gold. (And have a look at the entire piece, its pretty cool. I love the colorful print skirt of her dress.

So, basically, I'm not sure if I'll wear the girdle with this dress. Its pretty, but it seems more English in style to me. My portrait doesn't have a girdle at all to be honest, and I'm not sure the pearls will look right with the crisp lines of the patchwork as the only decoration and the colors. I fretted about it for a couple of days and then went on to make a primarily gold girdle. I'll show you that soon, but I suppose I should wrap up telling you about the girdle itself.

These freshwater pearls, as I've said, did not want to be cooperative and let me do multiple passes of stringing material. I eventually just strung them straight on a 28 gauge wire. I'm rather nervous about how the whole thing will hold up with the weight that any girdle for me automatically is, but that's the largest gauge I could get through the holes. I put the clasp at the back of the waist so there would be as little fiddling as possible. After considering making a pomander, and even starting to carve one, I just chickened out of that and found the tassel on the end at Hobby Lobby. If I end up using this, its $5 more of my budget used.

While I was at it, I strung a simple pearl necklace and threw together a set of earrings. I'm pretty definite on wanting to wear the necklace, but I'm not so sure about the earrings. They might get put aside with the girdle for another project.

Girdle is basically finished

I just need a hook so its easier to take on and off and its done.  To make it completely complete, it would be nice to find a pomander or a tassel or something for the end, but I can wait until I run across the perfect thing.  So I guess its mostly done.  

Actually, there's one more step I would like to do, but I'm not sure I'm up to it..  I am a little worried the jump rings will gap because the girdle is pretty heavy and I'm considering soldering them closed.  I have a multi-tool that I use for pyrography that can be used as a soldering iron but I've never tried it.  I'm a little nervous about it.  But, I really don't want to have to constantly reassemble the girdle when something decides to fall apart.  I'd much rather have it super sturdy so I don't have to worry.  Guess I'm going to let that brew a little bit.  I've been working on this pretty solidly for a couple of days since there was a lot to assemble and I'm ready to put it aside and declare  another wearable item,  Technically done is something. right?

Fussing with the girdle

I've been plying around with the various bits and pieces I got for the girdle, trying to make them look like they belong together.  The portrait piece is made of really large components and its pretty much entirely gold.  I haven't been able to find pieces of the right scale, nor enough of them.  Maybe it would be easier if it was closer to Christmas and I could go ornament shopping.  So, I decided to do as I'd done with the necklace and abandon the idea of doing something that looked like the portrait and go for something that wouldn't look out of place.  I started by putting a pearl in the center of the filigree buttons and adding some of the red glass jewels I used in the necklace to the large oval bits with metal and jewelry glue..  It unified things a bit, but the shapes didn't transition well, Luckily, I found a really interesting bracelet with a great shaped plaque.  The original pieces looked like the one on the far left, with the 4 half round  cream dots.  I pried those off, as well as the crystal in the center.  Then I put a button pearl in the center and red beads in the place of the cream.  The smaller size of the red beads shows more of the gold base piece which I like a lot.  There were three of the bracelet, so I ended up with 15 plaques  Between the red cabachons and some pearls as well as some smaller gold bits, I think I'm going to end up with enough length.  Its actually a pretty long girdle, since there is an extension for the zibellino.  The glue should cure tonight and I can try assembling everything tomorrow and see how close it comes.

Bits, bobs, and buttons for the belt

I'm hoping to have something of the underskirt ready to show tomorrow. I've got one eyelet left to do on the band, finished the seams on the shell and lining, and have most of the lining attached at the hem. I'm a little worried because the eyelets are HUGE due to the size of the aiglets. I think I need to find something other than what I have (small gold bolo tie ends I got on clearance several years ago) to do the aiglets for the sleeves and for the side back lacing. They aren't any larger than what they'd be if I'd reinforced with a washer, but they sure seem gargantuan and I don't think I want to put holes that large in the velvet. I've never done eyelets on velvet so I'm a bit nervous. It doesn't seem like the fabric would spread without having to cut them. Maybe I'm just not trying hard enough.

Fretting about the size of the eyelets took out a good portion of my morning work time. I also had a new SCAdian come over and we got her a basic underdress and Norse apron dress designed and cut out so she can make herself clothes for the first camping event of the season in two weeks. I'm pretty sure she thought I was nuts ripping rectangles of fabric and drawing big triangles, but we got it done quickly, and I think she's going to have something fun to wear. There went the rest of the morning (but I had a lot of fun.)

So, in a moment of sacrifice, in order to have something to show for today, I went shopping again. The girdle has been on my mind. I've been really concerned about the scale. Its such a large piece, there's nothing dainty about it whatsoever. Most of the findings and components I've been looking out that have the look of those in the girdle are far too small. I've been sort of considering making them from polymer clay, but am afraid that won't look quite right for such a large piece, especially if I do the zibellino's head in clay too. I lucked out yesterday and found some pendants and some buttons that I think are going to work. They aren't as rounded and dimensional as those in the portrait, but the scale is right. That's a quarter in the center of the picture, just to give you an idea. I also have some other large goldtone beads with a filigree finish that I couldn't find for the picture (my big bead box is hiding somewhere in the house and I'm going to need to clean to locate it. Last time I saw it was mid-March.) They are a little bit smaller, but should work texturally with the rest of these and are still pretty large beads. I'll probably swap them out for the pictured beads which I bought for a Russian necklace and I think they're a much better match for that project. I still need to find some tube shaped beads to fill in, but I think I have a start. I may need to add a bit of enamel paint to the filigree ovals just to break up all the gold and approximate the look of the portrait. Even better would be if I could find a glass gem to put in the center depression.

More sewing on the skirt to do today, maybe playing with patterns for embroidering the breeches, and always more lace to make