Still working on the cappotto so here's a view of the veil

I'm in day two of the "I will finish this dang thing" push to finish up the Dutch cloak after spending an entire day looking for the frogs and buttons I'd made for it. Right now the lining is in the body, the picadils are attached to the sleeves, and I have the frogs and buttons and hand finishing done on one of the sleeves. I still need to do the handwork on the collar lining, finish the cuff on the lther sleeve and attach 12 more buttons and frog sets. Hoping to finish it today and then I'll just have the mask to finish for the "cold weather traveling look" of my outer layer.

In the mean time,I figured I'd show off my veil just for the purposes of documenting all the pieces. I've spent months looking for a white silk with a gold stripe for my veil. The one I found on ebay was sold out by the time I went to buy it, and everything else I found was synthetic and I just didn't like the feel of them.  I finally settled on this embroidered golden cream cotton. It has a lattice work on it rather than stripes and little eyelets where the squares meet. I cut a plain rectangular veil with dimensions of 60x72 inches. With the front folded back it hangs about fingertip length. I had planned to do a blue edging with pearl picots. I tried it and it just didn't look good. It may have been the thread, I'm not sure. It is a bamboo rayon selected for the fact that it was the best match for the silk trim on the dress. I tried two other edgings and nothing seemed to add to the veil. I finally just hemmed it and used the rayon as tassels in the four corners. Not the most exciting thing ever, but the tassels weight the veil and it looks great pinned into my hair, which is the point.

Veil is complete

Since you've already seen the trim close up, there's not much to say about the veil other than I made some big black tassels for the corners and added it to a big rectangular veil.  Took forever for such an easy project.  That's the hazards of making your own edgings I suppose.   It just sucks up the time. I'm happy with it though.  The edging weights the veil nicely and the tassels are fun.

The blurry baby at the bottom of the picture is my youngest daughter Elora putting in an appearance.  I guess she felt left out since her twin brother had dropped in a few weeks ago.  That, and the fact that she is a new walker and just needs to be EVERYWHERE these days.

I cut out the panels for the skirt yesterday and seamed them together, so today's project is pleating them to the bodice.  Since the bodice is complete as it is, I'm trying to decide if I want to put the skirt onto a separate waistband or not.  I had considered keeping them as two different pieces for flexibility reasons, but after fussing with trying to keep the petticoat and bodice without gaps at the wedding last weekend, I'm certain I just want a dress.  It did nix the train idea, however.  If the skirt is permanently attached the train is probably not the most functional option.  My husband also pointed out the fact that the kids are bound to stand on it and create problems.  The velvet skirt has a hem measurement of  250 inches as is so its rather heavy to start with.  Should be plenty full.
I want to do some more work on the balzo soon and have bodice laces to braid-- I've already set up the braid on my marudai, just need to do it.  I've been playing around with cooking with roses for the last day or so and its had me distracted.  The house smells wonderful though.  I do need to buckle down and sew since I've got my sister in law's wedding this weekend so not much will get done over Saturday and Sunday.  The contest deadline is creeping up, and my own personal deadline of having most things done by Baron's War on July 22nd is closing in.  Ack!

Camicia sleeves

I spent most of the morning fussing over lace inserts for the sleeves.  I started out trying for the zigzag of the extant camisia that I was using for inspiration, but mitering the lace to get a crisp angle made it rather thick.  It just didn't look good with the materials I am using.  Just one of the problems of trying to add lace rather than making integral needlelace.  I considered bagging the lace idea altogether, but since I had 12 yards of the stuff I plowed ahead.  I ended up with horizontal insertions.  They don't look like much thrown across my chair, but I think they will be nice made up into billowy sleeves.  Next up is the insertions between the body panels.  I was considering doing more like the extant piece, but I will probably just end up using Bella's pattern and inserting between the body and side panels.  If I do 2 side panels instead of slitting them (which is how I usually insert my gussets on other types of smocks) it will give me 6 strips of lace in the body piece.  I think that will be plenty and use up most of the lace I purchased.

I finished the edging for the black veil late last night.  Just need to block it and attach it.  The plan is to do that when I change thread colors to make Gandhi's Venetians.  I'd hoped to get them made quickly, but I've got to take the kids to the dentist tomorrow so I may get little to nothing done until Tuesday.  I may try for a late night tonight and see how far I can get with the camisia.

Back at it. and wondering about veils and lace

Mysteries are fun.  I decided to do an edged veil after seeing Christa Gordon's inspiration image for her black veil and becoming intrigued.  Its got an obviously scalloped edge and tassels but that's about all the information there.  I pestered my friend Seraphina about veils and she didn't have a lot of extra to add.

It's sort of the same place I came to when investigating Anatolian veils and oya lace or "igne oyasi" last year.  Also called Turkish Lace, its colorful flowers of needlelace.  Which flowers and how and when they are worn became a symbolic language.  I ended up ordering Oya Culture since the Ottomans, but it has no real information on the history of oya.  The instructions and patterns for making oya aren't that helpful, and none of the patterns predate the 1960's.  Having something shipped from Turkey was sort of novel though.  It and several other publications have been put out by the government in an attempt to preserve folk culture and craft.  It doesn't answer the question of whether oya is old enough to be in SCA period though.  All I can find are vague references to "ancient," "centuries old," and the cringe inducing "traditional." 

Since Venice adopted things like under drawers for women from the Turks I sort of wonder about the two cultures and veil edging.  Particularly in light of the tassels at the edges of the veil.  It could be absolutely nothing, but it could be something.  I love a good research mystery.  We take for granted embroidered, beaded, and lace edgings as integral parts of veils now.  I'm curious how early that sort of thing happened.  Russian veils are highly decorated with fringes, embroidery, gold and pearls.  There's a beautiful extant veil belonging to Ivan the Terrible's  first wife Anastasia Romanova.  Its 16th century, so pretty late, but its there and there's evidence it started much earlier.   

My fantasy edging is going to start me on another big digging expedition, I can already tell.  Anyone already done some of the work?  What do you know about veil edgings and decorations?

Nothing much to see, but I'm still working.

My house has become a disaster so I've been cleaning rather than sewing.  The back of the bodice is almost done though.  I would probably have it done already, but I've got a migraine on its way, so I'm cancelling the rest of the day and will get back at it tomorrow.


Other than that, I have been working on an edging for a big black veil.  It will look better once I block it and attach it, I swear.  Might add a bit of gold to it as well.  Or maybe some beads on the picots.  Not sure yet.  I'm making 11 yards and have about 4 yards to this point.

More later, but I need to go find a dark room and ride out this headache.