Sunday, March 24, 2013

CONFESSIONS OF A S.C.A. "NEWBIE"--PART 2.

Who ever said, "A stitch in time, saves nine?"

The quote may have application for Hollywood costume designers, English tailors, seamstresses or, perhaps, Betsy Ross (in the past), but to me...it's a conundrum, or as the King so often says in the play/movie The King and I,  "It's a puzzlement!"

As I was recently constructing my first piece of "garb" (a chemise)--keep in mind I do not know how to sew--wilth encouragement from other members of our Canton, I thought, How hard can this be? I'll just follow the instructions.  In doing so, I proved pride cometh before a fall.

Didn't have much trouble cutting out the pieces. I simply followed the diagrams on the pattern's instruction sheet. It was the sewing instructions that often baffled me...especially the instructions for attaching the sleeves.

I was using a soft muslin fabric, so it was hard for me to tell the wrong from the right side of the material.

Of course, I made all the "newbie" mistakes that could possibly be made.

First, as I just said, I lost track of the wrong and right sides. Then I sewed up the seams of the  sleeves  before attaching them to the armhole...rip, rip,clip. Then, I attached the wrong sleeve to the wrong armhole...rip,rip, clip again. (I have to start paying more attention to notches etc.). I inverted them and tried again.

I felt like I had conquered the scourge of the Middle Ages, the Black Plague,  when they finally fit into place. So over-confident was I that I fell headlong into the fray. With abondon, I began heming the cuff end of the sleeves that I had previously pre-folded and pressed flat for attachment to the sleeves. Sleeves that I had just inverted and, yes,  you guessed it, in my haste, I had forgotten that I had inverted the sleeves. As a result, my lovely, perfectly straight -lined hemming stitched sleeve edges were sewn on backwards with the turned under edge facing the right side. Rip,rip,clip.

All groaning and grunting, and asking for Divine inspiration, I re-ironed the edges back under. This time I made sure that I had everything in order before I hemmed the sleeve openings. I was not interested in the least in another round of rip, rip, clip.

By the time I had finished this segment of puting this garment together, you could have fired up a kiln with the heat of my hard breathing.

I came away from this experience knowing one thing, for certain. I could apply the observation of the The King of Siam to sewing. To me,  "It's a puzzlement."











CHECK OUT MY NEW BLOG--MEDIEVAL ME.


JUST DECIDED TO CREATE ANOTHER BLOG...

ONE JUST FOR YOU MEDIEVAL MEANDERERS AND SCA PLAYERS.

CHECK OUT MEDIEVAL ME at blogspot.com.

I'll still be posting here in addition to new site. See you here and there.
Marie

LOSE THE "LADY"


Yikes!  Researching a name for my S.C.A. persona is almost as difficult as doing the research for my historical (work-in-progress) novel, Lady Mirielle's Flight.

As soon as I mentioned to my writing friends that I needed to come up with a S.C.A.name, they all chimed in...."You already have one!"

What they were referring to was the name of the protagonist in my novel...Lady Mirielle Cartwright Fleming. I know I am not allowed to use the name "Lady" as part of my name so I thought, "Yeah! this is going to be a piece of cake." (Ooops, wrong century.). Just lose the Lady.

I authenticated the surnames Cartwright and Fleming fairly easily, but Mirielle...oh, yes, that was giving me fits. Finally, after weeks of searching, I located a Miriella (1199). If the Heralds will allow me to tweak the final a of that name to an e, I'm set. Otherwise, I'll have to settle for Miriella.

I wonder if Philippa Gregory or Bernard Cornwall have this much trouble coming up with authentic names for their fictional characters.


Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Medieval: A Word That Shouldn't Leave a Bad Taste in Your Mouth.


Ever notice how some words make you cringe.  The mere mention of them raises goosebumps.

My skin used to crawl whenever the word Medieval surfaced. I always associated it with really bad things...evil things...and evil people. i.e the Plague, King Henry VIII etc. That has changed.

Ever since I became acquainted with the local canton (Lynchburg, VA.)  of the S.C.A,  I see medievalism in a new light.

Instead  of cringing, now I appreciate the time period, and enjoy being part of a group devoted to preserving the institutions, arts and practices of the Middle Ages.

I've been hooked and enlightened. Thank you Black Diamond Barony.

Next step...selecting my persona name. Now tht is something that really gives me the chills.

It's Conclave Time


I always find it intriguing when something I write about suddenly becomes world-wide news.

It was recently the case with the Taurag. Now it comes to pass that electing a new Pope parallels a section of my novel, Marcel's Gift.

If you 'd like to be a front row witness to this process, instead of listening to talking heads telling you about it, read Marcel's Gift, a beautiful story of forbidden love whose plot incorporates a priest's rise to the Papacy.The novel is available from Amazon in eBook and paperback editions.