Plans, plans, plans...

Dave and I went to our area's September Crown SCA event and enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. Even though we hardly knew anyone there, there were vendors with wares to peruse, everyone else's garb to check out, a blacksmith forging iron into pothooks and nails right in front of us, bards singing and playing instruments, and one huge cake covered in buttercream frosting that was slowly melting in the 85-degree heat and dripping into a sloppy, bee-attracting mess (a sad fate for any cake, I'm sure you agree).

After watching the heavy fighters for a bit, we walked through the campsites checking out the various pavilions and tents, and there came a point where it was all so overwhelming and I had to stop in my tracks and wail, "There's just so many things I want to make, Dave, and not enough time for them all!"

Well, that's not to say I won't give it a try. Next project I need to finish is a wool dress for the upcoming cooler weather. I've decided to go with the Moy Gown (I'd link, but you'd do better to Google it. There's a lot of different sites, and they're all quite good). I have some dark blue wool that I picked up a while back, and so today while I was doing laundry, I tossed it in with some other things while I drafted a pattern. It washed into a lovely, thick, soft piece that I found myself hugging for a few minutes after I'd folded it out of the dryer. I can't wait to have a dress of this stuff!

I'll be making a test-run garment first, to make sure of my pattern, and the material I'm using for that is a hilarious white and gold diamond patterned bit of yardage I got in a mixed bin at a yard sale for five bucks. I'm actually anticipating seeing what the test-run dress ends up like. I may end up wearing it just for fun. I think a bright solid-colored sideless surcoate would look great with it; something I could wear when I just didn't give a damn for authenticity.

The blue Moy will look terrific over my red flannel petti-bodies, and I have a bit of forest green diamondweave wool that I plan to make into a chaperone (hooded capelet, no liripipe on the back) to top it off.

Dave's doublet needs a real finish on the front, with the leather button plackets and decorative embroidery on the white wool, and he needs pants to wear with it, too. And sleeves. And epaulets, yes.

But what I really need is... someone I can talk shop with, who knows more than me and can guide me when I have questions. It's all well and good for me to look things up when I need an answer, but what I'd really appreciate is someone who can look at what I'm doing and point out thing I might not be thinking of. Like what? Well, I dunno. If I knew, I'd not need someone like that, would I?

Anyway, it's seamstress bedtime. Stay tuned for pictures of the Mock Moy in the future!