Heraldic Cookies

At an event recently, the birthday of a viscountess of my acquaintance was celebrated. As is my custom, I decided to bake something for her as a gift. And I just couldn't resist the though of making cookies decorated with her heraldry.

To start with, I made up a batch of butter cookies using my favourite recipe; that is, the one from Cookie Magic by Kate Shirazi.

The next layer was one of shop bought fondant, rolled out and cut out with the same size of cutter I'd used for the cookies themselves. These were set in place by simply wetting the back of each piece and pressing gently, bur firmly onto the cookie. I do intend to try making my own fondant for future baking efforts, but time was short on this one, so I couldn't afford failed attempts.

While those were setting, I make up a batch of royal icing (also detailed in the book above) and coloured it purple to get that Argent and Purpure look I needed for the heraldry. Little tip here; if, like me, you don't have purple food colouring available, make sure to mix your colours before adding to the icing. This makes it much easier to achieve an even result. 
 
For the first application of icing, I added dots along the scalloped edge of the icing, and drew out a basic heraldic lily in the centre of the cookie. It's important to let the icing outline dry before filling in the shapes. Filling in the petals too soon would have resulted in a leaking of the icing from the shapes and a messed up cookie. I found that outlining about 10-12 cookies at a time meant by the time the twelfth outline was complete, the first cookie could be filled in. 

Also, be sure to give the icing plenty of drying time. I left them for almost 24 hours on the rack and even at that they were inclined to stick together when stacked in a box. 




Voila! The finished cookies. Pretty and as I understand, quite tasty, and they were very fun to make. 

My First Designed Scroll

At the recent Scriptorium and Fencing Camp, I attended with a specific goal in mind; I knew I could copy images well enough, and if I practised enough my painting and blending would be passable, but I had a hurdle to cross in the form of designing and layout.

Using a quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson for inspiration, and chose this image as the inspiration for the flower border. I meant to take a picture at every step in the process, to see it all coming together, but my painting hand was faster than my picture hand, so the process isn't quite seamless.

This was also my first time using pergamenata and I quite love it. It takes the gouache so much easier than the paper I had been using. I cut down a sheet into roughly A5 size pieces, so they'd make nice frameable pieces, possibly even as gifts if they were good enough.

I drew out the image lightly in pencil then outlined in black calligraphy ink. The gold was applied as gold paint, and is also the reason all of the pictures are taken at a funny angle; I had to get the gold to show up well.

The flowers and leaves are painted in with gouache, and I'm much more pleased with the colour blending on this than on my last example. I think here the parchment I was using and that I was blending while the colours were still properly wet contributed significantly. 

One of the best parts of this project was when I stopped for lunch and looked back across at my inked design, and had a moment of not even recognising it. The next moment, it looked perfect, simply perfect. I didn't pounce my perg before I wrote my quote, something I'll remember for next time, as well as the need to practise my letters, but overall I'm very pleased with it. And most importantly, design isn't as scary now!

Confering of the Order of the Ffraid

At Flaming Arrow 7 just gone, many deserving awards were given out, and among them was one for me. This weekend, just like the last award of it's kind I saw given out, I was fished out of the kitchen to be confered to the Order of the Ffraid.  

On this piece of magnificence, the calligraphy was done by Arianhwy Wen, and the illumination by Lady Agatha of Norwich. Now, while on the confering of my AoA I was very effusive about what it meant to me, on this one there are no words coming. This one represents something so deeply personal to me that there aren't words to do my feelings on the matter justice. To quote one line from the scroll "techer, artist, servaunt, merrie maicker" - thank you all. 

But so this post isn't all serious, I'm going to tell you the story of how I almost didn't received my award, also know as how the good gentles almost didn't get their feast. Court had started and myself and Lord Arpad were toiling away in foodie preparations. A number of cheers sounded up the stairs until I heard one that I was convinced had the ring of "Huzzah for the newbies!", and that also coninciding with the point where the kitchen wants to discourage random bystanders from the cooking stress points, I closed the door. I had barely wandered back to my preparations, wishing for the sake of the nest person to come up that they had the gossip of who received what, when a massive cheer sounded, even from through the closed door. I dashed over to pull open the door.... only to have the handle come off in my hand. Even while I took out my infernal device in the vain hope that someone had likewise left theirs on during court, part of my mind was wondering how long it'd take to rig up a pulley system to get the feast out the window and into service. Of course, no one was answered (but if you have a missed call from me on the Saturday night, now you know why), but not long after Lord Duncan came up to fetch me for court. A quick rescue operation later and feast was saved and I got to almost cry in front of the populace again.

Now, a quick note to finish off. Things are about to get a bit hectic; between the Drachenwald A&S exchange that I can't talk about, and the Festival of Fools preparations for the end of this month which I choose not to talk about lest I spoil the surprise, things might get a bit quiet around here. I have a few posts ready and in reserve, in no particular chronological order, to keep things going, and then I'll be back with newer, shinier posts, where I even plan on discussing my research and thought patterns in my plans! Scary stuff!

Silk Stockings

Well over a year ago I decided to make myself a pair of silk stockings. They were put away into a pretty little box for transporting to demos and events... and were swiftly forgotten about. I took them back out to work on for the UFO challenge and remembered why they were put away in the first place. I nearly ate them with frustration, but I persevered, knowing I'd feel worse if they were put away unfinished again.

And here they are! The fit is terrible! Mind, I'm not saying that as a comment on my own sewing, there's nowhere I could take in any of the extra room on these unless I planned to sit very still and not plan on walking at all while wearing them. And even then I might be looking at being sewn into them.

There are gussets sewn into both sides of each foot, and the foot fit at least is cosy. The very point of the gussets were impossible to sew completely, so I embroidered over them with embroidery floss so as not to leave any exposed seams. All internal seams are folded over in a enclosed seam; something close to a flat felled seam where possible, and something only pretending to be felled at other stages. When I was cutting these out, I was a *teeny* but short on one sock, so I just piece that up with offcut. That section fits under the fold down cuff at the top of the stocking, so it shouldn't be seen anyway.

I tried to take a full length image of the stocking to show the general shape, but at this point Suzie decided there weren't nearly enough cat hairs on the stockings and improved them beyond measure by lying on them.

 Much better.

The Challenge: Challenge #8 UFOs & PHDs

Fabric: Silk taffeta
Pattern: Drafted myself based on period methods
Year: Throughout the 16th century
Notions: Polyester sewing thread, cotton embroidery thread.
How historically accurate is it? Annoyingly when I started this project over a year ago, silk thread wasn't to be found for love nor money, so I carried on with the closest colour I could find. Now of course, there's two shops close to me that stock a large range of silk sewing thread, but I decided to carry on as I'd started. So 90% - fabric, pattern and construction are period.
Hours to complete: Quite a while, I think 10-12 hours on this. It was hand sewn fiddly work that did it's best to remind me why it had gone into the UFO pile in the first place.
First worn: I had thought I'd wear them the next time I had my court gown on, but a quick test fit for the pictures has shown these bad boys are not going to even think of staying up without the help of garters. And the garters are going to have to wait until challenge 17.
Total cost: Again, this came from stash (can you tell I used to work in a fabric shop), but if made from new, I estimate about €12.

New Troos

Last year I started working on a set of fencing garb while at a friends house for a sewing weekend. I made fantastic progress, then packed it all up and didn't touch it again until the bank holiday weekend just gone. So I pulled out the hose and got them completed!

Suzie was resting while these pictures were being taken, so that's Oscar the door stop standing in for her. Seeing as there's not much difference in the pictures themselves, you'll have to trust my word that the one of the left if the front of the hose, and the one on the right is the back, which looks far better when I'm filling it out.

The Challenge: Challenge #8 UFOs & PHDs
Fabric: Imination suede and linen for lining
Pattern: The pattern is Tudor Tailor's Venetian Hose, the men's pattern, cut out in the largest size to accomadate my derrière
Year: Approx 16th century Italy.
Notions: Thread, three pairs large hooks and eyes
How historically accurate is it? Tudor Tailor can be trusted to produce very well researched pieces, so my choice of materials lets the project down. However, as a stash busting exercise and a pair of working hose, I'm quite happy with them. Hooks and eyes as closure are documentable, though perhaps not for hose, so let's say 50% on this one too.
Hours to complete: I think this one took 6-7 hours overall, from tracing the pattern (I'm trying to train myself to not cut into the original pattern anymore), so sewing on the last hooks.
First worn: This is another piece that will be saved for Festival of Fools at the end of May, or failing that, it'll be making it's stage debut with me in August!
Total cost: This was another exercise in stash busting, but bought new the fabric would have cost about €24.

Bartery Goodness

One of the things I love about being involved in the SCA, is with so many talented and resourceful people around, there's always opportunity for a barter exchange. I was approached at my last event by someone who wanted a simple white linen shirt, and offered me fabric in exchange - that's where the green velvet in my last post came from. So just in time for the next event, I have the shirt made.

Now, the shirt is made for someone who is much taller and much broader in the shoulder than I am, so it looks downright lousy on my dressform.  Still though, it serves to give an idea of the shape.

The arms are gusseted and all joining seams are flat felled by way of finish. I would have happily added some backwork to the collar and cuffs of this shirt (which would have added to the challenge some more) but the brief was strictly for a simple shirt with no closures to fuss with.

The Challenge: Challenge #9: Black & White
Fabric: White linen, medium weight and cotton thread.
Pattern: To say I drafted the pattern for this would be using the term in the loosest way imaginable. The pieces were cut as a series of rectangles to make most efficent use of the fabric available.
Year: Medieval-ish? Until you get to the collar.
Notions: Cotton thread
How historically accurate is it? While the use of rectangular pieces to make efficent use of the fabric is a known method is ye olde times when fabric was much more expensive than it is now..  this shirt only barely brushes that. So, let's say 50%, for the materials and because it'll still meet the ten foot rule.
Hours to complete: I think it took about 4-5 hours, but that involved a lot of music selection and messing about, maybe 2-3 hours if I had set to without distractions.
First worn: Yet to be delivered!
Total cost: Material was cheap thanks to a bulk order, so that only came to about €7, and thread at €2, only €9! Shame it's far to early to quality for the Under $10 challenge too.

Hats Off!

I've just completed by first HSF challenge! I didn't think I'd get this done in time, but having sewn till almost the 11th hour, I'm very glad to have gotten it done.


So the first part of making a new hat for my Venetian was to decide on the fabric; this part often takes the longest. I knew I wanted velvet, but I had a decent number of options in my stash.So I took a picture and.. who am I kidding, I went for the red velvet. It's a statement. It's brilliant. And when (when!) I eventually get my muff done, I'll have matching accessories.




I cut out two brim pieces in buckram then sandwiched my hand made felt between these and whipstitched it into place. I decided to leave out the millinary wire this time, as an attempt to make a more period hat, and nothing to do with the fact that I couldn't find where mine had wandered off to.



I had initially intented to sew the velvet to the brim in such a way that I'd be able to overlap the crown to brim join with some of the brim seam allowance, but the velvet was so prone to fraying that I decided to turn under all of the seam allowance edges on the brim, to sew the lining to the velvet prior to making up the crown, and just attaching the two directly. Based on the little red fluffs everywhere, I think I made a good call.

The part that worried me most about this project was alining the stitches for the cartridge pleats on the crown. All of my skirts are cartridge pleated, but that's on a straight edge. As mentioned in the Sempstress' tutorial, each row of pleat stitches on the hat has to allow for the oval shape of the crown. I didn't trust myself to be able to eye that, so here's what I came up with. 

First, I determined the centre of the lining by folding in half vertically and marking with chalk, then folding it in half horizontally and marking again. Then using a ruler and a default pleat measurement of the width of my fingernail, I marked chalk lines all the way along the edge so I could follow the lines to keep my pleats all nicely lined up!

And look how wonderfully even they turned out! After that it was a simple case of stitching the pleats into the brim, lining up the front, back and side points to ensure that the pleats would be evenly distributed. I have to say, at this point, I wasn't too sure of the hat at all. I think I cut the crown too big, and I just couldn't get it to sit right.



But then I attached the feathers and it changed the my attitude to it. It went from arkward to bling, especially when I found and attached the little costume jewel to the base of the feathers. Yes, there's things I'd adjust for the next version of this hat, but this one will do nicely too.  

The Challenge: #7: Tops & Toes
Fabric: Red cotton velvet, black linen for lining, purchased buckram, hand made and fulled wool felt.
Pattern: Drafted myself, with help from The Sempstress' Toque tutorial
Year:Approx 1550s
Notions: Polyester thread. Should have been linen by rights, but I had to use what I had.
How historically accurate is it? The pattern is similar to styles worn in portraits of the time, though I think my crown piece is too big. Silk velvet would have been more likely than the cotton, but is a good approximation. Everything was hand sewn, even if it was with polyester thread. Together with the shop purchased buckram instead of my own linen cardboard, I'd say about 75%.
Hours to complete: Approx 6-7 hours with some not so neat stitches involved.
First worn: Hmm, next SCA event is in two weeks time, but I'm hoping to hold onto this one to preview with my complete fencing garb, which won't be until the end of May (not including the obligatory dodgy selfie below).
Total cost:  Technically everything was already in my stash, so I didn't have to buy anything new. As an estimate though, I think it would have cost about €20 if I'd bought everything new.