There has been a bit of blog silence on it for the last few months, but I have been plugging away on the 1370ish dress, but there has been an awful lot of effort on it that doesn’t look like anything, because it was just unpicking and re-doing. I got it all sewn together, did an initial fit, and it just didn’t feel quite right, which prompted a LOT more research. Based on the research, I decided that lining 14th century gowns with linen is almost certainly not accurate, and gives a fit that doesn’t match the fits shown on effigies of the period. This is what the dress looked like with a linen lining: It looks really good, but it’s very constricting. It just didn’t feel right. So I sucked it up and unpicked the lining. And all my gores. And then I re-sewed the entire gown without a lining, and with the gores placed almost at my waist. As soon as I tried on gown 2.0 I knew two things. First, the fit …
One year, a challenge every month (due by the last day of the Month), and at the end of it, 12 fabulous historical garments. How it works: Every month in 2015 will feature a themed challenge and we’ll each sew (or knit, or crochet, or tatt, or embroider, or whatever it is you call making a hat, or otherwise create) a historical garment or accessory that fits the theme. For the purpose of the Historical Sew Fortnightly, ‘historical’ is WWII era and earlier, so no later than 1945. Because there are only 12 Challenges, Challengers are really encouraged to attempt to participate in every single challenge (though, obviously things do come up, and it’s better to participate in some than none!) Your item can be as basic or elaborate as you want, from a simple fichu to fill in the neckline of a gown, to a full ensemble from the undergarments outward: whatever you need and can can handle time and skill-wise. The HSF should encourage research and historical accuracy, not fantasy or ‘costume’, …
As most of you* guessed from my hints about The Project, it is indeed a house! Our first house! And it’s wonderful and adorable and I love it sooooo much, even though I seem to spend all my time trying to get it to the state we want it at, and cleaning it! Mr D and I house hunted for over 3 years. New Zealand has some of the most unafforable housing in the world, and while Wellington isn’t as expensive as Auckland, what you get for $400,000 (the average first home price in Wellington central) isn’t much. So we scrimped and saved and looked, and looked, and looked. We put offers on houses, and tenders (blind bids) and paid thousands for building reports and valuations, only to loose to higher bidders on tenders. Then, in Mid-January, our landlords at the flat where we’d lived for over five years asked us to move out as they wanted to move in. Eeek! If we had to move and rent, we’d have to sign a year long …
