The Hiatus is Over...

It's time to get down to work; it's April and I am no closer to having anything to wear for Halloween.  It was a lovely morning, it was time to get up and spend some serious time with my pattern book.

Once you've measured yourself, Margo's first instructions, in the Tudor Lady's Wardrobe Handbook, are to sort the various pattern sheets and cut the pattern pieces out; then use them as templates for the final pattern pieces.  It's good advice, the original patterns are lovely, but huge, gossamer thin and utterly unwieldy!  It's also horrible to cut.  Cutting out all the pieces took 3hrs but are now all labelled up in their little plastic envelopes; sitting there looking at me, waiting...  Another hour and I'd also worked out my "to make" list.  Extremely good on certain details, the handbook requires a little detective work when choosing the various parts of the outfit and selecting the elements that work together.

Based primarily on Holbein's Unknown English Lady c.1535, the list is as follows:

Smock
Kirtle
Gown with Square Sleeve and train (Gown A)
Small Foresleeve (A)
Tudor Coif
French Hood
Sash

The French Hood is my one deviation from the picture, but I prefer the smaller French Hood and it is equally in keeping with the 1530s-1540s, as the Holbein portrait of The Lady Parker from 1540 shows.

Finally, I drew up a shopping list of the fabric needed... then made myself a strong cup of tea and was grateful that I was sat down!  

Some of the fabric lengths are guesses as a) my measurements run from a size 2 to a size 10 and b) the patterns are made for someone 4-5 inches shorter.  They are going to require a fair amount of adjusting and lengthening; where in doubt I have gone for more rather than less; I can always find a use for the leftovers.

The (Long and Slightly Scary) Fabric List:

Smock:  3 yds - I've bought white cotton lawn

Kirtle main fabric: 6 yds 

Kirtle lining: 1.5 yds

Kirtle interlining: 1.5 yds

Kirtle forepart: 1.5 yds - possibly my love orange find...

Kirtle piping: 1.5 yds

Kirtle contrast trim and piping: 2 yds

Foresleeves main fabric: 1/2 yd

Foresleeves flatlining: 1/2 yd

Foresleeves lining: 1/2 yd

Gown main lining: 9-12 yds (depending on the fabric width)

Sleeve lining: 2.5 yds

Gown bodice flatlining: 1-1.5 yds

Coif: 1yd

French Hood paste: 1/2 yd

French Hood veil: 1 yd

French Hood lining: 1 yd

And this doesn't include any of the notions (lacings, boning etc.) or the decoration.  There was nothing for it but to go shopping; I am now the happy owner of 6 yds of black cotton sheeting for my Kirtle and a dark orange Jacquard, my second contrast fabric.  Pictures later.  With any luck I'll be a busy, sewing, bee tomorrow. 

Happy Easter Everyone!

It was so good to have the day off yesterday, the boyf and I had a lie in until the sun shine got me out of bed.    A sunny garden means that I'll always find something to do in the garden!   Today it was the chickens' turn and a veg patch.  The one thing that I have missed from my old house was the raised veg bed that the boyf built me and, following discussion in the pub and the promise of tomatoes and cabbages and beans, I decided it was time to find a space and the run of paving slabs between the garage and the far fence was the best available spot.  I had a quince planted in already, so I added the second one (which had been in a pot) and am eagerly awaiting my seedlings... and some mini fencing as the dog thinks I made this just for her to dig!

The coop and run got a good clean and general sprucing up...

I have happy chooks.  Though the dog was completely unimpressed when I started to brush the (yes, it's fake) lawn!

It's hard work but it's worth it!  I do love our not grass lawn.

And finally, on our morning walk, Megs and I cut some foliage and blossom to make an Easter Tree.  A lovely tradition that I've got from my Mum (who gave us the beautiful hanging chicks).  It is such a lovely  way to welcome spring.

Easter Eggs...

Though, sadly, not the chocolate kind.  It seems our Blackbird liked our garden enough to make a nest.  I put it back in the tree but I'm not sure she'll go back to this nest.  As beautiful as they are, it saddens me to think that these tiny eggs are three little lives lost.  It would have been lovely to hear them later in the spring. 

Nettle Soup

When you nearest neighbours are six feet under, nettles (at least in the UK) are regular garden intruder!  The fence that borders the graveyard is does little to keep the nettles at bay and they would quite happily take over the flower bed if I didn't keep the in check each week.  It always seemed something of a waste to bin them, so when I read Hugh F-W's recipe for Nettle Soup in the paper at the weekend, I decided to give it a try... afterall, we've happily followed him down every other culinary path that he's lead us of late!

It was very satisfying picking the nettles in my yellow Marigolds and I followed the recipe pretty much to the letter except for the addition of an extra leek, 50gms of baby spinach leaves and, once the soup was blended, approx. 500gms of new Garden Peas - the smaller and sweeter the better.  I added them in, frozen, at the end and the gently reheated the soup.  Oh, and I used soya margarine instead of butter, veg stock, not chicken, and left out the yoghurt.  I served it with "buttered" granary bread, grated cheese for the veggies and a generous twist of black pepper.  It is utterly delicious, I couldn't recommend it more... only downside, there just wasn't enough and I now find myself eyeing up nettles wherever I walk!  

PS It's good cold too!

It's Crazy Hair Day!

We were up at 6.30am, the 10yr old and I, and whilst the lovely boyf did all the morning jobs we set about creating Hare Hill.

Thanks to the lovely rockabillie and her very good video on YouTube we decided on a retro pinup style, with Victory rolls.

                        

Not quite as good as rockabillie, my slightly lopsided first attempt still did a pretty good job of representing the rolling hills of Hare Hill, especially once we'd sprayed them glorious green!

After that it was easy, a floral clip to keep her fringe to one side and the Hare hairbands did the rest.

A quick touch up with the green hair spray and we were done...her face says it all, we were delighted!  It was really good to see our initial idea come together so well, and it could (with my lack of hair dressing skills!) could have been a stress-filled disaster!  What's more, we got third place! Hooray!! 

And to top it all off, brushed out, the hair worked well for movie night too!