Cheat bag/Embroidery stuffs

[tudorlady]

Okay.

I have a metric assload of work to do, but so I don't go crazy, I'm going to take a minute to talk about costume stuff. I'm beginning to feel really burned out where work is concerned (yes, even more than usual), and I found out that DOSP is screwing my boss on this contract - so my job will go poof in September. But hey. That's September, not next week. I'll find something else before then.

So, let's talk costume and fun stuff, hm?




This is the cheat bag, laid out flat. For some reason, I was working on this almost compulsively for a couple of weeks - I have no idea why, other than as compulsions go, embroidery is a pretty harmless one, compared with, say, drinking. This is part of an old (1973) Erica Wilson needlework kit I got at the thrift store, which was originally meant to be an evening bag. However, I recognized the design as being almost identical to a 16thC English cushion cover in the V&A¹. Thinking it might be useful some day, I got it (for $3, I think), and it sat in my to-do box for a couple of years. It appears to be good linen - considering the vintage it's probably Belgian or Irish, which are expensive these days - and it definitely deserved a better fate. The wools that came with it were in rather frightening 70s colors - those got made into cat toys. The instructions were missing, but the example shown seemed to indicate that the figures were outlined rather than filled in.

I'd been wanting a sweet bag to use as a pouch/wallet for some time, and I have the sense to realize that if I wait until I do an original one, I'm going to be without one for quite some time. Having had plenty of time to ponder this while I was embroidering, I thought this 'second-hand' sweet bag would fit with my persona - she may well have made a bag from an old cushion cover, in spite of the fact that the work on it was a bit different than the fashionable sweet bags, especially as something to simply use herself and carry her coins. I'm worried about this being backward documentation, but in truth it's not nearly as implausible as some of the justifications for Not-Quites I've heard.

In any case, this is it laid out flat. I had to extend the design a bit by hand to compensate for the original - to make it square rather than handbag-shaped - so no, the bits don't match up at the seam, but I'd think that if it was a bit of cushion cover, it wouldn't match either. It'll have little metal rings at the top edge, and I'm going to make a couple of tassels for the bottom corners. This is all done with plain old embroidery floss, and actually? It's not so bad.

I think the cheat bag was a sort of avoidance behavior for making actual clothes. The fiasco with the beta-test shift didn't help. The fix for that worked nicely, incidentally - just needs the sleeves put on. I also have a length of some rather nice dark violet wool that needs to be a kirtle, but I'm finding myself paralyzed. I did manage to get as far as incorporating the fitting tweaks into the bodies pattern, but there's something there that's just... frozen. I don't think it's a case of being afraid that I'll screw it up completely, just that no matter how much work I put into it, I'll still look like a lumpy little sofa in the thing. A lumpy little sofa with a too-small head. And that... while true, should not be holding me back. I need period clothes, dammit, this is a perfectly good opportunity. What the hell is wrong here? [Insert picture of me jumping up and down and yelling at myself.] I should have at least cut it last weekend, but I felt like absolute crap physically, plus I was dealing with poor Harold and his butt, so...

The other thing is that I'm thinking about giving the Artisan's Retreat this week a skip. I don't really have a project that I could be working on there, and I suspect that if I don't spend that time working on stuff, I'm going to get really anxious, which is really like hell for me, although it's pretty indetectable to anyone else. So, rather than going to Eugene and doing stuff, I'm going to stay home and do stuff. I think. My favorite travelling companion jillwheezul can't go, and while I sometimes welcome solo road trips, this doesn't feel like the time for it. Maybe.

So yeah, I'm doing the whole emokid/but-I'm-conflicted crap, and I should know better. Suggestions welcome.




¹I can't cite the exact piece off the top of my head, but I can look it up. It's in Digby, if I recall correctly.

Comments

[nokidsdammit.livejournal.com]

(shrug) I'd say screw it, go into my work room specifically with the declaration that I *wasn't* going to work on a project, and instead neaten everything. File trims, stack fabrics, fold patterns, shelve books (putting in post-it markers and notes if needed), toss scraps, get rid of a couple UFOs (unfinished objects), possibly gather all specific project bits into a box or bin that's set aside, maybe do a couple things that have been put off like mending that hole in the one shirt and pressing, or putting in those darts like I've intended forever. No real Project, though. As much as 'clutter begets creativity' in some protestations, a clean room almost beckons me for work.

[jillwheezul.livejournal.com]

It's totally squee!

I have a theory - maybe the dark violet does not want to be a kirtle but something more magnificient! Sometimes I think it is easier to make complex things than get started on the more simple stuff :)

[tudorlady.livejournal.com]

Yahbbut,

I need plain old everyday kirtles. There will be plenty left over for a doublet of something, since I can get a doublet for myself out of practically nothing... and I don't need spectacular (the greater the chances of falling on my butt). I've pretty much decided to Stay Home and Work On It, Dammit.

So. Is there anything I could do to get you to come to A&S with me? No?

[daf9.livejournal.com]

The cheat bag is lovely.

[gorthx.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's gorgeous.

And I totally understand sewing/knitting/etc something else as avoidance behavior. :)

[bwliadain.livejournal.com]

I like the sweet bag very much!

As for the kirtle - are you suffering Shear Terror? I get that every time I start a new thing - can't make that first cut...

[tudorlady.livejournal.com]

Actually, no. I've always been a good cutter. I actually enjoy doing that. I've only made one really spectacular cutting mistake, and that was in 1981. I made a pilgrimage, confessed, repented. All is well.

I was pondering this last night and decided that it's got more to do with my notion that 'no matter what I make, nothing looks good on me' - which is not exactly an objective point of view. I'm not sure what I can do to help that. Like I said, I think I look like a lumpy sofa with a too-small head. However, I suspect this may be a perceptive/cognitive error rather than anything else. But I still don't know what to do about that. I hate feeling like a yawning chasm of need when it comes to this, but the truth is, I *am* horribly insecure, and I honestly wonder what it's going to take to help that. :\

[bwliadain.livejournal.com]

SIgh... wish somebody could help ALL of us get off that train of thought!
Wouldn't it be great?
Meanwhile, when you get the kirtle done, you WILL look faboo. SO there!

[tudorlady.livejournal.com]

But... you didn't ask what that really spectacular cutting mistake was! Do you want to know? It'll have you snickering for weeks ;)