Success! of a sort...

[melaniesuzanne]

I raced home last night and immediately set to work drafting and cutting out a new overdress.

Yes, you read that correctly.

I cut out the front and back panels and back gore before Hubbyfink got home, at which point I took a break for dinner and realized I really didn't want to continue cutting out gores. I HATE (with the white hot hate of a thousand suns) cutting out gores. I whined. I moped. Hubbyfink reminded me that I could reset to Sunday night when I wasn't going to make ANYTHING this week. I decided he was right and played "Fallout 3" for a few hours (I fragged three Regulators! Took me forty-five minutes of getting shot down like a dog at the entrance to the Arlington metro, but I finally got them! I loves me some combat shotgun action, oh yes I do.)

I went to bed shortly after 11 and tossed and turned for a bit, working out the mechanics of the hat pattern danabren's been teaching me. I finally got up, grabbed scrap linen, and in two hours I had a reasonable facsimile of the inside of a flattish heart-shaped henin (the poofy hat thing underneath my icon's veil). I dug through my samples & leftovers basket and found a good fashion fabric with which to cover the infrastructure and a couple of choice fabrics for a new padded roll to sit atop the henin. And then I went to bed.

When I finish covering and decorating the hat, I'll post photos. I'm probably going to pass on the mucking huge veil for this event, but the headdress is still going to be soooo cool!

Comments

[dawnhutchings.livejournal.com]

I love that hat now that I can get a real good look at it. To bad you don't have time for the big A$$ veil. Will you be able to get it done for Febs event? Maybe all of us should try to make the funkiest hat then compair and contrast at Febs event.

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

Not doing the veil is actually more of a convenience thing than a time thing. I'm not sure what other duties I'll be tagged with along with teaching Exchequer 101 and singing and I think the veil will get in the way. I could totally wear it for Love & Beauty. ;)

[danabren.livejournal.com]

Not doing the veil is actually more of a convenience thing than a time thing

This is my "being quietly appalled" face.

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

I know. Bad 'prentice, no cookie.

I *will* have a veil, just not the antennae veil. Probably. Maybe. We'll see. AUGH.

[danabren.livejournal.com]

It takes half an hour. A pair of metal nippers. A scrap of duct tape. A few straight pins, and some sturdy thread.

I am staring at you, yes YOU!

If you don't have time to baby hem the veil fabric by machine, and the drive won't be long enough to roll the hem in the car, bring a stitch ripper with you and fray the hem 1/4" in the car on the way there. This will allow you to wear the veil and not have icky stray trhead flopping about, until you can get home and do a proper hem for the next event.

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's not the making of; it's the wearing. With the running around and whatnot, I think it'll be all floppy and in the way.

[danabren.livejournal.com]

Pin the crap out of it to the tips the wires, and at strategic places in the back. I recommend one vertically at the very end of the pin-made channels at the tips of the wires.

[dawnhutchings.livejournal.com]

I started on my head covering last night ... oh mighty laurel how heavy duty does the wire need to be for a wired coif?

[danabren.livejournal.com]

Image, please?

[dawnhutchings.livejournal.com]

Here you go. :)

http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/painting/m/ipa00061.html

[danabren.livejournal.com]

How much do you intend to abuse it? :)

If you have access to Millinery wire, that is the best thing. If not, jeweler's wire (Michael's or AC Moore) will be fine, but if you don't keep it in a safe box while not wearing it, you'll be reshaping.

[dawnhutchings.livejournal.com]

Do you think starching the linen will help the veil keep it's shape?

I have wire that I use to use when I did Viking wire weaving. Will that be strong enough?

[danabren.livejournal.com]

Yes and yes.

I am really looking forward to seeing the complete ensemble :)

[alienor.livejournal.com]

But so good looking! DOOO IT!

[danabren.livejournal.com]

(Is annoyingly smug)

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

As well you should be, O Mistress of Evil Hats.

[greta-k.livejournal.com]

You DO realize that you are a very sick individual.

However, I can't wait to see the hat. It may make a nice pillow . . . (of course, most things make nice pillows to my poor sleep-deprived brain :-)

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

With the altitude this hat's going to reach, Tirloch may be the only person tall enough to use it as a pillow. ;)

[greta-k.livejournal.com]

You have to sit down some time ;-)

[salviati.livejournal.com]

Kevin probably could... I'll let him know in case he needs a nap. ;-D

[alienor.livejournal.com]

Yay hat!

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

Wheeeeee!

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

I've had the same sort of impulses ("Pennsic's a whole two weeks away! I'll have time to do another GFD!"). Usually if I lie down for a while, they'll go away :-D

P.S. Can't wait to see the hat :-)

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

*grin* I know that one, too. And again, I hit the gores (why do I hate them so much? They're only triangles.) and wander off to do something else.

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

why do I hate [gores] so much? They're only triangles.

Well, I know why *I* hate them: no matter how carefully I measure, they always end up different lengths and/or widths. Bias stretch is a two-edged sword :-/

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, and yes. *sigh*

[belfebe.livejournal.com]

I went to bed shortly after 11 and tossed and turned for a bit, working out the mechanics of the hat pattern

Et tu Melanie? It feels good to see that I'm not the only one tossing and turning trying to think about the engineering of a piece of garb or accoutrement. LOL

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

I do some of my best thinking while not sleeping.

I also do some of my worst thinking while not sleeping, but we'll skip over that part. ;)

[bittibuddha.livejournal.com]

we tread many MANY of the same cerebral pathways. ;-)

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

Love us, love our mania. =)