I managed to get to Canterbury Faire after all 🙂 And taught two of three classes and then had to come home due to a truly minor infection (from sewing, hand sewing, not even machine sewing) and so didn’t get to preview some of the Anne of Cleves context. I might have to do my presentation at the conference then get it into some SCA context 🙂

But I started that journey in part due to the so called Rule of Three that meant many of us my generation missed out on reproducing her garments.

The rule of three says that you need to find three iterations of a Thing before you can recreate it. Or that’s how it has been used, in the past. The rise of viral social media has pretty much erased that. I saw it really rise with cosplay and especially with the Star Wars costuming clubs. The cache with being the first to recreate (and yes, I have managed that and there is a lot of social currency that follows) has meant not many people even know this was a thing.

But it really was.

Anne of Cleves in her two portraits wears garments of a Princess of Cleves between 1500 and 1550. We have so very little visual depictions of any princess of Cleves in that time frame that this was always going to be an impossible task.

So I started there. I think I genuinely have enough for a dissertation of my own. It would be faster to do it as a Masters and then get all my appendices in that rather than try to find a Ph.D superviser at this distance from.. you know… the actual paintings and archives.

But I did get to teach from my iPad a quick intro to my basic patterns. I know what I know about extant garments and tailor manuals, but there is a lot of work to turn that into a really useful book.

I am centered on frocks. But will include some outer garments and can probably get in a little info on bifurcated garments and doublets. There are some fairly easy to apply fitting bits.

But again, I want to get my reference ducks in a row so that it has very solid but easy to read support.

So I’ve been collecting all my Burguen notes (I started transcribing several years ago but redrawing all the line art has been perhaps the most useful contribution) and found some rescaled line art of some of the Northern manuals.

But also so many extant garments have been described so i need to do some transcribing and translating to make sure I’m not missing anything. But some is really exciting 🙂

Meanwhile my cough has gotten worse so am in the middle of some tests (including stuff like liver and thyroid functions) and I’m hoping it’s something really simple. As embarassed as I will be if all of this is simple to fix it’s much much much better than having some nodules or scarring from coughing (as yes, that is very much a thing and scarring from coughing is very easy to do!)

I have not had much luck with making anything for the last few years. Multiple health matters that ultimately lead to a deep undermining of my confidence. So I have started to work on a very fun project that doesn’t have much in the way of high stakes and it seems to be working.

I’m making a fluffy frock. This is my own term for a style of frock that appears in mostly Northern Renaissance art, in both portraits and historical or allegorical figures. There doesn’t seem to be a positive or negative connotation, and they are depicted with a texture similar to images that are mostly likely pleated linen items such as sleeves or aprons.

At this point I only have enough sheer fabric for the skirt and fitted but puffed sleeves and just enough to cover the bodice. But hopefully soon I will be able to justify 4m of fabric for the sleeves.

These figures are Judith and Salome respectively (the foreground figure in the painting could be Salome but the figure with the winged headdress seems to be directing the other two figures.) And both are by Niklaus Manual. Only the painting seems to use a fluffy frock.

It appears I have not created a gallery for fluffy frocks. So…

I’ve stuck with the very clearly pleated examples as they are treated to a degree that makes it clear they are made from a fabric that is somewhat light and creases even in a pleat, possibly pleated using stitches and then pressed, then the stitches removed. This is not all I have in my files but the most clear.

Further to these are the images depicting very full sleeves that are finely or coarsely pleated, again in portraits and representative art.

There are images that depict either sleeves or full loose single layer garments in a delicate peachy pink (usually) but not pleated, so there are a few more leads to track down in that regard.

So far I’m using some medium weight linen to support the body and am using a cotton voile because it’s what I have and it handles like my sheer linen anyway. I do know that the different linens I have been lucky to have and to handle suggest that I could possibly simply starch this at a later date if I want to try for some nice crisp pleats.

I will try to match fabric if I can for the full sleeves as one of these portraits is of Sibylla, sister of Anne of Cleves. And I’d love to make that at some date.

It felt strange to wake up today, in a new year, but any moment I feel at ease is a moment I let happen, and be thankful. So I’m looking at a day of gently encouraging myself to think about my projects with a bit more kindness and appreciate that they are not easy, but they are fun, and I have a really good base to all of them even if progress is stalled on some due to needing a few more supplies (tape casings for the Marie Antoinette hoops for example so I can store them safely between wearing.)

My entire North Rhine wardrobe is getting an overhaul, so they have been pulled apart to have necklines, hems, and linings changed.

This is being remade into this, a bit earlier than my now 1540s wardrobe but this fit and neckline is in range.

I have never gotten a nice photo of this dress sadly- as it is for summer and it’s frankly hot and stuffy and this photo is very distorted by whatever my camera was doing at the time! But I do think the tube sleeve look works. It will require a fair bit of careful planning for the lack of a CF seam in skirt and bodice.

This stained glass portrait may depict something else, and I seem to have dropped the reference. There are big gaps I need to fill in in this timeline to be fair.

If this seems familiar it’s because this figure is from the Quentel Modelbucher but was also copied into other modelbucher in other languages. I have all the copies of her, and other women clearly in dress of Cologne.

These tube sleeves are also worn by children of the same decade.

As I have so little of this red left I’ve tried to overdye fabric to match, but can’t. so I’m making the liste deeper (the wide guarding at the hem- often fur, but in some cases velvet.)

And my original inspiration portraits.

It is hard to tell, but this portrait definitely shows the list is higher than her knee!

And you can use the narrower guarding here to work out how high this liste reaches as well!

This gown is proving to be very hard to sew, I have used a very plush velvet for the guarding. So the entire skirt needs to be basted in parts.

And there is some piecing that may need to be very carefully aligned as well.

I’m also tidying all my accessories, and rebuilding my linen gear. I think I need to adapt my Lengberg chemises a bit as they do a lot already, but I think I can adapt them even further to suit my area.

It just needed to get rescanning and a different PDF reader.

I will webbify it once I have a rest. I may have to go A SWTOR-ing (Along The Mountain Track) tomorrow. Or actually midnight 🙂

I was going to spend some of today transcribing (lists of headwear) or playing SWTOR and I can’t.

My entire life didn’t just pause this year, it went backwards in many ways. And in ways I have not been able to recover from.

It’s possible to be grateful for what I have, while being so aware of how very different it could be. And will be at some stage again.

I’ve not had a great time finishing projects this year. I keep switching to my short and/or easy projects but when I can’t finish them, I wind up in a worse headspace than before.

If I’m struggling to cover the legs of my frog purse, I say to myself, how can I possibly work on my pearlwork? How can I possibly put the lining into my gowns? How can I possibly figure out how to break down my larger projects into smaller when I have utterly failed so much in so many ways?

The secret was to put my jewels back together for my Anne of Cleves. This set has taken me so long to paint (24 hour drying between layers, then they needed baking carefully) and to even find and afford all the parts.

But they are done. 36 in total. I can make two more, and I think I will.

It took two days to wire them, in short bursts. I think what made it truly work is that I was able to wire the flowers first, and each one was a distinct unit through both passes of the wire.

So I’m also now able to look at the rest of the jewelry today (the big daisy pieces, and the rainbow collar.

But I also have been using a few days, with more days in between to be fair, to cut skirts for my Juelich dress and Cranach dress.

And I did use my understanding of the extant garments to pattern a really nice toille for the Cranach and today I made a toille for the sleeves that I really like. The actual painting is frustratingly two shades of oranage! But I’m making it in pink because it does look spiffy in pink.

The two dresses use nearly the same pattern. I used my half circle skirt in gores to cut the front of the Juelich dress, then overlaid the “front” and “back” (they are the same shape) so I could get another 8″ at the side of each waist which then created I think anouther 16-20′ at the hem.

What’s really handy is that you can then pin the bottom layer of pattern and use the upper to fold to match the shape of the pattern that flows over the edge of fabric. And then you can either pare the excess back or extend it based on how much fabric you have left over.

I did mess that up for my first pass, so I got a little extra to cut a new skirt front for the Juelich to be as full as the Cranach (but the direction of the pleats will give it a very different look.

And so I have enough from the original skirt panels to gut the massive sleeves of the Cranach.

I think I did indeed manage to time both pain relief and steroids to prevent a flare, and with minimal side effects. Though yeah.. prednisone makes me a bit.. over active so I wound up not sleeping until about 2am.

But today I have cut the replacement skirt panels for my Julick gown meaning that yes indeed my favourite Cranach frock is back on the cards!

But in pink and black. Yeah. Very excited.

I am still pacing myself. I have to. I need to get my book updated as I update patterns.

Super nifty to find all my Spanish tailoring patterns ready to go.

But I have a little more tidying and record keeping to go.

This year has brought a lot of stress, and with it has been a need to stay not just up to date but be proactive. So this has taken a lot of time and focus.

On top of that is a long trail of undiagnosed and uncontrolled fibromyalgia and after a few years I have started to be very stressed by what normally is my joy. It started with me trying to push through fatigue and making decisions in cutting and sewing that have had to be undone or left me wasting materials, through to now where I am putting off or avoiding working on my projects as I have learned that I will make mistakes.

I have been working on this. I really have. But it’s not a simple situation so the solutions are not simple.

I can’t stay in one position for long so I do indeed switch tasks. But then that doesn’t let me settle in. I don’t really have long enough to transition between skillsets.

And if I move from say tidying files at my PC to a little lightweight hand sewing, to cleaning, by the time I come back to tidying files I may not remember what system I was trying to sort by. I need to rest a lot, so that separates each round even further.

So by now I’m full of doubt.

Doubt also has a habit of seeping out of context and into everything. So yes at this point I’ve started second guessing everything.

Oddly though I’m still somewhat positive. I just wish I had more time in which I could work on every aspect of health I need to.

I can focus on my Cleves frocks as well as research. One of the patterns I am working on is how best to use my Sator Cranach fabric for my Anne of Cleves dress (the Bruyn portrait.) It’s really wide fabric, and I think I can get the three rows of skirt banding cut from a specific section, but I really need to figure out the direction of the weave specific to the portrait.

It’s somewhat easy to find a lot of painting by Cranach to find the prefered direction- very easy. But Bruyn? Much more difficult. Given the painting was missing for about 70 years that’s understandable.

It’s just very difficult to figure out the direction for vertical guards. The hem, fine, but the skirt opening? I’m not sure.

It seems very wasteful to stick to vertical to vertical and horizontal to horizontal. I do at least have the Mary of Hungary dress with the clear direction of the brocade. Only around the neckline, but it does support my theory.

I’m using other extant garments for these, so I need to get all that documentation sorted too. There are some nifty linen and hat items that need to be transferred to my new site and catagorised at that. Posts or pages? Tags or Cats?

So. Rest and recovery and then time to get a copy of the Cranach design put into a digital scale copy of how much fabric I have and then I can figure out where to cut what. I have a gorgeous saree made with metal yarns I am so tempted to overdye black to see what I can make from that. I should be able to just use the Procion, I am not sure if it is rayon or silk. I can do a test with a bit of bleach as silk will disintegrate within minutes.

If it works it may wind up the better choice with the velveteen.

And I need to wash all that fabric. Might start with the velveteen. Then calico. Then wool. I’ll have figured out how much wool I need by then I think.

Yesterday I was able to have my second pulse of Rituximab- it’s getting really difficult finding a vein that has a nice clear 3-4cm straight- and wrote a lot while I was in hospital. A. Lot. A lot a lot.

All about clothing of Cleves.

I had also sorted my pattern book patterns, with my personal ones, to work out the order of my book, and I’m so much happier with how to go about that.

So today I got the rest of my mini patterns in one folder- all garments I have made, some patterns finalised, some rough as heck- and another folder of all my reasearch notes for costumes- including more rough sketch patterns- and finally my pattern book into another folder.

It’s a lot of work but it makes sense now.

My velveteen for my next pink Cleves gown arrived, as did the block of beeswax (yay! I can clean my bee shaped beeswax and keep it as it’s so pretty) and have already repaired our doorstop- a rhino made from heavy corduroy.

SO EXCITED!!!