Category: Rambling ….

Random thoughts, recaps and other rants.

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Mrs. Maisel – “We got the Rabbi” Pink Coat: part 1

As I stated in my introduction to the Gingham suit project, which somewhat ironical will get finished after this project, every fan of Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has their favorite outfit or two from each of the three seasons. Most get added to the bucket list, some get made as close to screen accurate as possible, and some become inspirations for a variation on the theme, but everyone has a favorite. Mine is the black and white gingham shorts suit. My second favorite is her iconic pink wool swing coat.

What’s not to love about a flowing winter coat that comes down past your knees that just happens to be your favorite color, right? Let’s review the coat and the pattern from which it’s going to be recreated.

I am extremely grateful that the Simplicity Pattern Company has chosen to revive some of their vintage patterns. It makes it easier to make something with a solid base to start from than having to cobble two or three patterns together to come with something. Simplicity’s 8509 “Misses Vintage Lined Coat…” fits the bill to a tee. It even has an option to add pockets, which I’m going to do because a girl needs her pockets. Where else are you going to tuck your silk scarf and gloves? [Yes, yes, I realize that Midge would have put her gloves in her handbag, but I enough stuff in my bag already and the coat pocket is the only place that I can put my gloves and have them when and where I need them.]

So what are the challenges that I am facing with this project?

  • Grading the pattern up four sizes. Unfortunately, I am overweight, very overweight, and most store-bought patterns are not large enough for me.
  • Making a toile or muslin. I hate, hate, hate spending the time having to make a fitting garment to prove that my rusty grading skills are still on the money.
  • Limited fabric and no place for muck-ups. I got my beautiful and luxurious cashmere and wool blend soft rosy pink coating on sale for 70 percent off, once it’s cut, it’s cut and there won’t be anymore. It’s not that I couldn’t find a comparable fabric, but this particular fabric has been sold out. Thus, my need to make a muslin…
  • Bound buttonholes. I tried to make these years, no decades ago, and worse on bonded polyester double knit, which the masses now know as “scuba knit.” I was a disaster and the vest that I was making out of scarps from a jumper that my mom made never saw the light of day.
  • Keeping my swearing down to a minimum. I bought polyester bridal satin for the lining. This stuff unravels as you work with it and I forgot to buy a bottle of Fray Check. As a side note, I chose to not line the coat with the same raspberry colored lining as the original one from the show as I wanted something that would go with more than pink would. Also, it was the only thing that Joann’s had that even came close to the same color family as the main fabric color albeit it about three or four shades lighter.

Next post: Making the muslin fitting.

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We speak barter …

So you’d like a custom costume but don’t think you can afford it, we speak barter.  Here’s a list of things we will accept as partial payment (e.g., labor for labor):

  • Do you have computer skills?  Do you understand Woo Commerce?
  • Are you a professional photographer or illustrator?  We need pictures.
  • Are you a licensed contractor?  Do you live in the Greater Los Angeles area?
    • We have some renovation work that we would like done.
    • We’d also like to get a TARDIS cat house built.
  • Are you a gardener?
    • We have some landscaping needs.
  • Gift Certificates or gift cards?  You’d be surprised where and for what.

So if this sounds feasible, please use our custom costume inquiry form and add a note about your barter item in the description section.

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Halloween 2016 — Now Accepting Commissions!

Looking for something different to wear to your next great Halloween bash!  Want to knock the socks off your friends and coworkers and still have something you can wear next spring to your local Renaissance festival to Comic Con, or both?

Looking high and low for a certain GoT religious zealot, and there’s no High Sparrow robe to be found?

We can help!

We have four, possibly six spaces available for costume commissions for Halloween.

Submit your inquiry today.

Halloween special orders close on September 25, 2016 at 9 pm pacific — ACT NOW!

 

 

 

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What we’ve been up too — 7/21/2016 edition

Besides tending to the needs of our gracious feline overlords, where is a little of what we’ve been up to lately:

  1. Game of Throne cosplay — We created our version of the High Sparrow’s robe.  Blog post in progress in this one.  Did you know that he had four different ones if you count the one he wore in the Season 6 finale?
  2. Went on “progress” to have lunch with Claire and Jamie — I went to the Outlander exhibit at the Paley Center.  I have two words: ‘awesome’ and ‘go’.  Seriously, if you live within a couple of hours and are a fan of the show and the incredible work that Terry Dresbach and her extremely talent team create it, it is worth the trip to Beverly Hills to see it.  [Me: Does sipping a frappucino in front of the window drooling at the RED dress count as lunch?]
  3. Fabrication:  We’ve received our first batches of Tudor era style wool from England.  We’ve received some heavy weight “poor black” linen as well.
  4. Costume College 2016 — Yep, we’re going.
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Site Hiccups!

As a result of the fabulous time we spent celebrating our site shop grand opening with our furry friends at #NipClub at their NipClub Monthly fund raiser party, we should have know there would be fallout or some sort.

Now for those not in the know, NipClub is short for Catnip Club — and well, several hyper-nipified kittens got loose and uncovered things, chewed on cables, batted links underneath the stove and well, caused unmentionable havoc.

So with that disclaimer, our shopping side of the website will down for a few days while we scold bad, but ultimately helpful, kitties and fix things.

 

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Costume vs. Garb — well, which is it?

You’ve just discovered the joys of historical reenacting[1] and have joined your first event as a real participant, not a well-appointed patron, and during the course of the event, you find yourself engulfed in a heated dispute over what to call the outfit you are wearing. ACK! What’s a newbie to do? So, while you’re fending off some overzealous, self-appointed member of the costume police, please allow me to clarify a few points and answer that eternal question . . . The ultimate answer might surprise you. It did us!

Is it a “Costume” or is it“Garb”?

As much as some would prefer it to be the contrary, referring to your “fyne period attyre” as a Costume is not only grammatically correct, but proper as well, as I will explain.

A Costume as defined[2] is either “the attire worn in a play or at a fancy dress ball”; “the attire characteristic of a country or a time or a social class” or “unusual or period attire not characteristic of or appropriate to the time or place.”

So let’s examine the facts.

  1. You are a Participant and/or a Performer at your local Ren Faire.
  2. You’re wearing clothes are indicative of 16th century England.
  3. It’s the 21st century America.

First, if you assume the premise that “All the Faire’s a Stage”, then the condition of “attire worn in a play” is met, and thus, you are wearing a costume.

Second, the simple fact you are wearing clothing reminiscent of 16th century England and the calendar says it’s June of 2003 and you’re in Devor, California precludes that it could be anything else but a costume.

Therefore, with that being said, you are wearing a Costume.

Nevertheless, there are instances where not only are you wearing a Costume, but you are wearing Garb as well.

 Garb, as defined[3] is most commonly what we do, e.g.: “provide [someone] with clothing or put on clothes”. Think of that line from a well known Christmas Carole – “don we now our gay apparel.” Additionally, Garb is also “a particular dress for sporting,” and here lays our clue, the use of the word “sporting.” While the usage is somewhat Victorian as well as arcane in nature, and no longer in vogue, sporting refers to one’s participating in athletic endeavors. As any student of Biblical Hebrew will tell you, Garb is one of those words that gets as close to a verbal noun as we get in the English language.

Therefore, if you are participating in recreation of a period athletic event (ie: fencing, archery, horse tournaments, jousting and such), the specific period attire worn for such an event would most certainly as well as correctly be considered Garb. However, it is only Garb if you are a participant in the sporting event, not as a part of the combatants’ following or the spectators.

Regretfully, there is a “certain stigma” that has become associated with the word “costume.” Amongst certain factions of historical reenactors, there are those would rather die a thousand deaths than to have their labor of love be equated to that $40.00 special from the local volume discounter at Halloween time. I, on the other hand am not, but I am going to take the leap and speculate that this might have something to do with the readily acceptance of the word “Cosplay”[4] as a way to distinguish our labors of love – usually from a movie, television program, comic book or anime – from a fancy dress party outfit. [Yes, I used the British term for a costume party.]

So what is our answer to the question? We say Yes, it’s both – we just lean heavier towards the costume side of the equation.  But whatever you want to call it, it’s still just clothes from a different era than the one we are currently in.

 

References:

[1]“Historical Reenacting” for the purposes of this paper is being generically applied to any and all activities which require the participant to dress and conduct themselves in manner appropriate to an era of history that is not the actual years in which they are living. Such groups include reenactors at such places at Kentwell Hall, Colonial Williamsburg, Plymoth Plantation; Renaissance Faire participants (“Rennies”), Dickens Festivals, and members of the Society for Creative Anachronisms (SCA) to name a few of the more prominent groups.

[2] The American Heritage College Dictionary, Third Edition, Houghtion, Mifflin Company, 1993, page 314

[3]The American Heritage College Dictionary, Third Edition, Houghtion, Mifflin Company, 1993, page 561

[4] “Cosplay.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc, 5 Mar. 2016. Web. 15 Mar. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay#cite_note-42>.

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What we’ve been up to …

Here is a brief recap of the trouble we’ve gotten ourselves into the past year:

  1. Still working on our historical romance novel.
  2. Taking a stab at learning biblical Hebrew and sucking at it, royally.
  3. Discovering QueenAnneBolyen.com and the possibility of doing some writing for them.
  4. Became a Downton-head
  5. Becoming obsessed with Game of Thrones.
  6. Hosting Minibreeze and well, costuming him.
  7. Holding Egar da Kitty reluctantly hostage. (long, lame story)
  8. Knit a pint-size Doctor Who scarf for our twitter friend, Zack Rabbit.
  9. Discovered “Meals in a Jar” and making my own!  and No, I haven’t gone prepper.
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Sci-Fi Pawty Prize donation – Wecanhas … scarf the fourth?

Doctor Who 11th Theme Music  For the full experience, click the link, you know you want to.

Being the proud and fur-covered mother of her four rescued felines, it is my privilege to help where and how I can.

So with that now being said, I asked myself … what does a Whovian period costumer do to incorporate her three of her four passions of Sci-fi, costuming and supporting animal rescue charities on a shoestring?  She hand-knits the Fourth Doctor’s iconic Scarf and donates it as a prize for Boris Kitty’s 5th Annual Sci-Fi Pawty. The SCIFpawty is a virtual Science Fiction Convention on Twitter. The hashtag #SCFIpawty The proceeds will once again benefit One By One Cat Rescue in Kutztown, PA a no-kill, non-profit organization.

So what does a person or more specifically a Whovian need to know about the scarf featured below?

  1. This scarf is by the book. As outlined in my blog post entitled  A Whovian’s …err “Delight”? — making the fourth Doctor’s Scarf I use the “Official BBC Enterprises Knitting pattern for the ‘Doctor Who’ Scarf,” which can be found here: http://www.androgums.org/scarf.html.
  2. Yes, it really is 12 feet long.
  3. The scarf is knit in 100% acrylic yarn, specifically:  Lion Brand Yarn’s “Vanna’s Choice.”  I love this yarn.  It is soft, has a good hand, has a wide color palette and best of all, is machine wash and dry.
  4. The colors are cannon.  I’ve used the color resources at Witty Little Knitter.  If anyone has done their homework, Tara Carstensen certainly has.  [Dudes, seriously. She took an OTT Light and a Pantone color book with her when she got the opportunity to have a hands on with the Shada scraf.]  Here is her template and list of yarns.
  5. Pictures [below] — we fussed over which phone took the best and most accurate representation of the colors.  The husband’s iPhone won.  We took pictures against both a black coat and a warm, dark brown coat to give you the best opportunities to see what it will look like before it arrives at your home.
  6. Hand-knitting — I hope in stating that this scarf has been hand-knit by yours truly would imply that there might be an irregularity or two in the knitting process.  There are three or four little “burps” in the stitches.  Now when you consider everything that Four put his scarf through, these are nothing; however, I did feel compelled to mention them.
  7. Cat Fur — the cats have made their own contribution to this project.  Thus, there is small small quantity of car fur that has unavoidably knitted into the scarf.
  8. The scarf has been washed in 7th Generation “Free & clear” it get out all of the awful sizing and the aforementioned cat fur as possible.

Doctor Who 4th Scarf - Black coat right side up Doctor Who 4th Scarf - Bown coat right side up

And as a sneak peak, here is our annual #scfipawty avatar: our 3 of 4, Obi-wan as his name sake.

May the #scfipawty force be with you.
May the #scfipawty force be with you.

 

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NaNoWriMo, anyone?

So it’s only September 22 and #nanowrimo doesn’t start for another 39 days but who’s counting?  But I’ve continued to work on the the novel I started some ten months back, which in truth is a storyline that began to take its shape back in 1983 when I was developing the backstory for my middle class Renaissance Faire personae.  Yep my peeps, it’s a bucket-list item — I always told myself that I would finish this dang thing and now I am committed to doing just that.  It’s original working tile was “Summer of Splendour” and now currently “Lament” and yes, I’ve gotten myself an editor [a fair trade for the Eleanora of Toledo gown] who is very excited about it and lots of doors have been opening.

Now two things to note:

First and dearest to my heart Foxes Period Costumes will make recreating all of our heroine’s note worthy gowns

Second, in doing some research for the novel, I decided “what the heck” and Googled the gentleman who played opposite to me at Faire and discovered that he too is a fledgling writer and oh yeah, he started writing at about the same time I did.  He’s published about a half dozen short fantasy story stories, which works out to my current word count.  For those who knew the both of us 25-30 years when we were a quasi-couple back in the day wouldn’t be too surprised but a little disturbed that we were doing the same thing at the same time …from opposite ends of the state.

So from my National Novel Writing Month’s novel recap page, I give you:

Lament

Synopsis

Exploring the natural evolution of two (very, very retired) Renaissance Faire characters in the form of your basic trashy historical romance novel — One part Skye O’Malley, one part Once Upon a Time.

Excerpt

Lady Katherine sighed deeply as she thought of the details of her life that had brought her to this place. She tucked her fur lined velvet throw tightly around her legs to help block out the cold night air. The roaring fire in the hearth did very little to keep her warm, but it was certainly warmer than where she would be headed in a few short hours to answer for her alleged crimes.