I'm thinking of saving my pennies instead for a used serger. I'm leaning toward a Babylock with air threading. Though a Viking or Pfaff would be OK, too. The pickins seem to be half way decent on Craig's List, and if I'm patient I can probably get what I want or darned close to it. There's also a large dealership an hour or so away - though I can probably get a better deal with Craig's List. Fee-Bay is less of a bargain these days than it once was. And Sergers are heavy to ship.

So, speak to me of sergers. What do you recommend? What do you like? What do you not like? Share your collective Wisdom, Oh Hive Mind!!

Anneliese had picked out the Mulan costume for Halloween this year. I considered this to be a good thing, as it was big enough to cover wearing pants and a shirt underneath. So I put her hair up in a ponytail, wrapped it with a ribbon, and did her face in white make-up. She was delighted. I'd been on the fence about taking Rori at all. Seven years is a big age difference for something like that. So I just put her in the little panda shirt Mom got her, and loaded her up in the stroller, muffled in blankets. She seemed to enjoy things for the most part - till the last four blocks. Partly my fault - Mama forgot to bring a pacie. We gave out rather a lot les candy than previous years. I'm guessing because we were the ONLY house on our block passing out candy. Not worth the hike, probably.

Oh, and John found his new hero. One house we went to did it ALL the way up. Music playing over outdoor speakers, a dozen jack-o-lanterns on the porch rail, a "skeleton" buried partially in the lawn, and creepy "eyes" blinking on and off in the darkened windows. Plus strobe lights in the lawn pointed at the house. Tres Cool.

Sunday was sewing day with 'Laina. Pammy stopped in to hang out for a bit. And iron. ;-) It's her calling. I got the bodice to my Enkhuizen overgown mostly done. But I had a brain cramp on the math for organ pleats. Whoops. And now I can't find the tutorial page, either. ANybody have it handy? It's probably OK that I couldn't get that part done, though. On thinking about it, the wool is so very thin I think I should probably pad the pleats. Maybe run a 3" wide strip of wool flannel along the top of the skirt to give them more "oomph."

This morning I am unfond of Daylight Savings Time. Why do we still do this? Not enough people farm to make it an issue. Now it's extra dark when I get up. *sigh* Even the big ol' full moon was gone. (Hmmm, Full Moon - that ought to make for an interesting day at work).

Anneliese has no school the next two days. Poor John. He's such a trooper.

If I get time this week, I'm going to play with Joomla. Interestingly, it has a feature that enables both right-click protection and also prohibits the keyboard copy shortcut. Keen. Then maybe I can put up a costuming diary on the Enkhuizen dress.

A couple of questions/polls.

First, I think I WILL go for the hand-quilted silk petticoat. Any directions/suggestions/tutorials on cutting? I'm thinking something basically cone-shaped with no gathering to the waist is what's needed.

The second is more homely in nature. 10 years ago, when I got married, I registered for Pfaltzgraf's Naturewood dinnerware. Confession: I hate it. It's heavy, it chips, more than a few pieces have broken. And my favorite pieces are no longer made. I've even had employees at the outlet store try to tell me certain pieces never existed.

So if we go to replace our dinnerware, I'd like something more neutral anyway. Something that can go with whatever tablecloth and decor I want to use for any given holiday. I like the look of vintage ironstone. But I hate to get caught in the trap of buying something from Crate and Barrel or WIlliams-Sonoma that DOES match but gets discontinued in a couple of months to make way for the new trend. I do also like antique dishes, and have a few that I've picked up or been given here and there. I love milk glass, and some depression glass. Especially serving pieces, compotes, and dessert dishes.

So... do we look for a reproduction set by a company that is likely to keep producing it? Or do we scout antique stores for genuine pieces and not worry about their matching? As I'm unlikely to find (or if I find, be able to afford a complete purchase) of a whole set.

I await your collective wisdom.

Accomplished today: 2 pecks of tomatoes into 9 qts canned tomatoes - plus some parboiled ones after one of the jars broke in the canner. o_O Never had THAT happen before. Once my peachies ripen up - I shall can peachies. Tomorrow I may do up the plums and some other jams.

Anybody got any thoughts on the topic?

For the local crew, Fields' Fabrics (at least on 44th St) now carries a good selection of sizes of steel corset bones, some spring steel bones and extra caps, and some narrow hoop steel.

Just sayin'.


Boy do I need a nap. Or a vacation.

Maybe I'll buy a little piggy bank and start stuffing money in it as a vacation fund.

We will inevitably take a hammer to it to put new tires on the van or some such this fall, but it would make me feel as if I'm working TOWARD something.

Heck, maybe I'll just repurpose one of the one gallow carboys in the basement. Then I could see how much was in it. Hmmmm.... good idea? Or not?

A meme:

Link: The Classic Dames Test written by gidgetgoes on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

On the update front:

I've begun maundering on a design for Dad's "Captain Hook" jacket. Not that I'm likely to get to it until NEXT spring. But I like to contemplate for a while, first.

Found a cool image from Memling's "The Last Judgement" Triptych that has a burgundian with partially sew in sleeves. I kind of like the look. I might have to try that for the whole Maternity garb thing. Also, the beaded veil rocks!

http://www.wga.hu/art/m/memling/1early3/02last41.jpg

Knitting - not a lot going on. I very briefly maundered on doing a medieval silk relic bag, then thought better of it. Silk is probably not the best choice for a first try at colorwork. And I'm probably more likely to finish an embroidered pouch, anyway.

I have a list a mile high of stuff to do for Darling. And he's busy stressing over the job-thing. So we're quite a pair. I might send him off tomorrow to finish his polearm and great sword. It will keep him out of my hair. Though I'm not sure he'll bother with GR practice with gas at $3.65/gal. *sigh* At least I'm on call for the weekend, so no travel plans to agonize over.

Or "I should behave better than Lydia if I should go to Brighton"

Sooooo... Another Golden Seamstress shot to hell, to paraphrase my Grandfather. We had ourselves a good time, nearly finished an outfit for Antonia, and learned a few new things. Just so nobody thinks I'm being whiny. There is a good deal of fun to be had spending the weekend with friends, knocking out a style we've never tried before. We enjoy it.

Now the snark: For reasons unknown to us, we seem to be permanently on the wrong side of the judges. Ever since we cut up a sari for a Venetian ensemble two years ago, we seem to have occupied a place just south of Satan. Which is OK. But the A&S arena politics can get to be a bit much.

For those of you unfamiliar, I speak of the Quest for the Golden Seamstress - in which teams of up to 6 people have 20 hours to complete an outfit from the skin out, no patterns.

( Click for detailed whining )

Sooo... the wedding insanity continues. Alaina and I both spent far too long feeling like we accomplished too little, I think, last Wednesday. Still, she took me to lunch at Bono's. Which was deeply appreciated. The Wedding (TM) approaches like an oncoming train. Too much to do, too little time, and an absolute motivation vacuum. *sigh* Hopefully, this weekend when I get back to the folks' place from Golden Seamstress I can fit Mom and Dad for their various "stuff" and be ready to roll. Then it's going to be pull-out-all-the-stops time and lack of sleep to get everything done, I suspect. I now estimate that I'll have spent about twice as much time on Wendy's wedding than I did on my own.

Meanwhile, I'm itching to get at other things. Darling desperately needs a new gambeson. The points on his are wearing out. He asked me to mend it - 12 hours before Val Day. I laughed with a slight edge of hysteria. But it will need to be fixed soon, or replaced. Problem - his next one I intend to be a grande aisette. So first I need to finish the toile for that, make a cotehardie from it, test the fit, and modify to a gambeson weight. Errrrr.

I also need to get cracking on Alaina's Court Barony scroll. And start the Laurel scroll I've been commissioned to do - as soon as he decides precisely what he wants. He wants a Russian pieces with lots of gold, maybe gold text, adorned heavily. My Russian sources are pretty minimal, so I'm REALLY struggling.

Boo needs summer garb. Badly. I'm thinking linen shift and Flemish Kirtle. That way, a wool overgown will transition the whole outfit into the fall.

I need a new summer gown. Yeah, I know. Not bloody likely.

And I've decided that what I really want to do when I grow up is hand dye sock yarn. Mostly because I'm easily fascinated by bright colors and would love nothing better that to play with them all day. So maybe if the Michigan Fiber Fest runs another workshop this year, I'll be able to go. My first sock yarn is on it's way. Yippeee! And whilst surfing for more, I stumbled across a project knitting black regulation socks for Soldiers. Wool being so much better for feet that spend a long time in boots than anything else. Hmmmm... if I get to spend much time knitting socks, I might set myself a goal of doing one pair of Soldier's socks for every 4 fun sets. And maybe even a set of Eleanor of Toledo's stockings if I feel the need for a challenge.

I'm hiding from work. In the last few days I've been dragged out for 3 "emergencies" that weren't, been threatened and screamed at by a woman who insisted I screwed up her dog's surgery, when in fact he licked out the sutures, and had my answering service complain to my office manager that I'm just mean and nasty. Mostly because I have this strange belief that my answering service should be able to page the correct doctor with the correct phone number with better than 80% accuracy. Silly me.

Back to the wedding sewing.....

Darling and I loaded up the Tricycle Motor and headed to GR for Twelfth Fight this weekend. A good time was had by all. The Small One didn't care that Mama had forgotten HER dress, and played happily with her stuffed castle set for most of the day.

Baroness Kassia invited me into the Ladies' gallery - and I dragged my sister and Harley along for the ride. This is the only event I get to on a regular basis that is a formal Pas, rather than a "last man standing" tourney. I enjoyed the show rather thoroughly. Counted blows at the barrier and on the open list made for a nice change of pace. Of course, I might be biased by the fact that Darling one the tourney! This was the choice of the Baroness, and largely based on his extemporaneous oration on the virtues of the ladies of the gallery (complete with somewhat backhanded complement to the Baron - panic sort of set in for a moment), and choosing to match weapons with the Baron in spite of never having fought with an axe before. *g* The first bout, Baron Garth took him in the head on the first shot. The next, Darling made quite a good accounting of himself. He was delighted with the 14th century armor book, and handed over the chocolate to me.

I wandered around the room, sharing the fruits of his labor, even with Them. We are determined not to give them any polish for their martyr's crowns. And I decided just to flat be the bigger person. I have no respect for them, I think their character is lacking. But it's their problem, not mine.

I got about 1/2 of my brustfleck embroidered, the gown cut out, the trigger seamed and hemmed for cartridge pleating, and can probably get quite a bit more of the construction done tonight. I've decided to go ahead and do just a single gown with a high-necked chemise and corded petticoat. Hence, two layers of acro in the bodice of the gown for structure. So I still need some black velveteen for the hat, some gold lace for the brustfleck and hat, some pillow ticking for the petticoat, yards of bias tape and cotton cord, and some trim for the chemise. Bridezilla was not all that pleased with me for setting down wedding clothes in favor of something for ME, but tough cookies.

I DO also have enough fabric to manage a cotehardie and chausses for Darling, and a viking apron dress for Boo. Of course, I do have a Court scroll to do as well, and I need MY corded kirtle done shortly so we can fit my overgown. By Feb 14th at the absolute latest. But I'm darned well not going to be embarrassed by the scruffiness of my family if I can help it. And, as Ingrid keep promising Boo a viking necklace of her very own, she ought to have a dress to wear it with.