For those of you wondering, I did enter my First Time Hand Sewing project into the Baronial A&S Championship competition. It was a very well rounded event considering we had 11 entries spanning all types of media from cooking, sewing, knitting and painting to armour making and even my husband's ballista! With that said, competition was stiff and the winning entry was a beautiful piece of jewellery. A well deserved win.
I did receive some unexpected "kudos" for my efforts though! I was called into court to receive recogniton for my A&S participation throughout the year. It was a beautiful laurel leaf token! I was so taken aback that I almost cried. This was a special moment for me and this token will be cherished. It certainly gives me incentive to keep going! Here is a photo of me and my new token...I am happier than I look as I was still trying to hold back some tears!
So of course I must start thinking about next year's 12th Night A&S entry!
I do have many ideas rolling around my brain that I'd like to try but I can only do so much.
Near the top of my priority list is a heraldic gown. However, since I am still waiting for my heraldry to officially pass, I do not want to start something I cannot finish. Besides, I think a banner should be my first job, since I made such a nice one for my husband! (He loved his Christmas presents by the way!) That way it would give me "practice" for when I throw it onto a gown.
What I've ultimately decided to do is to kill two birds with one stone. I do have a few outfits to wear now but my underclothes wardrobe is sadly lacking. I have two shifts, and one of them is not even to my liking! With that said, I think I'd like to do a study on 14th Century women's chemises/shifts/smocks...whatever you'd like to call them. There is lots of interesting information out there and at least one extant example...that being the one found in Kohler's A History of Costume:
I think the debate that accompanies the existance of this shift and others such as the Bathhouse Babes styles will add to the interest of a project such as this one.
So, I think this could keep me busy this year, giving me a good A&S project and a few shifts to wear as a result! And in between times when I get bored I can look to my heraldic gown plans!
