Loose threads

For the longest time I thought I wouldn't manage a lot for Historic Sew Montly this year, but looking back it turns out I did  - I just fell behind terribly on the blog posts. I will add them in an order that sort of makes sense, rather than either following the challenges or necessarily the timeline of the projects.

 

First out is therefore the April challenge, Opposites attract. "...make something that uses two or more colours which you would not normally use together, or colours which "clash" to the modern eye."

 

As it turns out, this was also an opposite order project, making the sleeves before the outfit it was supposed to clash a bit with, but there you go.

 

 I went to a larp in July 2023 and originally had quite a few plans for dresses before it all started. In the end I was a) short of time (shocking, I know) and b) very inclined to go for a woolier nobility than fantasy often sports. My character was, after all, not a countess but a knight's widow, and while I had a bit of fancy fabric laying around, it made a lot of sense to go for a wool look and then (because short of time) make fancy stuff for Sunday bests later. Little did I know, you can never guess what happened next (unless you make it to the end of this post).

 

But: short of time it was, and one _stellar_ way to sort that out, especially for a larp, is to bring lots and lots of sleeves. With a couple of sets of sleeves and a few kirtles, combinations are almost endless. I also had the very clear ambition to not buy any more fabric than absolutely necessary this year, both since sewing is not the most sustainable hobby (the fabric industry is almost universally shitty) but to be honest mostly because I have a HUGE stash by now. This is another great reason for sleeves: they are a great use for that too-small-for-anything piece of leftover fabric.