Ooooh Shiny!

Solstice in a Summerless Year has gone live at Expanded Horizons.

Dude, that was the fastest sale to publication in my (admittedly not very extensive) experience of releasing short stories out into the wild.

Just in case anyone's interested, this is the story that was inspired by a Panorama documentary about supervolcanoes.

*

On my way home from work, on the little hill by the water tower, I saw a fox. I've never seen a fox quite that close in York before, although I've seen many in London and Norfolk. It was beautiful.

Current Mood: accomplished

I've just finished reading Iron Angel by Alan Campbell.

( A small review of sorts, complete with mild spoilers )

***

In short, I really liked this book. It's full of very bloody win and awesome. If you like very bloody win and awesome, you should read it.

Current Mood: content

You might remember a few months back that I babbled a while about making a tunic for LARP using a C13th-ish pattern, and some green cotton that me and cthulouis bought from allseeingeye23.

Well, after many hours of patient hand stitching, I've finally finished it.



For a bigger piccie, click here

Construction: flat felled seams, whip stitched (or hem stitched, depending on what you read)into place (two lines of stitching, one of the inside of the garment and one on the outside), edged with braid from Bead Hive (this was also attached with whip/hem stitched , my new favorite kind of stitch :D). The seams look the same on the inside as the outside.



( More piccies under the cut )

And so... I've learnt a lot from this piece.

Mainly, I've learnt that flat felled seams are awesome, and that hand stitching can give you a strong and durable garment. Also, flat felling isn't difficult, especially if you bother to iron the seams first (which I didn't, leading to a bit more work for me).

I've also learnt that I need to focus on consistency with my hand stitching. My stitching is pretty good overall, but I hope I'll improve with practice.

*

The next project that isn't a corset (corsetry will be happening alongside this, pictures to follow soonish hopefully):

I'm going to try to get hold of 4m of white linen next to make a shift. I haven't quite decided whether I want something accurate to the C14th, C15th or C16th, or whether what I actually want is something anachronistic that borrows authenticity while looking totally awesome for LARP. We shall see.

Current Mood: accomplished

No, I really have no idea whether this is going to work or not, being my first ever crochet project, but it seems to be doing quite well so far.

The fake yarn is made of old t-shirts that I'd saved to use as dusters.

Current Mood: awake

At last, I've completed the binding on the green satin waspie I began last weekend. And here it is...



( Front and back views )

I used a pattern that I drafted for myself a while ago. The method I used can be found here and here.

I'm really pleased with the curve this gives, much as I know that my sewing and construction skills have a long way to develop!

In particular, I want to concentrate on accuracy and sewing straight for my next project. However, this one looks OK as it is, so I'm not about to take it apart :P


***


( Here lie many construction photos, just in case anyone's interested to see how I put it together. Please note, I am not in any way professional. I just do it for fun, and it involves a good degree of inexpert botching. )

Current Mood: accomplished

( 8th December )

Current Mood: awake

( 7th December )

Current Mood: accomplished

( 6th December )

Current Mood: kinda ill

( 5th December )

Current Mood: busy

( 4th December )

Current Mood: busy

( 3rd December )

( 2nd December )

Current Mood: awake

Last year, I brought you the Naked Baby Jesus Advent Calendar, because some laws are very poorly thought-out.

This year I'm not trying to make any particular point, I'm just doing this to share the bizarre, intriguing and beautiful Christmas-related art of the middle ages and fifteenth-century that I particularly like. Jesus may well be present, and in varying stages of undress, but not in every image.

( The first day of advent )

Current Mood: awake

Behold! The fruits of cthulouis's labour!

The Mighty Dredd-O-Lantern!





( He is the law! )

Current Mood: impressed

Why is it that Sarah Palin puts me in mind of Serena Joy?*

Actually, that scares the living crap out of me.

This, however, is refreshing and somewhat reassuring.




*The link won't really explain, better to read the book itself.

Current Mood: busy

( Black velvet underbust corset with cream satin binding )

I made this one quite quickly (except the bias binding, which took three hours entirely by hand), and hence it isn't the greatest example of my work. This is why there are no photos of the inside. ;)

Current Mood: accomplished

Today has been a day of film watching.

First up, ( The Reaping (cut for very minor spoilers) )

Second up was a film I rented solely on the strength of the DVD cover, and the fact that it was Korean (I'm willing to try any Korean film after watching The Host, which was made of win and awesome). ( Dragon Wars (cut for spoilers, but I shouldn't think many of you would consider watching it, so you should click and read)... )

Current Mood: amused

Best cat macro I've seen in a long time.

*

Tackling the suck in Chapter 1 again today. Hopefully I'll make better progress than I did before. I have a better idea of how it's going to turn out now. Hopefully it'll work.

Still very concerned about not having enough time to make this happen, but I suppose I shall get as far as I get, and I can always tinker with it after the TAP. [but I want it to be perfect before the TAP, WAILY!]

Current Mood: worried

I made LARP armour. This was my first foray into the world of rivets.

I got to bash things with my hammer. Bashing things with my hammer is fun.

( Clicky for pictures and more crafting talk )

Current Mood: accomplished

Another reason Antarctica is awesome.