Cheklov's Stuff

Last month, I decided to was time for MOAR HATS.   So I went to see momma and her beautiful sewing room so I could efficiently cut out the pieces for some more damn hats. Yay! I have the stuff for two ready to go once I stop being a lazy fucking uncreative bum. Then I went SHOPPING for SUPPLIES!   Above are my handstitching supplies for the aforementioned hats. A nice, heavy silk thread in (you can't tell because my light sucks) white, cream and black. I was so tempted to color match but... even black thread is kinda rare in period so I just said screw it, simple colors are FINE.  Also I gave in and got some marking chalky/waxy not chalk/crayon things. Maybe my hand stitched seamlines will be less atrocious this time.    Next, I got a crapton of PAINT (and paint adjacent supplies) and I guess a RULER which I keep forgetting about even though it's RIGHT THERE. I'm pretty sure I don't have enough black paint but stupid Michaels LITERALLY h...

So, I'm not sure why this never made it on the blog, but for a while I was making some really nicely ugly 6-panel wool and "linen" viking hats for my SCA largesse chest project. I'll probably get more into that later, but suffice to say, it's been in progress for 2-plus years and is proceeding at the speed these things normally do, for me. Hahaha... *sigh* I don't actually know how period these babies are, but they're pretty accepted as a nice, comfortable and stylish hat at events. I think it's justified based on a Birka find, but that might have only been a four panel hat - I'm just not sure, and I'm honestly too lazy to get into the research again. (I lied, I looked, and yeah, there was a 6-panel hat from Birka .) Mine are... okay, so my wool? In these it's basically an old olive drab wool blanket. It's a nice, ugly color that I could achieve with natural dyes if I tried, and my "linen" is (on hat 1) an old linen tablecloth...

I love cosplay. I really do. Sometimes I hit on just the right character and I can make something that turns out pretty decent.  Sadly, most of the time my procrastination eats my face and things don't turn out the way I'd hoped; see all my incomplete cosplays, alas. I am after all a master of procrastination. However, this year I was originally gonna do one thing, then i was cruising through patterns idly when I saw Simplicity pattern 8971 and I started getting IDEAS. I saw that and wanted to make a Ho-Oh gijinka. BORB. Obviously the pattern as-is is never gonna fit me, and will have to be sized up dramatically to get close, which means it's time to finally make myself a custom dress form out of duct tape, hurrah! So I always build my inital concept off of what the pattern has available - that looked like this: But now I gotta consider what will actually look good with my body, as well as realistic modifications. That involved ...