Got Sidetracked

Well my list of projects got put to the side this weekend when i got inspired by some fabric i saw at Hobby Lobby. One of my walls in my stairwell has been bare and waiting for a tapestry for over a year now and when I saw this fabric I knew that it would go very nicely on that wall.

The picture really doesn't do it justice, but it has creams, blues, reds, and browns in it that all blend nicely together with the various textures.

My plan is to have two panels on the same curtain rod so that some of the wall comes through, with it being hung off the rod like the picture below.

I have the two panels cut out and one sewn to the back fabric. I didn't make as much progress as I wanted to, but i will get it done on Friday.

Update:  Here is a picture of the tapestry hanging on the wall by the stairs.

Lucet cord

Today I've started the cord for the rapier shirt. It's an easy process and is fairly mindless so I should be able to whip out the length I need today, especially since my youngest has a doctor's appointment and there will be waiting room time :)

There is of course a wiki page for the Lucet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucet) that has the basic information and has links to youtube for some further instruction. I was taught by my friend Sara and was amazed at how easy it is.


This is my lucet that my husband cut out for me several years ago. They only require the two prongs but i do find the handle useful.

Shirt Progress

So I worked a little bit on the rapier shirt for Mike. I previously posted a picture of the blackwork that goes on the cuff. I had wanted to knock out the cassock, but needed him at home to try it on for the collar area so had to work on something else. The shirt was all cut out so I started it a bit. I didn't get very far since I was also helping Ainsley sew on her new little sewing machine ($14, not worth the aggravation) and got tired of bending over so needed a break.

I have used this pattern in the past http://www.houseffg.org/resources/Elizabethan_Shirt.pdf and the shirts really come out nicely, they just have a lot of little parts to put all together. They fit him well and don't require modification to the pattern except a little extra length in the body since his is so tall.


This picture shows the sleeves being attached. I realized at this point that i hadn't cut them wide enough so had to recut sleeves and re attach them. Since the pattern is done by just measurements, i must have cut something wrong in the beginning, thankfully it was an easy fix. Sleeves are just rectangles so didn't require more than 5 minutes to fix it.



I got as far as putting the body completely together as is shown in the picture above. This portion of the pattern is very easy to go together, it's getting all the wrist cuffs and neck cuff with the ruffles that takes the longest and requires some hand sewing to finish it off. I do need to lucet some cord for the neck tie, so will do that during the week before I get back to sewing again. I will post about the lucet cord as well and will try to take pictures of the process.