Donkeyskin and Weaving
Not much sewing to report—I've done a few more seams for my RenFest
blouse, but it's basically just a collection of large approximations of
rectangles right now, so no new pictures. And tonight is probably going
to be taken up with resume and cover letter writing as I continue to
search for a job actually in the town I live in rather than one over.
Maybe I'll find time to cut gussets and start setting them in K's
bliaut, though.
However! I did start thinking recently about this project I want to do someday that I've now been contemplating for two years and will continue contemplating for several more, I'm sure. I love the theme of the three incredible dresses from Donkeyskin (the creepy fairy tale, you know the one) and since I do medieval reenactment, I have somewhere to wear fairy tale dresses.
And so I want to weave fabric to make these three theoretical dresses: sun, moon, and night sky with stars. So far so good. But. I do late 12th into very very early 13th century, which is the time period when bliauts were high fashion, and it's very difficult to find silks that are the right weight and texture for bliauts. Dupioni is too stiff and too slubby, satin is a no, crepe is the wrong texture...basically the consensus I've found suggests habotai as the closest modern equivalent. Fine and good for monochrome dresses, and I'm looking forward to playing with the habotai I have, but there are illuminations and surviving scraps of fabric that have these truly incredible woven-in designs. Need to do more research; I'm not sure they'd be considered brocaded designs, but they're very much not stamped on the fabric after weaving. Anyway.
I want to weave enough of this fabric for at least one dress, and now as I think about it, it occurs to me that I could design fabrics with elements that play up the celestial connections for each dress, too. A common design feature in these fabrics is rows of offset circles enclosing animals or designs—so what if I used that as the base and included animals and plants associated with the sun, moon, and stars? Obsessive detail and allegory. I'll be in my bunk.
I just need to acquire several more pounds of ultra-fine reeled silk, and some equipment to weave with, and like three years with nothing else on my plate so I have time to actually accomplish this mad thing.
However! I did start thinking recently about this project I want to do someday that I've now been contemplating for two years and will continue contemplating for several more, I'm sure. I love the theme of the three incredible dresses from Donkeyskin (the creepy fairy tale, you know the one) and since I do medieval reenactment, I have somewhere to wear fairy tale dresses.
And so I want to weave fabric to make these three theoretical dresses: sun, moon, and night sky with stars. So far so good. But. I do late 12th into very very early 13th century, which is the time period when bliauts were high fashion, and it's very difficult to find silks that are the right weight and texture for bliauts. Dupioni is too stiff and too slubby, satin is a no, crepe is the wrong texture...basically the consensus I've found suggests habotai as the closest modern equivalent. Fine and good for monochrome dresses, and I'm looking forward to playing with the habotai I have, but there are illuminations and surviving scraps of fabric that have these truly incredible woven-in designs. Need to do more research; I'm not sure they'd be considered brocaded designs, but they're very much not stamped on the fabric after weaving. Anyway.
I want to weave enough of this fabric for at least one dress, and now as I think about it, it occurs to me that I could design fabrics with elements that play up the celestial connections for each dress, too. A common design feature in these fabrics is rows of offset circles enclosing animals or designs—so what if I used that as the base and included animals and plants associated with the sun, moon, and stars? Obsessive detail and allegory. I'll be in my bunk.
I just need to acquire several more pounds of ultra-fine reeled silk, and some equipment to weave with, and like three years with nothing else on my plate so I have time to actually accomplish this mad thing.
I'll be interested to see the finished results.
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