Renaissance Festival

Every fall, one of my favorite weekends is when my dance group performs at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. This year we had gorgeous weather and a great time dancing. These pictures were all taken at the last performance on the second day, so we don't look as bouncy as we normally are. (Most everyone's feet and legs were pretty sore by then.)


I thought this one was a good shot of my costume. (I'm dancing with the guy in black.) I made my vest and embroidered on it, and my head scarf is an old woven shibori experiment of mine. The skirt I borrowed from someone because it matched so well, and my shirt is actually from the Gap. Obviously one of the funnest parts of doing this is having an excuse to dress up. Because our group is on the performers list for Scottish weekend, we are required to dress in peasant garb. (not that anyone minds doing it)


I caught the birds of prey show in between performances and got this picture of the cutest little screech owl. He wasn't nervous like the other big birds were around crowds of people. He just sat there looking around at everyone, calm as can be.


We've had so much rain the past couple of weeks that all the hay bales had sprouted and this one had mushrooms growing out of it. I took the picture early in the morning before all the patrons were let in, so the background looks so nice and peaceful.

I also bought a wooden bow and arrows set from a really nice Christian guy who makes them for a living. I'll be sure to post some pictures of it when I get a chance to practice.

I would like to note that although I really enjoy going to Renfest, there are a lot of not-so-great things about it. The majority of the people involved in running it are lost souls and therefore there is quite a lot of distasteful content. Improper exposure is the most noticeable, but most of the shows have adult content in them and there are plenty of evil influences amidst the whole thing. I personally just ignore these things when there, but if I did not have the reason of my dance group going, I probably would not attend it. It makes me very sad that such a neat way of living history (although not very accurate) is so very corrupted to be distasteful. People like Rod from the bow shop give me hope that there are at least some Godly influences there.

Cleaning out the Attic...

...what a fun way to spend the day!?

So, my parent's attic is pretty much full of my stuff. Today all I went through was fabric and clothes. I can't believe all the tiny scraps of fabric I saved. Some of it was more than 10 years old. I also found a lot of failed projects thrown into bags.



This is all that I actually saved from that huge pile in the first picture. The bags on the right are all alpaca wool that I have been meaning to send off to get cleaned and carded.

Lesson learned: only save a fabric scrap if it's at least 12". (Unless you're a quilter I guess.)

(Thanks for the posting help, I figured it out!)

Supplies

Last week, I took a trip to Lawrence, KS to one of my favorite stores: the Yarn Barn. It is the only place in my area that carries weaving supplies. It is an hour's drive to get there, so I only go a couple of times a year. So you can imagine that I usually buy a lot when I go there, hehe. I got a lot of yarn, which means I'm going to be weaving a lot more in the near future. In fact I've already set up the loom and started more of the Finnish twill scarves for wiksten. The Yarn Barn also carries fabric dyes and I'm gearing up to dye a batch of silk scarves, so I had to stock up on those too.

I also went to another great store across the street: Sarah's Fabrics. They carry a huge selection of designer fabrics that are hard to find. There I got some pretty patterned fat quarters to make my friend Rachel a knitting needle case for Christmas, which I've already completed. (bottom picture) It was very easy thanks to a tutorial I found.

All in all, a very productive trip, and I was such a good girl, I didn't buy anything that I didn't need for a specific reason. (this time)

**Side note: Can someone tell me how to get text in between my pictures? I can't seem to figure it out and so I'm forced to put all the pictures at the top and all the text at the bottom.

Needle Felting

At the Kansas City Weaver's Guild meeting today we had a mini-workshop about needle felting. If you've ever done regular wet felting before, this is quite different. You're using very small amounts of wool to "paint" a picture onto a wool/fabric background. The felting is done by stabbing special barbed needles repeatedly through both layers to attach them together. You have to have foam underneath it to cushion the stabbing motion. It's really easy and pretty fast. The action of punching the needle in and out is officially called "needling", but we decided it was funner to call it "stabbing" and say things like, "This stabbing is so therapeutic."

It was fun to do, but I don't see myself doing anymore of it anytime soon. I hate to say this, but I don't really know what you would use it for except to make cutesy pictures on stuff, which.... is not my cup of tea. You can use a similar technique to make little felted animals though, and that would be fun to make with or for children.

The pictures are of me using my fancy needle felting tool (with 5 needles in it), my friend Becky using a single needle on her project, and my finished flower. I think I'm going to sew it into an eyeglasses case for my grandma. She loves putting flowers on everything she wears.

Failed Projects

Just so no one thinks I'm that great, I thought I'd post what I've been doing all week....failed projects. First, I made two shirts from Vogue pattern 8392 and note in the picture above, it looks like a sack on me, even after I tried taking in the waist a bit. (I didn't even bother finishing the second shirt.) (And I didn't even bother taking a decent picture.)

Then, I was all excited to make a dress from Vogue pattern 1044 for a friend's wedding coming up. I've had this really nice suit wool for a while and decided to use it for the dress. Well, the pattern worked great, it fits well, but.... it looks like I should be in a business meeting. This is a classic example of one thing I struggle with a lot: choosing the right fabric to go with the pattern. I'm usually attracted to plainer, natural fiber fabrics like cotton, linen, and wool. Well, none of those really say "fancy dress for a wedding". So now I'm not sure what to do with this top of the dress. I didn't even start on the skirt part yet because I don't know if I even want to complete the dress. Any suggestions on how to make this not look like a business suit would be very appreciated. I'm thinking some kind of stitching in a contrast color, like a golden yellow, might at least brighten it up a bit.

So, be aware, a large percentage of my projects do not turn out successfully. Thankfully, I think I can salvage most of the material from the shirts and use it for something else. These are the times when I take a break from frenetic sewing and clean the house, at least that is somewhat satisfying.

kimono challenge

I have three used Japanese kimonos that I bought on impulse 4 years ago. Needless to say, I've never actually worn them or done anything with them. Two of them have nice patterns on the fabric but are scratchy, the third one is soft silk and very pretty. Someone suggested that I use them to make something else from the fabric. For some reason I'm not getting inspired though. So I thought I'd post on here and see if anyone has any suggestions for what to make from them. I'm mainly concerned with the silky one. It's a short kimono, and only comes to the hips, so not as much material as the other ones. Any ideas?