Frock Chick

The bulk of my patterns and line art is done.

I want to expand clothing items and also add in directions but I really do need to get all that created offline first.

I spent a little time making new images of the kinds of clothing the book can make.

I will debut it this weekend and share as soon as I get home. I will want a bit of a break 🙂

I got a little ambitious and so have made sure all the sleeves work for all the bodice types. Well the scoop neck is slightly difficult as it is so close the low neck. It’s just that little bit difficult. to justify right now.

But oh, how much do I adore it all! And it will make for a great online doll game.

My hand has though really not coped. Well from elbow to finger as the deformity in my wrist means the top ends of the radius and ulnar are under different stress.

Okay. I will make myself have a rest and come back to it. I have other inflammation going on that is feeding into it.

I just need to create a pattern for a skirt with a fuller back than front and then this Austrian style bodice. And then just drag and drop into the book and save. The book be in several folios to make it actually possible to publish immediately and add the details later.

But feedback from my doodles for this section has been positive so it’s absolutely worth the time invested in converting those to line art.

Meanwhile a little comparisson of my figure next to inspiration art.

I think I need to tweak this a bit to make the guarding separate. There is so much variety of guarding that it might just make life easier to remove all of it.

Also I need to do a section on hats and a section on undergarments. Then also for weather wear (cloaks and schauben.)

Today was spent diving into auction sites. So exciting and exhausting finding better quality images than before. It feels a lot like the work I do to rebuild my site- retreading old ground for not much reward.

But today also a book that has finally cemented how I want to approach my own book:

Le Manuel des Marchans moult utile a trestous. Ghent: Pierre Cesar pour Victor le Dayn, 1545.

It’s a merchants hand book. And it just says so much about what was important for a merchant at the time.

Firstly it’s very nice, but also sturdy.

There are tools!!!! In the front a sundial and compass!!!! This together with the lists of locations and dates of large faires really highlights that trade was full of travel! Ditto the pages of coins- for identifying/converting local currency.

And the back! Scales for money.

There are also pages for sketching! With silverpoint.

I mean it’s so wonderful, and absolutely comparable to a modern day netbook or ipad. Or what I used to have at Uni which was like a filofax. Or even a phone case with slots for money, cards, photos and possibly a mini ruler etc.

So I am considering creating a portable sewing/cutting/pattern collecting book. A premade base with elements for individualisation.

I already planned on my plates being able to be individually coloured, but now I can look at making some portable tools to go along with it! And extra pages to record dress and patterns of dress when travelling.

It’s literally the boost needed for the weekend after feeling a little overwhelmed and a bit defeated.

While auction hunting some of those better images have also made it easier to decide on what jewels to make for my Nordrhine gear 🙂 There are at least two variations on what looks like a wheeled mount with a jewel in the middle. And lots of examples of non mounted foliage.

I also made a full list of all the plates I need to do. At 19 so far. Got at least two more bodices to capture and two skirt plates (increasing/decreasing waists and trains) and still a lot of sleeves (so happy with the spiral paned sleeves though 🙂

But I am tired and my hands are starting to hurt.

I do also need to make diagrams and figure drawing to match each. Luckily we have the Lemberg finds and many illustrated examples of a fitted chemise that it will make it easier to do all of this. A shirt tends to hide a lot.

Oh! I also need to get a few shirts transferred to this new format.

Having now made my “plates” for printing I’m going to be able to scan them and get them tidied for printing. It’s super exciting. I will be able to publish these as they are for people who already can read pattern blocks but then I’ll have a whole lot of handy images to add in stages to help those who do not.

I’m also going to have a list of stitches with their uses and why they are used. I’m going to go through those stitching plates and also see if I can get left handed people to test mirror images or alternative ways to hold items.

I know in the past left handed people have been shamed out of using their leading hand (if you are still, I am so sorry- I know a lot of common tools are defaulted to right handed people.) That is not an element of the past I want to receate!

But before that scanning!

So have a photo! This is a face of happy, actual happy as I finally made a breakthrough on quality of life and thus ability to get quality content back up 🙂

New phone, and I mostly figured out how to fix the weird image styling this theme uses. Block? really? Why? When it’s as easy as pressing enter in any version of the app.

Anyway :)I need to transfer data, I need my baby boo back as my wallpaper.

Also success with scaling up my existing pattern blocks to get the sleeves and bodice pattern plates done 🙂 Unfortunately the paper I used has changed. That or I need to hunt out some Reeves paper. My paper has a really obvious horizonal texture. I thought it was all Bockingford. but all the new Bockingford I looked at today had an even texture. It’s so markedly different that I couldn’t use it.

But, I have a lot to do before drawing up plates so.