New helm 1

 Greetings

I have now spent some time polishing the new helm.

First, I removed the visor and avental and polished the main body of the helm.

The rust is all gone and it now looks like this.

Next, I polished the visor, which now looks like this:

I then spent some time cleaning the avental. This is a very messy process. I lay down pads of newspaper and then cover the mail in liquid metal cleaners ( mostly Brasso). I then don a plastic apron and rubber gloves and rub the mail back and forth, working the liquid in between the links until it is clean.

I then patted it dry ( a lot) and cleaned splashed metal cleaner off the leather, before treating the leather with leather food.

The avental now looks like this:

Now I can actually see the decorative brass links.

I then put the helm back together, adding brass wire to secure the avental.

Until next time

Adieu

Merry Christmas

 Season's Greetings

I take on the task of decorating for Christmas each year.

Here is this year's tree.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

Until next time

Adieu

New Helm

 Greetings

I have just bought a new houndskull bassinet.

A former member of the Paladins of Chivalry sold his armour to the club and they are selling it on to members.

The helm needed a little bit of work. Both helm and avental were rusty, it had lost one of the brass tethers for the visor-pin chains and there was no wire holding the avental on.

I have made a new brass tether from a piece of old electric plug.

Here's the one that came with the helm.

and here's my replacement one.

It's not quite as round as the other one, but it's not bad for a first try and it does the job.

As usual, I've learnt a bit doing it.

Now I've just got to remove the rust from the helm and visor and polish them a lot..

and then take on the messy job of getting the rust out of the mail avental.

Until next time

Adieu

St Andrew's Day Ball 1

 Greetings

Teddy and I went to our second Regency Ball in Putney on St Andrew's Day.

It was very local for us, so we went to the practice in everyday clothes and then went home to change for the ball.

It was Scottish themed, but , even through kilts were allowed, I decided not to wear mine.

My Line Regiment coat happens to have the star of the Order of the Thistle on it. I usually wear it with my nice bullion epaulettes and an aiglette, so I added the swath I usually wear with my kilt , as this was often done by Highland regiment officers.

It was a challenge keeping that much cloth under control for dancing. I passed one end under my right epaulette and threw the rest round and back over the top of the same epaulette, pinning it with a kilt pin at my left hip and with a clan broach at the shoulder. This left a long end hanging behind me.

Next time I will use a clan broach and a kilt pin at the shoulder, as one broach was not enough to stop tartan falling down my arm at times.

This was also the first time I had worn my new white britches. They were very comfortable to dance in.

I will post more pictures later.

Until next time

Adieu

 

Further work to painting

Greetings

I have done more work to the painting.

It now looks like this

This picture is now in the final stages. I will be living with it for a while and occasionally making small alterations until it tells me it's finished.

Until next time

Adieu
 

Regency Buck 12

 Greetings

Here is another version of my new computer art.

The Regency Buck sans wig...

Until next time

Adieu

Yet more work to painting

 Greetings

I have done more work to the kingfisher and the flowers and plants.

The painting now looks like this.

Until next time

Adieu

Regency Buck 11

 Greetings

Once more censorship has been applied to this version..

and it might be better to call it 'Regency Buck Naked'.

Until next time

Adieu

More work to painting

 Greetings

I have done some more work to my current oil painting.

It now looks like this.

Until next time

Adieu

Regency Buck 10

 Greetings

Here is the next version of this computer art.

I have applied some censorship for this blog...

Until next time

Adieu

Breeches 6

 Greetings

With the vent complete, the breeches were nearly finished.

I added the buttons and button holes.

and the buckles. I had acquired some replica breeches buckles, which fit through button holes.

and buttons at the knee.

I have also added braces buttons on the inside of the waistband and the breeches are now complete and are very comfortable to wear. 

I will be wearing them at the Ball in Putney at the end of the month.

Until next time

Adieu

Regency Buck 9

 Greetings

Here is another version of my new computer art.

Until next time

Adieu

Breeches 5

 Greetings

Having finished the knee opening, I then added lacing holes at the rear vent.

I  also decided to add a vent piece, as I would sometimes wear the breeches with a dolman (which has no tails) .

Here it is with the lacing open. I added  two holes in the vent piece to stop it shifting when I'm dancing.

Here it is with the lacing closed.

Until next time 

Adieu

Regency Buck 8

 Greetings

Here is the latest version of my new computer art

Until next time

Adieu

Breeches 4

 Greetings

Having attached the waistband, I  now turned my attention to the knee openings.

Due to a confusion caused by misprints and inexact instructions on the pattern, I had not cut the leg panels with a fold-in buttonhole tab or button flaps, so I cut these as separate pieces and added them to the knee opening.

The pattern had also specified that the knee cuff should be cut as four separate pieces and seemed to indicate a standard 5 eighth seam allowance.

Due to the way I had set out the pattern pieces, I had cut one cuff  on the fold. This one worked with the standard seam allowance, giving me an inch wide finish. I had to sew the other band with the minimum seam allowance to get the same result.

Once more, this new pattern required some furkling...

This shows the internal button flap and the inside of the button-hole panel after the cuff has been sewn on. The buttonhole panel is anchored at the corners with 'as-invisible-as-I-can-make-'em' stitches. 

Here is the outer view. You will note I have allowed a long tail, as I will be adding knee buckles.

Until next time

Adieu

Regency Buck 7

 Greetings

Here is the next version of my latest computer art

Until next time

Adieu

Breeches 3

 Greetings

Having lined the fall, set the pockets and sewn the out-seams and the in-seam, the next thing to do was to sew on the waistband.

I had to ensure that the edge of the pocket lining and the top corner of the pocket flaps were caught in the waistband.

The back of the breeches has to be fuller than the front and I opted  to put in box pleats instead of gathering.

Until next time

Adieu

Regency Buck 6

 Greetings

Here is another version of my latest computer art

Until next time 

Adieu

Breeches 2

 Greetings

I have cut out the pieces for my new breeches.

I started with the front panels, backing the fall front and adding the under-fall pieces.

I then sewed the front side of the pocket to form the 'Frog-mouth'.
 

Here you can see the front panels of the pockets, the under-fall and the long liner of the fall.

You will note that I have bound the long liner with bias tape. I then proceeded to zig-zag stitch all the long seams, as the breeches are unlined.

I am using a new pattern for this project  and the the instructions are not wonderfully well written. This means I have to make adaptations  as I am working. For reasons too long to explain, in our house the verb for this is ' to furkle'.

Until next time

Adieu

Regency Buck 5

 Greetings

Here is another version of my latest computer art picture

Until next time

Adieu

Breeches 1

 Greetings

I recently started learning Regency dance and have attended one Ball so far.

I had made some white breeches some years ago and had to adapt them a bit for my first ball.

They are, however, fashionably snug, so I judges it prudent to make a new pair in a larger size.

Having made a mock-up, I found I needed to adjust the front  and, with Teddy's help, adjusted the pattern.

I added a triangular piece to the front  and copied this to the mock up. 

It worked, so I hot washed and ironed my fabric and laid out my pattern pieces. You will note that I had already copied the paper pattern onto plastic, as Teddy and I have found this greatly extends the life of patterns.

I was partway through laying out, when I realised I had to create another pattern piece, as extending the front seam meant making a new fall liner pattern piece.. This is why the front panel in not in the shot above that Teddy took.

Above is the final lay out. I managed to get everything except one pocket in. Luckily, I had some more smaller pieced of this fabric that I can use for this and any other edge bindings that might be necessary.

Finally, here is aclose up showing the altered front panel and the new falls liner.

I have cut out all the pieces ( except the last pocket- still waiting for that cloth to dry!) and will post more when I have started to make it up.

Until next time

Adieu

Regency Buck 4

 Greetings

Here is the next version of my new computer art

Until next time

Adieu

Regency Buck 3

 Greetings

Here is the next version of m y new computer art.

Until next time

Adieu

Regency Buck 2

 Greetings

Here is the first variant of my new computer art..

until next time

Adieu

Regency Buck 1

 Greetings

Here is a new piece of computer art.

I have several versions of this one...

Until next time

Adieu

Shipwrecked 1

 Greetings

Here is a new painting that I have just completed.

This was based on a coloured pencil picture from my sketchbook (which I blogged about previously)

I think the painting came out a bit better than the drawing. His britches look wetter, I was able to get a bit of 'wet shirt clinging to flesh' effect and the face has more intensity.

Until next time

Adieu

Calligraphy 5

 Greetings

Here is another payer that I have added to my breviary.

This one extorts St Michael to cast down the devil and his minions ( The Bishop is an Ecclesiastical Knight of the order of St Michael).

As this was quite a long payer for my rather small book, I had to spread it over two pages.

Supplicesdeprecamur is currently the longest Latin word I have written out- and worked out how to actually say...

You will also note I split some words to fit more on the page. Where possible I've done this in a way that is an aid to their pronunciation.

Until next time

Adieu