I've moved!

 You can now find this blog at andruta.com !!

What an 18 months....

 Is it any surprise that I didn't do any blogging since the pandemic hit? Probably not.

But!

That doesn't mean I've been inactive. In fact, I've done quite a few things, and I really need to catch up with it all over here. 

The biggest new thing would be that I started a YouTube channel! It covers all of my costuming and material culture creating, not just SCA work, but I have been on a medieval kick lately, so that's what most of my recent videos have been on, and I have a few more planned for the near future that also fall under the SCA time period umbrella.

my channel

my SCA/medieval video playlist

I think my favorite of the videos I've posted for it so far, and what I was very excited to receive, is the video for my Award of Arms, which I received just about a year ago in August via Ethereal Court. And because it was presented virtually, I could just clip that part out of the full video and toss it up on my channel, along with the unboxing of my scroll once it was mailed to me!

Creative ADD and a bit of navelgazing

I won’t lie, I’m horrible about keeping up with social media. It’s been closer to a year since I posted here than not. But documenting what I’ve done is always been a weakness of mine, in 12+ years of being a historical costumer. Part of it is imposter syndrome. Who would be interested in seeing what random nobody me has done? Part of it is, I have to admit, laziness. Keeping up with social media takes time and effort. time I could be spending doing something else. Or nothing at all, sometimes. I also definitely get distracted by new ideas and wander off in a new direction very easily. 

All that to say, I’ve been dabbling in leatherwork! Last June I made a belt pouch nominally for my husband when I can talk him into coming to events, but I’ve also used it myself a couple times at events I’ve gone solo to. 

 It’s one large pocket in the back, that I made sure was large enough for his cellphone, modeled by my pusheen tape dispenser, and two smaller front pouches. 

I’ve also made a bunch of very basic circle drawstring pouches for holding various things, like my gaming chips and all the wire work rings I wear for events. 

The round chips and pineapples are from Dames a la Mode, while I picked up the leaves on amazon or eBay, I don’t remember now. To make them more individually me, I dyed them with some liquid RIT dye, rather than keeping them plain white mother of pearl. 

And finally, the project I’m working on right now!

This is mainly my test shoe, with the basic shape taken from one found during excavations in Poland. When I get it finished I’ll put up a detailed posted with references. My hands are getting sore though, so I’m taking a short break!

Catching up

I can't even say I haven't been doing anything lately, because I have! I've just been bad about posting, but that's a tale as old as time, hmm? So here's a big photo dump of a couple recent projects, and then some navel gazing about plans and future projects.

 

Photos? Who needs photos?

Mudthaw was this past weekend, and I did in fact get my outfit made for it! And I got exactly zero photos of it, oops? Though it's just as well, as I forgot most of my accessories. I'll get it all on another time with all the bits and pieces for some proper photos.

I did snap a quick picture on my dressform beforehand, just to make sure the layers were hanging right before hemming it all. (No, I am not seven feet tall, my dressform is just on a low table, for making hemming and skirt leveling easier.)

What's there: the bottom layer is a soft red Eura style underdress in linen. Why did I make a Scandinavian style underdress for a Slavic persona? There was a lot of cross-trading all across the Baltic Sea, and I imagine clothing cuts would've traveled to some extent as well. (And standard T-tunic style dresses are just plain boring to sew. The Eura dress offered some interesting seaming.) That is tied around the waist by a plain red inkle-woven band, not visible under the overdress.

Over that is a knee-length tunic in a navy linen with a windowpaned diaper weave, adding a little bit of visual interest to an otherwise plain garment. I don't know if this type of weave is accurate to the 10th century, but I was stash-busting with it. It's worn with a blue and yellow inkle woven broken checkerboard band.

At Mudthaw I also wore the wide red and blue head band with a set of copper temple rings, and I had a red suede belt purse that I kept my necessities in. The purse was a very last minute project, and I need to do a little bit of tweaking to it before I use it again.

Mudthaw itself was fun! I spent most of the day outside in the lists, learning MOLing so I'm not quite so lost when I need to do it myself for our Barony's first tourney in two months. Gotta have champions for Pennsic and whatnot.

My next two events will be Crown Tourney and Dining Alfresco in the Court of Henri II, the first and second weekends in May respectively. For crown I will probably just wear this outfit again, but for dining I think I want something fancier. I've got several yards of a blue and ivory cotton brocade floating around, maybe I'll make a Burgundian gown with it. I've got some time to decide at least, and a non-SCA costume event before both of those that I really need to get sewing for.

Starting At the Top

Schedule permitting, I'm planning to go to an event at the end of the month, and I'm hoping to have a full 10th century Polish outfit wearable for it. Can I get it all pulled together in two weeks? Stay tuned, because no one knows!

Step one was to make myself some temple rings. Between Wednesday and today I made four sets of varying styles, as well as wove two narrow bands and mounted two sets on them. A third, wider, band is still on my loom, but I should be able to finish it tonight.

All the wire and tools!

An Intro?

I'm horrible at talking about myself, but let's give this a try anyway! I'm Societally known as Andruta Jezofyna, or at least I will be once I get my name submitted and approved. My interests are all over the place, clothing and time period-wise, but I'm working on focusing on 10th century Poland for my main persona.

I was first introduced to the SCA in 2005 by a coworker, and dabbled off and on in the now defunct Canton of Forestgate in Mercer County, NJ. Life happened, and I fell out of things for a while. After getting married and moving across the river into PA, I decided I wanted to take a more serious try at things. So I joined up with the then-shire, now Barony of Buckland Cross in Bucks County, in July 2017.

The purpose of this blog is to keep track of the various projects and pursuits that catch my eye as I journey through the past!