#toga does things

[supertoga]

Now that this project has been delivered to its recipient, I can brag about it online a little.

I made this Elizabethan petal hussif for a friend who received an award for her historical costuming work. Hussifs were often used as sewing kits with spots for all of the notions you need for a project. Wives would send them with their husbands to war with extra uniform buttons and repair supplies. This one has an inner pouch area that can fit a small project or pieces thereof.

My friend likes owls, pomegranates, blurple, and starlight. Hopefully this mashup harmonizes nicely. I worked almost entirely from scraps already in my stash.

I self drafted the pattern, but it's approximated from this write up and Sheila Marshall's book "Elizabethan Needlework Accessories". My library didn't have the book, so I relied on Google images.

This little owl friend is a needle minder by greennerddesigns on Etsy. I chopped up a pin and stuck a magnet on there.

The lucette braided cord nearly thwarted me, but we got there in the end. I opted for fancy silk ribbon for the inner pouch instead. I swear lucette gave me arthritis.

I'm still pretty new to embroidery, so this was a real level up project for me. I used wool felt for the leaves and pomegranates to give them a little dimensionality (and to better hide any satin stitch sins) TIL, embroidering velveteen sucks.

The pomegranates are so crunchy! I fondled them frequently throughout the making of this. But the lattice stitch with tiny gold details is my favorite part.

The laurels are a symbol of the award she's receiving. I don't love how they turned out, but they hold up okay from a distance.

Blue beads are from my local embroidery shop, Country Crafts. Silver loops came from my stash. Owl scissors from onethriftystitcher on Etsy. Wool pieces are from my local wool store Black Sheep Wool.

Overall, I have some improvements to make if I ever do another one, but after some 100 hours of work poured into this little guy, I couldn't be more proud of myself. I hope she loves it and uses it until it falls apart.

[supertoga]

New thing in progress!

Yet another laurel gift. She was among my very, very first belly dance teachers in a class called "Belly Dance for The Terminally Shy" TWENTY???? years ago!

Her laurel is for something not dance related, but I wanted to honor that first, baby interaction with a thematic gift.

More process pics and yapping under the cut.

I had to wait forever to order the tassels, and when they got here, they kind of threw the color balance from my first draft.

Does anyone else play everything out on the floor like this??

I'm still very charmed by my fake gold work and crunchy beading. I'm out of those beads, however. Not sure what will go in the middle here yet...big blue tassel???

I'm not sure what to do with the waist band yet. The triangles aren't quite doing it for me. But I didn't want to bead more. Stamp won't fit. Not sure I want to commit to a totally new element like different trim or rhinestones. Do I abandon the wide waist band altogether..? Decisions..

The stamps sure came out pretty though! Glad I went with those instead of the original applique. I think I've finally got the technique for wood block stamping down.

Everything except the tassels was already in my stash. (Well. And some emergency seed beads to blend into the wreaths when I realized I wouldn't have enough 😬. They had neither the size nor color match to my stash beads. I agonized about it for days.)

I'm excited to get this one off the docket, though. It might be time to attempt quilting next!

[supertoga]

This month's PMDD roulette is "🤬 Fight everyone! Blow up all relationships! Fuck off! | Oh no, are you mad at me now? Pwese don't abandon me. 🥺"

This is unmanageable. Truly. It's like watching myself in 3rd person. I can't stop it until the fit is over. I hate this.

[supertoga]

Okay I took all the crows outside for pictures, finally.

These are for some belly dancer friends. The shiny, geometric bits are an Egyptian textile called assuit. Using the precious scraps of this stuff makes for some unique patterns! White burb reminds me of Liberace. I went all out with the snazz.

For whatever reason, these turned out with some extra splooty legs, so they're a little difficult to pose gracefully. I'll modify the pattern for the next batch to give them pelvises. The sparrow pattern turned out completely solid that way.

As I was taking pictures, crouched like a feral little goblin in my yard, my neighbor spotted me. Clearly freaked out, but shy, he waved and then turned around and very carefully did not look at me again while I was out there.

I brought him some veggies from my garden and assured him I'm not actually a goblin (lies) and that I needed pictures of the crows.

Being quite deaf, he thought I was talking about actual crows and offered some gardening advice. He seemed baffled as to why anyone would make fake crows to protect their gardens. I didn't correct him.

Old, deaf neighbor is a treasure.

Blue Stellars Jay adjacent burb is my favorite. I'm sad to see that one go...

[supertoga]

I'm trying to decide the direction of this dance belt. This is the rough sketch laid out.

I'm making another laurel gift for a different friend. This friend dances, so she's getting a dance belt. Not historically accurate, but a lovely object that will see use around a campfire.

I'm trying not to buy anything new for it, but I don't think I like this dark blue silk... Or maybe it's the silver appliques ?? I have some darker variations of those stashed.. I'm out of the beads that make up the laurel wreaths, too, so I need to think of something else to put between them. Not sure about the silver sequins. Maybe a blue wreath? Hrmmm....

Mostly sharing to get it out of my head, but please feel free to give feedback.

I will order tassels (the one purchase allowed). Maybe that'll be enough to pull it together... These are the contenders. Upper left is my favorite.

I want to riff on this belt I made forever ago. I can definitely bust out the stamps for the blue one, but I'd have to buy paint.

Funny enough, this purple belt was also a stash buster. Those stamps were tester swatches for a different project. Appliques are from curtain samples I got from a fabric store that went out of business a decade ago. I think I only bought the rhinestones new.

I'm finally running out of scraps! Please be proud 🥲

[supertoga]

I wanted to try stamp making.

[supertoga]

So someone in my marching band found marketplace a listing for an "ahooga horn" in my city. Duh we need an ahooga horn! So everyone throws $5 at me and I go to pick it up. The shop owner is so excited to show it to me and gives it a squeeze and....

it honks.

It's only a honk honk horn. It doesn't say ahooga. Misleading! Sadness! She apologized for the confusion and left me alone a minute to confer with the band.

The band agrees that this horn is too pricey for a regular honk. I mention the marching band making a decision to the shopkeep. Turns out, she's so charmed by the concept of an adult hobby marching band, she gives me the horn for free and a bonus honk horn in need of repair! That's so kind and generous ! Thank you shopkeep!

So now I have some honk horns (NOT to be confused with ahooga horns)

I will endeavor to repair the other guy. It has a brass reed that needs a little adjustment.

P.S. go vote!!!

[supertoga]

This tiny burb!!!!! Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

I made this little bird for a friend nicknamed Death Sparrow. Every step of the process activated cute aggression in me. This tiny object brings me so much satisfaction and joy. I can't wait to make a bunch more!

This is another Ann Woods pattern from Etsy. Highly recommend if you like mini hand crafts. I made it purely out of fabric scraps and junk from my stash. I even stuffed it with cut up scraps.

My partner made the little spear. (Death Sparrow is a spear fighter, you see. And the sweetest, kindest human imaginable. Until she efficiently stabs you to death on the fighting field.)

I have a bunch more crows to photograph. They're hard to capture due to the black color theme, so I keep putting it off.

Meanwhile, Death Sparrow!