linkydinks

Coming back after a brief respite/technical problem. If I go quiet, it's because our local pipe has been really slow of late. Patience grasshoppers...

Ponderables:

Chocolate (and cooked tomatoes) have sunscreen properties - score another for the (other) hallowed bean! Looking more and more like a solid diet of Italian food and chocolate is justifiable as healthy :P

The real pleasure of finding things out (also discussed at wcg's). Stay in school, kids - it's actually FUN!

There's gonna be a online feminist sci-fi carnival (hat tip dustdaughter). Should be interesting.

Quote of the day: I am so far out of sane that you appear a tiny blip on the distant coast of sanity. I love this strip :)

Fencing doublet pix forthcoming.

didn't I promise you photos?

With my sharp new machine I actually have enough memory to open photos and play with them, so I point you to the fencing doublet gallery! Some commentary:

This doublet is loosely based on two ca. 1600-10 leather doublets believed to have been used for fencing practice that are included in Janet Arnold's The Cut and Construction of Clothes for Men and Women c. 1560-1620. I say "loosely" because of the changes I've made: chiefly 1) the outer layer will be teal green linen canvas, not leather, and 2) instead of silk/cotton padding over the chest area, I'm compensating for the fact that I'm girl-shaped by boning the bodice (albeit with hemp cord, not boning) for support and protection.

These pictures are of the interlining (working from the inside out). It's two layers of cotton canvas, boned with hemp cord for a balance of support and flexibility. I've tried it on and it does move fairly well, albeit with a "crunching" noise from the cord :P Shem draped it on me back in February, and it does fit very closely - narrower across the back and with a much smaller armhole compared to modern fencing gear or outerwear.

It's also fairly thick without being heavy - I did some target practice against it while it was on my dress mold and it stood up well, even against the broken blade I saved as a stress-tester - I think I'm going to be pretty safe in there :)

The seams are on the outside so as to keep the bulk of the seams on the inside where they won't rub me (I will be wearing t-shirt, "hubcaps" and likely underarm protector underneath). I plan to line it with some green cotton sheeting that I've been sitting on for years.

The sleeves are going to have 3 layers as well - one of the outer fabric, one of canvas, with cotton batting sandwiched in between (that's 100% cotton batting - polyester would be too hot and perhaps not dense enough).

Current status: I'm padstitching the batting to the sleeves, and the torso is draped as seen here on my dress mold for target practice :P

I hadn't originally planned to make matching breeches, but after seeing jdulac and lucianus1's presentation on doublets and talking to them a bit, I'm thinking I will. If it's historically accurate I may go for a codpiece as well - the shock value might be valuable on the strip someday :P