By THLaird Colyne Stewart
A team of five good gentles from the canton of Ardchreag,
within the barony of Septentria, within our glorious kingdom of Ealdormere d b egan to
laugh.
For we had come to sew; and this was to be no day in the
parlour either, me lad. For we were to create a complete set of garb in
seventeen hours, sleep being optional.
We arrived in Roaring Wastes five hours before the site was
to open and so traveled to a local book depository where we all exclaimed in
joy and awe and crawled upon our hands and knees through the stacks and took
home many treasures. A brief sojourn to a local eatery where the fare and
service was sublime followed. We then gave our wagon into the care of a
hosteller and unloaded our gear.
We were still technically an hour early, but the event staff
allowed us entry on the condition that we help them set up. This we gladly did,
pulling out tables and chairs and making the acquaintance of a certain Jack
Russell terrier named Indy.
After setting up our area and changing into new clothing we
watched as other teams began to arrive. One of them had two Ealdormerean
members, being THL Anne Von Tolstadt and THL Maeve MacKellar from Ben Dunfirth.
Anne was the leader of this team.
When the time came to sew we fell to and worked until four
in the morning. (Though your chronicler must admit that he succumbed to sleep
two and a half hours earlier than that.) At eight in the morn we rose to
continue our work.
Our team was entered in the novice late period category,
there being three categories (early, middle and late periods) and two skill
levels (novice and advance). Our team leaders, Mahault and Gailana, had decided
on an Elizabethan outfit worn by Pfalzgrafin Dorothea Sabina Von Neuberg when
she was buried in 1598. To be truthful these two did the brunt of all
the work with the other three of us doing grunt work, some hand stitching,
coffee grabbing and spirit raising. We sung many songs, including a special
sewing filk Thorfinna and I had written with this event in mind. The other attendees
found our singing unusual, in the fact that I don’t think they are used to
people spontaneously bursting into song. When the autocrats later handed out
their autocrat awards, our team was awarded for our bargain basement shopping
(our dress cost about $65 US) and for our multi-part singing. The first time we
finished a song I looked up to find a number of gentles that had wandered over
to hear us better. Mav also cheered us with a “wassail!”
Our tables were swarmed with Laurels who eagerly talked with
Mahault and Gailana as they debated certain points of construction or
documented sources. They said they were very impressed that we were willing to
listen to them and seriously consider their advice. One of the Laurels in
attendance was Mistress Joliecia of Litchfield, who had come to the event with
Lady Jean-Margaret Donnerfaust (the latter also of Ardchreag).
Much food and drink was included with our entry fee and we
were given donuts, bagels, coffee, tea, bits and b ites
and pop to get us through Friday night. Saturday morning we were fed fruit
salad, quiche, toast and b agels. In
the evening cake, chips and punch was provided. Lunch and dinner foods were
available for an extra fee. We ate like the hearty northerners that we are.
We ran into only a few problems. The under dress turned out
to not fit together quite right and the under sleeves sagged. With some
wrangling by Mahault and Gailana the under dress was banged into shape, and
upon a Laurel ’s
suggestion bead work was added to the sleeves which held the lining and the
sleeve proper from sagging. A hat was made and I spent a good chunk of time
beading it (something I had never done before). Other than that things ran
relatively smoothly.
We finished with a bit of time to spare, and we fell into a
pile on the floor. At six pm every groups sent their model up onto the stage
and the Laurels and other judges critiqued them. Since the Laurels were
interested in all manner of construction of the garb the models had to strip
down tot heir skivvies. Since we were in the novice category we had b een allowed to sew our underclothes off site, so
we had b rought out bloomers, chemise
and farthingale (hoop skirt) with us. Some teams not only sewed their dress,
cotehardie or blio on site, they even made shoes, belts, mirrored hats, sword
sheathes and all many of accessories.
When the fashions show was over the judges sequestered
themselves for an hour as snow began to fall in abundance outside. The
autocrats handed out their awards and announced the winners of a silent
auction. Special acknowledgment was made of the ‘Hoodigans’ who had sewn one
hundred hoods for the Midrealm army during the course of the event. We helped
take down tables and Mahault vacuumed a large stretch of the hall.
When the judges came down Mistress Rebekah MacTiernan came
over to tell us personally how impressed she was with our work. We joked that
this meant we must not have won. Something along the lines of “you’re really
good b ut…” She took our ribbing in
the good nature in which it was intended.
It was announced that the winner in the novice late period
category was…us! I was, I’ll admit, a bit shocked. I new we had done well, but
I thought he other teams in our category had done pretty well too. Anne’s team,
who had entered the advanced late period category won first place for that
category! It was like the old days of Ealdormere, when it was not much more
than Eoforwic , and its artisans
would win many arts and science competitions in the Middle Kingdom. We were all
of us very proud.
The event was one of a kind, and I would heartily recommend
it to anyone interested in costuming and garb. Plan now, recruit a team, and
hopefully I’ll see you down in Roaring Wastes next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment