I enjoyed Harts and Horns 2024 but on the drive back I got to thinking about my approach to SCA A&S.
The least important thing is that I came in third in the cheesemaking competition (out of three entries). I made a cheese that is full of very strong flavors and best for cooking with. I knew that as a small taste by itself it wasn't going to show all that well. I enjoyed talking to the other participants and the judges about it, I enjoyed making it, and I enjoyed my still ongoing research into actual period cheeses.
I was less happy with my garb. My first attempt at a Georgian / Svaneti coat was a disappointment. Not a complete failure but an indication of both the good and the bad portions of my re-creation of medieval material culture.
Good -
* I learned how to make a fairly competent band collar and proved my conjecture that the pictured Georgian coats need a band collar.
* I gained more experience with doing facing and trim.
* I love the vented back as both fashion and construction.
* I liked the combo of solid color wool material and trim. It looks good, matches the solid color plus trim seen pattern in the 12th century frescos, and in this case trim at least slightly resembles the block printed cotton found in Fustat so it feels periodish.
Bad -
* I constantly found myself sewing pieces on backwards (not even counting the times I pinned them backwards and caught it!) Some of this is attributed to the weird mix of lining, facing, and trim that necessitated things sewn on the right side, the wrong side and flipped to the right side, and on the wrong side as lining. But much of it was just being bad at dealing with fabric that has no visible right or wrong side.
* Fraying wool is bad. Very likely this was made worse by the thick threads in the fabric and the mangling of all of the relatively tall and thin gores after having to rip out the first seams and flip pieces so they folded the right direction. Lots of floppy tips of triangles that didn't want to stay in place.
* I dislike, actually that's not strong enough, I disdain ironing at every step. On thinner fabric I was able to mostly finger press things. The combination of heavier fabric and some larger seam allowances meant that I really should have done more pressing at various steps.
Ultimately I "finished" the garment enough that I could plausibly wear it but it was bad. I might have enough fabric left to redo it but I will keep it as a reminder and warning. As I posted in the about me portion of this site I am not a perfectionist. I love diving into things. I love figuring things out. At this point I'd rather take the lessons and some other fabric and move on to a second outer garment. Hopefully by Yule I'll have a decent coat as well as the belt that should go with it.
I'm a Pareto Principle Maker; 80% of a good, finished object but missing out on the work needed to get the final finish and polish to make it stand out. The jacket probably really doesn't work with the 80/20 rule but perhaps 70/30? Either way I often find myself running into this in any physical project outside of cooking. It's not a good thing although it fits well with my interest in re-creating things that could have been as opposed to copying extant exemplars. Its how I play; if I do the work required to get from an 80% good product to a 100% good product I've turned my play into work.
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