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Speak to me, Puff!

cathead

Wow. I hope this is just an art fail, because it looks for all the world like a dishful of decapitated cat’s head with ornamental greenery growing out his ears. If I’m reading the credits right, it’s from the Sforza Book of Hours, circa 1490.

I’m leafing through old Books of Hours because I got it in my thick head I’d like to have a Tudor housewife’s costume. You know, like the first lady of Badger House.

She would probably have been the wife of a prosperous peasant farmer, possibly the overseer of a rich man’s farm. Sheep, probably. Like this lady. Or this lady (in the background, slopping the hogs).

So, a kirtle, an apron and a wimple ought to do it.

Now, all I got to do is learn how to sew.

Damn. I knew there was a flaw in my plan. I can’t sew for shit.

Comments


Comment from tonycc
Time: November 9, 2015, 9:46 pm

What makes the wimples tend to stand up on either side of the forehead?
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/robert-campin-a-woman
Stiff fabric? Or, is that just evidence of the hidden devil horns that men suspect all women of having?


Comment from Becca
Time: November 9, 2015, 10:03 pm

If you can sew a straight (okay, a relatively straight) line, you can sew a kirtle.

There are numerous patterns, quite a few free, out there.

I think it’s a lovely idea, btw!


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: November 9, 2015, 10:49 pm

If The Weasel has even the slightest idea of getting me into one of those hoods….


Comment from Anonymous
Time: November 9, 2015, 11:10 pm

Scroll down through the link and there’s the related man’s outfit. Looks like a bundle of laundry on his head.


Comment from SCOTTtheBADGER
Time: November 10, 2015, 12:03 am

I rather like the picture farther down the Five Wounds page, where the peasants are driving what appears to be their aardvarks to the woods to eat acorns.


Comment from Subotai Bahadur
Time: November 10, 2015, 3:05 am

I don’t know; Squire Badger has a certain ring to it.


Comment from mojo
Time: November 10, 2015, 4:20 am

Ok, now I’m interested: What on earth does “scouse scum” mean? Some lawyer got fired for saying it, apparently, so it must be bad.


Comment from JC
Time: November 10, 2015, 4:24 am

Scouse = Liverpuddlian


Comment from SCOTTtheBADGER
Time: November 10, 2015, 5:47 am

Eeee, how bee’s tha, Squire Badger?


Comment from Nina
Time: November 10, 2015, 6:14 am

I know many people who have learned to sew making their own period garb, so give it a go! I’ve made quite a bit of it myself, and it’s quite satisfying.


Comment from Wolfus Aurelius
Time: November 10, 2015, 2:34 pm

Comment from SCOTTtheBADGER
Time: November 10, 2015, 5:47 am

Eeee, how bee’s tha, Squire Badger?
*
*
“Aboot an hower agoo, the bridge controls sta’ted goin’ crazy!”

— What? I thought we were doing dialects this morning!


Comment from BJM
Time: November 10, 2015, 5:33 pm

Yabutt can you crochet? This would be rather fetching, saucy expression optional.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: November 10, 2015, 6:40 pm

Okay, you guys have inspired me. I’ve just signed up for a basic sewing course locally. Or, anyway, I’ve emailed for information on it.

My brother crochets. I’d rather not talk about it.


Comment from Can’t Hark My Cry
Time: November 10, 2015, 9:12 pm

Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but do you own a sewing machine, Sweas? OK, yeah, Tudor housewives did it all by hand. Still–and, trust me on this one–stitching long seams by hand is deadly tedious, unless you take really long stitches, which pretty much defeats the purpose of sewing the seam in the first place. And if the fabric is at all heavy, it can become not merely tedious, but physically demanding.

Or, maybe, does the entity that offers the lessons also offer rental machines?


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: November 10, 2015, 10:47 pm

I left my sewing machine behind when I moved because of the electrical differences (I’m not positive I’d ever fired it up). But it looks like the beginner’s course includes use of a machine — and, presumably, advice on buying one for myself.

If I don’t run screaming from the first session, perhaps I can ask Sandy Claws for help.


Comment from Ric Fan
Time: November 11, 2015, 12:37 am

With a machine you can make clothes and toys for your cats, too. Plenty of free patterns on the internet.


Comment from Janna
Time: November 11, 2015, 2:16 am

Clothes for Mad Jack.
Oh, this will not end well.
Pictures please.


Comment from Bill the Butcher
Time: November 11, 2015, 10:05 pm

It ain’t no decapitated head.

It be a SEVERED head.

Unless the cat is just resting.


Comment from Can’t Hark My Cry
Time: November 11, 2015, 10:57 pm

Mayhap it is a topiary cat head?


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: November 11, 2015, 11:14 pm

😛

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