April into May

May rough craft plan, plus What I Did In April, with another cheat for May Day bank holiday weekend :)

April 

Crafting / Crafting Adjacent

So, firstly I think I mentioned that my Discord group came up with our own monthly challenge calendar, and I'll be switching over to that list from now on. April here was "Alter and Adapt". I went for Prompt 2 and, with the help of my awesome spouse, we completed the work on my room here... We had to wait until the weekend just gone for the last bit - two table legs, but now it's done! In between working on May's challenge, I also need to work on doing a LOT of tidying!!

So the layout is an Ikea hack, made up of one 4x4 Kallax unit against the short wall nearest the door, The desktop is in two parts, with one 2m Linnmon underneath the window and along the majority of that wall, which butts up against a shorter 1m at right angles to it along the short wall opposite the big Kallax. Underneath the desks I have 2 legs on the end nearest the big Kallax, then one 2x2 Kallax slightly off centre along the long desktop, with a 2x4 on it's side along the rest of the back into the corner (and therefore underneath one short end of the 1m desktop. The other end of the short desk is a second 2x2 Kallax unit. We bought some cheap heavy duty clamps, which are currently ensuring the desktops don't move as they're not screwed to the units below at all. We may revisit this decision in the future if it proves to be shaky, but so far it's fine... I'll try to share more pics than the one below once I finish getting things looking pretty ;)

I also spent some time working on the maths and general fiddling to try and adapt the sizing of the paper pattern for the cups part of my 1830s corset pattern. I think I'm there, but I now need to get on with the first fabric mock up. Thankfully the work on my room has turned up a lot of old scrappy fabric, so I can get on with that shortly, I hope!

Not-Crafting

In addition to the room-creation work we've cleared out a LOT of paper and card, mostly dead boxes. I have NO idea where these things came from, but they seem to be breeding. We've made good inroads, but I suspect we've got at least 2 more wheelie bin collections to go...

This month I read The Left-Handed Booksellers of London. I also restarted Who Fears Death, and I'm happy to be back into it. I really enjoyed the former - I've been in a massive reading slump, pretty much since lock-down 1, and this book was fluffy enough to "just read", but still enjoyable.

Other than that, I got my eyes tested, and have finally got new glasses on the way, which is a relief!

Completed

1. My room!!



2. Box clearance
3. Left Handed Booksellers of London (Read)
4. Eye test
5. Breast cup adaptation

Plans

Plans for May

Craft

Challenge inspiration: Myth May 

I plan to do a short post mid-month talking about the characters below, what their meanings are for me, how I envisage their costumes, and how I plan to make them. Hopefully with some initial progress notes.

• Vasilissa the Wise
• Snegurocha
• Baba Yaga

Plan

1. Mock-up 1830s corset (no busk, cording, or boning, just size fitting).
2. Sarafan - draft
3. Belt for sarafan
4. Kokoshnik (probably a maiden's one since most female folklore characters are unmarried)
5. Doll and skull motif elements OR snow and frost

Books

I am probably going to skip my book-group book this month, as it doesn't really catch me AND we're rather drastically short on cash, so I shall skip a month and save that £10...

1. Who Fears Death - finish off finally. I started this before the Plague was really on the horizon, and it's a bloody good story, so I want to finish it!
2. Blood of Elves - I'm slowly reading my way through the translations of the Witcher series, and this one is next.
3. Rev W Audry book on a History of his Sodor

Other stuff

1. Lentil Chickpea stew -
   I found some lentils that are about to die, and I dropped a can of chickpeas, denting it, so I plan to mock up something using those, some mushrooms, and whatever else turns out to be in the cupboard. Economising and reducing waste in one, which makes me happy. Also my first time planning to use the slow cooker - it's usually his cooking implement... If you hear no more of this, it was shit!  
2. Christmas Cake for Christmas #2
   I inherited cake baking duties from my great aunt once dementia meant she was struggling. Last Christmas was a complete shitshow (actually an understatement), so no cake was made. My mother has deemed our July meet-up to be a do-over for Christmas, so I need to bring a cake. Cakes in our family need plenty of time to get fed alcohol, which means baking the base cake ASAP. Icing can be done in July!
3. Move. More. Boxes!
4. Oh, and we bought a couple of organisation things for the bathroom today in the sales, so I want to get those up and rearrange the bathroom. Boring, but easy win task...

Draft Plans for 2021 forwards

Craft

1. Hats
1. Regency
2. 1890s/Edwardian
2. Fan-skirt
1. Wool blend
2. 100% wool
3. Stays
1. ✓ Breast cups work - adaptation from D cup to my more copious HH/J cup size
2. Mock-up
   Because needed for Regency dress mock-up
3. Buy wooden busk
4. Final version
4. Edwardian blouse / shirtwaist
   
1. Mock up
2. Final
5. 1818 Dress
1. Petticoat
2. Mock-up
3. Final
4. Decoration
6. American Duchess cape, but with a hood
7. 1890s men's three piece suit
8. 1830s men's three piece suit
9. 1950s dress(es)
10. Circle skirt
11. Princess Charlotte's Russian Dress
12. Cycling shorts (modern, padded)
13. Cycling trousers (historical, to accommodate modern underneath)