Saturday, May 15, 2004
Looking Up and More Costuming
On the fiddling front:
Maybe this is a year for me to get noticed, if not necessarily to win.
Yesterday, I took 2nd of 2 in the Houston regional Scottish fiddle championship, but it was very very close. A couple of people said they felt I should have won, but the girl that beat me was quite good (and it was the first time for her to compete, so good on her!).
Nonetheless, my showing was enough to get me promoted at the judge's discretion to the 2004 U.S. National Scottish fiddle championship a little later today. I have to say I'm a little blown away by it all. This is my first year of competition, after all.
After the competition, I joined fiddler Andrew Dodds, and later some of the junior competitors, for something of a ceilidh in the bar of the hotel where the competition was held. Andrew (who didn't compete last night, but will today - and is a favourite to win, I think) and I chatted for a while as well. Apparently he's been doing the Scottish fiddling thing for about 15 years, since he was around 8. Wow. Now, I'm a long way from playing in his league, honestly, but after only 2.5 years, I'll be sharing a stage with him at the Nationals competition - and I'm a guy who took this up in his 30s, not a young hotshot. So I have to say I'm incredibly satisfied with my progress thusfar.
On the costuming front:
I got the shipment from Jas. Townsend in the other day; the dirk is nice, it's the "cut-down hanger" variety, basically the last foot or so of a military saber cut down into a dirk. This was the other main style other than the triangular blade variety, and probably the form that evolved into the modern dirk.
I also got the natural linen for my jacket linings, and the osnaburg for the fitting pieces, along with buttons, linen thread, and the like. The big arrival was the shirt. Rather than hand-sew it, I bought a linen 18th century workshirt from Jas. Townsend. It was very nice (if a tad big), but the 3" fall collar and modern buttons were inappropriate to the Scottish context. So I unstitched the collar, turned it inside-out, shortened it to 1.25", turned it right-side out again, and re-stitched it to the shirt as a band collar. This was also my first attempt to do period hand-stitching, and I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm sure I'll get more even when I get better, but the new collar was pretty damned good, and will be more so once I've had a chance to press it. I also took the buttons off and covered them in some of the left-over linen I got from tailoring the collar, so the shirt looks very nice and authentic. In fact, as far as I can tell, the only thing keeping it from being of the highest authenticity is the fact that the majority of it is still machine-sewn. I'll live with that compromise quite happily!
Maybe this is a year for me to get noticed, if not necessarily to win.
Yesterday, I took 2nd of 2 in the Houston regional Scottish fiddle championship, but it was very very close. A couple of people said they felt I should have won, but the girl that beat me was quite good (and it was the first time for her to compete, so good on her!).
Nonetheless, my showing was enough to get me promoted at the judge's discretion to the 2004 U.S. National Scottish fiddle championship a little later today. I have to say I'm a little blown away by it all. This is my first year of competition, after all.
After the competition, I joined fiddler Andrew Dodds, and later some of the junior competitors, for something of a ceilidh in the bar of the hotel where the competition was held. Andrew (who didn't compete last night, but will today - and is a favourite to win, I think) and I chatted for a while as well. Apparently he's been doing the Scottish fiddling thing for about 15 years, since he was around 8. Wow. Now, I'm a long way from playing in his league, honestly, but after only 2.5 years, I'll be sharing a stage with him at the Nationals competition - and I'm a guy who took this up in his 30s, not a young hotshot. So I have to say I'm incredibly satisfied with my progress thusfar.
On the costuming front:
I got the shipment from Jas. Townsend in the other day; the dirk is nice, it's the "cut-down hanger" variety, basically the last foot or so of a military saber cut down into a dirk. This was the other main style other than the triangular blade variety, and probably the form that evolved into the modern dirk.
I also got the natural linen for my jacket linings, and the osnaburg for the fitting pieces, along with buttons, linen thread, and the like. The big arrival was the shirt. Rather than hand-sew it, I bought a linen 18th century workshirt from Jas. Townsend. It was very nice (if a tad big), but the 3" fall collar and modern buttons were inappropriate to the Scottish context. So I unstitched the collar, turned it inside-out, shortened it to 1.25", turned it right-side out again, and re-stitched it to the shirt as a band collar. This was also my first attempt to do period hand-stitching, and I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm sure I'll get more even when I get better, but the new collar was pretty damned good, and will be more so once I've had a chance to press it. I also took the buttons off and covered them in some of the left-over linen I got from tailoring the collar, so the shirt looks very nice and authentic. In fact, as far as I can tell, the only thing keeping it from being of the highest authenticity is the fact that the majority of it is still machine-sewn. I'll live with that compromise quite happily!
# posted by Peter @ 7:37 AM 
