Have Fun Storming the Castle!

This has been my last full week off before it is back-to-school time. JJ, "That Girl" (his girlfriend of four years) and I are on a trip to Branson, MO--no, we didn't come for the country music.  I love it, but JJ and I have an agreement that we never play "that kind of music" within his hearing; so we're not here for that kind of vacation.

No, we came to the Branson area to see the castle!  Some time back, JJ came across an article about a French-style castle being built using traditional medieval methods in northern Arkansas.  Road trip!

We drove to the Ozark Medieval Castle in Lead Hill, AR, just about 40 miles south of Branson.  OMG!  It was the most wonderful day, even if it was about 100 degrees outside and there was minimal shade on the site.

We spent about three hours touring the site watching stone being quarried and shaped. The masons were working on the wall and tower construction.  The Belgian draft horse pulled a cart laden with stone and was later hitched to a cart to carry sand for making the cement.  One artisan was making rope. The blacksmith was hammering away at the anvil.  There were several pieces of hand-thrown pottery drying before being fired in the stone kiln.  A weaver was using a drop spindle to spin hand-dyed yarn from wool recently shorn from the castle's sheep.

It was totally fascinating to watch and to talk to the artisans about their work.  I cannot adequately describe it, so the best thing is just to take a look at the castle's website:  http://ozarkmedievalfortress.com/ 

The castle is supposed to take about 20 years to complete.  I made JJ promise me that he would bring me back in 2030 to see the finished castle even if he has to push me in a wheelchair.

Too bad our middle school is more than 5 hours away.  This would be a fantastic and very educational field trip for the 7th graders to go along with their study of the medieval period.  I took about 50 photos and I think I will put together a slide show to share with the 7th grade social studies teachers.

We are on our way back home to the St. Louis area tomorrow and hopefully, back to some last weekend of summer vacation sewing before next week.

To quote Miracle Max and his wife Valerie, "Have fun storming the castle!"

TTFN!  Woohoo!

Vickie

FBA? What Does That Mean?

Acronyms--we live with them constantly.  Sometimes it's easy to guess what they mean, and sometimes not.  I had personalized license plates for my car: "SWS-MS."  My mother's parents were Swiss immigrants; I am a Ms. "SWS-MS" makes sense, right?

Well, one of my cousins, same side of the family, and her husband were trying to figure out my plates and they came up with "single woman seeks more sex"--much funnier than my intended message, but not quite right.

This leads me to "FBA."  In addition to blogs about quilting, I have found some great ones about sewing.  Once you start following blogs, it can become quite addictive.  If I start reading ones about cooking or machine embroidery, I might as well have a laptop permanently attached to my body.

Anyway, I was reading a blog about sewing and the acronym "FBA" was used.  What the heck is that?

Okay, it's been a while since I studied clothing construction at Mizzou, but I do not remember THAT term at all.  Trying to use "context clues" to figure it out, like good readers do, the best I could come up with was "Fat Body Alteration."  Wow!  Right up my alley!

However, I didn't really think it could be that simple, or that, well, such an "un-nice" term would be used for modifying patterns for those of us with hourglass figures that have just a bit too much sand in them.

So, I did a little hunting around.  The internet is wonderful.  You can find almost everything.  Eventually, I came across an entry in the "SewMamaSew" - http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=486 explaining that FBA means "Full Bust Alteration."  Again, right up my alley.  Though, there are times, when I think it should be "Falling Boobs Alteration."  I knew gravity would finally catch up with me.  I remember my mom admonishing me in the 70's not to go braless.  So, now, I guess I have to pay the price.  Anyway, the post in Sew Mama Sew explains how to redraft a princess-line pattern for a fuller bust, which was something I knew I had to do for the top I was making.

I had picked up New Look 6911 as something I wanted to make sometime.  Come on, we all have those.  Just like our fabric stashes.  The things we are going to make someday when we have the time. And with my slimmer body, I am trying to go for a more structured, classic look than my previous big shirt, Earth Mother look.

As luck would have it, I found the "perfect" fabric before I ever got out the door of the fabric store.

The leaves are iridescent gold and I found some large, Byzantine-looking buttons to go down the front.  I can wear this alone with black pants or a black skirt.  I might wear it as a jacket over the new black embroidered sundress I just got from Holy Clothing (an eBay store.)  Well, maybe I haven't given up the Earth Mother thing quite yet.

The process for adjusting for a full bust, which I do now remember from my pattern drafting class, was a bit more complicated than I wanted to do at the time, so I took a short cut, which may have been a long cut truth be told, but my top ended up looking pretty good anyway.  I just have to do the buttonholes and buttons and it will be finished.  From layout to cutting to nearly-completed project all in one day!

TTFN,
Vickie