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Notes from Successful! Event Planning

Apr21

Someone on FB was requesting copies of this handout from a class I taught several years ago. I’ve tried to update the information somewhat, but it’s probably a little flawed. However, some might find it useful. In the class, I had also handed out a few copied forms from “Autocratting 101: A Comprehensive Guide for Planning SCA Events” (Compleat Anachronist #113, Fall 2001), but as that is copyright material, I will not post those here. The pamphlet is still available from the SCA Publications Online Store and although it needs updating, still has some excellent advice and useful forms for groups planning an event.

You can find the handout here: Successful! Event Planning.

Calontir Clothiers Symposium 2017

Feb5

muromachi_kosode

Today was the Calontir Clothiers Symposium, which is held by my local Shire, Cum an Iolair. Since it is our local event, I spent much of the day working, mostly at my usual post at Gate. I did sit in on one class in the afternoon, but that was because I was helping with the next class and teaching a third class after that, so I needed to find out what this class covered so that I could adjust my materials accordingly.

Every year at Lilies War, there is a “Tailoring Tent” where volunteers sew like mad to finish a set of outfits for the King and Queen. The theme this year is Japanese, and so I of course am helping out.

The class I helped out with was a panel about 16th century decoration motifs. Since I was just sitting on the panel, I did not do a handout for this class, but I did try to steer conversation around information that I found about kosode history from this website here, which has an excellent overview of the kosode and its evolution. I brought a large number of books and magazines that I own so people could look through them and get ideas.

My own class was called “Kosode Construction: Stitches, Tips, and Tricks.” I was under the impression someone else was doing a class on kosode patterning, so the focus of my class was on the areas that gave me problems when I was first learning to sew kosode. Here is the handout I made. It just touches on the topics I covered, but I tried to include links to online tutorials or videos that might be helpful.

Truth be told, I’m always horribly nervous when teaching, but my students seemed to really enjoy the class and said they got a lot out of it. I was especially touched by one guy who caught up with me afterwards and thanked me, because he had been nervous about trying to sew his own Japanese garb, but now he thought it was something he could handle. That makes it all worth it.

Went out to dinner with some friends, which was fun, but missed the postrevel as I was absolutely exhausted. It was a fun day.

Front picture “Muromachi Kosode” was taken from the book “The History of Women’s Costume in Japan.” Japanese costume recreated in Kyoto during the 1930’s. (Scanned by Lumikettu of Flickr). I do own my own copy of this book as well.