Monday 21 July 2008

Of Knights and Fair Maidens

I recently received a lovely medal in the post, from a dear homeschooling mum friend who has six boys. The envelope was rather large for the medal, which she had told me she was sending, so I was intrigued as to what else there might be in it. To my surprise, out dropped a relic from the dim distant past..




















A pair of chainmail Knight's trousers, which were somewhat past their "sell-by" date, along with a plea for something to be done about them!!! The fabric had not been easy to sew the first time round, but was now ripped apart at the seams, along with a few other damages caused by hearty warfare...





You see, when they were first made, it was to dress one little Knight of Our Lady, who, being an only child, and not having a great deal of contact with many other Knights, did not have a lot of opportunities for jousting, and armed combat, and the like; so I knew that despite the rather delicate nature of the chainmail, they would hold out for a while, long enough for him to grow out of them.
















They even survived the occasional lending to a sweet little maiden who needed to dress up as Joan of Arc for an All Saints party...


















So I hoiked out the old sewing machine, and got to work on repairing them, with the following rather good result (even if I do say so myself). Whether they will survive the onslaught of battle for long is another question, but since they will now probably only fit the youngest son of the six, and since the family's latest addition, to the shock, surprise, and delight of all, is a little girl, the trews probably don't need to survive much longer - (unless of course she decides she must be Joan of Arc)!




















Whilst the sewing machine was out, and since the household must be rather lacking in bonnets and bows with all those male siblings to the new baby, I thought I would turn these...

























into these.










Note the distinct lack of pink - it will take a while for mum to be weaned off blue...

7 comments:

Lucy said...

What a sweet little Knight! And lovely bibs, bonnet, booties too.

Rosemary said...

How adorable. Love the knight and joan of Arc pictures!!! And how clever you are sewing those sweet items for the new baby. BTW, love the name of your blog. Would accurately describe all of us.

LizzieD said...

Thankyou Rosemary for dropping by, and your kind comments, I'll try & pop over to your place soon. God Bless.

Sarah - Kala said...

Awww, how darling! Whenever (and it's often these days) I pop onto a blog and I see these lurvy creations, I want to make my sewing machine make magic like that! Alas, I cannot. I lack the know-how. I have The Complete Idiots Guide to Sewing, but do I have to read a book about it? I want to dive right in!!

Can you recommend a first time sewer (on a machine) an easy peasy project? Thanks,
Blessings,
JOT/Sarah

Anonymous said...

Aformentioned mum of six boys and new baby daughter is equally grateful for, and impressed by- both trousers and bonnets, bibs and booties. Ah, you talented people out there! Keep up the good work, 'maggie' ;-)

Amanda Lewin said...

The bonnet and booties are exquisite! You're so gifted and aformentioned baby girl looks very darling in them!
Honestly they are just beautiful!
God Bless!

LizzieD said...

Thankyou Petal, I'll have to get a pic of Miss Beauty Bonnet herself up soon!