I have a problem staying focused… Wednesday, Jul 2 2008

I’ve spent the last three weeks in the field, not sewing, and now the summer camping event season is upon me, so the loose kirtle and gown has been temporarily shelved in favor of mending and clothing I can wear camping without passing out from heat exhaustion or requiring dry cleaning.

I just finished (well, except for four eyelets and two cuffs) a boned Tudor kirtle made from the $5/yard purple linen (yes, I actually used fabric for the originally planned project!). The brilliant Lady Sasha fitted me for it, and it fits absolutely perfectly and is totally comfortable. The only problem is my fault, and that was sewing the skirt on slightly too low. However, this will mostly be worn as a foundation garment except while camping, and I’m not really worried about it.

This project has been a record for me in terms of speed, probably because a) I didn’t have to do much handsewing and b) the 14th century kirtle/cote project and my various headwear projects made my handsewing a lot better and faster. That and I’m actually getting better at sewing (see previous post, ha).

Anyway, now that I have a foundation garment, I can get someone to refit my doublet/bodice pattern and I can actually start working on many of the other projects I have planned. I think the Spanish jerkin and an Elizabethan jacket are at the top of the list. And when I get tired of 16th century, I need to get Sasha to refit my kirtle/cotehardie pattern.

Tomorrow I am off to Glory War, and then I will be back and have to do work work again. But I think I should be able to keep picking away at projects before Baron’s War.

And yes, still need to post project pictures. I will have to get my lord Melchior to take pictures this weekend.

Leave a Response »

 

Historical Sewing Books: Medieval versus Tudor Tailors Wednesday, Jul 2 2008

I have pretty much gone from Not Sewing to being fairly decent in the last year. This is almost 100% due to The Medieval Tailor’s Assistant. The reason I love it is because it has very, very clear instructions for drafting a body block, sleeves, and hose, and it gives detailed instructions with every garment on a) how to modify the block appropriately and b) how the garment should fit. Thus far, we have used the instructions to fit me for a kirtle/cote (including sleeves, which aren’t 100% perfect in the wrist/hand region–they were supposed to have mitten cuffs and I had to end them at the wrists–but which are close-fitting and comfortable enough for archery) and F. for a pair of footed hosen (we had some trouble with the feet, but I think that’s inevitable). I also just used the sleeve instructions (which are BRILLIANT) to draft a straight sleeve for my Tudor kirtle.

It’s not a totally comprehensive or perfect book when it comes to medieval clothing–I wish it went far enough back for bliauts, covered other cote construction methods, and went into a crapload more detail on headwear, especially fitting hoods (which still defeats me), but it’s a really, really good basic introduction to drafting and fitting your own patterns.

So, when The Tudor Tailor came out I was really excited. I’m a fan of Ninya Mikhaila, and I was hoping for something similar for 16th century clothing. Unfortunately, not only does it not really discuss fitting very much, much less provide fantastic instructions on how to draft the patterns from a body block, but it doesn’t even tell you much about how the clothing should fit most of the time. Plus a lot of the garments are patterned very oddly when compared to the extant garments they’re based on–this is particularly evident with the loose gown.

I look at The Tudor Tailor a lot for inspiration, and it does have some good technique discussions, but I find it a lot more frustrating–it would almost be easier for me to work from Janet Arnold in some cases (okay, it definitely is).

I really hope the Renaissance Tailor book materializes one of these days, because I think her approach is much closer to that of Medieval Tailor, and the body block approach to sewing works well for me.

Leave a Response »

 

Linen! And sewing and scrolls Wednesday, Mar 26 2008

It appears after burning that the mystery dark wine-purple linen or linen blend fabric I picked up on the Joann remnant table for $5/yard a couple weeks ago (I think I got almost 8 yards) is probably 100% linen, and definitely contains nothing melty. It’s got a nice hand, much heavier than the linen/cotton blends I’ve bought before. Anyway, yay for nonmelting! I think I shall use it for a boned kirtle/basic camping dress, and I’ll have a bunch leftover I can use for lining things.

Definitely need to sit down and actually sew, stop buying fabric.

Today I finally got up the nerve to cut out the Anglo-Saxon overtunic pieces from the embroidered wool tablecloth. Whew. I need to wash the linen for the undertunic and cut it out, but it will be nice to do a genuinely quick and easy project. I have some lovely inkle-woven trim I bought to sew on by hand, but I may just do that on the undertunic and use the rest for a belt.

Last weekend I started working on a Dorothea-based pair of bodies. I did the first fitting of a mockup (based on the Reconstructing History pattern, modified to bring it more in line with the original in Janet Arnold) and it’s pretty off in some ways but should be fairly easy to fix. Once I have a pair of bodies, I shall ask a kindly local Laurel to fit me for a doublet and then I can make some serious inway on the fabric stash, I hope! In the meantime, I have a kirtle and cotehardie to put together. This cotehardie will be based on a Spanish painting in Anderson’s Hispanic Clothing, which has the open hanging sleeves like a bliaut. I imagine the sleeves will annoy me to no end, but I want something distinctively Spanish, and I don’t have any plaid in my stash to do the parti-colored plaid cotehardie. Someday.

Melchior put up the wire shelves, so I’m (slowly) working on turning the boxes and piles of fabric and craft stuff into something resembling organized. I think some of it will end up free to a good home. Yay for organization, slowly as it comes.

I have a scroll assignment for Kingdom A&S. I’m very excited–it will give me a chance to try some neat Ottonian stuff if I can get it to work. I really need to figure out a Gothic hand, though, since there’s a lot of illumination I really want to do that requires a Gothic hand. Bleh, Gothic.

One Response »

 

15th century Italian Tuesday, Jan 8 2008

Camicia

This is made out of cheap cotton because I can’t afford to go out and buy sufficient handkerchief linen right now. I will eventually replace it with a nicer linen one.

I embroidered the cuffs on 28-ct (I think) even-weave linen in a red-pink-brown cotton floss, short-armed cross stitch over one thread, because I’m lazy. The pattern is only 5 stitches wide, from the New Carolingian Modelbook, so it’s really narrow. I will be sewing them on by hand and eventually picking them off to put on a linen camicia (for future shirt/camicia/smock cuffs and collars, I’ll use a finer-weight 32-ct linen that I found at a needlework store).

I’m using white bias tape for the binding of the neckline (it’s a semi-quick-and-dirty camicia). I would be embroidering the neck binding if this were a linen camicia.

So far I’ve sewed sleeves and gussets to body, embroidered the cuffs (but not attached them), and pinned the binding to the neckline. In the last two months, most of which it spent not being touched. I really hate working on this thing.

Gamurra

The gamurra is the underdress. I have decided on an underbust waistline, but I’m not sure how I’m going to cut the front opening yet. I started patterning it based on my kirtle/cotehardie pattern, which may or may not be historically correct, but we have no idea! And it’s easy. But I need to get the camicia to a semi-finished state (neckline done and sleeves sewn up) before I can do more fitting.

It will be black silk noil on one side (because I have a lot of it and want to use it up; it also drapes nicely and somewhat resembles wool) and yellow linen/cotton (or linen/rayon? I forget) on the other. I was going to dye my salmon pink linen reddish, but I want this done for Caer Galen A&S on the 27th, so that will be another project. The gamurra will be reversible and lace up the bodice with lacing rings, although I haven’t quite determined how.

Giornea

The giornea is a loose tabard-like overgown, which may be worn belted. Haven’t started this yet, but I’m revising my fabric choices. I was going to do one side in a stylized red floral brocade that seems to be mostly cotton (it has a nice soft but heavy drape) and the other out of a gold brocade Martha Stewart tablecloth.

I originally bought that tablecloth to make a Tudor forepart and undersleeves. But after seizing upon the German loose gown in Janet Arnold, I think I will use it for the decorative part of the a-line kirtle.

So I need to find something else in my stash (I am not buying fabric for this project!) to line the giornea. If nothing leaps out at me, I might make a different style of overdress (unlined) out of a green brocade I got first and wait on the giornea. But the giornea is faster, easier, and more versatile. So, I must ponder!

This whole project is an exercise in reversible clothing, which I think I need more of because closet and packing space are both limited (I plan to make my silk dupioni skirt reversible, too). Also it is an exercise in using up some of my fabric stash. Why do I keep buying fabric?* My goals for 2008 is a partial list of projects I already have fabric for! Anyway, I need to sew more, buy less.

*I found some terrifying polyester “moleskin” with little pierced cutouts for less than $4/yard at Hancock the other day, and while it feels odd and is 100% fake and isn’t going anywhere NEAR a campfire, it looks like lightweight pinked leather. I feel slightly bad about it, but the chances of me EVER pinking a leather doublet, paned slops, and flat hat is…well, negative. It is, unfortunately, a slightly bilious shade of olive green, but I think putting a sunny yellow underneath will help. I am now debating whether it is morally wrong to use some of the 5 yards of silk charmeuse I bought for no reason other than that it was beautiful yellow silk charmeuse for $4/yard and I decided I needed some clothing that wasn’t red or dark blue as underlining for polyester. I think the answer is yes, and I will probably buy some cheap yellow cotton instead because I paid less than $12 for the polyester weirdness and using silk in it is wrong (although I might have to use yellow linen for the lining of the slops, since cotton hangs badly). Anyway! But seriously, pretend pinked leather? How could I pass it up, even if it is made of polyester?

In sum: I have a fabric collection problem.

2 Responses »

 

Surcoat and doublet update Thursday, Dec 13 2007

Green brocade loose gown

I got the loose gown finished without any sleeves (I am still going to make short paned sleeves, but I will finish them separately and whip-stitch them to the armscyes by hand, which is a more period way to do it anyway), and it’s pretty good. I wore it to Caer Galen Midwinter with my machine-blackworked shirt and plain dark blue skirt (no farthingale, ‘cos I didn’t feel like dealing with it), held together with safety pins and hook and eye tape. I need to shorten the collar. Still trying to figure out an efficient yet nice method of closure–I decided I don’t want to put a ton of work into closures, since it’s a first crack in fake fiber.

I looked at the measurements on the German loose gown and kirtle in Patterns of Fashion and they are only slightly off mine, such that if I were wearing a corset, they’d probably basically fit. I might need to lengthen them slightly. Anyway, I plan to scale them up and make a more authentic loose gown (but with different sleeves) and take a crack at the satin-and-cord applique, although more modestly than the original. I have 2.5 yards of 60″ cotton velvet, so it’ll be an interesting exercise in period piecing techniques, too! But that’s a project for down the line, since I’ve got a bunch more scheduled for the next couple months.

Green velveteen doublet

I dug out my half-started green velveteen doublet today (or most of it, anyway–I couldn’t find one sleeve lining, and I didn’t cut the skirting or collar out). Since it’s not really assembled much, I have decided to

• Alter the front to fasten with hooks and eyes.
• Add some cable tie boning down the front and on the side-back seams, which I shall cunningly hide with trim.
• Probably interline the whole thing with canvas.
• Put trim over the seams and down the front and back.
• Recut the neckline to make it a low-necked doublet (black and red outfit towards the bottom and under “Doublets” here).

After poring over Patterns of Fashion, I have figured out what’s wrong with the armscye on the current doublet pattern I have (plus it doesn’t fit me extremely well and I want the experience of drafting it myself). Basically, there are two kinds of armscyes in Patterns of Fashion.

1. “Normal” ones where the front and back pieces have approximately equal halves of the armscye, and both are moderately curved, the front moreso than the back.
2. “Front-weighted” ones where the front piece wraps around well to the back of the wearer, and the front piece contains 1/2-3/4 of the armscye, deeply curved. In this case, the back contains only the top back portion of the armscye, and is almost straight, so when the pieces are joined, the armscye is round, with approximately the same final shape as #1.

The problem with my current doublet pattern is that the back piece is almost straight, but the front piece doesn’t wrap around quite far enough into the back armscye, so the straight back armscye piece is almost 1/2 of the total armscye. This makes a D-shaped armscye when joined, which is both uncomfortable and very difficult to set sleeves into.

I think it’s interesting that doublet and bodice patterns in Patterns of Fashion are about evenly split between straight and curved side-back seams. I’m not sure which would be easier to fit, but I like the look of the curved ones better, especially on women’s doublets (although there’s no gender split). (Trivia: I went through a few years ago and looked at which side garments buttoned on, and almost all, male and female, buttoned on the same side as modern men’s shirts. However, some buttoned like modern women’s shirts. It’s a small sample size–I’d be curious about a portraiture survey–but I put left side on top for buttoned doublets. Like pattern-matching* and not knotting embroidery thread, button conventions are a bit modern and didn’t necessarily apply in period.)

*Yes, sometimes they did it. Sometimes it was legally required, in some countries. But a lot of the time they didn’t, and I’ve seen some astoundingly expensive garments where no attempt was made at all. So I don’t feel bad at all, personally, about prioritizing fabric conservation over pattern-matching.

Leave a Response »

 

Quick corsetry thought Monday, Sep 17 2007

I need to attempt a corset soon so I can do proper Elizabethan and Tudor (I can almost get away with a doublet that’s lightly boned down the front, but that’s more work in the long run for a less accurate shape, and the corset should make pattern drafting easier, I hope).

I have some flat steel boning that I originally bought for a pattern from Drea’s corset pattern generator. I also have a pack of cable ties, which my lord has used to good effect for boning the front of a doublet. These are pretty wide, though, and I’m not sure how I feel about plastic.

Our friend Laura sent me this link to an effigy corset reconstruction. I have been intrigued by reed boning, although they seem fiddly. On the other hand, a Husqvarna Designer II can probably sew through thin reeds without a problem. I have also been wondering for a while if similarly-sized basketry reed would work (it is easier to obtain and perhaps cheaper). What about flat basketry reed (my suspicion is it might eventually get too brittle, but maybe not)

Leave a Response »