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.

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The weekend of sewing Sunday, Feb 10 2008

As of Saturday evening:

• Coif – This was a spur of the moment project with some machine-embroidered linen. I sewed spangles on it and lined it with purple linen. There’s too much white space for Elizabethan sensibilities, but it’s not awful, and I’m excited I finally figured out a working coif pattern. I still need to sew the trim I found with loops on for a drawstring (cheating, I know).
• Flat hat – Most of today (after staying up until 2:00 last night with the coif) I spent drafting a pattern for a new, more period flat hat according to Sempstress. I am very happy with the shape! The construction method is not my favorite, though–the bias tape was fiddly and I don’t like the finish, so next time around I will try this pattern with the old method for a lined flat cap. Anyway, I made it out of the tan wool and all it needs is a hatband and feather. I have a nice metal button to sew on as well with an arabesque design.
• Purple/brown velvet skirt – Still half pinned, will finish tomorrow.
• Brown wool skirt – Still half pinned, will attempt to put guards on and finish tomorrow.
• Flannel petticoats – Tomorrow
• Green velveteen doublet – Maybe try to finish tomorrow (doubt I’ll have time)
• Cauls (2 for me, 1 or 2 for Lucretzia) – I figure I’ll just assembly-line them Monday evening. I definitely want some cauls that aren’t as fancy as my beaded one, which looks out of place with my next wool flat cap.

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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.

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Clothing report (and a new name) Monday, Dec 3 2007

14th century European

I’m basically done with my 14th century outfit–wore it to Caer Galen Toys for Tots in October. I need to take in part of the waist a tiny bit more so it will hang right, but that’s it. I may eventually rip the sleeves out of the kirtle and redraft them to have mitten cuffs and use wood-cored buttons, but they’re serviceable and I may use my leftover blue linen/cotton for a summer camping event doublet instead.

I got more comments on the belt (which took about three hours total) than anything else, probably because belts are more arcane to most people than sewing. Anyway, I’m pretty excited about it–I dyed it myself (modern dyes), finished the edges with wax (speculative, plausible, and easy to rewax when they get fuzzy–modern Edgecoat looks really, well, modern), and attached mounts until my arm hurt, at which time I handed it over to my lord to finish. The buckle, strap end, purse hanger, and mounts all came from Fettered Cock Pewters. I’m very pleased with the mounts and purse hanger, especially for the price, but pewter is a bit soft for buckles and strap ends, especially since each only has one rivet. Still, you get what you pay for, and FCP is the most affordable source of replica fittings I’ve found. I still need to attach buckle and strap end to my stamped belt a la Museum of London.

I also made a downright hideous tasseled brocade pouch from a remnant someone gave away at fighter practice. It’s handy to have somewhere to shove a wallet, not so handy the way the cords twist up and it bangs against my leg when I walk.

I figured out how to pin my veil pretty nicely (reproduction wimple pins from FCP = also great, but I’m going to order some plain brass reproduction clothing pins from Historic Enterprises for general non-decorative use. I definitely need to make some veils out of silk and lighter-weight linen, and probably a bit larger.

Number one thing I learned: USE WOODEN CORES for cloth buttons (it’s documentable, at least for men, and makes buttoning them much easier. They also look neater).

Pictures when I get around to getting them.

15th century Italian

I’m working on research and patterning for a 15th century Italian gamurra and giornea. Both will be reversible and made from fabric I already have. The hitch is that I want my gamurra to be red, not screaming salmon pink, and I’m not tackling home dyeing until after Christmas. But it should help clean out my stash, and be less of a PITA than the cotehardie (no cloth buttons!). I should have some time to work on this before spring semester starts.

Goal: Done by Caer Galen A&S, January 27

Anglo-Saxon

Ordered some dirt cheap cadet blue linen for the under tunic. Took measurements for the overtunic to be made from embroidered wool (!) tablecloth. Low-priority project.

Elizabethan caul

Since I have a farthingale, underskirt with forepart, and overskirt (and material to make new sleeves) for my Elizabethan doublet, I really need a fancier piece of headwear (not counting my disatisfactory first attempt at a tall hat). I started a caul out of dark blue cotton (horror!) leftover from the underskirt. I laid non-metallic gold soutache down in a grid pattern over it and tacked the intersections down with glass pearls. Now I’m sewing down spangles in every other square. Then I just need to decorate and attach the band. It’s much, much slower than I expected and makes my fingers and back hurt, but it will be insanely ostentatious and probably the simplest piece of headwear I can get away with to go with that dress.

If my lord weren’t planning on making a doublet out of the remaining fabric (I begged enough for the overskirt), I’d consider making a low-necked doublet or gown bodice to wear with the overskirt because I’m itching to embroider a partlet, but honestly, I don’t like the fabric that much–it was given to us and it isn’t totally inappropriate, but it’s a little rubberized and the pattern is off. I should just put my energies into a properly cut Elizabethan gown, if I ever get around to making a corset. Although given my figure, it might be easier and more comfortable to just lightly bone and interline my bodices and doublets.

Might try to put together some paned sleeves before Saturday….

New name

I’ve decided to change from 14th century Mongol to 14th/16th century (depending on my mood) Spanish, on account of accidentally falling in love with European clothing, and also because I’m so compulsive about authenticity with the Mongol stuff I don’t get around to making it. Someday I will. But I think Spanish is more appropriate, given the majority of my SCA interests.

Makes me glad I never got around to submitting a name and device.

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