PLANS!

So! I haven't really done any sewing at all these past few weeks. Uni is too demanding on my time but oh well. I figure that's the way it should be. This week coming up is my study week so I'm making plans! Here's a list:

• Finish the brown woollen kirtle;
• Dye some wool;
• Cut out woolen hose;
• Alter a pair of existing silk sleeves to refresh them;
• Pattern and cut out a gown to go over the kirtle;
• Cut out a chemise.

If I can get all of this prepped by next week I'll be chuffed! I've got three asignments I want to get finished in this break though, so I can't afford to slack off, really. Just have to shoehorn more into the days (as if it were possible!).

Oh, I'l also try to remember to take a picture of the brown kirtle under a woolen gown I finished recently. I think you'll like it, even if the gown is a little bit later than the rest of the stuff, oops. It probably won't go into my wardrobe unless I can be sure it works for 1525. Any advice is appreciated! I'll post a picture of it soon.

<3 Elinor.
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Update 16/03/12:

Bah, I'm distracted from study by being excited about dyeing the wool I have! I can't decide which colour, though I'm considering a very period violet purple or a dark hunter green. I already have some black, red and blue put aside for later projects as well as a gown I've made from a dark rose-pink and one made previously from tawny/ochre wool cloth. Apparently I love bright colours!

So: violet, green or something else? Halp, please!

xxx E

On an unrelated note...

So, the reason I don't just go to uni, to work and sew is that I have a horse! She takes a lot of time, about two hours a day on average, to look after and ride. She's a four-year-old Thoroughbred mare and when I bought her she looked like this:

That was five months ago. As of today, at her very first show, she looks like this:

That's me riding her after her class. She didn't win or place, but she was up against some tough competition. She really looked the part though and if the awards were handed out on the basis of behaviour she'd have won Supreme of Supremes! Here's us waiting to go in to the ring:

So, while it doesn't have anything to do with sewing, it's something I love and it's my blog so nyer! Poniesponiesponiesponiesponies.

<3 Rosie

Another Mini Update

I have another garbing competition submission: thank you, Elizabeth! How marvelous :D In response to a question she asked: yes, anyone can definitely submit more than one idea, but you can only vote once for an idea of your own. You also get a second vote for the submission you like most but that is made by someone else. For all entrants: give some thought to materials costs - sometimes it's better to make something less luxurious if you're able to recreate it more authentically. I'm sure that whatever is chosen will be a blast to make! ~E ^_^

Winter Project Competition Mini Update

Just a small post of thanks to William Montrose for being the very first entrant to my Winter Project Competition! His Edward VII recreation would be a beautiful (and challenging) project, but I'm sure I would learn a lot and have a great time making it. Keep them coming, peeps! Meta-Mini Update: the brown kirtle is nearly done. I popped it up on my mannequin and had the hem leveled and the lining and upper tacked together in about half an hour! Speedy-zoom! All I need now is a little time to bind it and then it can be ticked off my Project List Of Doom. Please help me by suggesting my next project or you may just be subjected to a chemise or two *waves boring undergarments menacingly*. Keep the competition submissions rolling in! <3 Elinor.

Brown Wool Kirtle update 3: lucets, laces and binding (oh my!)

Hello again!

I'm trying to make this a super-speedy post because I haven't slept well lately and it's already 20:20 and I need to get up at 5:30 to have time to run before mucking out the ponies and going to uni! *Rushrushrush*

So I've made a little bit of time to do some more work on the kirtle and I'm really happy to say that it's almost done! Since I last posted about it I've finished the silk binding on the armscyes and made a 1.8m lace to close the thing. I ALSO remembered to charge my camera so I have some photos that are less fuzzy and more detailed than before, hooray!

I made the lacing cord from red perle cotton. I haven't been able to determine exactly what the period material/s for lacing would be, though I suspect linen or silk (determined by status). Since I don't have any strong silk handy I decided to use the cotton because the Guttermann linen thread I have didn't really cut it in termds of smoothness for ease-of-lacing. I worked on the lace each evening when I was watching Doctor Who (the only tv show I watch during semester :P), for 45 minutes to an hour per night for about 5 nights. Here's an image of my lucet. A lucet is a tool used for making a very strong woven cord from a single strand of thread. If you'd like to learn a bit more about it, check out http://kws.atlantia.sca.org/photos/lucet/ .

After I'd woven my 1.8m strand I stitched one end of it to the top of my bodice near the first eyelet and wrapped the other (lacing) end with some thread to make it more resilient. When I remember I'll buy some aiglets from Tudor Tailor or something. 1.8m seems like a lot but its really much easier to lace if you've got a bit more to work with than less.

I finished binding the armscye and now it really does look complete. :) Here's a picture of the side of the bodice, complete with Tudor-flavoured boob support, which hugs everything without turfing them out the top through the neckline:

 Here's the front of the bodice:

Despite what appears to be gratuitous boob here I hold that it's just the camera playing tricks - the neckline actually looks quite modest and un-cleavagey and has worked really well! I will take more pictures in my next post and will actually wear a chemise - it was just too. Fricking. Hot. to wear even a single extra layer under wool here today (37C/98.5F). Even for five minutes! The shape of the bodice has worked out well too. There's no boning, only a layer of linen canvas interlining. It's SUPREMELY comfortable. I'm going to take time here to stress the importance of making a toile and taking time to fit it properly - it's definitely worth waiting until you have someone to fit you, but I've also got plans to post my tricksy cheats for patterning yourself!

Here's a full-length picture:

I'm sorry about the kind of poor quality of these self-taken photos. I'll do my best to have someone take photos of the finished kirtle for me but in the meantime this should give you an idea of how it's come along.

Anyone who owns a cat will understand this photo, taken about 0.375seconds after I took the stupidly hot thing off and laid it on the bed. This is Troublecat, my 4 year old half-feral cat, and my previously very clean and hair-free kirtle. No more!

Alright, that's it for now! All I need to finish the kirtle is to pop it up on my mannequin and trim the hem, then bind it with strips of the same wool it's made from. I won't use the silk I've bound the armscyes and neckline with because it'll probably get ruined and won't wear as well. After that, I'll have to make something else! Feel free to take a look at my list on one of my earlier posts (http://elinorcliffordtailor.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/1525-wardrobe-project.html) and recommend something to me!

Until next time, manger un sac de bites!

~E.C. xxx

Brown wool kirtle update 2: eyelets!

Okay, so I've committe to making a last ditch effort at finishing the kirtle before I go back to uni. As long as I finish something major in every uni break I'll be done in... 4 years. Or something. Feh.

Aaanyway, tonight I finished a 13 hour shift (I know >_<) so I came home, planted myself in front of Mad Men and finishe the eyelets on the skirt section of the vent. Here's an image of the finished product! I know its poor quality but I haven't charged my camera... I promise I'll do it for next time.

It closes!

Closeup!

I whip-stitched the eyelets using black linen Gutterman thread. It's really waxy and strange when you first work with it, more like fishing line than thread, but I found that if you pull it through your fingers a few times before you thread it to softens up a bit. I love it for eyelets because the shiny nature of the thread means its really easy to pull your lace through and I've never had an eyelet done in linen thread that has frayed or worn or pulled out.

The eyelets are 1" apart and there I've ended up using two lacing formations to get the result I've seen in period carvings (I'll find the image for the final post for this kirtle - I can't seem to dig it up now). In the bodice section I've laced using generic spiral lacing. In the skirt section I've actually switched to ladder lacing. The period example shows the visible laces on the bodice on the diagonal and the visible laces on the skirt being horizontal. It's an interesting effect but I'm not persuaded that the laces shouldn't be spirals that do their diagonal on the inside where the lacing is invisible. When I tried this the vent scrunched up and didn't sit as well But I'm going to keep at it. The main problem is that there is tension in the bodice and no tension on the skirt owing to the fullness of the panels. I'll work on it for next time, in any case.

The sides of the vent in the skirt overlap each other but on the bodice they don't. It's not a major problem, I can lace it to overlap without trouble, but it's not "working as designed". Anyone have any advice on whether this is just the way it's meant to look? I can't find a period example showing enough detail to help me!

I also started to contemplate what I should move onto for after this! I think the obvious (and most rewarding) choice would be a gown to go over the top so that I can feel as though I have a completed outfit. It would be nice to have something done in its entirety for the Barony of Aneala's XXV Anniversary on the Anzac Day weekend! So, with that in mind:

NEXT TIME: The completed kirtle! Only binding the right armscye and hem to go, plus luceting a lacing cord to go with it. I've decided that each of my articles of clothing will be considered unfinishe unless they have their own laces - I ALWAYS lose them D: The trouble will be finding a colour to suit, I think I'll try with a small ball of bobbin-lace cotton in gold to match the binding.

COMING SOON: A gown to go over the top! I have some charcoal/black wool of a similar type to the one I used here - that might be a good place to start if nothing else presents itself :) Also, a pair of hose as well as a smock suited to this period (the ones I already have are too late in period / not English).

That's it for now, it's late and I need bed! Oh wait, I found a photo of the comfortably-curved bust.

The reason I make a fuss of it is that I've managed to overcome my previous habit of having boobs everywhere - it's really pretty easy to yank everything in and leave nowhere for them to go but up (and out the top >_> ). This is the shape I've been aiming for over the course of making my last couple of things, some of which I'll hopefully post up here in time. The curve is smooth and although everything is comfortably supported there's no ZOMG BEWBS action going on, thankfully.

That really is it, now. Nini!

~ E.C. xxx

Brown wool kirtle

 Well here is my first post about a project! I'm so so so so excited about finally getting this up here! The kirtle is the first item I've made specifically for my Wardrobe project and it's coming along so well that I just don't want to work on anything else. I want to make ALL OF THE CLOTHINGS!!! Aaaanyway, I've done most of the hard yards for this one already so I thought I'd just post about what I've done so far and share a few pictures about where I'm at with it.

The kirtle is the first I've made and it's supposed to be the first "workaday" kirtle for my wardrobe. I have a real attachment to this piece because the wool I've used for it was purchased when I bought a bunch of fabric for my very very first ever recreation costume for the Investment of the Lucas and Madeleine, the gorgeous B&B of Ynys Fawr in Tasmania. I haven't managed to use it before now but I'm really happy to finally have the chance to put it to good use. The wool is a dark chocolate brown (pretty close to the "poor black" of the 16th century, I think) broadcloth where the nap has been raised and sheared to make it felty. I've done a burn-test on it and as far as I can tell it is 100% wool (pretty good since I think I bought it from Spotlight and I wouldn't have paid more than $10/m). The lining is undyed and unbleached linen (apart from the obvious expense involved in lining wool with wool, I just don't think I could stand it in the Perth heat >_< ), interlined with the last of some scraps of linen canvas and the edges are bound in some scraps of gold silk taffeta.

The kirtle has a sleeveless bodice with a V-neckline front and back and an attached skirt. The vent (opening) is in the front and is bound with silk scraps like the neckline and armscye. I really wanted to add small sleeves but I just didn't have enough fabric. In the end, it has been cut from 3m (and a little bit) of wool 112cm wide which I folded in half lengthways and cut to give me 6m x 66cm so that I could learn about piecing the skirt. each skirt panel (2 front, 2 back) was made by joining 2 pieces together. 

Side-front view

Front view

 The design is taken from the kirtle pattern on p40 of Caroline Johnson's The Queen's Servants and fitted on myself by virtue of putting a zip in the front of the toile. In fact, the next time I make a toile like this I'll try to take photos so I can make a tutorial. It's the best way to fit anything on yourself that I have found - it's basically the same method used by some ladies to fit cotehardies to themselves. If you're fussy and finicky about your patterns like I am, it's awesome because you can zip it off and make adjustments as often as you like without pissing off the person who is trying to help you (put up with your perfectionism). 

I want to mention that there's no boning, just the linen canvas interlining. Obviously it'll be worn over a smock but there isn't a corset and I haven't found any indication that there would have been any boning in this kind of kirtle or that there would have been any supporting undergarment. To be honest, the shape is excellent and it's incredibly comfortable. It looks just right in terms of fit, though the neckline turned out a bit lower than I wanted. Oh well, I'll be wearing a gown over it and the chemise will help to preserve my modesty too :P

Anyway, at this stage I've done all of the major construction work and now I've just got to finish off the eyelets (I just one side below the waist seam), binding the right armscye and binding the hem. Oh, and I'll lucet a lacing cord for it out of something, if I can! I'll try and find some dark-coloured cotton perle of something and get back to you on that. 

I had to include this last picture of the side for two reasons: (1) you can see that there is a nice curve over the bust that is created by fitting the bodice most snugly directly under the breasts. When the tension in the shoulders is correct it's more comfortable and supportive than any fancy bra! (2) My fingers somehow conspired to get in the way and make themselves look like a butt. Hurr hurr hurr <_<

Hopefully I can finish this tomorrow night when I get home from work, so that I'll actually have finished something over my summer break!

~ E.C.