1490 kirtle update

Hi ladies and gents!

I know I promised an update some time ago but I've been a little busy with my Honours obligations and, you know, priorities. *sigh* Anyway, I've been plodding along with a couple of little things and I've made some good progress on some of my sewing, even though I've only picked it up for an hour or so a few times each week.

Things I have done:

• Put together my kirtle bodice, flat-felling all the seams;
• Cut out and sewn up my experimental Flemish coif;
• Worked eyelets in the back closure of the bodice;
• Cut out the kirtle skirt.

It actually looks like a lot more as a list than it felt doing it, which is actually kind of nice for a change. Not sewing to a deadline is really wonderful. I'd strongly recommend it.

1490 KIRTLE BODICE

So.. Pics and stuff! I backstitched the load-bearing bodice seams using natural-coloured linen thread, not coloured thread, since that apparently wasn't the way it was done. Then I flat-felled with dyed cotton thread - I try not to use silk for common garments because apart from being inappropriate to the class it washes REALLY BADLY in the machine (read: all of your clothes will come apart). Cotton was my choice because I couldn't afford enough linen thread to fell the seams as well. My felling stitches are really tiny (every 2-3 warp/weft threads) so it would take a lot of the coarser linen thread to make it happen. It wasn't the aim of the game for this kirtle.

Here's the bodice all sewn up:

 Here are my flat-felled seams:

 This is what happens when you put sewing down to check the photo you've just taken:

Holding the bodice together (more on the coif in the next post):

Eyelets all done! The bodice holds itself on, is comfy and supportive:

 From the side:

 From the back (spiral lacing holes with 1" spacing, worked in gold linen thread):

TIP: BASTE EVERYTHING (Even if you're using pins. Do it. It doesn't take long).

Another post coming soon about the coif! Real soon, like half an hour or so because I have it mostly written but want to be able to remember where I put my updates.

~EC x