What's Purple and Pink and Yellow All Over?

A friend asked me if I'd make her a Landsknecht dress.  She sent me pictures she'd seen online, and, because I'm a crazy person, I thought it looked like SO MUCH FUN.

This was hard. And I'm never doing it again - but it WAS SO MUCH FUN.  And my friend loved it, so, yay!  :)


It's all linen (from fabric-store.com), and all machine-sewn, except for the stripes on the bodice, which were appliqué'd onto the bodice by hand.  The bodice and sleeves* are fully lined; the skirt is not. 

* I forgot to get a pic of the sleeves before I delivered the dress.  They're made to be detachable, and lace on at the shoulders of the dress.  They're also made in two parts, an upper and lower sleeve that lace together, so that the dress may be worn sleeveless, or with long or short sleeves. They're purple, with pink and yellow bands; no checks. 








My original thought process was this:
1. Man, this looks like quilting. I hate quilting!
2. Oh, but wait! Somebody once told me a trick for doing checks the easy way! This'll be great!

And then I realized that "the easy way" involved only two colors, and that my first-ever checkered panel did, in fact, have to be done The Hard Way:

Yikes. 

It was, in fact, far easier than I'd thought it would be, and I'm really happy with the way it came out.  I made the skirt in four sections: the checkered panel, the striped panel above it, the striped panel below it, and the top panel which is solid purple.  Once the checkered panel and both striped panels were made and combined, the bottom half of the skirt looked like this:

Altogether, this is about eleven hours' work.

STRIPES
All the purple strips in this section are 2" wide, as finished (all pieces were cut with a 1/2" seam allowance - I wanted a lot of woodge room, just in case), except for the very bottom, which is 3" with a folded 2" blind hem. Both yellow stripes, and the two pink stripes that border the checkered panel, are 1" wide as finished. The top pink stripe is 3" finished.

CHECKS
All of the checks are 2" as finished, and also cut with a 1/2" seam allowance (cut as 3" squares).  I could not have done this dress at all without my trust cutting mat and rotary cutters, or I would have gone completely banana-balls and rampaged naked through the town.

I very nearly went banana-balls and rampaged naked through
the town just sewing them together, fyi. 

The construction on this was painstaking, tedious, eye-numbing, repetitive, time consuming, and exhausting; but at every step of the way I kept stopping to look at it and going, "Wow. I did that! I can't believe I did that [and didn't screw it up!] I've never done this before, this is great!"  and that is my very favorite thing about sewing.  I LOVE learning to do new things. I love doing things I've never done.

As always, Rory helped.

P.S. - this was my very last commission.  I know I've said that before, but this really is the last one.  I'm freeeeeee...or I was, for a minute.  Until I found out a dear friend will be elevated soon!!!  SQUEEE!!! 

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Now, About That Hat Situation

First of all, I needed a head covering for the daytime, to go with that gold Swiss dress I made.  I decided to make one of these:

(This is captioned as belonging to Whiljascorner.wordpress, but I can't find this post anywhere on Whilja's blog - my apologies to her, and if anyone can find a direct link, please comment here so I can give better credit).

Easy, soft, pretty, and easy to wear.

Bonus: looks fantastic with an old, shredded
Planet Fitness t-shirt

Here's mine.  

Lightweight, white muslin, cut into a circle about 20" diameter, with a band of the same fabric, and silk ribbon ties in back.

Gathering the circle onto the headband.

There's a piece about 4" wide in the center back that is not attached to the headband, that I just hemmed with a very tiny rolled hem.

I'm holding the back of the (coif? cap?)  up so you can see it's purpose:  the ties at the back of the headband tie underneath my hair, and the un-gathered back of the fabric circle kind of tucks up underneath it.

The design is similar to a St. Briget's (or Birgitta) cap, except for the width of the headband, and the length of the ties.

My non-SCA BFF/roommate asked me if I was
going to be working in a bakery at Candlemas. 

The 20" circle is plenty loose - enough that I could stuff a padded roll for a more haube-like look if I wanted to (hint: I don't. My head's a weird enough shape already, thank you).

This will work fine on its own; and it would also look great under a big, floppy hat, if I end up making one.

And then...

I decided, after seeing a number of beaded and embroidered coifs of similar design on various blogs, I decided to make a fancier one to wear with my Hapsburg gown:

This one's made of blue washed silk, machine-stitched in silver metallic thread.  I sewed the gathered circle onto a length of gray bias tape, then stitched it onto a headband of navy silk velvet ribbon, accented with a strip of narrow, silver, woven ribbon trim. The ties are a vintage rayon seam tape.

I will probably end up making some sort of hat to wear on top of it...but I haven't quite gotten there yet.  Stay tuned!





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Candlemas: IT'S FINISHED!!! (2/2)

WOOP WOOP!

Man, I gotta tellya, that skirt whupped my butt.  The skirt on the extant gown is cut as a full circle.  I tried for days to figure out how to do that with the two remaining curtain panels I had, but I just couldn't make it work.  In the end, I went with a panel-and-gore skirt, to make the best use of the fabric I had.  It means that the skirt isn't as full as I'd have liked, but it still looks and moves great (it's far fuller than it looks in the pics; my dress dummy is perched on the edge of the table, and some of the skirt had to be wadded up underneath it to make it look like it was standing up.  I reeeeally need to get around to building a stand for it!)

The skirt is pleated onto a hidden waistband attached underneath and behind the lower edge of the bodice...

I wrapped the red printed linen drapery fabric around a core of white upholstery
canvas, for stiffness and strength - the skirt is reeeally heavy! 

There's  a split in the front of the skirt - I'd originally wanted to conceal the waistband closure inside a deep pleat, but I didn't have enough fabric to pleat the skirt as fully as I'd wanted to.  So I split the front, and edged it in a narrow bias tape; the split sits pretty flat, and is completely hidden by the black belt when I have it on.

Too much/too thick fabric for pins?  Bobby pins. Thanks, Pinterest! 

All in all, though, I really like the way the dress came out.  It fits perfectly, and though it's heavy, it moves well, and is really comfortable.

Other Notes: 

• I ended up not lining the skirt.  This dress is heavy enough, I didn't want to add any more weight to it.  I also didn't want to add yet another layer to the three I'll already be wearing at the event...which is indoors. 
• I added a 3" trim of red upholstery velvet to the bottom of the entire skirt, to soften the lower edge and echo the wide, red silk trim on the neckline and sleeve cuffs. 
• I still don't have a freeping hat!!!  D:  

Fully-dressed events pics in just a couple of weeks. :) 

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More Dresses For Candlemas: Blue and Black "Kampfrau"

This one's for my friend L. Ysabeau (for whom I made the russet silk bliaut back in October):

(modeled for us today by Violet, who still needs a stand, but it turns out
she works just fine for photo purposes perched on the corner of my cutting table)

Tada! 

• Black and turquoise linen
• Bodice lined in the same black linen
• Cuffs and neckline trim interlined in a white pique cotton (shows behind  the slashing on the neckline)
• Skirt cartridge-pleated to the bodice edge, and sewn on by hand. 
• Neckline slashes tacked and stitched open by hand: 

Yesterday I finished this gown (I'd been in the middle of putting lacing hooks behind the front opening for like two weeks, for some reason. It took like maybe thirty minutes to finish), cleaned up my sewing room a bit, and started working on the waistband for the red Hapsburg gown.  More on that tomorrow! 

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Candlemas: The Hapsburg Gown (1/2

This year, for Candlemas, I'm making a version of "The Hapsburg Wedding Gown", made for Mary of Austria, for her wedding to Louis II of Hungary in 1515.

I've wanted for years to make a version of this gown for myself, and in recent months, the most amazing fabric came to me.  It took me about a month of researching and planning an entirely different outfit for it, before I came across some old research on the Hapsburg gown and realized that it was finally time to do it.

Since Candlemas this year is German- (specifically Landsknecht-) themed, and I haven't been terribly interested in going full German, I settled on this as a compromise.  The gown's design, "...influenced by the leading fashion of Burgundia and the taste of the German renaissance," (says the Hungarian National Museum, where the gown is currently displayed), is a nice balance between German styling and...something I'd actually wear.  (I mean absolutely no disrespect, it's just not my thing).

And so...

The completed bodice, which doesn't fit my dummy, Violet, as well as it fits me. Violet needs some serious overhaul. 

The fabric is a printed drapery-weight linen, which came from...you guessed it: a trio of drapes passed to me by a friend, in a round of "Take what you want out of these boxes and then pass them on."  The background is sort of an ecru color, and the botanical designs are in shades of cherry red, and burgundy.  

Aside: the drapes had once hung in the home of a heavy smoker, and lemmetellya, it was some work getting it clean, but I managed it. Yay!  

The trim pieces are cut from a silk sari I'd owned for years (and once wore to a friend's Bollywood-themed wedding). 

Construction-wise,  I started with my Italian bodice pattern, since it had about the right shape and cut. I adjusted the arm scyes, since my Italian is cut to be worn sleeveless; and adjusted the neckline and front opening, which was actually far more challenging that I thought it would be. 

My bust is large and in charge.  That makes a flat, straight line from the shoulder to the waist, for a bodice cut like this, impossible.  These double-deez need a bit of a curve - but this is NOT a curved-edge look at all.

I started with fitting a mock-up with a straight front cut, then added some long, curved pieces to the front to fit my bust and put the front opening where it needed to be.  

(You can see the seam better here)

Once I was happy with the fit, I slit the center front bust to make the pattern piece lay flat.  When I cut the drapery fabric I did NOT include the seam you see in the mock-up pattern piece.  I stitched a dart into the front, just to get the front line and bust fit correct, and used it to mark a line across the center curve where the dart had been, to mark the fabric that needed to be cinched up:  

Then I gathered the area very tightly by hand.  This is a tailor's fitting trick I learned from a my friend Simona, who has been allowing me to observe and help a little bit with her amazing late-period doublets.  It's been very educational, and fun!  

There's a corresponding, albeit smaller, gathering at the armpit of the front pieces. The two gathered areas form sort of a boob-pocket that curves over the bust: 

The resulting fit is a straight line from shoulder to waist, and flat across the bust and midriff;  but the center front is curved enough to cover the bust and to stay in place: 

As you can see from the finished bodice picture, the gathering doesn't show at all once the trim and sleeves are in place, and I have a "flat" bodice that actually covers The Girls without falling off the sides or gapping in the center.

Other Construction Notes On This Bodice

• The entire bodice is fully lined in an off-white muslin.  The body pieces are flat-lined, and seams opened and clean-finished.  The sleeve linings are stitched to cover the seams on the inside. 

• The cuffs and neckline trim are interlined with the same muslin, since the silk is very lightweight and flimsy.  
• The neckline trim is sewn to the bodice pieces on the inside, behind the bodice edge, and turned outward, and tacked down by hand around the outside edges. 

• The sleeve cuffs were treated in almost the exact same way, except that they're extended from the end of the sleeve instead of wrapped around the edge of it.  The cuff itself is not as widely bell-shaped as I would have liked, but I do like the way they look.  They're soft enough, even with the interlining, to not restrict hand movement (the cuffs come down to the ends of my fingertips), and can be turned back easily so as not to be in the way (of eating, for example). 
• The lower edge of the bodice will sit on top of the pleated skirt, once it's attached - you can see in this close-up photo on flickr that the bodice on the extant Hapsburg gown is treated the same way.  (The flickr poster's blog has even more excellent photos of the construction details of the Hapsburg gown, but somehow I lost the bookmark I had and I can't find the blog again! In any case, her flicker photos are just amazing). 
• From drafting the pattern to finishing the bodice, this half of the gown has taken me just over a week to complete.  

I used one of my three 84x48" drapery panels on this bodice.   I have to say, I've been terrified to cut out the skirt, because this isn't a panel-and-gore skirt - it's a full circle.  The skirt on the extant gown is pieced, which is what I'd planned to do...but how?  While writing up this blog post, I happened across a cutting diagram I hadn't seen before, which actually answered all of my questions about cutting the skirt pieces.  With any luck, I'll have a skirt post, and a finished dress for you before too long. :) 

To be continued...

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Gold Swiss/German Linen Kirtle

Bryn Gwlad's Candlemas event is a sight to behold.  It's just about my favorite event of the year.  It's primarily an indoor event, chock full of classes, A&S, music, and dancing.  The hall always looks amazing, the feast is lit by candlelight only, and heralds announce each course as a coordinated fleet of servers delivers food to the people who aren't up participating in the ball taking place at the front of the hall before the high tables...to live music.  *happy sigh*

It's also usually a themed event.  This year the theme is Landsknecht, on the road to war (Gulf Wars, in March).  Landsknecht dress, or at least German-styled clothing in general, is encouraged (but not mandatory).  Though I've sworn for five years that I'll never "go German," here is my first one, to wear during the day at the event.

It's based on the following two works by Diebold Schilling the Elder (Swiss, 1445-1485), and a couple of recreations I've seen online that I really love:

unknown, Schilling

Barbara Erlach and daughters,
Schilling

In Nova Corpora

Sew Mill

Notes

The pattern is based on my usual cotehardie pattern.  It's rectangular construction with inset gores, and only the neckline and sleeves have been altered. (The sleeves are short because I'll be wearing a pair of over-sleeves with the dress for part of the day and working with my hands for most of the rest of it; they're cut as modern sleeves with the seam under the arm instead of behind it, which I did for speed as much as for the slightly baggier look they give to the shoulders).   I would really have liked a fuller, longer skirt; but I only had so much fabric to work with. 

The bodice of the dress is flat-lined in white linen; though it is also turned at the neckline/front opening.  The sleeves and skirt are unlined.  I wanted as few layers as possible for this outfit, since a hall full of people dancing, gaming, and milling about gets pretty hot;  I'll be working most of the day, attending dance classes, and wearing braies and a smock underneath this dress as well.  I'd rather not die of heat stroke before lunch.

A close-up of the front lacing after completion, during a test fit.

The lace is a silk twill tape from a stash of vintage notions I received from a friend several months ago.

There are no hooks or loops or holes for the lacing; rather, a thin, double-fold cotton bias tape is attached inside the edge of the front opening. The bias tape was attached with  line of decorative chevron stitches (machined) that run down the entire front opening edge, with gaps in the stitching to form loops in the bias tape through which the twill tape is threaded.

I was originally going to close the vertical slit with buttons or a hook; but I didn't have anything in my stash that wouldn't interfere with the belt I was going to wear with the dress.

(Sorry, the stitching looks horrible from the inside.  On the outside it's nice and even, and practically invisible on the gold linen).

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With my newest Caerleon sleeves...which I made like a year ago and never posted to the blog. But I kinda love them.  :)








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