The Pinkhardie

I'm starting a new wardrobe re-fit project, like the one I did with my Viking clothing last year, and my Florentine outfits the year before.  The first two were about making both sets of clothing more period-appropriate and replacing worn-out pieces.  This time around, I'm pretty much replacing my entire Gothic wardrobe.  Most of it is 4-6 years old, faded, worn out, and none of it fits me correctly anymore. 

I started with making over the blue velveteen cotehardie, which you can read about here. After having tried a few different versions of my cotehardie pattern in the past couple of years, I decided that I really loved the way the blue velveteen fits better than anything else I've tried, so I've gone back to that one. I drafted a new pattern from the blue velveteen and ran a couple of mock-ups to make sure it would work.

The next step was making two new cotehardies with that new-old pattern, both from stash fabric.  This pink one is plain linen, with bodice and sleeves lined in white linen, and buttoned in front and on the sleeves.

You can see where the bodice lining stops in this picture, because the fabric is so light!  I have a white underdress that I plan to wear with it, though, which cleans that up when it's actually on me, thank goodness.  That'll become an issue when it gets hot later this year, though, especially with the lining already in the top half of the dress.  I may go back and line the skirt; or I may just make a plain, white, linen underskirt that I can wear with more things than just this.






 

"original"

Finishing this dress involved some color changes. First, I tweaked the color of a dress a little bit by dyeing it in a bath of plain, black tea. The pink was a little bit too bright and Easter-egg-y for me; I really prefer a more ballet-slipper pink color like you'd get from a natural dye.  The tea toned down the pink to something more like you'd get with madder and less like Paas.

Photographing pink is hard.  The picture at left is NOT a good representation of the actual color of the fabric; but it does a pretty good job of illustrating the difference the tea staining made in the fabric. This fabric came from Fabric-Store.com; their photo of the fabric (here) is pretty close to its actual color. The real finished color is kind of on the line between pink and pale peach.

This is actually pretty close.
Stupid pink. Stupid camera.




It's weird for me, wearing pink. I think in my life I've only ever owned like three pieces of pink clothing. I really love this dress, though.

Top: single coat of polish (left); two coats (right)
Bottom: unpolished buttons (left) and after two coats (right)

 
The second adjustment was in the buttons.   I had some 5/8" silver buttons with a pretty compass rose design on them that were almost perfect with this dress, except that they were a really dark, cool, silver tone.  A couple of coats of gold nail polish ("I Married A Gold Digger", by Orchid Nail Laquer) took care of that: 



(This is the dress, by the way, on which I used the Washi tape to help me with the buttonholes, which I talked about briefly last week). 











 

What's Next?

Candlemas is tomorrow.  After that it's all Gulf Wars all the time until March 11th.  I'll be finishing a second new cotehardie, altering and updating a couple of older ones, sprucing up some accessories and making some new ones, and talking about a whole bunch of changes going on with my campsite arrangements for both myself and for Caerleon.  

.

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. :) 

.

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...

.

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).

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








.

Let's Talk About Boobs

Most women I know in the SCA wear modern bras under their clothing, either because of a lack of period options or because it's simply easier to stick with what you know.  A discussion on Facebook about getting a proper bra fitting in a store prompted the following explanation from me, and I thought it might be useful to share here, for my seamstress readers.

______________________________________________

"...you can do it yourself easily. Measure underneath your breasts around your ribcage where the band goes - better yet, have someone else do it for you so that you can mind your posture (because if you're crunching over to see the tape, you're not getting an accurate measurement). Then measure around your breasts, at the widest part (the widest part, not the nipple itself). 

The difference between the band measurement and the breast measurement is your cup size. Every two inches of difference is a cup size. For instance, my band is 40" (actually forty-and-a-half, but round down for give in the elastic of the bra); and my bust measurement is 45". That makes me between a D (which would be 44") and a DD (46"). In truth, one breast is a D and one is a DD.  (Also keeping in mind that if you're like me, and your cup size doesn't change when you lose/gain weight - as your band size changes, your cup size will as well.  I wear a larger cup size when I'm thinner, for example, because the difference between my band and bust measurements increases). 

That's where a professional tailor or lingerie fitter comes in - they can eyeball small anatomical differences and tell you whether (still using my measurements as an example) a D or a DD would be better, and when to go up/down a cup size or when to make adjustments in the band size itself. But if you can measure yourself, or have a friend do it, you can experiment and see what's comfy for you. I wore a C cup and a band size that was FAR too large for me for many, many years before I learned to do this; the reason we HAVE bra fitters is that most women do the same. When in doubt, try on a larger cup and a smaller band than you normally wear. 

This segment brought to you by the letter N for nerd." 

______________________________________________

That said...

1. It's not an exact formula, and 
2. It's not going to work for every single person, since every person's body is a bit different. 

The formula, however, is also easily adaptable for very-fitted SCA garments like cotehardies and "period brassieres", for example.  The more information you know about how to fit your breasts, the more information you'll have about fitting them into a garment, whatever your underwear of choice. 

Another thing many women tend to overlook, both with bra fitting and with costumery, is that your "breast" covers more area than just what you think of as your "boob."  

original diagram from THIS ARTICLE at NursingCrib.com 

 

Take a look at the purple lines I've added to the above diagram.  For fitting purposes, you need to know that your breast, in a bra or a very tailored garment, begins at the side line of your body directly underneath your armpit; and also goes up to the point under your collarbone between your shoulder and the hollow of your neck.  (This is especially true for larger-breasted women, since both modern bras and supportive SCA garments push the breasts upward towards that point).  

* Also, keep in mind that if your breasts don't happen to be the ones that you grew yourself, sometimes the side-line will be moved forward, or be entirely absent, depending upon how your current model was installed by your surgeon.

Just as when fitting the cup size for a modern bra and taking into account the underarm/side area so that the bra cups support the whole breast and not just the "boob" on the front of your body; when fitting a supportive cotehardie or other supportive garment, you must take into account, in your alterations and pattern construction, the fact that your body pieces will need to support that area as well as everything else.  This is why the line of tension in a self-supporting garment goes from that side seam to the front center of the garment, like this: 

Here, the blue line is the tension line.  The red circle is the placement of the
lifted and supported breast in such a garment. 

And DO keep in mind that ALL of this is going to change from individual body to individual body, and your mileage may vary.  In general, though, I hope this information helps you in your fittings. 

.

March Sewing Challenge: Part 2

Work on the blue corset proceeds apace:

Post #1:

• pattern drafted from existing Renfest corset:  re-sized, no. of pieces changed, back/sides re-shaped for style
• pattern traced onto paper for future use
• fabric cut out:  outer shell, inner lining, two layers of interlining

As of now: 

• interlining basted in place
• lining and outer shell sewn together, including straps
• Boning and cording channels sew in front/back/sides
• Cording inserted (sturdy upholstery welting cord, cotton)
• Boning inserted (bamboo kitchen skewers (it was what I had on hand)

I've also got most of the edge trim attached, but not finished, all the way around the pieces - but I've changed my mind about the color, and will be removing the trim and replacing it tonight.  After that, all that's left is the finishing that I have to do by hand - some stitching, some eyelet holes, stuff like that.  

Next set of pics should be a finished corset!  :D 

. 

March Sewing Challenge: Procrastination Edition

Sometime last year, I decided I wanted a Tudoriffic corset*.   Several months ago - before I re-did the sewing room - I went so far as to try on my old Renfest corset and mark up the pieces so that I could transpose it into something more or less period.

oops.  bit small these days. 

For a long time, the almost-pattern that I made that day sat in carefully organized storage a pile of other crap, awaiting the day when The Perfect Fabric might come along.  It did, eventually.  It was exactly what I'd been waiting for, and I guess that day I had CrazyFlakez for breakfast or something, because it got made into the top half of a sideless surcote instead:

However...

DUN DUN DUNNNN......  (to be continued)...



.

January Sewing Challenge + Blue Silk Cotehardie Finished

TADA and stuff.

Hey, look, it's another blue cotehardie. I should start a blog or something.

Closeup of sleeve buttons and buttonholes.  Nom.





Buttons given to me by a friend in trade for some jewelry and jewelry parts.

Photo of the actual fabric texture, a woven stripe with very nearly a seersucker effect, once washed and pressed.


This fabric was a birthday present!  :D

Since I wanted to button the sleeves, I had to convert the top-seam raglan sleeve pattern to a back-seam pattern....I realized after I'd cut the whole thing out.

Nearly thirty years sewing, and I still do stupid crap like that.  I originally made two right sleeves, too, and had to re-do one.
Derp.

So I sewed the top seam closed and cut a line up the center for the new opening.

I intended to make a paper pattern for my raglan-sleeve cotehardie pattern set from this, but there were some minor complications* that led me to skip it, for now.

The sleeve openings and neckline/front opening are faced with a dark blue washed silk bias tape that I cut from a remnant.



(That's Rabi, my sewing helper, or, as a friend of mine calls these things, a "fuzzy pattern weight").









*About that "minor" complication:  while I'm not normally one for New Year's resolutions, I did something crazy this January 1st and joined a gym, and have been going nearly every day since then (go me).  While I've lost a bit of weight already, I realized, while doing the final fitting and alterations on this cotehardie, that I've got muscles in new places, and I'm already taking on a completely different shape:  not just "less of me", but my upper back is widening with muscle development, my ass is higher and hips narrower, and my biceps seem to be reaching for the Hulk Hogan stars.  Gotta watch the upper arm development, yikes.

That's all well and good, but I cut this dress out weeks ago and have been just staring at it since then, until just the other day.  I've changed shape so much since I cut out the pieces that the dress no longer fits - and it's not a matter of letting out or in: there are sections of the dress that just aren't the right shape, as if I'm putting on an outfit tailored to someone else entirely.  Which means, sadly, that I can't wear my Candlemas dress to Candlemas.

I did, however, come up with a solution to at least that problem.  Details tomorrow!

.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Well...sort of.  First of all, this is my December entry for the Monthly Sewing Challenge.  And while it's a mundane sewing project, it IS a sewing project - it didn't seem right next to furniture makeovers and decoupaged weirdness going on over at Pushing Furniture.  When this project is finished, I'll likely link back over there, though.

Maybe I'll photograph myself in it sitting in my backyard, and then we can get all three blogs into the act.

ANYWAY.

So, you may remember the navy blue, rayon, paisley, challis/satin that I ordered back in May.  This stuff:

I got it [because it was on clearance] thinking that it would make pretty court garb, but the pattern is far too modern to look even remotely right in a period style.  So it went in a box.

However, I've accepted an invitation to something really, really cool:  a friends' holiday dinner at a very fancy restaurant, at which we're all to dress in at least semi-formal attire.  WOOHOO!!!  I haven't gotten to dress *UP* in Mundania in SO LONG!!  So long, actually, that I didn't own anything to wear to a fancy-dress dinner party.

So I had to come up with something fast, and cheap.  I had an idea of what I wanted, actually, because I've been commenting on half the formal wear pins on my Pinterest boards that, "This is what I want, if I ever get to wear formal wear again."

This was the picture I ended up choosing for my main inspiration.  The pin doesn't go anywhere, sadly;  it's captioned as a 1930s evening gown, but with no other information.

After spending hours perusing patterns online, and narrowing it down to four or five that I thought could be made to work, I called a friend of mine, who OWNS ALL THE PATTERNS.   I picked out two patterns from her stock that I thought would work for what I wanted.

This was the first:  Simplciity 3503.  There's a high back and a halter back option for view A (the long beige one) that I could make look like the inspiration picture.

Sadly, since the pattern was too small, and I was going to have to do SO much work not just upsizing the pattern itself, but also adjusting for a MUCH larger bustline (DD) than the pattern allows for, that it basically makes it not worth my time to use this pattern . Which was my favorite.

The second option was Butterick B5710, which is very modern in shaping, so, in addition to re-sizing the pattern, and adjusting the bust, and removing the drape in the front....and adding a midriff piece...and a completely different back....wait...plus a shaped, flat front skirt piece?  On these hips?  Nope.

So, oh, crap...now I didn't have a pattern to work with. Again.  Mind you, this is after two hours of studying the pattern instructions for both of these gowns, pulling out and measuring and sketching and re-drafting some of the pieces, until I finally gave up on each one.

There was a pattern I'd had in mind in the beginning that I'd discarded, mentally, because I couldn't find it online or in Lorrie's stash.  If only I had that one.

BUT LO!!  When did I buy this?!  This was the one I had been thinking of, all this time, but I don't remember purchasing it!  Hallelujah!

The shaping on this one, on the finished piece, is similar to the Simplicity pattern above, but the inverted-V-shaped waistline is elasticized instead of being an actual midriff panel (which, to be honest, is fine with me).  Since this pattern was, miraculously, already the right size and shape for me (how the...?!), the pieces themselves took VERY little alteration, only stylistically.
















The structural and stylistic changes I've made/am making to the pattern as printed are:

• View:  sleeveless, deep-V option
• Not using the triangular modesty insert in the bustline at the V-neck. Cleavage or GTFO. 
• Length extended to evening length, so that the front hemline hits the vamp of my shoe (top of foot, opposite the arch) 
• Split the back into two pieces (it was a single piece on a fold), flared he back opening and extended the center low point a bit so that when finished, the back opening would drape open like the top picture, just a little bit.  
• Scrapped the pattern's neckline and front opening facings and created my own, both to face the new back opening, and to support the fabric at the front and back openings, since it's lightweight and drape-y (flutter in the back, lay-flat in the front). 
• Using a ruffle-edged decorative elastic band on the outside at the waistline, instead of an elastic casing on the inside of that seam.  Is for pretty. 
• Also for pretty: faced the inside of the neckline and back with a lightweight decorative gimp in the same color as the fabric, for a pretty, lacy edge.  

Finished pics soon!   :D



.