Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Doublets and Tabards and Shirts, Oh My!

So, it came to our attention last night that I have about three weeks to get all the garb I need done before Faire and I realized that the peacock (The Alfonson d'Este set) simply cannot be done with other people to sew for. So we laid aside the idea of having the peacock done for this Faire and moved on to the idea of another doublet. Problem is that I don't have time to wait for a good doublet pattern to come through the mail, and the local Joann's Fabric is out of the good Simplicity Doublet pattern. So, I moved on to a Mccalls book and found this;



Obviously the cape isn't going to happen, and she isn't playing a musketeer, so that leaves the long, costume doublet. I think that if I make it with a blue velvet (something we have stashed in my fabric piles that I wouldn't get rid of because 'I swear I'll use it one day!') and make a tad shorter, plus adding tabs to the shoulders and bottoms to make it more period, it could be beautiful. Perhaps, with blue velvet, some silver trim?

Plus I had that awful knights costume posted for the boys, this makes it to where I can make something totally different and make them look somewhat period! Plus, I didn't have a way to make them undershirts, and the undershirt for the musketeers should work beautifully...

Well, tonight I'll be starting on the noble shirts for the men-folk, plus I need to get complete measurements and such, and then hopefully tomorrow I can make some real headway on the doublets. They don't look too difficult, just time consuming. And I have the Fantasy Fashions doublet pattern to play with so I'll be getting some real experience!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

The Corded Corset

So, as I mentioned in a previous post, I have had a corded corset on my list of 'to-do's and I used my time today to get that done. It actually turned out very nicely and didn't take nearly as much time as I expected it to. Total, this project took about 4 hours, amazing for a corset, right?

I know I bought a new corset pattern that is designed for cording, but I like the way the Alter Years corset fits me, so I chose to use it again, with some alterations of course.

Before I did any of the sewing and such, I took over the dining room with my sewing supplies! Just thought I would share.



And, so it begins with the shopping list;

1 Yard of white duck cloth canvas;
100 feet of nylon cord or rope (it seems like a bit much, but I literally used almost all of it);
3 yards of bias tape

Then came the pinning, I used my alteryears tabbed corset pattern, but simply pinned the tabs up so I kept the V and none of the abnoxious boning of the tabbing.


Easy altering, just folded the taps up and made the lines a bit more soft for the final look of it all.

Then, following that sandwich method that we all know I love so much, I laid the two pieces of fabric out, and began sewing the casings. This part was very time consuming, tons and tons of straight lines, all the way through. The size of casings will depend on the size of the rope/cording you use. The other thing to remember is that the thicker the cord, the less room the corset will actually have when you're done with it. Luckily, my corset pattern fits pretty perfectly and it could stand to be a tad smaller. You can't really see the stitching, but it's just straight lines to put together the casings.


The next part was the easiest, but more time consuming step. Using floral wire with a loop at the end of it, I pulled each piece of cord into each casing and left long ends so that I didn't lose any of the pieces.








After that, it was back to the sewing machine! Using a zig-zag stitch, I stitched around all the edges of the corset, fixing the cording into place so that it has less opportunity to move around. Yes, I have a heavy duty machine, but if you buy a soft rope/cord that isn't coated in plastic it should sew through just fine.


Then comes the tedious work; trimming the edges of the cord. It wasn't too difficult, but I did have to be careful because I didn't want to cut them too long or accidently cut them crooked. Or, worst possibility of all, cut the cloth and have to trim it all down because of a silly mistake.


After that, using store bought bias tape (I'm terrible about cheating like that), I covered the raw edges, because they're too thick to roll and they need to stay flat.


Then, I just had to mark and punch the eyelet holes. Usually a very simple task but the rope cording makes it really difficult. Some eyelets fall in the small gaps between the cords, some need to be punched through the cording. It was no small task, to say the least. So, with some creative eyelet punching, and a good pair of scissors to supplement those tough spots, I set to work and got the last step done!

It was actually a very easy project, with just a bit of patience even the most basic, beginner sewers can make this. Not to mention, it is very period correct for italian and pretudor corsets, the cording gives a much softer line  in the torso and still cinches and supports. For bustier women it will give that pretty italian curve in the bust and for flatter women (like myself) it can help for cleavage issues and it's more comfortable than boning. The cording allows you to bend and flex, while still maintaining the shape and keeping you all tucked in.  But, it worked perfectly and fits just as well as my steel boned corset does.


I missed a set of eyelets towards the top, hence the bulge in the closing. But after fixing that mistake it laid flat, I just didn't take another picture, I was feeling lazy after getting this done.

All in all, I'm very happy with this corset and it's definatly a project I'm going to do again. I would suggest this over a boned corset any day! 






Saturday, August 18, 2012

The Tiny Lady

One of my noblemen's daughter will be here to join us for Kansas City Faire this year, so I thought that a good princess dress would be a nice thing for her to have. So I started looking for a children's pattern that could easily be made into a good dress for Faire, and found something that I had confidence in.



The dress is shown with lots of Tulle and a horrible shiny costume fabric. But I saw the potential! I took the pattern, tweaked it a bit and made it into two pieces; an overdress and an underdress. The result was beautiful!



The blue is actually made of a light carpet, I figured a three year old wouldn't understand the concept of keeping a dress clean so I wanted something I could clean easily after she wears it. The underdress is a gold brocade with gold flowers. Each peice is trimmed with black satin, and the overdress is further decorated with tiny pearl trimming. It is hard to believe that a three foot tall child could take twelve feet of pearling to decorate a dress. To top it off, we bought a few jeweled pendants to sew to the dress and add a little more color. And, viola! It is not the fanciest of things, but a three year old will only see pretty colors and it is rare that you see children in garb anyway!

A Faire List

Well, Kansas City Faire is in September, and look at the date! I have less than three weeks before our scheduled Faire date, and I'm scrambling to get it all done! So let's look at what I have to do so far...

First, the two men in my life will need shirts to go under their beautiful garb (which they haven't even gone fabric shopping for yet!), this should be a relatively short project, just one with pleating and painful hand-stitched detailing. Which may wait until after Faire when I have more time...The detailing I mean.


Now, on to the more difficult things that need to be done!

One of my noblemen this year is portraying Alfonso d'Este (to accompany me as Anna Sforza), and her garb will prove to present a challenge. Here is the portrait of Alfonso that this noblemen has chosen to model after...


Instead of this portrait...


Needless to say, I was slightly annoyed that Alfonso had to have the big garb, and couldn't settle for the small garb!

So, from what I can tell, looking at the big garb, it is an english styled overcoat with fur lining, ot top of an italian styled men's gown. The english pattern does show this coat with a gown but not the right gown. The english style was a front closing gown that had a large open chest so that the wearer could show off a doublet under the gown. Just more peacocking (which is what this garb has been nicknamed!)
So we have two patterns for this...

We will be using view IV of both patterns, the coat from pattern 55 and the plain gown from pattern 43. Not to mention the jewelry I have to hunt down pieces for and make for Alfonso to really look the part. The pendant will be especially difficult, I know that it won't be an easy one to find.

Another nobleman of mine is fascinated with the costuming from The Tudors, so he wants a simple dublet and slops, thank goodness. Unfortunately those patterns had to be ordered off of ebay...




This choice makes my sewing tasks much easier, as I have confidence in my ability to put this set together. Again, we are just waiting on the good sir to purchase fabric! I don't think we will be worrying about caps for either of these good men so that narrows my list down in an amazingly easy way.

Another set to be made is for an older lady who is accompanying us to Faire this year. She didn't want to be worrying about a corset or anything like that, so we chose a good pattern that wouldn't require any sort of renaissance under-thing.


We will be making the light blue version with the big angel sleeves, looks easy enough, I suppose I will find out! Again, fabric has not been purchased yet. *Sigh*

Then, we have another piece of my dream closet. Not something I envision getting done before Faire, but certainly high on my to-do list... A period dressing gown. You see them in The Other Boleyn Girl, but an actual pattern for that doesn't exist, so I found this!


I think that this pattern will work if I bring in the sides and add fabric to the pleating in the back...


Other than that, low on my priority list but something I would like to have finished before Faire, is garb for the little boys!






I know that dressing a boy as a knight like this is not period at all, but for the sake of the kids, and the sake of my patience, I have abandoned that idea. There is also a girl to have garb as well, but hers is done and so I will include that in another post.

Lastly, the gold sleeves of my italian still need to be finished to top me off, and as it gets closer I may look into a cape. Wish me luck, eh?





The Dress

So, this is a dress from The Other Boleyn Girl, it was only shown in brief moments, but I am so incredibly in love with it! So, after I finish all of my other projects for Faire this year, I plan on starting the intense fabric hunt to find what I need for this fabric.

It looks like a soft burgundy velvet, possibly satin for a substitute but I love this velvet. Typically velvet is not a good choice, if it is crushed velvet it isn't period but true velvet is too stiff. This velvet looks like a true velvet that doesn't have that stiff back. The front panel looks like a satin, not a brocade but it could be substituted... Plus the beautiful gold satin sleeves! Luckily, the pattern for this has already been purchased. Twice, actually.

I'm not sure if I want to use the Simplicity pattern or the Period Patterns pattern. I find that the Period Patterns come with very vague instructions and too much 'refer to...' type setup, but they are the more accurate period patterns and the lack of real shape in the pattern makes it easy to alter (with a few muslin mock-ups). Alternatively, the Simplicity pattern is easier to use, fairly easy to alter for the right fit and has directions that are miles better than the vague instruction pamphlets that come with the first. I suppose I could make mock-ups from muslin of both patterns, see which fits better in full garb, but I do hate to buy fabric that will simply be thrown away. The other downside to Period Patterns is the way that patterns are printed, with multiple styles on the same pattern piece. Basically, this issue is worst in the bodices; when you cut into one bodice for one style you are cutting another bodice apart. So that leaves you with two choices; buy the pattern because you like it for one specific dress, or trace each piece on butcher paper so that the original pattern isn't being cut. We shall see, that project is a long time in coming, so it will be a bit before you see another post on this dress.


Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Couching. Beading. Sore Fingers!






 <--- It takes SERIOUS patience to lace yourself into a back lacing gown like this, just saying.

Okay, so this post is for a work in progress, which has been a work in progress for a LONG time. My first dress was a green and brown venetian, with big pretty open sleeves. Well, I spent a long time swearing that I liked my dresses plain and I didn't want anything too ornate or ridiculously over decorated. So I left it plain for a long time and it was worn once and then tossed in a tub of garb and forgotten.

But! I found the dress and decided that, somehow, I was going to decorate it. So I started googling my little heart out and I stumbled across an article about Couching.

Couching is a technique where you take some kind of cord, or even thick thread, and you sew it down with embroidery floss in whatever design you like. Well, I didn't find any photos of this technique for garb but I did find some really neat examples;



So, armed with these images, I set to work trying to come up with a way to decorate this horrifically large dress...

First was the task of getting supplies together...

I didn't know that walmart sold embroidery floss before this project, by the way. I was very pleased. I also am convinced I beat walmart with this trip, my total purchase cost was less than the number of items I bought!

I figured that I would do the basic trimming of the bodice...




I couched the trimming onto the bodice then took an assortment of sead beads and sewed it down over the trim. It turned out very pretty but took far more time than I expected. The trimming alone on this part took me two nights of work and movies to get done.

After that, I realized that to make this dress proper, I needed to close the sleeves. So, I had to run back to walmart and get the little things I needed for that task... Which turned out beautifully!




I also might have sewn through my finger in the process of that. But, well worth the effort.

Then, at a loss for how else to decorate, I decided to couch the sleeves just as I had done to the trim. This step has never been completed, the dress is sitting in my project crate...






That is one sleeve done, the other is half done and that will be a complete dress for me...I just don't want to spend the last six hours it will take the finish the darned sleeve!


 



Tuesday, August 14, 2012

An Italian?



So recently I have been doing some research on the italian dress of the time, of course it is easy to find venetian gowns that are reminiscant of Romeo and Juliet and The Princess Bride, but I didn't go through all the work of that corset to just lay it off to the side and not wear it! So I stumbled across these pictures and fell in love! Although I don't think that the corset is necessary in this style of gown, it certainly makes me feel better to have the flat, rounded barrel chest that I admire so much in portraits of the day! The portrait on the left, the orange dress with the black ribbon laid the frame work for the dress that I wanted to make. I like the colors but being the skin tone I am I realized that orange was not the right option and I needed to switch the orange dress and blue sleeves to be the opposite (great choice, now that I look back in hindsight). So, being unable to wrap my head around pattern making, I found a pattern from renstore.com that had the perfect style of dress in it.

I used Period Pattern Number 41;
View IV, bottom far right. The trick with this pattern that I wasn't a fan of is that all the different bodices are drawn onto one bodice pattern and you cut that pattern based on the gown you're making. So, to reuse and make all 8 views you should invest in a role of butcher paper and not cut a single piece of the pattern itself. For my purposes though, being a fan of the one and not the others, it worked just fine. The only thing I would have been upset with having to trace out is different styles in the sleeves, but those came seperately drawn, so crisis averted!

The pattern is easy and pretty general, so I started making muslin mockups...Which meant I laced myself into my corset for a few hours and began cutting and sewing the same pattern with different tweaks, over and over and over, until I got the perfect fit! After fitting my muslin, I started the bodice...




I used that same sandwich method to sew my lining into the corset, I used six layers of black duckcloth canvas to keep the satin from moving or wrinking and such. A great choice for strength without thickness but my machine wasn't too happy with me. I treated it with oil and a good dusting afterwards, I was afraid it would quit on me halfway through!

After the bodice, everything else was easy. Panels and panels of blue fabric, pleated to the bottom of the corset was easy athough time consuming. 
Simple bias tape (store bought because I'm a cheater) lined the edging of the bodice, and eyelets to close the bodice. Here I did run into an issue; perhaps it was my novice lacing partner's lack of garb knowledge but the middle would slide open as soon as he tied the top...I fully believe that being laced by someone else will solve this issue. But some creative lacing was the solution we needed! Instead of lacing the bodice with one long string of ribbon, we tie each set of eyelets closed with a short piece of ribbon and let the long pretty bow hang down the back of my bodice. Problem solved, crisis averted.

All that was left on the blue dress was the ribbon on the skirt, which, in hindsight would have been better if I had sewn in on before putting the skirt panels together and attaching them to the bodice, but we all make little mistakes right?
Pairing the dress with a simple partlet made it perfect! Modest and perfectly period!
Eventually, sleeves will be created, I have gold fabric with pretty flowers just waiting...Pinned and all, laying to the side on my sewing desk waiting for me to stop getting distracted and cut and sew a few simple lines! I plan on attaching small hooks to the top of the bodice arms, at the edge and on the inside seam of the sleeves so that I can attach them just at the top and have the shirt sleeves peeking out from under the arms just as the portraits above. Will update when I get there!