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Kirtle re-shaping.
The sadness you have when you reshape a kirtle and have to cut off all these little hand made eyelets from the front.
The sadness you have when you reshape a kirtle and have to cut off all these little hand made eyelets from the front.
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Surcote neckline complete!
Success! Slow and steady and it's done! I am loving this surcote more and more as it's finished. I'm really glad I took it out of the To Do pile and finally finished it! I can't wait to get a photo of it on me!
Hoping to tackle bigger projects tomorrow!
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Surcote in progress
Inside seam of a rather thick, felted wool thingy? What is it?
It's a striped surcote made out of old blanket wool. I was going to sell this off, but after having it out, I decided maybe I'll finish it off and keep it myself. Anyway, I've been trying to finish the inside seams this week after work, and I'm down to the last seam. Because of the blanket I've made it from, it hasn't got the armholes shaped yet. I needed to see what fabric I had and how high it would go, but you'll get the idea.
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Romance of Alexander hood
Three lines done a la Romance of Alexander.
I am having the best time using the sticky tape method to get the lines nice and even.
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How To Do Parellel Lines on a Hood.
Best new sewing tip... use tape to space your embroidery without marking the fabric! And it works and it's so easy!! When we support each other and share our tips, everyone wins! This is a wool hood and I'm using wool and couching it on the surface to achieve decorative lines around the edge.
I got this idea from my friend Maureen Lillie from The Crowned Heart. She makes a lot of really wonderful medieval hoods herself.
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Hood upgrade!
I've been working on a new technique for getting lines straight on clothes, and it's use tape! Clearly, it's not a period tailoring technique but I feel that helped me not get discouraged about decorating. I was surprised at how much time marking up I saved as well.
I posted up on facebook about this and there were a lot of comments about the types of tape to use and how to remove the tape residue from the fabric, which astonished me quite a bit.
I'm genuinely surprised that people said they get residue from stitcky tape (scotch or packing tape) because all my tape did was barely stick and remove cat hair. No residue at all. Other countries must have extra sticky, gooey tape!!
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Buttonholes take forever.
I'm not kidding. I'm really slow at them and one entire sleeve on a kirtle I'm trying to finish needs to be undone and done again. Meanwhile the little buttons themselves are coming along well and I need to have them finished today!
Pic to follow.
Pic to follow.
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Last minute things
When you discover you hastily machined the last two seams and now have time to unpick them and redo them by hand!
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Eyelets. A Neverending Story.
In an absolutely epic two days, I've managed to sew in the facing strips and sew all of the eyelets for both my niece's and the emerald green kirtles. I actually don't mind eyelets, but I'm slow, so averaging 12 minutes each. and there are so many. I really need these done before I get the kirtle up to the museum for a fitting so I can sew the pieces together, possibly for an upcoming event soon.
Finished as last though! Of course, these both need buttons on the sleeves, so that's a heap of buttonholes to come too.
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Project Green Kirtle on the go!
The outside of the surcote has the two gold A's completely finished now, and I'm just waiting for the lining fabric to arrive.
Meanwhile I've started the green kirtle to wear underneath it. I've got the inside seams machined and then the lower dress seams all stitched down by hand since it'll be unlined and they'll show. I've got the upper torso sewn but not stitched down until I can do a dress fitting.
I've got the reinforcing strips sewn in down both sides of the front and now just need to mark out and sew 40 eyelets for the lacing. I really want to do that before the fitting so it closes up properly. I hope I'll just be able to take it in at the sides and back seam.
And I've still to cut the sleeves and do all the buttonholes on those.
Meanwhile I've started the green kirtle to wear underneath it. I've got the inside seams machined and then the lower dress seams all stitched down by hand since it'll be unlined and they'll show. I've got the upper torso sewn but not stitched down until I can do a dress fitting.
I've got the reinforcing strips sewn in down both sides of the front and now just need to mark out and sew 40 eyelets for the lacing. I really want to do that before the fitting so it closes up properly. I hope I'll just be able to take it in at the sides and back seam.
And I've still to cut the sleeves and do all the buttonholes on those.
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Gold Couching
I'm determined to finish the gold couching today and Ive brought it to work for my lunch time project.
I needed extra for the lining but when it arrived it was the wrong colour and they don't have it anymore, so I've ordered more for a whole new lining, but now it's a race against time for it to arrive before needed. The surcote is washed for for an event in early April, when I originally thought the timeline was end of June, but I also have 4 weeks to complete 2 kirtles- one for niece, and one for person who I'm kind of not able to do a fitting for at the moment.
My plan there is to cut bigger and machine sew, do fitting, then take in and hem. I should be able to do the time consuming details like buttonholes on sleeves and eyelets for lacing down the front anyway and just do any taking in at the sides and back.
Anyway, the timeline moved, so a bit stressed.
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Crowned A Surcote Progress
Progress is happening in this direction.
I've managed to trace out the Crowned A which will go on the heraldic surcote. I've traced and drawn out two of these ready to cut. Hooray for progress! As it's not a re-enactment garment, I've used iron on interfacing to stop the fraying and to allow me to place the stitches a little further apart. It's looking lovely and I'm very pleased!
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Adjusting the kirtle
Advice if you aren't great with patterns or measures: Cut larger and pin in. It's always better to take in than discover it's way too tight!
I'm cutting down an unfinished kirtle of mine which I had cut and pinned for myself to fit my niece who is several sizes smaller than me. I couldn't part with the fabric which is a beautiful wine coloured fine linen, so I'm very happy it will be used. For myself dark coloured linens were becoming a little problematic since I'm having thoughts about dye and linen, but as a first garment for a young and noble lady in a very hot climate, it will serve as a nice undergown for her first event. I don't have an issue with linen clothing at all in the right circumstances, but the combination of the fabric and colour make me feel there are better choices for me personally.
It is the second layer, going over the linen chemise and An under-kirtle for a dark blue silk kirtle with short sleeves and white tippets!
It'll be her first event coming up soon, so my fingers are crossed that she has fun! I'm doing al the internal work by machine because, really, she may not have a great time and I have so many other projects which do require to be hand stitched inside and out, that I don't want to spend an enormous amount of time on an item that I won't be able to wear afterwards. If she loves the whole idea of tournaments and re-enactment, then perhaps I will resew the inside seams by hand, but we shall see. The other jobs I have are quite time-intensive and I also need to spend dedicated time on the next few books.
There are, quite simply, not enough hours in the day spend away from my day job.
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Fun with Photo Editing
When taking photos of your new outfits at home by oneself is tricky, but not impossible, getting nice photos with nice backgrounds at events is more so. I have an online database of every item I have which I have made or use for re-enactment along with construction notes, some tutorials and source documentation. You can see in the photos, a much smaller image from a manuscript, painting or sculpture which have been the style guide.
I used to have these with all the backgrounds cut out, but a few days ago, I thought it might be fun to, well, have fun with it.
So, what to do?
Thanks to the magic of photo editing programs and the fact that it's a lot of fun, I am able to paste myself into a bunch of wonderful other medieval-flavoured locales to improve the look. Some of these photos are taken in location, others pasted into either previous locations of my own, like the Tailor's Workshop, or stock images available online in places like Haddon Hall or well known landmark castles.
While my skills aren't alway the best and an observer can certainly tell when it's not the genuine background, I really don't mind. It's just for me and just for funsies, and I'm having a lot of fun breaking up the sewing.
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Buttoned surcote!
My latest rabbit hole has been a bit of an in depth look at the clothing in the Ormesby Psalter, from the early 14th century and because there's a lot of cool stuff in there, namely cute hair nets, barbettes, a lady with a peaked cap AND a barbette and this very cool surcote with a buttoned shoulder, I am using it for my style guide for my personal kit. I had previously spent a lot of time in the later half of the 14th century, but an enormous amount of people do that same time period, and I really do love the whole barbette-and-net arrangement, so I'm going to wriggle back time-wise a little and stay there.
The manuscript isn't as comprehensive as others, like the Luttrell Psalter or the Bohun Psalter, which have both been style icons for me, but the missing bits of my impression can be filled with information from the Museum of London's great books on artifacts from archaeological excavations.
As much as possible, anyway.
So this week I finally finished the surcote.
It's red wool and although I thought the buttoned opening would be handy, I was surprised at how much more room there was when it came to removing the surcote whilst still wearing a headpiece with substantial wiggery.
I may still add a couched single line around the armholes since most of the clothing in the manuscript has either a single line of a line with a series of dots around arms and necklines, something I see repeated by many re-enactors far too much on later clothing when the style has disappeared.
Anyway. The buttons on the shoulder are really great. I've not seen them on clothing on the shoulder at this time, but have seen shoulder buttons on cloaks worn by men a little later on in the 14th century.
It's all a bit cool.
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Seems like it's not over yet
You probably would believe how sad I was when I had finished carefully hand washing the Elsa Gowne (for the Frozen colour as I fondly refer to it these days) and discovered that I was in such a hurry to wear it a while back that I machine sewed the last few seams of the last gore and now... well, I guess I need to sew them properly before I put it away again.
Darn it. Another project not quite finished. At least it's just 2 seams, and not an entire thing.
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Meanwhile... silk work
Meanwhile work on the other silk kirtle continues. I'm getting closer to finishing it with several of the gores completely sewn in now and the neckline almost finished. I'm not doing a reinforcing strip for this one, which I would normally do with wool or linen. There's no slit at the front to place wear and tear on the fabric, so it just wasn't needed.
You'll be able to see clearly in this photo how the rolled hemming works. It's nothing more than a double fold, essentially rolled twice, and sewn down with a hemming stitch or fell stitch as it's sometimes called. The photo show it rolled outwards, but that is because the kirtle is inside out while I'm sewing.
Once flipped, it'll be rolled inwards with only a teeny row of stitched visible from the outside.
I am so very much in love with the fabric and colour. I can't wait to finish it.
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Scarlet silk gowne progress
I've started a new project instead of finishing the myriad of other projects because silk is easy to sew and it's a colour I really love!
This will be an early 14th century gowne, so apart from a few buttons at the wrist, it's mostly just triangles and rectangles and tailoring, so it's a project I can work on almost without thinking. Other projects are far more time consuming and I really need to pay attention to them, so this is kind of a way of switching off while still being productive.
So far, I've started adding the side gores and it's almost ready to pin the sleeves on before I pin the sides in. Making progress and feeling Xmassy because of the red!
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Touch me! Part 1.
I need to do a proper post and pictures and things, but still trying to stop being ridiculously excited that my book has hit the shelves in the Braille Library. Super duper excited about that, but also super duper busy with projects.
The circlets are all together now, and I've glued the linings in. They'll need a little glue touch up where the ends overlap, but that's easy.
Two of the three matching blue, faux silk surcotes are finished now, and I'm not going to attempt the third before the event. My current plan is to have red in the centre flanked by the two matching blue ones. The morris dancers aren't answering their emails, so a bit stressed about using them for the ceremony.
More fun with photos with friends with good results. I've also managed to trawl though old photos and grab a few extra which are perfect for side pages.
Insanely late sewing night when a friend dropped over in the afternoon and finally left with much achieved at 3.10am. It did keep me working on projects and we had a steady supply of delicious cheeses and tea and Disney movies she hadn't seen so the time flew by!
The silk kirtle now has a few buttonholes completed. I gave up and machine sewed the back gore in and will go back and hand stitch it later. I'm so short of time.
Ditto the roses curtains. I'll use other wall hangings for the event and use the roses as a really great bedspread this year. I have three panels sewn together with two other smaller ones completed also. It's quite an expanse.
In other news, I'm tired and need a nap. I've been trying to keep up with posting things on Inst and FBook just to keep things motivated, but really, I am still bouncing about the braille library thing. Proper post to come with lots of info about Braille House and all about them.
The circlets are all together now, and I've glued the linings in. They'll need a little glue touch up where the ends overlap, but that's easy.
Two of the three matching blue, faux silk surcotes are finished now, and I'm not going to attempt the third before the event. My current plan is to have red in the centre flanked by the two matching blue ones. The morris dancers aren't answering their emails, so a bit stressed about using them for the ceremony.
More fun with photos with friends with good results. I've also managed to trawl though old photos and grab a few extra which are perfect for side pages.
Insanely late sewing night when a friend dropped over in the afternoon and finally left with much achieved at 3.10am. It did keep me working on projects and we had a steady supply of delicious cheeses and tea and Disney movies she hadn't seen so the time flew by!
The silk kirtle now has a few buttonholes completed. I gave up and machine sewed the back gore in and will go back and hand stitch it later. I'm so short of time.
Ditto the roses curtains. I'll use other wall hangings for the event and use the roses as a really great bedspread this year. I have three panels sewn together with two other smaller ones completed also. It's quite an expanse.
In other news, I'm tired and need a nap. I've been trying to keep up with posting things on Inst and FBook just to keep things motivated, but really, I am still bouncing about the braille library thing. Proper post to come with lots of info about Braille House and all about them.