Golden Partlet

The Historic Sew Monthly challenge for January is Procrastination. Though I've no plans to do any more Italian sewing at the moment, I did need to get one last thing made to finish off the look of my court gown, and it was something that was half the reason I modified my dress form in the first place; a decent partlet*.

Photo courtesy of Rāshid al-Jallāb

Since the partlet I made for the Realm of Venus competition, making up a partlet into a suitable shape has eluded me. I lost the pattern I used to draft the original piece, and my attempts to copy it to have for the Festival of Fools peacock competition didn't work out all too well (in fact, the fabric used in that attempt was so flimsy it ripped after its first wear). So I wanted to try draping a partlet instead, with my gown laced onto my dress form, so I could properly account for the shape it would need to be during wear, while also showing how much would be exposed at the dress neckline. I only started this partlet on the night before I was due to travel to the event, having draped the pattern the night before. And as is typical of a last minute, temporary, experimental, rush piece, I lost track of the number of people at 12th Night who complemented me on it.

Photo courtesy of Rāshid al-Jallāb

To make the partlet I used a lemon yellow chiffon as a base for some scraps of a heavy gold lace that I had, but never knew what to do with. The lace pieces were neither large or stable enough to create the partlet on their own, so I cut out the pattern pieces in the chiffon, joined them at the sides and hemmed as much as I could, then tacked the lace into place where I knew it would be on display, paying more attention to the edges to make sure it would be sewn down. The result was a gold lace partlet, enhanced by the chiffon base, which everyone agreed really lifted the final outfit. 

The Challenge: January –  Procrastination
Material: A base of crinkle lemon chiffon and gold lace
Pattern: Developed my own, based on late 16th century portraits
Year: Good for the later half of 16th century Venice
Notions: Thread, ribbon for ties
How historically accurate is it? Studying a garment from portraits makes it very hard to determine how something works where you can't see it. I've seen no extant partlets of this type, so I made something that I knew would be comfortable for me. Further, leaving the lace off where it couldn't be observed has no precedence that I'm aware of, though it copies the style of Tudor skirts that only used fashion fabric on the front and hem. So overall I'd say it's 50% accurate - good effort, but plenty of scope for further research and improvement.
Hours to complete: 5-6 hours approx, all hand sewn.
First worn: 12th Night
Total cost:  About €2 for the ribbon, the rest came from stash.

*For those of you not au fait with the Italian wardrobe, it's the blingy bit around my shoulders.

Finished(ish) Hedeby Underdress

At the Garb Workshop hosted by Dun in Mara last weekend, I had thought since no-one had requested my aid, that I'd be able to spend the weekend concentrating on my own stuff. But three impromptu classes and a whole lot of sewing and cutting advice later, I still managed to I made respectable progress on my Hedeby Norse costume.

 

It's amazing how much focus a room full of like minded people with similar tasks to hand can provide the drive needed to get moving on a project. For me this involved winning the fight I'd been having with the dress gores, drafting a sleeve pattern and setting them, and finishing the neckline. I had a bit of a Moment when cutting the sleeves and managed to cut them without seam allowance. Given that fabric was short, I decided to cut some gores from the scraps and added these at the top and bottom of the sleeves, reasoning that even this would have been more reasonable in period than scraping the whole thing. I had been concerned previously that the dress would end up too short, but the hem just overlaps the top of my najlbound socks slightly, so it's worked out rather nicely. Overall I'm rather happy with how this is coming along. I believe my construction is reasonably accurate, and it's a very comfortable garment to wear. 

The final underdress has some slight shaping on the torso to make it a little more fitted; with an hourglass figure there's only so much fitting you can do if you still want the dress to pull off over the head without any additional openings. The dress has side gores to the waist line and front and back gores to the hip line. The hem at the wrist and end of the dress was cut on the fabric selvage to minimise work with hemming, though this is my own invention. I haven't seen any evidence to support the idea, but I can see no reason why they wouldn't have done it if they could. The sleeves are gored to make up for my earlier mistake, and are fitted as per the Hedeby finds, though apart from the last minute gores, I decided to cut the sleeve as a single piece, so without the secondary piece seen in the Hedeby sleeve finds. Similarly, the neckline is a shallow scoop shape found to be particular to Hedeby rather than the keyhole shaping found in other towns. If I'd used a wool I may have been able to get a better fit, but given my fabric restrictions, I think it's turned out well. The arms and side gores still need to be felled, but if I run short on time, I at least have a wearable garment for the event.

 

Norse Underdress

Unfortunately my garb making has not been going as well as I'd hope this month. I had originally hoped to have my underdress done by the garb workshop this coming weekend (not a hope), and be able to work on the apron dress there. But as you can tell from the picture, weellll....  I'm a fair bit off from finished.

To make my Norse under dress, I'm using the information from this previous shared link, specifically the couple of paragraphs on the Hedeby/Haithabu finds. This page shows a possible layout for a Hedeby style underdress based on finds.  I've come across various cutting diagrams for Norse style underdresses in my searches, but I find it very hard to believe that a dress where every square inch of fabric had to have spun and woven, would have been cut with large waste pieces. So to this end I've been making this up so far by using a rectangle system of fabric cutting to use the fabric as efficiently as possible.

 

If you'll forgive my dodgy paint skills, I've made up a basic, if wonky diagram of how I cut out my pieces.

• The front and back pieces are half the width of my hips, plus seam allowance, and the length is the full width of the fabric, so it may be a little short when worn.

• The width of the fabric halved is longer then my arm length, so I cut a strip of fabric which is measured at my bicep, plus seam allowance, to become my sleeves.

• Lastly, I folded the remaining fabric in half, and cut out my gores, measured from my wasit to the hem of the dress, so I'd get the maximum width possible for bottom hem. Gore pieces 1 and 2 will be the side goes, while gore pieces 3, 4a and 4b will be shortened slightly, and become the front and back gores. Gore 4 will have a central seam to join the two pieces, and because of this will be place in the back.

This is the diagram of the fabric as adapted for the width and amount I had, and my own body shape, but it really is worth measuring and adapting these kinds of layouts to your own shape in order to get the best of your fabric usage. This isn't necessarily the most period method of construction, especially as modern fabrics are generally a lot wider then pre-industrial ones, but it's efficient. This has left me with a small amount of leftover linen that is destined to become a hat trimmed with white rabbit fur - in keeping with the colour scheme.

Ah yes, the colour scheme. While I've been endeavouring to ensure the correct shape for my garments, my fabric selections are a little less realistic. Partly due to the fabric being what I had available, and partly due to the required Shenanigans colour scheme, I have a purple linen for the underdress, where an undyed linen was more likely in period, allowing for the few samples that seem to contain traces of blue or brown dyes. And for apron dress, I have a thick cream fluffy fabric, which a burn test concludes is mostly cotton, but which could conceivably fool the man on the galloping horse into thinking it's a wool from a distance.

Essential kit

Trying to buy a new car and get all the paperwork lined up so I don't miss out on a holiday with friends is a rather stressful experience. How and ever, it's all sorted out now, and while I melt with relief, I've had a chance to catch up on a few things.

Firstly, to go with the long awaited red dress (which no, isn't quite finished yet), I needed a new apron! My current apron, being cut from the same red linen, simply wouldn't do.

So I came across some green fabric, I believe a linen-cotton mix, and decided to use that to make up my new apron. I had the pictures taken wearing the new over the old, so I could compare for length. The green was actually cut from an unfinished project, and I had concerns that it would be too short, but it actually comes out just nicely. It's desperately in need of an iron though, those crease you can see in the front are from the old darts that were sewn into it. The hems are sewn with cotton thread, and I used the same thread to make up a couple of fingerloops braids for the closure.

You see, this apron has a little more history than my other projects. The unfinished project that donated the fabric was a dress I made for my mother, that was so close to being finished that when I first came across it a couple of years ago, after she'd passed, I was racked with guilt over how little I had left to do. But when I found it again recently, I thought it would be much better for the fabric to be used in a way to honour her.

The apron in Italian renaissance garb is an essential piece of equipment. Even in the portraits of noble ladies, a piece of embroidered and lace worked heirloom hangs from their waists, alongside the jewels and other accessories. And for the working woman, I don't think I've seen a picture yet where an apron was absent. So with the red apron for the black dress and the green for the very-soon-to-be-finished red dress, it'll be an item that comes with me to every event. So even though she's not around any more, she'll be with me at each occasion.

Post event ... reds?

Festival of Fools III is long over, and I think I'm just about recovered.

The food for the event was exceptional, even if the feastocrat of Saturday's feast insisted on sharing with us the flavour of her farts....

As with each year, new games were held, such as the Tower, where the poor shire Duck sat on a pile of boxes to be mercilessly batted across the field.. and the armoured fighters swear they were aiming for the tower...

The archery tournament, a clout shoot named "Shooting Fish in a Barrel" which proved that come the apocalypse, we're all going to starve...

The equestrian tournament was run by Don Juan, though I can't summon enough flem or roll my "r"'s enough to do his name justice. Black Numpty, a traditionally skittish horse, topped the field!

The thrown weapons tourney diced with the offspring of the elder gods, but eventually the target was hit and octopus tentacles were added to the menu that night.

And Sharks!, a timed survival fencing tournament that was over rather quickly, though the sharks ate well that night.

We also experimented with the format of the event, with Sunday feast being served at lunchtime, to be followed by the casino, and having a game themed feast board was a beautiful flavour of introduction to the  games night, where escudos flowed eagerly across the boards.

The event in all had a slowish, easy pace. Nothing was rushed, there was plenty of time between each tournament for gentles to get in some practice or sparring or relax as they wished. I generally don't like to timetable things against each other, such as running a tournament and a class at the same time, as I do like watching everything that's going on, but there probably would be space to fit in a class or two if the same timetable format was repeated.

And how did it go for me? I had time to sew! An autocrat with a reputation for angsting and worring over every little thing, fretting even when nothing goes wrong because a part of me kinda enjoys it... I had time to relax, though that was likely in no small part due to the presence of my co-autocrat and my Governor of Games (delegation for the win). 

So I relaxed, and by relaxed I mean sewing. I decided to try out pleating on my red dress instead of the gathers of my black dress, and will have more details on those in a separate post. And as I mentioned in my last post, did I get the dress finished? Well, yes, kind of. It was wearable, but it wasn't finished. And I had promised myself I wouldn't rush these projects any more, so I decided not to wear it at all. It will be finished in plenty of time for Raglan though.

New Dress?

With the next event only 3 days away everything's a bit hectic in trying to make sure all my ducks are in a row. And yet I'm still trying to get the red dress that should have been done ages ago done for the weekend.

*sigh* I don't think I'll ever learn about last minute sewing.

Rest assured though, I am being supervised, and anything Suzie-supervised is bound to turn out well*. 










*Where "well" may mean covered in cat hair.

Silk Stockings

Well over a year ago I decided to make myself a pair of silk stockings. They were put away into a pretty little box for transporting to demos and events... and were swiftly forgotten about. I took them back out to work on for the UFO challenge and remembered why they were put away in the first place. I nearly ate them with frustration, but I persevered, knowing I'd feel worse if they were put away unfinished again.

And here they are! The fit is terrible! Mind, I'm not saying that as a comment on my own sewing, there's nowhere I could take in any of the extra room on these unless I planned to sit very still and not plan on walking at all while wearing them. And even then I might be looking at being sewn into them.

There are gussets sewn into both sides of each foot, and the foot fit at least is cosy. The very point of the gussets were impossible to sew completely, so I embroidered over them with embroidery floss so as not to leave any exposed seams. All internal seams are folded over in a enclosed seam; something close to a flat felled seam where possible, and something only pretending to be felled at other stages. When I was cutting these out, I was a *teeny* but short on one sock, so I just piece that up with offcut. That section fits under the fold down cuff at the top of the stocking, so it shouldn't be seen anyway.

I tried to take a full length image of the stocking to show the general shape, but at this point Suzie decided there weren't nearly enough cat hairs on the stockings and improved them beyond measure by lying on them.

 Much better.

The Challenge: Challenge #8 UFOs & PHDs

Fabric: Silk taffeta
Pattern: Drafted myself based on period methods
Year: Throughout the 16th century
Notions: Polyester sewing thread, cotton embroidery thread.
How historically accurate is it? Annoyingly when I started this project over a year ago, silk thread wasn't to be found for love nor money, so I carried on with the closest colour I could find. Now of course, there's two shops close to me that stock a large range of silk sewing thread, but I decided to carry on as I'd started. So 90% - fabric, pattern and construction are period.
Hours to complete: Quite a while, I think 10-12 hours on this. It was hand sewn fiddly work that did it's best to remind me why it had gone into the UFO pile in the first place.
First worn: I had thought I'd wear them the next time I had my court gown on, but a quick test fit for the pictures has shown these bad boys are not going to even think of staying up without the help of garters. And the garters are going to have to wait until challenge 17.
Total cost: Again, this came from stash (can you tell I used to work in a fabric shop), but if made from new, I estimate about €12.

Hats Off!

I've just completed by first HSF challenge! I didn't think I'd get this done in time, but having sewn till almost the 11th hour, I'm very glad to have gotten it done.


So the first part of making a new hat for my Venetian was to decide on the fabric; this part often takes the longest. I knew I wanted velvet, but I had a decent number of options in my stash.So I took a picture and.. who am I kidding, I went for the red velvet. It's a statement. It's brilliant. And when (when!) I eventually get my muff done, I'll have matching accessories.




I cut out two brim pieces in buckram then sandwiched my hand made felt between these and whipstitched it into place. I decided to leave out the millinary wire this time, as an attempt to make a more period hat, and nothing to do with the fact that I couldn't find where mine had wandered off to.



I had initially intented to sew the velvet to the brim in such a way that I'd be able to overlap the crown to brim join with some of the brim seam allowance, but the velvet was so prone to fraying that I decided to turn under all of the seam allowance edges on the brim, to sew the lining to the velvet prior to making up the crown, and just attaching the two directly. Based on the little red fluffs everywhere, I think I made a good call.

The part that worried me most about this project was alining the stitches for the cartridge pleats on the crown. All of my skirts are cartridge pleated, but that's on a straight edge. As mentioned in the Sempstress' tutorial, each row of pleat stitches on the hat has to allow for the oval shape of the crown. I didn't trust myself to be able to eye that, so here's what I came up with. 

First, I determined the centre of the lining by folding in half vertically and marking with chalk, then folding it in half horizontally and marking again. Then using a ruler and a default pleat measurement of the width of my fingernail, I marked chalk lines all the way along the edge so I could follow the lines to keep my pleats all nicely lined up!

And look how wonderfully even they turned out! After that it was a simple case of stitching the pleats into the brim, lining up the front, back and side points to ensure that the pleats would be evenly distributed. I have to say, at this point, I wasn't too sure of the hat at all. I think I cut the crown too big, and I just couldn't get it to sit right.



But then I attached the feathers and it changed the my attitude to it. It went from arkward to bling, especially when I found and attached the little costume jewel to the base of the feathers. Yes, there's things I'd adjust for the next version of this hat, but this one will do nicely too.  

The Challenge: #7: Tops & Toes
Fabric: Red cotton velvet, black linen for lining, purchased buckram, hand made and fulled wool felt.
Pattern: Drafted myself, with help from The Sempstress' Toque tutorial
Year:Approx 1550s
Notions: Polyester thread. Should have been linen by rights, but I had to use what I had.
How historically accurate is it? The pattern is similar to styles worn in portraits of the time, though I think my crown piece is too big. Silk velvet would have been more likely than the cotton, but is a good approximation. Everything was hand sewn, even if it was with polyester thread. Together with the shop purchased buckram instead of my own linen cardboard, I'd say about 75%.
Hours to complete: Approx 6-7 hours with some not so neat stitches involved.
First worn: Hmm, next SCA event is in two weeks time, but I'm hoping to hold onto this one to preview with my complete fencing garb, which won't be until the end of May (not including the obligatory dodgy selfie below).
Total cost:  Technically everything was already in my stash, so I didn't have to buy anything new. As an estimate though, I think it would have cost about €20 if I'd bought everything new.

Tudor Shirt progress

There has been sewing! Alas, a tudor shirt at this stage of construction doesn't look like much, especially considering I forgot to turn it right way round before taking any pictures *ahem*

So to make sense of it all, so far the sleeves have been attached to the body of the shirt, complete with underarm gussets. I've been hand sewing this, backstitch for the seams and then flat felled using this nifty tutorial. I admit, the tutorial confused me a little the first time I tried it, but on the second sleeve I sailed through.

The other thing I discovered while making this shirt is that cotton thread is... rather annoying to work with. It knots at the slightest opportunity, and when working with something as delicate as cotton voile, you can't afford to be too rough. So I came up with the idea of tensioning the fabric while I sewed. This started out as stretching the section I was sewing over my first finger fingernail, but this was giving me quite a small area to work on, so I obtained a piece of leathr from a friend, and supporting this over that same finger, I had myself a much larger sewing area.

It worked *beautifully*. I had been concerned that it would be unwieldy, would be to unbalanced or just plain wouldn't work at all, but it worked so well I had all of the straight seams done in very short order! This little offcut is shortly going to become a staple of my sewing box. 

And so I finish off my post with a picture of the extremely rare, Well Behaved Sewing Supplies Support Suzie.

IRCC3 Final entry - a review

The Italian Renaissance Costuming Competition finalists are even now being updated on the Realm of Venus website, with my own being one of the first up! My own entry can be seen here, and now that's it's over, and I have a little more time, I'm looking at it with a critical eye to think of how I could improve things for next time, though overall, I am happy with my costume. Plus, this is a nice excuse for a photo dump post :)

One of my biggest worries with this gown, especially as I was making up my own linen cardboard, so that it would wind up too stiff too be comfortable, or would chafe in all the wrong places. I have never been more delighted to be wrong. Sure, if doesn't fit in the way my regular day clothes fit, so it will take a little getting used to, but as the cardboard warms to my body, I anticipate it becoming even more comfortable. I couldn't get the lacing to come all the way closed for the photos, as the style should, so I'll have to see if another lacing strip is required, or if it will close further as the fit improves.

The hem of the veste gave me no end of trouble. I wanted to take it up enough that it wouldn't drag, as this is intended to be my "outdoors" garb, but it decided to fight back. After four different pinings I settled on a length and sewed a tuck into the skirt. This has the added advantage that when the end eventually does become too muddy to save, I can let down the tuck to form a new hem. It's just a shame I didn't remember to check and tuck the underskirt too, so that's one more sewing job I'm left with.

For the bag, I leaned heavily on the experience and details provided in this blog entry, on Bettina's pages. I adored the example she made, and would have loved to have had my bag a little more trimmed or adorned, but that's something I can work on as time goes on. As it is, the leather I choose for the bag is that of my personal device, and I'm tempted instead to decorate the bag with some embroidery pertinent to that. But we'll see how that goes.

This was my first attempt at an Italian style hat, so I shouldn't be too hard on myself. It fits, and it's unlikely to come off except in the stiffest of breezes, but it bothers me a little that the brim isn't lying as flat as it could. I think it's mostly a seam allowance issue, and I'll have to take care to cut out the brim pattern a little wider next time.

The Zimarra.. no, I wouldn't change anything about it, I love it so. I just couldn't resist the chance to show it off again.

That's all I'd change though, just a few minor adjustments, so I think I've learned a lot this year about my time management, so maybe I'll get away with my ambitious ideas for next years competition...

Finished Zimarra

And it's finally finished! The last parts too a lot longer than I thought they would, once more confirming in my mind that the small, fiddly, almost invisible parts are always the ones to break your heart.

The embroidered buttons took, on estimate, about 12 hours to complete 21 of them, and that's just a simple buttonhole stitch, nothing fancier. The buttonhole loops, also hand embrodiered with 4 strands of cotton floss, felt like they took the same time. Or at least, they took up a day and a half of my time-off-work-to-get-costume-finished time. There's 8 metres of each width of ribbon sewn down, and I am so glad I took the time to pin it down first. It would have been a nightmare otherwise. 

And as I mentioned before, this Zimarra is an old curtain, purchased from an SCA trader. I've known almost since I boguht it what I wanted to do with it, and yet it languished, buried in my to-do pile for over a year. I'm so utterly delighted it's done now, and looking so beautiful. I'm very much looking forward to showing it off at the upcoming Crown tournament!

Partlets and coverings

The Realm of Venus competition rolls on, and I'm not saying I'm nervous, but I have started counting the days remaining (42). But it's finally given me the incentive to try making that piece of garb that's been most intimidating me - the partlet.

The partlet is like a modern day bolero, designed to cover the skin exposed at the top of the bodice. These could have been made of many kinds of material, and were supposedly used to preserve the modesty of the wearer, but when those versions were made of barely opaque or even transparent silks or lace, you're left wondering...

My first version is made of nice, crisp cotton, in the style of the wedding portrait of Isabella de Medici.

I'm a little miffed the ruffles aren't staning up more, but when I find my curling tongs, I'll revisit that with some of the starch solution I made up for my linen cardboard experiment.

So with the hat, that's two accessories made for the competition. I have an idea of two for the next one, a bag for archery bits, but shall have to see how that goes. There's still a lot of work to go on the veste.

IRCC3 - layer two

While running an event the weekend just gone, I managed to sit down for long enough to get my brocade skirt finished! My feet assure me that I wasn't actually sitting down for long, so I can only conclude that my hand sewing speed has increased somewhat.

I didn't have enough brocade to do the complete skirt, so I chose to cut it carefully so as to give a full front panel, and a broad back of skirt panel. This was a perfectly in period technique used to stretch expensive fabrics further while giving the impression of wealth. I'm hoping when my veste in in place, the false back won't be visible at all. 

I haven't been brave enough to try on the skirt yet...gremlins have been hard at work this month sewing my clothes tighter, and I don't want to be disappointed by the fit just yet. Though it will also help me to determine if I want to put a waistband onto the skirt for comfort. 

Another point to add regarding this skirt, when I went to buy the linen to line it with, the shop didn't have the colour I wanted. I wasn't willing to wait (just as well as the skirt is finished now and the grey linen still isn't in stock), so I picked up some black linen. This doesn't really affect the brocade at all, but from the back, the brocade sparkles through, making the black linen look shiny and expensive.

So I hatched a plan. With a little careful sewing, I could make myself a fully reversible skirt and double my wardrobe contents in one easy step!

Firstly, I sewing the broacde to the linen to create seperate shell pieces. When this was complete, I stitched the two pieces together, making sure to only catch the brocade fabric with my thread.

With the outer seams complete, pressing the stitching flat meant the linen edges were meeting by themselves. All I had to do was used my stitching to pull and keep the sides togther. And for the most part, I kept my stitches neat enough that the inner seams should be all but invisible.

At some point I'll decide on a trim of some kind to decorate the end of the black skirt, but I'm happy enough with my trick for now.

Costume Competition - making a start

The Realm of Venus Italian Renaissance Costume Competition started last Sunday, and I having just finished my Victorian costume, I prepared for the competition by having a bath and generally relaxing. It was a good call.

A week later, I have a pair of drawers made and have made a start on the skirt.

The drawer are made of fine cotton, hand stitched with a pattern I draftedmyself based on extant drawers in the Met Museum. The embroidery is done in split stitch, using four threads of varigated embroidery floss. The pattern for the embroidery is a modified version of that which appears on a chemise in Patterns of Fashion 4. Suzie approves, so I'm quite happy too.

Another choice pleasing Suzie is my choice of brocade for the skirt. I didn't have enough for a full skirt, so I'll be making a false back for the skirt, which will hopefully remain hidden when it is worn under the veste. 

I'm lining this skirt with linen to give it body and support. Black linen because I didn't have the patience to wait two weeks for a lighter colour to come into stock. But I'm going to turn this to my advantage and made the skirt reversible, doubling my wardrobe options in one (hopefully) simple move!