Raglan Prep - first post of...many

Raglan preparation this year breaks down into three categories:

• Stuff to be made for other people
• Stuff to be prepared for classes
• Stuff for myself

Though that last one tends to be endless and is subject to heavy prioritisation. Things... are not going well, not least because leaving component parts in other peoples houses does not lead to progress. But there's time yet!*

So far I've been cutting out multiple hat patterns so I can have several "and here's one I made earlier" stages available for construction demonstration at my class.The trick with these will be to assemble them with as little handling as possible, so the fabrics don't disintegrate along the edges in the time between now and the event.




On the knitting front, the first of the gift items has been delivered, a little socky purse that I actually developed the pattern for myself.




They were made from the same yarn (malabrigo, my favourite) and to go to the same recipient of the Aragorn socks I made earlier this year, and which even came to a Professor Elemental show with me.

* Famous last words

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.

Getting Organised

I had one of those wonderful moments tonight where the crafting supplies I needed for the crafting I intended to do were right where I left them. Organised, I am not. Not half as much as I'd like anyway.

That said, I've just decided to participate in the Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge. This is only a competition in the sense that everyone wins, because it's a sew along with the goal to increase your historically inspired wardrobe at the end of it. I had been avoiding the challenge previously, as I thought it'd add too much extra work into my already long sewing list, but a brief conversation with one of the organisers on their facebook page and I realised the idea was to manipulate my list into the challenges, not to cause myself extra grief!

I'm jumping in at challenge #7: Tops & Toes, though with only a week to go, I don't entirely expect to get this one finished by the deadline, but I do need a new hat, so it's good to get started. Getting started involed making wool felt this evening, because while I'm willing to cheat and buy my buckram stiffening, there's nothing quite like your own hand fulled felt to make a hat with.



And challenge #8: UFOs & PHDs, that's UnFinished Objects and Project Half Done, has me digging out my silk stockings to finish sewing them up, so this challenge has already been worth it... provided I get them finished of course.

Getting back to it

Sometimes, you just need to give yourself a mental kick to get things going again. Sometimes, that even works. Thankfully, tonight was one of those sometimes.

I've had trouble getting my discipline on the last week or so, so today, I re-jigged my schedule and set my determination to be sure I'd get things done this evening. So far this has included putting my hair into one of my favourite hair masks (pampering is important too) taking pictures of some recently finished items, and even better, starting on the next project!

Firstly, I got my first Victorian hat finished. I became very happy with the glue gun on this one, so there's very little sewing involved. I used a single layer of buckram and just one round of millinary wire, which I think may have been too light for the velvet I used, so the edges don't curl up quite as much as I'd like. 

The trims I'm not entirely happy with either. There's just something missing, but I don't know what. I figure when I see the trim in a shop, I'll know. But until then, this is my first Victorian style hat, and I shall wear it with pride. Though given I missed the Victorian Field day (stupid sinuses), I'm not yet sure when that will be.



But while I wasn't doing much, I wasn't completely idle. My hands are allergic to idleness I believe. So I knit. Something easy, fast, with a simple pattern. And that was Clapotis from knitty.com. And given the sudden, yet seasonally appropriate change in the weather, as well as the corresponding seasonal breakage of the workplace air conditioning, I'm glad to have it done.

And last, but very much not the least; the most important project on my list.

You see, the green fabric I used in my recently completed Florentine dress didn't come from a shop. It was given to me by a friend looking for an exchange, and became the incentive I needed to enter the Realm of Venus costume competition. In exchange, this friend asked for a Tudor style shirt. She picked out a cotton voile for it to be made up in, and I'm planning a little surprise in the making of it that I hope she'll be happy with. Ok, sure, there's nothing much to show yet, but at least I have something to work on for A&S tomorrow.              

Victorian headwear

Little sleep and nightmares do not lead to productive crafting. Even less so when you read the instructions 5 times and they still make no sense.

I'm working on making a couple of Victorian hats at the moment, using Lynn Mc Masters 1870-80's Bustle Hat Pattern. I'm following View C to make a red velvet coloured hat to match my pre-existing Victorian costume, and I've plans to follow this hat up with a second, steel grey coloured hat in View D to match the pinstriped fabric outfit I have planned, though it has't gotten past the planning stages yet. 
 

So far, I've been cutting and gluing, with a little sewing on the side, as per the instructions. I'm tempted too to make the next hat entirely hand sewn, presuming this to be a more period construction method, and also as a compare-and-contrast of the two styles of hat manufacture. 

If the lack of sleep continues, there's probably going to be another two weeks worth of sewing in this one hat alone. But that will, at least, give me plenty of time to decide on how I'm going to arrange and decorate the hat with all the trims I've bought. Bases on the fashion plates I've been browsing, the headwear embellishments were anything but subtle. 

Hat!

Sometimes a good hat can really finish an outfit. Hats aren't something I'd looked into much in my SCA garb, but when Aodh started talking about wanting a hood to keep off the rain during archery, I thought that an excellent idea, though a hood didn't appeal.

In 16th century Italy, hatwear on women was frowned upon, mostly because the women adopted a very masculine style of hat. This, however, made it a little easier to research, as there's a lot more portraits with men wearing their headgear than women. In the end, I decided on an Elizabethan or Italian style bonnet, made with black brocade.

I used two different tutorials to construct my hat pattern - a guide on making a fitted hat brim from sempstress.org, to ensure I could have a hat that actually fits on my funny shaped head, and this guide on bonnet making from renaissancetailor.com, as the look of the top of the hat appealed to me.

As I had mentioned, I used a black brocade as my fashion fabric and lined the hat with black linen.  Essential to this style of hat is an interlining which properly supports the fashion fabric and gives body to the folds and pleats. Modern felt is much thinner than felt that was used in period, so I decided to make my own felt. I used three layers of fibre, knowing that my felt when fulled becomes very fluffy, and that turned out to be just the right thickness.

I made up a separate piece to use in the brim, enclosing it between two pieces of buckram using a technique I like to call "messing" or "mucking about".

The hat itself came together very quickly, delayed mostly by waiting to sew with a friend who I was teaching as I went. Already I want to make more though. I just need to figure which colours go with my existing wardrobe, or what kind of embellishments I can get away with. I'll need a very elaborate type of hat for June next year...


Finally, what hat is complete without embellishments. This is where my love of costume jewellery comes in. A local shop sells very cheap, very colourful costume jewellery that is my Achilles heel. I can't resist the big, brash jewels! Pictured here are the three items, two rings and one brooch I picked up as possible finishes for this hat. In the end I went with the green ring, to match it in with the  colour of the dress I'm currently making. I squished the ring band so I could sew it to the hat brim, mounting it over the bare quill of the pheasant feathers used as part of the embellishment.

And behold the finished hat! It counts as the first of my accessories for the Realm of Venus costume competition (though I have to submit it as completed yet). But I'm very pleased with it. Especially as the hat decor will match the fletching on my arrows. And this outfit is intended to be my archery garb...