Shevaun's bodice and cap begin to come together

I have been sick with a yucky plague since last week, but I did manage to get started on a couple of things for Shevaun.

Her bodice is going to close up the front with hooks and eyes. I am using a redding brown wool from England for her gown, about the same weight and texture as mine. Pictures will come later. Out of necessity she is probably going to wind up wearing an old smock of Emma's, because I do not know that I will have time to make one for her between now and the 13th.

We started with her stays, and used the Elizabethan costuming pattern generator. I realize that there is no documentable proof that this is an historically accurate reproduction of 16th century stays, but feel that in the interest of time that it is a very appropriate option. I used a heavy weight canvas, and used plastic boning.

When I started planning for these outfits I still had not found my Tudor Tailor patterns that I bought when I made our Kentwell outfits. I decided that I would have a go with the Reconstructing History pattern that is listed as Elizabethan Commonwomen's Clothing because I needed the patterns in a hurry and did not want to have to wait for copies of new TT patterns to arrive from the UK. I am really not ready just yet to give a review of that pattern, but wanted to be up front that I was not using the patterns I am most familiar with. Of course I found my TT patterns almost the same day that my new one arrived.

We started with her bodice pattern. I made the toile up using the pattern that was supposed to be a size 12, and according to the measurements should have fit her to a T. This just goes to show you that you should always, always, always do a toile before you cut into your fashion fabric. I took probably four inches out of the back, and more out of the sides as well as needing to adjust the bodice length. I made her corset, including the glaringly inaccurate metal grommet eyes (for durability and again in the interest of time), and made her toile yesterday.

Up next was her cap. I compared the pattern from the Tudor Tailor book for the Elizabethan cap with shaped forehead cloth, with the pieces that were in my Reconstructing History pattern, and they matched up pretty much the same. I double checked the head measurements, and went ahead and made the forehead cloth from bagged out linen and then made the cap. I did use buckram and millinery wire in the brim, and am more or less happy with how it has turned out. I just really do not see how on earth the thing is supposed to stay on your head. I guess I will pin it to the top of a braided style that I will do for her. I had thought maybe to do the double braid style shown in the TT book, but it won't fit properly into that tight caul at the back, so maybe a single braid that is brought up and around on the back of the head.

Next up should be her bodice, so we shall see where that goes.

1570's English Commoner Outfit

I am working on an outfit for SCA use, mid to late sixteenth century in general design. Since I primarily focus on English, that is what I am going with now, though sewing clothes for a common woman is fairly new to me. My research over the past 15 years has been in the area of gentry women's clothing, so there have to be some shifts in the design, embellishment and fabrics used for this outfit as opposed to what I am used to working with. My goal is to create an outfit that would have been seen out and about on the streets of London, and I am happy to have this Lucas de Heere sketch to base my outfit on. The figure on the right is the basic design I am hoping to emulate. (A group of English London Ladies by Lucas de Heere, circa 1570 . Add. Ms. 28330, British Museum)

I am using a middle weight wool that I brought from England. My original intention for this was to do an outfit of this time period and social class, but it has taken me a while to get back into the swing of historical sewing for myself, so this project has sat on the back burner for a couple of years. The wool is not really rough faced, it is just coarser than what I am used to working with. I have generally used a fine wool, something along the lines of a gabardine. I have already washed this wool and it did great in the washer and dryer. Yay for me, because the cost of dry cleaning long dresses, even ones classified as costumes, has really become quite prohibitive.

As I am doing a middle class, or commoner, as opposed to gentry, none of my ruffs will work. So I have been fiddling around a bit with a strip of linen that is one yard long, trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with it. My goal is to have a ruff that is no wider than two inches, probably an inch and three quarters, and wrist ruffs that are equally modest, probably about an inch in depth. A woman in this socio-economic group would not have had a lot of expendable wealth, and it is very plausible that she would have put a bit of embroidery around the edge of her ruff for embellishment. As there is portrait evidence that buttonhole stitch was used in this manner, that is what I have chosen to do. I will be using a red silk by deVere yarns that I have used before and really enjoy working with.

I have been making ruffs for about fifteen years, and have used three different methods. My very first ruff was one that was run in accordian type pleats, from the top edge of the neckband to the bottom. I made several ruffs by this method. I have made four ruffs with the stacked box pleated method, such as is illustrated in Jean Hunniset's "Period Costume for Stage & Screen: Patterns for Women's Dress, 1500-1800". Admittedly, I was unable to figure out the method by reading her book, and it was only through the kind generosity of Gina Hill that I was able to finally grasp what was really going on. The last method I have used is tiny cartridge pleated linen sewn to a neckband. In Janet Arnold's "Patterns of Fashion 4", the ruffs illustrated all show cartridge pleating to be the method used to attach them to the neckband, though not all of them have pleats that are sized consistently.

I decided to experiment, just to put them side by side, and to see how much fabric each method would use, and how the finished results would vary in appearance.

For my test, I took a one yard strip of linen, zig-zagged one long edge to stabilize it, hemmed the two short ends, and did a narrow, rolled hem on the other long edge. I encased a piece of fishing line type filament in the hem that was not going to be pleated.

First I tried the box pleated method, but as it was to be a ruff with a relatively small depth of ruffle,

I used only two sets of box pleats per stack, and I omitted the folding and double stacking step. I did not mark my one-quarter inch pleats and did them all free hand. In spite of my lack of precision in regards to the size of the pleats, this yielded a ruff with nicely turned figure of eights. The final size of the sample was seven inches.

Next, I tried the teeny cartridge pleats. My pleats were about one quarter inch across, so approximately one eighth of an inch in depth when gathered up. I drew the sample up until I felt it looked right, so this gave me a piece that was six and a half inches in length.

I think I have made the decision to go with the cartridge pleated ruff, but I am still working out some design issues. When I made Arilyn's ruff in 2oo8 for Kentwell, I turned under the selvage edge, gathered with cartridge pleats, and I attached them to the top edge of the neckband with a single stitch per pleat, so that the entire ruffle stood perpendicular to the neckband. I may be reading PoF4 wrong, but it looks to me like the ruffs made in the 16th century were all attached to the neckband and then the band was folded over to encase the edge of the ruffle, and then very carefully hemmed over it. This presents two dilemmas for me. Firstly, how to attach the gathered edge to the neckband if it is not finished in some way, for I foresee that edge coming unraveled very easily and not providing a stable base for the stitches that the ruffle would be pulling against. Miss Arnold does not make any notation about that edge being finished in any way, and it is obvious from her drawings that the selvages are actually on the short end of strips that are joined together to make up the length of the ruffle. Secondly, I feel that the resultant joining would be very thick and bulky. Not exactly sure how I am going to proceed from this point, but those are issues to ponder over and work through soon.

Catching up

One would assume, from the total lack of entries here, that my past year has been devoid of sewing projects, but in reality the opposite has been true. I have made a ball gown, wedding gown, formal gown, Regency outfit for a ten year old, a mid-nineteenth century frock for the same ten year old, a formal gown for the same lucky little girl, and managed to work on several 16th century embroidery projects as well. I am still working on my Thistle Threads master goldwork class, and hopefully will have some good progress to show for it soon.

My next project are three mid 16th century outfits for middle class women. Actually, one is for myself, one for my 20 year old, and of course the 10 year old gets a new one.

Since I am not doing gentry class for like the first time in my entire reenacting career, I have to make a new suit of ruffs. My three inch wide ruff with that gorgeous Barnett Lawson silver metal thread simply will not do. I will be posting photos of my progress.

Bess, this is for you. You make me feel so guilty because you are so good at keeping current with your journaling, while I am very lackadaisical in comparison. I promise to do better this year, starting today.

:)

Veils, wimples and more

I recently attended a local SCA event in Meridies, which necessitated me borrowing some garb to wear, because mine is of course still not here from Cornwall. I have always worn what is considered late period garb, meaning late 16th century, and have worn what is considered upper class, or gentry clothes. This tunic and surcote outfit was a huge change for me, but a lot of fun. I did some research and made myself a veil, barbette and wimple out of a 60/40 linen/cotton fabric, all hand rolled hems, and was fairly pleased with how it turned out. Fairly, because it really does not look how I had imagined it would. Maybe I starched it too much, I am not certain. I was going for more of the look of the ladies in the Maciejowski Bible illuminations, where the veil rests on the tops of the shoulders but the front points come down to armpit level. I am going to try it again without the starch and see how that works for me, but overall I was happy with it. The barbette is a strip of linen, a tube of fabric sewn in the back, that goes up and over the top of my head and is pinned together there. On top of that I am wearing a fillet of stiffened linen that is pinned in the back and also pinned to the barbette on the sides. The Wimple is a large rectangle of cloth that is pulled up under my chin and around to the back of my head, being pinned at the top of the barbette and a few pins along the back. The Veil is pinned on either side, at the cross points of barbette and filet. It stayed on very well, no issues with the wind at all. I folded back the front edge when I went inside and was talking over dinner and it was pretty that way. I found out that the linen fillet is a lovely sweat band!

I have just started a needlebook that I am working on some of the Zweigart Kingston linen. It is a carnation worked in GST inside a coil of gold plaited braid. A bee will figure prominently, which is appropriate as this is a gift for an SCA friend and she will recognize that the bee is from my own registered device and so will represent me. Carnations symbolize friendship, so I think it is a fitting design for the gift. So far I have the calyx on the carnation about finished, and hope to get some work done on the petals done today. I am so busy just now, trying to get my house painted before my furniture arrives, that I really don't have time to even be thinking about embroidering, but I have to sit at the landrymat today, and it helps to have something to work on so I am not sitting and fuming over wasted time.

Edit, October 15, 2010: Recently, I had the opportunity to drag my veil and wimple out from the drawer to wear to an SCA event in An Tir. I was again borrowing an outfit, because this time I had just moved across the country and my stuff was still in transit, what of it that was not damaged in the flood. The veil had come with me in my suitcase, for whatever reason. I really liked how it felt this time, and was much happier all around with the look. It helped that I did not starch it prior to wearing it. I was very comfortable in the gown and head wear, and have begun serious research into making a gown to go with the veil and wimple. I know, centuries earlier than I have ever even considered for Jane, but I think it will be fun. Most people in the SCA start early and gradually go late, so I guess I am going at it a bit backwardly.

I suck at this, keeping up with posting what I am working on. Lack of discipline, lack of organization, I don't know which, but maybe it is both.

Either way, right now I am really not working on much, at least not physically. Probably because I do not have my sewing machine, for starters, nor has the wool that I bought in England made it to the States yet.

My plans are another matter. As of now I have no fewer than four projects that will require a good bit of planning and work to get them successfully executed on time. Emma needs a suit for her residency interviews, and we have already purchased the shot blue silk for that. I plan to make her a lovely couture finished jacket and skirt, and a pale pink shell to wear with it. Next up are a couple of late 16th century outfits, one for Arilyn and one for myself. They are going to be nice middle class outfits, hers in burgundy wool and mine in a dusty blue wool. Emma has her last Cadaver Ball in April or March, not sure of the exact date yet, but I want to be sure that one is gorgeous and perfect for her. That takes me up through early Spring, and I know I will need to make Ari and myself more historical outfits as well.

Lots to do, hard to sit here doing nothing, so I am at least working on my needlework, and that is coming along fine.

Not Blackwork...

I really hate it when people say something like, "I am putting blackwork on the smock I am making!" Reason being that the term itself is so vague. Are they talking about using black thread to cover a drawn design on linen, or are they talking about counted thread work that is done in black thread? Usually most folks mean counted thread done in black, creating primarily geometric patterns using double running stitch (Holbien) or back stitch. So, there is a group of die hard blackwork enthusiasts who stolidly embroider in black silk to recreate these designs that were so popular during the 16th century. The only problem is that there is a plethora of evidence now available to show that not all of this work was done in black, and in fact it can be stunningly beautiful in other shades as well. It is best to keep it to one or two shades because it can take on a rather carnival air if too many hues are introduced to the design, and we all know that the average 16th century person was cautioned against too much gaiety in their life.

Anyway, Arilyn (my 8 year old daughter) has come up with an idea for a bookmark to make for her big sister's birthday She wants to use two different heraldic frogs, employing double running stitch and some of my cherished gylt silke twist to work the stitches. The green, of course. She asked me if that would be bad, because she was not using black silk, and I told her that of course it would be just perfect in green. And gold, don't forget the gold. So now that it is carefully graphed out, she is set to begin her work on it this evening. I will post photos soon.

Emma worked with frogs during her undergraduate years before going onto medical school, and for whatever reason now everyone gives her frogs of some sort everytime there is a gift occasion. Kind of like how everybody gives me bee stuff I guess.