This is a velvet doublet and silk skirt combination I originally made for Twelfth Night; instead, it debuted at Tir-y-don's Baronial Investiture in March.
The Doublet
The doublet is cut to Master Jose de Madrid's system of thirds, a method of drafting Spanish-style doublets with not maths required. I did as I usually do, and drafted the pattern from my measurements onto muslin. A large portion of time was spent tweaking the fit, altering the curve of the back, and raising the waistline (I always cut the waist too low).
Once a good fit was achieved, I cut the layers of the doublet: one layer of black 100% linen lining, one layer of cotton canvas interlining, and one layer of black velvet fashion fabric. I also cut lightweight shirt flannel to pad the chest, upper back/shoulder, and the collar. This provides a bit more structure to the finished garment, and helps achieve the characteristic swept-back collar of the doublet.
With waxed linen thread and a fairly heavy needle, I pad stitched the flannel to the interlining fabric. The stitches do not need to be perfect; the point is to attach the flannel to the interlining in such a way that it does not shift around later. You do want to make sure that the knots, if you use any, are buried in the nap of the flannel or else you will be able to feel them through the lining fabric.
After finishing the pad stitched, I pinned together and handstitched the body interlining and lining fabric together (step one of flatlining). At this point, I tried the whole piece on to recheck the fit; I ended up taking in the lower back curve another .25 of an inch as a result.
Here, I had to take a break and attach the rows of braid to the velvet pieces. I used waxed black silk thread in a very fine gauge so the stitches do not show on casual inspection. I arranged the strips of braid-and-velvet trim in diagonal rows slanting up from the center front to the side/shoulder seams, and placed them approximately 1 inch apart. The raw ends were treated with FrayChek until the final binding could be added.
Turned the interlining/lining piece so that the interlining was sandwiched between the lining and the exterior, and whipstitched the open edges (front, collar, bottom). I then attached the sleeve lining (no interlining) at the cuffs, turned, and whipstitched the raw edges inside along the armscye.
To cover the raw edges and create a finished look, I bound all the edging with black bias fabric. However, I skipped the bottom edge; instead of binding, I cut and attached a three piece skirt of black velvet lined with black linen and bound with bias strips. Once the construction of those pieces was complete, I whipstitched the skirt pieces to the raw lower body edge with black silk thread.
To finish, I attached 18 pairs of black hook and eyes (store purchased) to close the front.
The Petticoat
The other half of the garment is a simple rectangular skirt cartridge pleated into a waistband. The skirt and guard is made of a low-slub silk dupioni; the skirt is olive green, and the guard is mandarin orange. I made the waistband to my waist measurement plus two inches for hemming and fastening, then evenly cartridge pleated the skirt fabric to the waistband. It is fastened with two skirt hook and eye sets.
Finished Outfit
A formal gown, rather. In a small fit of pique over a much-delayed book order from Amazon, I cancelled the order and turned the money to fabric. eBay really is my friend when it comes to finding fabric for SCA projects; a few days ago, I spotted a storefront that carried peau de soie satin for under $4 US. Other seamstresses and tailors out there will understand what a temptation that is. Winging its way toward me is 8 yards of 60" wide delustered smoke grey bottom weight satin.
I just need a plan. See, I have a bad habit of buying fabric before I have a good idea of what it wants to be. I've been working on breaking this habit because wool and linen is not exactly cheap (even with strategic coupon usage and cunning dye jobs), and I really see no point in letting a piece of linen rot to threads in my stash. Plus we're a bit strapped for space right now, and I'm trying to keep the piles more manageable.
Having broken my "no fabric without a Plan" resolution, I needed to find something to use this for. Originally, I thought I'd make a massive late Elizabethan confection with a big starched ruff-- maybe even one that needs a supportasse-- and bows and beads and whatnot. And then I realised that this would be foolish; frippery doesn't much suit me or my persona. So I turned to my collection of images gleaned from Google and started browsing. This is what I found:
A portrait of Eleanora di Toledo by Alessandro Allori, c. 1560. This would have been just a couple of years before the Duchesse died (in 1562). Honestly, I did a lot of retroactive searching on this image because I was convinced I had the provenance incorrect. This does not, to me, look like an early 1560s gown; rather, it looks more like later period Spanish, with the flared collar and double doublet layer. However, there it was in black and white-- 1560. More poking around followed. In early stages like this, I like to look around and see what other folks have done with similar styles; it's how I figure out the larger scope and sometimes smaller details.
Alaina Blackram's Lavinia Fontana dress project was the first other item I turned up. I had the privilege to take this lady's Florentine dress class at the Known World Costume Symposium in 2004, so I've seen her workmanship up close and know it and her research to be wonderful. Alaina's dress shows the same doublet under another doublet type of layering, from 1580, so at least it was a style that persisted and therefore might not be too unusual for a 1580s Englishwoman. I also got some ideas of how to trim the back of the outer doublet.
(A side note: I don't really try to recreate clothing from other countries exactly as they were created in that country. Instead, I usually try to apply Elizabethan English aesthetics and construction principles, reasoning that my persona would most likely have taken a painting or sketch to her local English tailor. It's an idea I picked up from Master Jose de Madrid of Calontir.)
Sarah Lorraine's black and maroon gown dress diary was another point of reference. Unlike Alaina's gown, Sarah attached the outer bodice to the skirt, which seems to be the case in the Eleanora portrait.
Finally, I peeked at Melanie Schuessler's Elizabethan doublet, mostly for inspiration for the styling of the under doublet.
The Analysis
A preliminary analysis of the gown in the portrait was the next step.
The overgown appears to be based on a standard Spanish style doublet such as those found in Alcega's Tailor's Pattern Book 1589. The major difference between this style and the English doublets presented in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion and Mikhaila and Malcolm-Davies' Tudor Tailor is that the back collar of Spanish doublets are usually cut in one piece with the body, while the English doublets have attached collars. This is by no means universal; that's just based on a pattern survey of a couple of books. I happened to have been taught to draft Spanish-style doublets by Master Jose, and I vastly prefer the gentle outward curve of the back collar of a Spanish doublet. It makes me happy.
The bodice appears to be attached to the skirt, although it's possible that the bottom edge of a detached bodice could be hidden under Eleanora's belt. The skirt, from what can be seen, appears to be cartridge pleated into the bottom edge of the doublet. There is no way to tell, from the portrait, if the front is flat, or if the skirt is one piece or split front. More research needed on this point.
The bodice looks like silk or satin, lined with silk or maybe a very fine linen (I would expect silk, given Eleanora's station in life). All edges of the bodice are bound with the same fabric as the outer shell; the binding is snipped at regular intervals all the way around the flared collar and bodice opening. The bodice closes, probably with hidden hook and eyes or lacing, from the waist to the lower breastbone, exposing the under doublet.
The sleeves are fairly complex. The innermost edge of the bodice seems to be bound with the same fabric as the outer shell, with decorative snips as at the opening and neck of the bodice. This is sandwiched between the armhole and the padded roll sleeve so that the snips still show and form a decorative border before the large padded rolls. The rolls also appear to have a double row of snipped satin running perpendicular to the body, at regular intervals around the rolls. Another strip of snipped satin forms a border between the rolls and the lower sleeve caps, which are shaped into points around the arm opening. I conjecture that there are two points at the top of the sleeve cap, with the underside being cut straight to allow for ease of movement.
The undergown is probably a different weight of silk, and is likely to be attached to a skirt as well. Not much of this garment is exposed in the portrait, but from what can be seen, the bodice is decorated with couched cord or braid in horizontal lines across the width of the body approximately 1-2" apart. The bodice closes with a row of self-covered buttons that are edged in vertical rows fo the same cord/braid. The striped effect is carried on to the sleeves and along the seams of each sleeve. The sleeves are fairly straight and slightly full.
My Idea
First, I must note that I'm not planning an exact replica of this gown. For one thing, I don't like embroidery nearly that much. For another, certain allowances for budget will have to be made regarding fabric and trim choices.
I'm planning to use the grey peau de soie for the outer gown. This is going to be a fairly severe dress with very little of the feminine touches like the curvy floral embroidery. Instead, I want to use 1/8" soutache braid and/or .25-.5" guimpe in a contrasting colour to do very simple seam covering. What I want to highlight is a. the fabric b. the cut c. the snipped edges and d. the stripe effects on the undergown.
I have no clear idea what to do with the skirt yet, especially in the area of trim and split vs. closed. I tend to prefer closed skirts, and I may just put some sort of guarding on the skirt. On a second thought, it would be lovely to acquire some narrow and medium width black velvet ribbon to use for trim on the bodice (narrow) and guards on the skirt (medium). I will probably end up lining the outer bodice with some black dupioni silk, if my favourite eBay source has some. I expect it will only take 3 yards, so that won't be too terribly expensive.
(A secret: I'm a bad, bad sempstress, and I rarely line skirts. I'm not convinced they were all lined, but I'm wavering on the point in this case. More on that later.)
The undergown should probably be silk as well. I'd love to make it from black silk, but I rather expect it will be linen. I'm a bit miserly, and I'd like to be able to wear the under garment on it's own at some point. At this point, I am considering making the underdress out of black (or maybe dark blue) linen, with the stripes of 1/8" silver soutache. Ideally, I'll wrap the buttons for the doublet, but that really remains to be seen.
Some things I want to find out:
- thread covered buttons that are flat-- are they period?
- what sort of hat?
- on the undergown bodice and sleeves, are the areas of fabric between the rows of cord/braid pinked, or are those pleats or just wrinkles?
- open skirts or closed skirts-- which were more common?
- jewelry?
This is going to be a lengthy project. It's one I want to get just perfect, and I want to take the time to get exactly the right fabrics and trims. I'm hoping to have it done maybe by Twelfth Night of this year. Depending on how I'm feeling then, I may like to enter it in Kingdom A&S next year.
I've been waiting on an order of fabric for Himself's SCA garb (to make a long story short, one of my partners has decided he'd like to play SCA with me). It finally arrived today, and turned out to be much better than expected.
It's a bit of a textured, standard 2x2 even weave soft grey wool plus something. The plus something came to light after I washed the yardage to get rid of dust stains and a vague smoke odor that belied the seller's claim to be a "smoke free home." No fulling = not 100% wool, but that's really okay. It looks and feels like 100%, and I'm not averse to a little plastic in my fabrics as long as they don't scream at me.
The seller comped us an extra yard, so it looks like I'll have enough to make him a nice doublet and loose Venetians out of it. We picked up new brushed silver metal buttons last week, and I still have tons of black bias tape for binding and simple decoration. The best part is, I think I may have gotten a piece of vintage fabric. The original yardage tag was still attached, and the price and script style on the tag (a paper tag stitched onto the fabric by its own string) makes me think this may be late 50s to early 60s.
In other happy mail news, I received a package from Halcyon Yarn. I've been planning a linen embroidered jacket based on the Maidstone jacket for a while now. My version will use a twisted lattice enclosure pattern, filled with single motifs of foxglove, pomegranate, and possibly pansies and one other fruit for interest.
The happy mail was 1600 yards of sapphire blue 2/30 silk embroidery floss. It's so soft I have to make myself not pet it. I'm not sure when I turned into such an embroidery whore, but I suspect it had a lot to do with feeling real silk floss for the first time. It's about painful to put off working on this jacket long enough to do garb for Himself for an event on the 23rd, and then the kirtle/fitted gown outfit and the loose coat for myself.
Sofonisba Gown
One of the projects in the pile to-be-finished is a reproduction of the clothing in a self portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola.
Analysis
One of the things I love about this ensemble is the structure; the gown is layered, fitted doublet-style around the upper body, and has what is, as far as I can tell, a unique sleeve treatment. If you look closely, the outer gown has layers of stiffened tabs around the armscye. Belwo that is what appears to be more rows of tabs; however, I'm convinced that these tabrs are part of the undergown, and are being pushed down by the cut of the outer sleeve.
Diary to Date
September 4, 2004
I sat down this morning and combed through the web for information about the Sofonisba dress. I found Emily's lovely Kentwell reenactor page about a reproduction of the dress. Some of her ideas I disagree with, but not on the level of "that's bad interpretation." It's more that I will be making different design choices. For instance, I need the nudge to make a high necked shift. I'm not 100% sold on the low shift + partlet idea that Emily has going on. I'm also not real sold on her bodice pattern, but then, I'm entirely in lurv with Jose's mathless version.
Lucky for me, Sofonisba must have loved the heck out of this dress, since she wears it or variations of it in at least five self portraits. As an aside, it's mighty comforting to know that people had favorite comfy clothes.
Anyway, here are my thoughts. I need a high necked white linen shift with neck and wrist ruffles. The shift ties closed at the neck with long tasseled ties, which I could fingerloop braid or something else, probably out of embroidery floss since it's cheap. I'm just not sure about sleeve ties, although I can see myself making shorter ties for convenience.
I also need a kirtle, probably square-ish necked. It looks like her underdress is long sleeved with tabs at the shoulders; I agree with Emily that it looks like the brown tabs are being pushed down from e shoulder by the black overdress tabs. The fabric I have is a lightweight cotton/silk blend in a strange rotated tabby weave, greyish green. I think I'll be using the Alcega* bodice and skirt of cloth pattern, lining the fabric throughout to give it a bit more body. Looks like the tabs and pleats of the skirt will need some flannel padding though.
The over gown looks simple enough. Alcega's bodice and skirt of cloth pattern with a more modest collar than on my gold brocade. I have a lightweight wool/cotton blend that will look scrummy as long as I line it all over. Padded pleats, tabs and collar, and I think I'll do the buttons-- there are only four or five of them-- as thread wrapped buttons. That'll be an adventure.
The whole kit will be worn over my effigy corset, as I don't have the energy to deal with a new corded corset just yet. I also don't get the whole corded bodice thing that Emily has going on. I'm skeptical, mainly because it looks to me like you can see a faint crease or line across the upper chest that I think is where the bodices "break" over the edge of a corset. Or maybe it's just my browser.
I do have a question, if any intrepid costumers have gotten this far. Does it look to you like there's some kind of embroidery on the collar band? Would it be wildly inappropriate to to do an Italian-style blackwork design, maybe in pale yellow or grey?
And what kind of hat works with this? Pesky short hair. Must buy fake hair before Costume Syposium...
*Juan de Alcega. Tailor's Pattern Book, 1589.
September 14, 2004
I'm working on the Sofonisba gown, and things have come to pass.
Namely, this is apparently not willing to be a true reproduction. Somehow, when I cut the undergown and overgown bodices, I managed to make the undergown bodice straps way too high on the shoulder. Either I wasn't paying attention, or the fabric slipped, or both. Anyway, I can't figure out any way to attach the shoulder tabs to the undergown so that they can:
1. Be seen.
2. Not ruck the overgown up into ugly wrinkles.
If I can't figure this out, there will be no clever undertabs. That's disappointing. Those were the one feature that really made me want to work on this dress.
Let's see. The colours are working fairly well. The outer gown is an indigo-black handerchief weight silk/wool/cotton blend. It turned out to be much lighter than I expected, so I beefed it up with a mid weight cotton interlining and a shot-linen lining (shot neon green and navy, which makes a lovely sea green colour). The skirt is lined with the cotton only, and shows a cheeky bit of striped lining when I lift the skirt. The undergown is an odd green mystery blend with a navy blue linen lining. Can you tell I'm foraging the fabric stash?
The overgown went more smoothly than I expected. The bodice cooperated and actually pointed instead of collapsing into a curve. As usual, the pleating refused to cooperate. Cartridge pleating was to no avail either. If I could get the pleats large enough to match the skirt/waist ratio, the pleats gapped open. If I got the pleats to not gap, then there was too much skirt. Right. So overlapping pleats it was. Of course, I've committed the major sin of not trying on during the process; I'm putting the layers together tonight. We'll see how that came out.
*sigh* And I just this moment discovered that one of the cats picked a big patch on the undergown skirt. Bastards. Fortunately, it's pretty well hidden in the fold of a pleat, so I believe I will have to not worry about it. On the whole, the undergwon looks pretty-- it's a nice shade of goose turd green, now that I've seen it in the natural light. The sleeves....well, the sleeves are on. I hate sleeves.
I tried the Kentwell construction method for the overgown bodice. Basically, the whole confection (outer layer, interlining, lining, and collar padding) gets stacked, and the outer layer is rolled in over the raw edges to form a binding. I don't like how it looks-- it's a bit wibbly in places, and overall I think I got better results with the bias tape. However, I'm willing to wait a while before taping over it, just to see how this method holds up.
I ended up hacking the collar off at about half the height I normally make them. I can't really do the cute turn down that's in the original, because the lining is sea green linen, but it looks okay up. It's padded with shirt flannel for just the right bit of stiffness.
Hrm. It occurs to me that what I have made is, in fact, what an English tailor would have made using the portrait as a guide. Master Jose de Madrid made a German Renaissance a couple of years ago in this manner. He decided that, while his persona did not do German Ren, he might very well have been asked to create a gown from a picture. He would then have applied all his (Spanish) tailoring knowledge to the problem, and come up with something that is recognizably a copy with many Spanish influences.
So what I have is a set of gowns by some English gentrywoman who obviously got her ideas from a picture. Why does this sound familiar?
September 15, 2004
I tried on everything last night. Is there some law of thermodynamics that states that it will be cool and comfortable in the house until the very moment one starts lacing oneself into a corset? If there's not, there should be.
The gowns fit fairly well. I think I'm going to pick out the rollover binding and do bias taping, both for looks and to gain a tiny bit more room. With the extra inch, I won't be so in fear of popping a button. I also need to pick out and resew the back seam-- once again, I have given myself a severe case of illusion-scoliosis by curving the back too little. Humpback was not the fashion statement I had hoped for.
The good news is, with everything on, I could see that the undergown armholes were lower than I thought, which will let me do the tabs after all. It's not terribly heavy, although I can tell there are some extra layers. Luckily, I was planning this as a fall/winter/early spring type thing. That, and the overgown will look nice over my other kirtles, so I can layer it more lightly for hot weather.
I'm debating trim. I have rolls of handmade passementarie trim (silver) that I think would look lovely on the overgown (mainly for hiding the fact that I mismatched the thread when I sewed everything together. Really mismatched. It's green.) On the one hand, the trim is a little bit of shine and is very understated. On the other hand, there no trim that I can discern on the portrait. Hrm.
Later
I-- and the dress-- have been sulking today. I am spectacularly unmotivated to do, well, much of anything. Every once in a while I will wander through the living room, glance at the pile of fabric in the rocking chair, and keep wandering.
I don't think I have enough hook-and-eyes for both gowns. I also do not, at the moment, have enough money to buy more. I hate hook-and-eyes. Sad, really, considering how many of them I seem to doom myself to using. They're very handy, and let me avoid the terrible frustrations of button flaps and buttonholes. Like sleeves, I never seem to get the buttonhole flap right the first time.
I decided that, portrait details aside, I just need more closure support on the overgown. The original has five lovely thread-covered buttons. Mine won't stay closed with that few buttons. Hence, more hook-and-eyes are needed.
Florentine Ball Gown
October 22, 2004
I started a new dress for Crystal Ball (Midrealm event in Illinois). This time around, I decided to challenge myself in a couple of ways:
1. I decided to depart the dreary isle and make something not Elizabethan English for a change.
2. I wanted something pretty and girly.
and the biggest challenge:
3. No fabric or trim was to be purchased for the making of this dress.
That's right. None. I have a fabric stash that would make any costumer weep. It suddenly occured to me that if I started using it, I might get to quit wearing my trashy tourney gowns to everything. It's like china-- no point in saving it if it just stays in the box.
Concept: I decided I wanted something Italian. Initially, the idea was to make a dress inspired by the 16th century Venetians from Dangerous Beauty. Before you fellow historians out there start cringing, I do not mean the courtesan dresses. Specifically, I was thinking about the light blue, long sleeved gown Veronica wears in the opening scenes. The one with the puffed and paned upper sleeve and square neckline. While at Known World Costuming Symposium, I took a class on Venetian and one on Florentine, so those were the two possibilities.
Sources:
Fabric: I lucked out here. Earlier in the summer, I bought 6.5 yards of cranberry silk noile on sale at JoAnn's. While I was home visiting, my mom and I found about twenty yards of forest green velvet ribbon in two widths (.25" and .5"). A quick dig through the stash turned up 4.5 yds of silver on green silk ecclesiastical brocade (from a trip to Europe) that I bought about four years ago and could never bring myself to cut up.
Score!! I had all the matching threads that I had bought for each colour. I even have lining and interlining. The cranberry gets an interlining of some very stiff, ugly blue plaid that was originally earmarked for fighting pants, with an inner lining of a olive green and gold foliage print. The print is a little too Art Nouveau, but it won't really be visible.
The green brocade will be lined with more silk noile in white. Also in the pile I found an old thin cotton chemise that I used to wear to work at the RenFaire in Maryland. It's an extremely light, flowy white cotton, but is the standard RenFaire big chemise.
Plan: I sat down to sketch this out, and somehow the dress changed. I've never really sketched dress ideas before-- usually, I have the fabric I want and a general idea of what I want it to look like, and I just start. The dress took on a life of it's own. I originally intended to make the dress all one gown over a white chemise. I entertained Venetian again, but eventually decided that I wanted something with a corset. Florentine it is then.
The undergown will be the green silk brocade. Simple square neckline, and long sleeves slightly belled at the wrists. The overgown will be the cranberry silk with green velvet guards (three narrow rows around a square neckline and two wide rows on the skirts). Both dresses will have simple tube skirts pleated onto the bodice.
The red dress will have short cap sleeves that are paned. I hope to leave enough of the narrow velvet ribbon to do a stripe of the ribbon on each pane. The only question at this point is if the panes will be completely see through, or if I will have to build them on a solid base.
Corset: Regrettably, my effigy corset just isn't going to cut it with Florentine. It's not rounded enough to give the right shape. This is a perfect excuse to make a corded corset.
Using the bodice directions from Alaina Blackram's Florentine handouts, I cut a square-front side lacing shell and lining out of heavy white denim. I put the two together, basted the edges and started sewing cording channels.
About twelve channels in, I realized that I have a bunch of raw edges on the corset that will require turning or binding. Drat. Continue sewing channels.
It took me most of an evening to get all the channels sewn and the edges bound with black grosgrain ribbon (temporary until I have the patience for bias tape).
The next evening, I corded the corset. I used hemp cording from Michael's. I didn't bother to prewash it, since I've seen what hemp cord does in water. I got all the cording in, laced it up, and tried it on.
The next two hours were spent ripping out binding and adjusting the fit of the armholes. Everything fits fine now.
Chemise: Before I started sewing, I spent several tricky minutes with bleach and a paintbrush, taking out ancient coffee stains. Then I ripped out the ribbon tie casings on the sleeves and neckline and cut four inches off the bottom of the chemise. Those four inches became new wrist and neckbands; the chemise fabric is gathered into the bands mostly evenly. The wrists are solid bands (no fasteners) and the neckline is now one of those lovely high Florentine necks.
Undergown: What a trial. I patterned the bodice of the undergown after the corset pattern, adjusting the side seams so they lie along the side back instead of under my arms. The plan is to have one side seam sewn shut, the other laced, and alternate sides on the overgown.
The bodice came out well, the lining went well, and all was happy until I cut off the yardage for the sleeves and the hat. Then I realized that there was no way to get a real skirt out of what was left-- 2.5 yards of 60". Panic ensues.
After much thought, I decided to scrap the idea of having an undergown that could be worn alone. I dug up some plain black cotton, cut the brocade in half lenghthwise to make one long strip about 18" wide, and sewed the strip to the black cotton. I then pleated the two-tone skirt into the bodice so that the brocade will show at the bottom. It looks odd, but it should be fine.
Overgown: The overgown has been more cooperative, if more fiddly. The bodice is the same pattern with the side seams alternated from the undergown. Three layers of fabric successfully broke my brain, though; I had to rip out the seams several times before I finally figured out to baste the interlining to the outer layer, wrong sides together, first. I then sewed the lining to the fashion layer, right sides together, and turned the whole. Both side seams were left open; one side will be fake-laced, the other will be functionally laced.
This left an irritating little visible line of lining fabric showing above the edge of the outer fabric around the neck. I pouted about this for a while before I figured out that the little fold made the perfect placement line for the first row of ribbon. Celebrate!! The ribbon went down in concentric squares .25" apart around the neckline, and even cooperated on the mitered corners. I handsewed all the ribbon, because I'm too anal to put up with visible machine stitched lines in my velvet trim.
The trim on the skirt was a complete pain in the rear. I ended up with a 5.25 yard skirt that needed two parallel lines of velvet trim sewn to the bottom edge. The lowest row of trim is .25" from the bottom hem, with the upper row .25" above that. All handsewn. *sigh*
What's Left: The green underdress still needs sleeves. I'm putting this off because I hate making sleeves. I suck at sleeves. I need to find some trash cotton to fiddle with before I cut any more of that brocade. On top of that, I'd like to do some silver beadwork on the undersleeves, just as a tiny little accent.
The overgown also needs sleeves. See above, and throw in "I'm not really sure how to proceed with the kind of sleeves I want." I see lots of paper and muslin wasted this weekend. I still need to actually attach the skirt to the bodice. I've found that adjusting the length from the top-- at the waistline-- rather than from the bottom-- taking up the hem-- is a much saner way to do skirts.
I need a hat. This was not an issue before I cut my hair, a thing I keep having fleeting regrets about. I foresee a long growing out process ahead. Anyway, I need a hat. My plan is to make something like ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
jenthompson's hat for her Italian camicia and doublet combo-- sort of a larger Elizabethan pillbox hat. Alternately, I was at JoAnn's last week and saw a lovely gold and cream striped sheer curtain fabric that might make a nice Florentine wrapped turban. Third choice, or maybe in addition, I need to go to Sally's and buy some fake hair for braids.
I also need to give some thought to jewelry. This needs more research. And I want one of those pretty fabric belts with the bead and tassle arrangement. My apprentice belt is supposed to be one of those, but I haven't gotten it yet.
Shoes will be the cute flats I bought at Payless to wear with my Landsknecht tourney gown. They're plain black leather Maryjanes with three little teardrop cutouts on the toe. Good enough until I start on the green leather shoes.
October 25, 2004
Not much, actually. I came home from work on Friday and finished sewing the twenty miles of green velvet trim to the skirt. Then I sewed the skirt into a tube and trimmmed the top edge so that the overall skirt was the right length. Handsewed 16 of 20 handbound eyelets.
Then the creeping crud got faster, and I went to bed.
On Saturday, I slept almost until I had to be at work, so no work done before 5pm. Came home, cooked shrimp pasta, stared at horror movies, and finally got motivated at about 9:30. Finished the last four eyelets and celebrated with a piece of chocolate or twelve.
I pleated the skirt into the waist of the bodice with ordinary pleats (no padding this time) and sewed those down twice. I always do this because I'm paranoid that one row of stitching will lead to the skirt ripping out at a bad moment.
Then I put the whole contraption on-- chemise, corset, undergown and overgown. The undergown doesn't have eyelets yet. I'm saving those for this weekend, when I will have houseguests-- I feel rude doing big sewing projects when people are over, but my costumey friends never mind if I handsew while we talk. Anyway, the whole effect is pretty okay.
Just okay? Well, the silhouette takes some getting used to when you've been doing Elizabethan. The waist is straight instead of curved to a point at the front, and I have a sneaking suspicion I made the square neckline too narrow.
I'm thinking I may have to, for comfort's sake, ditch the corded corset. It's just not comfy-- it cuts in at the waist, and it's not supporting like it should/everyone else's does. I think it needs more work, and I don't have the time to give to it before the event. So if the effigy corset doesn't make it llok horrid, that's what I'll go with. Otherwise, I'll just suffer.
On Sunday, I tried to break my "no purchase" challenge. I need dress fasteners for the skirts-- the big flat hook and eyes. Go to WalMart, right? Wrong. They didn't have them (they also didn't have my usual brand of cat pan liners, mouse food, or double pointed knitting needles of any kind, causing me to remember why I never go to WalMart) so the roommate offered me a couple from her stash.
Anyway, we finished with the WalMart fiasco and went to Sally's Beauty Supply on a whim. We found there a huge selection of fake hair! I bought three "jumbo braids" for less than five dollars (total) to make hairpieces to go with the garb. Returned home and spent an hour braiding hair. End result is two almost knee length dark auburn braids. They're long enough to do the stereotypical Italian Ren hair with the long braids down the back and the little cap, or I can put them up around my head. Hurrah!!
Instead of more sewing, I crafted last night. I needed a belt for the dress. The typical early Florentine belt looks like the one on the rightmost dress in this painting:
A quick rummage through the fabric stash turned up a dark brown twill cotton (leftover from the Swiss court dress). I cut a long strip about five inches wide by 3 yards long and sewed it into a very long, skinny tube. Then I mooched some Sculpey from the roomie and a=made a set of beads. There are four flat round beads and two huge rectangular tube beads, all with massive holes through them. They got baked to hardness and painted (dark red ground with pale grey zigzags). The beads were strung on the belt fabric as round bead, big bead, round bead-- one set on each end. I sewed the raw ends of the belt closed, which effectively stops the beads from slipping off.
Tassel winding can be a real pain. I decided to use wool yarn for the time being, since I want big tassels but don't have enough of any one colour of embroidery floss to pull them off. The tassels ended up being about 60 wraps around the short side of a small book. Tied them off and wrapped the top ties in with the tassel head cord. Those got sewn onto the belt ends below the beads. It doesn't look too shabby, even if the tassels are a different shade of brown from the belt.
Today's project is cutting the pattern for the sleeves. I've been excused from class tonight (crud still creeping) so I have more time than normal. I'm hoping to have at least a decent pattern by the time I go to bed tonight. Also, must clean house this week for aforementioned houseguests...
November 4, 2004
It's done!!Yay!!
I tried the whole conglomeration on over the effigy corset in a desperate gambit to not have to wear the poorly fitting corded corset. The effigy corset is just enough lower in the back neckline that I can get away with wearing it. I realize that the silhouette is not quite correct, but I've decided that for an all-night dance event, comfy wins.
The sleeves ended up being much more elaborate than I planned, mostly due to some unexpected free time. I wanted to make the big fluffy Florentine sleeves, but didn't have enough fabric. Then I wanted to do paned sleeves, but was dreading the actual sewing. Add in to that the fact that I forgot to cut the yardage for the sleeves out of my skirt before I pleated it, and the stress was mounting. I dug in the scrap pile and found the leftovers from cutting off the skirt. I ended up with a 12" wide strip that was 5.5 yards long. Time to piece.
Anyway, what I did was cut the strip in half widthwise to get two 2-ish yard pieces. Then I cut 12 4" wide panes out of the red silk. I cut the same number of 2" strips out of a stiff cotton. I sewed each pane into a tube, slid the cotton inside, and ran a line of stitching down the center (with the tube seam at the back). Then I stitched a line of the green velvet ribbon over the stitch line.
I took the other strip of the red, cut it in half widthwise again, and gathered the long end of each resulting rectangle. I adjusted the gathers at the top of each so that it fit the armholes.
I sewed each pane into the armhole, six on a side. Then I stitched the wide end of the puckery rectangle to the sleeve opening. I used the very last of the red silk to make two 4" wide armbands stiffened with the cotton. Both of these were decorated with two lines of green velvet ribbon. The panes were sewn to these, spaced evenly, then the pouffy rectangle was sewn into the armband.
What I ended up with is something that looks vaguely like the all-on-piece paned sleeves. You can't see through to the underdress-- which is what I was trying to avoid-- and it looks quite festive.
The undergown was finished at the election returns party on Tuesday. The long sleeves have ended up being snug with small belled cuffs at the wrists that fall over the hand to the knuckles. The wrists are split to let me get the thing on without using ties. I cut a large oval hole out of each sleeve at the elbow; this lets the chemise sleeve fall trhough and look all pretty and stuff.
The belt has become an unexpected trial. I tried on the one I made, and I hated it. Total peasant. I ran to Hobby Lobby today in flagrant violation of the no purchase agreement. I was fully prepared to spend an ungodly amuont on fake pearls and beading wire, just to get a pretty belt. Instead, I wandered through the Christmas aisle, where I found a pearl and gold garland. I bought two, and tonight I'm going to refit it to the proper size an
d add a lobster claw clasp. It'll be one of the short beaded belts that just go around the waist, but that's fine.
What's left: Tomorrow night I want to make bloomers, if I'm not ready to drop by five. I still need to sew a skirt hook into the overdress and put the laces in all. I still need to dig up some stripey socks. I really should at least zig zag the seams of the underdress so the silk doesn't fray out.
I need to find my jazz flats. I decided that I should be kind to my feet and not wear the cute shoes that aren't broken in. I also need to make a decision on jewelry (I'm thinking the clear crystal bead necklace) and make sure that all my hair accoutrements are in the little bag. It would really suck to get to the event and not have the pins to attach the fake hair to my head.
Then I need to decide how to wear the hair. In order to cover my short hair, I usually pull all my hair back in a stretchy circular comb, tie it in a tiny ponytail, and bobby pin a coiled fake braid over the tail. I end up with a nice braided bun. Then I normally take the other braid, wrap it over the stretchy comb and tuck the ends under the bun. I end up with the braid over the top of the head look.
Finished Ensemble
Sometimes, a mistake can turn out to be a good thing. Like Velcro. Or bubblegum. Or Teflon. Tiny accidents, small errors, and something new is created.
That was the theme for dinner last week. Little did I know, when I set out to make roasted veg, that my oven heating element was broken. I prepped up a Pyrex dish of root veg (crimini mushrooms, potatoes, carrots and onions) in olive oil, garlic and rosemary and stuck it in the oven. I then went off to play on the computer for an hour.
Oven timer goes off and I go to dish out dinner. Only I notice, when I open the door, that it's nothing like 400F in there. It's more like 200F. I reach in and sure enough; not only can I pick up the glass dish with my bare hand, but I can actually grab the wire rack. Disgruntled, I put the dish back in, crank the oven up another 100 degrees and hope for the best.
Another hour later, and I have to face facts. This oven does not work. I'm left with a panful of greasy, herb-encrusted vegetables and no hope of dinner that late. I glance around the kitchen a couple of times and determine to make the best of it. After all, there's a steamer full of rice that's not going to go to waste.
I dumped the vegetables and as much of the oil as would pour out of the dish into a pan on the stove and brought it to a brisk fry. I sauteed the veggies until the mushrooms looked about right and were ready to release liquid. I poured in a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce, added a half tablespoon of black bean paste and the rest of the container of chili sauce (about a teaspoon) from the last takeaway run. I mixed that together, added a cup of water, covered the pan, and turned down the heat.
That simmered until the potatoes and carrots were tender. At that point I poured off the scanty liquid left and tossed in some broccoli. Another quick stir fry to make the broccoli pretty.
Served over rice, this was actually not bad. It was, I think, a decent salvage of a meal. Next time, I think I will precook some tofu, or perhaps some chicken. I'm also thinking that perhaps stirfrying the whole with a pacakge of cooked Creamy Chicken ramen might work well too.
The appliance repairman came and fixed the oven today!
Why is it that the problems that take the longest to fix invariably turn out to be the little piddly things? Seriously. I've been without an oven for three months now. Three months, people-- do you know how hard that is?! And why? Because the little dial that switches the oven from "manual" to "timed bake" was stuck.
I love it when repairmen look at me like I'm stupid. Especially when I'm trying to explain that I was not the one who determined that it was broken. That was the last handyman, thankyouverymuchnowgetthehellout.
Anyway. I was so excited I made a pot of quick minestrone soup to celebrate. No, I didn't bake. I had to go back to work.
It's not a recipe per se. You buy a sack of Bear Creek Minestrone soup mix and a half pound of turkey kielbasa. Boil water as per directions, add the turkey, let it boil about 5 minutes. Then whick in the soup, turn to medium, and simmer 15 minutes. Serve.
No, no. All you Southerners quit cringing. I'm not talking about that kind of ambrosia. There will be no Cool Whip or chunked fruit in this recipe, I promise.
Instead, I give you a friend's MIL's bean recipe.
Jamie's GREEN BEANS NAPOLI
1 tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 can green beans or 1 lb. fresh green beans
1 tbsp. olive oil or salad oil
1/4 c. Pepperidge Farms stuffing mix
2 to 4 tbsp. grated Asiago cheese
1/4 tsp. garlic salt
Prepare the topping as follows. Melt butter, add stuffing and stir over moderate heat until stuffing is a light golden colour. Blend in paprika. Remove from heat, add cheese and toss lightly. Heat green beans and drain off liquid. Add oil and garlic salt to beans and toss lightly. Serve topped with stuffing mixture.
Hint: Jamie tried to reheat this at Thanksgiving this year and miscalculated how long to leave it in the oven. If you rebake the whole dish until the cheese is chewy/crunchy, it's amazing.
This is not out of the Methodist Cookbook. It's a dish my friend Stu used to make for weekend gaming marathons, but it reminds me of Methodist covered dish suppers-- not too spicy, not too weird, yet hot and filling. It's a can and box dinner, so the parts are pretty modular and can be substituted without much problem.
Ingredients:
2 lbs ground beef
1 packet taco meat seasonings
1 can of black beans
1 can enchilada sauce
1 can green chiles
1 can black olives
1 small block Velveeta
1 large bag nacho cheese Doritos
Brown the ground beef in a skillet with the taco seasoning. Squeeze the bag of Doritos to crush the chips. In a large baking dish, pour the Doritos in an even layer over the bottom. Add the beef in an even layer. Then pour on the beans, tehn add chiles and enchilada sauce.
Slice the Velveeta and lay the slices over the casserole. Sprinkle with olives.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until Velveeta is bubbly and slightly crunchy around the edges. This is good served hot with sour cream.
Really. This pie is idiot-simple. That's why I make it all the time.
4 peaches, sliced and skin on **
1- 8oz. container of mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 frozen pie crust, thawed
In
a medium bowl, mix mascarpone cheese and sugar until well blended. Add
sliced fruit. Dump into pie crust. Fold edges of the pie crust up over
the filling until the filling is mostly covered.
Bake at 350 degrees approximately 30-35 minutes. Let set for ten minutes before serving.
** You can use any kind of fruit that has a skin. I've had success with pears, plums and grapes as well.
