peteyfrogboy

I finished the eyelets on the Flemish peasant doublet last night, so all it needs now is sleeves. I just cut some leather points and tied the doublet and hose together to see how everything fits. It's so comfy! I have plenty of range of motion, no reported baggy butt, and no obvious stress points yet. I need to move the codpiece eyelets about an inch and a half inward, but other than that everything seems to be a go. I'll get pictures once I fix the codpiece, put sleeves on the doublet, and repurpose one of my old 15c shirts. Barring catastrophe, I should have it all ready to go well before Magna Faire.

I finished putting the codpiece together tonight. The pattern was largely built of guesswork and hope, since there was no way to really know how it would fit until the whole thing was built and attached. The seams are only basted together, but it all seems to work and is quite comfortable. It's a bit bigger than strictly necessary, but not out of line with period examples. Pictures of the hose with codpiece installed below the cut.

( Pictures! )

I started on what I'm calling the "birdnester codpiece" last night. I'm building it out of one layer of heavy wool blend for sturdiness, one layer of squishy fulled wool for smoothnes, and a layer of the blue linen to cover it all. There are four pieces total: two in the center for the crotch and the front of the codpiece, and two for the sides. You can see some of them in various stages of construction here. After taking this picture, I noticed that I had made two left sides for my codpiece. This will be remedied. :)

I stayed up late again last night working on the feet of my hose. I took the legs in at the heel a bit and attached the tops of the feet. The entire edge of both feet is finished and ready to attach the soles. Once the feet are done I'll start working on patterning the codpiece. I may mock up the doublet body first so I can see how the hose work when tied up.

I want to use these hose for both early 16c Italian upper class clothes and later 16c northern European peasant clothes (e.g. Bruegel and Beham peasants), so I'll be looking at both sources for details. A lot of these will look familiar, as I've linked to them before.

( Image Survey )

So, from a cursory look, it seems that the codpieces of early 16c Italian and later 16c Flemish peasant hose are strikingly similar. I think this is justification enough to try the "birdnester" construction method, which I think will make the best looking and most comfortable shape.

So, when last we left the story, I had built a short foundation for my full hose. I tweaked that until it fit better, then took it apart and adjusted my pattern to match it. Or so I thought. I cut two legs from the lovely stretchy Pennsic linen and did my best to match it up with the green linen foundation. Nothing really matched up right, so I just made it fit as best I could and basted things together, letting the extra flop around until I was sure what needed to be cut away. I sewed everything up and tried them on.

Of course, it didn't fit right.

( Adjustments )

I spent the day up at the folks' house with the kids today, picking up adelavanbrugge's birthday and anniversary presents. alasais and logansilveraxe came by so I could help Alasais work out a pattern for her next cotehardie/GFD. Some draping and cutting and pinning and recutting and adjusting and eventually we had a functional pattern for the upper half of the body and a sleeve that didn't make anyone cry. Hopefully the construction will go well! All in all, I think we got quite a bit done considering the number of children that were running around.

Today was a very productive day, though most of it didn't come from me. My student Serafina made the long drive down to visit today so I could help her get a chemise started.
( Serafina's Dress )
( Also A Chemise )
( Adela's Shalwar )
( My Hose )

I've been working on a new late 15c dress for my mother, who lives on the other side of Atlanta. This means I that I don't have easy access to do fittings, and therefore have been just plugging along with my sewing and hoping for the best. I took the finished bodice up this past weekend and tried it on her, and found that the best was not what I had. Fortunately, it was too big (too big being far easier to fix than too small), so I pinned the alteration I needed to make and took it home to fix it. I decided to take pictures of the process, just in case anyone might be interested. For those of you who aren't, I give you this convenient cut.

( Details and Pictures )

So what sewing have I been up to lately? The only thing really on my plate right now is making my parents' new clothes. I'd finished most of the pieces by yesterday afternoon, minus Mom's skirt, attaching sleeves to bodies, and the buttonholes and eyelets on the doublet. I ended up on the north end of town for a play date, so I dropped by to do a final fitting and get a length for the skirt.

Mom's bodice needed taking in by a few inches in back (I'd assumed the problem would be in the front; glad I checked) and Dad's collar needed a new angle. The alterations are pinned and I should get them taken care of today. I guesstimated the size for Dad's sleeves, based on how baggy my doublet sleeves look on him. I think I got it about right, as long as I put him in a thin enough shirt. I'll probably have to take a pair of my old hose up and tweak them to get them to fit just right, but I'm not going to make all new ones.

I've been thinking about how best to do the alterations. I'll see if I can get a decent set of pictures to illustrate the process. Someone might be interested, you never know. :)

I managed to get sufficient portions of the house clean on Friday to not feel too bad having company over. I helped a friend start her first dress (based on this Botticelli portrait) on Saturday. We discovered that pulling up the painting on the 40" TV was a very nice way to study details. I draped a pattern and showed her a few techniques, then set her to work cutting and sewing. The bodice was pretty far along by the time she headed home in the evening.

This morning I started on a dress for my mother, based on the same portrait. I don't know if I'll have much of an opportunity to do a fitting, so I'll just eyeball the width of the front opening and hope for the best. :)

After putting the boy down for his nap I took D with me to fighter practice so adelavanbrugge could have some quiet time to play with quills. Practice went well, and was much less injurious now that I've rebuilt my elbows and re-laced my mask attachment points. For my last fight I borrowed a heater to see how I liked using a shield. Verdict: shields suck. I wasn't nearly as winded when I was done as I am when fighting two-stick, but my arms got very tired very quickly and I couldn't get a shot in edgewise. Oh well, maybe practice will help.

So this weekend was extremely complicated and required two cars to manage.

Friday evening: adelavanbrugge took the girl to play Pokemon at the local gaming store and then went to the local project night in Newnan. I took the boy up to my parents' house in Marietta, got him settled and then went out for sushi with an old friend. The girls caught up later in the evening.

Saturday: We all woke up early (well, not that early for us) and went to the big kids' clothing consignment sale at the Cobb Civic Center. We got there early and were near the front of the line when they opened the doors, so we split up and got the first crack at the racks. We scored 62 total items (many of them entire outfits) for $110. Winter clothes check! I took the boy back to Camp Grandma while the girls did some more shopping.

I roasted up a bunch of the potatoes grinnellian2001 sent home with me from her CSA cornucopia. With some melty cheese that became lunch for me, followed by nap time.

In the evening we got together with TIM folks for a fun evening of chatting and screaming children. Good times.

Today (Sunday): I finally got around to draping patterns for my parents, so they can have some new clothes for my elevation. I don't think I've ever draped a pattern for men's clothes before, and it was naturally easier than wrapping the more complex topography of the female form. I'm of a mind to find someone to drape me a doublet pattern to see how it differs from the venerable drafted-and-tweaked one I've been using for years untold.

I ran off to South Downs fighter practice and got reacquainted with the giving and receiving of violence. I got to fight three people before the cord holding my mask to my helm failed, but I was about ready to pack it in by that point anyway. I could have fought more, but I would have regretted it later. As it is I'm only somewhat weary and bruised. The helm needs to be improved and repaired, and my elbows re-padded, but otherwise all went well.

We handed the kids off so adelavanbrugge could go out to a scribal workshop for Talmere. She was running a bit late since the boy decided today was the day for a five hour nap, but eventually everyone was headed in the correct directions. I'm home with the kids now, looking forward to bedtime.

So I want to make a patterned belt for my 15c clothes, but I've never seen anything other than plain belts - usually narrow, though sometimes wide. Most of the time there's no fastening visible, but sometimes there is a bow or a buckle. Here's what I turned up in a quick survey today:

( Survey of Images )

So it looks like the vast majority of belts are undecorated and narrow. I'd wager they buckle or tie in back, but of course it's impossible to say. Some fasten in front, and some buckle and have metal mounts. It's possible that a patterned sash might work, but it's iffy. Overall, the belt doesn't seem to be a focus for fashion at this point.

Got the second pair of linen hose done last night. I've got pretty much everything ready to go for RUM and Pennsic, aside from the actual packing. Looks like I'm teaching two dance classes at RUM (Intro to European Dance and 3 couple English Country) and the 15c Italian men's clothes class. Should be good times.

There comes a point in every SCA tailor's life when he must make and wear a loincloth. For me, that day is today.

( Everything You Ever Wanted To Know )

Okay, I've finally done the pre-Pennsic clothing inventory. I think I have my packing list mostly figured out, as well as my list of stuff to make:

( Packing List )

So the sewing I have yet to do is:
* 5 pairs of brache (4, but that's enough)
* subligaculum
* reinforce seams on old shirts
* cut and hem toga
* raise linen doublet waistline (not necessary)
* another pair of linen hose

I think that's doable.

So in the past I've been using buttonhole stitch for my eyelets and buttonholes. It has been pointed out to me recently that the extant samples in Textiles and Clothing use blanket stitch instead. I tried it out on the eyelets on the linen hose, and it worked just fine. I'd only ever used a wide blanket stitch on tricky hems and stuff in the past, and didn't think it would be as sturdy as buttonhole stitch for eyelets, but I couldn't really tell the difference. It was, however, less fiddly to do and caused fewer tangles, so I call it a win. That is all.

Hose are finished. Now maybe I can focus on getting my Pennsic clothes made.

For years I've avoided making bias cut linen hose because linen was expensive, and cutting on the bias was wasteful, and I was generally scared of them. Now that I've finally bitten the bullet and started a pair, like so many other things, they're not as bad as I thought they would be.

Either linen isnt as expensive as it once was, or I've just gotten used to having to spend a certain amount for decent fabric, but this pair of hose constitutes maybe $15 of materials. Not too bad at all compared to buying them, even if I could buy hose that fit properly.

( Long winded construction details )

I whipped up this cappuccio today. It's made from the same tropical weight wool as my last farsetto, hand sewn with quilting thread for the construction seams and pulled threads for finishing. The roll is padded with cotton upholstery batting. I'll try to get a better picture the next time I have everything else on.

Pictures, as promised!


(click for more)

The cioppa is done. Overall, I'm happy with it, though of course there are some things I'm not entirely pleased with. If anyone cares, I can expound in the comments. It's not as heavy or stiff as the old one, which is very nice. Getting it on and off is a little ungraceful, but certainly no worse than putting on your typical woman's gown.

I also uploaded pictures of the sleeves. Here is the original shape (the camera angle makes it look like it tapers, but the overall shape is rectangular), and here is the adjusted shape (flipped because it's the other sleeve). It doesn't look like much of a difference, but it improved things immensely.

If anyone wants detail shots, let me know and I'll try to get them up.