Gown Finis!

The Carpi dress is momentarily finished and I am very happy with how it turned out. No accessories yet, but I have plans.....I found a really good deal on some sheer silk on Ebay, so I do in fact have material to work on the partlet, just not the time in the next few weeks (we are in the middle of remodeling a garage into a studio apartment, while living in it, makes sewing time difficult to find). Oh, and then there's the IRCC mini-challenge coming up in two days, so....yeah it might be a while before I get around to the partlet.

Anyway, pictures.... I did have the gown steamed and wrinkled free.....but that was several days before we got around to taking pictures, plus I look like I haven't slept in several nights, but here they are regardless;

Above is the roll of guard. Instead of inserting a strip of wool inside the bottom of the skirt, I decided to go with a finished decorative band that would be sewed onto the outside of the skirt, akin to the solid coloured guards on early 1500 Florentine gowns. It consists of a strip of wool, covered in linen, and five rows of the silk ribbon, sewn down on each side by hand. The skirt is hemmed by folding both the lining and the linen inside to make about a half inch finished hem, and the guard is sewn down so the lower edge covered the stitching of the hem.

What I used;
6 yards 60 inch wide green handkerchief linen
aprox. 1 yard 60 inch wide brown wool
4 yards 45 inch wide tea-dyed muslin
1/2 yard heavy blue linen
aprox. 45 yards copper silk ribbon
leftover floss for eyelets

So things I have still to do;

1. partlet, same copper ribbon will be sewn onto silk organza

2. caul or cap, need to do more research, will use scraps of linen or muslin

3. two necklaces, need to do more research on jewelry making, purchase beads

4. gloves, will use purchased pattern, and thin leather from stash

5. netted/sheer cap worn over caul, need to do more reasearch, or beaded headband

6. linen camicia with whitework on neckline and cuffs (loosely based of men's shirt in Patterns of Fashion)

7. earrings, possibly

8. fan, I'll probably make another flag fan, instead of the feather fan in the portrait

9. take final GOOD pictures, with everything wrinkle free and me not looking so tired

A bit about the sleeves

When I made my 'bella' gown several years back, I stiffened the baragoni with -eek!- modern interfacing. It did work really well, especially with the synthetic fabric I sewed the dress with. Just for fun here's a picture of that....

All in all I love that dress, and I've even thought about making a new one like it, knowing what I know now. I sewed that dress with cheap fabrics and completed it in about three weeks, applique and everything. If I were to re-do it I would make it a long term project and embroider it instead of machine appliqueing the gold bits.

Anyway, back to the point. I couldn't use interfacing this time, seeing as it is not period. My theory (again unresearched) is that since we know skirt pleats were padded with wool, and the hems stiffened with wool, why not pad the pleats on the baragoni with wool?  If I'd have really been thinking I would have just interlined the outer fabric with a layer of wool, but instead I took a strip of wool doubled and gathered that into the seam at the bottom of the baragoni, and about a one inch wide strip at the top of the baragoni and smocked that to fit to the lining. The doubled wool gives a sharper 'fold' where the baragoni reaches its fullest puff and I think it did turn out well, but like I said, if I was thinking I would have just interlined the whole thing with a solid layer of wool. 

The sleeves are bag lined. The seam where the baragoni and lower sleeve meet is basted to the lining to keep the puff from sliding down.  The top of the sleeves are then whipstitched to the shoulder of the gown across a little more than half the sleeve opening.

 And here is a picture of the wrist tabs, which I am very happy with.

I've got the hook and eyes sewn on the skirt openings and the method works wonderfully. I've also finished the guard and sewing it to the bottom of the skirt, but I'll post more about that later. Just a few places on it I need to finish up a bit neater, and hopefully sometime this weekend I will get pictures of the whole thing. I won't be able to finish the camica for it, and will have to wait on the partlet and other accesories for now, waiting on spending money, but hopefully I can throw enough together from my stash and current wardrobe that I can wear the whole thing properly. I need to do a good go-through of my current wardrobe and clean out much of my earlier things I've made, many things of which are done with synthetic fabric or don't fit well, and then re-plan my wardrobe to better match my persona and reflect the fact that I hardly ever even go to events where I need court gowns.... sadly.

Skirt Attatched!

So I broke down and used the machine...shame on me.... but I only used it for two seams, so not too bad, right? I got a bit of ambition last night and just HAD to get the skirt on the dress. I tried a new variation of a technique previously used; first I sewed the muslin lining, the linen, and a three inch wide strip of wool all along the top edge with about a half inch seam. I then trimmed the perpendicular edges and sewed that up to be the back seam. Then I flipped the linen/wool to the outside, so that the top edge was finished and six layers thick. This was then pleated to a narrow strip of linen which I then whipstitched to the inside of the bodice. I went back to the outside and stitched the tops/outside of each pleat to the very bottom of the outside layer of linen on the bodice using invisible stitches. This aligned everything beautifully, and I loved how it turned out. 

I had any doubts about how this gown would turn out with using linen instead of silk, they are gone. The sheen and lightweightness of this gown so far are perfect, plus washable!!

Back to the skirt; instead of having side back slits to co-ordinate with the side back openings, I instead left about a nine inch portion of the skirt unpleated. Once the gown is finsihed, the excess skirt will close with hook and eye. I haven't tried this before, but saw it somewhere ( bad me, saw it somewhere and didn't document, bad!). It leaves a pretty substantial break in the even row of pleats BUT this will get rid of the gap in the skirt that shows camicia beneath (one of my pet peeves).

 Ive also been slowly working away on the sleeves. The first one is completely finished and the second one is ready to be assembled. Once i'm finished with both I will post more on the construction experiments I performed upon them.

On another note, I have been convinced by family and friends to pursue sewing as a business. I stay with my husband's granny during the week, making sure she eats, and all that fun stuff, which gives me oodles of time to sew instead of sitting and watching the Walton's with her all day. I'm slowly starting to work on a website where I can put things up for sale and take commissions. This will be an interesting pursuit, but I'm anxious to make a bit more cash and spend my time being productive and useful. Any thoughts or ideas for what I could encorporate? Or if i'm even skilled enough to do this?

Wrinkled... but I took pictures anyway.

Here's the pictures of the bodice with trim. There are four rows that come up in the square, and then three that run paralell to that and up and over the shoulder and down to the center bottom of the back. I spaced everything about 3/8 in apart except where the shoulder straps widen and I spread the trim to kinda cover more area. I think it looks better that way. I couldn't decide whether or not to also sew the ribbon across the back of the neckline and then kinda forgot about it in the excitement of getting the rest of it all sewn on the bodice. I might add some later. If anything, I feel that I made the center trim too 'square' in the front and didn't taper it enough to the middle.

I've worked on the sleeves too. The first thing I did was the wrist tabs. I don't want to put a button or opening at the wrists cause I am too lazy to try and find two buttons that might match the dress, so I took my wrist measurement and rounded it up to 8 inches - which still fits over my fist so I can still easily slip it on. I had determined that I would make all the tabs one inch wide, and then the vertical trim on the lower sleeves would be spaced one inch at the bottom and tapered evenly upwards to best give the appearance of the trim in the portrait. The tabs are made from 3 inch squares of the linen sewed into tubes with a half inch seam, turned inside out, pressed, trimmed along both edges and then folded in half. I basted eight together for each wrist. The finished string of tabs turned out to be a bit more then 8 inches (grr) but I think I should be able to ease them into the wrist opening without too much difficulty.

The rest of thw sleeves will be composed of three parts, the lower sleeve, the upper sleeve and the lining. To get the proportions for the upper part of the sleeve, I took what would have been the upper part of my regular sleeve pattern and roughly multiplied all its outside measurements by two. In the portrait it is difficult to determine if there are more rows of  trim on the upper sleeve than there are on the lower sleeve. In order to make it easy on myself I decided to make it the same number. As I mentioned before, on the lower sleeve, the trim starts off at the wrist being spaced one inch apart and tapered upward. I took the resulting spacing measurement at the top of the lower sleeve and also multiplied that by two to get the spacing measurement for the trim on the upper sleeve. Once I'm ready to gather the two parts together, matching up the trim should be pretty easy and result in a fairly even gather...I hope.

I have the trim sewn on to the first lower sleeve and about a quarter of the way done sewing it to the first baragoni. So far I've done it all by hand and haven't broke down and used the machine. I'd be pretty tickled if I don't get too impatient and could finish the entire thing by hand, but looking ahead to the skirt......that seems doubtful.

Carpi Bodice Done

I've been making pretty good progress on the dress, dispite working on a few quilts for Christmas presents. I have the bodice completely done, and since I've taken pictures last, have also got ALL the trim on the bodice as well as started on the sleeves. But for now here's just a few pictures of the untrimmed bodice and a little  about the construction methods I ended up using.

The bodice is interlined with one layer of medium to heavyweight linen/cotton fabric and one layer of brown wool which are basted together. The outer jade-coloured handkercheif linen is also used as a lining. The bodice is finished off in two separate peices, the front, and then the back with the shoulder straps. They are bag-lined, and then the lining is 'topstitched' through the layer of wool and heavy linen but not through the outer layer of linen. This gives really nice edges and smoothness on the outside.

I did a total of 18 hand-bound eyelets, spaced for spiral lacing, using an awl and cotton embroidery floss. Here I have it laced with silk ribbon but I plan to eventualy make some lucet braid to use.

After the front and back sections were finished I pinned the shoulderstraps to the front bodice portion and whipstitched the edges together from the back. I'm very happy with how this bodice turned out. It is very comfortable so far. I seem to have gotten the shoulder straps exactly where I wanted them (we'll see what happens when I add sleeves) and they are not tight or constricting ( which is usually me biggest problem) . The outside surface is very smooth and took the trim very well.

                            Hopefully tomorrow I will get pictures up of the bodice with trim:-)

I couldn't help myself....

11 days until the wedding. The only thing that remains to sew is a small round pillow to fit in a brass tray for the rings to sit on!! But.....it was easier to do all that sewing than face the other stuff going on with the weddings, including the severely incompetant hotel manager. We have a reception hall.....but cannot use their kitchen, as he originally told us and have no way to keep food hot. grumble grumble. I could go into quite a rant about everything, but I will spare you.

On the brighter side, I have ordered 5 yards, 60 wide, emerald green handkerchief linen for the outside of the green carpi gown, and 75 yards of 4mm copper coloured silk ribbon. I'm hoping 75 yards will be an excessive amount, but its fairly afforadable, so I'm hoping I'll be able to go all out and copy the exact pattern of trim application in the portrait and not have to skimp! I have also purchased a period -ish glove pattern and started making a mockup out of scraps of blue velveteen. So far so good. I'm hoping to find some thin garment leather in about the same colour as the silk ribbon so I can make matching gloves.

I've been thinking about the bodice construction in my spare time. I've done a corded bodice before (thanks to festive attyre! ) and really like the feel and shape. However, I'm very small chested, and all the cording is allot of work to go into for not needing it. I have some teal coloured wool in my stash and I think I will simply interline the bodice with a layer of the wool 'quilted' to a layer of linen and see how it works. I've also decided that I will have side back lacings, as I simply can't justify back-lacing being period for that type of gown. The sleeves and armscye will be completely finished and the top of the sleeve will be whipstitched in arcross the top and side of the sleeve to give that sewn-in look. I've done something similar before with my 'la bella' gown and it works pretty well, just makes it a little snug getting into.

I'm still trying to decide on the camicia, if I want to invest in more linen or go with a lighter more comfortable voile. I want to do whitework along the neckline, and the structure of the linen would greatly aid with supporting the embroidery. However, those beautiful fine little pleats around the cuffs would be much easier if I went with a voile.....hard decision....so I don't know.

Other than that I just need to find suitable lining for the skirt, and something sheer for the partlet and that head-thing and research jewelry-making stuff....

I'm so excited to start a new gown for myself, but with the wedding, moving and settling in, and then Christmas, its looking like I won't be able to start anything until the new year. Theoretically....I'm sure there will be those moments between stuff and evenings were I might be able to sneak in some work...i'm resourceful like that. lol.

Planning Ahead

So there is a slight lull in wedding sewing! I have only a handful of things left to do, but am waiting on various things such as arranging fittings and confirming the servers to I can make their tunic appropriate sizes, so on and so forth. I have 35 days to go until the wedding, and I think I will have no problem getting everything done, especially with the help of my bridesmaids.

So I am now allowing myself to plan what I want to sew after the wedding and after Christmas. My persona is Florentine, early 1500's and I really only have two or three gowns that reflect that. I have two portraits picked out that I currently can't stop lusting over. I'm not sure why either since puffy sleeves (as are in both portraits) are not really my thing. Perhaps it is the uniqueness and novelty of trying a new style:-)

The first portrait is Bacchiacca's 'Portrait of a Woman with a Book of Music' c 1540.

Why I like this portrait, I'm not really sure...as I said there are puffed sleeves involved and I am really not a big fan of pink. Perhaps it the applique? I am a sucker for that. LOL. This woman strikes me as being someone with a quirky and perhaps a carefree attitude for her time and place. The trim on her gown is definiately unique, and she flaunts it well...having the hem draped over the chair just so to make it extra visible?  My plan here is to make as close a copy as possible, using linen (more affordable that silk) for the majority of the gown, blue/brown silk taffetta for the sash and balzo and rabbit fur to line the lower velvet sleeves. Perhaps I can find some very light weight linen for the partlet thingy and of course, make myself a new camicia, as a girl cannot have too many of those. Things that will be new for me in trying to sew this gown will be the balzo, the ruched baragoni, and fur sleeves.

The second gown I wish to make is the one in this 'Portrait of a Woman' c1530 which is attributed to either Peter de Kempeneer or Girolamo da Corpi. I beleive she is a woman of Ferrara, but the gown is close enough in style to some Florentine and Roman gowns that it will still work for my purposes.

Again, I'm not positive what strikes my fancy so about this particular dress. I do not care for the trim placement on the bodice or the trim color, and again with the puffy sleeves.... Oi! Again, however, I wish to make this gown out of a jade green linen, and perhaps find a copper coloured trim instead of the yellow. I hope to experiment with jewelry for this one, as I suck with jewelry making thus far, and maybe I'll be brave enough to attempt a pair of gloves and a feather fan. Up until this point I have stuck with flag fans, as they are easy and fun to assemble.

The sad part....I have to wait at least two months before I can start with either of them. Hopefully though that will give me enough time to research and plan and plot and find the perfect materials.