Merida Gown

And here's some pics of a project I recently created for a customer; Merida's green gown from 'Brave'.

The chemise is made from some very crisp muslin (Moda, my fav). The wrists each have two rows of elastic, and the neckline is gathered with cord.

 The gown is made from linen and lined in cotton broadcloth. For the decorative lacing at the top of the bodice I ran embroidery floss through separately for each row, and covered with silver machine embroidery thread using a button hole stitch.

 I hand bound thirty eyelets for the back lacing. The lacing cord is purchased cotton cord.

All the sleeve joins are tubes inserted with elastic and sewn in place. I was not able to do a fitting in person for this gown, and figured that would be the easiest way to ensure adjustability and fit while remaining true to the movie version.

The cloak is made from coat weight wool and the edges are finished with a blanket stitch. I we could not find a good image of the front closure of the cloak I used what I had on hand. 

Over all I am very happy with how this project turned out, its quite fun translating clothing from an animated movie to real life:-)

IRCC II, finish pics of the Bacchiacca Gown

Here they are at long last;

Wardrobe Elements for Lady Nicolla

Wow....its only been how many months since I have posted last? A quick run down of what I have been doing...finished the IRCC 2 (will post more finished pics later) working on renovations with my husband, hunting, tanning hides, made a quilt for a customer, made two adult sized animated movie costumes for customers (Merida's green dress from 'Brave' and Rapunzel's dress from 'Tangled'), started on the first of many wall tapestries for our house and many other various little bits.

My current project has been pushed back to now, after being requested several months ago at Uprising. My dear friend Lady Nicolla requested some user-friendly camp garb. She is involved with both equestrian and heavy fighting and needs some pieces that reflect her late period Italian persona, while remaining feminine, being durable and easy to dress in by herself as she runs from equestrian to fighting to court etc with few minutes to spare.

So these are the ensembles I have planned;

l. Seafoam green linen doublet with black velveteen guards, plain black 'venetian' breeches, and over a lightly embroidered linen shirt.

2. Italian gamurra out of indigo linen, front lacing, with either a split skirt or very very full skirt to ride in, over a plain, fitted camicia.

3. Linen and silk, front lacing Venetian gown based off of the portrait; Portrait of a Lady with a Heron by Paolo Caliari c 1550's. over a long linen camicia.


And then, my favorite (not); she is also in need of a new arming doublet, her current one having been well used up over the last few years.

I ordered a few new fabrics, but allot of it is coming out of an overflowing stash that I don't mind using, since her budget is pretty low.

She lives three hours away, and we plan on seeing each other this weekend, so I am going to try to have the innards of all the bodice portions ready to fit her with.

I've started on the riding doublet. Unfortunately I must have been have crazed when I made the toile on her as I made quite a few parts of it really wonky, so I compared the usable parts with a doublet  pattern I had made for her several years back and it was close enough that I felt confidant going ahead and using that.

I started with cutting out the pattern on some extra black linen/cotton and then out of scrap quilt batting (unfortunately it probably has a rather high poly content, but was bulky to store in stash and needed used up) which I then trimmed to reflect a more feminine shape, and then pad stitched the respective pieces of batting to their linen comrades.

I am lining the doublet with the same sea foam linen/cotton, so I placed the lining layer atop the bare batting layer and then sewed the shoulder seams by hand, flattened and whipstitched the seam allowances down.

I then lay the outer layer (with shoulder seams also already sewn and pressed) atop the layer of black linen and machine basted along the long sides, ending up with two halves of a doublet. I then pinned the back seam and side seams together along what would be the seam allowance so I can fit her on Saturday.

Planing on cording the gamurra bodice, so need to run to town and see if Ace has what I need. The cord I have is buried behind flooring and boxed countertops and I do not have the energy to dig it out.

The fabric for the Venetian gown is pre-washing as we speak.

Getting There

I'm still slowly plugging away on IRCC

Dress is almost done, need to hem the skirt and attach the sleeve parts and make lacings. Still wanting to do the leather trim along the bottom, but its not looking like its going to happen...unless I sew it in with a machine blanket stitch, which....well...would be machine done. So that may be another 'after the challenge' thing, like the trim on the bottom of my wedding dress, which never got done either...sigh. The trim is a very important part of the character of this gown though, so I really hope to get it done at some point.

And then there is the balzo fiasco. My first attempt was back near the beginning of the challenge when I tried steaming young stripped down branches, and simply could not get things to attach together securely, or even begin to achieve the right shape. The second attempt I actually finished, sent in IRCC update, and then decided it did not fit, and was way too lumpy looking. It was a stuffed and covered linen roll with a brim basically. Attempt number three was based of the directions on Oonagh's site, using a felt hat as a base. The hat that I had on hand however was not stable enough, I could not get the wrinkles out of the silk and again, everything was lumpy and did not fit...I never even got to the roll part on that one before giving up in extreme frustration.

In the end I have made a turban (my easy fall back to easily cover up any of numerous-bad-hair-days head-covering).  It is made from the green/purple silk taffeta, and is approximately two yards long by eighteen inches wide, rolled hemmed. I sewed a comb to center front to help keep it on, because the silk is slick and my hair is slick and thats not a good combination. I also made a fringe along the one end that sticks out a bit when its worn, and am very happy with how it turned out.

My poste is also almost done. It is made from the same silk. I deviated from the portrait here a bit as well, making it a bit longer and into a tube, and 'stuffing' the embroidered ends with a roll of wool to make the embroidery stand out. I still need to add the fringe around the bottom edges and then it will be completely done.

And a soccaccia; same silk, lined in some blinding chartreuse silk satin I had leftover from a customer sample. It is trimmed in sage green velvet ribbon leftover from one of the bridesmaid's gowns (theres a few bits of the ribbon on the poste as well). I want to make a narrow woven waist tie for this, and then it will be done.

I wanted to make matching garters from the silk as well, but with making the turban and wasting ( pout pout) silk with the balzo, I did not have enough silk, so I am weaving a pair of garters on the inkle loom  (the most recent activity I have been introduced too, which I am way to excited about). They will match the tie I will weave for the soccaccia.

Still on the start list is the partlet, stockings, and slippers, and maybe a pair of gloves, but I'm doubting I'll be able to get to those all. The partlet is the only thing that really must get done to finish the look. The other things are optional. I'm away from home for a few days helping my mom pack and clean to move, and I forgot my camera, so pictures will be delayed for a bit, and hopefully I can finish a few things up before I get home.

Baragoni, part two

So, since I can't seem to put more than ten pictures in one post, I'm having to do this in two parts...

After the velvet was seamed together, I folded the raw edges of the lining inside and whipstitched the seam.

I then folded the edge of the lining in about a half inch and pinned it to the already folded velvet on both the top and the bottom.

And then gathered it to fit, and sewed it down, running my needle through two 'pleats', and then snatching up the lining, and then through two more 'pleats'.

And the finished baragoni;

To attach the lower sleeves, I will probably make some lucet ties. I plan to whipstitch the top of the sleeve to the shoulder of the gown as this works best for me. But first I have a second baragoni to make, and this junction is my least favorite part. There is something very depressing about creating a sleeve, getting finished with it....and then having to do it all over again. Is it just me?

Baragoni, step by step, part one

Spent yesterday afternoon constructing my the first baragoni, or upper sleeve, for my Bacchiacca gown. For once I also took step by step photos.

I used a sleeve pattern I made a while back for the green Carpi gown. The lining is cut to a fitting size, and the velvet is cut two times as wide and three times as tall.

I then marked three evenly space lines from side to side on both the lining and the velvet. On the lining, I cut three strips of bias tape to the correct, finished width.

On the velvet I ran double lines of gathering stitch along the lines, the top two curving slightly upward into the curve of the shoulder. (The kitten is obsessed with the velvet and cuddles with it whenever I have it out. Its her legs sticking out from the top.)

On the top and bottom edges, I folded the velvet in about a half inch before putting in the gathering stitches.

Then I pinned the pre-cut pieces of bias tape to the velvet, along the lines, and  gathered to fit.

I then stitched the bias tape to the velvet, going through the gather at the top of the bias tape, and then through the bottom. The stitches are almost invisible on the right side.

After all the gathers were stitched down, the sleeve looked like this;

I then matched the top bias piece to the top line on the piece of linen, pinned it in place, and basted/tacked it in place

Again, I kept my stitches as invisible as possible, running the majority of my thread between the layers to keep it hidden. I started the stitch lines about an inch from the edges so that I would still have wiggle room to finish the seam.

And then pinned the edges of the velvet right side together and hand sewed the seam with about a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

Skirt Pleated

So the trim is staying how it is on the shoulders. (Thanks Jane and Crystal:-)) And I am glad ya'll think it looks right,  because I wasn't looking forward to altering it!

In a spurt of energy, despite the heat last night, I was able to cartridge pleat my skirt onto my bodice.

The skirt is made from two panels of velvet, the front roughly three times the width of the front of the bodice and the back about four times as wide as the back of the bodice. The back is wider for deeper pleats and more fullness down the back. Instead of padding the pleats with wool, I simply folded the velvet over twice, as if making a very wide hem and stitched it down. I then basted the muslin lining into place.

I call what I have done 'cartridge pleating'. However I have never actually seen other's cartridge pleating in person where I can examine the process, nor have I found any good tutorials. What I did was whipstitch the outside edge of each pleat fold to the bottom edge of the bodice, and then went back and reinforced the position of the inside folds with a heavy thread. It looks right on the outside, but I'm fairly sure the inside has things that could be done differently. If anyone could point me in the right direction I would be most grateful.

I'll move on to the sleeves next as I am unsure how I want to finish off the hem on the skirt...and I am also waiting to see if I have sufficient time to think about tackling the appliqué around the bottom of the skirt.

So, I'm off for a glass of wine and sleeve mockup....