Millinery Escapades

Its completley logical to make a hat before you've made the outfit for it, right? Or not. However, since I still am in search of fabric for the Thunderhosen (I think I'm getting really close now, though) I'm going to amuse myself with other bits. I'm willfully ignoring the shirt for the time being. So...hat it is....

Hats are intimidating. I've never made a proper hat. Only a silly floppy peasant one with no real structure. I met a lady at the VA renfest who used plastic canvas as her hat structure. Admittedly not a period material, but well, I'm a beginner. Perhaps i'll try felt and wire and paper mache for my next hat.

So...despite very non-period structural support, I wanted to try a period pattern. Janet Arnold's PoF has quite a few pleated tall hats in it. I modeled mine after one that is pink velvet. But mine will end up black--hubby would not like a tall pink hat.

I used the pattern in the middle on page 94 (for those of you that have the book). I altered the sides of the crown a bit so I wouldn't have quite so many incisions to make.

Hubby's head is 23 inches circumfrence, and I've taken it down to an 18and a bit inches circumfrence for the top (which, after doing LOTS of geometry means that the very top of the hat will be ~6 inch diameter circle). This amounted to cutting out 1/2 inch wide, 3.5 inch long triangles every 2 3/8 inches on the top of the crown-side. See:


Here, I am joining the slits with very non-period navy blue cotton yarn. (Yup, niter, I actually bought yarn!) You know, it might have just been easier to make a conical shape to begin with, but well, i was following the PoF pattern...

This is 6.5" tall right now, but after a try on, I think I'll take about an inch off the height for a more pleasing aesthetic (hubby keeps calling it a pilgrim hat, and that just won't do).

Here are all the bits cut out. The brim is 12" wide (just like the PoF hat, since I had no idea how big would look "right"). I need to finish tacking the top onto the sides tonight. We'll see if i get around to covering anything in fabric.

I'm a dolt and had the trim for the hat band in my hand at the store, but put it down while choosing my canvas. I guess I still need to find trim, huh?

Now, for some questions:
1) Opinion: black courderoy, black velveteen, or "other"? I think i'm gonna line this in that tan silk satin i have....
2) Does one cover the crown and brim in fabric before or after joining said crown and brim? I was thinking it might be easier to cover the brim before attaching it to the crown, but I really don't know.

Le Sigh

So, I thought I'd be an enterprising little wench and make my hubbys shirt while he was away. I mean, shirts are like one size fits all, right? I even had his measurements.

But sure enough, it doesn' t fit. I'm such a lazy shirt maker....they always come out a bit crappy cuz i get bored and basically decide "screw this, it goes under the outfit anyway". Bad. Bad Julie. Now hubby's got an unfinished shirt that strangles his armpits, and is kinda funky round the neck.....Trogdor is magestic, though.


illfitting crap

Would larger gussets help, you think? Or should I just start over? *kicks self* I will be getting friendly with mr. ripper, it seems...

In better news, I've been playing with thread covered buttons for this costume. I figure i'll use em on the shirt and doublet closures. I like this design. Mostly cuz its one i could actually figure out how to do without looking craptastic. Ew, my cuticles could use some TLC.

button

New Years Resolutions

Yeah, um, this blog has been relatively dead.

I have no real good excuse. I could pretend that my sewing machine was getting worked on since my last post (gasp, that was on OCTOBER 16th!). Which is a lie. But not a complete lie. It did spend about a week at the sewing machine store for its yearly checkup...still, 1 week of no machine does not pardon me for almost 3 months of no sewing... Sewing again sounds like a good new years resolution, doesn't it?

Something to placate the masses (the masses which probably gave up checking this about 3 months ago...). Here is adam's cloak fabric: He decided on a dark green. Its woefully synthetic velvet, but damn, it feels divine, and the price was right. I'll be couching this bad boy. The black beside it is the silk that will be used in much of the rest of the costume. I need to find a cheaper black to line the velvet with, cuz i can't afford to use my beautiful black silk on the INSIDE of the cloak.


Here's my little confession: This project came to a screeching halt when i realized I had NO idea how to draft a man's doublet/jerkin/jacket/whatever-you-prefer-to-call-it.
I tried. Really I did. I had about 3-4 goes at it. Then I gave up. I tried enlarging and altering a pattern straight out of PoF, but it didn't quite go as planned. For one thing, I accidentally enlarged what was a CHILD's pattern, and then we had to really REALLY enlarge it. Oops.

Then, on top of my inexperience with men's garb, my hubby is an...interesting...shape. He is a little barrel of joy. Which is to say that his shoulders and stomach and hips are all about the same size round. The standard conical kinda pattern drafting did not work for him. And I was having a lot of troubles with arm scythes and collars (his neck is so SHORT--yup, barrel of joy).

Anyway, I've made up my mind to progress as follows:
I'm going to do a big old practice round. This means a new blog, as it will be a completley diff costume. I'm gonna work up a "simple" flemish man's garb, just to get a handle on sewing for a man--general shapes, etc.
The bonus is that he will have a get-up to match my flemish, and that I already have all the fabric I could possibly need for this (big swaths of linen as well as dirty/peasanty colored wools and stuff). So it will be "cheap".

I also think i'm gonna just bite the bullet and buy a commercial pattern to start from. I think it'll be easier to alter this and make it period than to come up with my own pattern from scratch. I've "been there". And I was quite unable to have "done that".

In the meantime, I feel perfectly capable of starting on his green velvet cloak. I have a lot of couching to do. And well, cutting out a circle cloak shouldn't be TOO difficult. Knock on wood.

Consumate V's!!!!!

Looking over our Trogdors the other day, hubby and I decided something was missing. Consummate V's!!!!--how could we have overlooked them?
Clearly, our skills of an artist needed to be improved. We've taken our lesson from Professor Strongbad, and improved our technique. I also started on the neckband, which is shown in the middle. Behold, consummate V's:



And the public announcement of which cloak Adam craves. The photos are from Janet Arnolds Patterns of Fashion.



I think its lovely, with clean lines to go with his simple ivory and black look. Also, I think I probably can do a decent job of the couching, since the pattern is blown up nicely below, and not *too* complicated.



Adam has mentioned either having the cloak be a deep green velvet to add a splash of color to his ensemble, or have it be black velvet with gold/ivory couching, and a striking green lining. Opinions?

Anal-ity

Well, my previously finished pair of Trogdor cuffs annoyed me slightly cuz they weren't mirror images for the two arms. I redid one so that now they are. :)
I used some cotton perl i had laying around. I really want to try silk blackworking for my next project, though--like beth has said, i'm getting a bit more authenticity concious every day.

Conveniently, The next project using silk floss will be something of MINE. I'm so stingy. Three for me, one for him, and I get the fancier stuff. Bad. Bad wifey.

I haven't decided yet, but I might go back and throw in some fills for these before I assemble the shirt--this is certainly due to Laren envy worship...

As you can see, I've got my two cuffs finished, and my neckband on the hoop for the carride tomorrow. Its nowhere near as awesome as the work of the wonderfully talented Laren, but she at least inspired me to get off my duff and do some blackworking.


A Burninator

Dormancy

I think I will be coming out of hibernation on this poor neglected diary now. After my costume frenzy weekend with Beth, I came out with two goals. The first was to make a spanish court gown. The second was to finish hubby's new duds. Seeing as I've already made 3 costumes for myself this year, I have simply GOT to do Adam's before I move onto a really ornate court gown for me. Otherwise, his will never get done.

Additionally, it will be beneficial to me to learn to couch on a smaller project (his slops) before deciding exactly how much to plan for the dress--if i learn to dislike couching, I'll just shell out more $$ for trim on my gown. Not to mention, I don't mind the idea of LEARNING on his so I can do mine better. What a horrible wife I am....Mwahahahaha!

The plan:
1) Start/Finish blackworking the collar for his new linen shirt. Try to convince him that ruffs are good! Assemble shirt.
2) Dye white Sateen an ivory color for the doublet, since that's the color he wants. I'm tempted to try coffee for this.
3) Work up a good doublet pattern. Make doublet. Figure out how in the heck I plan to embellish it--I know there will be slashing. Maybe couching. Perhaps some nice trim. In all honesty, I like Adams first design concept better than his second. I might be pushing for some compromises from him.
4) Work up a slops pattern. Embellish (I think this will be couching/embroidery). Make slops.
5) Convince him that he wants a nice short cloak. ;)
6) Buy him tights and shoes. I shoulda bought him tights when bought mine. Doh!

Fabric Finds

Well, this project has been all but nonexistent since I'm still in search of fabrics. But I think we've found them. I convinced Adam to go fabric shopping with me yesterday (his costume, his choice--with strong influence from me, of course). We found this absolutely exquisite black silk. Its not satin, but a slash test for future pinking is promising. The picture does it no justice. Lovely piece of fabric--and we paid for it. ;-) Granted, it was 50% off, but still pricey. Add that to the fact that she wouldn't sell us the amount I needed, only all of what was left on the bolt (3.5 yards) for a bit more than 50% off. So, I've got extra. But not enough extra to make myself anything fun out of the exquisite stuff. Looks like Adam will have a black silk hat and cloak. ;-)

After the black silk fiasco, I was feeling a bit guilty about spending so much on fabric, so I decided that the white bits of his costume ( most of the doublet and the underlayer of the slops) would have to be significantly cheaper. In my Silk Connection fabric swatch bundle there is a swatch of cotton satin that is actually very impressive. A dull sheen, and it pinks extremely well. And its on sale for 4.95 a yard. Natural fibers for comfort, satin weave for at least some authenticity, and a price that is impossible to beat. I'm sold. I'll be dyeing it a creamier off-white color, either with Ritt, or with coffee or tea if I get industrious.

In other news, I've been chuggin away at his blackwork. Here is the first finished TROGDOR!!!! wrist cuff: