Brueghel Bits: Miscellaneous Details From Peasant Scenes
While looking for clothes, I've noticed a few other random things that may be of interest to reenactors, but aren't directly related to anything I'm doing right now. This apron has a pocket. Not earth shattering, but something I hadn't seen before. I don't know if I've ever seen a specific image of this: it looks like she's spinning under his arm.
category: /misc | permanent link

Sorry For The Inconvenience
The final move to the new domain is complete. Also, somewhere along the way the timestamp files got screwed up. I didn't notice until today, but everything should be back in order now. Sorry, no actual sewing updates yet. Maybe soon...
category: /misc | permanent link

Comments Enabled
I've implemented comments, so feel free to leave some. Let me know if there are any problems with the system.
category: /misc | permanent link

Wayward Headgear And Other News
I actually made this hat back on 7/19, but I forgot to mention it. I had woken up early before an event and had time to kill before hitting the road. I decided I needed a new hat. I had some ideas of what I wanted, but they changed somewhat when I saw this remnant of fire engine red velvet tucked in the midst of my fabric stash. I'm pretty happy with the construction of the hat - organ pleats, wired crown, pad stitched brim - but the materials I ended up using are atrocious. The velvet is shiny acetate, which is very flashy but not the most authentic looking. The main body of the hat is provided by a double layer of coarsely woven polyester (I swear I thought it was wool in the store!). The brim is lined with leftover bits of the acetate lining from the Moroni doublet sleeves. The band is cotton, but that hardly makes up for the mountain of textile sins that is the rest of the hat. I wore the hat with the white doublet and black trunk hose, and I felt like a police car. On an administrative note, my mac.com space will be going away in a couple months, but everything is already available here, so change your bookmarks as appropriate. I may move things again in a few months, but I'll try to keep anyone from getting lost. I know I haven't done much in the way of sewing for the past month or so, but I'm aware of the cyclical nature of my interests and it's always better to let the lull happen. It's hard to work up the desire to make more heavy clothes in the middle of summer anyway. I have recently been informed, however, that the silver gown will be done by October. As this is news to me, I shall have to get my posterior in gear.
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Sock It To Me
I was scanning through the Web Gallery for the Durer self portrait with the black and white doublet, and I found this drawing. At first I didn't see anything very interesting, but then I saw the woman's feet. She's wearing what looks like a buttoned or pointed sock under her shoe. You can see from the other foot that her hose have no feet. It's not something I've seen before, but it seems like a fairly likely peasant innovation. If the feet of your hose wear out, why replace more than you have to?
category: /misc | permanent link

This Is The Last Time I'm Making This Dress, I Swear!
I woke up in the middle of the night last night and couldn't get back to sleep, so I got around to implementing this little bit of silliness. I am officially done making this dress now.
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Making A Point
I've been wanting to make some aiglettes for my points, but I wasn't happy with any of the points I had. I had some 1/8" ribbon that was too flimsy, and a lot of black cord that's really stiffer than I'd like. I didn't want to spend much money, so I decided to finally learn how to learn to use a lucet. I experimented with a lucet made from a pair of chopsticks duct taped to an old cordless phone battery with great success. I then made a rough lucet out of a piece of wood I had lying around. It's not pretty, but it does the job. I'll probably make a couple more so I can have a few different colors of cord in progress at the same time. I didn't want to go to the trouble of making cone-shaped aiglettes, both because I'm lazy and because they were really fancier than I wanted. I procured a piece of 1/8" brass tubing and cut off a few 1" lengths. After threading the points through, I crimped one end of the tubing to keep it from sliding back off. The end result can be seen here.
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A Flemish Working Baby
I've finally made some clothes for my daughter that actually fit! The skirts can be let out another six inches, tucks can be taken out of the smock, and panels and gores can be added in various places to keep up with her future growth. It's a tiny bit long still, but by the time she's actually walking it should fit about right, I hope. After taking these pictures I took off the bottom set of rings since they were sitting too low. You can see where one of them popped off already.
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Finished (mostly)
I finally got a chance to try on all the layers, and boy are they a lot of layers! Unfortunately, the fit of the doublet across the shoulders is not very good, as evidenced by the stress wrinkles in the first picture. I never expected the doublet to be worn fully closed much, but it would have been nice for it to fit well. The overall effect of the outfit was acceptable, though the multiple layers do add a lot of bulk. The doublet will probably only see use in the winter, but the kirtle can hold its own as an outer layer. I'd still like to make some rounder hoops, but that will probably be part of a later project. For now, except for a hat, this is pretty much the final garment.
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A Quick Update
I spent much of today patterning, cutting, tweaking, and finishing the first doublet sleeve. Hopefully I'll get the other one done tomorrow. I've got a picture of the final shape of the sleeve, but I'm too tired to upload it just now. As for materials, the striped white material I had planned to use turned out to be just a tiny scrap, so I had to switch gears. My fallback idea was to make sleeves out of the kirtle material, but I forgot that I'd used all of it up in the kirtle itself. I rooted around some more and found a medium weight green cotton (I assume) that is nearly identical to the rust fabric of the kirtle, and a close match to the color of the green wool guards. I used some leftover muslin bits as lining. I drafted the pattern with a gathered shoulder for maximum mobility. The original plan was for a tapered sleeve with a hook and eye closure at the wrist. As it turned out, the original pattern was about 6 inches too long (better too long than too short, I suppose), and the point where I cut it off was much wider than I had originally planned. Rather than take apart the seam and re-cut the taper, I gathered the end of the sleeve into a cuff and put a button on it. In hindsight, I'm glad I decided to complete the first sleeve before starting on the second. I kept the pieces that I cut out of the first sleeve (the trimmed sleeve end as well as a section cut out of the bottom curve of the sleevehead) and used them to make the same alterations to the second sleeve.
category: /middle | permanent link