For The Record
In the interest of full disclosure, I just wanted to mention that the farthingale was sewn on the machine. Anything that experimental is bound to get screwed up somehow, and I didn't want to waste a whole lot of hand-sewing time on it if it did. On a less confessional note, I should say something about the ropes I used for hoops. I had a hem measurement of 108", and a ballpark waist of 40". With six tucks in between, the math was fortuitously simple: 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 inches for each of the intermediate ropes. I added 4" for overlap on the ends. Each rope is made of three twisted strands, so I spliced them by cutting four inches of one strand from one end and two strands from the other. Then I twisted the two ends back together and wrapped the splice in duct tape. I could have used some better binding method, but tape was quick and will be hidden completely, so I don't feel bad about it. If I do this again I may try another method.
category: /middle | permanent link

Kirtle Again
I put the hooks on the kirtle. It's still a little gappy at the waist, but I don't think there's much else I can do except let out the back seams. I'm not going to worry about it. I managed to finish the farthingale, and it definitely improves the line of the skirt. It's got some issues of its own, though. It's easiest to see in the picture of the farthingale itself: there are a few big waves in the hoops. If anyone knows of a good way to get rid of them, let me know. For now, I've got the whole thing hanging up from a hook. Maybe gravity will do the trick. Next on the list is drafting the doublet pattern.
category: /middle | permanent link

Kirtle
The kirtle is done except for the hooks in the front. The "chemise" in these pictures is actually a shirt of mine that is obviously in need of repair. There's a gathered skirt underneath to act as a petticoat, which gives the pleated kirtle a little more fullness at the hips. I'll probably add hooks to the slit in the skirt as well. I'm not very happy with the visible corset straps; I'm contemplating just cutting them off. They don't really do a whole lot. I'll probably try just narrowing them first. Once I get the hooks put on, I'll do another fitting and try to fit the doublet. I'll draft a pattern and see how close I get the first time. The more I look at these pictures, the more I want to try making some sort of farthingale to give the skirt some shape. I've never really done it, and I think it would help the final look a lot.
category: /middle | permanent link

Farthingale
I got started on the forthingale this morning. I started with the old drawstring skirt that I'd been using under the kirtle. It's a simple rectangle, which will make laying out the tucks for the hoops very simple. The shape will add more bulk at the top, but that's something I'm looking for anyway. Fortunately, the hem of the skirt is exactly the right width/ The original skirt was only 36" long, and I'm looking for about 39" of total length. I added a 12" strip to the hem, which should give me enough length to work with even after I make all the tucks. I'm using 3/8" sisal rope for the hoops, and a 3/4" tuck seems to be just right to hold it. I should be able to put 6 total tucks in and make the length just right. I put the bottom rope in already, and even with just that it stands out all around.
category: /middle | permanent link

A Good Start
I spent most of yesterday at a little sewing circle with folks from the old barony. I cut and test-fitted the pieces for the bodice in the morning before I left home, and whiled away the afternoon socializing and stitching it together. I got it all finished except for connecting the straps, and even got a chance to work on a few buttons for the doublet. Not a bad day's work. My fingers are slowly remembering how to sew again. Today I'll go ahead and connect the bodice straps and work on the guards. I may go ahead and put the skirt together if I have time, but I'm not terribly concerned about that yet.
category: /middle | permanent link

Color Change
Somehow, between looking through piles of fabric downstairs and coming up to the computer, my mental image of the color got thrown pretty far off. The new sketch has the actual material scanned and color corrected as best I can. The green is also closer to the correct color, and the doublet has the slightly grey cast added. Now that I look at it, I think I like this color better than the original sketch anyway.
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Guards
I got the guards sewn on today, after getting the straps in place. I've never put guards on a bodice before, and I'm quite pleased with it. Using the wool made it very easy, as I didn't have to finish any edges and could just cut it willy-nilly into the correct shape. I'll post pictures the next time I get a chance to put it on the model. Next: the skirt.
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The Plan
Okay, so here's the sketch. I may go back and swap the colors for actual fabric scans, but this is pretty close. The kirtle is a medium weight peachy-orange cotton. There's nothing particularly spectacular about it. The front opening will close with hooks and eyes, and the guards will be easy-to-deal-with green fulled wool. The skirt will be cartridge pleated to the bodice, with either a gathered petticoat or a rope-hoop farthingale underneath. I'll try it with petticoats first since there are several old gathered skirts lying around with nothing to do. I may have to add some lacing holes to the corset to keep the petticoat up. The doublet will be the same white cotton velveteen that I used for my tailor doublet, though I don't plan to pink it. Tabs at the waist and shoulders, narrow sleeves, nothing real wild. The doublet will eventually close with thread-wrapped buttons, but I may put more mundane ones on to start with. The hat will be more of the green wool, with a good stiff brim. One of the nice things about this outfit is that, even though it's three layers, it's all front closing so she will be able to get in and out unassisted.
category: /middle | permanent link

A New Project
The silver gown fell victim to a lapse in productivity. Fortunately, I didn't really get started on the gown itself before it got shelved. The corset, however, did get completed, which will put me ahead of the game for this project. The basic concept is a middle class English kirtle and doublet, much like this one, at least in basic layering. I've got an initial plan material-wise, but I want to run it by the wife first. A sketch will be forthcoming.
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The Mysterious Pleats
For a long time, I've been interested in the 15th century Italian style. The doublet and hose are similar to contemporary styles in the rest of Europe. One of the distinctively Italian garments of the time is the giornea, a sideless tabard-like garment usually shown with rows of carefully arranged pleats. A good example is this fresco by Francesco del Cossa around 1480. There is some pictorial evidence of the pleats being held in place by tacking them to tapes at intervals down the length of the pleats. This was part of the technique I used in my reconstruction. Looking at the shape of the pleats where they attach to the yoke, they appear to be cartridge pleats. There is often no distinct seam line shown at the junction of the pleated section and the yoke, but I can see no physical way to build the garment with no seam at this point. Looking at the width of the pleats at the hem, the pleated section must be cut wider at the bottom than the top. I have tried constructing this section as a half circle with no pleats at all where it attaches to the yoke. While this creates a pleasing amount of fullness, the folds at the seam are not the right shape, and the pleats at the bottom are much larger than they should be. The pleats are also quite uncontrolled, and even when folds are marked and tacked to tapes, they refuse to behave properly. In my most recent version, I have greatly reduced the flare of this section, with the bottom edge being only twice the length of the top. Another major problem is how to control the pleats along their length. If you simply pleat the fabric onto the bottom edge of the yoke and attempt to control the pleats with tapes, they will tend to wander between tapes, folding as they will according to the grain of the fabric. While there are some examples of giorneas that seem to simply be composed of perfectly falling folds, those in the fresco above and many other contemporary images are shown as packed rows of round pleats, with a sharp line between each fold. To recreate this look, I decided to sew along the valley of each pleat, creating a series of pinch pleats or organ pleats. To further augment the roundness of the pleats, I padded the entire garment with about 1/4" of quilt batting. Here are some pictures. The camera and lighting aren't the best, so please excuse the quality. A cross section of a test section, showing the shape of the pleats and the padding between the layers Cartridge pleats at the yoke The inside of the front of the giornea, showing the tapes holding the pleats in place Front view Side view Back view While some giorneas are shown belted in the front and not in the back, I'm not happy with the way the back of this one hangs when unbelted. I may make one in the future with a pleated front and unpleated back that is meant to be left unbelted.
category: /giornea | permanent link