September 27, 2010

Maroon Elizabethan Dress Diary part 2

Confined myself to the craft lair yesterday and bound the amscyes, hand stitched layer 1 of the trim, & sewed up the pair of tie on sleeves for the Elizabethan. The bias cut sleeves and lining gave me fits because the linen lining is streching too much and poofing out top and bottom of the sleeves.
Movies watched: disc... 2-directors cut of Kingdom of Heaven, then Ever After and Knights Tale were on TV. Excellent!

Can anyone identify the source?

The only information I have for this picture is "Ringerike style Dragon from illuminated manuscript 11th century CE, England"

Can anyone help locate the exact source? I checked through a few of the English online manuscript databases, and can't locate the MSS source for this image.

September 24, 2010

Maroon Dress Diary-part 1

Sewed the Elizabethan bodice last night, but the front closure is not laying as flat as I want. I am using heavy duty hook and eye tape to close. (See below) Its just basted on now, so it can be fixed. Hints? Other options for front closure? Will it lay flatter when I use smaller more sturdy stiches?

Jumbo Hook & Eye- Black/Nickle :: Jumbo Hook & Eye :: Hook & Loop

I am inserting it on the Underside...its not meant to be visible. But I am still getting slight gappage where the two sides of the dress meet.

Saturday:I beat it into submission....and I think it turned out ok! I just needed to yank that corset a little tighter, and also the loose basting stiches werent helping. Heres to 2 rows of machine stiching on the tape edge and then another hand sewn seam on the hook side.

September 16, 2010

Italian thoughts & 2 months of Crafting Time

Looking at my SCA calendar, it looks like I have no Event related deadlines until November! That means I can retreat to my craft lair--or pit of despair depending on how messy it is :)


I have a wool middle class Elizabethan that was cut out last winter. But then the summer came with award scrolls, the Great Pennsic Royal Garb Project, gift basket projects, and other things that took more priority. When I start putting the Burgandy 'Bethan together, (shortly I hope) I will show you my progress.


I have also been knocking around the idea of doing some sort of Flemish or Italian peaseant-esque kitchen dress. I will be co feast-o-crat for the first time for 12th night, and it could be something I can wear. I have the linen for a nice Flemish stocked, but I actually dont think I would like the chance getting that stained.


So I will turn to my fabric stash, and see what mystery fabric is really there (But that means I hafta clean the attic, WAH!) to see if there is someting suitable for a different garb experiment.

I think i want to try an Italian. The paintings of Vincenzo Campi were the first place i started, but I am not sure I really want that late of a style. For some reason, I think the ruffled blouse seems to fussy, and the dresses have too many doo-dads and poofs to be good in the kitchen. See:
http://www.festiveattyre.com/research/wkclass/portfolio.html

I think I want something a bit sleeker. So I found this very interesting set of pictures from the same site, but from about 100 years earlier, around 1475.


I kind of like the chemise peeking out of the sleeve gaps. I think I would go with a cap and side lacing like in picture A.
But what about the chemise? I will have to do some more research on it because this set of instructions
http://www.festiveattyre.com/research/diary/diary3.html
seems to be for a later period-more poofier chemise-and not the slim fitting ones shown in the pictures above.