chargirlgenius

I have lots of pictures to eventually post about putting together the upper and lower sleeves of Jeff's arming doublet. But I'm pinning the upper and lower sleeves together tonight, and realized something about the order I did it in.

I cut and sewed the upper sleeve, plus all of it's requisite pieces. I quilted it all in one, and sewed it into the tube/funnel.

After finishing that (to the 90% point) I cut, sewed, and quilted the lower sleeve.

If you hate setting in sleeves, don't do it this way! Now, I have to set the lower sleeves into the upper sleeve, and then the whole sleeve into the garment. It took me forEVer to pin.

Instead, I should have not sewn it into the tube first. But rather, attached the top to the bottom, and THEN sewed the whole thing into a tube.

So there you go. Because I'm sure that everybody is going to run out and sew CdB style sleeves next week. :-D

No time to post pictures of the arming doublet, and I haven't made all that much progress to make it interesting. The upper sleeves are all sewn together, and the other night I cut and fit all of the innards, the padding pieces in there. That was tedious. Now, I'm debating on whether I sew the sleeve into a tube before I quilt or the other way around. The layers will shift once it's a tube, so that would make me want to sew before I quilt. But quilting and marking quilting will be a lot easier when it's still flat, so that would make me want to quilt first. At this moment, I'm leaning towards marking the lines, but not actually quilting it until I sew it into the tube.

I wish I was further along. I think I can get this done, but it'll be tight. I really wish I had time to make little fur-lined caps for the boys before Jamestown!

But, the last two days, I haven't been making progress on the doublet. Instead, I cut and am still in the process of putting together a boy G63 and four tunics. Two of the tunics are lightweight wool, and two are in a somewhat warmer flannel, as I'd like them to have the option of wearing layers. I went with rather higher class colors for them, so as to distinguish the "Peelings" (the Peel grandkids) as higher class. I wish I could do more with fur for them, like I did for 15th century last year, but the purfell doesn't tend to be as deep in this century. More research necessary.

The G63 and two of the tunics are completely assembled, and just need finishing work. The other two tunics have the neckline done, which is most of the work. The neckline is MUCH easier to finish completely when the garment is still flat, before it's been sewn together. So there was a little extra hand-sewing there.

Now, sleep.

The doublet has eaten me – I’ve had no computer time or time for anything else! I’m at work, so I’ll keep this really brief. I continued the quilting last night. After finishing up the butt portion, I had to mark the quilting lines on the back torso. I drew with the chalk on the inside, but again, I really need to work from the outside to keep the lines straight. I figured I’d do what I did the other night, run it through the machine, but without the thread.

Maybe I need a bigger needle, but just running it through the machine without the thread doesn’t really leave holes for marking. Others might have better luck with this, but I probably just don’t keep big enough needles around.

Instead, I set it at the biggest stitch possible, and messed with my tension so that the thread on one side was essentially flat. That makes it a lot easier to pull out.

Some people asked about sewing the seams on a quilted/padded piece. I’ve been cutting the padding away from the seam allowance to do that. I’ve sketched up a quick diagram – let me know if it doesn’t make sense.

( diagram under the cut )

You may recall several weeks ago I asked if it was better to use a period technique to piece fabric, or to use the period widths while piecing. Now that the project is finished and passed to its owner, I can talk about why I was asking that question!

I volunteered to make a pelican cloak for baronessadriana, who was inducted into the order this weekend at Ymir. Congratulations! Well deserved. I've never done embroidery, and there wasn't any real way for me to get it to somebody in time to do some embroidery, so I wanted to go all out on construction and other details.

ETA - the goal was also ultimate accuracy, wherever possible, and I couldn't figure out a good way to do it on a 14th c. cloak without peppering the whole thing. Maybe down the openings? Ideas?

The most fun part about this whole process? Working on the handstitching in her living room, while she admired the color. :-D

( Photo heavy, below the fold )

As you may recall, sometime *ahem* before the holidays I started fitting Jeff for another Charles de Blois pourpoint. And when I say "before holidays", maybe I'm referring to Halloween. Maybe even Columbus Day.

I got the body pieces fitted on him, but I left the sleeves for later. And if you know anything about that garment, you'll know that the sleeves are the interesting part. They're also the part that needed the most change from the last time I did this.

Why yes, I am just posting links to other posts with pictures, because I was an idiot and didn't take pictures this time. Duh.

So tonight, I fit the sleeve. I started by drawing the lines on his body about where I wanted them, based on where the original was, on where his shoulder was, and a line about equidistant from that circumference. I tried keeping the sleeve opening a bit less deep than I had it last time, so it more closely matched the original.

For the sleeve itself, I started by cutting something close to what would fit on his upper arm (at the bottom, that just extended into a straight, wide-ish head. It was all getting cut anyway. For reference, look at the link up top, and I just cut what I thought would be the flat part of the sleeve, if it weren't cut into two pieces.

I wrapped it around his arm, cutting the gore slits as I went. When I got to the back, it was going alright, but I wasn't entirely happy with the fit, or how I would finish it off. The first round of fitting usually gets me a really loose sleeve around the shoulder, but then I keep pulling it in more closely until it's a pretty decent fit. This didn't look like it would work out well.

I started looking at the original a little more, and noticed that the top part of the sleeve actually had two main parts (in addition to the gores). It was split, and this time I looked more closely and realized that there was tailoring along that seam.

I cut the underarm gore narrower, like in the original, cut up the underarm slit all the way to the elbow, and repinned it all.

Lo and behold, it worked *much* better. So here's the lesson. At first glance, it looks like a big complex nasty thing. But in the end, there's only one piece to the original that I didn't cut separately. I'll only have one less seam than the original. Huh. Go figure.

I'll have to talk about padding and such tomorrow. I'm exhausted and freezing. Whee!

Can anybody recommend a decent, cheap, sewing machine? Something that will do the job, but doesn't have to do your laundry and make coffee too? I'm asking for a friend, but I know if I were looking, I'd want straight, zig zag, and auto buttonhole. I'm happy with my Kenmore, but it's the only one I've ever had, and it was over $200, I think.

As people are posting Tournament of the Lily clothing plans, I'm reminded that I should get cracking on my class about V-neck gowns for KWCS. If the class notes are done ahead of time, should I post them early, so that people have more time before November?

Also, a quick note to newer sewers... I do have the construction page up, with everything from fitting, transferring the pattern to paper, all the way to eyelets and hand finishing, here:

http://www.mathildegirlgenius.com/FittingAndConstruction.htm

The class will cover specifics for the V-neck gown.

I started planning Jeff's 14th century arming cote the other night, and was wishing like crazy that I'd taken notes the last time around.

( So I will this time. At least until I forget to keep writing or fall too far behind. )

Hm. Need a new icon for this project.

The weather report yesterday threatened rain for this morning, but instead it was in the lower 60s and just cloudy. Perfect biking weather.

Even though Henry popped out of bed before us, we were still late getting out. I'd been hoping to get out of the house by 7:15. Hahahaha! We made it to the Bike to Work Day pit stop at about 8am. My two coworkers had left there by 7:45, well ahead of me.

( I rode 11 miles in, the first part flat, and only a few big hills at the end. I was tired, but it was no worse than my normal 7 hilly miles. )

According to the calculator at the Arlington's Car Free Diet* link that I posted yesterday, if I ride to work 3 days a week, I'll save ~20 dollars a week, emit 39 lbs less of CO2 per week, and burn 2,200 calories more a week. Nifty! 3 days a week will be very doable some weeks, impossible others.

*This isn't a human dieting site. This is a site about Arlington residents trying to wean themselves off of cars. I am not on a diet.

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In other news, last night we pulled up staples in my closet floor. Tonight, I prime. Sunday, paint two coats. No trim - yay! We bought the wood floor so it can start to acclimate to the house.

Afterwards, I plopped down on the couch and sewed six buttonholes on the green silk gown. I'm doing buttonholes instead of eyelets, so I can cut the fabric instead of making the holes which will muck up the whole front of the dress.

We’re hosting sewing/woodshop/A&S project day this Sunday, starting at 1pm. If you wish to come over earlier, there will be people home, so that’s ok. Our house is located roughly between Indian Head and La Plata, MD. Please let me know if you need directions, and I’ll send them to you via a PM.

As usual, folks can stick around for supper. It’s usually simple, pizza or crock pot fare. If you do plan on staying, please bring a snack or side to share.

I’ve sent this to Dun Carraig and Ponte Alto, but my Storvik message bounced. Feel free to forward to interested local parties.

Last time around we had some folks who had never seen Blackadder, so I think that’s on the docket for movie watching.

Please let me know if you’re coming, so I can plan enough food! Thanks!

FYI - two weeks from now will be cancelled, due to a reenactment that we'll be attending. But we'll try to otherwise keep it regular.