chargirlgenius

I know. DUH.

(  The Lower Sleeve )

It’s coming down to the wire. I’m taking this afternoon off to finish some stuff up. I haven’t even had a chance to put together any of my own accessories, iron veils, make sure what I’m wearing fits, etc.

I’m really glad that I put together several layers of tunics/gowns of various weights for the boys. They’re calling for a high of 76 and SUNNY at Jamestown. At Mud Through the Ages! Unheard of!

Note to self. Pack sunblock.

Left to do on the doublet:

-Finish making the points. They’re pretty ugly, but the method is nifty and I like it. I got it out of tashadandelion’s doublet pattern, and she says that it’s the historical method. At this point, I’m taking her word on it, though I want to go find the reference later… because it’s nifty.
Half done-Sew in the points
Mostly done-Overstitch the machined eyelets on Jeff’s hose
-Two more eyelets at the neck
-A couple more eyelets at the bottom (lower priority)
-Eyelets at the wrists
-Aglets on the points (just the ones for the wrist and front of the hose, not the ones sewn in the doublet.
-Finish one more point (half started) for holding the front of the hosen together.
-Quilting in the blank spaces, especially the line that I missed at the elbow. - Good enough for now
-Padding the chest (we got it fit last night, now Jeff is going to just sew the layers together and maybe make a casing for them.

CRAP! I have to make points and sew them into the civilian CdB doublet, if he wants to wear that at all. Maybe if I can find a brass needle, I can take that along and have that be my in-camp sewing project. Daughter-in-law Margery needs to have something to do with her hands. They could be for her father-in-law, not the gonner, of course.

Did this list get longer, or is it just my imagination?

NOOOOOO! I'm going to lose an hour of sewing time!

In the interest of time, I'm going to post a text only update of what I've done and what I think has yet to be done. I really want to post pics of how a bottle of amaretto can help with quilting sleeves, but that'll have to come later.

Earlier this week:

-Cut, quilted, and sewed lower sleeves into a tube
-Attached left lower sleeve to left upper sleeve

A note on the lower sleeves - the original was buttoned from the wrist up to the elbow. Since this will go under armor, it needs to be laced. But the lacing is functional, and I don't want to do a bajillion eyelets, so the wrist is only open a third of the way up the lower arm. It'll only be about 5 eyelets on each side, or 20 eyelets total. If I *really* need to, I could just sew it closed day of, but I'm not sure if that would be appropriate.

Yesterday:

-Tried the body section on Jeff, and laced it up. Despite a 4" gap when it was just shrugged on, it fit perfectly! You cannot imagine my relief.
-Attached right lower sleeve to right upper sleeve
-Finished inside seams at that joint on both sleeves
-Finished inside seams on the lower sleeves
-Finished edge of cuff and wrist opening on lower sleeves
-Cut and inserted additional padding layers for the top of shoulder sections (2 additional layers of linen, 1 additional layer of cotton batting)
-Filled in all remaining quilting on the lower sleeve, and on the upper sleeve where the additional shoulder padding is
-Bound neckline with silk facing, and stab stitched around the edge so it'd lay relatively flat
-Started finishing inside side seams, now that I know it fits. I flat lined that part, which means I did one seam with the lining and the hemp outer fabric, so that it's more adjustable later on down the line. But when it came time to flat fell it down, I realized I didn't really have enough seam allowance to do that with such thick fabric. So, I'm sewing a strip of silk to one side, and will bind the seams down with that. There will be pictures.

Left to do:
-Finish binding the side seams
-Finish the bottom slit and hem
-Attach the sleeves to the body
-Finish the seams where the sleeves hit the body
in progress-Finish quilting all over (I left an inch unquilted at any seam for adjustment, and so I didn't snap the quilting line when making eyelets)
-20 eyelets at the wrists
-braid hemp laces for the wrists. Armor will rub on that, so no silk there
-Pad the chest (I prefer padding separate, so I'm not messing with seams, worrying about the eyelets getting in the way, etc.) Jeff can help with that.
-Insert points so his hosen don't fall down
-Aglets for all points and laces. Jeff can help with that.

I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff. I'll add as I think of it, so I remember!

You know the first thing that he's going to do to it? He's going to put a maille shirt on over the doublet. A filthy maille shirt. I knew this. It will look awesome but it'll also make me want to cry.

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 )

Jeff’s arming cote is going to be pretty thick. This was protection in addition to his regular armor, so that layers of linen provide some protection. I’m also supplementing with a layer of cotton batting, or “cotton wool”, as it seems to have been referred to in period.

The visible lining layer is a beautiful, heavy but drapey, beige linen. The inner layers matter a little less, so I’m using what I have laying around. The second layer on both the inside and the outside has to be solid, though, so a pattern doesn’t show through to the visible layers. Funny thing is that I’ve been using wool instead of linen for so long I don’t have all that much in the way of trash linen.

Layers will be as follows, from inside to out:

Heavy beige linen
Lightweight navy linen
Black and white stripe linen (I think it’s the same stuff that fabrics-store.com carries. I’m guessing around 7oz?)
1 layer Cotton batting
Black and white stripe linen
Mustard 5.3 oz linen (which I like, but is my least favorite of the few solid color linens I have)
Sand colored 12 oz hemp twill.

That’s a LOT of ironing. I ironed a few pieces of linen last night, and cut out two of the layers for the body pieces.

It works out to be about 1/4 inch thick, which means that the outer layer needs to be just a bit bigger than the inner lining. The trickiest part of this garment is going to be cutting to accommodate various layers of padding, and applying that padding.

( nattering about padding )

Quilting is going to be interesting. I’m hoping to start quilting the butt piece soon. I was thinking of sewing a temporary quilting stitch in with the industrial machine. That’ll punch all of the holes that I need, and make it easier to go back and do that hand stitching. Whether or not I have time to mess with the industrial this week is another question. :-)

Oops. I had this all written last night and forgot to post it.

I did a first round of fitting Jeff for the arming cote. Since I couldn't find my pattern pieces from before, and I want to change up the arms anyway, I started from scratch. But cheating. Since he has a doublet (I tend to use a lot of these terms interchangeably) I didn't want to completely lose what I'd done on that, in terms of seam placement, etc. So I fit him over it.

This should be interesting, because now that I have the body panels fit, I evened out the sides, sewed it up, and now I'll put it on him for tweaking, and to put the sleeves in. I'll be able to see what the difference is between fitting over his current doublet, and how the first layer next to his skin should fit. I wonder how big the size difference will be?

That fitting wasn't particularly exciting, but it did illustrate a point that I like to bring up when teaching fitting and sleeve classes. Fabric will tell you where the seams should be. This can be used to fit armscyes, but is particularly apparent in this garment.

The original CdB pourpoint has a seam across the waist on the back. This seam is essential to get the smooth fit on this back panel. You can get away without a waist seam on a four panel garment, if you have a seam down the back to fit over the rise of the rear-end.

( Fabric talks to me (pictures of Jeff's butt under the cut) )

See! Fitting is intuitive!