Well...no weekend plans after all

My weekend plans fell through...sigh. I was so excited about them too.

I did have three very productive days leading up to today though. On Wednesday I cut up a herringbone blanket to make a viking apron dress and (machine) pieced it together. I was able to finish hemming and sewing on the straps on Thursday morning. Right now it's just waiting to dry so that I can take lots of pictures of it. I also made a sideless surcoat on Thursday. The fabric that I have as my background here is what I used to make it. Pictures of this will also be forthcoming when my tunic is finished drying.

Today I was going to keep with the great progress I've been making on my to-do list but I guess I was a little clouded over by the failed weekend plans and still having a little personal pity party. Also, the back of my shoulders are all knotted up and sore/tingly. I guess I have less than perfect sewing posture. If it hasn't worked itself out by tomorrow I'm going to seriously make like a cat and work it out on a door frame. Or I could go find myself a rough tree and work it out like a bear.

I promise I'll get some pictures put up here of my outfits soon.

I haven't forgotten you, my dear blog

I haven't posted here in nearly a month! sigh
I just haven't made much progress on any crafting. Reading, yes, but not crafting. I guess after reading only about  three books in the past four years before I moved here my brain was starved. I have been hitting the books hard,  even if they are mostly mysteries/romances. To be fair, there have been a good number of non-fiction books that I've poured through as well.

My linen tunic is almost ready to be hemmed, something I hope to do in the next few days so that I can wear it this weekend. Because this weekend will be my first event of the season! Good thing no one saw the happy dance I did when everything fell into place for this, I think I might have gone and crawled under a rock out of embarrassment if anyone had seen me.

I have so much to do before this weekend, as I haven't really touched my old to-do list. This afternoon I did hoof it over to a resale shop and pick up some nice baskets to carry my stuff in. One is a nice little one with a linen liner already made for it, this one will house my sewing and embellishing kit. The other one is a large round one with a striped cotton lining. I think the larger one is made out of bamboo, but it looks better than a nylon duffel bag at any rate.

As far as things that absolutely need doing before the weekend, I absolutely need to:

• Mend my wool over-tunic and check over my green cotton under-tunic
• Finish sewing the trim onto my cape and finish the bottom edge
• Mend my shoes
• Make a favor, perhaps a tablet woven band
• Make bread late Thursday or -early- Friday (I'm thinking of making a stuffed focaccia with fresh mozarella/parmesan/basil leaves, and perhaps a loaf of seeded rye as well. 
• Filter a bit of my cordial and find a bottle for it

And some things I want to get done but aren't completely necessary:

• Fashion a sideless surcoat out of my gold brocade
• Make new herringbone blanket into a viking apron dress
• Cut apart new silk pillowcases and make headcoverings from them
• Make one of my muslins or a white sheet into a plain chemise (possible a laced fitted layer, in lieu of a modern bra or gothic fitted dress
• Quickly machine sew my blue or green linen into an under-tunic to wear with the viking apron dress

I hate to think of machine sewing medieval clothing, but I'm short on time. I guess I can always pick out he machine stitches after this weekend and re-do the seams by hand. I just don't think my green cotton under-tunic will look alright with a viking apron dress, and my new oatmeal colored linen garment is too short for this fashion.Maybe I can even whip up a quick machine pieced gothic fitted dress?

This is what I mean by a gothic fitted dress:

I've found it!

Harmonica music that is palatable.
I absolutely loathe Harmonica music.
I was listening along to a nice playlist of Accordion music and then I heard it...What? What is that? Noooo...No way...That couldn't be...Wow..That there is a harmonica...Damn.

This has nothing to do with anything medieval, both the Accordion and Harmonica are 19th century instruments, but I just had to share this.

My under-tunic has decided to be Irish

I think my linen under-tunic has decided to masquerade as an Irish léine.At least an interpretation of a léine.

I've found pictures of this type of sleeve that people have been making a léine with:

Since my sleeves are much too long for my arms, I think the pleats will work great. 

I do feel a bit badly about making a garment without clear documentation. I'd hate to perpetuate a long line of unfounded conjectures. 

I think I'm going to go through with this, and my next wool purchase will be for a Shinrone Gown. The Shinrone gown is an extant wool gown found in an Irish bog near Shinrone, Co. Tipperary, in the 19th century. It has been dated to the latter part of the 16th century. It is currently held in Dublin at the National Museum of Ireland. 

 

So, my dear readers, have you any evidence that validates the pleating of léine sleeves? Would it be too much of an evil to wear this conjectured garment? 

Thankful for audio-books

My library card finally arrived last week! Yay! The best thing about this library is that they have an online collection of downloadable books and audio-books. Listening to audio-books makes the cutting and sewing go much quicker.
The french seams make the construction take so much longer. On my past garments I have always just used a running stitch and reinforced stressed areas with a backstitch. For this garment I have been using a running stitch for the first pass of the french seam and then backstitching when the seam is turned on itself. That, along with using a double strand of thread throughout, should make this garment pretty darn durable.
So far, I have both sleeves stitched, the shoulder seams finished, and one gore partially installed. I would like to have all four gore pieces stitched in tonight. This means I could be on to the side seams tomorrow! I'll be only left with hemming in no time!

The linen is cut!

I cut into the linen last night. (eek!) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the lessons I have learned from my muslins were all I needed to know.
I finally settled on making it a knee-length garment, in a men's style. It will have a rounded triangle neck, like that of the Skjoldehamn Tunic. I have made the triangle almost as wide as it is deep, so if I need to change the opening style to a keyhole, square, or rounded it is easy to accomplish at a later date. The sleeves will be uniform width along their length. I have left the sleeves too long for myself. Right now I am still debating whether to just turn back and tack down the excess length, or to leave them their full length and install a drawstring at the end. I decided to leave the length there at any rate, mostly so that this could be an actual men's garment someday. The triangles from along the sides of the fabric will form 4 gore pieces, while the triangles at the bottom of the fabric will form 4 more. The rectangle between the bottom of the dress and the gore triangles will be the sleeves.

No progress on the linen

I made up another muslin of the linen under-tunic last night.
Lets just say that there aren't any pictures.

I seriously thought I had more talent than this. I just keep making dumb mistakes, like not including enough ease for french seams. And trying to taper in the waist, without thinking about how I would fit it over my bust with no lacing opening. I think I just don't quite have enough fabric to do exactly what I want to do. Another half-yard and I'd have the perfect amount. I think I may just settle on making this a knee-length garment, in the style of men's tunics.

On another front,I have been researching more on the two Hans Holbein the Younger's paintings; "Lais of Corinth", and "Venus and Amor", painted 1524-1526.

HANS HOLBEIN - Venus and Amor, 1524

I have looked through countless databases of early 16th century portraits, but I have not been able to find very much evidence of this type of chest slashing. Holbein was visiting France during the time that these were painted. I was thinking perhaps he took inspiration from the clothing of the locality. I have found a different chest slashing in the portrait of Jeanne d'Halluin by Corneille de Lyon. She was a French Lady-in-Waiting to Catherine de Medici. 

CORNEILLE DE LYON - Jeanne d'Halluin, 1547-1557

I realize that both of the Holbein paintings are not actual portraits, and that they could very much have fantasy elements, but I would love to find contemporary evidence for this dress.

Does anyone know of any portraits that I could be missing?