Apprentice

I have become an apprentice to Mistress/Baroness Nest verch Tangwistel.  She will guide me in my studies, and help me in my research.  She has studied both Clothing and Embrodiery, so she is the perfect Mistress to work with.  I was presented with my Green Apprentice belt at the Ice Weasel event.  I had prepared the belt for presentation by adding the Celtic Conchos and spots to the belt.  That was my first leather work, although Bob had to punch many of the spots, as my hand were not strong enough to punch them thru. 

I promised pictures

There are a few items I still plan on doing to this gown.  The puffed sleeves do not "puff" enough for me.  I plan on making strips of gathered ilusion and stuff them thru the supports into the gathered section.  This should fill them out.  Also in the Portrait there shows some type of ribbon and bead along the outside seam edge of the velvet sleeves.  I will add these also.  I also plan on making a fake gathered sleeve end to make it appear there is a chemise underneath.  Since there are already two layers of dress, a third will make this too warm for me to wear, so a little faking is needed.

Catch up time

I realize it has been sometime since I've posted.  Life happens.  A sad occurance came into my life.  My beautiful Niece died suddenly.  She was only 32 yrs old.  She was so full of life & talented.  She took on life with happiness.  She will be sorely missed.  Too my end, I was in Kentucky with family for two weeks.  When I returned I needed time to get my life back in order.  This put my plans to have the dress done by the SCA event BIRKA on hold.  I was home in time to be able to go to the event and enjoy myself.

I completed the dress by the Ice Weasel event.  The skirt needed to be attached to the Bodice.  I gathered the skirt with 1 inch Cartridge pleats.  I then sewed each pleat directly to the top.  While gathering and attaching I came to the realization that  when you pull the cords the pleat forms with the thread in the middle, not the bottom.  So when measuring and starting the pleating you must figure an additional 1/2 inch (for the 1 inch pleats) from your starting place.  This may sound confusing, but I understand.  I had some problem at the start and end.  I had to detach and resew the ending because the spacing was incorrect. 
Once the skirt was attached, the hem was done with a 1 1/2 inch turned hem.  I know this is not period, but I turned the hem at the ironing board with Stitch Witch.  The Poly Taffeta was extremely slippery, and I could not turn and pin 8 yards of hem.  I used the SW for holding purposes.  I then hand sewed the hem, as I know that the SW will not hold.  But this did stiffen the hem, and allowed me to stitch the hem evenly  and without pins.
The Parlett was made using a very fine illusion material.  This material gives the sheerness needed, but is &$%#@ stuff to work on.  After cutting and fitting the ilusion material, to prevent edge shredding I bound the outside edges in Double Fold Bias tape.  This fit nicely around the raw edge and gave stability to the Partlett.  I could not double fold the edges of the ilusion.  It will not take a pressed fold.  And being a time factor, I did not have the time to delicatly sew the edge down.  And it kept shredding.  So this was a great solution. 
A crisscross of Trim was sewed on top of the ilusion.  The trim was a light gold sheer trim, with regular diamonds.  I layed out the pattern (many pinnings)  and sewed it down.  I had barely enough trim.  I actually went back to Loraine Fabrics in Pawt.  to see If I could find more.  Both Bob and I searched thru the hugh trim section in hopes of find another yard or two.  I purchased five, and failed to follow my own rules.  "YOU CAN NEVER BUY ENOUGH TRIM"  or "BUY IT ALL".  I managed to place the trim to cover the exposed section, but would have liked more to cover to the edges, so if the parlett puffs out, the trim ends do not show.  Next Partlett will be better.  You learn from every attempt.  I them attached a collar to the partlett.  I wanted the neck to be very open, so the Pearl necklace would show.  I cut the collar 2 inches shorter in width.  Since I was out of trim, I used a gold China time which complemented the sheer trim.  This I sewed to outline the top edges of the collar, and then across the neckline and down the front.  The front edge was to seal that edge from shredding, and for appearence.  This worked fine.  I then sewed a 8mm pearl at each crossing of the sheer trim.  I debated between 6mm and 8mm pearls.  The 6mm fit nicely into the diamon of the trim, the mm popped out but looked more like the Partlett of Eleanor of Toledo.  So I went with the Larger Pearl, and it looked good. 

I will post pictures of the finished pieces next.

I presented the dress at the Tailor Guild panel at the SCA Ice Weasel event.  It was very well received.  This dress was not the dress decided upon as my Master Work, thus I was not given my Master.  This I knew when making this dress, that it was not "the" Dress.  This was done as a Predress.  I wanted to work out some fitting and making problems.  This dress presented the following challenges to me.  1)How to do the back side lacing and fitting.  The pattern base I used, was period.  There is no side seam, as Modern pattern have.  This made fitting difficult on me.  2) How to do the sleeve Gathers.  I built a support structure into the sleeves to hold the gathers.   3) How to do the Undersleeve.  The first sleeves I made had a full undersleeve.  Though this worked, Did not give the look I wanted as the bottom required a seperate band to gather on.   So I followed the suggestion in Reconstructing History pattern, and sewed just a seperate piece -velvet - to the gathered section.  4) Dress over dress.  I had to cut the overdress slightly larger so it would fit over the underdress.  Figuring out all the differences was difficult.  The neckline had to be hand cut after, as this was not to be larger, but wider.
5) Hand sewed button holes.  The underdress was lined in a heavy cotton broadcloth.  This does not "give" when the awl goes thru, and was hard to sew.  The same was true of the Poly Taffeta.  The lacing holes are small as a result and hard to lace.  I made extra long lacings, but will always need assistance getting into and out of this dress. 

I plan on stuffing the top of the dress sleeves with pieces of gathered ilusion.  The sleeves look flat, even though they are gathered.  This should puff them out as they appear in the Portrait.
Overall I am satified with the dress.

Currently I am working on my other major project.  I am now sewing 300+ Paillettes onto the finished embroidery.  I finally found a way of getting the Paillettes.  After several attempts, I located the Krenik paillettes.  You need to order them thru the internet to a local shop.  There is a vendor in Walpole - Hoops and Needles on Rt 27 (in downtown) who can do this.  I ordered 10 grams of size 12, but they sent me size 14.  These are only a .01mm diffence in size, and I can barely tell the difference.  I had already sewed the 12's onto the coif, but had stretched these out.  I will fill in that section with 14 and I think that will cause the overall look to blend.  You would need to get REAL close to tell the difference.
This may be done by the March event. 

I am planning on my next works.  I had promised Bob a outfit.  This is to be a Henry VIII coat w/fur collar and Knee length doublet(s).  Having a problem finding the "right" material to go with the coat material for the doulet.  I had found this wonderful brown fabric with a gold pattern featuring leaping dear and other hunting/animals for the coat.  Doing a brown "fur" collar.  It is a strange shade of brown/gold.  I would like to do an offwhite/cream doublet with some gold in it.  This fabric so far aludes me.   Oh dear, I will have to go fabric shopping. :-)

I then will do the Tailor Guild master work.  As there will most like not be another meeting soon, I have plenty of time.