Vigil Dress - 14th Century Striped Cotehardie

 As in my previous post, there are a couple inspiration dresses for my vigil Cotehardie.  My heraldry is also playing a major part in the design of my dress.

 

With these details in mind, the design started to take shape.  One side is going to be green and white linen stripes and the other side is to be green linen stamped with thistles.

There is no source for already striped linen in the widths that I'd want so my friend Amy and I made striped fabric.  The widths were set at 4" so the final product has stripes of 3" since a half inch is taken off at each side.  We started with just individual strips of green and white and started combining them to make 4 yards of fabric. Since I was planning on doing angled stripes, I knew I needed 4-5 yards of fabric for the pattern that I used.  This was absolutely the most mind numbing, tedious part of the whole project.

The next step was to cut out the half of the dress that was going to have the angled stripes.  Christy, who is an amazing costumer, came over to help with the cutting and putting together that side of the dress.

Cutting out the pieces was the hardest part ensuring that each piece had the angles correct.  Once the very first piece was cut out, that established the angles for the rest.  We time we cut, we would lay the previous piece on the fabric to get the angle right and then cut it out against the pattern. 

We got all the pieces cut out (only making a mistake on one piece that required a recut. Score!) and got the gores cut out and sewn in except the tops. We needed to let the dress hang a bit before hand sewing the gores in to ensure that the angles were correct.  Christy was able to get the side seam to match perfectly which is totally witchcraft.  

Peerage Vigil and Ceremony Dresses

 In December, I was invited to join the Order of the Pelican and needed to make dresses.  I’ve been taking so many pictures so needed to resurrect my blog to capture the process.

My favorite time period for dress is the later part of the 14th  and 15th Century so I decided that I wanted a Cotehardie for my Vigil and a Surcoat for my Ceremony.  Originally I was thinking of just doing a party colored cotehardie with my device stamped on both sides in alternating colors and then I met with Christy for design discussions and came away with ideas for some major drama.  This is a lot of effort, but these dresses will be worth it. 

Inspiration dresses:

This is the inspiration for the Ceremony dress.  These are from The Cloisters Playing Cards from 1475-80.

And the vigil dress inspiration:  Speculum Humanae Salvationis, Westfalen oder Köln, um 1360.

The next posts will be able out the dresses and the process for the construction.  I luckily have the base patterns completed as I have these dresses before, just not to this level of design

Not going to Gulf Wars but have more projects

So We aren't going to Gulf Wars this year but that does not mean that I can stop with the projects.  Lately I've fallen in love with the look of the slashed and pinked doublets so I've started making some plans to get some made.  I have black velvet for a jerkin, white cotton doublet, gold and black brocade doublet, and possible a red with gold leafing doublet if I have enough fabric.  This weekend I took the plunge and pinked and slashed the white cotton doublet.  I've got the pieces all sewn together, just need to decide on the doublet skirt and sew the lining in.  Below is a picture of the sleeve as I pinked it and slashed it.  For the pinking I used a basic awl and for the slashing I used a wood chisel to cut the fabric cleanly in one strike.  We'll see how well it holds up without fraying.

Clearer Project list

Now that I have a little bit of a clearer head after getting home this weekend.  I thought I'd make my future project list a bit more clear for my sake.

Collwyn:
New Red Pants (current ones don't fit right and are just one layer of linen)
Fancy Blue stripe pants
2nd pair of black linen pants
2 more fighting shirts (get pattern measurements from Rhiannon)

Brenna:
Bliant (need to figure out what colors, embroidery?, etc)
German underdress
Green linen cotehardie
Fancy cotehardie (teal wool or persian coat fabric?)

Ainsley:
Additional underdress

Misc (need to learn how):
German Hat
Coifs
Utensil bag
mug bags
Bin covers (before BAM)
Hanging bag cover (Before BAM)

I'm sure I'll be adding to this as I go

Home from Gulf Wars!

Had a fantastic week and was thankful to get all the sewing done before we went.  I need to take pictures of the German dress completed, but it needs some changes before it's perfect.  I now have a list of things I need to do to get ready for next year.

I need at least 2 more linen cotehardies since it's hot during the day and those are very nice looking and comfortable.  I think I'll make one with short sleeves and lacing just to be different.  I also would like to make a kiten (Sp?) for the really hot blazing days.  I'll be visiting with Isabeau sometime this year to work on a bliant since she has a fantastic pattern already.  After that I should be better prepared for next year.

Also I realized that I really need to repair what we have so that we stop blowing out buttons and seams.  The man has to have more pants that fit right so that he is more comfortable as well.

German Dress

So  in response to German Day at Gulf Wars this year, I decided to make myself a German dress.  Thanks to Mistress Rhiannon, who fitted the bodice to me, I have a german half done.  My first ever!  I have the bands sewn on the skirt and now the band is tacked down on the bodice (looks pretty good in my opinion).  Next I just need to attach the skirt to the bodice and the sleeves.  I hope to have this project done by wednesday or thursday so that I can finish packing and clean house before we leave on Sunday.  No last minutes sewing for me this year! (I hope)

Well Lots of projects have been accomplished

Ainsley now has a new wardrobe ready for all weather at Gulf Wars.  I have a few minor things to finish, mostly hand sewing, and she will be done.  I even had her helping me with some of the projects :)

Viking underdress - One Flannel and one Linen
Saxon overdress - she helped with this one and sewing 80%
Viking Apron
Blue Italian overdress

For the man, i finished the following

Teal linen doublet with sleeves
Wool jerkin with lucet cord trim
Additional linen shirt
Black Venetian pants

I've been so busy that i haven't been able to blog about the progress, but I did take some pictures during all the projects.

 Teal Linen doublet for under the Wool jerkin

 Here is Ainsley working on her saxon.  She picked out the fabric and trim.  She cut it out, and sewed everything except the neck hole.

 Here she is pinning the sides in preparation for her to sew.  She still uses a ton of pins, but it makes her feel like the fabric is secure

 Here is the final saxon that she is proud of :)

 This is the measurements and layout design of the viking underdress we use.  The layout and pattern is very simple so I had Ainsley do a little more complex dress than the saxon.  I helped draw out the pattern on the fabric and she helped cut it out.  then I had her sew each piece together.  This underdress requires a specific way to lay it out and which pieces go to which so I helped her get it all pinned together and she sewed it.

 This is the flannel underdress as it was going together.  I always have a hard time making sure the seams are all on the same side so it takes a little longer to put together.  Ainsley did a really good job getting it all together.  I sewed the wrist hems since those are tiny and require a lot of moving and the neckline :)

 This is the blue Italian I made Ainsley.  I was given this fabric and knew she would look fantastic in it.  I took a section of the fabric and cut it long ways as an insert in the skirt to make the skirt long enough for her.

 Front view

Back view

I'm done with the major projects for Gulf Wars which is just a few weeks away.  I'd like to make myself a German dress, but I'm not sure if that is going to happen before then.  I'm scheduled to go sew with someone this weekend so we'll see what happens.