Happy Weekend!

Well, the Doublet got good praise all round, with minor comments from our darling master sewer, Cindy. It works, and I can do better next time, but this one is mostly a success.

The Ensemble: part one

Since I now have actual slops, I'm going to refer to the whole shebang as The Ensemble from now on, (provided I remember that).
The Doublet is all but finished, it needs a button band extension and then ten shiney pewter buttons and it's ready to roll for Faire.
The Slops (baggy pants) are giving me grief. They require Cartridge Pleating (TECHNIQUE HERE) which I am more than prepared to learn, it seems a handy skill for my line of work. I just skimmed over the part where they say to practice the pleats on scrap fabric so you a) know how to do it, and b) know how it will work with your fabric. Me, being me, plunged headlong into the fray and dealt with the repercussions later. Meaning I did up a whole waist band, pleated it, and found my stitches were too wide. Snappeth.

Today, I will take my time and more care and make those darn cartridge pleats behave! :) Pictures later . . .

The Doublet - Part Three

Saturday, Nate and I ran all over looking for black or grey wool suiting from which to make the "real" doublet.  We ended up going to Shoreline's JoAnn Fabric and rejoicing for they had both black AND grey suiting!  Six yards of wool later and four yards of cherry red piping we headed home and collapsed.
Monday I cut out all the pieces from muslin for lining and the grey for the main doublet.  Yesterday I sewed and sewed, ironed, pinned and sewed some more and I had a doublet.  Mostly.
The fronts were an inch off length-wise, and the back seam was total crap.  Not wanting to make more mistakes, I set it aside and knitted.

This morning I took a seam ripper to the whole thing, ripped back to where I sewed on the tabs and put it back, but within the seam allowance this time. . . now it's just a matter of making up the sleeves and hand stitching along the seams for more structure to the garment.

It's really frustrating because I want to do a perfect job, and I'm doing a good job. The last version came out perfect and perhaps I am a little arrogant in thinking this one will turn out with the same perfection when I've changed materials. So I make progress, it's only going to be so good and all I can do is try my best.

The Doublet - Part Two

When I last reported in, I only had a muslin mock up. Now I have nearly a fully completed doublet. The only sad part is that this isn't the one he's going to be wearing! It's practice, mostly.

First off, I traced the corrected muslin onto some heavy paper-stock so I could have a new pattern to work from.

Then I made a new muslin from the corrected ("new") pattern. . . spent the weekend knitting, and didn't fit it until Monday night.  It worked beautifully!

Cut out the fabric - $2.50 from Goodwill I might add!

Before I could sew the lining (the corrected muslin) in entirely, the pattern needed me to make up the tabs that go along the waistline.  So I blithely stitched along not realising I had sewn them backwards.  Luckily I only had seven to rip out and re-sew as opposed to another doublet pattern which calls for several hundred little tabs.  Re-stitched, turned right side out, and ironed within an inch of their scrawny little lives, the tabs were ready.

I pinned them on, to make sure that the unadjusted tabs would still encircle my adjusted waistline, and they did absolutely perfectly.  I sure lucked out this time!

With the tabs sewn securely to the body, I was then able to stitch the lining along that lower edge and turn the whole deal right side out again, pulling it through an armhole.  I ironed it so all the seams laid the correct way and it was smooth and nice for the arms to be stitched in later.  I also stay stitched (a line of stitches to keep things in place) around the arm holes to keep the lining and fabric in the correct place.

Yummy perfectly lined up seams.  This is the first time everything has fallen perfectly into place in a sewing project and I couldn't be more chuffed about it all.  I am hoping the second one goes just as smoothly. * crosses fingers *

Yesterday I got the sleeves put together (after A LOT of fiddling to figure out which side goes where to make it all pretty once I flip it right side out! oy.) and the wings.  Those are the crescent shaped do-hickies you see in the above picture.  They sit on top of the sleeves and are tucked on top of the shoulder.  Kind of like epaulets, but Tudor style.  I would have finished pictures to show you, but I was happily "borrowed" by my brother and don't regret it.  The day was fun.

TO-day however, it's nose to the sewing machine and I'm going to have finished photos tonight!  And maybe still have time for fabric hunting.  There is an upholstery shop not far from my house and I want to scope out what their prices are like.  Three weeks till Faire, people! :)

The Doublet - Part One

Almost a year ago, my honey asked if I would help him make a doublet for Ren Faire. I, of course, said yes thinking it would be good to practice sewing something considerably more difficult than little bags and things. December 2009 I cut out most of the pattern pieces in two different sizes in hopes of fitting my honey. Fast forward to this spring when I dug out the languishing pieces to study more closely. The pattern is by Period Patterns, and while it's super historically accurate, it's also super difficult to understand. There are 14 different options in one packet, historical notes, and no concise directions. My pattern directions go something like this; 1. Follow 1,2, &4 from View I. 2. Follow 14 & 17 from view V. etc. I tried writing them all down in order, marking them as I need, but have given up and just popped from one direction to another.

This is certainly the most time consuming project I've undertaken. Today alone I spent two hours cutting out and piecing together the muslin mock-up. Then another two hours with my honey pinning and cutting away material until it a) fit him and b) could provide the amount of movement he's going to need in his Faire endeavors, mainly lots of upper body movement so he can sword fight and march about with pikes. While this is all just a tad frustrating, it's also very educational and fun. I'm going to end up with not only a lot of knowledge, but a good piece for my portfolio.