Sempstress

So, if the flurry of short posts isn’t a dead giveaway, I’m having massive fits of ADD today. I went out into the garage (aka, sewing room) to make a corset for Tyler. I haven’t even pulled the fabric for it yet. I made a little smocky-poo for Piggy, picked beads for the green thing, walking in and out of the house 62 thousand million times, and knitted part of a scarf. You know those days? Read the rest of this entry »

Happy Valentine’s Day! Let’s talk about something that makes my little costumer’s heart go pitter-patter: the Effigy Corset. I’ve had a major case of corset-brain lately (I think it’s a rebellion against that darned unfitted eleventh century thing), and I’ve been doing some research.  You know what’s annoying about the Effigy? I don’t have a nicely gridded version of it drawn up by Janet Arnold. She spoiled us, you know…. I’ve no idea how to think without her beautifully scaled grids and neat technical notes. I so wish that the Effigy was covered in Patterns of Fashion. But it’s not, and I needed it… Read the rest of this entry »

Oh, that pesky Pfalzgrafin corset… It’s technically dated to 1598, by virtue of being found on the body of Pfalzgrafin Dorothea Sabina von Neuburg, who was buried then. It would be really-amazingly-super-conveneint if it was older, wouldn’t it? Seriously. I’ve really got an itch to do something from the middle of the 1500s. I’ve started the little chemise (I’m even trying to embroider the darn thing), and I’ve been messing around with recreating the Pfalzgrafin pattern based on the Basic Conic Block. Read the rest of this entry »

When I started working down to dolly sizes, I knew I was going to have some issues with the scale. I’ve been neurotic about fabric choices – I mean, what do you substitute for velvet that will look like velvet, and fall like velvet? Twelve inches of skirt is just does not have enough weight to bend velvet to the laws of gravity.  What about embellishments? What about the $#*&^!! EYELETS?!  Oy…. Read the rest of this entry »

Hi-ho, Kermit the frog here…. Wait, no, that’s a different show.  I’ve been working on the overdress for the Eleventh Century German costume, and it’s finally on the darned doll. Yay! It’s not finished, by any means, but it’s progressing… Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been doing a crazy amount of research on armscyes, lately, particularly in terms of when they started being curved. I was expecting that to be after 1515 or so, based on the piecing in Gerard David‘s Deposition. But no, much to my complete annoyance, there are a lot of examples of curved sleeveheads and armscyes going back into the late medieval era. This annoys me greatly, because it means that if I want to show try out a fashion that does not use a curved sleeve head/armscye, I’m stuck back in like, 1000 AD.  This is not my happy place.  But I’m gonna make a ding-dang, major-olde-timey, at-least-it’s-not-a-T-tunic dress, and I’m gonna like it, gosh darn it. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve spent the last couple days jimmying around with my pattern for a cloth doll with legs, and now I have a doll pattern that goes together almost entirely on the machine!  Yay!  While I was fooling with the pattern, I decided to make her figure slightly more, well, you know, realistic. Read the rest of this entry »

So I’ve been on this doll kick lately, but I’m still a pattern-maker at heart and for me the best way to understand the proportions of little dolly-bodies is to make little dolly-bodies and play with the pieces until I get something that feels right.  (No, really, you can tell if a pattern is right while you’re still cutting it. If it’s awkward to cut, it’s going to be awkward to sew.)  I’m finalizing patterns, but here’s some preview pics…. Read the rest of this entry »

The holidays are a busy and stressful time, and I like to add to that by making christmas gifts. This year, I had some sort of “Move over, Martha!” moment and decided it would be fun to make my holiday cards.  Thing is, it’s an excellent opportunity for some serious precision sewing practice.   Read the rest of this entry »

I was scouring the web, looking for information on period boots, and I stumbled across Francis Classe’s excellent page. This is a picture that I have never seen anywhere else before.  It’s charming, but it’s quite odd.  I wish I had far more information on it, but Google doesn’t seem to know anything about it! Read the rest of this entry »