Sempstress

I’m a very lucky girl. You know why? Because I’ve had some absolutely amazing clients in my life. (Don’t get me wrong – I’ve had the other kind, too. I just try not to focus on those.) I’ve just had the most life-affirming September/October I can remember. I had not just one, but three fantastically amazing clients who were all surprisingly ok with the fact that they were all happening at once. One of these clients was Leah, who shall hereafter be known as the Calmest Bride Ever(tm). Seriously, brides are the reason I try to stay away from bridal work. ;) But I somehow got one who was sure she wanted me to do her dress, was able to articulate what she wanted perfectly, and then said, “You’re a pro; I completely trust you to do whatever you think is best.” Wow. Like I said: I’m a very lucky girl.

And now the wedding has actually happened, and I can finally post the pictures! Tee hee hee! :)  Read the rest of this entry »

Hi, there, ho, there, everybody… Gosh I love being out of bed before 7.30! It makes me feel like I can take on the world! In a championship napping contest, that is. But the interwebs was totally not cooperating last night, and I wanted to share finished pics of the regency corset before I head off to work!. :) Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a visual learner. I mean, I owned a copy of Patterns of Fashion for years before I ever looked at the words. (I’m not even kidding. Turns out the words are pretty useful too!) If you find yourself in the same boat, this might help. It’s a set of line drawings of the Pfalzgrafin and Effigy corsets, as well as my cheater curved front corset, lined up side by side for easy visual comparison. Read the rest of this entry »

Croquis are little pre-drawn bodies used by fashion designers to speed up the sketching and design process.  I made this one with Em and a basic 1500s silhouette. A lot of people have been coming to the site lately and being really great to me, and I wanted to do something as a thank-you. 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 »

I just got round to pulling all the pictures off my camera – something I clearly need to do more often, because christmas was still on there….  One of my gifts for my sister was a pair of socks. Read the rest of this entry »

File this one under “possibly useful to some one, at some time, somehow”: this is a series of pictures of corsets I’ve made over the last several years. Each one shows me standing in profile, next to my dress dummy. This makes the changes in my shape imposed by each corset fairly obvious, and the pictures all together give you a pretty good idea what different types of boning and styles of corset can do for a girl. Read the rest of this entry »

I had meant this to be a peasant gown, but I’m told that it
is not because it does not look “peasanty” enough. I’m not entirely positive
of what that means, but I’ve been trying not to quibble details lately. ;) It’s
suitable as the clothing of someone with enough money to afford lined clothing
that fits reasonably well (though not perfectly). It looks a little higher on
the social scale when worn properly with the bodice, but this summer was a little
crazy and a little *HOT*, so that didn’t always happen. (Moral: make all your
layers look nice, and your wardrobe becomes flexible enough to cover a variety
of social and weather situations.) This was the year of the flexible wardrobe
for me. I’m not sure why. I was not trying to be clever or sensible. It just
sorta happened.

Anyway, the teal bodice looking thang is, in fact, my effigy
corset. (That thing got a lot more exposure than a corset normally should, I
think, but it makes a dandy boned bodice since the outer fabric has no boning
channels showing.) (Note: There was a thriving trade in second hand fabrics,
remnants, etc, in the elizabethan age. Everybody (although, possibly not down
to the meanest milk maid as Stubbes claims) was getting really uppity about
ignoring those dingdang sumptuary laws and wearing silks and velvets. And yes,
I am justifying the silk on the corset being used with this outfit.) The skirt
is a almost-reversable affair of two shades of medium cotton, double box pleated
onto a waistband. Since I planned to always wear it tucked up, I made it the
same length all around in spite of the fact that I wear a bumroll with this
outfit. Technically, that means that it’s about 3″ too long in front. The underskirt
is a pink-green changeable cotton. (Yes, you read that right. It’s one of the
single most obnoxious things I’ve ever seen. The effect of mismatched warp and
weft threads is decidedly different in cotton than it is in silk. The pictures
do not to it justice, but then again, my pictures seldom ever do anything justice.
I’m really impaired in the photography department most of the time.)

the bodice is made with rose colored wool lined with off
white, er, something that is probably mostly cotton but I think not entirely
so. It’s a one piece jobby based off one of the alternate peasant type top
bits in the back of norris. The book is at home, I’m at work, and I don’t
remember the page number. It’s a couple pages after the spinster that was
the basis of the red and ochre dress. The bodice has trim on the outside and
the inside along the neckline. It’s closed with lacing tabs from ASL pewterworks.
I can’t tell you how much I love these things. Are they 100% documentably
period? Er, not so much. But they are darned convenient, and that’s
important. I think they also add a very nice decorative touch. I know ASL
does the bristol and kansas faires (and others that I don’t know), so look
them up. They’re great folks. You don’t have to tell them that I’m
recommending them like mad, ’cause I don’t get anything if you do (although
they’ll probably be ticked pink). The bodice laces with satin ribbon in a
shade that can only be described as ‘pepto-abysmal pink’.

It’s Irish… sorta. Actually, it’s what happens when your friendly
neighborhood sempstress gets a weird bug up her butt, and tries to overcome
the stress of having too many projects to sew by … well, by deciding to sew
something else. *shrug* I don’t recall ever claiming that I was sane…. Anyway,
the truth here is that very little research when into this particular dress,
and it’s more of an experiment than anything. I call it irishish because, when
put on the spot and forced to explain exactly what style I felt this was, irish
leapt to mind. (I’m normally much better than this.) Fortunately, that appears
to have been my memory talking, rather than the creative writing part of my
brain. A little subsequent digging did indicate that something that looks a
little like this can be seen in sketches of irish women (although it the garment
in question prolly follows more the cut of the shrinshrone gown, which the above
doesn’t)…. Something that looks a little like this can also be seen in sketches
and woodcuts of german, italien, and netherlandish lower class dress. It might
be more accurate to say that this is simple “peasantish”.

The pattern for the dress was made by smacking my effigy corset
down on some fabric, cutting around it (minus the tabs), and then cutting off
a triangle shaped piece from the front. There are no seams in the bodice for
shaping. The bodice is made from two layers of the green(ish) fabric, which
is more of the heavy brushed 1$/yd special cotton that I love so much. There
is boning added to the opening edges as something of an afterthought because
they buckle if it’s not there. The boning channels are made with bias tape (it
really was an afterthought). The skirt is made of a layer of the greenish stuff,
and lined with something that is most decidedly yellow. The skirt is attached
to the bodice, and opens part way down the front so that I have a chance of
getting into the darn thing. This is actually remarkable convenient. It causes
the bodice to hang very correctly and takes strain off the lower back. The skirt
is attached in stacked pleats at the back, and cartridge pleats at the sides.
I think I like the look of the cartridge pleats better. They stick out more.
The trim on the outside of the skirt is a woven cotton trim with gimp on either
side to give it more texture. The trim on the inside of the skirt is the same
kind of gimp as the stuff on the sides of the opening of the bodice. I had originally
planned to just lace through the trim, but it turned out that my gimp was not
as strong as I thought it was. I didn’t want to ruin the gimp in a few wearings,
so I got some lacing tabs from ASL pewterworks (I fell in love with them on
my rose and green dress). One of the unsung advantages of wearing a skirt tucked
up like this is that it gives you a great muckin pocket that you can put things
in as you buy them. I tuck the skirt up with a cord that goes over my rump (under
the skirt), catches the skirt up at the sides, then ties at the back of the
waist on top of the skirt. As well as getting a pocket, you get to show off
your underskirt. This one is the pink-green changeable cotton that I made for
the rose and green dress.

This dress is being worn over my effigy corset. I’m pretty
certain that that is not period. There are two reasons I do it – first, I
happen to think it looks better, and second, I cut just a titch too much out
of the center front of the bodice, and I’m not sure it would be entirely
acceptable for a family show if I didn’t. The idea of what is a socially
acceptable part to display has changed a bit other the last few centuries.

With the help of my lovely assistant, Janey (currently seen
modeling my absolutely excellent “Henchwoman” shirt (thanks, lynn!)), this article
will fulfill a need that does not exist (because drea already wrote the article
on it, but I was having fun with my parent’s digital camera, and am now trying
to use most of the resulting pictures), which is to say, it’s all about what
goes on under all the stuff you can see.

Picture one is just janey hanging out and being casual before
the shoot. (Note: I am not drinking now, nor was I when I took the pictures.
I’m actually like this without help.) Picture two shows the basics of Elizabethan
underthings: A chemise, corset, and overskirt. This is suitable as your sum
total of underthings for lower classes (more than enough for the lowest of the
low, in fact). Underpinnings get a little more complicated for the nobility.
Picture three has the addition of a farthingale. (Yes, that’s the one I wore
last year, and the year before. And Yes, I am aware that the fabric is not period.
In fact, I can think of few fabrics that would be less period. I suppose it
would be worse if it was, say, nylon instead of cotton, but that wouldn’t holdup
nearly as well. I hate making farthignales. It’s mind numbingly dull. I hate
making tucks in a-line skirts, which is technically what making farthingales
is all about. (Or is it? Alcega says make tucks, and that’s been accepted as
canonical truth, but the wardrobe warrants in QEWU mention bents being held
down under ribbon. That’s exactly what I did in this one, not out of any inherent
sense of authenticity (I didn’t have a copy of QEWU when i made it, and I thought
the tuck thing was how it was done because that’s what I was told by people
who sounded very convinced about the whole thing), but because it’s *just*bloody*easier*.
Never underestimate the power of laziness.)

Anyway, picts 4 and 5 are petticoats. The first is a red to
peacock blue changeable silk with trim in pepto-abysmal pink satin ribbon, edged
with gold cord. (Why is that color called peacock blue, any way? I peacocks
are not predominantly blue.) The second is made from highly synthetic (but extremely
lovely, in a period kinda way) fabric from jo-ann’s…. There was apparently
an extreme trend for sari-wannabe fabrics this spring, which I thought was great
because they were great costume fabrics. Not sure I would ever wear them normally,
though. Since this petticoat fits over a bumroll, I had to make the back longer
than the front (which is par), but since the fabric had two distinct stripes
(one at the top and one at the bottom of the skirt), and I wanted it to look
nice all around, I shortened the front by taking a tuck right above the band,
which is hidden by trim. There’s more trim at the bottom of the band, and a
row of fringe. (Highly period, but not recommended if leaves are a part of your
venue. Will I ever learn?). the bumroll was put on under the petticoats. Someone
described these as ‘pretentious petticoats’. I rather like that. Nothing says
‘too rich for my own good’ like pretentious petticoats… Well, except maybe
for being an open catholic at court, which the character was.

After the underthings, the skirt then bodice of the underdress
are put on (picts 6&7), then the safeguard (that the red skirt lookin’ thang),
then the jerkin. In case you’re wondering, yes, it’s hot in there. I mean, if
it’s hot *outside* the dress, of course it’s hot *inside* the dress……