Catch up time!

Well after losing my phone last month my insurance replacement finally arrived. Which means now I can take photos again! I've still been working on various bits and pieces in the interim but it didn't seem worthwhile posting anything without accompanying pictures. So today I am hoping to catch you all up on what I have been working on.

My red kirtle bodice is basically complete (except for the bottom edge). I forced myself through the torture of the silk facings and to be honest once I set my mind to it I got into a bit of a rhythym. It still took a couple of days but boy was I happy when I finished!

Kirtle bodice finished

Next it was the eyelets (which were already done in the above photo). All 40 of them. For those who haven't sewn eyelets before there is a pretty good tutorial here. I did the buttonhole stitch eyelets that she describes, but I have the buttonhole stitch side on the inside (I don't think it's as pretty as the other side) so there is a lot of turning the fabric over when you pull each stitch tight to make sure it sits where you want it to. Next time I'm going to try the satin stitch ones and see if they are any easier.

Reverse view of eyelets showing buttonhole stitches (if you have really good eyes!)

Before that though, you need to work out where you are going to sew them. Spiral lacing seems to have been much more common in period than cross lacing, so now whenever I make garb I spiral lace. It really doesn't make a difference functionally but it feels more accurate and it uses less cord (which means less time luceting!). There is a really good article on the Festive Attyre site which explains all about how to space your holes to get the right look. I think my eyelets on this bodice are 3/4" apart (apart from the extra one at the top and bottom) and 1/2" away from the edge. To work this out I measure the total length of the edge where the eyelets will be and try dividing it by something to get an even-ish sort of number. Then I get some big berry pins and go along and mark the spots so I can see if they are too close/far away from each other, and even too close/far away from the edge of the fabric. I pin out a couple of different waysand then pick the one that looks best. It's often a different configuration on each piece of garb.

The Zen of Spiral Lacing Spacing from Festive Attyre

Now I have done plenty of hand sewn eyelets before but the last lot I did through a canvas interlining ended up so small I could barely get my teeny tiny (read thin) lacing cord through them. Luckily I was a bit wiser this time. The trick is to do as few stitches as will hold the hole open, and keep reopening the hole with the awl. My first few eyelets (way back when...) I went around three or four times to make sure I covered the ENTIRE edge because I thought that was what you were supposed to do. They ended up so tiny and I had no idea what I had done wrong. And over here at The Renaissance Tailor is where I learnt that the holes will close themselves up as you sew if you let them. I was not going to let that happen again. I stabbed those suckers about 5 times each! And now they can even fit my normal thickness of lacing through (luceted 8 ply crochet cotton) so I'm quite happy. (Note: use something solid as a base to rest your awl on and push your fabric down onto it. I had quite a sore knee, and then a dented wooden chair until I discovered the kitchen bench worked quite well.)

After that I finally got to cut the skirt pieces out. The back skirt piece is a plain rectangle while the front is shaped slightly as that was what was done in the time period I'm working in (according the the authors of The Tudor Tailor anyway, which is good enough for me).

Skirt pattern from The Tudor Tailor

The sides seams of the skirt have been sewn up by hand using back stitch, leaving about an 8 inch gap at the top where the bodice laces. I'm up to flat felling the seams which is a period technique to finish the edges of a seam so they don't fray. The wool I'm using has been felted so it probably wouldn't fray much anyway, but the skirt isn't lined and I'm a bit OCD about the details like that. I know they probably wouldn't have bothered in period but leave me alone! I hate raw edges! I've finished one side and started pinning the other one down to sew. After that I just need to cartridge pleat the skirt and attach it to the bodice. I haven't quite worked out whether I should finish the bottom edge of the bodice before I do this or not? Any suggestions?

And that's where my kirtle is at. Yay for progress!

I'm still plodding away at the blue and brown sleeves (one is finished).

One sleeve finished

After finishing the criss cross inkle leg wraps (which totally don't stay up by the way. I really need to do the proper thick spiral ones) I rewarped my inkle loom with some thin red and white crochet cotton so I could experiment with pick patterns. I pretty much just plodded along following the instructions here until I knew what I was doing. Then I wanted to steam ahead and do a stags head for my husband but I didn't make my band wide enough. Next time though!

I am also fairly determined to build this floor sized inkle loom so I can weave lots and lots of braid at a time and then sell it but I will dedicate another post to that.

I reorganised my sewing room and have plans to install some fabric storage drawers/shelves.

I started knitting some socks but I've only done a few rows because I started reading a book in bed instead. I've finished it now though so it will be back to sock knitting before sleep.

I'm also researching menus and other things for a weekend long camping event I hope to run in November. There will definitely be pancakes and waffles!

The Pancake Bakery by Pieter Aertsen 1560

I learnt how to make lace at the last A&S day which was pretty exciting. I came home so determined to try this amazing pattern and I just haven't had a chance to sit down and start it. But I couldn't believe how easy lace making is. It's really just made up of different combinations of crosses and twists! I will get around to trying that pattern but I need to finish up a few other things first.

So that's what I've been up to. Hope you guys didn't miss me too much. Actually that's a total lie. I really hope you were all devastated by my blogging absence and you kept refreshing the page to see if I had put up a post yet. I am that vain. But lets pretend I didn't admit that ;)

Viking Rus Pants Finished!

I love it when I finish something. It makes me want to go and finish other somethings! And this week I finished two somethings - Dan's viking pants, and the inkle woven criss cross leg wrap thingy that I mentioned back here.

But before I get to that, when I left you here I had just finished inserting the crotch gusset using french seams and was sewing up the lower leg pieces. After that, I used the machine (on the widest stitch setting) to sew two straight rows of stitching 1/2 cm apart along the bottom of each upper leg section without reversing at each end. Then I held the bobbin threads (these were on the bottom when the fabric was on the machine) firmly in one hand, and used my other hand to squash the fabric up in the other direction. You have to do it a little bit at a time but you can gather up very large amounts of fabric into very gathered small lengths. Once it was gathered up to roughly the right size, I took the lower leg piece and slipped it over my gathered loop like so, with right sides together.

My god I can't draw

Here I adjusted the gathering threads for the last time to make sure the two pieces fit nicely together, then tied them together to secure. Pin the upper and lower leg sections together and sew. A free arm sewing machine makes this really easy, but it can be done on a regular machine too as long as you are always stitching the 'bottom' of the tube, with the 'top' above and to the left of the presser foot. You just have to keep adjusting your fabric.

This next step is totally optional, but it definitely makes the pants more comfortable around that gathered leg seam (and also stops fraying since I couldn't use a french seam here).

Top = Daniel's pants with biased seam.
Bottom = dads pants with raw edge

The bottom pants in this picture are my dads, and you can see how tight the gathers are. Its about 90 inches worth of fabric gathered up to 18 inches. When i put them on myself I was like "Ow! This is really scratchy". Dan's (top) were not so bad as he had less fullness and also a softer fabric, but still not super comfortable. So I bought some cream coloured bias binding and attached it over the raw edge. The first edge was pinned and sewn to the line of stitching that connects the two pieces of the leg (not the gathering threads). Then I stretched the lower leg fabric out and pinned the bias so that it made a slight bubble shape. Why do you ask? Because I have used this technique before and the bias has been pulled taught instead of the fabric and it looks good on the inside but doe this ugly wrinkle thing on the outside.

Using bias to enclose a seam. (why didn't I take a photo of this?!?!?!)

After that I hemmed the lower legs, and turned down the waistband and put a cheap cotton drawstring through (this will be replaced by an inkle woven one soon) and voila! Viking rus pants complete!

Pants complete!

And then I sat down for an hour after the kids were in bed and finished the other inkle woven leg wrap.

Pants with leg wraps

Close up of leg wraps

I do wish the leg wraps were longer. I think a third cross would look better, but they are the maximum length my inkle loom can handle. Just waiting on a friend to make me a bigger one :)

Hubby still thinks they are pretty spiffing. And he is rather excited to wear them this weekend. We are going up to an event in the Shire of Dismal Fogs (read - Lithgow, Blue Mountains) so I will make sure to take some more photos. Dad's pants should be finished by then too! I've also volunteered myself to teach a beginners tablet weaving class at the event so stay tuned for details on how that goes.

Inkle Pattern Chosen

I was playing on the pattern generator for way too long and getting nowhere. Then I went out, bought ten kilos of chicken breasts for insanely cheap ($3.99/kg rather than at least $9.99/kg from woolworths), cut it all up and froze it in portions. Which took HOURS!!!

Afterwards I sat back down and this pattern just sort of created itself.

Rain Rain Go Away, I Guess I'll Keep Weaving Today

My red wool wasn't quite dry yesterday afternoon so I left it on the line overnight. And it rained. It's also still cloudy and will possibly rain again. So definitely no kirtle making going on here today. Instead, I have decided to look up some new inkle patterns. 

But before I get to that, some history. I bought my inkle loom on ebay about 5 years ago and it basically sat on top of a cupboard that whole time as I didn't know how to warp it. I learnt how to tablet weave very early on, and thought inkle weaving was basically the same (which it sort of is) and that I could just teach myself how to do it. Now I probably could have done that, but it would've been so much more effort than someone just showing me. So I waited, and waited, and waited for someone, ANYONE, to teach an inkle weaving class that I could go to and learn. It's actually one of the main reasons we ended up going to Rowany Festival this year. That and all the other classes I wanted to do. So my unreserved thanks go to Lady Tatianitska Iaroslavna who not only taught me how to warp up my probably-not-an-inkle-loom loom, but also showed me an awesome new way to start and finish without an ugly big knot. It's so clever and I am going to use it for my tablet weaving as well. These are the relevant pages from her class notes. I hope she doesn't mind me posting them here. In essence, you weave both ends of the thread at the same time when you start, and when you finish you use clever little thread loops to do the same thing. Sneaky huh!