The fitting breakthrough

Just before finding out I was pregnant I made a velvet b-front Venetian.  I loved it, but then put it away when I was expecting.  I put it on the other day to get an idea of the fit when lo and behold, it fit perfectly!  Even without a corset!  I'm going to tweak the pattern a bit, do a test run from purple twill, then on to the silk!  I am changing the plan for my undergown slightly.  It will now be either v-front or solid front.  I'll decide really fast.

Yay purple gown!

IRCC Update: A Tale of Slashes

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I finally had a massive breakthrough on my own pattern in the realization that an old pattern that only sort of worked in the past now works quite well with a few tweaks.  Of course, I didn't make this realization until after a few fitting sessions that may or may not have involved partially constructed bodices being thrown across the room in frustration.  I am going to do a final dry run of that pattern before cutting out my silk. 

I've made some progress on whites.  My husband's hose are in progress, they are being constructed by hand.  I decided to make the blackwork on his shirt collar reversible, so the collar is assembled and waiting for embroidery.  My son's blackwork is still sitting aside waiting to be attached to a shirt.  I am putting off assembly on his outfit until July so that I can get a better idea of his size.  Once construction on my husband's whites is done (except for the embroidery) I will be starting on my pulled work partlet.  I recently learned how to do pulled work and am really excited to start this part!

More embroidery talk

I did another trial of embroidery for my camacia, using waste canvas and....hate it. I think it looks loose and sloppy. I tried to pull the threads extra tight, but my thread kept catching on the edges of the waste canvas and that was roughing up the thread and making it even more difficult to embroider. It was just a mess all around.

So...I think I'm going back to my earlier plan of the third from the left on this sample piece. Cute, simple little pinwheels with a gold bead between each one.



In other project news I've been working on the two yards of cord I need to make. I learned the hard way not to lucet for too long (can I use that as a verb?) before I've built up a callus...it just makes the whole process take longer because it ends up hurting too much to continue. This is the cord that will be the ties on Dennis's shirt and my camacia (the little man won't have ties on his shirt...he would try to eat them and that doesn't seem safe).

No sewing update, but...

I have new carpet!  Our house was a rental before we owned it and the tenants did a number on it.  Spots on walls that won't come off, cupboard and drawer fronts hanging off, but the worst was the living room and stair carpet.  We had steam cleaned, but there were still giant stains that would not come out (of course, the upshot of that is we got the house cheap and already owe less than it appraises at).  My parents-in-law most kindly replaced the carpet in our living room, the main half flight of stairs, and the upstairs hallway.  It is now a beautiful silver/gray color and is extremely comfy to the feets.

A sewing update later today, though...I promise. :-)

IRCC Update

I just sent in my first update for the IRCC! We are only allowed to send in one picture per week, so I tried to artfully squish everything together. :)



I got a bit of a late start on my projects because my son was baptized on Easter day and I made his baptismal gown. My main focus in these first couple of weeks has been to get everything fitted properly and the basic embroidery pieces done. The blackwork on my son's collar is completed and my husband's collar and cuffs are next on the embroidery list. I have done several trials of various blackwork patterns for all three of us. The blackwork is being done with silk embroidery floss. Fitting has been going...fitfully. My son is the easiest, I want this outfit to fit him for the winter events here in Utah, we have our two dressiest events in December and January. I will be laying a modern pattern out and then drawing the correct lines around it so that I can get a good guess at a correct size in six months (he will be one year old in December, so his size changes every day!). My husband's doublet pattern needs some minor tweaking. Mine is a whole different ballgame. I haven't updated it since my son was born and my body is very different! It's coming along, though and is almost done.

Almost all of the fabrics are on hand already. Starting in the upper right hand corner of the picture is a linen lawn that will be my camacia and partlet. It's absolutely wonderful to the touch, but is terrible for counted blackwork. The partlet will be pulled work, which I think will go smoothly with this fabric. The orange is a silk that has been sitting in my stash for quite some time (I got it on an irresistible sale at the fabric store). It will be my gown, my husbands underdoublet, and the poofy part under the panes of the pants for both my husband and son. The brown is a cotton velvet that will be panes for my husband's pants, his jerkin, and (if there's enough of it) my son's doublet. The white is a medium weight linen for the two shirts. It has a lovely drape and has been a joy to embroider on. The pink is my fitting bodice (it was once attached to a skirt of it's own and once I have the pattern perfected, it will be re-attached). I have a running list of the fabrics I still need, the most important are silk taffeta for the panes on my son's pants, something wonderful for my loose gown/coat, and something for my husband's outer clothing item. The original plan for his was a hip-length cloak, then I started falling in love with a particular style of jacket that men were wearing in the mid-16th century. That decision will wait until I see what presents itself fabric-wise.