Polish Hussar fencing jacket

As a now belated Yule gift I'm in the painful process of making a fencing jacket for a friend of mine.  At each stage of this project I've had hurtles to jump and it's a good thing I'm patient when it comes to sewing.  I'm using the Russian Svita design as that seems to be the closest thing I can find for what the images look like.  http://www.strangelove.net/~kieser/Russia/KMC2.html

I had to start with a prototype to make sure it fit.  I had to resize it after that especially considering the freedom of movement preferred for fencing.  Then I discovered the fabric that I had used to make the jacket (fabric previously tested and passed) no longer passed the "punch test".  Adding a third layer to the body of the coat makes it quite bulky.  I'm annoyed at that but there's not much I can do short of buying new fabric and starting over.  Next the innermost layer was naturally reversed so that the seams went to the outside to be contained between all of the layers.  The coat design is assymetrical at the front so because I wasn't thinking I had to detach and reattach the two front body panels.  While attaching the bottom skirting to the jacket now I see that the side gores on the bottom where not enlarged with the rest of the coat and won't make it all the way around.  Sigh. I hope I have enough fabric to fix this next hiccup.

Results of the Coif

So I found that the coif tended to slide back with the weight of my hair (no surprise there as I have a lot of it).  I used bobby pins to hold it on which seems to work well enough.  I meant to bring my hat pins but forgot them in the rush of packing for the day.  I was happy to find I still had a small black velvet cap, as I thought I had sold them all years ago.  It definitely can use the blackwork on the cap to tone down the white-ness.  Other than that I'm quite satisfied with the result.  Maybe I'll add it to the stash of merchant repertoire.

I didn't bring enough bobby pins to pin the coif, hat and my hair so you can see my braids pulling the coif back from the weight of it, but if I pin the braids up first it holds quite well.

Elizabethan Coif

This Saturday is our local event and I'm in charge of running the fencing for the day.  So I may or may not fence myself.  While I'm fencing I wear Elizabethan age clothing to suit the blade and fencing style we use in the SCA, even though my persona is 7th century Irish.  The thing I've been missing is headwear and if I don't feel like changing after fencing for court I didn't want my fuzzy hair to do it's "troll doll" impression.  So I looked up the Attack Laurel's recreation (http://www.extremecostuming.com/reproductions/vacoift281975.html), the Blackwork Guild (http://www.theblackworkguild.com/COSTUMES-MEMBERS%202.html) and this last site which gave me another reference for sizing (http://www.europeana.eu/portal/record/00401/BBAB9B66128397DA499B1E6AF8A0DDEA5676ABD2.html).
There was no way I was embroidering a coif in time for this weekend, but I did see reference to plain coifs anyway.  That'll do for me to decide if I like them.  I tend to get headaches if my hair is too concentrated in one spot on my head (very thick hair).  It looks pretty good so here's to hoping.

my first dress pants

So I bought a commercial pant pattern a few months back but didn't have the time to mess with it before the "Pennsic push".  It's a slow time of year for me minus the holiday stuff I'll have to start on, and I figured a good time to play.  I used some green linen I had in my stash to try out the pattern.  I made some adjustments to the pattern pieces based on Nancy Zieman's "Pattern Fitting with Confidence".  Mostly I just shortened some stuff.  Apparently this pattern is made for people over 6 feet tall, lol.  I'm still too long by about 4".  Based on what I wanted (pleated front, curved waistband with pockets) I purchased Simplicity pattern 2342.  It has three designs to choose from as well.  A slim fit, average and curvy.  I figured I had some good odds of finding the right one.  Wow, those are wide legs.  Let me just bring those in by another 4" around.  There, that's a little better.  I'm not quite sure what happened in the process but after following the pattern the pants could slide over my hips while done up.  Hmm.  Okay, this is either a case of people lying to themselves about their measurements and the company is placating them,  it's a crappy pattern, or its me.  Maybe a combo, but I'm not sure.  I don't tend to use as big of a seam allowance as it recommends, but this time I did it as it said so it wouldn't  be that.

I think they made it so huge to make sure that if the person screws up they have room to correct, but man that makes a lot of adjustment time for the rest of us.  I had to remove the top of the pockets to deepen the pleats.  I took in as much as I dared at the side seam until I was afraid of losing my pockets entirely!  Now there's too much fabric in the front but there isn't much I can do about it at this point.  I shortened the rise by a few more inches so I don't look like one of those teenagers with my pants fitting all funky.  It's hard to walk with the crotch length at your knees, lol.

I only need to add the inside layer to the waist band, hem the bottom (I'll get someone to measure that for me), and re finish the inside seams.  Voila!  Maybe I'll just reverse engineer these pants to make the next pair?  I do want to become better at using commercial patterns.  I think I'll play around some more with Nancy's methods.  I was afraid to make too many adjustments for fear of making them too small, but obviously I wasn't bold enough.

pattern hunting

So I bought a simplicity pattern for dress pants.  I have a book by "Sewing with Nancy" that shows you step by step how to adjust patterns and I wanted to try and see if I can come up with a dress pant pattern just for little old me.  As I was hunting I came across a Vogue pattern that was labeled "couture".  Is that not a bit of a, oh I don't know,  Lie?  It's a Vogue pattern for goodness sake.  That's only a step away from buying off of the rack.  The waistband was straight (unlike the curved band design I picked up from the Simplicity pattern) and the only thing that made it adjustable was the size of the pleats.  sigh.  Why are words so misused?  Don't know what the term Couture means?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haute_couture
It's actually pretty specific.  I can't qualify my stuff as couture even though I make to order with specifics to my client, pay attention to detail, and use quality materials.
So if you see this label somewhere.  Chances are they're using it wrong and know very well what it should refer to.  Just my two cents.

Now, back to the regularly scheduled sewing program.  I flew through four tunics yesterday and four pairs of pants today.  Tomorrow's a day off as we're heading out to an event.  Maybe I'll bring some hand work or something.  I just had my tattoo filled in on my upper arm and it's still healing so fencing would unfortunately probably be a bad idea.  At this rate I won't fence until Pennsic.  I'll take the missed occasions rather than an infection though.  So be it.  It looks good.  We just have to finish it later after the wedding I'm standing in.  I don't think a scabbed and peeling tattoo would look too nice in the wedding photos ;-)

the lady in the blue dress

Well, the bridesmaid dress I needed to make is finished.  I added another layer than the pattern said to in the skirt to fill it out a bit.  It really needs some proper crinolines to make it lay right, but I hate wearing those and I'm not going to suggest it to "the powers that be" for the day.

 I have a black belt to go with the dress.  Hopefully that will help with the blue-ness :S

Upcoming Pennsic rush

As per usual I have a pile of Pennsic sewing to do in a short period of time.  We'll see how many commissions actually come through.  I just finished working out details with an online customer and I'll be delivering that one at Pennsic so save on shipping and time (and my sanity).  There are people that have told me they want stuff for Pennsic but I haven't received specifics for them.  It could be a pretty comfy Pennsic if it all comes through, but pretty hectic pre-Pennsic.  I started prepping for the pile of sewing I do have already to get that out of the way, and of course I'm working on the bridesmaid dress.  The bodice is together with the lining and surprise, surprise I need to tweak it again.  I did find the shoes and belt to go with the outfit today.  Good.  I hate shopping for shoes. :-P

sewing adventures

Well, for those who know me will see this as obvious:  I don't use commercial patterns.  I design my own.  By the time I adjust and correct what's off on a commercial pattern to fit me, I might have as well just looked on the pattern cover picture and done it from scratch.  This time there is no option.  I'm a bridesmaid in a wedding and I'm making my own dress.  It's a 1952 vintage vogue pattern and if they made their dresses like this in 1952 I think they would have lost the war.  There is so much wasted fabric in this pattern it's ridiculous.

It's also built for a barbie doll apparently...I size 16 will not have a 30" waist. Period.  After seam allowance that's what the paper pattern measured.  I'm serious.  On the other hand it had a 40" chest.  Even with a corset I can't imagine fitting into that waist.  A 10" difference?  What is that a J cup?  Anyway everything is cut out except for the skirt lining.  We will commence the sewing portion of the program momentarily.  Please stand by...

cosplay outfits

Well, the cosplay outfits for Full metal alchemist are finally complete.  It took me four and half days in working hours to complete the two outfits of Mustang and Hawkeye.  I would have liked nicer stars for on the epilets but sometimes you have to go with what you can find.

Hopefully I won't have to make any adjustments to the outfits and they'll be off my plate.  On to the next project! *whooshes away with the super cape flapping in the wind!*