In Which I Go To Stripey Hell
May. 16th, 2012 07:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hsifengSo about a year ago (or more - I could be suffering under the delusion that this all happened faster than it really did) I promised my loving husband a new kit for our 16th century playtime.
I sat down and draft patterny-bits, forced him to suffer through endless muslin fittings. And then sat on my duff for MONTHS waiting for the Sewing Muse to settle her ass down for a visit.
I tell you, that bitch NEVER shows up when I call.
Anyway; about three months ago I gave up on hearing from my muse and simply settled for starting in on the necessary cutting and piecing and sewing (and sewing and sewing and sewing and fingerlooping and sewing and cutting more and then some drinking and some crying and self-recriminations for why I get these things going only to abandon them and then more sewing... You know. The usual.)
And after more hours of handsewing* than I have done since I decided that THIS MONSTROSITY could not have machine sewn trim ("For History!") I have this bad-boy about 95% in the bag.
Blurry cell phone photo is blurry...
What is all that handsewing I was just bitching about?
All these stripes were pieced from the original leg pattern (after I had lengthened each section for the right amount of 'bag') and then sewing together with butted edges only to be slashed in between the butted seams. Because that is how the damn woodcut shows these pants.
Damn woodcut.
Yes, there is some fraying. It's just gonna happen with these and I will trim it up as we go as needed. There was only a bit of this fabric in my stash (yeah for fabric-stash-using-projects!) and so bias cuts weren't always an option. Thankfully the blue fabrics are pretty thick and pre-felted. The maroon on the other hand? A non-felting twill weave in a light weight wool.
How to 'weight match' and reduce potential shredding of the maroon side?
Line. Every. Single. Pane.
No, these are not all handsewn. Because the seams are on the inside and I am notthat crazy.
As the project progressed, I realized that the pants weren't (in fact) the nuttiest part of this build. Sure, they had more butted seams to deal with than the Wams does. But at least all those seams are mostly up-and-down in nature. The Wams (jacket for you uninitiated)? Those friggin seams go EVERYWHERE. Not only are they effected by the shaping around the body, the also do all sort of fun pattern join ups on the shoulders of the inspiration image. Join ups That I got to reproduce in real life.
I swear to god. These friggin artists are all laughing their asses off in some happy Hell where they spend time coming up with new ways to screw with us mere mortals who are trying to reproduce ACTUAL clothing based on their reference. Bastards.
Wams Front. Matching pieces across the Brusttuck, Wams body and sleeve.
Wams Back: Where the matching flows over the shoulder and into the back pieces, and then matches up down the arm and into the back of the arm to boot. I swear, it looks just like the woodcut.
The Maroon Side. Where I placed running stitches in a slightly contrasting thread; just so the curvy seams from the blue side had something matched on their opposite number.
And my favorite part of this ensemble? Well, actually there are two.
1) The garters at the bottom on the blue leg. Because they look like a waterfall to me.
2) The fact that these pants are 'transitional' in their appearance. Enough so that when they are paired with Chris fitted arm doublet (the one he normally wears under his Waffenrock) he looks more like 1570 than 1530. All we need is a sugarloaf hat and we can push that date even further toward 1600...
http://snjacobson.com/ALC12/ - Image #50.
Now it's all the finishing bits. Currently working on fingerlooping new (matchy!) points for the Hosen-to-Wams and also for the Wams-to-Brusttuck. Need to place the point holes and possibly handmade hook-and-eyes to mount the Brusttuck into place. Then at some point I am going to piece some socks so he is set from feet to shoulders.
There is a good chance I will be wearing this outfit at CoCo this year. Just so I can have an excuse to complain about handsewing. *chuckle*
*Please don't get me wrong; my handsewing is nothing to write home about. I don't have tiny, perfect, even stitches - they tend more toward Frankenstein than anything else. The only thing I can say is that I have such a hate on for top stitching in reproduction clothing from my preferred period that I will go to great (and occasionally rediculous) lengths to avoid any semblance of machine sewing.
I sat down and draft patterny-bits, forced him to suffer through endless muslin fittings. And then sat on my duff for MONTHS waiting for the Sewing Muse to settle her ass down for a visit.
I tell you, that bitch NEVER shows up when I call.
Anyway; about three months ago I gave up on hearing from my muse and simply settled for starting in on the necessary cutting and piecing and sewing (and sewing and sewing and sewing and fingerlooping and sewing and cutting more and then some drinking and some crying and self-recriminations for why I get these things going only to abandon them and then more sewing... You know. The usual.)
And after more hours of handsewing* than I have done since I decided that THIS MONSTROSITY could not have machine sewn trim ("For History!") I have this bad-boy about 95% in the bag.
Blurry cell phone photo is blurry...
What is all that handsewing I was just bitching about?
All these stripes were pieced from the original leg pattern (after I had lengthened each section for the right amount of 'bag') and then sewing together with butted edges only to be slashed in between the butted seams. Because that is how the damn woodcut shows these pants.
Damn woodcut.
Yes, there is some fraying. It's just gonna happen with these and I will trim it up as we go as needed. There was only a bit of this fabric in my stash (yeah for fabric-stash-using-projects!) and so bias cuts weren't always an option. Thankfully the blue fabrics are pretty thick and pre-felted. The maroon on the other hand? A non-felting twill weave in a light weight wool.
How to 'weight match' and reduce potential shredding of the maroon side?
Line. Every. Single. Pane.
No, these are not all handsewn. Because the seams are on the inside and I am not
As the project progressed, I realized that the pants weren't (in fact) the nuttiest part of this build. Sure, they had more butted seams to deal with than the Wams does. But at least all those seams are mostly up-and-down in nature. The Wams (jacket for you uninitiated)? Those friggin seams go EVERYWHERE. Not only are they effected by the shaping around the body, the also do all sort of fun pattern join ups on the shoulders of the inspiration image. Join ups That I got to reproduce in real life.
I swear to god. These friggin artists are all laughing their asses off in some happy Hell where they spend time coming up with new ways to screw with us mere mortals who are trying to reproduce ACTUAL clothing based on their reference. Bastards.
Wams Front. Matching pieces across the Brusttuck, Wams body and sleeve.
Wams Back: Where the matching flows over the shoulder and into the back pieces, and then matches up down the arm and into the back of the arm to boot. I swear, it looks just like the woodcut.
The Maroon Side. Where I placed running stitches in a slightly contrasting thread; just so the curvy seams from the blue side had something matched on their opposite number.
And my favorite part of this ensemble? Well, actually there are two.
1) The garters at the bottom on the blue leg. Because they look like a waterfall to me.
2) The fact that these pants are 'transitional' in their appearance. Enough so that when they are paired with Chris fitted arm doublet (the one he normally wears under his Waffenrock) he looks more like 1570 than 1530. All we need is a sugarloaf hat and we can push that date even further toward 1600...
http://snjacobson.com/ALC12/ - Image #50.
Now it's all the finishing bits. Currently working on fingerlooping new (matchy!) points for the Hosen-to-Wams and also for the Wams-to-Brusttuck. Need to place the point holes and possibly handmade hook-and-eyes to mount the Brusttuck into place. Then at some point I am going to piece some socks so he is set from feet to shoulders.
There is a good chance I will be wearing this outfit at CoCo this year. Just so I can have an excuse to complain about handsewing. *chuckle*
*Please don't get me wrong; my handsewing is nothing to write home about. I don't have tiny, perfect, even stitches - they tend more toward Frankenstein than anything else. The only thing I can say is that I have such a hate on for top stitching in reproduction clothing from my preferred period that I will go to great (and occasionally rediculous) lengths to avoid any semblance of machine sewing.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 03:14 am (UTC)Clearly I have been reading too much fanfic, as my first thought was "Landsknect sexytimes!?!??!" =0
I tell you, that bitch NEVER shows up when I call.
I fear she has run off to Aruba with MY Sewing Muse. *frowns disapprovingly at our Muses*
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 07:40 am (UTC)"Aruba, Jamaica ooo I wanna take ya
Bermuda, Bahama come on pretty mama
Key Largo, Montego baby why don't we go---"
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 05:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 05:24 pm (UTC)*chortle* Amusingly enough, this is actually what I was kinda thinking when I wrote that. I figured someone would spot the implication between the lines.
Although I will tell you, all those points can be a bother sometimes. ;)
As for our Muses: So long as those pissy little so-and-so's have our backs when it really counts, I suppose they deserve the occasional vacation.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 11:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 05:20 pm (UTC)*glances at Peacock Dress*
*shoves award across the table to you and slowly backs away*
I am afraid I might end up spangled in my sleep if I accept this...
*grin*
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-19 01:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-19 01:27 am (UTC)