Pictures of me in my underwear

Underwear is almost done! I have given up on getting the knitted stockings done in time, so I'm going to make a quick pair of linen ones and I need to finish up my camicia, but I'm getting close to being able to start the dress. I'm so excited!

For still unknown reasons possibly having something to do with recent weight loss and my general squishiness, the corset came out far too big. I trimmed off  6 tabs total and reassembled it and it is much closer now, but could probably stand to be taken in more. Right now it is super duper comfortable and I'm thinking I might want it a bit tighter. Especially since I'm losing weight right now and don't plan to wear the dress until December.

 
I made quite a few adjustments from the Effigy stays. I moved the seams to the sides since my body couldn't take the extreme shaping from the back seams. I also cut the back low instead of the high racer back of the Elizabethan bodies in order to work with the low back of the Venetian style. The long straps curve around to sit on the bottom of the shoulder. I know many people solve this problem by doing away with straps altogether, but I felt I needed the support. They're pretty much where I want them to be, but a little more fussing might be necessary after I saw what happened when I turned to show the back.

I'm really happy with how the petticoat turned out. It is flame orange dupioni silk lined in dark peach linen. The guards are the same canvas used in the corset, and they are edged in red grosgrain ribbon to echo the pigskin binding on the bodies.  Vecellio mentions farthingales being used in Italy in the 1590's and I did consider making one since the dress is such a late period style. I also had planned to do rope or wool felt in the hem at the very least. After I got the guards on, however, I decided the 5 rows of canvas and 10 rows of ribbon had given me enough stiffening. Additionally, I'm thinking about making matching sleeves and wearing this under a jacket in the English style as Laura Mellon mentions here and shows here.  Getting an extra outfit seemed like a fine idea and I love the color of the petticoat so getting to show it off is fun.

 My camicia from last year is far too open for this, so I'm cutting out a much less full one tonight and starting on that. I do think I'm going to do another lace inserted one though. I have a plain camicia but I always seem to wear this There's just something about the lace that makes me feel great.

I still need to decide on stocking color and if it will match the petticoat or the drawers. Might go with the former because the knitted stockings are blue and I will eventually finish them. Just not in the next month while sewing a dress.

Petticoat

Long day- we've been looking at new places to live and my brain is fried. So, here's more of the ACC bits from my documentation folder:

My new petticoat is quite a bit shorter than the first. The gold tended to droop considerably in front from where I started it in the morning and eventually peeked out from under the dress, and I found myself tripping over it. By making the salmon colored linen one shorter (about ankle length) I hoped to fix that problem. I also cut an exaggerated concave curve in the front panel to allow for front drooping due to my body shape. The first petticoat also had pleats padded with wool felt. I chose not to do that with the linen underskirt. The cartridge pleats were much smaller, and the overall hem diameter was considerably smaller than the gold. I did cord both petticoats and very much like this. Italian skirts of the period usually have a padded hem, as evidenced by extant pieces. In the case of the extant pieces, they are padded with a strip of wool felt. In my case, I sewed channels around the skirt and inserted cotton rope for stiffening. The technique is used in other places, but is not documented in Italy at this time. The stiffened hem works wonderfully for supporting skirts and giving them a bit of shape as well as keeping them from tangling closely around the feet.

My gold petticoat was entirely hand sewn and the experience of doing so convinced me that I didn’t really want to do that again with seams that weren’t going to be seen. I machine sewed all the long seams. As the linen petticoat is fully lined and has no exposed seams, I think this was a reasonable choice. It is lined with the same brown linen I used for my first petticoat. I sewed the cording channels by hand, and added a small decorative trim of multiple rows of green ribbon. The cartridge pleats are stitched by hand. Rather than doing handsewn eyelets as I did on the first one, I applied small metal grommets.

After finishing the linen petticoat and trying it on with my dress, I came to the conclusion that it was too short and not full enough to support the silk dress. I therefore swapped it with the gold. The linen petticoat actually works very well with my original red dress because it is shorter and less full. It turns out that the changes I made do work better with the red dress with its stiffer , more narrow velvet skirt but the gold petticoat is needed to support the fuller silk skirt because the fabric has less body.

Progress and a saccocia

I spent yesterday sewing round and round my petticoat, attaching the lining, sewing two cording channels and putting three rows of trim on. I'm planning to take it to fighter practice tonight and have someone help me mark the waist so I can trim the top, pleat it, and add the waistband. I think I solved some of the problem I had with my last petticoat by making it quite a bit shorter and less full. That should solve the issues my gold one has with slipping down and showing. There's also more fabric in the petticoat than the skirt of the dress so the red skirt doesn't hang as well as I would like. Part of the issue is that I made the gold one intending that it could be worn separately with an Elizabethan jacket. The new one is just a plain old petticoat. I'm sewing it by machine rather than by hand like the first one. I even did the cording channels and trim by machine in the interest of time. I'm not really that pleased by it, but it should be functional. Its at the bottom of the picture. Salmon colored linen I bought for 97 cents a yard at Handcock's last year with the rest of the chestnut linen I used for the lining of my gold petticoat as lining. I corded it with the cotton clothesline rope I had left over from the gold petticoat. The trim is green cotton ribbon that I sewed down with the honeycomb stitch on my machine. The ribbon is actually ribbon yarn. I bought it on super clearance at my favorite knitting shop for 99 cents a ball several years ago. One of the cheapest ways to buy really nice trim is the have a look at novelty yarns. Even really expensive yarn can be very cheap trim once you calculate the yardage.

I also spent some time working on the sleeves for my zimmara. It's the blue and yellow fabric with pomegranates in the picture. I cut it out in January (or maybe February?) with the intention of doing a loose gown to wear with my blackworked coif. Its cut using the diagram for the "Learned man's gown of cloth" from Alcega dated 1589 as pictured on page 6 of Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion. Since then, I've read several reviews of people using the giant bag top sleeve in the Reconstructiong History pattern (which is basically the Alcega sleeve) and HATING it. I got rather worried by that. I didn't have enough fabric to re-cut the sleeves into the round sleeve that I would have preferred for the zimarra, but I had plenty of leeway to futz around with the top of the sleeve I had cut. I ended up trimming some of the sides away so it wasn't as unstructured and cutting the top section in panes. I still need it to have quite a bit of fullness as it will be worn over the puffy baragoni of my Italian gowns and I think it should have it this way. I guess we'll see how it works. At present I have 2 somethings resembling either badly drawn trees, tentacled monsters, or possibly cubist squid. The panes are cut and sewn to the interlinings and I'm trying to determine if I'm going to catch the panes at intervals and pull out false puffs or what. I'm also staring at a silver fabric for lining and trying to determine preferences. A deeper blue or possibly a crazy yellow are also in consideration.

Then we coma around to something I actually did complete. I made a giant saccoccia. My previous pockets have been much smaller, mostly because I just don't have much to put in to them. I have to carry a diaper bag with my twins anyway, so I haven't had much need for a small bag. Decided to try one out anyway, especially as I will be attending Solstice and 12th Night by myself. This is closer in proportion to historic examples, although the shape isn't as long of a teardrop. For that matter neither is my tasseled bag. I just prefer a broader bottom and a more blunted shape. Not sure why, but that's what keeps coming out. Looking at the various pockets we have from frescos and paintings as well as the extant Spanish example (assembled for easy viewing by the fabulous Anea)it seems like one of those items that is decorated to the wearer's taste, and the Spanish one is shorter and more blunted.

I absolutely don't have time for embroidery right now. I'm already doing blackwork garters, couching cord to sleeve panes, and stitching pearls to the mantellino so something pretty for the pocket just wasn't going to happen. I looked instead to the trim application of the gold and black saccocia that is most often reproduced. Since I'm using the orange silk of my dress I considered making piping from the blue silk but then I found about a yard of crazy orange and gold trim a friend had sent me. It really wasn't enough to do much with, so I figured this would be the perfect project. I laid it out, matched it up, and the trim determined the pattern. I like the trillium effect the tiny triangles near the bottom of the opening create. The pocket is lined in a navy linen and I had a package of brown bias tape so that's the strings for tying it on. Looking forward to trying the larger size out at the upcoming events.