Finally finished one layer

Finished the underskirt at 11:55 last night, so I did in fact finish it yesterday. That's what determined it only had 2 lines of cording in the hem and no guards though, so I might change my mind on that. Going around and around the almost 300" hem by hand ate up my day. Next time there is no way, no how that I am hand sewing the underskirt. My only justification for this one is that I'm thinking about wearing it with my Elizabethan jacket and loose gown where it will be an outer layer.

Seems sufficiently poofy. I certainly get a lot of hip as a result of the deep padded pleats. Not sure yet how effective the cording is in the hem. It's easy enough to walk in, but we'll have to see how it works with the velvet once that's done.

So, there it is. A little over a month and I finally finished one layer of the four. Geez, I'm slow.

It's my mother's birthday and she's visiting, so the afternoon is pretty much spoken for. I am hoping to at least get the clocks of the stockings embroidered since I had a simple design planned.

I decided to reward myself for actually following through and blogging every day and working on this steadily. Yesterday was the 40th blog post on this. Wow, huh? I can sure babble on. Anyway, I bought myself a prize. I'm now the proud owner of Arcano the zibellino. He's at the bottom of the page here at Sable Greyhound. Holly is bringing him by fighter practice today for me. Yippee! I've got Galanthias made for the portrait, but Arcano is smaller and more easily worn hanging from the girdle. Not to mention, he's just so cute. I saw him and started singing "Black Magic Woman" in my head. Seemed like a good sign.

The Crucible? Annie Get Your Gun? Help me Tim Gunn!

I'm such a Project Runway junkie. There was an unfortunate cartridge pleating incident in Season 8 and I keep giggling about it and flashing to it. A fashion moment running over and over. Sort of like a song stuck in your head. I've been pursing my lips and muttering, "No woman would want to wear that. No one wants to add to her hips." Well, not a modern woman anyway. Cartridge pleats? You're out!

Perfectly perfect for the fashionable Venetian and Elizabethan though, right?

I'm 20 pleats into the 80 or so I need. I've taken them out I don't know how many times for a variety of reasons. I've done them with no padding, with light felt, with heavier felt, and with cotton batting. I've restitched them multiple times trying to get the pleating more even, my stitches nicer, the pleats rounder and better shaped, and the lining more crisp and evenly exposed so it looks on purpose rather than a terrible accident. I've tried a depth of one inch and an inch and a half. The current ones are two inches, but I'm almost thinking they should be deeper. I think I've hit the point where they just aren't going to get better on this particular project, however, so I'm just going to leave them alone before I throw the whole skirt across the room. They could certainly be better, but I'm not going to do a better job on them right now. I think I just need to finish them and vow the next project will be better.

Besides, I might give myself some sort of rotator cuff injury throwing this thing across the room. I tossed it on the scale just to see and it weighs about 11 pounds. I still need to trim the hem, but I also need to add the guards and felt and cord for the hem so it could get worse.

Waistband finished and an idea for trimming

Finally finished the last of the pesky (far too large) eyelets on the waistband of the underskirt, so I can officially declare that done. I also had said I'd show my idea for the trim, so here it is. I've been staring at the embroidered net on the German waistless kirtle in Patterns of Fashion as well as the black child's overdress trimmed with gold bobbin lace that looks like a lattice and decided that trimming with lace couldn't be that terrible of an idea. The lace looks a lot like the one used as an insertion in this extant Italian apron. I might actually have enough of it to use it as trim for the underskirt and make an apron as well. Not that I need an apron, but I think the one in Antea is beautiful and it shares an artist with "my" portrait. I'm also considering making her gloves and possibly her hair jewelry, so its sort of serving as a secondary inspiration. The look of the apron over the gold skirt is really interesting and it would be nice to have options down the road to be able to use the various pieces of the dress in different ways to get more wear out of it.

I've been playing with pleats, but am nervous they might be too large. I'm lining the gold with a sort of chestnut colored linen and had put a strip of felt in to pad the pleats. I'm not sure they need to be that thick. I'm afraid its going to give me more of a farthingale effect, especially as the skirt of the dress will be heavily pleated as well. I think the ones in the velvet are flat pleats though. At least that's what I'm coming up with from staring at the portrait again. They look flat, right? I've attached a few of the underskirt pleats and then taken them back off the waistband three times now. This wasn't supposed to be this difficult. Grumble, grumble grrrrr. The weight of the velvet will probably crush them to some extent, so maybe they need to be that poofy. Maybe not. I have no idea. I'm going to try ripping the felt out and see if the pleats have enough body without it. Yeah, that's what I'm going to do.

Bits, bobs, and buttons for the belt

I'm hoping to have something of the underskirt ready to show tomorrow. I've got one eyelet left to do on the band, finished the seams on the shell and lining, and have most of the lining attached at the hem. I'm a little worried because the eyelets are HUGE due to the size of the aiglets. I think I need to find something other than what I have (small gold bolo tie ends I got on clearance several years ago) to do the aiglets for the sleeves and for the side back lacing. They aren't any larger than what they'd be if I'd reinforced with a washer, but they sure seem gargantuan and I don't think I want to put holes that large in the velvet. I've never done eyelets on velvet so I'm a bit nervous. It doesn't seem like the fabric would spread without having to cut them. Maybe I'm just not trying hard enough.

Fretting about the size of the eyelets took out a good portion of my morning work time. I also had a new SCAdian come over and we got her a basic underdress and Norse apron dress designed and cut out so she can make herself clothes for the first camping event of the season in two weeks. I'm pretty sure she thought I was nuts ripping rectangles of fabric and drawing big triangles, but we got it done quickly, and I think she's going to have something fun to wear. There went the rest of the morning (but I had a lot of fun.)

So, in a moment of sacrifice, in order to have something to show for today, I went shopping again. The girdle has been on my mind. I've been really concerned about the scale. Its such a large piece, there's nothing dainty about it whatsoever. Most of the findings and components I've been looking out that have the look of those in the girdle are far too small. I've been sort of considering making them from polymer clay, but am afraid that won't look quite right for such a large piece, especially if I do the zibellino's head in clay too. I lucked out yesterday and found some pendants and some buttons that I think are going to work. They aren't as rounded and dimensional as those in the portrait, but the scale is right. That's a quarter in the center of the picture, just to give you an idea. I also have some other large goldtone beads with a filigree finish that I couldn't find for the picture (my big bead box is hiding somewhere in the house and I'm going to need to clean to locate it. Last time I saw it was mid-March.) They are a little bit smaller, but should work texturally with the rest of these and are still pretty large beads. I'll probably swap them out for the pictured beads which I bought for a Russian necklace and I think they're a much better match for that project. I still need to find some tube shaped beads to fill in, but I think I have a start. I may need to add a bit of enamel paint to the filigree ovals just to break up all the gold and approximate the look of the portrait. Even better would be if I could find a glass gem to put in the center depression.

More sewing on the skirt to do today, maybe playing with patterns for embroidering the breeches, and always more lace to make

Itty bitty details of no consequence

I spent all yesterday making the underskirt lacing string because I am silly. I also worked for quite awhile on the waist band. This was also a ridiculously silly thing to do.

My backstitch has gotten better recently. It is much more regular and even, not to mention straighter, than it used to be. I taught a class on trapunto quilting at an SCA Collegium a couple of weeks ago and sewing up the demonstration samples and practicing so I could teach it really improved my sewing. So, I figured I should use the skill and sew the seams for the waistband by hand. Yeah, probably not my smartest move for time management. No one is ever going to notice as they are all hidden seams. Ah well, I guess I know.

I also decided to braid the lacing string for the skirt. I already had my marudai set up to do one of my favorite kumihimo braids and the colors just so happened to be red and gold with black They're my heraldry colors so that's not really a surprise, but they do match the dress nicely. It's one of the braids in Jacqui Carey's Beginning Braiding (which has been retitled in the new edition.) So, that's what I did with my day, I braided and backstitched, and suddenly the day was gone.

The braid came out nice, but I wasn't thinking about the fact that I needed it to fit my aiglets when I rejoiced over the fact that the braid was already set up. The braid came out quite a bit too thin for the hardware. I sewed it in and the ends aren't going anywhere, but its not a smooth transition between the braid and the aiglets. They're more like little baubles dangling on the ends. I should have put twice as much thread onto the bobbins. I guess its a good thing no one will be noticing the tie on my underskirt, because I'm not replacing it after spending hours making it. I feel like a total loser for deciding to braid it and then doing it wrong, when I could have just grabbed a piece of cording and accomplished the same thing in under 5 minutes. PPPHHHHPHPHT. Let it go and move on I guess. I still have 5 of the 6 eyelets on the waistband to sew and a day or so of cartridge pleating to do once I finish the seams on the skirt, because now that I handsewed the waist band, I felt duty bound to hand fell the skirt seams. Not to mention the hem that has to be sewn. I'm considering cording the bottom of the skirt as well, in addition to stiffening the hem with braid since I'd like to be able to use it for double duty under my Elizabethan loose gown.