A New Project Starts
After working on my fairly ornate and high class venetian courtesan, I decided I needed something completely different. A peasant. A flemish peasant, to be exact. Yes, there's been a rush of them online, and I'm following the crowd. "Baaaaa!" Yes, I'm a sheep "Baaaaaa." Or maybe I should be an alpaca instead. "MMMMMMMff." They're just so gosh-darn cute.
Anyway, back to topic. I really want a cool summer dress that I can run about in, not worry too much about getting dirty, and wash easily. This screams for a peasant dress in cool natural fibers. Linen, in fact. I bought 20 yards of the delicious stuff from fabric-store.com. Its white. I plan to play with dyeing it all sorts of fun colors. I figured 20 yards at the bulk price would save me money in the long run. It takes up space, yes, but it fits neatly under my bed, so no issue. And it will be used in this dress, hubby's new duds, and a few others, to be sure. Speaking of which, hubby's duds are on hold til I find the right fabric. Basically, that means I get to go ahead and make myself ANOTHER dress. Is three for me, one for him a selfish rule? Maybe, but its awful fun.
To the dyeing ends, I purchased three colors I liked well enough together--golden brown, fire red and peach. They're fiber reactives from dharma trading. I also bought a gigantic pot so i could dye on my stove top. 21 quarts it is. I have no idea where it will live in my tiny galley kitchen. Or in my entire apartment, come to think of it. Perhaps it will live on the porch in ghetto-deliciousness.
The plan of attack:
1)A comfy corded corset is in order. I've got some drab green fabric, some cream cotton duck, and some hemp cording, so this is ready to start.
Time for pattern drafting. I'm going to try a curved pattern a la semptress, but with a straighter across waistline. I've kindly let Beth pioneer this so I can copy her and ask for advice. ;-)
2) A new smock is needed. All mine are far to fabric-y for this sparse peasant look. I will be making a slim one out of hanky weight linen. Hopefully I've got enough. It might end up being REALLY slim. And REALLY short. ;-)
3) The kirtle will be the golden brown color, and I wanna do side lacing, so that I can dress myself easily. I don't know if this is a period-correct way to lace the flemish kirtles, but it seems to me a peasant girl would like to be able to dress herself. More importantly, I'm tired of asking hubby to lace up my back (I think he's tired of it too). Period or not, these lacings will be hidden by the overgown, so no biggie. I still haven't decided on gored vs. gathered vs. some mutant combo of the two--it will depend on what the corset necesitates. I'm quite inspired by this (completely nonflemish but thankfully generic) portrait for the kirtle:
kirtle
4) The over dress will be a reversible red/peach duo in the style of drea's dress. I'd like to incorporate the V in the back of the overdress seen in this Brueghel the Elder painting from Jen's site:
5) The partlet will come down my back in a "v" like in the breughal paintings (this pic is also from Jen's site). I still dont' know if I want black or white. they both appeal, so I might just make both.
6) The sleeves will be reversible( i just love variety). Undecided on color, but I'm tempted to do green for contrast (i *should* have leftovers from my corset), and maybe the golden brown on the other side for days when I'm feeling matchy.
7) I must make a caul (is this the right word?) or find a staw hat. Hopefully both.
Here's my concept so far. Pardon my sketching, its nowhere near as cool as my husbands, but Icouldn't ask him to do it, as he already revamped my whole blog world tonight:
Anyway, back to topic. I really want a cool summer dress that I can run about in, not worry too much about getting dirty, and wash easily. This screams for a peasant dress in cool natural fibers. Linen, in fact. I bought 20 yards of the delicious stuff from fabric-store.com. Its white. I plan to play with dyeing it all sorts of fun colors. I figured 20 yards at the bulk price would save me money in the long run. It takes up space, yes, but it fits neatly under my bed, so no issue. And it will be used in this dress, hubby's new duds, and a few others, to be sure. Speaking of which, hubby's duds are on hold til I find the right fabric. Basically, that means I get to go ahead and make myself ANOTHER dress. Is three for me, one for him a selfish rule? Maybe, but its awful fun.
To the dyeing ends, I purchased three colors I liked well enough together--golden brown, fire red and peach. They're fiber reactives from dharma trading. I also bought a gigantic pot so i could dye on my stove top. 21 quarts it is. I have no idea where it will live in my tiny galley kitchen. Or in my entire apartment, come to think of it. Perhaps it will live on the porch in ghetto-deliciousness.
The plan of attack:
1)A comfy corded corset is in order. I've got some drab green fabric, some cream cotton duck, and some hemp cording, so this is ready to start.
Time for pattern drafting. I'm going to try a curved pattern a la semptress, but with a straighter across waistline. I've kindly let Beth pioneer this so I can copy her and ask for advice. ;-)
2) A new smock is needed. All mine are far to fabric-y for this sparse peasant look. I will be making a slim one out of hanky weight linen. Hopefully I've got enough. It might end up being REALLY slim. And REALLY short. ;-)
3) The kirtle will be the golden brown color, and I wanna do side lacing, so that I can dress myself easily. I don't know if this is a period-correct way to lace the flemish kirtles, but it seems to me a peasant girl would like to be able to dress herself. More importantly, I'm tired of asking hubby to lace up my back (I think he's tired of it too). Period or not, these lacings will be hidden by the overgown, so no biggie. I still haven't decided on gored vs. gathered vs. some mutant combo of the two--it will depend on what the corset necesitates. I'm quite inspired by this (completely nonflemish but thankfully generic) portrait for the kirtle:
kirtle
4) The over dress will be a reversible red/peach duo in the style of drea's dress. I'd like to incorporate the V in the back of the overdress seen in this Brueghel the Elder painting from Jen's site:
5) The partlet will come down my back in a "v" like in the breughal paintings (this pic is also from Jen's site). I still dont' know if I want black or white. they both appeal, so I might just make both.
6) The sleeves will be reversible( i just love variety). Undecided on color, but I'm tempted to do green for contrast (i *should* have leftovers from my corset), and maybe the golden brown on the other side for days when I'm feeling matchy.
7) I must make a caul (is this the right word?) or find a staw hat. Hopefully both.
Here's my concept so far. Pardon my sketching, its nowhere near as cool as my husbands, but Icouldn't ask him to do it, as he already revamped my whole blog world tonight:
3 Comments:
OOOH so much fun! New website, new blogs! I love it.
I am starting to think that a giant pot like yours would be perfect for dying yarn, dying fabric, dying roving, and steaming crabs. Hehehehe!!
I cannot wait to see what happens when you dye! I know that sounds wonky.
I suspect we're going to look like a rather matched set. I'll have brown kirtle, green overdress, peach reverse. Yay garden colors!
Corded bodice proceeds apace. Will try to post something picture-wise this weekend. Will merely say that it's much more comfy than the last.
Beth-- so if we both wear peach on the underside, we'll look like a pair of perfectly matched christmas peasants. Sounds good to me!
Let's also keep in mind I've not dyed my fabrics--they could turn out mauve, puke and baby poo colored. Perhaps I shouldn't count my chickens, eh?
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