Julie's Flemish Peasant

Faire Days!

2005-10-05T23:18:00.000-04:00

Well, as previously covered, Beth and I spent last Saturday at the MD RenFest in our brand new Flemish garb. Here are a few images (borrowed from beth) to show what my dress (and Beths!) ended up looking like. Notice that we both had time for sleeves--and later in the day it was even cool enough out to wear them!! I must remember to always do fests in the autumn from now on.

This is a poor quality picture of how I ended up "bustling" the over dress--all Beth's idea, since she was fiddling with my skirts for me Friday night. I love the result of her ministrations. I think it makes my butt look pleasantly GINORMOUS. ;)

back

Here is us looking all natural. You can get a good idea of what our head dresses looked like, and maybe why it is we were mistaken for mennonites from the back a few times:

I think that's all for this gown. I actually have plans (and fabric) to make a black partlet as well, and will post pics of that when/if I have it. But since I won't be wearing this again til next faire season, it may be a good while.

Finito!

2005-10-03T21:31:00.000-04:00

Well, approximately 14 hrs prior to wear, I made maroon wool/green cotton reversible sleeves for my flemish. Approximately 7 hrs before putting the ensemble on for the "reveal," I finished the hems. Cutting it close, eh? In any case, it is completely done. And wearing it was completely fun. See my Dress Diary main page for details of my festy weekend with Beth and hubbby.

I will get some completed dress shots up here soon. In the meantime I just wanted to give a "Huzzah!" for being done. And a *pout* for having sat in bbq sauce at the faire. :( I am sure it will come out, but damn, that's annoying.... I must say, a stained peasant is actually rather appropriate, but still. ;)

24 Hrs and Counting.

2005-09-30T09:32:00.000-04:00

Well, here it is: Booger Christmas mates with Great Pumpkin:

redover

I quite obviously haven't hemmed yet. Yes, beth....I'm waiting for you. Adam's pinning was not to my liking--and there were other issues that will be illuminated below.
So....the rundown:
The overdress is fully reversible booger/red. The box pleats are cheated a little, since I didn't have enough fabric for full box pleats. it has the effect at least.
Here it is reversed to booger:

The thing I DON'T like about my overdress is that I have the top lacing rings placed too high. I have to take some out and readjust to get my spiral lacing working again. Blast. But the top ribbon of the overdress lacing is HIGHER than the neckline of the ornge, and it just looks stupid. I haven't hemmed because I need to get up inside the bodice to make these adjustments.

And!!!!!!!! Wheeeee!!!!!!!!!! My adorable hat came in:

This is my favorite part of the overdress: How the lacings rings are embeded into the edge seam to expose only a half circle:

lacings

That's all for now. No doubt there will be Beth/Julie pictures after the weekend.

Beth--I really will TRY to clean before you get here. But I apologize to you and the dress engineer in advance for the mess. :)

Julie's "Episode"

2005-09-29T08:07:00.000-04:00

Last night, I couldn't find my kirtle. It was completely gone. Poof. Needless to say, with the deadline looming, I completely lost it (mentally). Hubby was sweet and was looking all around for it, and it literally was not anywhere in our apt. I was crying, throwing a little hissy and accusing him of throwing it out (as it had been bundled up in a grocery bag). This is 1) because I'm just that crazy when it comes to costuming, and 2) because I'm PMSing. Poor hubby.
In a stroke of...well, not brilliance, more like stupidness....I realized I had been working on it in my carpool partner's car. Thank god it was still in there. I couldn't imagine the fallout if I lost AN ENTIRE DRESS! I raced over to get it straight away, even though I could've waited for this morning when we leave for work. Neurotic? Why, YES.

So, between last night's dress scare and watching Lost, I worked on my overgown bodice. I decided, as beth suggested, on the green rather than the yellow. It makes my dress look much more drab and peasanty. Drab is a good thing. The yellow would've been just a bit on the chipper side. The green is a grey-green sage, and rather like pale boogers. Matched with my red overgown material, I have named the overgown "booger christmas." This with my newly recovered "great pumpkin" kirtle combines my two favorite holidays, albeit in a sorta perverse way.

No pics of booger christmas yet, since I can't lace it til I install the lacing rings. But this should placate you. Behold, the great pumpkin:

Pumpkin'd !!
(photo alteration courtesy of a clever coworker)

I Got Nuthin'

2005-09-28T10:26:00.000-04:00

Not an ounce of sewing last night--didn't touch a piece of fabric all night. Happy anniversary to us! Let me just say that the Flaming Turtle Fondue distraction was WELL worth the missed sewing. Adam practically had to roll me home.
Hope my dress still fits. ;)

I think I will frantically cut and sew my outer dress bodice tonight after my music lesson. More to come.

Let me also say that I'm wavering on my colors AGAIN!!!! God, I'm fickle. Do I line the outer dress with the yellow linen? Or my light greyish sage linen/cotton? Hrmmmm.....The yellow requires less ironing (pro)....The sage is not as bright (which is a pro in this list). I guess I'll decide when it comes to cutting tonight. Livin' on the edge. Story of my life. ;)

Recycled Pics

2005-09-27T11:02:00.000-04:00

Well, last night I got much less done than I had anticipated. This is because I'm addicted to that Prisonbreak show. Oh, and the internet. Definitely addicted to the internet.

Anyway, after work my carpool buddy and I stopped at Trader Joe's--a sidetrip that took significant amounts of sewing time away, but yielded some very tasty vittles... I think I must have Beth explain me to about prioritizing. This is apparently a foreign concept.

I got home and managed to at least draft the overdress bodice pattern successfully. I'm having that 3 seamed "v" thing in the back. Like this:

vback (detail from Festive Attyre site)

Besided aggregiously over-estimating strap width on the back straps, it came out fitting well and just about what I'd envisioned. I'll just hack off that extra bit of strap. With any luck, I'll get some of the pattern pieces cut out tonight, but we've got anniversary dinner planned, so who knows if it'll actually happen or not.

Other news: Finally got my bodice lining whipstitched into place on the commute in this morning.
I DESPERATELY need to hem my kirtle. But no one was home to help me pin last night. I suppose I could have Adam "pin me to the floor" as part of our anniversary celebration, eh?
Tres romantique.

Pockets!

2005-09-26T11:49:00.000-04:00

I worked Sunday to finish up the kirtle. I got most of it done. I'm whipstitching the bodice lining into place on my commute today. My pleating could use some work, admittedly. Perhaps if i measured before hand... Oh well, I'm a peasant. I'm allowed to look a little "hand-done". The back is not really crooked like it looks in the pic, just the lacing ribbon I wrapped around my waist is. I do wish I'd make the back waistline a bit shorter, as it bunches a little...

Check out my pocket! Don't I look leisurely in my GQ pose? We'll not speak of how I sewed them on inside out (ahem...twice) before getting them right. Here it is in full "glory." It still needs hemming:

pleats

pocket!

socks

I couldn't resist puttin ths pic in. These socks are ridiculously funny. Love my new leather slippers, though!
Hrm...an iron wouldn't hurt, eh?

Now I need to knock out the overdress so I can stop feeling like the Great Pumpkin....

Creamsicle

2005-09-25T01:45:00.000-04:00

Today, not only did I GO to renfest (noncostumed), but I also worked on my costume for NEXT weekend's renfesting. So very productive when I have to be...

My evening was spent bodicing. I decided to line my bodice in heavy non-stretchy canvas in an attempt to make it sturdy without needing boning. After I cut out the lining, I tried it on with my lacing strips, and made a few changes--shortened the torso, made the straps a bit narrower and the neckline a bit higher. I threw caution to the wind at this point and decided to cut into my dyed orange linen (afraid of screwing up since I only dyed 3.5 yds--just enough for the dress).

I've finished sewing the bodice lining into the bodice, and gave it another test try-on with the lacing strips. I also pinned some fabric around the waistline to see what sort of gathering/pleating I might like to do. I think I've decided on the small box pleats off to the front sides, with a flat front to avoid pouchiness under the over dress. Here's what it may look like:

bodice and pleats

No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. The fabric color really IS mottled, thanks to a botched dye job. ;) And there is that pesky under boob wrinkle. I assume the weight of the skirt once sewn on will help that a bit. I could bone it, but honestly, this is supposed to be my comfy dress. And I'm justifying it by saying that many of the flemish paintings featured wrinkly bodiced ladies. So its authentic....yes....
Oh, and I couldn't wait to try on the partlet with the bodice/dress, so that's why that pic is there.

So, to do:
1) Put eyelets into bodice for lacing--I"m considering the big ole grommets, as it will be a time saver, and theoretically covered by the overdress. I can always thread cover them later. But i really hate the big ones. I just don't know if i could finish eyelets in time....
2) Pleat and Attach skirt to bodice
3) Sleeves--I plan to whip these out fast.
4)Overdress?--If there is time
5) Black partlet?--I picked up a remnant today, just in case

Maybe:
Prewash skirt lining (a cotton/linen I picked up today for $2/yd)
Assemble skirt and lining

So, question for the peanut gallery:
I am not positive about lining the skirt. I think it will give it more weight since the linen is pretty light. It would make it hotter for summer, I guess (but it is a cotton/linen lining, so not too bad). That above pic is with two layers of my linen pinned on, and I like the fullness, so maybe lining would be good. What do you guys think? Keep in mind that the overdress skirt will be 2 layers of linen, too. I can't decide!

Oh, and what do you think of my eyelet predicament? Big grommets, or little ones that will take me much time to cover with thread (i do have a decent commute to work where I could probably do this, though).

The Eleven Day Race

2005-09-21T10:25:00.000-04:00

I have let this project go in a major way. My renfest date with Beth and (hopefully) Niter is 11 days and counting. It occurs to me that I better get my butt into gear and knock out my peasant gear!

So, I've got the caul, smock, partlet and corset. Lets ignore the fact that I've put on 25 lbs since April, thus making my wonderful new corded corset...tight. Tight is a bit of an understatement..."Unyieldingly and constricting-ly body-hugging" might be a more apt term.
So, what to do with the rest of the costume? I think I will make it of the size to fit the corset, so that it all matches SOMEday. Meanwhile, I may opt out of corsetry wear for this go-round of renfesting. The kirtle is gonna be side lacing, so if the gaps are a little bigger, so be it. They will be under the outergown, anyway (assuming I finish the outer gown in time, which is a leap of faith on my part).

So, last night I dug out all my fabrics, and also lined up my finished pieces on the table to make myself feel better.
I think its working, as today I've felt a very keen desire to go fishing about on my favorite costuming sites--something that I actually haven't done for quite some time.

On the agenda for tonight--Bodice Drafting (cuz i'm daft, and I accidentally threw out the pattern I used for the corset). I take that back. I actually found the pattern. I raised the neckline a bit and widened the straps to cover the corset straps in case I can fit into it some day. I think the neckline could still be a bit higher. I'm quite happy with the position of the lacings. I think its actually a little too big for me, though. I guess that means all the cords in the corset really shrink it a great deal, cuz this is the same exact size pattern. Now I don't feel so bad....
Here is my work in progress:

I decided the v back neckline would be nice. Mental note to shorten the back waistline a bit so it doesn't do that bunching thing....

Glad That's Over

2005-07-28T00:05:00.000-04:00

I find that impatiently waiting to see what color I end up with is incredibly stressful. ;-) Fun, but only when the color miraculously turns out to be something I like....I'm finally pleased with my colors and ready to move on.

First, I overdyed the garrish peach with a diluted bath of "golden brown." This yielded something that could be described as onionskin, sweet potato, adobe, or terra cotta. I love it. It is my favorite part of the fabrics for this project, and thus I will use it to make the kirtle. Seems counter-intuitive, as the kirtle is largely covered up, I guess. But then, when i'm hot (or lazy), it will be a stand-alone dress, and get more attention. Ditto for when its hot and I flip up the outer dress's skirts.

For my other color choices: Since I'd abandoned the idea of peach as an accent color, I figured it was a good excuse to use the pale yellow that I already have, which is great, cuz i really love it. Additional benefits of this: it means one less bout with the dye pot, as well as saving my white linen for later projects. The pale yellow will be the underside of the overdress.
For the third color, I decided I couldn't do the brown as originally planned, since the onionskin fabric was already significantly like the only shade of brown dye i had, and I didn't want to be redundant (as authentic as this probably would've been). So, I've decided to stick with the red that had been in my original plan.

When it came to coloring the red, I was deathly afraid of repeating the super-bright fiasco as with the peach. So, I pre-emptively added a bit of black and brown to mute and darken it. I'm pleased with the outcome, except that it is a bit dark/pale splotchy in a few places. I'll just use the peasant excuse, eh--couldn't afford quality fabrics, right?? The green in the below pic is what i think I'll do sleeves with, for contrast.

Now the the palette is FINALLY finished, perhaps I'll actually get around to sewing the dress, eh? In nosing about the Web Gallery, I was happy to notice that this Vegetable Seller painting from Beuckelaer has a very similar scheme:

Magenta Finger

2005-07-25T23:06:00.000-04:00

Its the more flamboyant version of the famous James Bond film. No, wait. Its my finger after fabric-dyeing. ACK! How did PEACH dye make my finger MAGENTA, I'd like to know? Its just not natural.

Oh, more importantly, how did peach dye make my fabric.....ORANGE? Or, tangerine, really? Its quite a bit more vibrant than I'd expect for peasant gear, or for peach. I realized too late that I should've added a bit of brown dye in the vat to mute it (vat makes it look even more orange, to be fair).

THe result is the salmony in the pic below. Maybe I could overdye it with a very dilute brown mix? Hrm. Or soak it in coffee. Or i could just leave it as is and be a brilliant little peasant. What does the peanut gallery think? Its really not a bad color. Though I think its brighter in person than in the below photo. Shocking. ;-)

In other news, I'm having color choice dilemmas. Again. It took me weeks and weeks to decide on the colors for my original sketch. And now, of course, I'm having second thoughts. Why? Well, mostly cuz I found that loverly pale yellow linen (above) at the thrift store. Hmmmm, so, do i swap out one of my colors for yellow? I have no idea. I decided since I was keen on peach, I'd dye that first and see how it came out. I thought "If I like it, i'll use it. If not, i'll overdye it brown or red for another part of the dress"....

The prob is I don't know if i like it... I could do the kirtle peach with a brown/yellow overdress. But if I get hot and take off the overdress, I will be "Little Miss Wow-Peachy-Peacheekins". Or I could throw that blue in somewhere. Help. I'm so friggin indecisive. Argh.

Partlet

2005-07-25T01:47:00.000-04:00

Well, I was making my v-neck partlet, and discovered I didn't have enough length of selvage edge to make the ruff as full as I wanted. I was using Drea's Ruff directions. Anyway, with insufficient selvage (and being too lazy to cut more out of my 20 yard spool, wash it, iron it, blahblah), I decided to buy lace. Yeah, its fanciful and flat out wrong for a peasant, but it was purty, and I like a little luxury.

Here is the finished partlet:

Looks like i'm running out of excuses not to start the dress now, eh? I can still procrastinate with an apron...

The Little Engine that Could

2005-07-22T23:19:00.000-04:00

I seem to have lost some major steam on this project. Whether its related to the steamy MD weather, I do not know. For some reason, I just haven't been sewing inspired. Here is my latest attempt at doing something. ANYTHING.....

I decided I'd make something ridiculously simple. A caul. Why not make the accessories first, says I? That way when I'm finished the dress, I'm actually finished--should feel like fewer fiddly bits! That'll be far different than what I'm used to. Hopefully refeshingly so. So far I'm finished the socks and caul, and next I've got my partlet planned. And perhaps an apron. A white-linen theme.... Then onto the dress. Yes, I'm clearly putting off my fabric dyeing. I'm a wimp. Also, a large boiling pot when its 85% humidity just sounds like a disgusting proposition.

I used the directions for a simple caul from Drea Leed's site. I chose an 11 inch round, since that's how big my handiest-for-tracing-round dish was. That's all folks.

caul

Corset Lessons

2005-07-05T21:19:00.000-04:00

Right, well, its done (except for eyelet coverings). I learned a few valuable lessons:

1) beware of expanding edges. Somehow one side of my front edge got to be about 1.5 inches longer than the other. This was most umcomely and caused me a bit of a pain to fix. I think it was caused by a combination of building it on the bias and threading the hemp through one side in a manner that required more scrunching and unscrunching of fabric (before hubby engineered the shish-kabob-crochethook-bobbypin "thingy" to make threading easier).

2)my dog is a would be pot-head. I caught him eating my hemp cord on more than one occasion.

3) When you make a mental note to raise the neckline on the final pattern, remember to do it. This is lower cut than i intended, but oh well.

Its light-weight, comfy, flexible and still holds all my bits in. I actually wish it were a bit rounder in the bust, but i didn't do the "s" so I can't really be too picky. ;-)

Onto the dress!

Queen of Cups

2005-07-03T10:36:00.000-04:00

A tarot reading friend once told me that I would be best symbolized by the Queen of Cups. Apparently, her characteristics are loving, tenderhearted, intuitive, psychic and spiritual. Sure. Except for the psychic part. Unless excessive de ja voux is a strange form of psychic power. What's funny is that "loving," among other definitions, denotes "infinite patience." While this is fairly true when it comes to people, this rule does NOT in any way shape or form apply to corsetry. Heh.

Regardless of knowing that fact, I set about working up a corded corset this weekend. I educated myself by reading Jen's article, and then drooled over various examples. One of them being Beth's new curvy "s" corded corset. The shape certainly gives her that buxom "free" peasant look, but with the support of well, a corset. I knew I'd like to achieve something similar. The problem is that I really don't think I'm up to the "creative tailoring" it would necessitate later for drafting the overlying dress. I honestly think beth is a far better pattern drafter, and will do well with it, while it would most likely just frustrate me. Also, I'm a chicken.

Then, in an internet search, I was inspired by this:

Its a corset from 1598 Germany. I imagine that the unboned "cup" section would allow for a bit more curvature, and hopefully the "underwire-ish" cup action would mean less probability for pancake boobies (as seen in beth's what-not-to-do post). Oh, and as its otherwise straight, I thought it would make later tailoring of dresses easier.

I was certain that it wasn't the right type of corset for a flemish peasant/working class. But comfort with corset trumps authenticity with floppy boobies. Like Beth, I don't go out without some support, you know?

For the corset design, I used the bodice pattern from my green venetian, with less point at the front, point removed from the back, strap altered a bit to not be at the shoulder point like on the venetian, and front lacing.My original plan was to make the corset from my green cotton and cream duck. But since I wanted some give at the unboned boob section, I decided not to go with the very sturdy duck and settled on an inner lining of yellow linen from my recent thrift store finds. I also made the front portion fall somewhat on a slight bias to allow some "give" so my womanly bits could assert themselves. Probably a big no-no for lacing integrity. But I guess we'll find out, eh?

Then the sewing part happened:
While I was sewing, I abandoned the cup plan completely. Mental note to try that sometime. But my "infinite patience" ran out. Chuckle. I did use the diagonal boning channel design like beth --it seemed rather natural since the corset front was on the bias anyway. I ended up with a hemp-corded green and yellow corset bound with white grossgrain, cuz that was all I had on hand. I must've been subconciously affected by Niter's recently dyed "sprite" yarn. I dub this the "Sprite corset" in deference to her cleverness. Its definitely not as curvy as Beth's fun experiment. But its awful comfy, and it'll do.
I didn't think to take a pic while I had the lacing strips still attached. So here it is sans eyelets (and with a bit more binding left to finish).

Hopefully I'll be able to finish this bad boy tomorrow, and get a decent pic with "womanly bits" asserting themselves.

Now One Can Get Lost In the Wash

2005-06-29T21:38:00.000-04:00

Woohoo, two socks! It was extremely close--I was left with a very meager pile of scraps. Made me feel very resourceful.

You can see my splotchy dye job if you look close. Renaissance tie-dye. Hrm. Still, I feel like pippi-longstocking when I wear them, and considering how I loved her as a girl, that's no bad thing. In fact, I'm getting ideas for halloween...

OOOh, and for those interested in stockings/hose, please check out Melanie Schuessler's excellent article.

In other news, I prewashed the fabrics for my corset, so hopefully I'll tackle that over the long weekend.

Stocking Number 1

2005-06-28T23:22:00.000-04:00

These are pretty fussy things. I have to pin each one to fit my foot properly, since my two feet are diff. Anyway, that means I can finish one per day and retain my sanity. Here is my right foot's sock. ;-) Kinda got a vintage flapperesque pink and black thing going. Its not perfect, but its as good as I could get it with my inferior pattern. Super comfy, too!

Tootsie Tangents

2005-06-28T00:54:00.000-04:00

Perhaps I should be working on my corset. Or my dress even. But I've become distracted.

I've become enamoured with the idea of little peasant stockings. Thanks to Melanie Schuessler. Aren't hers just adorable? I am still working on coming up with a pattern that fits my freakishly large calves and apparently mutant feet. ;) I will not go into too much detail about how I spent almost my entire sunday working on a pattern with no suitable result. Hubby came home to a very unhappy me. And of course tried to help. He did help a bit, actually. And today I went about trying to tweak the pattern more.

So far, I have been able to have it fit to my calve and tootsie fairly well. The problem is in the ankle. I"m getting funny baggy wrinkles. Must work on this....I actually think if i cut the slit in the pattern higher towards the top of my ankle that it will help immensely. That's my to-do for tonight. Oh, and isn't the sunflower muslin just loverly?

Oh, and since I'm doing socks, I thought, hey, wouldn't it be fun to dye some fabric for them? Even better, wouldn't it be cool to dye with natural stuff to be found around my apt?

My first foray into natural dyeing came this weekend when I realized we had 5 mulberry trees behind our apartment. A-berry-picking I went. Unfortunately, the trees are on a rather steep hill, and I'm short. Right when I was about to take my berry-booty inside, I slid down the hill on my own little (okay big) booty. Whoosh went the berries from my basket. Squish went the berries on the ground (and under my butt--the berry juice soaked all the way through and stained my cheeks purple;)

Never fear, I did recover most of my berries in the end. I put some swatches of white linen in to dye under different conditions just to see the outcomes. Left most is in acid (vinegar), and next one to the right is with soda ash fixer in the pot. I like the more muted soda ash version, myself. Kinda a grey-purply-blue.

The second round of swatches are a remnant of a linen blend i found in joanns in a hideous pinky coral. I thought I'd tone it down with a coffee/tea stain. That was too subtle for me (second orange swatch). Then I thought, hey, why not just throw in some black dye (admittedly not natural)? Which i liked (3rd "orange" swatch--kinda dusty rose). After it soaked longer it gave me the fourth look, which is what I ended on. Okay, actually, I ended on a rather splotchy version of that. Guess I should've stirred my dye better. So, I will have some splotchy stockings. I will fool myself that my crappy dye job is just like what a bonified peasant may have ended up with if they couldn't afford all the proper equipment. Did they have tie-dye in the renaissance? ;-)

My goal is to make two pair of stockings--one in the greyer mulberry , and one of the formerly coral linen stuff. Will these clash with my dress colors. Most likely. Isn't that part of the fun?

Smocks!!!!

2005-06-25T00:47:00.000-04:00

If anyone has read my blogs, particularly the "thunderhosen" one, you know that my husband is a rather endearingly silly man. And it just so happens that "smock" is one of his favorite words to say for absolultey no reason at all. (that and "mukluk", which is some kind of alaskan footwear). Anyway, he was absolutely jumping with glee when he saw me google searching for the Elizabethan Costuming Page's SMOCK!!! Generator.

I generated my smock pattern. And then I deviated from it. I was trying to save fabric, since I only had 2 yards of hanky weight. I figured I'd need a pretty slim and short smock so as to have enough leftover later for caul and partlet. I made it slimmer (but still big enough to fit my hips, so not all THAT slim really. Heh) and rather short (knee length).
Here is what I ended up with for my pattern:

I had a minor panic attack when i cut out my sleeves and saw how much shorter than my arms they were. But no worries, as the body width accomodates. Yay math. Well, yay math except for when you measure your biceps wrong. I find that this chemise is a bit snug around my "guns," but not unbearably so, so I will leave it for now. And if it bothers me, I'll just add a little strip or gusset. No problemo.
Here is my slimmed down chemise for peasant wear. Its downright tiny compared to my other 3:

"That thing is so wrinkled it looks slept in," you say. Well, that is cuz I did, indeed, sleep in it. And am too lazy to iron for the pic. You can't see the bottom, but it ends right around my knees (and is nowhere near levelly hemmed, which doesn't bother me since its underwear). Unfortunately, my mirror isn't long enough to show all. I don't need to be posting my ugly knees on here anyway.

Oh, and a moment for the linen. YUM. I've actually never sewn with linen before. Its texture had me buzzing around the sewing room (okay, its really a dining room) in a glow. Yes, I'm clearly a novice costumer if I've never worked with linen. But allow me to just revel in its wonderfulness. I don't think I can ever go back when it comes to chemises/camicas/smocks.

A New Project Starts

2005-06-22T14:18:00.000-04:00

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: