The Raven and the Writing Desk

On Thursday got asked if I had any pieces of largesse I could take with me to KA&S. I did not, but I did some brainstorming with falashad about what I could make on short notice. After looking through the stash and my usual selection of references, decided I could probably throw together some coifs.

The women's coifs will be Elizabethan, based on the various extant pieces described in Janet Arnold 4. The men's coifs will be based on two boldly patterned silk taffeta coifs belonging to King Enrique of Castile (c. 1203-17) and his brother Infante Fernando (1189-1211), as described in Dahl, Camilla Luise and Sturtewagen, Isis (2008). "The Cap of St. Birgitta", in Medieval Clothing and Textiles 4: 99-142.

I started from the patterns in The Tudor Tailor and The Medieval Tailor's Assistant (men's) and Janet Arnold 4 (women's) and scaled them up onto my trusty yellow plaid practice fabric.

( It's an obscure project; you probably haven't heard of it. )
( I liked this project better before it got so mainstream. )

I have been working on a pair of trunk hose (sometimes aka "pumpkin pants") in the same fabric as the navy doublet I previously finished. The bottoms of the pant legs where they attach to the canions have darts, which hold the bottom of the pants out in the baggy shape. For an even baggier shape, you could stuff them with padding, but since they are heavy enough already I don't do so. The length of trunk hose can vary - some are very short, but I make mine to just above the knee, so the canion goes around my knee.

( Pictures and Descriptions )

(cross-posted to dressdiaries and cat_cetera)

Thursday
Endured teasing at tavern for wanting to have new garb to wear in the kitchen at Beltaine.

Saturday
Sewing new garb anyway. Finished applying previously described hand braided trim to pattern pieces of navy blue wool doublet. Having previously worked with a single strand of the cord I used to braid the trim and found it very unravelly, I applied the trim to all pieces without cutting it apart between pieces, then zigzagged very thoroughly across the ends of each piece before cutting the trim apart between them.

Found that I had cut the front pieces of the doublet with too generous an overlap, so sewed the front seams at 1.5" seam allowance. Studied various patterns of applying trim to fronts of doublets in Janet Arnold before deciding on applying trim 1" from the seam on each side of the center front.

Made shoulder wings - square ends and slightly rounded in the middle - and applied trim. Basted shoulder wings to armholes, then basted lacing strips for sleeves to armholes. The doublets from the last quarter of the sixteenth century and later shown in Janet Arnold do not have detachable sleeves (whereas some of the earlier ones do) - but Avacal must be warmer in the summer and better heated in the winter than early modern England or Italy (or else I have a lower tolerance for getting overheated than early modern Brits or Italians) because I find that I get way too warm in doublets with sleeves. I like to preserve the option of attaching sleeves, though, because it can get cold enough at night while camping to put sleeves on. Note though that a 2" wide strip is not quite wide enough when folded over to produce a wide enough lacing strip with a satisfactory amount of seam allowance - a 3" strip would be better.

Next, finished armholes. When sewing by machine, finishing armholes of a lined sleeveless garment requires sewing in two parts, turning the armhole inside out on a different axis each time- this is a complicated procedure I learned from my high school sewing teacher that never fails to elevate my stress level. It's much easier and probably only slightly more time consuming to finish armholes by hand using slip stitch. Clipped seam allowance around curves of armhole so that finished seam would lie flat.

Finally, basted tabs to bottom of doublet. Was going to cut out lacing strip for bottom of doublet, but am running out of steam and will save that step for tomorrow.

Tomorrow
To finish doublet - baste lacing strip to bottom of doublet, then finish bottom of doublet. Make buttons and buttonholes.

Would also like to rework fly of sailor pants to use buttons that have been finished forever, and make faux-blackwork hat.