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June 2015

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Thursday 1 May 2008

Right, Need to make this dress..

WEll the time has come i can't put off making clothes for abbey any longer...


Will have to start with my bodice pattern that my sister made for me... problem 1, i don't have any linen to make the dress.

1. Can i use silk to make the dress??

2. that means i'll have to make another one out of linen for cooking

3. I have some really nice blue fabric to go over the gold silk, so i have to make that too...

4. i need to make a couple of chemises...

5. I need to make/buy/ borrow / a doublet or other mens apparel for Chris

6. He WANTS new hose

7. He WANTS a new cloak (full circle with embroidery)

8. He WANTS a pouch made like one of mine...

9. I DONT want to do all that....

Think i will start with a mock up of the bodice pattern out of the lining that i have.
Then figure out the cutting pattern for the skirt, not sure which way is best though.

20 comments:

Cathelina said...

Yes, you can use silk, but you might want to do one in linen first as a practice, unless you have cheap silk you're not too fond of. Most of us are making simple linen dresses for now and having them for abbey (gamurra's that is) and then after abbey working on silk giornea's nd cioppa's (the overdresses, which we don't need for abbey)

For the skirt you can use gored or straight pannels, it doesn't matter but I prefer the flow of a gored skirt. Just make the waist of the skirt 3 times or 5 times the waist of the boddice so you can pleat it easilly. 3 times gives normal pleats, 5 times gives double pleats. if you tell me the dimensions of the fabric you have after taking what you need for bodice and sleeves and your bodice waist measurement I can send you some cutting options for the skirt if you like.
Don't forget you need sleeves! Tie on, sewn on, the same colour or not doesn't matter, but the same colour is more normal.

Sarah Ketley said...

i know we have discussed the best cuttign pattern for skirts, but what is your honest oppinion. I don't think amount of fabric is going to be a problem.. just what pattern....

Sarah Ketley said...

ah lol...we posted at the same time..... hang on just measuring the fabric....

Cathelina said...

gored, definatly gored. 8-12 gores is good, though 4 gores is better than straight pannels. lets say you are having 8 gores, you get 4 lengths of fabric your waist to floor measurement long (120 is great if thats the width of the babric) and any width, 1 metre is fine. You measure your bodice waist, multiply it by three (or five if you want double pleats, but for a gored skirt normal pleats are fine) then divide that number by eight. you then cut each fabric rectangle into two trapezoids. So you have the 1metre as the top and bottom, and the 120cm as the sides, you measure in along the top that measurement (the waist x 3 divied by 8) from the left, measure in the same amount along the bottom from the right, and draw a line betweent the two and cut. Sew together straight to slanty, and pleat to waist.
That will need four metres just for the skirt part, count another metre or so for bodice and sleeves. But if you have less or more you can change the amount of gores, or the sixe of them. just remember, for each rectangle you cut up the 1/8 measurement thingy must be less than half the width of the rectangle, or you will not get a gored skirt!

Sarah Ketley said...

Well the silk is in many peices so i doesn't really matter. I think i will go with the gore option. I am about 74cm, (ish) around the line where the skirt starts. what number of gores do you think.

One of the pieces is 112 cm wide and long enought for 2 mabee 3 dress lengths down...

Sarah Ketley said...

I will have a play and see what i can come up with..

Sarah Ketley said...

ok well if my "weist" is 74 then i need 74x3 = 222cm of fabric to go "round".

divide by 4 (to get to the size of the rectangle...) i have 55.5 cm per rectangle. then add seam allowance to each rectangle, (1.5 for each of the FOUR seams that will be in a rectangle... so add 6 cm...
= 61.5 cm for each of the FOUR rectangles. then, cut on the diagonal....hmmmm hang on getting confused...give me a minute....

Sarah Ketley said...

ok just figued out why you said 1 meter rectangle.... you need the top of the gores to EACH be about 27 cm for me.... so yes i meter panels will be about right i guess...

that makes the top of the panel about 30cm and the bottom about 90cm to make the right shape....

Sarah Ketley said...

i will make the lining out of some spare white fabric i think and then make the outer silk layer, or use some linen if i have found some in the meantime... i would LIKE some dark blue linen if i can find some...

Sarah Ketley said...

ohhhh...you have no idea how cold it is down here at the moment... I have the oven...i mean the "heater" going at the moment because it is freezing....

Cathelina said...

If the fabric is 112 wide then you can use that as the width of the rectangles, the width doesn't really matter that much, then cut lengths of that fabric to the length of your skirt. You divide the 222 by the number of gores, not the number of rectangles. So if you have 4 rectangles, then you divide that number by 8, not 4.

You said you had enough for 2-3 lengths, so lets say you have enough for three lengths using the fabric width as the rectangle width. Well, you would cut those three rectangles into six trapezoids with the top of the trapezoids being 37cm pluss seam allowance (so about 38.5 cms). the bottoms would be 75cms minus the seamallowance you took out for the top (because the pieces are top and tailed, yes?) so 73.5 or something like that.

so you have six gores from three rectangles that are 112 wide by waist to floor length long. This is seven seams btw, but you just add seam allowance to each top of the trapezoid as you go.

If you can only get two panels, then you have four gores. Using the fabric width as the rectangle width you have 222 divided by four to give you a gore top of 55.5 and a bottom of 56.5, which is rather pointless because by the time you add seam alowance to the waist then you just have rectangles, and you might as well jst save the bother and do rectangluar pannels.
I can draw pictures tonight if this is still confusing!

Sarah Ketley said...

Hi Angela,

yep no i think i understand, i shall just have to do it i think...

i have more than the one drop of silk i have about 4 so i have enough for as many panels as i want, although i think i will stick to 4 rectangles and 8 gores if that is ok. I'll use the 112 wide as the panel width though, that will give it a little more hem.

it's very difficult to test the bodice pattern by myself though, and far too bloody COLD!!!

maybe i will tackle another project for the moment. Or wait until i have my linen here.

Cathelina said...

four rectangles and 8 gores is fine, its the two rectangles 4 gores that wasn't ok with that fabric width.

Best way to test a bodice is sew one up (at lest two layers) in fabric you can spare, lace it properly and wear it round the house for half a day or so (under warm clothes if you must, you poor cold thing hahaha)

Sarah Ketley said...

yeah tried that today, am half way through i guess... i got disctracted by a movie and then a cup of tea, or maybe 3 cups of tea, then a new pattern for a double for Chris. :-)

Sarah Ketley said...

might go and watch Pride and Prejudice and finish the embroidery for at least ONE of the pouches....may even finish it off, you never know...

Sarah Ketley said...

Hey, just letting you know that Gemma (ie my friend from work) wants to join condott i think. So if she contacts you that will be why. Her mother can sew i believe.... not sure if she wants to be part of this years show. but she will need a hand with costuming if she does. I'll let you know what's going on. The biggest problem i think is going to be shoes.

do you have any knowledge about shoes made of FABRIC rather than leather???

must look into that, i'd love to have a go at shoe making though, anyway better get back to the doublet. its in peices on the floor.

lining nearly done except for the sleaves....

yuck

byee

Cathelina said...

I don't know about fabric shoes, but I do know where she can get a pair of shoes for about $65-70 US including postage.

Sarah Ketley said...

hmmmmmm i'm sure i have seen something somewhere about shoes (leather bottoms i presume, that have fancy silk tops on them. Have you seen anything at all about something like this. I guess i makes sense a bit like modern slippers???


maybe we can keep an eye out for them

Sarah Ketley said...

hmmmmmm i'm sure i have seen something somewhere about shoes (leather bottoms i presume, that have fancy silk tops on them. Have you seen anything at all about something like this. I guess i makes sense a bit like modern slippers???


maybe we can keep an eye out for them

Cathelina said...

Yeah, I know what you mean, I just can't think of any primary or secondry evidence for them for us. Cat might know though.