April 2010: The Surcoat Revisted, Re-Revisted, Re-Re-Revisted...You Get the Picture

I'm feeling a sense of deja vu as I write this. I'm sure I mentioned that I had finally figured out the pattern design for the red surcoat months ago. Unfortunately the design of the red surcoat now reminds me of one of those movies that have seamingly unending sequels. In fact, I think I've redesgined this surcoat more times than the number of Star Trek movies.

Let us go back to the end of September 2009. Yes, that would be 6 months ago! This was the last time that I mentioned the red surcoat. I had actually made a pattern design and was happy with it. Well, time away from the pattern allowed me to look at the surcoat in the Codex Manesse illumination with fresh eyes. I could see that my pattern was rather far from the design of the red surcoat I was aiming for. My design was too tight in the bodice area. I think I created it this way because I was denying the real desgin of the Codex Manesse style, which shows no real shape to the wearer whatsoever. I was thinking in the 21st Century, not the 14th Century. Now that I have been in the SCA for a year and now that my eyes have become accustomed to the various and sundry styles available I am more comfortable with the style I need to create to look like the illumination.

So, back to the drawing board!

For a refresher I have posted a photo of the outfit in the Codex Manesse illumination which I am using as well as a photo from another Codex Manesse illumination in which the woman is wearing a very similar outfit. Because she is standing in this image it was easier for me to see what I needed to do to the pattern. As you can see in the photos, the surcoat is rather voluminous in the skirt. As well, the bodice area is voluminous with gathers in the neckline under the neck facing. The armholes are fairly high up but there is some view of the kirtle underneath.

In my original surcoat designs I had thought I would need gores to create the fullness of the skirt even though I do not see gore seams in the illumination image. I think I was trying to create more fullness in the skirt hoping it would "fix" the bodice as well. Even this past week when I started working on the design again I included gores hoping for a better fit. I was again disappointed.

Then one morning while lying awake in bed trying to pretend I was sleeping in it finally dawned on me what I needed to do. It finally occurred to me that I needed more fabric in the bodice area and that more fabric meant I might need to include gathers. I created a whole new pattern and tried it on. It was almost there! And after some more tweaking and more cutting I finally arrived at THEE design. As soon as I looked at myself in the mirror I knew it was finally right. I didn't see anything that bugged me anymore. It looked like the Codex Maness surcoat! And it didn't need gores either. I used the full width of the fabric (60 inch width) at the bottom and tapered it somewhat closer to the bodice, although not completely so as to create the fullness in the bodice as well.

And here are the results of my final mock-up surcoat design in front and side view photos (You can see the satisfied smile on my face!):

And just for fun I thought I would do a "mash-up" photo of all the various and sundry designs of the surcoat that I actually photographed:

Amazingly enough, although 5 photos are shown, I can actually count in my head at least 8-10 times that I went back and re-designed, adjusted and tweaked the design during the whole process! It became an obsession that I wasn't going to let go until I got it right. Perhaps if I was a professional seamstress I might have had it sorted out a long time ago, but I am not. Perhaps if I had found a pattern that matched the image I would have had it done sooner rather than later, but I didn't find such a pattern. I am content with my trial and error technique that has resulted in my very own pattern design! It was a trial and there were definitely errors but I think it has paid off in the end.

So, today, April 6th, 2010, I cut out that red surcoat with the gold neck facing.

Now to sew it together!

Beginning of April 2010: Eyelets, a Hem and a Finished Product!

And on April 1st 2010 after 4 months of hand sewing I finally completed the first piece in my quest! The green kirtle is complete!

In a flurry of activity this past week I was able to get much done. First came the eyelets. Using the same techniques that I learned to complete the eyelets on the brown kirtle I made months ago I proceeded to sew 18 eyelets onto my new green kirtle. When it came to the choice of thread, the fabric store did not offer much. I had a choice between polyester buttonhole twist or cotton quilting thread. Although the buttonhole twist would be heavier I did not want to tarnish the finish of my kirtle with polyester so I purchased the quilting thread, hoping I could double it up for thickness. As it happens, though, I was spending an evening with my mentors, Estela and Cristiana. Once they knew my intentions there was a furtive search in their stash of sewing materials and lo and behold, a spool of 100% linen thread, nice and heavy, and in the perfect colour was found! We waxed it up and I began my eyelets!

Below is a photo of the 18 completed eyelets:

The next and final job was the hem. And the hem was the purpose of my evening with Estela and Cristiana. After a rather unsuccessful attempt at measuring up the hem myself at home I realized I would need help. So that evening I tried on the kirtle and thankfully had Estela trim around the bottom of the dress while I stood with it on. A perfect way to measure up a hem! The next day I proceeded to press up the hem. Estela had given me a wonderful tip in easing the fullness of the hem and it worked beautifully. I pressed up the edge about a 1/4 of an inch, then ran a loose running stitch around the edge. I could then pull up the thread to ease in the fullness as I pressed down the hem. A little trim here and a little adjusting there and I had a hem marked up.

Below are two photos, the first showing how the hem is gathered with the running stitch and the second showing how nicely it presses down:

And on the evening of April the 1st I hand stitched that hem, using a nice even and close together running stitch and with that the kirtle was complete!

Below I would like to present to you the finished product in front, side and back views!

Now to start all over again and begin the construction of the red surcoat!

End of March: Neck Facing and Sleeves

The neck facing and sleeves are now done!

The pattern for my kirtle does not include cut outs for facing so I had to construct the pieces myself. The stitch I have used thus far for constructing the kirtle has been the whip stitch. Considering that the facing must be placed onto the dress with right sides together, and then turned to the inside of the dress I believe the whipstitch would be rather difficult to use. Instead I have used the running stitch. This is the stitch that my mentor, Cristiana, suggested. In the "Reconstructing History Sewing Techniques of the Medieval Period" sewing guide it is said that the running stitch was used for seams that required little strength. I believe the neck facing would fall into this category. So the neck facing has been done with the running stitch, keeping the stitches small and close together to give the seam sufficient strength, then turned inside and finished with a running stitch.

Below is a photo of the neck facing in progress using the running stitch:

And a photo of the finished neck facing from the inside:
As for the sleeves, looking at the original Codex Manesse illumination I see a gold band on the bottom edge. To re-create this band I purchased silk fabric in a gold colour. I believe silk is a good choice for this band as silk is a natural fibre and was a fabric used in the medieval period according to an online source: " Science and Technology in Medieval European Life" where it states that wealthier members of society would use imported silk. To construct the band I cut a rectangular piece of the fabric in the desired width and attached it with a running stitch on the outside of the sleeve as seen in the photo below:

I then proceeded to sew up the length of the sleeve using the whip stitch that was used for the majority of the dress, switching from the green cotton thread to gold cotton thread once arriving at the band. As well, I finished the edges as I had done with the rest of the dress. I then folded up the band to the inside of the sleeve and finished it with a running stitch.

Here is a photo of the band attached to the sleeve and finished on the outside:

Here is a photo showing the finishing of the sleeve inside:

The next step was to attach the sleeves to the dress. Reading through the "Reconstructing History Sewing Techniques of the Medieval Period" Guide it is stated that the back stitch was a very common stitch used for underarm seams and sleeve attachments. With this said, this is the stitch I decided to use for attaching the sleeves.

In the photo below you can see the back stitching on one side of the seam:

And in this photo you can see the backstiching on the reverse side of the seam:

All that was left to do was to finish the edges of the sleeve armholes. To do this I trimmed one edge of the seam so I could fold the wider edge over it, turn it under and secure it with a running stitch. This proved to be a neat finish and comfortable once wearing the dress.

With the neck facing and sleeves complete, all I have left to do is eyelets and a hem! I can just taste the completion of the kirtle!

Gore and Side Seam Edges Finished!

No special photos to show, but I just needed to mark the day to say that I am finally finished "finishing" all the gore and side seam edges! Thought it would never end!

Now onto sleeves and such!

February 2010: Kirtle Gores Complete and a New Deadline

Well that took me longer than I thought it would! I am happy to say, however, that I finally have all four gores sewn to the kirtle and now have the garment at a stage where I can try it on. So here I am, sewn into the kirtle, showing off my beautiful hand sewn gores!

Front View

Side View

I was extremely pleased with the results. After ironing the seams, the view on the outside of the garment is so much better than I thought it would be. Close-ups of the front and side views reveal that the seams are almost invisible.

Front View Close Up

Side View Close Up

With this said, my original plan for finishing the inside edges of the fabric was to fold them over and whip stitch them to the kirtle. After showing Estela my results she said that the view of the seams on the outside of the dress were so well done that I should not want to ruin the view by creating another line of stitching that would be visible on the outside of the garment. She then suggested that to finish the edges inside of the garment I should fold over each edge and whip stitch the edges without attaching them to the garment itself. According to the written material found in the kirtle pattern (14th Century Woman's Kirtle Instructions), the information on period stitches found on the last two pates of the instructions talk of the whip stitch being used for finishing raw edges. With this information I was assured that finishing the edges as such would be keeping the project in period as well as preserving the beautiful finish of the dress. Here are some photos of the seams up close on the outside as well as a view of the finished edges on the inside:

Close up view of finished gore on outside.

Close up view of finished edges on inside.

Close up view of underneath finished edge on inside.

I have not yet completed the finishing of all the seam edges so that is my next task. Once that is finished I can move onto the next step in constructing the kirtle...perhaps the sleeves.

At this point I'd like to make a modification to my goal. The First Time Hand Sewing Challenge was befun in June of 2009 to be completed in June of 2010, giving one year to complete the project. Since I did not start the actual project until November of 2009 I believe it would not be out of the question to consider my deadline to be November 2010. I would like to say I could get my entire project done by June of 2010, but I think it would be unrealistic. I'd rather extend my deadline and do a great job than keep to the original deadline and rush.

So, my deadline will now be November 2010. With this said, I'm hoping to wear my new outfit for this year's "Herne the Hunter" SCA event held in my area.

Let the Sewing Begin!

No more excuses!

My first time hand sewing project has left the research and preparation stage and has finally entered the actual construction stage! I was so excited at the prospect of starting the project for real that I had to take photos to mark the occasion. Here I am, November 29th, 2009 actually cutting out the project!


And later that same day I finally began hand sewing the pieces together!

My process for choosing the stitch for the first seams included reading through the “Reconstructing History Sewing Techniques of the Medieval Period” sewing guide by Kass McGann as well as receiving some instruction from my mentors, Estela and Christiana. McGann talks about the Running Stitch, the Back Stitch and the Whip Stitch. My first instincts told me to go with the back stitch, since this is a stitch my mother taught me a very long time ago. McGann explains that this stitch was used in underarm seams, sleeve attachments and crotch seams because it remains strong. However, for the majority of my seams, I have been instructed by my mentors Estela and Christiana, that the whip stitch is the one to use. According to McGann’s sewing guide, this stitch would be used secure raw edges together but raw edges of fabric available in medieval times were manufactured so that the edges would not unravel, unlike today’s fabrics. McGann explains that those of us sewing in the modern mundane world make the mistaken assumption that all garments are constructed in the same manner, whether today or in medieval times. The sewing construction of garments today is based on the use of the modern sewing machine, which requires fabric to lay flat. In medieval times, garments were often sewn directly on the person and seam allowances were also rather narrow. Today our standard seam allowance is 5/8 “, which is wide. With this in mind, I have created my patterns with modern 5/8” seam allowances. For the whip stitch to be used on these patterns, my seams have to be folded down, then sewn on the outside.

As for choice of thread, Kass McGann’s guide talks about wool, linen and silk thread. Although I would like to use the most authentic materials as possible, the availability and cost of these materials makes it difficult for me to choose any of them. In the interest of keeping my project in the very least as natural as possible, I have chosen to use Gutermann 100% cotton thread.

Here is a photo of my very first seam on the green kirtle:

And the project is now underway!

Excuses, Excuses

So...it's been a while...again! But I have good excuses!

My first excuse: My fabric took more time to arrive than I had anticipated. My second excuse: I seemed to come down with that dreaded Swine (H1N1) Flu! For anyone who has had it, it packs a punch!

However, while waiting for my fabric, and before contracting the flu, I decided I couldn't sit around and do nothing. I knew I had an event I wanted to attend on November 28th (Herne the Hunter) and I was not happy with any of my attempts at outfits thus far. As you may recall, I have only been in the SCA for a few months and have been through a LOT of education!

I had a brown dress I had made for previous events, but I wasn't happy with it. It had "princess seams" which I was told wasn't correct for my 14th Century persona by my mentor, Estela. Aside from that, it didn't fit as well as I thought it did when I first made it. So, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to try out my new fitted kirtle pattern for real. Making the kirtle by machine out of good fabric would help me work out any last minute "bugs" before using the pattern for my hand sewing project.

This turned out to be a fabulous idea. Not only did I find out that I needed to take in the seams just a little more at the sides than they had been on my "mock-up", but I also had the opportunity to learn how to sew the eyelets. I had only ever done buttonholes on machine. I have never done eyelets before, probably because they would need to be done by hand! So, I received some instruction from my mentor, Christiana, and I was on my way! Here are some pictures of my very first and second practice eyelets...I think I improved greatly on the second one!:



And here are a couple of photos of the eyelets on my new brown kirtle along with a good view of the fit. The eyelets were definitely a good thing to work on while I was sitting around trying to recover from the flu! I think I did a pretty good job!




And for the grand finale, here are my "Before" and "After" photos. The look on my face says it all...the second photo of me in my proper 14th Century brown kirtle shows much improvement, I think!

So, now I know my kirtle fits properly I am satisfied that my hand sewing project will be a success.

And I even have the fabric now, so I will be starting asap!