(no subject)

[mandie_rw]

I did actually cut something out last night - a modern skirt, since I do still want a couple of new things for our little Family Vacation. Well, "modern." It's a Butterick Retro 1960 dress pattern, 6582 - I've made the fuller-skirted dress before, and it's ok, but I really like the skirt! I've used it tomake a couple of skirts actually. This one is a novelty print cotton poplin - little umbrellas with raindrops! It was TOO adorable, and had to come home with me and be a skirt. Novelty print skirts are my weakness. (Which is sort of funny, because novelty prints are so kitschy, and normally I hate that sort of thing, but...like I said, my weakness.)

Anyway, I cut that out last night, and today I sewed the panels together. I even flat felled them, can you stand it?

And then I went and sewed one channel in the kirtle bodice. ONE. Why only one? Because I then happened to read the discussion on madamekat's journal about Tudor headdresses, and it made me reallyreally want to start on my own French hood. I don't have any of the fancy bits for the billiments yet, but that's okay...I'm not quite there yet!

Let me preface this account of mockups by stating that if I wasn't trying to copy a portrait so closely, I wouldn't have been nearly so fussy! I'm making my hood in the fairly-accepted-by-now (I think??) 3-piece construction of coif, paste, and veil. (See Sarah Lorraine's article on reconstructing the French hood.) Since there aren't any extant hoods to study, all I can do is peer at the portrait til my eyes cross.



To me, it looks as though the lower billiment is sitting directly on the brim of the coif, since the fabric underneath it is obviously white. The gold pleated frill follows the same line, so it makes sense to have a shaped and wired brim to the coif.

(As an aside, this also raises the question of a one- or two-piece coif. I know there are surviving one-piece coifs of a later date, whereas I don't know of any two-piece. I've seen reenactors make both, and I've made a one-piece coif myself, for my black velvet Tudor outfit. It worked perfectly well, but this time I've decided on a separate brim, for Reasons that I'll get to in a moment.)

The only sticking point of attaching all that fun stuff directly to the coif, is that it renders the coif unwashable if it's attached permanently. And an unwashable anything-that-sits-directly-on-your-hair is just dumb. So, I'm thinking that I'll make a one-layer coif (along the lines of an 18thc cap, hemming all the edges and whipping the pieces together), and then make a second brim piece that has all the organza and pearls and whatnot sewn to it, baste them together, and when I want to wash it? Voila! Just pick the separate brim off.

Yes, I realize in Real Life I'll probably wear this outfit, like, once, and never actually need to wash the coif. I like to make my outfits theoretically practical for the period, though!

So ANYWAY, that's what I did today - coif-wrangling. More specifically, coif-brim-wrangling. I started off with paper, cutting six or eight of those, before finally getting to muslin after work tonight. Only took three more of muslin before I was happy! Katherine's got a longer nose than I do, so trying to keep the proportions of the curve and point of that brim was...finicky. You wouldn't think it'd be so difficult. IT WAS. Getting that point to stay above my nose while still keeping my ears covered was baffling.


But I finally got it to a point I'm happy with! The "bag" of the coif is a little too enthusiastic here; I trimmed it down a little afterwards. But I think I've got something that won't horrify me with its awfulness when I cut it out of linen and sew it together.

Annnd now it's too late to go back to sewing channels on the kirtle. Oops.

Comments

[madamekat.livejournal.com]

COIF!!

I did find one pattern that someone shared online after doing a bunch of research, so I hope I don't have as many mock ups as you - ack! I'd throw it in the naughty pile. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you sharing all your ups and downs and progress. Really keep me excited about the project.

It was quite the shock to discover this whole coif phenomenon yesterday...a whole new element to my hood I didn't know about! Now about wiring the thing...uh...you just wire the front edge of the ear flap piece? Just sew a teeny channel and feed it through? I've never wired a cap before.

[isabelladangelo.livejournal.com]

http://isabelladangelo.blogspot.com/2013/04/historical-fortnight-7-part-two.html

My coif that I did last year with actual research even.

I also have an embroidered one and two french hoods that I've done in the past.

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

If you're not trying to copy a portrait exactly it'll be a lot easier, I promise! :D And, yay, I'm glad somebody else is benefiting from my natterings...I do really go back and read my own journal to see how I did things so it's always beneficial to me...but I think it's great we can keep each other excited about these projects! They're certainly involved enough that we need all the help we can get.

I know, right? Surprise! ;) And yeah, that's basically it - though I would probably sew the wire in as I made the channel, otherwise it'd be too hard to get around the pointy bits at the ears.

[isabelladangelo.livejournal.com]

There are a couple of options that I've done -

Attach the coif with just basting stitches that you can take out and put back in easily to wash the coif.

Have a flap behind the hood that will allow you to pin the hood to the coif without it being seen.

The basting stitches worked better but both work decently enough.

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Good to know that basting does work! :) I think I'll be doing that.

[starlightmasque.livejournal.com]

That looks great! I am so excited for your project-- it's so fun!

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad the fun comes across, because I am really enjoying myself, weird as it may seem with all the fiddly little things I like to complain about! xD