Painted wings and giant rings

*Where in queen just means gets to dictate what project the sewing room will work on, as much as anyone can steer the sewing room, which is essentially a loose affiliation of various cats using a large bathtub as a boat in the middle of the ocean.

*Where in a month is a non-specific time frame, thus far a month has taken approximately 4 months and we haven’t really started yet, and that’s ok.

So after a long and arduous year of making things for other people, we (the people of the sewing room) decided that we needed new garb, and wouldn’t it be fun if we could get our friends to help us make things that we wouldn’t be able to do without help.

The first up on our list is Andi, which we are finally getting started working on – and I’m second, but since Andi and I’s projects are vaguely similar (both late period English(ish)) we are somewhat starting on mine now too. I realized that I haven’t posted my sketches for this project when I was trying to explain it yesterday on google+. So this post is to share the sketches and the evolution of what I’m doing for this outfit.

Step 1) An underdress that actually fits me. I found out last week that one should make the shoulders the size of your shoulders! (yes, I know that’s really basic, but most tutorials take your largest measurement and make a tube which you then add sleeves and gores on to, this does not work if you have small shoulders.

Step 2) So I’ve seen partlets done a number of ways, I particularly like this option, which is over the underdress, but under the bodice. One of the major benefits as far as I can tell is that you can tie it under the bust so it doesn’t move when you fidget. We’ll see if this actually works in practice, but it seems worth trying at least. This is also where the collar comes in, which is handy in some ways as you can then change out collars depending on the outfit and or where you spilled your ice cream.

Step 3) A reversible kirtle, we still deciding where it laces, probably on the sides, maybe in a V on the sides, depending on which works the best for my un-medieval body shape. The front garment construction in general may well also be more \_/ than | _ | because of the difference in circumference at my shoulders and my bust. It’s going to be purple on one side and dark green on the other. (I also have fabric to make one in a neat teal twill that will also be reversible as the fabric is reversible and I have one already in a different teal and brown)

Step 4) Sleeves! Doubletly thing! No idea what is going on with that belt, or where the partlet went to, or precisely what that hat is, but it’s based on the coif/forehead cloth thingy.

Step 5) A wool jacket thing! This is based off a brown wool one that I got from one of my grandmother’s reenactor friends
(I think Phyllis McCluskey? Or possibly Marnie Sumner?) when I was a teen. I wore it for many years until I got too big for it, and I have always wanted to make another as it’s so pretty. I bought some gorgeous grey wool in Toronto this spring which should work nicely.

Step 6) Probably not part of the initial project, but! I want to make an over dress out of some russet brown linen that I have, it would be open in the front (which this picture is not showing) and would lace over the bottom kirtle. This is a much more continental look, but given that there was a great deal of trade, intellectual and physical between Amsterdam and the eastern part of England, this makes sense. I also haven’t really decided if I want this persona to be Dutch or English, but at the economic standing I’m building (middle to lower middle class merchant/tradesman) there’s very little difference in the structure of the clothing. The New Englander in me is drawn to East Anglia, as that’s where most of the stylistic things that we take for granted in New England (houses, food, speech, morals, and so on) come from. (See Albion’s Seed)