very down

Not sure if fatigue is worse this year or what, but today has been spent trying to be at least upright and it has felt like a struggle all day, and that is after a day sleep that usually does help.

But we did have “not a storm really” last night which brought down this tree. And it was partially sheltered by the garage and house next door.

So pretty much all I did was overhand over my seams to stop them from twisting in the skirt.

 

Okay I did also manage to mostly remove colour from the saree borders, but I have to be careful as it’s the same kind of fabric as one I took too far. And there are still red patches.

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anne of cleves stickelchen

Okay, this has taken forever and I was trying to get this ready for.. tomorrow. AHAHAHAHAHHAAH!!!

But I decided to not take any shortcuts (except to stabilise layers before hand working.)

So this meant stretching the velvet and pearls over the base. Loose over handing of the back, then the front with tinier over handing.

Okay it’s not Anne’s because I do like a little room for interpretation and originality.

And this work? Well I had to carefully remove it all as a few branches were just off enough that I was not happy.

Rare back view as it doesn’t show that well on the form. Well it does but it doesn’t sit in the right place 🙂

And on top of the saree I picked up just tonight. It is vintage style and is very similar in hand to the saree I partially gave away a while back. This should decolour but it will be a little tougher than the recent saree.

There are a few larger gaps than intended in the stickelchen so there will be tidying tomorrow as well as tiny twigs like seen almost in the centre of the image below.

With all this, and with the news about the new schnittbuch it’s reinvigorated my desire to get The Frazzled Frau (boards under my name- all right at the top 🙂 ) back up and running. If there are pins from trusted sources I repin, if I have tracked down through image searches I pin anew and smile when it turns out others have pinned from the source too 🙂

But ah well currently using a mix of apps that are better than notepad but not as flash as I’d really like. But that’s xml documents for you. But essentially finding all the for public posts and making them public again 🙂 I’ve been blogging since 2001 so it’s an old habit and it’s not always been easy finding the balance 🙂

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cleves is sort of on track

I woke early and put Pride and Prejudice on and sewed. And sewed.

Backtracking a few days: My support bodice has been theorised and made. Basically I went this area has both Dutch and German influences and I really don’t want another sidelacing support so what if…?”

The shoulder is cut separately like in Alcega and other tailors. Because like me those tailors said “man this wastes fabric also I want a stable neckline all on the grain thankyouverymuch.”

I have done this since.. well the Kampfrau at least, but  in all the site moves this has been lost. So, that’s the two-fold benefit of cutting shoulders separately. Oh, but the shoulders are a single layer like the Effigy stays because it really is super comfy!

Then I wanted to try to use the overhanded body seams. This was nervewracking! I know the curvy S front seam means that’s where fitting happens, but it is very apparent from extant items that the side back was where the final fitting happens. This is clear when you look at the even seam allowances at the front but uneven allowances at the side back. That can only happen if the fronts were fitted and made up and the side backs done last.

I have managed that through very bad initial fitting stages though…

So here is my cunning method of transferring a seam and also my curvy S front seam. The entire bodice (aside from sloping neckline) is straight from a tailor’s book seen in Kohler’s History of Costume that looked like it was made up but is definitely from an extant manual.

I thought it was in Drei Schnittbucher (which really I hope everyone has) but I think was in another article. I will find it. Meanwhile the Kohler diagrams:

So finally I used twill tape to stabilise where I’ll be poking lacing holes, and bound the entire piece by hand.

Lots of falling in love with all the characters from P&P here and also lots of life lessons between my first viewing and latest!

So that wasn’t enough. I also removed the dye from the brocade for the hem of the gown proper and started putting the stickelchen together properly.

I like making hats, I love millinery. So of course am doing this as complicated as possible. But it’s at least plausible and mimics the structure I know was used for rigid headgear at this time. Oh trust me that documentation is coming but it’s been a slog to reverse image search as my bookmarks are out of control! And because it’s been over a decade since this project started there are broken links to hunt for archival forms 😉

The twill tape is to stabilise the edges.And the front shell is in place and the jeweled band is in progress. Just second guessing a few decisions for that one. I just don’t have the finding I know I want to use. The pretty ones clearly have glued stones and the “aged” gold is just not what you want for period items (you didn’t pretend the bling was dirty or not real, you wanted the bling!.)

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perlenmutzer

Progress from 2006:

Progress 2016 after stripping all the fire damaged bezants and sequins:

New pearls on the upper right, the same pattern was repeated on the upper left and a matching overlapping design added to the lower part.

Yes, it looks very wobbly. This is part of how the fabric was eased over the original support. I’ll be clipping the cotton tulle to let it ease as well.

Stash of pearls used for the update. There are a good number left to be able to use over the seam once assembled.

I am about to add the leaves again, these are different, they are what I used on my Krantz for my laurelling, so these are very apt 🙂

Again the pearls look wibbly, I don’t want to stretch the stitches once I put this back on the support so am having to live with it until then. Once on the support these will have heavier thread passed through to support the curves.

So happy to get this progress. I am doing eat therapy on my hands every couple of hours, 10mins at a time.

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