cleves progress

Today the carpal tunnel injections have proven their worth 🙂 If I can do this one or two more times before I have to have surgery I’ll be happy. Sounds like I need my ulna’s chopped off sooner, but, maybe?

Also I may have gone through 1/4 of my Hot Cinnamon Sunset tea. Now if I could get a perma-stash of that I’d be happy 😉

Okay so putting fabric away up high just made my radial stuff really make a statement but I am just wandering around with bandages around my wrists not full splints 🙂

But I have cut my Cleves skirt fully, an entirely new kirtle bodice (hey Michaela it’s summer, you do not want linen canvas, cotton twill, and silk underneath those layers for the bodice) from my linen twill.

Just took a break to share this. I usually work with non easy to photograph fabric so this is why I’m sharing now! I usually use a mechanical pencil and draw directly under the pins that emerge from the top but I just had chalk out there today.

Also yes, florist pins. They grip better and I can really pull in my seams to fit properly. It’s easy to see how, I also overlap them to work like boning/support.

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cleves bodice fitting

I started with taking a copy of my Braunchweig gown and a transfer of my “german” kirtle to make my two bodices.

This is the Braunchweig copy as it is regionally close but also able to swing into the more dutch bodice shape.

I did also keep the Mary of Hungary bodice in mind.

How this works is the edge is on the grain so you have to smooth and stretch the fabric from there  under the arm and to the waist. So yes the waist is off the grain. This is how the Mary of Hungary gown works too- if the edge was taken off the grain you get stretch going around the neckline that needs to be stabilised.

The down side to this is it makes fitting the armscye a nightmade.

But I kept going.

Ugh, look at how that now sits. Oh the back fits beautifully but where the excess fabric is moved to shows I needed a longer narrower back to be able to support this open neckline.

So my options were to remake the back panel or put in a seam. I dislike putting seams in the CB of my German gear but I am also running out of this fabric!

But it worked.

Then of course I had to copy the seam placement from one side to the other.

Side back matching, and shoulder matching.

SIde front matching.

The silk has almost no give! So I also also had to do a few tweaks on the form. I smoothed the left shoulder up and pushed the excess to fold over the shoulder seam.

As can be seen the armscye is very tight in the front of the arm, this will be clipped but only after I have properly assembled the kirtle layer and have the support this gown needs.

So I may see if I can get the kirtle underneath already to fit the way I need it!

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stickelchen test fit

Love. So in love. My hair has been lost and regained between first making and wearing to now, so I have to do something different with my haube. Right now the back of the one I wear under my pearled Braunchweig haube pushes the back of the stickelsche out of place. This style depends heavily on having braids just so and haube just so. But doesn’t really require much fussing once on. It’s just getting familiar with your hair and fabric properties 🙂

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stickelchen

I am incredibly happy with how the braid looks. Yep, it is laid over pearls rather than all being flat as that is the dimensionality that is seen in all forms of pearl work from this region. The tapering is right as well, I just used pearls that were oversized originally and while I know this I want to keep a lot of my original work as possible.

But look! There may even be enough leaves to really fill in the back, but that may be part of the work that will go into joining the sides together 🙂

Today also saw the skirt linings cut for two gowns. Yep. Pink. Pink is returning to the wardrobe 🙂

Oh hey, also went on a saree buying spree! This one was a spur of the moment buy when I picked up the ones intended for the cleves hem 🙂

The gold tone trim it what I grabbed these for and totally didn’t realise there was potential for the coloured embroidery….. now there are Thoughts(tm).

This one was riskier. not sure if it’s easy to spot but those repeats can be cut in half to mimic the trim of the Moulin Rouge wedding gown. It’s a start. Also once in hand it does look like thr ground of the repeats is cotton so it should decolour really nicely!

I hope!

But there is a lot of unpicking over the next few days!

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