Apologies, this page is not yet completed...
The first dressmaking project I undertook was, in my typical style of grand beginnings, a ball dress for the university Summer Ball in my second year. It started because I couldn't find what I had in mind in the shops, a common occurrance when you are not the fashionable shape... I chose the pattern based on my ideas of what I wanted to wear, not with any concept of difficulty or complexity. The pattern I chose was of a long fitted dress with a slit up the side front and a crossed-strap effect to the back. Having bought the pattern, found and purchased the right material, I set out to make up the pattern. I then realised that it wouldn't be quite so easy to borrow my mother's sewing machine when it was in Guildford and I was in Colchester, a good two hours drive away! The dress was therefore made over the Easter vacation and on weekends when I popped home to see the parents. Mum helped out a bit as she 'played' some evenings when I wasn't around, because it was there... In what was to prove to be a common feature of my sewing projects, the dress was finially finished at 2am on the day of the ball!
Here are a couple of old pictures of me wearing the dress at the ball that year. Apologies for the poor quality of the photos, but the intervening years have meant that putting it on to take new photos would be a bit of a feat...
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The following year I was in Russia, so I wasn't able to make a new dress for myself. Luckily, due to the favourable exchange rate at the time, I was able to afford to commission a dress from a dressmaker in St. Petersburg. Based on a few sketches I made, she made a gorgeous purple gown for me that I still wear occasionally, although it is a little, um, snug!
For my final year, accepting that most of my 'free' time was going on studying for my finals and helping run the two societies I was secretary of, I chose to make myself a gorgeous 'Scottish Widows' style black velvet cloak. I lined this with silver-grey satin as I knew the lining would be as visible as the outside for a lot of the time. Because I had so little free time, my friend Dean helped me out a lot on this. Even so, we only just finished it with about 2 hours to go! This has been the best thing I made as I still use it regularly for goth and re-enactment events.
For a few years I made very little as due to illness and mobility issues my weight was constantly fluctuating. I started sewing again when I joined the Lion Rampant in 2003 and needed clothes! Over the years I have realised that I find sewing machines over-complicated and that patterns and me don't get on too well. Mostly nowadays I use a pattern to cut out from and make up the pieces as seems logical to me... This does mean that my projects take quite a long time to complete, but are mostly hand-sewn and are truely fitted to me. Between 2004 and 2006 I was making a red woolen Burgundian-style dress, which is now mostly complete, I think. It has detachable fitted sleeves and white rabbit-fur collar. I know it differs slightly from many of the dresses of this style as depicted, in two ways. The most obvious is that it is fitted by lacing at the back instead of through a larger front neckline with added 'stomacher', the gap at the front being filled with a decorative panel on my underdress. Secondly I have gathered the bodice to the waist - a less visible difference since this area is underneath my belt. I am also considering making some open sleeves as an alternative to the fitted ones, and trimming the cuffs of the fitted sleeves with the same fur as is at the neck. These anomalies allow me to cope with variations in my size during the season, but as my weight is coming more under control I am considering a making a newer, more accurate dress to wear. This will happen once my current projects are completed however as I have banned myself from undertaking any new projects!!
Currently I am completing a basic surcoat or tabard for my friend Gavin, in his character's colours - Argent and gules. This is to my own pattern, based on the fit of his arming jack, over which it will normally be worn. It is in a soft but strong cotton canvas, with a red linen lining and will lace up at the sides once complete.
Kirtle:
In 2003 I bought myself a basic generic kirtle from Anne Laverick as a first dress for shows. However, this dress is slightly too short for a noble woman as it skims my ankles. To deal with this I initially intended to add a border to the hem, but subsequently it has undergone considerable remodeling to make it into an underdress. Firstly I removed the heavy linen lining which was easily adapted into a simple shift to wear under all my kit. I then celebrated my first signs of decreasing width by taking in the bodice about an inch to make it more snugly fitted and to remove the obvious lower-class front lacing. Since then I have been working on tightening the fit of the sleeves and adding fashionable late mediaeval buttons from wrist to elbow. Most of these buttons will be false, but the ones at the wrist will have to be able to open so I can get my hand through!
I am also making over a yellow silk-ish dress I bought second hand at Tewkesbury a few years ago. So far I have done the removal of the worst anachronisms and now I am working on strengthening the fabric. It is a lovely bright yellow, short sleeved dress with a slight train. Currently I am making a bodic lining to protect the fabric in the most fragile areas - around the bust seams. Following that I need to make holes to lace the back where the former zip was, and then decide whether to replace the fake fur trims with real fur, a different type of trim, or leave without...
Another ongoing make-over project is my sideless surcoat, originally made by my lady, Helen, many years ago. It is a very basic kirtle, of a middle-class to gentry style. It is, however, very comfy! The main alteration I am making is changing the fake fur on the hem, as seen in the picture below and replacing this with either real fur or a suitable plain trim. I am also redoing the hemming as the fabric had started fraying apart there.
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Blue linen shirt for Jon - requested for next season (2008)...
Hat to wear with my Burgundian dress, as my current style of a circlet over a veil is a bit of a mismatch of periods.
When complete, this will contain better information and decent pictures to completed sewing and craft projects I have undertaken. Rosaries will be dealt with seperately with their own page in time.
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