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Ladies in Red (Part 2)

3/21/2020

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When the linen first came in, I couldn't wait to get started. Finally, all the blogs I'd read about how to do authentic Renaissance smocking seemed possible on this type of fabric.

I should back up a bit and explain the shirt design I settled on, though. Last year, before I moved, I'd tried doing some smocking on some scrap cotton (I think it was an old sheet), just to see how it would work. Well, it didn't work out too well. I concluded that it was just the wrong fabric. And perhaps I needed a better tutorial. 
​
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Look how sheer this bleached linen is! What you can't experience here is how soft it is while still holding on to some "body".
When I made the first sketch of the red renaissance dresses, I just put a generic gathered-necked chemise underneath - the simplest design to both draw and make. But the more I researched the style of dress I was going for, the more I realized that I would want an actual hemd (German shirt/chemise) with a higher neck and actual collar. 

​In researching German hemds, I came across the wonderful Cathrin Åhlén's  blog, Katafalk. She is a trained tailor and dressmaker who has a passion for historical dress. The walk-through of her hemd seemed straightforward but also detailed enough that I was willing to give it a shot.
Of course, the real show-stopper here is all the smocking, done by hand. Hundreds (and I do mean hundreds!) of tiny, perfectly straight folds, with meticulous embroidery in decorative patterns over them - daunting for sure. But with every new project, I want to learn something new. 

The next slide show of pictures took many evening hours after work in front of the TV to complete. Each gathering line stitch meant picking up only two or three threads in the fabric, and they had to be a straight and even as possible. And once the gathering lines are all pulled up, each embroidery stitch has to be as neat as you can make your hand stitching. Thankfully (for once), I have a short neck, so there's only a little embroidery that can fit on the collar. 
Once the neck was done, the sleeve cuffs follow suit. After the yards of fabric in the collar, the sleeve cuffs went by in breeze by comparison! I used a different color gathering thread, both for variety, and so I tell in the pictures what I was working on.
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​Before I was even completely through with the neck, I had to get the trim fabric out to see how it would match. I can't believe how well they go together!

I didn't talk about it in the last post, but the shape of the white flower, and the little paisley shaped teardrops are actually very period appropriate for Renaissance Europe, which is one of the reasons we chose it.
As I was nearing the completion of this hemd (I will be making a second one, of course), the pandemic hit. Everything about it feels surreal, but at the same time, I am taking things seriously.

After 4 days of working from home, I could already tell I would need to make an effort to reach out virtually, or my natural introvert/hermit tendencies would leave me miserable. So, I planned a little Facebook Live book review/tea party, and invited friends. It also gave me a deadline to finish the hemd, because I knew I would want to feature it during the tea party.
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Once I got it on Sewing Babe, I was actually impressed with myself. (Please excuse the white bra underneath - this is a necessary size adjustment to Sewing Babe.)
For the tea party, I put the hemd on my dress dummy, Sewing Babe. I'd already purchased some black broadcloth for some simple underskirts, but I hadn't had time to sew the skirts together. So, what you see on Sewing Babe is actually just pinned together!

Even so, I am encouraged that it's already starting to feel more like a dress that could belong to a German Baroness. 
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In this outfit, Sewing Babe has startled me more than once - she makes for an impressive roommate.
There is a post-script to this part of the project, and it has very little to do with the actual project. Life feels very uncertain with the onset of the pandemic. No one knows how it will play out, but I do know myself, and I know that being entirely by myself during this shut down is not good for my mental health. Theoretically, working from home will give me more time to work on projects...it just may not be from my own home. Stay tuned!
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Ladies in Red (part 1.5)

3/1/2020

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​As you know, I've already put a lot of thought and preparation into our next red Renaissance dresses. And then I was browsing my online discount store guilty pleasure, Wish.com, and came across petticoats at a too-good-to-be-true price. And I began thinking, it sure would be nice to have new petticoats to go with the new dresses, as petticoat polyester doesn't mix well with cockle burs.
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I mean, for $10, how could I not?
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​To my mild surprise, they actually came (I have ordered things from Wish that have gotten lost in the mail). Of course, they were one-size-fits-all. And by one size, they mean one tiny Chinese lady size. 

When I got them out of their packaging, their one hoop sprang up like a pop-up tent or windshield sun screen. I was pleased to find the top tummy panel part was stretch fabric. Even so, it was still too small for me. So, I purchased some remnant stretch sport nylon, and a little petticoat tulle, and went to work. 

I didn't take too many pictures of the process, but it was very simple. I opened the skirt along the back seam, and inserted a large isosceles triangle the length of the skirt with the narrow tip at the skirt hem, and the wide top edge with the additional inches needed for the waist. I used the tulle to fill in some of the gap in the back, but I ended up not having enough to completely fill it in. But no one will be able to tell once the underskirt is worn over it. Plus, this one fuzzy picture is probably the only time you'll see the petticoat ;)
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Ladies in Red (part 1)

2/25/2020

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Well. Here we are again. 

After the completion of our most recent Renaissance dresses, the Blue Bee dresses, I asked Rachel if we had enough dresses for festivals and faires. What a silly question. 

Red seems to be the one color we haven't really explored, and is the other royal court color besides blue. We knew we wanted to stay away from a pink-red or orange-red. And after our forays into Italian and English styles, it was time to once again embrace our genetic heritage and go with a German style.
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I took the opportunity to sketch out the costume design digitally for the first time - usually I use a pencil. I'm happy with the way it turned out - for my first time. But (spoilers), about from the time I clicked "save", I knew I'd be making changes to the design. So be sure to keep up with the twists and turns on this one, as I know this will be a multiple-post project.

Rachel is fantastic at using unexpected, budget friendly fabric in her Renaissance dresses. But I wanted to take the excuse to be very deliberate (and, I'll admit it, "boojee"). Linen was an obvious choice, but I wanted it to be a bit lighter in weight than the blue linen we'd used before, and I was after a particular shade of red. As I live in an, ahem, "fabric desert", about the only way to achieve this is to order swatches from an online store first.

I wanted a near-tissue weight linen for the shirt, and a light-medium weight for the dress. After finding what I wanted from Fabric-Store.com (which specializes in linen) I took a picture of the fabric swatches with a fork as background to compare weight and color.
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One of the sheer options, and the black linen. The black linen was pretty much a given, but it doesn't hurt to have a sample before you order.
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The red, and the sheer white linen we decided to get.

​With so much money sunk into the linen - we're talking nice prom dress amount here - I wasn't going to go with a cheap ribbon trim that I could find at any fabric store. 

Rachel happened to find some beautiful trim made in India (thanks to her shopping for vintage Indian saris for their silk). The price was very reasonable for the design, width, and length. The edges are hand-finished! It will definitely change the look of the dress (and will rival the beautiful red linen for a focal point), but it makes me feel very fancy and elegant!
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This came from an Etsy store based in India that specializes in trim for saris called Shop of Embellishments
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I finally have the major pieces all together, and I can't wait! I think it'll be amazing!

The other item I bought for the new dresses is trimmer string. That's right - like for a weed eater. 

In researching what other costume makers are trying, I found a few blogs that mentioned that the plastic string from string trimmers has the same approximate tensile strength as the kind of reed that was sometimes used to stiffen bodices from my target time period. It should make for a very flexible stiffening with more movement than the traditional boning. I'm so excited to try and learn new things with this new project!
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