Obsession, Part 2

I have a lot more to update than I realized… so I’m dividing the posts up.  I also realized if I want to refer back to these it would be easier to divide things.  So, on to part 2: the short chemise!

I wanted to try a short chemise ever since I heard of it on a little website called GermanRenaissance.net.  I bought voile fabric since it was cheaper and easier to find in the fabric store than tissue-weight linen.  We’ll see how a polyester/cotton blend holds up for a full day in costume.

So filmy! It was a little squirrely to cut out.

Because I bought the fabric before seeing the pattern, AND the pattern is for upholstery sized fabric I had to do a little piecing at the bottom to get two chemises cut out without having to buy more. 

I laid out the sleeves wrong at first and nearly had a panic attack that I'd ruined the small amount of fabric I did have... But rotating it 90 degrees solved the problem, and you'll see why later on.

 I used fancy French seams and flat felled seams on most of it.  Really, the serger would have been easier, but less durable.  Of course, this turned a simple one-evening worth of work into two, as French or flat-felled seams take double the sewing and ironing time.

There were definitely regrettable decisions made on which order to sew the seams in, but this is why I made mine before Kate's.

After the seams comes what I had been dreading for a while: learning how to smock a piece of fabric.  The instructions online seemed overwhelming, and the examples of fancy work I had seen looked incredibly time consuming.  Here goes nothing!

Dots marked 1/2 inch apart using a ruler and lots of patience. Then, hand quilting sturdy thread used to run gathering stitches. The spool of green at the side comes in later.

Once you pull the gathering stitches the fabric magically disappears into a surprisingly small section of neat pleats. I used plastic seed beads instead of knots so I wouldn't pull holes through the thin fabric.

The next step is to sew two pleats together, alternating between rows. The instructions linked above explain it much better.

Pulled apart, it creates this beautiful honeycomb design! Take the gathering thread out and iron away the marker and it looks great!

The honeycomb smocking was so soft against my neck.  I was surprised at how easy it was!  Sure, the marking took a while, but I completed the neck smocking in one evening.  More complicated smocking leaves the pleats together and a pattern is sewn on top in place of the even green stitches, but who has time for that?  Smocking has been called "Renaissance elastic" and it does work a bit like gentle elastic.  Neat-O!

The wrist smocking was a little trickier in a smaller space, but I was practiced! It took just over an evening for both wrists. The green thread was limited, and this would be hidden so I just used black.

I could finally put a piece of the costume on my dress dummy!  Sure, she was a little risque with how thin the fabric was, and her hoop skirt is in a fun print, to say the least.  But progress! I was thrilled!

And yes, the sleeves really are supposed to be that long.

On to the underskirt next!