Frock coats

2 frock coats mostly done with ming the mercyless collars. Had a bit of a problem with mis calcualtion of fabric so i need to get another piece to do the last two backs of waistcoats. Will post photos soon.

All fittings etc done so final slog over the next two days to finished as much as humanly possible.

lots of pattern making and fitting of mock ups so very little to photograph.

Now the beast AKA industrial sewing machine is skipping stitches. It was fine one minute and skipping the next for no obvious reason. Keep your fingers crossed I sort it out cos I don't want to have to use the domestic machine it's just a lot slower that thankfully the fabrics I'm using arn't to think to do that which isn't always the case.

pocket hoops

Yea, boning has turned up !

One set of pocket hoops. the jacket looks a tat silly over the top without the skirt but I couldn't start work on that till i had something to drap it on as I'm guessing the length willl not be the same alround!

Thursday

Pattern making of waistcoats and starting drafting out frockcoats.

It is very strange making a thin man a waistcoat that is bigger in the waist than the chest! To explain one of our friends wears a false stomach as his character, so he goes from a very lith bouncy person to a fat swaggering fop. Fitted it to him this evening.

Need to draft his breeches tomorrow so we can do a test fitting Sataday as they will be a funny shape to fit the stomach. We did joke about making him a wedding stomach ie a smaller one with lacing so he can claim to be wearing a corset :)

It changes his whole way of moving and acting, very effective if a little hot!

shift

Wensday I made a shift with lace cuffs. Also helped my assitant draft a circular cloak which she then sewed herself.

Can't do any more on this outfit till the bones turn up so on to the guys outfits.

pics from tuesday

Tuesday

We attached sleeves and after much discussion ruffles. I like them but I need to see if they fray as at the moment the edge isn't finished and apart from something like fray stop i couldn't think of a way of doing it which wouldn't effect the hang. I might end up cutting the scollops off and binding the edge or something but we will see. Have faced the back neck line too.

I have tried to post pics but everything is running slow today so I'll try again later.

We also made two sets of pocket hoops but till the boning turns up they look like piles of calico (for my american friends that is plain unbleached cotton, what you call muslin I believe.. For us muslin is very light weigh loosely weaved cotton you can see through)

pattern to pleated body

Ok specially for Julie but also so I can log how I get on.
The pattern for half the body is a full width of fabric and only just fits on my table. It comes from Janet Arnolds book.


We have now tested it with the lining, adapted the arm hole to be a little more modern ie less tight and pulling the arms back as I don't think the person who it is for is ready for that amount of historical accuracy and isn't going to be wearing a full corset with a narrow back to force her shoulders back.

Pleating up the main fabric and lining was a long job and I was very glad to have a helper on this. We have finished the body and sleves are ready to go on in the morning. Just deciding on type of flounce for the elbow.

Ordered boning for pocket hoops and bodice as well

18 C Jacket pattern

We drafted the pattern for the 18th century jacket today. It's like a sackback gown but only knee length. It was decided it is the biggest pattern peice ever! Actually I have done bigger when doing circle skirts and the like but it's pretty big. The fabric is a bit shy of 60" so we have decided to make the peats a little smaller to fit it across the fabric. So one jacket takes two pieces of 60" wide fabric side by side to make without sleeves.. just a few pleats to do then! The lining is the same except that the back panel is sans pleats in the body which means it then holds everything in place.

Fabric Buying

We bought lots of fabric today ranging from 6 pounds a metre to 50p ! I now need to do MUCH sewing over the next two weeks.

everything is 18th century
We need some liveries
A court dress plus all the underpinnings
Three 18th centtury mens outfits plus an extra waistcoat
A riding jacket and skirt (for me)

Does look like I have aquired a helper though we may need to make her something to wear as well so she doesn't need to go home to get her other outfit!

Needle Felting How-To

I thought some people might like to see a very basic how-to I did for a group I'm on a while back.

http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4190505&a=31909639&f=

Hope it is useful

crochet

I'm mulling the idea of trying to learn crochet, not now though got to do far to much sewing before early Feb. Thought I might share this site though as I like it. Mum has used a couple of patterns from them and they were really nice. Plus there are some tutorials and free patterns. I'm hoping mum is going to try the butterfly wrap soon.

http://www.stitchdiva.com/

knit wits

Went to a Knit wits meeting on Wednesday with Julie, they seemed a great bunch. I felt slightly like I was gate crashing because about the only fiber arts I don't do are knitting and crochet. Still I took some needle felting and no-one seemed to mind. It was nice to meet a bunch of people who like making things.

I’m slightly lying when I say I don’t knit. I can knit I just haven’t done any in over 20 years so it’s pretty close to not knitting. I can honestly say I have never crocheted though. I can spin, weave, dye and felt wool. I can make lace, needle lace, tablet weaving, have tried tatting (must find the shuttle and do some more) make braids by half a dozen methods and buy yarns and fibers just cos I like them so I suppose adding those two to the list would complete the set. Maybe I just have to be the odd one out!

Partly Mum likes knitting much more than I do so she knits me things and I make other things for her. Though she hasn’t managed to finish the last jumper she promised me, not that I can complain cos I’m worse at not finishing stuff.

ted who turned into a monkey

He was meant to be a teddy, but turned into that monkey off the TV. He is somewhere around 2" tall.

Mini's

A random selection of mini things I made as part of an advent swap. Not all obviously because there aren't 25 here.

Pirate boy

Finally got round to posting Dominic's Pirate coat.

mini stuff

I have been doing quite a lot of mini stuff becouse I'm in an advent swap which is one pressy every day for Dec. Been running to keep up and sending in installments. Again will post pics at some poitn. Currently very busy with real house stuff, as the new kitchen units are due any day

Coat for small one

I actually finished something. I made Dominic a pirate coat for Children in need day cos they were having fancy dress at nursery. It is a basic frock coat type thing with the fronts turned back and sewn down with buttons on top.

The main body was made of a light brown fake suade, lined with a satin and the facings and cuffs in black velvet. Looks quite good I will put pics up somewhere soon.

Embird

I've just downloaded the 30 day trial of Embird
http://embird.com/

I've been thinking about it for a while but not felt I had the time to have a proper look. I figure now is probably as good as I'm going to get. I've looked at other packages but this seems the bestfor the money and is the one most talked about on forums. I have tryed a couple of others but they haven't impressed, certinaly not enough to spend over £1000 which is what I'd be looking at. Well one was very good but I couldn't get it to save into the right format reliably which is a must!

swap wardrobe again

I've had a trawl through my wardrobe.. it's now all either hung up, in the wash, in the ironing pile, in the mending pile or in the give away pile!

I have worked out I have lots of purple due to buying from www.gudrunsjoden.com which has been the main place I've got clothes from recently. True red seems to be restricted to a few t-shirts, even the more bricky red I used to wear is very light on the ground. There is some black, some blue and some other bits.

So I think I should look for a print with red in to start this wardrobe idea off. A nice bright red, one that will go with the purples.. i like red and purple as a colour mix.

I can see red, with dark purple and black or cream as the neutrals would work. Maybe with a pale blue or turquoise as an accent but I see the wisdom in looking for a print first.. problem is croft mills doesn't have pics! Wonder if one of their catalogues will be on it's way soon?

Just to put the cat among the pigeons someone mentioned the idea of a wardrobe based on a hobby and now I can’t get the idea of a Stargate one out my head.. Well Keser needs a wardrobe update now she is Toc’Ra.. need to show the adapted personality and need at least one I’m a Gou’ld infiltration outfit. Stupid idea so of course I can’t get it out of my head.