Wednesday Project Review and V's Skirt

Except it's Thursday, but we're ignoring that.
It occurs to me that it might be nice to kind of check in on my progress on a weekly-ish basis. So from the list of projects...

• V's RenFest outfit:  blouse, skirt, sash, and decoration
• My RenFest outfit: blouse and sash, and decoration
• 12th-century suit for K: bliaut, shirt, braies, and hose (and garters!)
• Late Turkish ensemble for Liz in Texas: shirt, pants, coat, veil, and hat
• Blue linen work dress
• Yellow wool bliaut
• Blue and red silk bliaut
• Ostentatious green and peach silk bliaut
• Four or five modern dresses/skirts/blouses
• Researching and practicing tablet weaving
• 12th century shoes

Technically I still need to put drawstrings in the cuffs of V's blouse, but it's so close that I'm calling it done now. Further details of skirt construction are below, and K's braies are technically not done...because they're not on the list at all anymore. He requested knee-high hose instead, so he doesn't actually need braies (although now he needs garters. Hey, a practice tablet weaving project!)

So, the skirt!
I basically only have pictures of stitching the buttonholes, because the rest of the construction is very straightforward and boring. Sew seams, enclose seams (except guess who only enclosed one? so we'll see how that turns out), hem for hours and commiserate about the endlessness of hemming with other seamstresses, and turn the waistband.

A close-up of a running stitch outline of a buttonhole in thick white thread on bright turquoise fabric, with a pin and a needle inserted at right angles in the fabric.

Stitch around the intended buttonhole. For the most part, this is a visual guide to keep my stitches the same length all the way around, but it does stabilize the edge a little bit once it's cut.

A close-up of a running stitch outline of a buttonhole in thick white thread on bright turquoise fabric, with a finished buttonhole in a wide-spaced buttonshole stitch above.

Ta-da! Yeah, it's a different buttonhole. I'm learning about the whole taking pictures before you finish everything deal.

A single white-worked buttonhole in bright turquoise fabric, parallel to an open, grey pocket, and sandwiched between two pins.

Yet another buttonhole, mostly bound. (I don't think a single one of these pictures is actually consecutive) Since buttonhole stitch is just a super dense blanket stitch, and I'm using thick thread and binding slits cut on the bias, I was lazy and just did fairly close-set stitches. The tops and bottoms of the slits are more heavily reinforced, though. They should be fine.

A pair of buttons on a bright turquoise skirt with a grey-lined pocket. One button is plain, slightly dished silver with two holes, and the other is a disc with an opening in the middle and a bar, and a stamped sun ray design around the rim.

Yaaaaay! Buttons! I love buttons. V and I went diving in Mum's button stash to find matches, and came out with three of the sun pattern and two of the plain silver, so she got one of each on either side of the skirt. The lonely button was supposed to close the neck of her blouse, but it's too heavy for the fabric. Maybe I can make her a bandana with it or something.

Not pictured: the elastic sewn into the back waist to finish snugging it up enough to stay on her. She's super skinny, and I'm not used to sewing from measurements, so the waist was way too big for her, even with a few inches pinched out of the sides for button "plackets." I hate handsewing elastic, just for the record. I'd much rather have a drawstring. But she's happy with it, and the whole outfit looks super cute. I want to find time to do some shisha embroidery around the hem, although I may end up settling for pailettes instead of mirrors.

Also also: there are pockets in this skirt. I refuse to make modern clothing without functional pockets.

Comments

  1. Ah, buttonholes! A future event I can only dream of. Although my time travelling abbess was very naughty and has a hidden pocket in her habit. I am enjoying reading your pages.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment