It's Halloween week :o)

halloween

Definition: a period of time, around the 31st October until the annual G&G Halloween party, when holiday is taken to cook, craft and costume

And you know it's Halloween week when you are hammering in eyelets at 8.15am on a Wednesday morning, visiting Ellis and his blood box at the local fancy dress shop mid afternoon and finishing the day staking shrunken heads and making your boyf a brain! Yesterday was not much quieter, with food shopping, haunted hands and a little DIY, I was still hemming the kirtle at 10pm and today I started on the cooking before I'd got out of my dressing gown.

Eyelets for the Tudor Gown:

It couldn't have gone smoother or quicker, 11 perfect eyelets in less than half an hour.  The double eyelets at the top and bottom of the right hand side stagger the lacings to keep the bodice straight. 

The lacings were temporary until I bought some ribbon later in the day.

The Kirtle hem:

The kirtle was hemmed by hand.  Having done so much handsewing of late I am preferring it to the machine, but the kirtle hem was a surprisingly fiddly and uncomfortable to sew; I hope that the gown hem treats me more kindly.

The Plastron:

The plastron was then pinned to the laced up bodice and the piping pinned in place.  It was then sewn to the top fabric, turned in and the lining handsewn.  The plastron top now perfectly lines up in front of the laced bodice and in line with the kirtle bodice.

Finally, I restrung all the beads and sewed them to the plastron before it is attached to the bodice; photos to follow as i'll sew this on after I've finished the hem.

Lorraine the Brain:

Yes, Lorraine, I blame the 11yr old ;o)

Lorraine is based on this great instructable.  She is the third attempt, it's safe to the boyf and I are not natural brain makers!  Essentially, you deconstruct a baseball cap, paint it brain red, use an acrylic caulk to create your brain and then paint that blood red too.  I also bloodied some bandage - that got some looks, drip drying in the kitchen!

As I couldn't get a cap without an adjuster, I used the brim to cover the gap.

The cupboard:

In amongst all the Halloween stuff, I had a couple of jobs that I also needed to get done.  One of which was the shelf on my "everything fits" cupboard.  We originally took it out as it wouldn't fit with the ironing board in there.  Normally I wouldn't agree with cutting up old bits of furniture but I need the extra space in the cupboard and to fit the ironing board in.  I took the jigsaw to the shelf and cut a ironing board shaped rectangle out of it.  I can't tell you how pleased I am to get all the extra stuff in there (Christmas presents at the moment) and not now have to fight the ironing board to get it in their too!  It's the small things :o)

I will finish off the shelf properly, sand it and stain it.

The to do list for tomorrow night.... decorate, hem the gown, finish the plastron and cook.  I think that's it and lets hope it is because that simple "cook" comprises 12 different dishes... I'd better get back to it!  Pics of everything, hands and heads included to follow, probably not until after the party though if I'm being honest.  Happy Halloween!

The Tudor Gown, Friday through to Sunday

huge

Definition: extremely large
Synonyms: behemothic, bulky, colossal, cyclopean, elephantine, enormous, extensive, gargantuan, giant, gigantic, great, gross, humongous, immeasurable, immense, jumbo, leviathan, lusty, magnificent, mammoth, massive, mighty, mondo, monster, monstrous, monumental, mountainous, outsize, oversize, planetary, prodigious, stupendous, titanic, towering, tremendous, vast, walloping, whopping

I spent a good part of Friday night looking at a great deal of fabric and thinking of other words for huge.  I didn't think of cyclopean, will remember it for next time!

The instruction to hand stitch the skirt together, and then to the bodice, was met with a certain amount of belligerence until I started pinning it all together, at which point trying to do it any other way was obviously impossible.  So, I can now tell you all that I can hand sew 11yds in 47 minutes.  It's a detail, I like details.  There's not much more to be said about an evening of stitching, stitching and just a little more stitching ;o)

We did, however, check on the shrunkies and are loving their progress; the 11 yr olds' long nose head is particularly cool with his veiny cheeks.

Saturday morning was when the work started in earnest.  The first job was to attach the front of the gown to the front of the bodice or make 26" of fabric fit onto 8": this was done with two large pleats.  First I attached the pieces at the seams then found the centre of both, marked them with pins, and joined then to create two large loops of fabric.

Once marked, each loop was then pushed flat along the waistline of the bodice until it reached the pin (either the at the centre or the side seam) and then folded back on itself to create a pocket.  They were then pinned in place.

For the tightest/strongest seam I slipstitched and then overstitched the fabrics together every 3-4mm, making sure I went through each layer.  It left a neat seam both inside and out.

The remaining 80" now had to be fit to the 14" wide back!  The instructions described a "hanging pleat" method; which followed along the lines of the front bodice pleats.  Both sections were divided into eight, marked with pins and then pinned together to leave eight loops of fabric along the width of the back.

loving my new slippers ;o)

The loops were then pinched together at the centre and pinned in place either side.  Using the same combination of slip and over stitches, I attached the skirt to the back and closed each of the loops.  These would then hang inside the skirt, invisible from the outside, whilst still creating the right look but with none of the bulk.

Finally, I attached the lining to the bodice.

Sunday was spent in a much more leisurely manner - apart from anything else I had housework to do and food to buy!  I finished the sleeves, attaching their lining at the armholes and then folding them back and stitching them into place.  The bottom of the gowns' bodice is supposed to sit higher than the kirtle, but doesn't... The reasoning behind this is to stagger the bulk of the costume but this isn't an issue in my case, I also think that the position will shift once it is laced in.  I tried it all on and then dressed Miss G in the bumroll, kirtle and gown.  I think it will be fine, but annoyingly I had to remake the plastron as it was more than an inch too short.  As the gown bodice length is dictated by the length of the bones (total length - the seam allowance) I don't see how the corresponding plastron was ever going to be the right size.  As remakes go though, it was quick and simple enough.  I have not inserted the piping yet though, and will not until the gown has eyelets and is laced.  Then I will fit the plastron to the gown and finish it along the final bodice line.  I also need to hem both the kirtle and the gown... by hand... before Saturday... I have not yet dared measured that!

So, definitely getting there.  One last comment, it is heavy.  Without the corset and the petticoat and the bumroll it is heavy.  Hard to breathe heavy.  And this is using lightweight fabrics in comparison to some of the ones suggested; I don't know how you would breathe or move in a velvet, fur trimmed equivalent.  And no, the Tudor's did not need to worry about being cold, not at all... I think I will spend my Halloween party haunting the garden to keep cool!  It is a shame the headdress will not be done in time but, honestly, I'm not that upset, I couldn't be wearing that on top of all this, the coif will do just fine.

The Tudor Gown, Wednesday & Thursday

This week has been spent on the Tudor Gown.  It's been hard work!  I changed day job and offices too, so all in all, there wasn't time to do everything and write about it.  Instead. here are the highlights, day by day. 

Wednesday evening was spent sewing the pieces of the gown skirt together.  Six in all, two back (which form the train of the gown), two side and two front.  There was also a matching lining.  It was huge - the waistline is 11ft! - there was no use in taking any photos. they would have simply been of large piles of grey or black fabric.  Instead I waited for Thursday afternoon, when the lovely Mr S and the 11yr old helped me demonstrate just how large the skirt is...

I also caught the 11yr old practicing her ballet in her pumpkin tutu outfit for the Halloween disco at school.

The rest of Thursday was spent relaxing with my lovely friend V, having curry for dinner and sympathising with Finn who had had "the op"... 

poor Finn, he did look sorry for himself!  If only lasted the night though, you'd not think anything had happened the way he's charging around now.

The Sleeves... the sleeves... *sigh*

It started off being a very relaxed evening last night, such a rarity in our house that I commented on it.  It was at that point I jinxed myself.  With everyone doing their own thing, and a little behind on what I'd hoped to do on the gown, I decided to fit the sleeves.

I love fitting sleeves.  It is one of those points, when making a jacket or dress, that a group of relatively disjointed pieces start to come together and you get your first inkling of what the final item will look like.  The first sleeve went in perfectly.  The second?  Well, there are no photos.  I have no spare fabric left; thank goodness I'm a "round it up and add another metre" girl.  It was nearly midnight when I got to bed; I could have got there half an hour earlier, but had a restorative glass of wine first.  And the final sleeve is the third attempt.  It was a long night!

Anyways, by then end of the evening I did, at least have two sleeves and, if all else fails, I'll make a very good Halloween bat or an Emperor Palpatine!  I obviously need to fold them back and tack them into their final position.  I also think that I need to play a bit more with the top of the lining; now that the sleeves are in the armhole, even with the easing of the seam allowance they feel tighter than I would like.  I am going to get the skirt on, so that I can line and finish the jacket, and then I'll see what to do with the lining.

In the meantime, our "shrunkies" are coming on nicely (the 11yr old is fascinated by it all)... though, in my sleep deprived haze, I left the oven on this morning (I turn it on low for a bit each morning to keep everything nice and dry) so I may get home to "crispies"!  

More of the Gown... and other things

Well, I was wrong.  The bodice of the Elizabethan Gown is indeed lined.  Unfortunately the instructions don't tell you this until a good 15 or so pages after you've put the eyelets in. The fact that you are supposed to stitch in a lining which would cover, and thus render useless, the eyelet holes that lace the gown together is just another of the frustrations of this pattern... it's a darn good thing that a) I always save the eyelets till last and b) that I checked the instructions again.  I promptly cut out and sewed together the lining.

After that, my Sunday took an altogether more relaxed turn.  The lovely Mr & Mrs B and I popped over to K's house; she is recovering from surgery, so we spent a happy hour or two indulging in tea and sympathy and talking horses and dogs.  The 11yr old came home and we carved out the apples to make our shrunken heads for Halloween.  This is an American tradition that I recently discovered and promptly fell in love with.  They look rather cheerful now, but I'm hoping for wizened and wrinkly in a couple of weeks time.

Meanwhile, Finn relaxed on the sofa in his smart new jumper.

And the child showed off her new hat and mittens.

Eventually, it was time to settle back down to some serious sewing.  I promised that I would have the sleeves done today as well.  The lining is a fabulous burnt orange, it was nice to sew with a bit of colour after all the grey.

The sleeves are very simple; simpler to sew than to photograph!  Both the outer fabric and lining are sewn together... the 11yr old kept me company and I love the concentrating child/sleepy owl hat combination, they make a good pair :o)

Once each piece of the sleeve was sewn, they were pinned, then sewn, together along the bottom sleeve edge and turned the right way round.

I then tried the sleeves on.  Just over my t-shirt the sleeve felt tight, though I do love the colour of the lining as it's turned back.

I quickly put my kirtle on and retried the sleeve.  I spent the next 30-40 minutes turning both sleeves back the wrong way, unpicking the seam and resewing it with less seam allowance to give myself a little more ease in the sleeves.  At a push, you could have left the sleeves, but it would have been uncomfortably tight; even with a little more room, once sewn to the bodice I think everything is going to feel good and snug!

You've got to love unpicking... especially black thread on dark grey fabric...

And here's a honest peak at the the realities of historical costuming (in my world at least!)... late nights (I work  better at night), in my pyjamas (comfy is best), half in or out of part of the costume (depending on what needs to be tried at any given time), clutter everywhere (who said a dining room is for eating...?), not exactly looking my best (please ignore the suitcases under my eyes) but  smiling and with my willing and happy assistant to hand... she does a damn fine job!

Finally, on a sadder note.  We said goodbye to Hammy, who is now in heaven charming the angels.  

He was a good hamster.