Gabriella's Sewing Box

IRCC2 Part 3: Finished Project aka lots of pictures

2012-08-22T23:25:00.001-06:00

I've added the dogressa's coat to the outfit. What follows is lots of pictures showing the movement of the garment from all sides. And features the photography skills of my mother.

IRCC2 Part 2: the Sottana

2012-08-22T22:58:00.001-06:00

So here I'm wearing everything I was in the last series of pictures. I've added the red and gold sottona, pearl necklace and earrings, and a veil.

wearing the linen petticoat underneath gives this gown a very smooth bodice line while having a very soft full skirt line.

IRCC2 Part 1: The Underpinnings

2012-08-22T22:13:00.001-06:00

The first layers of my IRCC2 entry. In the first picture on the right. This picture focuses on the silk gaze partlette.

I decided to stick with a sleeveless back laced gown. I cartridge pleated the skirt with a smooth front. This emulates the venetian gowns and will add fullness to the skirt of my overgown.

Here is a shot that shows the side back lacing that I hand bound the eyelets.

I'm wearing a thigh length camica that was pieced together with insertion stitch.

I'm thinking to also wear this gown with an apron and a tighter sleeve camica for a more casual outfit. The bottom two pictures really show off how dense cartridge pleating gives the skirt great movement.

Last nights accomplishments

2012-07-28T18:45:00.001-06:00

Prepped my underdress bodice for pad lining after redrafting the pattern a bit.

Then finished the night off by dusting off my beading skills by making a pair of earrings and a strand of pearls. I never seem to get to accessories so I'm oddly most excited with these.

Making Rosewater

2012-05-20T23:47:00.001-06:00

Since we currently have a bumper crop of roses at Rose Manor I'm trying my hand at making Rose Water with the apron brown method.....which is referanced in his bakclava show....

Alton Brown

It kinda looks like I'm cooking ice doesn't it? But actually here is the method I'm using:

1. Pick lots of petals off my rose bushes

2. Place elevating object in bottom of pot. I didn't have any bricks so a small wide mouth canning jar is doing the duty.

3. Place petals in pot till they come up to about the level of the canning jar.

4. Place bowl on top of jar. In my case a pyrex bowl.....in altons a stainless steel bowl.....reguardless it needs to be both cook safe and non reactive.

5. Fill the pot with water just high enough to mostly cover the petals.

6. Put lid on pot upside down. Fill lid with ice. This promotes rapid condensation.

7. Turn on heat at medium to medium low. Maintain heat for two hours, replenishing ice as needed.

8. Kill the heat and let the pot cool for several hours.

9. Retrive bowl of rose water! Now I just need to package it!

Stays take 2

2012-05-18T05:16:00.001-06:00

Last night = pattern re-drafted using my body block and the info on www.semptress.org

Tonight = cut out the #2 corset....I've got it all prepped to put together tomorrow.

I'll post pictures after some sleep

Support garment fail

2012-05-09T04:29:00.001-06:00

It's been a mixed bag tonight. I got my new set of 's' curve elizabethan stays ready to try on. Sadly though the core design isn't working with my body. I'm serously contimplating making my new set of edwardian stays to wear under my IRCC stuff. Is it period......Hell no.....but I'm not sure I can make a period type pair of stays that give me the correct shape and are comfortable in the time I have alloted........

Argh!!!

Back to the design board.....

K.I.S.S.

2012-04-26T02:24:00.000-06:00

After driving D and Helene crazy for a few days, trying to figure out my fabric choices for the wardrobe, I've decided I'm making this too complicated again (big surprise yes? LOL). So I'll be focusing on just 5 major pieces for IRCC2, plus whatever bibs and bobs of accessories I can get through. The overall look inspired by the drawing to the right.

So here they are;

Under-shift: white linen with ribbon trim

Stays; white linen with some lace maybe

Square neck camicia; white linen with gold lace

Sottana; red silk taffeta trimmed in gold

Dogressa's Coat; for this a picture will surpass a thousand words.....courtesy of my fav silk supplier Puresilks

My ideas at the moment for accessories are a snow leopard zibi, a silk gaze partlet maybe with a small falling ruff, a gold and pearl girdle belt, pearl drop earrings, a pearl necklace with gold pave spacers, some new silk garters perhaps with tassels, a faux hair piece in a elaborate braided bun, a large feather fan, and if things go well a small hunting hat.

I rather doubt that I'll get all of the above done. However its good to aim high yes?

IRCC 2...here we go

2012-04-22T02:32:00.002-06:00

So this year's goal for me for IRCC is an interchangeable Venetian wardrobe. The idea being that I can dress fully as a lady or fully as a gent or someplace in between, and my mood and commitments for the day determine.

Tonight I've gotten primary construction done on my first piece for the project......an under shift.....a comfort layer for me since I do intend to wear a separate pair of stays.

I will freely admit that I believe from my research that stiffened sottonas would be far more accurate for torso shaping and support. However with my ever changing (at the moment shrinking) size I don't want to have to rely on the sottonas to hold up the ladies. That path leads to constantly rebuilding my wardrobe and never being happy with the fit......(yeah been there before, just ask my mother) ;-)

Bits in progress from Helene's wardrobe

2012-04-09T02:42:00.001-06:00

Ah yes sleeves, the jewelery of late period Italy

What of what to do with Pinkie

2011-09-28T03:05:00.000-06:00


Venetian doublet gown

Since I have decided that I CANNOT buy any more fabric other that utility stuff (linen interlining, eyelets, etc....) until I make gowns out of at least 85% of my current stash......I am endeavoring to decide what to to with the fabric from Pinkie (my very first venetian gown). The portrait to the left is what I would 'like' very much to do with the fabric. However, to get the look right it would require three layers of garments. Plus it is a much longer waistline than I have been doing of late. Mainly because my weight keeps fluctuating, and it irritates me to be constantly altering my garments so they fit correctly.

Slightly higher waistline Venetian doublet gown

Option number #2 on the right here; is a slightly looser and higher waistline doublet style gown with a cartridge pleated waistline....Far less trim work would be involved to make this look happen. I could spend my sewing time playing with the lovely falling ruff shown in the portrait. An item might i add that isn't effected fit wise by weight loss or gain on my part.

I would however still need to make a new set of stays that were longer to get the line....not to mention run the risk of a significant rebuild on the gown inside of a year......so not ideal on that end.

Florentine gown

Option three is a high waistline Florentine gown with full loose cartridge pleated sleeves. Almost exactly what I made for IRCC.....this look is all about accessories.....fur trimmed lower sleeves.....blackworked high neck camicia.....elaborate girdle belt.....and a small net balzo.....all things that are not affected by weight fluctuation.....however that being said.....I'm not stoked about a third very simple gown with the exact same neckline.....but it would not require a new set of stays.....and it would only take me about 20 hours to get the gown finished not including accessories......so something to contemplate......

Thoughts?

Pics from in the trenches - Part 2

2011-09-28T02:22:00.000-06:00

Short Stays for Florentine Garb

So the next time I have someone say to me 'There is no way that a non-commercial bra can support my boobs, they're to big', I'm going to bring up this customer as an example. Hopefully I will shortly have some pictures of the lady herself sporting these stays.

But in the meantime let me give you the measurements of this customer to ponder;

Chest 52"
Ribcage 42"
Width of shoulder 16"

In modern lingerie sizes that would settle out to a 42-I

Pics from in the trenches

2011-09-28T02:14:00.000-06:00

I've got waaaaay to many things to finish before Oct 15th but I thought I'd share some in progress pics;

One of the in progress projects is and Edwardian/Gibson Girl Corset. The image to the left is the corset out of Corsets and Crinolines of the style I'm trying to emulate.

Here is my rendition of the pattern based on the customer's draping


Test run of Edwardian aka Gibson Girl corset

Above is the pattern that I drafted based on Ms Allie's draping. To the left is the test run of the pattern made of extra fabric that I've had hanging around. Embroidered white linen lined in white silk habotai to be specific. Its not boned yet. Riptie and weed-wacker boning will be going in tonight.

IRCC --- Finished pics!

2011-08-20T22:16:00.000-06:00

Need shower and sleep right now but I just wanted to share some of my fav pics from Stags Bloodbath today taken by my awesome lady mother. I'll post further pics of the underlayers soon.

IRCC update

2011-07-12T10:46:00.001-06:00

The first camicia for this project has the body seams done and the neck gathered. The second picture here shows that sort of....the fact that based on Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 4 .....I'm doing a fuller gather in the front and back than I am over the shoulders.

Also based on Patterns of Fashion 4 I have drafted a pair of drawers. I'll post a picture of the pattern at some point. But I've machine flat felled the body seams (first time I've tried machine flat felling) I'm gathering the body to a set waistband that will close with an eyelet in the front. I've also got red bobbin lace for these.

Special thanks to the lovely lady at Semstress.org for the tutorial on flat felling.

So this is the bodice for my 'petticoat' layer. As such it won't have sleeves. I've decided to go with an earlier period style and cartridge pleat it instead of having a lower waisted roped petticoat.

This also allows me to reuse the fabric from an earlier dress that was on the rebuild pile. I've ripped it all back to raw yardage to do the rebuild.....so no worries it still qualifies for the challenge. But I am really enjoying using up stuff from the in house fabric pile!

Yes!!! I really do NEED all those fittings I asked for

2011-07-11T17:38:00.000-06:00

So as some of you might have guessed, since HE Arion did not debut his new Florentine court garb at Battlemoor, I ran into some problems. The problems basically boiled down to me 'guessing' on fit instead of actually getting to fit the doublet on Arion. With this sort of highly tailored doublet and Arion's impressively broad shoulders......well guessing on fit ended with me up a creek and now I'm going to have to get creative with retro fitting.....anyways here are some pictures of it in process.....
I have him trying it on inside out because I had one arms lining pinned.

You can kinda tell from this shot where I started to go wrong with the sleeves on this.....the back seam shows that I set the sleeve in rotated forward to far by what ended up to be about 4".

In the picture on the right ------------------>
you can see how the over-rotation is twisting the fabric and constricting his movement.....man has big shoulders and very muscular arms.....so having his sleeves 'flex' with him is very important.

But I am really happy with how the detail at the neck is sitting on him....its even spiffier right side out because we didn't quilt the neck inset so it shows up very nicely.

Tonight's Sewing Status/To-Do List ---- Yeah I know I'm mental

2011-06-28T00:29:00.000-06:00

Gold Stripe gown; ready for wool hem guard and eyelets
Black and Silver Doublet; arms ripped out, pile of scrap linen waiting for me to cut the arm extensions
White Quilted dress; bodice assembled - need to add velvet ribbon to front, cut skirt, attach, and hem
Black Pinstripe dress; primary construction finished, needs shoulder ribbons and front ties
Grey over-gown; just needs 2 trouser hooks and decorative button
White Coat 1 (men's late 1400's overcoat); draft pattern, cut fur, and assemble
White Coat 2 (capaletto); fabric ready press need to modify pattern for 44" fabric

Gift to me IF I complete IRCC

2011-06-20T01:43:00.000-06:00

Moda a Firenze

I've been wanting this book for a rather long time......so IF I cross the finish line with IRCC I'm buying the book as my own little prize!

IRCC.....delayed just a bit

2011-06-20T01:14:00.000-06:00

So WAR is coming to the Outlands in the form of Battlemoor........and although I don't actually go to war most years the majority of my household does.

This also means that my job as mistress of the robes for my baron and baroness has pushed right past IRCC in the OMG this has to be done now 'to-do list'. The good news is I will be posting in the next week or two pictures of finished garments and construction of two full sets of 1400's Florentine garments....male and female....YEAH!

Bad news is that sewing on IRCC is at a standstill until after the 4th of July.....but the bright side is that since I decided to do a prototype of each of the garments I'm doing for IRCC I'll now have dual entries for said contest.