Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Sleeves, Eyelets, Skirt

I've been busy working on my Tudor gown. Look it now has Sleeves :) I opted for straight sleeves rather than double sleeves with turnbacks because I didn't want to try and source fur for the turnbacks and this was the quicker option but still looks nice. I am going to add pearls around the cuffs if I have some left over from the girdle belt and french hood. Next I did the eyelets. There are 36 eyelets along 4 seams (9 on each seam). The eyelets were slow and painfull; I completed them over 3 days. I watched 3 movies and some MASH. I first created a hole with an Awl then I forced a 5mm knitting needle through that hole then whipped stiched the hole open. Forcing the knitting needle through was the hard part and caused a fair amount of pain to me and frustration. I bruised my plam and hurt the muscles down the outside edges of my hands. Here is a close up of 3 of the eyelets

Once the eyelets were out of the way I started attaching the shirt. I had to get almost 3 meters of fabric into my tiny waist section; times like these make me realise just how small I am. Pinning the catridge pleasts didn't take that long and the process of actually sewing them was fairly quick and painless except for needle pricks and such.
The view of the catridge pleats from the oustide of the dress. The are so pretty and full. I sewed two layers of flanelet into the skirt before doing the pleats which added body.
Here is what the dress looks like now :) All that is left on the dress is to hand sew the front seam and the bottom hem but that will have to wait until thursday when I have someone to mark the hem for me.
I have been trying to source the materials for the french hood; it is looking to be the most expensive piece of the dress. I cheated and went for synthetic satin over silk because the silk was $30/m and a matte rather than shinny (It really didn't look worth the price). The buckrum that goes inside I couldn't cheat with it was also $30/m. My major issue now is that I can't seem to find a store that stocks/sells millinery wire (a coated/covered wire used in hat making) to create the frame for the cresant.

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