The finished project was the linen underdress for my SCA Spanish surcoate. The surcoate was one I made back in the mid-80s. I used to wear it with a white shirt and skirt. The shirt has since fallen apart, and the skirt is way too small in the waist. It is also black, and gathered. To undo all those gathers and try and mess with black thread on black cloth...well, let's just say I decided to make a proper linen underdress instead, which is what the garment would have originally been worn with anyway. One I could also wear with other costumes I already have, or ones I might make in future. Other than the cost of linen putting me into a major case of sticker shock, the project went quite well. Luckily, I had a 50% off coupon from JoAnn's Fabrics, so the cost was not as bad as it might have been, but yikes!
Here is the finished underdress. The only decoration is pearls sewn around the sleeve binding. Oh, and just one of the many things I love about linen is the way it drapes so beautifully.
This is the costume as it was worn, with the headpiece.
Start of Another
The new project is one I posted about back in September. Robert had picked up a long denim dress to use for a dummy he was making for a mounted archery event we were putting on in October. The dress didn't work for the dummy. At first, since it was a petite and too tight across the shoulders for me to wear, I was going to donate it back to the Goodwill, from where it came. But then I decided that if I cut the sleeves off, it would fit okay. So that's what I did, and I also cut off the collar. I left the edges raw, since I wanted them to fray. At that stage I put it on the back burner while we dealt with the mounted archery event, and then I moved on to the linen underdress. Today I pulled the duster back out from hiding, and started playing around with it.
First thing I knew I would have to do, is take in the waist and sides. It was basically a sack, and I don't do sacks (why work to keep a nice trim waist, and then hide it under sacky clothes?). So, I put it, inside out, on Inara, and started pinning darts up the center back and taking in fabric at the side seams. This involved lots of pinning, trying on, re-pinning, and trying on again. I am no tailor, so this darting and fussing is new to me. It became clear that if I didn't also take up a lot of slop at the sides under each armhole, the darting in the back wouldn't really take in enough excess fabric to give me the look I wanted. So after a lot of pinning, adjusting, basting, and finally sewing it all down, this is what I got.
This is before I removed the basting stitches (in off-white thread), cut away the excess fabric, and ironed it all. You can see that I really had to cut a lot of fabric away from under each arm, then taper the seam back into the existing side seam.
Then I sewed everything down, trimed out the excess fabric, and ironed the piece (and apparently didn't take a photo of that stage). Next was to mark the split up the back with soap.
I sewed a 1/4 inch seam on either side of the soap mark, squaring off the end. Then I...gasp...cut up the back, following the soap mark.
This is where things got left today. Next step is to stencil a design up the front, along the hem, and up the split in the back, with black fabric paint. I haven't found the right stencil yet, but am thinking of something vine-like. Last step will be to put in a black linen gore in the back where the split is, giving the duster some flair and a slight bustle effect. I will probably add jet and blue beads to the stencils, and small bits of black lace as reinforcement where the center dart ends above the split. I am also thinking of cutting off the hem of the duster, sewing around the edge with black thread, and letting the hem ravel like the neck and armholes. Yeah, I think I will do that.
I mentioned before, when I first posted photos of this duster, that if I got really insane, I would replace the buttons, but the buttons go all the way down the front. Replacing them would probably make me crazier than I already am...and yet. We'll see, when the piece is all done.
