Confronting One's Enemies

Obviously, I love costuming. But I really hate one very important part of it--making shirts/chemises/camicas/shifts. So....boring! And yet, as simple as they may be in concept, I almost always screw it up somehow.

I've been avoiding that shirt for some time now (~4 months, but who's counting?). Let me tell you, Trogdors do not appreciate that kind of neglect. Seriously. They might come burn your cottage if you're not careful. Or they might decide to spontaneously stain a shirt that has been sitting undisturbed in a sewing room for 4 months. Don't ask, I have no idea. I do hope those spots come out.

To punish the Trogdors for soiling their shirt, I've decided that this one will be his middle class shirt, which is why I'm moving it from the thunderhosen diary. Besides the mysterious stain, I'm rather unhappy with the weight of the linen I chose for it (its heavier/coarser--5.3 oz, I think). I'd like to make hubby a finer one for his higher class thunderhosen outfit. I know what you're thinking--"if you hate shirts so much why are you deciding to make another?" Well, the answer is that I'm that crazy. And that picky, apparently.

This weekend, I really wanted to sew, but I'm at a stand-still on the slops (waiting for the couching cord to arrive), and I couldn't start the doublet since I didn't have the shirt to fit it over. I had no choice but the shirt, which is why I worked on it. :)

I added bigger underarm gussets to make up for the poor fit the first time round. I over-compensated, cuz hubby now has ridiculously huge gussets. I'm halfway thinking I should take them out and try some moderate ones, but I'm halfway thinking I don't care enough...

Knowing that this is now going to be a middle class shirt, I didn't didn't feel so bad slapping a modest neck ruff right on there instead of having it a seperate piece like the higher classes might do. I used the 5:1 ruff instructions on the eliazabethan costuming site, like I did for my flemish partlet. I used a 94 inch length of linen selvage (hubby has a big neck), and fancied it up a bit (aka "disguised the selvage edge") with a black blanket stitch. The ruff gathering and blanket stitching took me ages--so, while I did spend much time sewing this weekend, I don't have much to show for it yet. I confess, though, that when I finished, i did NOT want to attach this ruff to his shirt. I wanted to steal it and attach it to something for ME!


shirtcollar

The finished neck band and ruff are attached to the shirt, but the shirt is as yet unfinished (still need to whip the inside collar in, add buttons and loops, and I've got a few ideas for additional embellishments on the rest of the shirt. I'm also going to extend the motif on the neckband so that it comes closer to the edge. Apparently ruffs add diameter to the required neckband (duh), and I hadn't compensated for that when I blackworked it the first time.

Slops Experiments

Yeah, I know...I don't usually use patterns, but I admit it--I've been basing this on Margo Anderson's elizabethan man pattern. So if it looks familiar to you Margo Anderson fans out there, that's why. I had to change it quite a bit to have it fit my short barrel-o-fun husband--pretty drastically. Basically, I've preserved the crotch area of the pattern cuz I haven't had luck in drafting that area of pants without help. :) Its so much easier to have a pre-drafted crotch area...hubby doesn't like when i approach his no-no places pins-in-hand. I can't say I blame him, but in my defense I've NEVER stuck him. Men so protective of the family jewels!

As for my changes to the commercial pattern: I elected to make the lining more fitting, and allowed for much more extra fabric for the underlay (that's the black) of the slops so I could get extra puff. I'm doing the slops according to PoF instead of Margo, and I'm also doing away with the interlining, cuz poor hubby will be oh so hot as it is. Oh, and I embedded pockets! Hubby is quite happy about that. PoF's first slops pattern has a pocket hole, so i feel completely justified in supplying extra convenience for him.

Here is the lining in pale yellow (seems I'll never be rid of those pale yellow linen tablecloths!), and the underlay in black linen (which i dyed myself--kinda splotchy, but pretty decent for home dyed black, I guess). You can see there is quite a bit extra fabric. This is but one leg's worth.



Here are the two assembled, so you can get an idea of the amount of poofage (keep in mind its not stuffed....yet). I've also done one experimental slop pane, which is laid on the base for your viewing amusement. The pane is about 2.5 inches wide all together. I'm still deciding whether i like this width...

slop plan?

As for the slops decorations, I've been taking notice of examples in the portraiture where slashes are reinforced with buttonhole stitching. There are several showing this technique in some Elizabeth I portraits, and more than a handful of examples in the male portraitures too (sadly, its late, and i'm too lazy to dig them up, so for now you'll have to take my word for it).

Anyway, this is my machine's buttonhole stitch (cheating!), and the edge is a "silk" bias ribbon that I've slashed every half inch. I deem it silk--its old as the hills from a previous generation's stash and in a burn test seems similar enough to my real silks. But I'm painfully bad at burn tests, so who knows. It also holds its slashes quite well, which seems an anti-synthetic trait. Yes, I'm still trying to convince myself. :)


slop detail

I'm still deciding. I'm not entirely sure i like the button hole slashing, and it doesn't really open much to reveal the black linen underneath anyway. I'm trying to come up with other possibilities for decorations before I decide. I did just buy an embroidery book.... and there's always couching, which I think'd be much faster than either of my other options. I do like the diagonal lines, so I'll probably conserve those no matter what method I choose. I'll likely alternate the diagonals from pane to pane to get some fun zigzag action.