Cloth under the Wine Goblet

I was giving my friend a beautiful goblet. I thought it would give more the feeling of being a medieval nobleman if the goblet was standing on a velvet decorated cloth:-) I hope he'll drink of it often.

I hemmed a velvet square with a leftover of golden lace. Two rows of it.
I pinned several varieties of crosses on the cloth, but finally I decided not to make them (as little time before the birthday as always).

I chose a pearl embroidery instead. Bijou pearls and black cylindrical beads - three between every pearl section.

I didn't want to make a lining. However, I didn't want the embroidery long threads to be visible at the wrong side. So I brought the needle inside the fabric bethween each bead or pearl.

The goblet's so nice!

Trousers No. 3 and 4

The same pattern and similar routing. The pattern consists from the left and right leg.
I had to make two pieces. One was no problem. I eventually start liking sewing pants:-)
The other owner-to-be gave me a piece of linen bed sheet or whatever with a seam in the center, so I had to work with two quite narrow rectangles. I decided to leave out the poined parts and insert a gore instead. This way I was able to use his fabric.
I cut these parts in the same height at the knee and both 8 centimeters from the upper middle.

I drew half a gore according to the piece from the front side and added the back side, seam line in the middle.

I sewed the gores to the front parts of the legs. The seam allowances are pressed to the sides (this should make the seam as little visible at the front of the trousers as possible).

I serged both seam allowances and sewed each leg together.

The back seam allowances will be serged together and pressed to the back.

Then I sewed the center seam. It should be sewed twice at the same place, because it's the most stressed part of the trousers.
I hemmed the length of the legs and prepared a tunnel (cut separately). It's made of two pieces, I didn't sew the whole center front seam but left a slit there for the elastic band.
I sewed a little rectangle around the hole for the allowances to lay flat.

I sewed the tunnel piece to the waistline. I pressed the allowances up and the upper edge down at the same time.

I folded this piece down to the wrong side and sewed its lower edge to the trousers. I added the elastic band and..

..this is it. I'm happy because the gore is not very noticeable. The shadow behind is the other pair (trousers No. 3 :-D).

Cranach Dress - Petticoat's Neckline

I sewed five stripes together to form the same shape as the neckline is.
I pinned it on the dress right side to right side and sewed on a cm from the edge.

The band has vlieselin ironed on to support the neckline well.
I tried to change the direction exactly at the top's seams and you can see that I pressed the band's seam allowances to lay on the other side than the top's ones.

The petticoat finished for the moment.

I also tried to make a pattern for the upper dress from the scraps. Sis was excited :-)

I wasn't. It quite fitted. But after a few days I looked at the photo and found out it's very similar to the ones of cranach reconstruction I've seen a few so far. The unsuccessful ones in my eyes.
So I'm going to make another pattern and possibly widen the petticoat's neckline (but definitely not before I have a pattern for the coat:-) ).

Cranach Dress - Petticoat

Sister wants me to make a cranach dress for her. Insane, she thinks I can make the most difficult dress you can probably find in the era with my experience :-DDD
Nevermind, I'll try to do my best...
I drew a modern pattern with six seams. I also tried to use krea's period pattern, but sis wants to wear bra under the dress and the pattern with two seams didn't work.

When I had the top fitted, I measured the length from each seam to the ground on my sister. I made the skirt in the same way as the full circle skirts, but this one was only half a circle (for the upper edge: o=pi*r where o is girth). I folded the canvas for the middle of each piece to be bias. The skirt should sweep nicer this way.

I sewed the skirt in the side seams, and I made an extra back seam to create a slit under the top.
I put the skirt on the top, right sides together, and sewed in the marked line.
You may notice that I have already made sleeves as well (the easiest shirt's ones) and that I ironed vlieselin to the center front seam allowances. It will be three layers of fabric and two of vlieselin thick so that the lacing wouldn't wave when tied firmly.

When I was hemming the skirt, I used a little trick. If you have ever hemmed a wide skirt, you know the edge tries to escape as it's wider than it whould be. I serged the lower edge and used a differential feed higher than 1. That causes the serging to gather the fabric. After ironing the hem, sewing was very easy.

I left the sleeves long, because they should be pulled up to support the slit parts of the sleeves on the upper dress. I don't know yet how much of the sleeve will be necessary.

Minicorset - Finished

I have the corset with whalebones, so only a few operations have left.
I cut a band, serged one side and pinned it on the right side of the corset to the lower edge. I folded the ends up for the hem to be finished in a nice way.
I sewed in haf a cm not to hit the whalebones.

I turned the band to the wrong side of the corset. I sewed at the right side exactly in the former seam, the stitches almost aren't visible this way.
The ends must be sewn to the corset in hand.

I already had the length and position of the shoulder strip so when I had the whole corsed hemmed, I sewed it on, again from the right side in the former seam.

I added some grommets for the lacing.

I'm looking forward to the first performance in the new costume :-D

Minicorset - Whalebones

The front edges were the easiest as far as inserting the whalebones.
I took a strip of fabric and sewed it in less than the middle to the front center of the corset.

I ironed the seam so that the corset would be on the left and the strip on the right. Then I sewed a tunnel in the width of the whalebone. The whalebone was inserted and the strip ironed leftwards.

The other seam seamed more difficult, but once I tried it, I found out I was scared in vain:-)
The seam allowances were pressed each one to other side. I cut a strip of fabric in the width of the allowances and sewed it on them, so that the final width of the tunnel would again match the whalebone.

The lower edge should be hemmed for about half a centimeter, so I ended the tunnel here. I had to sew it twice - to each seam allowance of the corset separately. I tried if the whalebone likes it :-)

When I had all the tunnels, I put the whalebones in. I marked the upper edge with a marker.

As the upper edge should be hemmed as well, I cut them half a cm under the mark, inserted and finished the tunnel at the top in the same way.

Yellow Chemise

This chemise should belong to the skirts.
The pattern is a T with slanted sleams from the neckline to the armpit.
I cut and sewed the body and the sleeves.

I put these together and folded the edge of the neckline. I sewed through the seam allowance twice to create two tunnels.

At first, I wanted to pleat the neckline and the sleeves. Then I found out I probably didn't have enough fabric (and time) :-/
At second, I wanted to put a cord in the tunnel. The neckline is quite wide and the shoulders would fall down at the dance.
So at third, I decided to put two rubber cords in the tunnel.
You can see that it looks better with only one rubber cord and one free tunnel..

So I threaded the cord to the inner tunnel. With the rubber, the shoulders stretch and don't fall. I know, it's cheating :-.

The finished gathering on the sleeve.

I'm looking forward to the first performance in the costume:-)

Minicorset - Sewing

This one should match the two skirts. My dance leader has made a corset that started to wrinkle. In my opinion it was a bit because of the thin canvas she used, so I bought a tent canvas for mine :-D

I drew a pattern according to my dress pattern book. I'm a greenhorn, so it didn't fit perfectly and needed a little fitting.

This is the state when I already had finished the fitting (even when not yet sure with the shoulder strips).
I decided to edit the lower hem so that the corset would be shorter at the hips.
I cut it in two layers - I pinned the same seams together for the corset to be symmetrical.

Skirts - The Shorter One

The skirt that should be worn over this one.
It's a circle skirt as well as the other one. I folded the fabric to get two layers. I calculated the perimeter in the old way: o=2*pi*r, when o is the girth.
So I got the perimeter and I drew one fourth of the circle to the corner. You mustn't forget to add a seam allowance to the free edges of the skirt and as well one centimeter to the circle (upwards).
Then I measured from the little circle the lenghts I had measured on myself. Added seam allowance again. I joined the points with a spline and got the shape.

The waist part was made easily - a tunnel with an elastic.
Then I drew a curve thirty centimeters from the lower edge - I didn't want the skirt to be shorter then this at any point.
I drew a random curve in this area that should mark the hem.

I double-folded the lower edge and sewed.
At the most curved places I helped myself with basting, the rest was only ironed before sewing.

Done.

Skirts - The Longer One

This should be a costume for renaissance village dance. It's more like a fantasy costume, so don't beat me up that this isn't a renaissance dress:-)
I started with a waistband pattern. I needed a fitted one as I have quite a big lordosis and I usually have a lot of free space between my back and a straight waistband:-(
I took a rectangle of paper and made little tucks with pins at the hips and some other places. Then I put this on and changed their size along my body. This is what I got.

I retraced half of the waistband on a pattern paper and altered the fractures into nice curves (the green is the final pattern).

I put this one on again and measured the distance between the lower edge of the waistband and the ground at several places (in fact at the former tucks).
When I drew the pattern for the skirt, which is full circle, this helped me to get the hemline.

I cut two front and two back waistbands, each one with some extra length at the sides, for the fastening. I ironed vlieselin on one of them and sewed each two similar pieces together - at the sides and the upper edge.

I turned the waistbands over.
Here I already have the skirt cut. I laid one of the two front waistband edges to the front waist edge of the skirt. I sewed the band on.

Then I raised the waistband to the position it should be in, I folded the edge of the other front waistband inside and sewed there with a whip stitch, so that it would be almost invisible.

This is the finished waistband. I folded the hem, so now I have the orange skirt done for now, except for the fastening, which I'm too lazy to solve now :-P