Mad as a Hatter!

If you remember your Lewis Carrol, you know that March hares are as mad as hatters. So here's a hat post, in honor of the last day of March.

I've been working on the pattern for the English gable hood. That's the goofy one that looks like this:



The Gable hood is a surprisingly complex bit of engineering. If you make a simple "roof" shape, the thing looks like a cardboard box sitting on your head. The trick is to cut the frontlet, the border part around the face, with a wider angle than the back piece, so that it flares in the front. But if you cut the frontlet too wide, the whole thing wants to twist and looks terrible. The only way to get this right is to experiment a lot.

One of the things I like best about working with CAD software is that it's so easy to scale drawings. Rather than make full sized mockups, I scale the pattern pieces down to 1/3 size and print them out on card stock. Then I tape them together to test the patterns. This works best for things that are going to be stiff when finished, such as hats.

This has come in handy with all the iterations of the Gable hood I've made. Every little change of angle affects something else, resulting in many trial versions. Here are some of them:



After futzing with them all day, and littering a 20 foot blast radius around my desk with schnibbles of card stock, I think I'm satisfied with this one:


And that's just the undercap. There's still a box piece that fits on the back, the lappets, and two different veil styles. And of course, they need to be embroidered and jeweled.

If that's too much trouble, you could always go with the Margo's Patterns Deluxe Super Presto Easy Version:



What can I say, things get a little punchy around here when we're working hard. I'm not alone in this. Here's our General Manager, Doug, in what he says is a Tudor Baseball Cap:


Happy Springtime!

To make of sewing something attractive and cool with men of today and convince him of that he can sew without loosing him virility!

Maybe I should just post this one to Ingrish.com.

Court Costume Re-make

I'm selling an costume on Ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/Stunning-Elizabethan-Renaissance-Gown-Plus-Size_W0QQitemZ230331182262QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item230331182262&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1730|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

It's actually a remake of this mess:


Here it is now.

What a difference. I took the skirt and bodice apart, re-trimmed them, and put them back together. Then it sat around for a few years because I still hated the way it looked on me. I added beads and jewels to the forepart and underskirt, made a new French hood, and wore it for about two hours at a CostumeCon. I finally faced facts that the gold colors just don't work for me. I was planning to make new sleeves and forepart in some other color, when I broke my Ipod, so I decided to spruce it up and put it on Ebay.

I thought that was going to be an afternoon's work. Ha! It ended up being easier to pretty much remake the bodice than it would have been to get rid of the fraying edging. Thank Goodness I still had scraps of the fabric. I added tabs to the waistline, which made a huge difference in the looks. The tabs were cut out of my last remaining scrap, and the largest piece I had left after they were cut was about 1"x2".

We'll see how this does. I have a few more outfits I'll probably never wear again, so maybe I'll get them up for sale, too. Tell your friends!

Blackwork(ish) Fabric!

JoAnn fabrics has a fabric in stock right now that is a pretty good simulation of blackwork embroidery. It's a lightweight cotton, like a batiste, and the embroidery is in lengthwise rows, alternating one that's about 1" across and one that's 1/2".

This fabric could be cut into strips to make collars and cuffs, or you could make an entire smock or shirt out of it. You could also be very Elizabethan correct and stop the embroidery at waist level, using a plain fabric for the lower half.

If you want it, get to JoAnn as soon as possible, because this stuff is flying out of the stores. If your store doesn't have it, they may be able to get it from another store. Here's the SKU number: 128-6889

Blackwork!

One of my favorite embellishments for Tudor and Elizabethan costume is blackwork embroidery, also known as Spanish Work or monochrome embroidery.

I enjoy embroidery, but time and a progressive hand condition mean that I can't do much of it. Yet, my costumes cry out for embroidery.

I could buy a fancy sewing machine and learn to design and digitize blackwork patterns, but do I have room and time for another fascinating hobby? No. Don't even tempt me, not if you want to see new patterns!

So, I was delighted to find Thistlebees. They make and sell incredible machine embroidered blackwork cuffs, collars, and other items. Custom work is also available.

I recently received these in the mail:

They're even lovelier in real life. Next, I'm going to have them embroider a smock for me, and the lining for a Mary Tudor partlet.

How I Do What I Do

Have you ever wondered how a pattern is created? Here's how I do it.

First, I do market research. This is a very formal term for what is often a very informal process. In the case of my first 3 patterns, the Elizabethan Lady’s Wardrobe Ensemble, my market research consisted of doing Faire and SCA for many years, and hearing and participating in bitching about why there were no good patterns and speculating on what they should contain.

I have a list of future projects that will keep me busy for at least five years. so now my market research is aimed at finding out exactly what pieces people want in a package. I do this by asking questions on Internet lists and at events. “So if I were to produce a Ruritarian pattern, what would you want it to include?"

Then it’s time for historical research. I had been doing research on the Elizabethan period for over 20 years when I started the company. At 51 years old, I don’t have time to do that with every project! So I’m working with consultants. The consultants are people who are experts in their own historical period. I contract with them to give me the information I need.

Once I know the basic shapes of the garment pieces needed, I start drafting the patterns. I do this using a CAD drafting program called Symmetry, from Wild Ginger Software. Symmetry is no longer available, but they have a wide variety of new products. If you’re interested, check them out at www.wildginger.com.

To draft the patterns, I start with slopers or blocks, which are basic bodice, sleeve, skirt, and pants patterns.

Most blocks used in the garment industry are size ten. Since I have such a large size range, it makes more sense to start in the middle, so I draft in size 16.

I manipulate the slopers to give them the correct lines, using techniques such as changing non period darts to shaping seam lines or rotating them into areas that will later be removed, slashing and spreading to create fullness, and drawing in the correct necklines and other details. This creates the master patterns.


After the master patterns are created, I add seam allowances and match points such as notches.

I check the patterns to make sure they line up properly, and that the garment looks and fits the way it should. Some of this can be done by computer, and some by sewing a mockup, also called a muslin or a toile, of the garment.

The next step is grading, the process of creating larger and smaller sizes from each pattern. Till now, I’ve done the grading myself with the Symmettry program, but for my latest patterns, I’m using a professional grading service. The patterns are graded into multisized “nests”.



I “style” the pattern by changing the lines to solid, dashed, or dotted, as needed, and making the lines thicker so they’ll be more visible.I add the sewing markings, such as notches, circles, grain lines, and size numbers, and assign each pattern piece an alphanumeric label and label them with the pattern name and number and the piece name.



The final step in pattern creation is to arrange them the way they’ll be printed. Getting all the pieces to fit on the designated size sheet can be a tricky challenge! My partner Doug does this part.




Then we create a PDF of each sheet. The PDF’s are emailed to the printer. We contract our printing through McCall or Simplicity, the only tissue pattern printers in the US.
The printers make a printing plate, and ship a paper copy to us. We then go over it one last time to make sure everything is in place. We always have a minor moment when we’re convinced that they’ve printed the sheet in the wrong scale. After months of staring at it on a computer screen, it looks so big! But careful measurement proves it’s correct, and we tell the printers to go ahead.

After I’ve finished creating the pattern, I take my family out for pizza, buy myself a good book, and take a day or two to lie around reading and doing nothing. Sometimes I get really carried away and clean my house, too. Then it’s time to turn my attention to creating the manuals.

Loose Gown

Recently I was asked if the loose gown, or surcoat, in my Elizabethan comfort package was historically accurate. The element in question was the upper back, which some people maintain should be pleated.

Yes, my surcoat pattern is authentic. It's based on the 1570-80 kirtle and loose gown from the collection of the Germanisches National Museum, In Nurnburg, Germany. Detailed drawings and descriptions can be found on pages 109-112 of Janet Arnold's Patterns Of Fashion. The back is, as in my pattern, unpleated and only slightly shaped to the waistline. and then modestly flared.


For many years, Faire costumers made surcoats that looked like the Nurnburg gown, but with the pleated back. I do not believe this is correct. The style was popularized by the book "Elizabethan Costume" by Janet Winter and Carolyn Savoy.

They wrote the book before Patterns of Fashion was published, and I believe that they based their surcoat pattern on photographs from several costume books. The front view was the Nurnburg garment, but the pleated back was based on a photograph of another garment, a loose gown from 1610-15, also to be seen in Patterns Of Fashion, pages 118-119. This surcoat was pleated under the arms and across the back, but cut to be worn completely open in front.

So, a good educated guess, that happened to be incorrect.

This is not to say that some surcoats of the 1570's and 80's didn't have pleated backs, but it does prove that the flat, semifitted back is also correct.