As I still don’t have my own copy of Textiles & Clothing, by Crowfoot, Pritchard, et al, I have a quick question: Should the cardwoven edge I’m planning for both the neckline and the lacing edge of the bluebonnet be of wool or linen? I currently have on borrow the color card from Rainbow Linen, so I can order any of these colors – my preference is to match as close as possible, but perhaps that’s erroneous?  I will use drawn threads for the seamwork, eyelets and buttonholes*, I think, but for cardweaving I’ll need longer threads and the strength … Continue reading Quick question – neckline

Okay – this is just an update, since I’m not prepared with pics and such.  But I have been sewing, and I wanted to let you know my progress. Bathhouse Keepers Shift – I wore it around the house for a good deal of yesterday.  The shift is machine basted, and fitted properly around my torso.  It supports my chest well enough, and the straps have an interesting side benefit of keeping my shoulders back where they should be. I have learned something important about the eyelets I showed here.  I don’t like them.  While threading a metal tipped lace … Continue reading Update on GFD stuff

I’ve been plugging away on my Bathhouse Keeper Shift, which is acting as a toile for the bodice part of my Gothic Fitted Dress.  It’s going well.  However, because my instructor, the La Cotte Simple site, which does such a great step-by-step job of explaining how to fit the bodice, somehow doesn’t talk about how to generate the sleeve cap and armseye, I’ve been scared of the GFD’s sleeve.  (The shift doesn’t have a sleeve.) Tory set me onto this site, which helps to draft a pattern.  I made this up in my sloper fabric, and tried it on.  I … Continue reading GFD – Fitted sleeve

Here we have the beginnings of my smocked apron, a la Luttrell Psalter. I’m using heavy natural colored linen, cut to 28" wide.  Why? Because I’m following the conventional wisdom (cringe) that household looms  in the 14th century were fairly narrow, ~30". (Anybody got a citation for this one?  Ann?) I question that ALL looms in the 14th c were narrow.  Or that some fabrics produced on narrowish looms were not double-woven to be twice as wide.  But I am yielding to the CW on this one out of expediency, and because the illustration in Luttrell seems to be a … Continue reading Smocked linen apron

I seem to be in a moon of ‘work smart, not hard.’  How odd for me. I’m worried about freezing in the wind at Gatalop.  I have started the Treble Fib Shawl in order to address cold weather, but there’s no way I’m going to finish by Friday, and I don’t want to rush.  So I remembered that I’d discussed making a semicircular mantle to go with the 1350 Gothic Fitted Dress, per Lyonet’s suggestion, and decided to see what I could find. Fortunately, Joann puts fabric on sale for Halloween, and I came home with 3.5 yards of 59" … Continue reading Beginner’s semicircular mantle