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dragonlady7I know these sewing updates are boring for everybody, but that's all I do-- I work, and sew, and work more, and sew, and sometimes I do dishes or laundry, and then I sit and stare at my computer while thinking I'm going to sew instead, but I don't, and then I stare at my computer unabashedly, and then I fall asleep on my keyboard. That's about it.
So i'm just posting a lightning-quick little note of triumph, before I zip out the door to work: it would be better with hyperlinks which I am going to try to add, but we'll see. I cut out the body panels and sleeves of a Hedeby-style tunic last night, and this morning, even with a lie-in of almost an hour more than I'd planned, I managed to assemble the whole thing, including fashioning the tiny scraps of fabric I had left into all of the gores to add fullness below the waist. I am quite pleased with myself. Except that one pieced gore (I had to sew every one out of at least two pieces, because I had no single expanses of fabric large enough to use) has the seam where I sewed it together accidentally turned to the outside of the garment. Either I'll rip that seam and re-do it inside, or I'll attempt to overcast the raw edges (actually they're selvage edges) attractively so it maybe looks intentional.
I made a whole tunic out of one yard and twelve inches of fabric. I am quite pleased. It's even slightly big on Z, so I can wear it too.
Ha ha!
So I have a second, and I'm going to put in the hyperlinks, because I don't like the idea of being obscure.
All the weird names for tunics are just the different names of the extant finds of medieval clothing, upon which many/most costumers base their designs. Bocksten is a common tunic type, recommended for beginners, named for the Bocksten Bog Man, upon whom this tunic was found. It features straight front and back panels, straight shoulder seams (no curves for the arm hole), and a square gore set in under the arm to give the sleeve enough fullness that the arm can be raised. On Z, this thing looks like a disaster; the loose one looked boxy, so I made a tighter one, and the armpit gores wound up giving him the appearance of man-boobs. So no.
I had thought to try the Kragelund design, since it was a bit more complex and lacks the dumpy armpit squares, but looking at it... well, the best tutorial was by an enormous man. It looks awesome on him. Z is not an enormous man. I rather think it's going to look boxy on him too. So no.
So instead I went with the Hedeby (you gotta scroll down; Carlson didn't have it on his site) design-- the sloped shoulder seams (instead of going straight out from the neck, which is very much not Z's shape, or mine, as I have tiny little girl shoulders above the massive woman-boobs, hence my dislike of boxy garments) and the curved armscyes (instead of a straight armscye and clunky gusset) made me think it might look better.
And, lo, it does, I think. Though I only got him to try it on before I set the gores in, so it was open below the ribcage, still the shoulders sat better. Still too wide; I'll do another version for an undershirt.
anyway. Whoops, went on a bit long. But it's OK, there's no point being early to work on Sunday as my co-worker is sort of pathologically unable to be there with the door key on time. Five or ten minutes either way doesn't bother me, now that I know to expect it.
So i'm just posting a lightning-quick little note of triumph, before I zip out the door to work: it would be better with hyperlinks which I am going to try to add, but we'll see. I cut out the body panels and sleeves of a Hedeby-style tunic last night, and this morning, even with a lie-in of almost an hour more than I'd planned, I managed to assemble the whole thing, including fashioning the tiny scraps of fabric I had left into all of the gores to add fullness below the waist. I am quite pleased with myself. Except that one pieced gore (I had to sew every one out of at least two pieces, because I had no single expanses of fabric large enough to use) has the seam where I sewed it together accidentally turned to the outside of the garment. Either I'll rip that seam and re-do it inside, or I'll attempt to overcast the raw edges (actually they're selvage edges) attractively so it maybe looks intentional.
I made a whole tunic out of one yard and twelve inches of fabric. I am quite pleased. It's even slightly big on Z, so I can wear it too.
Ha ha!
So I have a second, and I'm going to put in the hyperlinks, because I don't like the idea of being obscure.
All the weird names for tunics are just the different names of the extant finds of medieval clothing, upon which many/most costumers base their designs. Bocksten is a common tunic type, recommended for beginners, named for the Bocksten Bog Man, upon whom this tunic was found. It features straight front and back panels, straight shoulder seams (no curves for the arm hole), and a square gore set in under the arm to give the sleeve enough fullness that the arm can be raised. On Z, this thing looks like a disaster; the loose one looked boxy, so I made a tighter one, and the armpit gores wound up giving him the appearance of man-boobs. So no.
I had thought to try the Kragelund design, since it was a bit more complex and lacks the dumpy armpit squares, but looking at it... well, the best tutorial was by an enormous man. It looks awesome on him. Z is not an enormous man. I rather think it's going to look boxy on him too. So no.
So instead I went with the Hedeby (you gotta scroll down; Carlson didn't have it on his site) design-- the sloped shoulder seams (instead of going straight out from the neck, which is very much not Z's shape, or mine, as I have tiny little girl shoulders above the massive woman-boobs, hence my dislike of boxy garments) and the curved armscyes (instead of a straight armscye and clunky gusset) made me think it might look better.
And, lo, it does, I think. Though I only got him to try it on before I set the gores in, so it was open below the ribcage, still the shoulders sat better. Still too wide; I'll do another version for an undershirt.
anyway. Whoops, went on a bit long. But it's OK, there's no point being early to work on Sunday as my co-worker is sort of pathologically unable to be there with the door key on time. Five or ten minutes either way doesn't bother me, now that I know to expect it.
