Session 1 - Feb. 17th

Here is the very quick and dirty version of what we will be doing on Tuesday night, at the first sewing session:

Thinking About Style and Layers:

First of all, I asked people to start thinking about a style that they were interested in re-creating. Look at art and illuminations as much as possible to get an idea of what you're interested in.

You may start noticing that many of these women are wearing more than one layer. For a more in-depth read on this, look at Marcele's website, and her paper, "How I learned to stop worrying and love layers", at La Cotte Simple . We will, specifically, be creating the "versatile layer" described on page 7.

There are a couple of key features to what we're doing. The sleeves are most often fitted, usually long, sometimes with buttons and sometimes without. Some later examples have a long drapey wrist at the end of a fitted sleeve. Also, this layer is most likely laced. It would be very uncomfortable to wear a buttoned gown underneath another fitted gown, so we will be lacing the first layer. There are examples of front lacing throughout the period that we're looking at, so that will be our default. This works especially well with the curved front-seamed gowns that we fit. Alternatively, there are depictions of a few side laced gowns, mostly a little later, ie. into the 15th century.

The one decision you're going to need to make now, or soon, is how full of a skirt that you want. The skirts from c. 1360s don't appear to be quite as full as later depictions. Although, you can find full skirts very early, in the English manuscript The Romance of Alexander, c. 1348. The later skirts tend to look fuller. This may depend on how much fabric that you have! The fuller you want your skirts, the more/wider gores you add. The cutting layouts that I'm showing you can easily give almost a full circle! I, personally, wouldn't go any wider than that, and actually, I tend to go a little less full.

What do I do with this thing that was sewn onto me?

  1. Rip apart all of the seams - gently!
  2. Cut around all of the final seam lines, leaving yourself your preferred seam allowance
    NOTE: Keep the seam allowance at least 1/2" to 5/8" to allow for flat-felling later
  3. Lay out your mock up on craft paper, freezer paper, or whatever your favorite pattern saving method is. Trace, copy over all of your marks, including gores, date, length to floor, etc.
  4. If your mock up is not your lining, lay it out on your preferred lining fabric. Cut lining pieces, allowing yourself a generous seam allowance! Make sure you indicate what your seam allowance is. Either cut to just below hips, or cut an exact replica of the entire gown out of the lining fabric. Be sure to include markings of what each piece is! It's very easy to get confused.
  5. Lay out your mock up (or your new paper 'pattern') on your dress fabric. Using the layouts found here, trace your cutting lines onto the dress fabric using chalk. Remember to give yourself a generous seam allowance, in case things don't fit exactly the same as the original fitting. Mark what your S/A is so you don't forget later.
  6. When you're cutting skirt length, be careful to use the length of the distance to the floor that we measured during the fitting. This will save you some fabric. Check and recheck your length. It is period to add to the length if cut too small, but it is still a pain!
  7. Cut it out. You can do it!
  8. Re-sew your lining pieces back up on the seam lines, or sew your new lining pieces up. Sew the back, sides, and shoulders, leaving the front open.
  9. Sew together your main gown pieces. Insert gores where marked on your mockup. Insert the gores, so that the point of the gore once the seam allowance is accounted for is at the gorepoint. Don't put the very corner of the gore at the gorepoint. It's usually about an inch from the point of the gore.
  10. When inserting gores, think about how you want to attach bias to straight. As much as possible, sew bias edges to straight edges. If you use cutting layout number 2, the main body pieces are all cut with the skirt seams on the grain. You would attach the bias edge of the gores to each body piece. If you insert two right triangle gores, the straight edge of each gore will attach to each other, forming an isoceles triangle. You have some room to play with how you insert gores, but try and follow the straight to bias rule.
  11. When sewing gores in, I find it helpful to sew a gore to the side of a main body panel first. Then, when you attach the second body panel, treat the gore as if it is just part of the first main body panel.
  12. sew all the body panels and gores together, and sew together at the shoulders. For now, leave the front seam open.

So I have a dress and a lining. Now what?

You have a dress and a lining. Congratulations! You have some choice in what you do now. Some of it depends on your fabric.

If you are using a very light silk or other very very lightweight gown fabric, scratch all that above about sewing the lining together and the dress together. If you're working with something lightweight, you'll want to flat-line (or interline) your gown. That's where you attach each body piece to each corresponding lining piece, and treat them like one chunk of fabric. For the purposes of this workshop, none of us are doing this, so I won't go into any more detail at this time. If you know how to flat line, and it suits your purposes, great, go for it!

Are you using linen lining and a wool dress fabric? Chances are, these fabrics will act very differently from one another. Your lining should already fit if it was the mockup. But your dress will fit completely differently.

Take off your bra, and put on your gown layer by itself - rightside out. You may need a friend to help with this part. Pin your gown up the front, following the seam line as closely as possible. Put quite a few pins in - you will need it. Check the fit. If you're using wool, hang out for a bit in it, and allow the fabric to take on your body heat and moisture. The wool will stretch and mold to your body. You may need to lay down, but start playing with the fit. Take things in here and there until you get the nice fit of your mockup. Generally, I end up taking in a little at the ribcage on each side, right under the bosoms. This works best with the gown inside out, however, most of us aren't completely even on each side. It's more difficult, but you'll get a better result with a right-side out fitting.

Once you're happy with the fit of the lining and of the dress separately, it's time to put them together. Right sides together, sew together the gown and lining at the neckline and down the front of the gown. You will be sewing directly on the seam line. There will no longer be any overlap in the front, but this is not a problem, as we will be lacing these gowns.

Seam finishing

Seam finishing is a topic that we will be covering much more in-depth later, however, I want to give some basics to start with now. You will need to give more strength to the torso seams than can be achieved with one row of stitching at each seam, so we will do a flat-felled seam. Feel free to start finishing other seams in any way that you prefer. I would prefer if any visible stitching is done by hand. :-D Of course... If you decide to finish the skirt seams, you can butterfly them or flat-fell them by hand, and get a really beautiful seam. If you don't want to do that much work, just zigzag your skirt seams. This will prevent fraying, which is all that is really necessary on the no-stress seams. But consider doing some handwork! I love how relaxing it can be, and it really makes a gown stand out, even as subtle as it is.

For finishing the torso seams once you have a perfect fit, flat-felling is essential. If you absolutely must flat-fell this part by machine, you will break my heart, but go ahead. ;-) Keep in mind that these are short seams, and you can probably get them tacked down by hand while watching just an evening or two of TV. The stitches don't have to be minutely tiny to create a strong seam. You will probably spend almost as much time pinning as sewing these puppies would take by hand. Sometimes I even like to use a contrasting thread to say "Look at me! I am a hand finished gown!"

See you soon, and let me know if you have any questions! Mathilde/Charlotte