Meltintalle's Closet

( And so Maid Marian joined the Merry Men... )

I've hit my first snag in my plans.

I transferred the embroidery pattern I found in A Scholehouse for the Needle (pg 30) to the first sleeve and merrily stemstitched my way down the motifs. I was almost done when I decided to transfer the second sleeve.

( Ah, you see my mistake already! )

Ever since I first read Jessica Day George's book Dragon Slippers I've been obsessed with the dresses Creel creates. This is the first time that I've drawn a concept that is remotely close to what I've imagined, and I'm pretty excited about it.

I've already started work on the square necked shirt, and the sleeves.

That's kind of a sad picture of the finished ensemble, and I should get a better one, but it's taken me almost three weeks to actually write about the outfit.

( So... )

Body of shift: 2 pieces of fabric 34" wide and approx. 42" long (finished length 40").
Sleeves: 2 pieces of fabric 25" wide and 29" long

Shoulder seam: 5" to 7" deep

Apparently, the webpage I originally found my instructions on is gone, and I didn't save a copy. It was a pain to measure the finished garments, but it'd be a bigger pain to make something that doesn't fit, and I really like how the shifts fit. So.

I wore the 1904 inspired skirt, and almost the first thing my friend (who has seen the original) said was, "It's cute, but it needs the buttons."

The originals are small shank buttons of a material I have not identified. I'm not sure where I'd find non-plastic shank buttons that are the correct size for the look.

It so happened that I read a journal entry that mentioned making buttons out of cloth. A google search later, and I had basic instructions from a cached webpage. (I can no longer find this page, alas. I should have saved it when I thought of it!)

Anyway, after letting the idea sit for a few days, I grabbed the scraps from making the skirt and using a standard thread spool as a pattern cut out a circle of fabric. I did a running stitch in the middle at about the size I wanted the finished button to be. Then I folded and tucked and tucked and folded and tacked and fluffed until it was roughly button shaped and sized with all the raw edges inside. (I hope. I wonder how it will go through the wash because the fabric tends to fray.)

The later buttons look better than the first two, but they all look fairly good. I made six. I just need to fix the one side. The fabric shifted or something and it's more bunched than the other side which hangs beautifully.

I asked my sister what she wanted to wear to the Renaissance Fair this year. She brought out the late eighteen century style dress I made her and suggested adding lacing on the front we'd pinned.

Um... well... it's a tiny floral print. But if the accessories are right, I can make it look sort of like a German kirtle or something. Maybe. We'll see. I think the pieces are shaped right. The seams in the back won't be right, but... and perhaps I can convince her to let me dye it a solid color.

Even though the Rit dye didn't work on acryllic yarn, it wasn't a total waste.
( Black is black is... )

We now skip ahead in time to Christmas. As a present, I received a vintage outfit. My unprofessional opinion dated it at about 100 years old, and a bit of online gallery surfing suggests that it's from around 1904.
( The vintage skirt and my recreation of it )

I need to get this firmly ingrained in my brain before I make a truly awful mistake... If there's a difference in feel depending on how I rub the fabric, there WILL be a difference in fabric color if the pieces don't all go the same way!

I'm not sure how many times I've done this... laid out a pattern neatly on the fabric with as little wastage as possible, cut out the pieces, started sewing, and then laid the project out on the floor for some reason. Only then do I discover that there is a noticeable difference in how the light hits the fabric! Oops!

( More mistakes... )

It was a wonderful idea--use scrap yarn of the same weight to create something more sophisticated than a potholder or wildly colorful scarf. A dip in a black dye bath would then render everything equal and I would have a black blazer.

Today, I weighed the crocheted pieces (front/back and two sleeves) and found they totaled 17.4 ounces dry. The directions on the bottle of Rit dye said to use 3 gallons of water for every pound of fabric. Well, only about two and half gallons of water fit in the pot if one left headroom for the project. But--close enough. The pieces went in and were immediately a lovely black color except for one pink/white ombre in which the pink turned a pretty purple. Ooooh, ah. However, in our experiments with using beet juice as a colorant, it had also dyed a lovely color that promptly washed out. Half an hour of standing over the hot stove later, my sister and I took the pot out to rise the blazer pieces. All the dye ran off the first piece, and we discovered I had forgotten to add salt.

A cup of salt and another half hour later, it still didn't keep the lovely black color. The dye did stain my hands when I wrung the sleeve to get excess water out--and left finger shaped marks that would probably disappear when the rest of the dye went in cold water.

Well, Rit did warn us. "Not recommended to dye acrylics." Of course, when one has inherited several stashes of yarn, what else would one expect the scraps to be? And all the 'nice' colors have been used in other scrap projects. *grumble*

I've left it in the pot--perhaps, if it soaks overnight...

But I'll be thinking of other options to make the blazer look better. Just in case the pessimist is right and it doesn't help.

UFO is a sewer's term meaning Unfinished Fabric Object. I have a number of them. Unfortunately. Anyway, this one was from way back when I first thought I'd like to learn
to sew for myself. I started making a dress using Simplicity 9713, from their costume line. I got most of the pieces cut out, then came to the bodice and realised I'd have to change the measurements to get it to fit me at the bust and waist and gave up.

Last weekend, I got inspired by the fact that we were going to go to a 1800's Rendezvous. So I dug out the pieces, scrounged around online until I found something that looked like it could be made with the pieces I already had and got to work.

My inspiration: Koshka the Cat's Round Gown

If you're wondering, what, exactly, a round gown is, check out the entry at the

Glossary of 18th Century Costume Terminology.

Admittedly, it's late 1700's, so it's about 50 years too early for much of the fur trade excitement, but it is more or less what I originally had in mind, just with several years more taste and research behind it.

I started Friday (the event was Saturday) and sewed like mad. Machine stitching all the way, except for covering the side bodice seams, including zig-zag, so it's not 'period' at all. I got up early on Saturday morning and hemmed it.

We used safety pins to pin the front, but that was time consuming. I've seen mentions of gowns closed with hook and eye tape, and that may happen to this one...

Though it's a week or two later.

Way back when I was working on the embroidery for Lucy's Red PC dress I decided I was going to enter it in the county fair. It was worn for pictures and the movie and what-not and a hole was noticed in the lining of the sleeve.

So I fix it right before entry day for the county fair--literally the night before--and am too tired to re-tack the lining up. I am absolutely positive this sloppiness on my part will earn me only a red at best, but it'll be displayed and people will get to look and nod and say, "Aww. That's nice."

Blue ribbon. No, more than that. Purple Grand Champion Ribbon! And compliments. "She did all that by hand?!" "Really amazing!"



And the opportunity to get a few pictures on a dress form was nice too.

Butterick 6183 v.1

The lady in black is in all her pattern envelope glory, while the lady in yellow is as she might have been, had the pattern contained the pieces to make the dress I made.



I took the pieces for a princess seamed bodice, and fit them to the same size as Butterick 3714. Unfortunately, I moved the seams to far towards the middle so the tabs almost meet at the center.

The little tabs were kind of interesting. They had to have a facing, and then the center bodice piece was sewn to the facing. There's a slight pucker, but it's mostly hidden under the tab.

I did a narrow hem for the neck, sleeves, and hem. The skirt is a half circle.



My sister wanted pockets, so I inserted pockets--but because I wasn't paying attention, one got put in backwards. So I had to re-do it, and mend the cut with invisible thread. That looked okay, but then the invisible thread...disappeared...after the first washing. So it'll end up being mended in black afterall, and it'll be that much more noticeable.

If and when I do this again, the pockets will be slightly bigger, put in correctly the first time, and the princess seams on the bodice will be moved back towards the side at least a half inch each. Let's hope.

The movie costume has culottes under the red overskirt so we know I had the right idea. But skirts are so much more Narnian, and this is something she'll wear far more often than the rest of the outfit.



I made the skirt as a wrap version of the riding skirt I designed a few years ago. It has pockets and the skirt is pleated into the waistband.



Because the waistband is wide, and the fabric is lightweight, if I did it again I would put some sort of interfacing into the waistband so it doesn't wrinkle while being worn. And maybe add some sort of weight to either the hem or the side seam of the outer 'petal'.

So, I should know better, right? Especially considering a case history that includes sewing a sleeve in wrong 3 different ways in a row?

I was inserting pockets--there's a technical name, but I don't remember what it is right now--like the ones you will often find in jeans; the ones that scoops down from the waist and show the backing behind them. And after I basted it in, I cut it.

But I'd basted it in backwards, so the scoop went towards the side seam, instead of going straight down at the side seam.

I've just got to keep telling myself that it's only an experiment trying out a whole bunch of different techniques.

This was done before we knew that the bodice had five splits etc, but I like it.

Materials: Fat Quarter Quilters cotton- gold

    1 1/2 yard cotton from stash for lining
    3/4 yard red velvet remnant
    fat quarter's worth muslin
    sport weight yarn from stash
    package double fold 1/4" bias tape

    red peasant skirt
    Renissance chemise from the Tangled Web Pattern

begun April 9th and finished April 17th


I used the same pattern I created for Lucy's Red Dress's bodice, cutting front and back on the fold to create a sidelacing bodice.

The back lining is fully corded, as are the front sides. Once the front and back were constructed, I put the lining on and marked the neckline and the slits across the upper bust.

The slits were trued with a long narrow oval I drew based on the marks on the bodice.



Scraps of fabric slightly larger than the finished slit were sewn to the right side and the centres slashed. The scrap is then pulled to the opposite side of the garment and stitched down to bind the edges.



The red velvet pieces were then cut slightly longer than the lining and sewn together. The bottom edge was turned over and handstitched to the lining. 1/8" eyelets were added to the sides, and the slits in the red were cut out and satin stitched to the lining so the inside is fully finished.



The oversleeves just fit on my fat quarter--good thing, because it was the only golden cotten fabric in the house--and I used the lower sleeve pattern from Lucy's Red Dress and the upper sleeve pattern from Danielle's Work Dress (Ever After). They were lined with muslin scraps from my chemise. Bias tape was applied to create lacing strips.



I'm very pleased with how this came out. The upper sleeve still won't stay in place by itself, but I didn't attempt to fix the pattern. Maybe lessening the slope on the seam would help? And the velvet bodice is too bright a red, but perhaps someday I'll be brave and give dying a try.

First, you draw the detailed dagger shape. Then you cut it out of the box flap with your box knife. Then you draw around it on a different part of the box flap and cut the slightly larger dagger shape out.

Cut the blood channel out of the detailed shape. Make hilt detailing.

Then you slit the corrugated cardboard apart so you have three daggers.



Layer with the solid dagger in the middle and glue together with rubber cement. (With the extra hilt layers you'll have five piece of cardboard stacked together.) Cover in aluminum foil. Wad the foil up where the lion shape will be for extra 3D effect.



Wrap the hilt in red fabric. Stretch tight and stitch in place. (Yes, you can sew through cardboard.) Paint the silver foil ball gold. Add the other gold detailing with gold fabric paint.



Enjoy, but Use Gently! (No sparring, or the foil will come off the blade.)

The entire front is now embroidered! Of course, now we know that the design is actually printed on, and the only embroidery is french knots at the flowerhead. Oh well. I had originally had a crazy idea of adding beads at the flower head. I may go ahead and do that if I find beads of the right color and size in our stash and say this is a 'derivative project'.



Of course, the peplum doesn't actually have a criss cross either, but more flowers in twisted gold cord. They do make a strong diagonal pattern, though, so I'm planning on doing the front middle section in a flower design and fading out on the side pieces so that by the time I reach the side seam, it's my lovely diamond pattern.

The back pieces were harder than the front. I wanted the pattern to match at the seams and at the opening in the back. First I had to line up the edges, then start the new bit of embroidery where the pattern left off on the other piece.

I didn't try pinning the two pieces of fabric together and sticking them in the hoop like that until the last match; but that solved two problems at once. The other problem was fabric tension. When it was loose, I would pull the thread too tight, and then the fabric would pucker. And it was hard to put tension on the edge, when only about half the fabric was actually stretched in the hoop.

I ripped out large chunks of the peplum embroidery on the left back because when I started the pattern on the front, I started with seven rows. I ended with less on the right back. I lost a row or two doing the dips and curves of the hemline. And then I had to make it back up on another dip with less fabric afterwards!



Every other vertical row of crosses is tacked down, which makes a nice 3D effect but keeps all the threads in place.


But why does it only feel like progress, you ask?

Because I still have to do the flower heads, more peplum detailing, sew in the lining, do the u-shape at the neckline, make the trim for that, and, depending on how it goes, add in some more detail to the arm trim. Wouldn't you know, it's not a simple braid at all.

But I have the entire front embroidered!!!

The annual quiz dinner for 2008 was last night, and this year's theme was a Masquerade set in Venice in the 1800's.  Give or take a bit... Phantom of the Opera took place in Paris, and a large chunk of the music was from the musical.

I'm rather pleased with this outfit; I made everything except the earrings, and those were made by my great aunt.



The mask was based on this page of Venetian masks--specifically the art deco black. Only mine isn't black.

I was trying to open the green fabric paint--the mask is made from fun foam and decorated with fabric paint--which I was afraid had dried out because the nozzle was clogged. Anyway, I twisted the cap, and eventually got a nice glob of green paint on my hand. Yay for air pressure. So I grabbed my paintbrush and painted green bits.

It has a yarn tie instead of elastic because the yarn matches the green paint.

And after holding the mask to my nose for about half an hour, and then wearing it for three more it has begun to conform to my face.



And finally, the cute little glovelettes I wore.

I want another mask now... though I have no idea when I'd wear it or what it should look like.

On the advice of Danceler and Meneleve, I'm trying the criss-cross directly on the main fabric.



As you can see, I've even got about half of what I did tacked down. But now it's not nearly so 3D as when the threads are loose. Am I obsessing to much when I consider going back and ripping out the tacks, and then re-tacking every other cross? I'm too lazy to be considering something as insane as that!

Two other thoughts: due to the fact that the threads are not creating 45 degree angles when they cross, the bottom row of crosses is getting all weird, and it seems to look okay starting from every other thread on the bottom. (If that makes sense...) However, I feel I ought to make that consistent--which goes back to the whole ripping out the tacks...

And should the embroidery go under the seams, i.e. rip out the seam, embroider to the edge, then re-seam?

Textured trim.



The only yellowish fabric I have is a cheery 2" lemon bias tape. So, I'm experimenting with covering it in a criss-cross of golden brown embroidery floss. The strands are spaced about a 1/4" apart. If I do decide to do the peplum this way, I'm going to go back and tack the thread in some places so it doesn't get caught on anything and stays in a nice diamond pattern.