Blue Linen Dress Re-Do Swatches

So as promised I finally took a picture of the materials that will be going along with the light blue dress. I haven't been able to do much work on recently but I'm hoping that will change next week. This week I've been in a super cleaning mode. "Nesting" is what my husband calls it. I'm just short of rearranging the whole house.

So here's the picture of the materials. The lighting I think may have cause the colors to be slightly off in the picture but you can get the idea. The light blue is a piece of what I've already removed from the sides. The gold is a strip of to be formed bias tape that will cover the seam between the light blue and dark blue pieces. The dark blue will be the added border and lacing tabs to make it a laced surcoat. Come to think of it, I should post a picture of the pattern piece that I've drafted out to complete the sides as well. There's not much to see really and the dark blue looks almost black but there it is.

Blue Linen Dress Re-Do

So I've begun taking apart the light blue linen t-tunic type dress that was given me. I didn't take picture of it while assembled but it was the basic pattern that many people use when they start out, located here.

The front of the dress.

I have so far removed the sleeves and widened the arm opening so now it somewhat resembles the final product: a sideless surcoat. The picture to the left is the front of this troublesome garment. Right off the bat you can see that the shoulders are odd and the hem is funk to say the least.


Below and to the right you can see the back of dress and the right shoulder seam pointing off into space. This problem is because the shoulder seams were an attempt at a flat felled seam. The previous owner didn't have a serger and so tried to make the garment last longer by using this seam method. It didn't work out so well... Part of the reason is that it wasn't a true flat fell seam, just an attempt at one. There's a lot of extra material in that shoulder seam that shouldn't be there. It's one of the things I'm going to have to re-do before the dress is wearable.

The back of the dress with shoulder points.

The other thing that is going to have to go is the hem. From these two images if the odd hem isn't evident I have a better picture below. The hem is longer on the sides than front and back and the only way I see to fix it is to chop it evenly and add a border. Over all I think it will all work out rather well and I may even be able to wear it while pregnant, provided that I don't get any bigger!

The exceedingly uneven hem.

My goal for this dress is to turn it into a side laced "sideless" surcoat. I've seen it worn at a couple of events and in an old pattern book of mine for theater costumes. I'm not sure how period it is but I like how it looks and will allow for my expanding waistline without making it hang oddly which is a problem I'm experiencing with one of my earlier surcoats. I have a dark blue linen that's approximately the same weight which I will use to border the hem and add to the sides. I'm planning on spiffing up the seams where the new material meets the old with a custom made bias tape of a cotton gold upholstery fabric that I picked up from JoAnn's a while back.

I wish I had the time to make my own trim for this but I only have a nine foot inkle loom and I would have to warp the same pattern twice to make enough for this dress. I also simply don't have the time. Not with a three year old and a baby due in November! I try to go for non-metallic store-bought trim when I want to add something with more "oomph" than just some bias tape or piping. I play in the SCA for fun not a period perfection headache. Would I like to be more period? Sure! I'm not going to let authenticity or lack thereof make me miss out on something I love to do. Okay, enough ranting now!

I've drafted the side piece that I want to add and I have the bias tape mostly made up. I'm hoping that tomorrow I can take pictures of both and add them to the post. It all depends on how much I get done on the daily to-do list around the house!

Ack! Current Projects

So I haven't posted to this, my SCA clothing journal, in two years. I do have a somewhat valid excuse. In two years we've moved, my business is getting re-started, I'm working part time, and we have just finished the basement (sewing room). It's been a crazy couple of years.

Beyond that I am pregnant again and now I actually have to worry about maternity and garb. *Sigh* There are a number of ways to approach it and there are some handy articles out there on how to modify current garb and what type of garb is best for the pregnant modern day medievalist. I've collected the pages that I plan on using on my current project: a rework on a light blue linen tunic dress that was pretty badly put together. I'm planning on turning it into a surcoat that I can wear to Fall Crown here in the E.K. Not sure how it's going to turn out but I do have a lot of work to do on it.

The good news is that with the sewing room put together I can now work and not have to worry about cleaning up every evening. I also have added a dress form to my collection of sewing stuff which makes fitting myself much easier!

For now that's pretty much it. I'll post pictures of my work in progress in a little bit...after I figure out what to do with it! medievalist.