Multitasking Apron

There's not much to say here. I grabbed a piece of pre embroidered fabric from my stash, hemmed it, and added ribbon ties. Nice and simple, and it would have been completed much faster if I hadn't been distracted with other pieces. I was thinking of adding needlelace to the edges, then just the bottom hem, but I decided against it in favor of devoting energy to other pieces

 The best part is, I can use it for IRCC and my on-hold Sleepy Hollow getup.

Down the Middle

Tightening the center back seam is not easy when you're fitting on yourself. It requires a lot of patience, flexibility, and a willingness to pin and unpin yourself out of the mockup constantly. and in the end, it's never snug enough. Grumble. I've decided that it's tight enough for now, and hopefully I won't be too disappointed by the fit.

I noticed that when I lace up my stays, I can't fully straighten. I have to bend down to lace them up, and when they're on, I stay bent. This is probably why the top of the central line started to curve in drastically when I pinned it last time (I since took those pins out.)

I cut too much front the center fronts. It's simple enough to pin in the top and bottom, but to get the center to close at all I have to lace up drastically and tug a lot. As I don't want to fight with the finished product, I'll have to recut the fronts, and use the over trimmed bits as mockups for the zone front.

The first fitting

I cut out the lining/toile of the bodice for my striped outfit. For this, I used a panel from my old liene from my SCA Irish clothes, since I have no intention of using that persona anymore, and the liene sports a few stains, among other things. The linen is soft enough to make me nervous, so I might end up using an interlining so i don't have to worry about the finished product flopping about.

As an aside, I marvel at how simple the business of making human sized clothes are when you have the undergarments and a sloper already handy. So much time saved, and most of the hard stuff is out of the way.
I pinned it all together using a broad allowance, as if the clothes are slightly snug, chances are they will stretch a bit. Also, I have picked up the idea that any more ease than needed is distasteful. I think I picked this up from too many years of reading the sewing adventures of others.

The first thing to go on this trial run was all the excess fabric from the center front seam. Yes, I did this on purpose when I first made the sloper, to accommodate any size fluctuation, but this is a bit absurd.

I also took the time to pin the straps securely, and stick a pin down the center back seam. Even with years of experience working with pins, I gouged a small hole in my palm. It was more an annoyance than anything serious at least.

More fitting adventures involving twisting, contorting and many tryings on will continue in future posts.
Center back seams are hard to fix.

Something Familiar, Something Peculiar

I decided it's more than time to start the Sleepy Hollow Turque. There's one small problem though, I'm not sure where my pattern pieces are and I'm not sure if I'd recognize them. On the bright side, I do have the pattern traced on some fabric I was planning for a jacket that I never got around to making (same old lament, nowhere to wear it, sigh.)

This solution is far from perfect. First, the pencil lines are ridiculously faint. In some areas my nose was all but touching the material as I looks for traces of blue and darkened them with more pencil. The other is that I still don't recognize some of the pieces.

What is this?

Oh, I think I know now. Time to start the mockups!