Patterning Success!

Hello again! I'm up to my 5th post this month, wow! You guys must be sick of me lol :P

So first of all, you know that page I posted in my last blog post of the Splendor Solis manuscript? Well, I couldn't find a nice-quality not-watermarked image on the interwebs, but I opened up The Tudor Tailor the very next day to find a whole-page version of that same page. *facepalm* anyway so I've had a closer look at it. It's pretty amazing.

Anyway, what I want to blog about today is patterning because over the weekend I had some epic success at kirtle patterning.

I said "I" had some success there, obviously I don't mean that "I" had the success. "I" succeeded only in that I stood about and got my arms out of the way while other people did the work, and by the end I was in possession of a kirtle pattern for myself.

So this Sunday was the Eric & Enid tourney. I've heard that it was actually very good. I umm-ed and ahh-ed over going but in the end I decided not to because Sunday was the best day that Rosie was available to come round and help me do patterning. In the end I'm actually glad that I stayed home to pattern, because I got useful stuff done and didn't get rained on!

Rosie came round just before midday. It was so good to see her! Anyways, my mum wasn't home for like 45 minutes after that but we got on with all the preparation stuff.

Patterning Tip: use a double layer of fabric for your patterning!!

This was something that I honestly did not even think of. Aimee & I had just used 1 layer of fabric, mum & I just used 1 layer of fabric... it never occurred to me that the 1 layer thing could be a problem.

So to start off, Rosie cut out two backs and two fronts of approximately the right shape in calico (she did that while I set up the sewing machine). Then I machine-sewed around the edge of the two fronts and then did some vertical lines down to hold the pieces in place. I did the same to the back. Now we had one back piece and one front piece, both double-layered with lines all down them.

I'll take a moment here to mention that I didn't take any pictures while we were doing this. It's not a super-flattering process tbh and anyway it's hard to represent the patterning process in pictures. You really have to see it happen to understand it, imo.

Next I put on a chemise and took off my bra - you absolutely cannot pattern with a bra on because then you have to wear a bra with the dress. Then we pinned the pieces together and I put it on. When I tried patterning with Aimee and with mum, I didn't wear a chemise, we just did it with naked skin. The pros of this method were that it was easier to adjust myself without all that chemise fabric in there. The cons are that I will be wearing a chemise with the final dress so it made sense to pattern the dress over a chemise.

So, with a chemise on and the two halves of this bodice pattern pinned fairly loosely to me, what was the next step?

Well, first of all Rosie pinned all the side seams in so that the bodice was actually starting to become approximately my shape. Then I adjusted my bust and she pinned the side seams a bit tighter and then adjusted the shoulder seams, which provide all the lift in the bust, apparently.

The bodice was properly on me at this point, but it was not really that fitted and it also had lots of excess fabric all over the place. The first excess fabric problem that we solved was the length.

Patterning Tip: a Tudor kirtle bodice should come to just above your lowest rib, by about 1cm or 1 finger-width.

I had seen in plenty of pictures that kirtle bodices tend to be quite short, but I didn't really think about it until Rosie told me to find my lowest rib and then she said that the bottom of the bodice would be above that point. It seems counter-intuitive but the logic behind it is totally sound: if it's higher above your natural waist, you've got room and flexibility to bend all about the place and actually get on with doing things.

Patterning Tip: snip to the first wrinkle.

This is true for the waistline of the bodice but it's also true for the armscye (arm-hole). When you snip up to the first wrinkle, the tension in the fabric is released and most of the other wrinkles will just vanish! This means that you're snipping up to the best level to allow for movements and good fitting and all that stuff.

We did more adjusting. The adjusting process is pretty simple for the person being fitted (me). All I had to do was arrange my bust so that I was supported (or at least so that I was holding up my bust). But Rosie really needed to strong finger muscles! She pulled in the side-seams first. I think she mostly started by pulling in the under-bust side-seam pin, and then did all the other pins along the side-seam. At the point I could let go of my bust but she would then adjust the shoulder seams to pull everything upwards.

Then it was time for more snipping. Again, Rosie followed the rule of snipping to the first wrinkle. She checked that the waistline was okay but after the first adjusting it didn't actually need much more snipping. Then she did the armscye which needed more adjusting than the waistline. You have to be really careful when making snips in the armscye because snipping a little too much can really ruin it. Rosie was so meticulous though, it all turned out perfectly.

In all the snippy parts, Rosie turned the tabs that remained under the rest of the bodice, so that it made a smooth line and you couldn't see all the tabs sticking out. This was really helpful when we finished adjusting because it made it easier to look into a mirror and see what the final thing would look like - I didn't have to "look around" all the sticking out bits, because they were tucked away.

This process of adjusting, re-pinning, snipping, adjusting adjusting re-pinning re-pinning snipping re-pinning... it went on for a really long time!! But in the end I had a nice tight bodice that was supportive and seemed to fit really well.

The next thing was that Rosie drew on all the lines. She drew on all the lines down the seams and where the straps would be and along the waistline and along the back-neckline and the actual neckline and basically just everywhere there were lines.

Then I got unpinned and could go put on real clothes, yay!

Patterning Tip: if the sides are different, choose the smaller one.

The sides of our toile were actually pretty different - and I don't think it's because I'm that lopsided lol! One of the sides had much wider straps, for example. We determined that it was the more supportive side and chose to go with this one. All we had to do was cut straight down the centre of each piece so that we isolated the good front half and the good back half. We made a few changes, like making sure that the shoulder seams were the same length, and that the waistline was smooth and that sort of thing. The side seams were, conveniently, the same length already, woo!

Mum wanted to make the underarm part more "square" - apparently that's a modern sewing thing. Rosie said no. It was pretty interesting. Mum accepted in the end that we wouldn't change the underarm part at all because part of the supportiveness is in there. But I think she was upset because "that's not how she learnt it" or whatever. I don't even know.

Aaaaaand that was the whole fitting process. Overall it took about 2 hours. That seems really long but apparently some fitting can take a whole day so I was pretty happy with only 2 hours!

I'm going to cut my pattern out in cardboard so that I have it saved for later use.

The only decision left to make is what, exactly, I'm going to use for interlining. I think I will use one full layer of calico and then do a smaller part basted on of canvas or horsehair buckram stuff. Apparently it's very good, and period. Hmm...

So I owe a HUGE thank you to Rosie. Also thank you to Aimee and to my mum, who helped out. But mainly thank you to Rosie, for straightening out all the kinks and finally getting my pattern to be perfect.

I'm really looking forward to getting started on my dresses. Blog-readers: I'll keep you updated!

♥Nancy♬