Weird Timing

It's odd, but typically some of my best patterning or design ideas come to me right as I'm in bed and beginning to fall asleep. There's a big issue with this - usually I am under the influence of my sleeping pill and I'm not awake enough to get up, find paper and write some thing down. However, like last night, with a bit memory trudging, I am able to recall my idea. This one is about the construction of the sleeve for HRH's wams.

I have finally decided on the colour combination: The wams will be blue with black slashing and the sleeves will be black with blue lining. You won't see much of the blue, but at least on the upper sleeves the slashes will be lined with the blue so when the linen twists or moves, you catch a glimpse of the blue.

Okay, I have diagram from another German landsknecht/Renaissance costumer from the WAY BACK machine on how to make the iconical slash/puff sleeve. I don't even think she teaches this class anymore, but I still am referring to her handout for construction theories. Her process is a 4 layer sleeve.

1. Lining- self explanatory, it also safeguards the stitching to the inner sleeve from repeated wear;
2. Inner sleeve - this is the base structure. It is the actual size and length of the arm; the puff sleeve is anchored to the inner sleeve;
3. Puff sleeve - this is the white "false sleeve" that is supposed to look like an actual undershirt (hemd) poking through the slashes.  It is longer and wider than the inner sleeve so it'll have form and shape under the Outer sleeve;
4. Outer sleeve - this is the fashion fabric, this is typically the wool or velvet that you would see slashed. Because of it's fulled nature, there was a need for an outer sleeve lining, but because I am using linen, I plan to line the upper portion of the outer sleeve for more rigidity.

All I know is I have a TON of hand sewing to do!!! LMAO.

Okay brainstorm over.

Patterning for Dummies

So I went in a totally different direction with the patterning process of this wams than I originally drafted.

In my first attempt, I took Lady Syele's pattern and just redrew it. Well, tonight I decided that I wasn't happy with the way that it looked and started over. The measurements that I requested from Lady Syele weren't exactly what I needed, so I winged it using the concepts from the Tudor Tailor book and bits from the recesses of my memory and own research. Those pieces combined with an hour long call to my good friend David/Master Gareth in  LA, well... kids, I'm not sure how I did it, but I redrafted the pattern and it looks great! At least it does on my dressmaker's dummy.

I'm suspecting that it's a wee bit too wide in the back and the waist maybe a bit high for HRH, (it sits at the natural waist not the modern waist line), but the armsceye looks great and the curve of the front opening is almost spot-on.

I wish I knew where my digital camera is. it would have been better to take pictures as I was measuring and cutting, but of course I think about that after the fact! That and just moving puts things in wonky places.  At any rate, I'm pleased.

The shirt is almost done, just some hand-sewing to do and I need to draft the sleeve pattern.... but it's late and I have to work overtime tomorrow.

Plans and Execution

Alright.... train of thought:

From the woodcut, it appears that the slashing on the wams are not separate bands (umleg) like with a woman's dress, however it stands to reason that the same process could have been used for a man's wams. So with that as theory, I need to decide what colour combination I want to do. The blue linen is a bit of a coarser weave, and a bit tougher to keep from fraying even with tight hand sewing. (That reminds me, I'll do the hand sewing with linen thread, I really do prefer it much more than modern thread.) The base of the wams will be blue with blue lining, black umleg and black sleeves, not sure whether or not to self-line the sleeves or use the blue. There will be a white inner false sleeve for the puffing and the man's version of the brusttuch will be a black garment fabric with a faint gold diamond weave. If I'm inclined or have time, I might stud the brusttuch.

I'll be making the hemd (shirt) this week & mock-up for fitting this weekend.

I have a ton more to write but it's taken me over an hour to get through this with measuring, researching and phone calls, so that's it for tonight.

Wams for HRH Ashir

Here is the inspiration image again.
I was asked by Lady Syele, who is the appointed Keeper of the Wardrobe, to make a doublet (wams) for this year's Valor tournament in Vatavia (Wichita, KS).  The theme for this year is Landsknects. My favourite, of course!! (I won't be going though, to far south, thereby too hot.)

I was sent black, blue & white fabric. I decided on this woodcut because I think the style would be very flattering on HRH. The sleeves and slashed bands will be blue & the body of the wams will be black. There is a inner "placket" that I plan to use a diamond patterned black & gold fabric for. There will be a ton of handsewing but the shape of the wams is simple enough that if I work dilligently, I don't see it being an issue.

HRH is making a set of leather pants for himself.

TRHs are in town this weekend for a local event and I will have a muslin draft prepared for him to try. I am pretty sure it'll be done tonight.

The hemd (shirt) will be easy for me to do too. In fact, now that I think about it, I can most likely whip that out this week so he'll have it to wear at the fitting of the muslin mock-up.

That's about it for now. Back to my machine.

I haven't sewn in a LONG time. It feels good to be creative again!