18th c. strapless stays: pieces cut

Strapless stays cut out
Originally uploaded by Catrijn.

I picked up the fashion fabric for my stays this weekend, and now have all my pieces cut out. The fabric is a powder blue worsted wool twill, very smooth and lightweight. It was a remnant - 5/8 yd. and 58 inch wide for $7.50 - which is perfect for a project like this which doesn't take much yardage. In addition to the outer fabric, I've got two layers of 5 oz linen for interlining and structure, and one layer of 3.5 oz linen for lining. I'm planning to baste the outer layer and the interlining together in the seam allowances, and then start assembling it. The one thing I really need to decide soon is whether I'm going to do machine or hand sewing.

Apron dress plans

My wonderful and generous sweetheart has saved me from the fabric disaster that I mentioned last time. We split a 10+ yard piece 50/50, and I washed only my part, so his is still smooth and not fulled-felted. Fortunately for me, he had no particular plans for his fabric yet, so he has offered to switch in exchange for me making him a cloak from the now thick, fuzzy stuff. So my apron dress plans are once again on track.

I should say that Norse is way out of my normal areas of expertise, but I'm learning a lot as I do the research for this project, so it should be fun. I'm planning to do a closed tube style dress, with some shaping like the Hedeby fragment. Actually, I think I'll separate out my commentary on that particular find out into a separate entry - I actually found it very difficult to produce a pattern that meshes with both the details of that find and other contemporary evidence and general knowledge of clothing construction. What I came up with is probably not original, I'm sure someone's done it before, but I'm happy with it and it's a bit different from what I see most commonly in recreations.

I also picked up some additional very nice fabric from the liquidation sale at one of my local Hancock Fabrics. (Many but not all locations are being closed - there's decent discounts on notions, and fabrics if you get lucky.) I got 2 yards of a lightweight wool in a cream color - I'm thinking that I might experiment a bit with wool veils, and see how they work, and also 6 yards of grey wool in the most summer of summer weights that I've ever had the pleasure to find. The color is not ideal, so I don't know what I'll do with it yet, but the weight and hand were so gorgeous that I couldn't just leave it there. Based on drape I think it would be excellent as a full-on court bliaut, but I'm having a hard time imagining doing such a high-status garment in such nondescript color. (And I'm not keen on the idea of dying it - evenness has always been a major problem for me when I attempt that.)