Aside from one or two planned distractions, today has been marked for the doublet bodice. I haven’t done much, if any, work on it this week, and October is coming quickly. I hope to get up to the waist treatments before I need to stop. Since I didn’t originally plan for any waist treatments, that will give me a starting point for tomorrow. I am pretty sure that I’ll stick with looped tabs to match the shoulders. The biggest time challenge that I anticipate will be the collar and front facing. With my history of not doing things the easy way, I have planned to do decorative machine stitching in gold thread on both pieces, which are black. Since the doublet was imagined to be worn open most of the time (and since none of the many golds in this ensemble match), I want something fun to show through. First, I’ll need to figure out how to make my machine do the crazy stitches that it has. Then, I’ll need to decide which way I want the stitching to run in relation to the diagonal lines on the outside, the vertical, textured lines of the kirtle, and the horizontal waves of the embroidered smock. The most difficult *crosses fingers* part will likely be attaching the flatlining. At this moment, I have fashion fabric, heavy linen interlining, and duck cloth flatlining. I originally cut a mock-up with canvas, but I thought the pieces weren’t quite right, so I put them in the scrap bin. The thickness of the layers I have seems right, but the stiffness isn’t. My first gown was two layers of cotton duck with a very thin fashion fabric, and it was perfect. My golden gown has the linen and duck, but doesn’t feel as stiff as the first one. I didn’t want to replace the linen with the canvas because I like the way it hides the boning lines. However, adding the extra layer will make the bodice way too thick, and I’m already wearing a gown underneath. Decisions, decisions.
Ya know…I really wanted to go to faire this weekend. *sniff, tear*
Thanks for reading!
Green Linen Shirt 