Rocking the Box

Today was one of those days where if it wasn't creative in some way, it wasn't happening.  I put together the bulk of a new dress I am working on for an event coming up.  Then I turned my attention to a box I purchased back in late November.  I had purchased it with the intention of painting it for my needlepoint sundries.

I had been lacking proper inspiration of a 12th century style to begin, much less complete, this box.  But today I finally painted the top. Not too shabby. Eventually I will gold leaf around the characters.

But, I need to work out what I will do with the rest.





If anyone is curious about the depictions, since these things most always tell a story, this is the wooing of Ali by Turstin.  Turstin's shield bears the mark of the Company of the Mountain.  So he comes from the cold lands of the north, thick with ice and snow.  It is why he dresses so warmly.  He has come to Ali's home, where there are always flowers.  But she finds his gift of a single gilly flower sweet and is willing to accept it from him.

Trapunto, Take Two

Gospel of Henry the Lion

It's been a rough kind of work day.  The kind of day where once I am home, I need to forget about the real world and indulge my habits of sewing, research, and helping others along that path.

 

Yes. I intend to add more educational things and not just show off what I have been working on.  I still intend to do that too.  After several years of researching and watching what others were doing I feel more confident now sharing what I do.  We all get there in our own time.

 

Alors, onto the project of the week, or rather a few weeks ago.

If you remember this project, I have a variation of the kind.  This is a linen under dress with a trapunto neck and embroidered cuffs.  The sleeves were made extra long to give them a gathered effect at the wrists.  Historically the under dress, or shifts, or chemise was linen and white color.  We know from various bits of illuminations, such as above, and references in literature.  Marie de France is one example of a 12th century author whose vivid descriptions of linen depicted it as "snowy" or "white as a meadow flower."  I am going the color route, just to keep things interesting for me.

I based the whole of the dress on a piece of statuary from the Chartes.  You can see the curve of the neck, a single button at the top,

 and then the structure of the cuff, more of a decorated band.



Busy busy busy busy

Necklace I made using freshwater pearls
and imperial jasper

I haven't done a post in sometime. Life has kept me jumping and otherwise occupied. So, with a moment of down time I can breath and maybe bring the world up to speed on my tasks.

I finished a slit neck tunic, an under tunic featuring a trapunto keyhole neck, extreme progress on a short sleeve purple gown, a new veil to go with the filet, a necklace, a hood, various mundane household soft goods, and a pair of fighter hose for my husband.

Whew!!

I have some garb to fine tune and some that needs a start. I need to fine tune the purple dress which includes a large amount of embroidery and metal work, start some tablet woven belts, begin the black heraldic dress for a friend, a long under dress in saffron yellow for me, and push on working up my husband's soft kit for heavy fighting.

Pant!!!

I plan on featuring the soft kit for my work shop follow along. Plus a look at doing easy braise and a look at hose.

Wool on linen featuring silk tassels



Slit neck tunic for a friend

Egon approving fabric

Sayuri approves of nothing



Final Bag 1

Today's goal of finishing the bag was met.

After I applied the interfacing to protect the stitches, I sewed up the sides on both the potter bag and the white linen liner. Three original has a lovely bit of hold tablet weaving over the seams. I opted to use more gold couching because I currently lack tablet weaving supply. After which I added a little tassel, a detail more popular on 12th century bags.
Upon lining the bag, I left a small opening so I could turn it properly. I had originally planned to leave that opening in the liner, but forgot about it till I put it on the machine.


Oh well...

Anyway, I crocheted up some silk cords that I had to fight my kitten for control of.  I managed to drum up some nice silver metal beads from work to tie on to the ends. Attaching the ties was the hardest thing to do with Egon constantly trying to eat them.

But it is all done now. My husband wants a bag of his own now.  Who saw that coming?

Me.

The Filet

German ladies

So, here I am on a warm summer morning having just swept the floor and rescued our cat that had ran away two days ago, looking at the linen for a veil that I just washed, dried, and ironed. Rather than get cutting on the oval, I find inspiration and instead decided to work up a filet.

The hook:

only using what I have on hand.

 
Sorting through scraps of linen, I decide to go with a heavy white. I rather have a color, but I figure I need multiple hats like any good lady and here I can test my skills on the basic. I may or may not bling it up later.

 

If you are following along to make your own:

• Iron should be on hottest setting, no steam.
• Trim interfacing to meet fabric, not other way around.
• Use 1/4 inch seams.
• Take the extra bits of advice I give.

I need a 22 inch circumference, so I add 1 inch. I cut a 3 1/2 inch width.








Cut two from heavy fusible interfacing designed for handbags. Thinking I may need something for the core, but will figure that out in a moment.







Attaching the interfacing and letting the pieces cool, they are stiff enough to stand on their own, but I want a bit more durability. I know some girls use leather, others plastic canvas. My problem, I don't have that.  But I do have light canvas and more interfacing!! I figure I could make a sandwich using the two with under canvas add the filling. Cutting canvas at a 3 inch width, I give it a 22 inch circumference with the interfacing at the same. Iron together.



Now, trimming up the outer pieces, I match them up with right sides together and sew along top.  I take a moment to open them and press with wrong sides together. This is a tremendously helpful step when you go to turn. Do not skip it. With wrong sides together, stitch bottom.




Turn. (I took a pic of the turning, but it looked like a fabric penis, so no pic.)  Press flat and lovely.







Take center insert and trim if needed to be slightly smaller than filet. Insert and pull through, use a pair of tongs to assist if needed at half way point.






Insert one end into other and find correct size. Next fold raw edges under.







Stitch closed.








Ta da!!

Tramping About with Trapunto: part 2

Madonna of Viklau, Church of Viklau, Sweden

Now we actually get to the body of work. I have been making under tunics for some time. Usually they end up looking like a very pared down version of an over tunic in white or other muted easy to clean color with a simple neck. I use gussets under the arms and occasionally I will add side, front, and back gores as needed by the skirt to get desired fullness. This time around I decided on just side gores and a key hole neck, even though most evidence have a much higher neck line similar to a gambison.

I have to tell you, for about five minutes I considered the possibility of the ladies at Chatres wearing gambisons under their bliauts. Warriors for God kind of a thing. Then I said it out loud. Yeah, it didn't sound right. I thought about it one more time, amused. I had mental images of the stone women hopping to life waving swords screaming "cuillier!"

How many of you are actually going to grab a dictionary to translate? (if I spelled it correctly that is.)

Alors!

The nitty gritty of making the trapunto neck and cuffs. Well, would be awesome if I could show you, but I didn't take step by steps. When I started to work on this gown, it was only with the intention of showing off the final results on Facebook. My workshop and lab was not a thought in my head at the time. I do have plans for a second more ornate, more sculptured work that I will do step by step on. Until then, you will have to endure the rambling. I cut a keyhole neck piece larger than normal, pinned to the neckline, and sewed it on so that the raw edges would be sealed between the right side of garment and wrong side of facing. Ironed to set the facing on the outside, and pinned down to prevent it from shifting while sewing channels.

Needle and thread in hand, I eyed a 1/4 inch channel around the neck hole and used a running stitch just like one would use in every day quilting. After making a channel of two, I would thread a yarn needle with a double stand of white cotton yarn to pull through the channel. Being an avid crochet enthusiast, I always have it on hand. Piercing the wrong side, I simply fed it through. A friend of mine thought herself impatient because she would stuff the channel right after she made it. Well, in researching period trapunto I found that the artist would fill the work as they went. So I can happily say that impatience is period.

On the final row I trimmed the edge down to about a little mire than 1/2 inch from the previous row of stitches. Folding the raw edge under, and clipping into the corners slightly, it was pinned and stitched down.

Repeated the process for the sleeves.

There was some conversation about how many rows should be done. What it boiled down to was counting the number of visible rows on the statue and I added one because of a small hint of a possible final row. As for the sleeves, I had seen images that showed three all the way to the elbow. I felt about five inches worth would be fine. And it was.

After all the hand work was complete with seam finishing and taking up the hem, I tried it on.  I was a little concerned that the quilting would make the neck and wrists warm, but it wasn't too bad at all.

So, to my 12th century friends, I give trapunto gowns a big thumbs up.