So the last three days have not been great. Between work and sleep issues, Friday was a bust. Saturday got lost in ironing and looking for the pattern I swore I had saved. Then I found it. It is a different pattern then I normally use to make my model’s Turkish coats he wear both for court and to fight in; which I had forgotten. The period pattern is different enough that cutting fabrics today caused some stress and the question of oh, why did I sign up for this, I must have been crazy. I know once everything is cut out and it’s just a matter of stitching my anxiety level will drop a lot. The other thing that is adding to my anxiety is while looking I learned more (why is there always more to learn?) that the lining is attached to the yagmurlak using a process called bag lining, or at least that how it was referred to on one of the sites connected to a lot of extant pieces showing the example of this. A consistent width of an opposing colored fabric is sewn to the outer layer and to the inner layer, almost like a trim-but not a using a trim to attach the two layers together. This is different than sewing the two pieces together right side to right side around the neckline and front opening then turning the garment right side out do that the stitching is inside the two layers-which is how I have done all of his other coats. It adds another layer of color and interest to the piece. But it’s not something that would be seen unless the skirting of the yagmurlak is tucked into the belt while doing grunt work that might cause the skirting to get dirty. It threw me for a bit of a loop because hey, look more stitching to do. UGH!
I know that once everything is cut out to my satisfaction and I know all the pieces fit together properly and I can just sew, my anxiety will reduce and I will be able get things done and have pictures to show of pieces that show my progress-if I can get them to show up properly. Right now all I have is a bunch of cut out pieces; some of which need recut. My goal is to have all the pieces cut out tonight for the yagmurlak, zibin and the caksir.
I am very thankful that the outfit I’m making is not one that requires a lot of beading or embellishments, just a lot of stitches.
The progress of art and creating is hard. I keep an image on my phone of a funny but true list of the stages we go through as we create something:
1. This is awesome
2. This is tricky
3. This is crap
4. I am crap
5. This might be okay
6. This is awesome
Just try not to get too stuck in the middle. It’s easy to get stuck there and give up (I think we all have, one time or another, on something or other).
I’m not sure I’m picturing this trim-as-facing process, so I’m looking forward to photos of what you do as you do it, so as to get it clearer in my head!
I’m going back through your posts as we’re coming around to tomorrow, and I remembered that I had wanted to comment about linings!
Bag lining is creating (effectively) two seperate garments and attaching them at the facings, like what you describe as your usual technique. It’s relatively modern, and what most of us learn in beginning sewing classes.
Construction lining, where you line each piece separately and then sew them all together, is the “usual”* pre-modern method of construction. When you think about it from their perspective, it makes sense. Materials at the time were *incredibly* expensive, but labor is cheap in comparison. Modernly, we’ve got giant warehouses of fabric, but labor is expensive. If you do construction lining, when you need to launder something (or replace a piece or cut it down in size, etc), you can pull out your stitches, work with the bit that needs to be washed, and not possibly ruin the rest of the material. It also makes resizing things incredibly simple – pop the body seams, run new ones. If you make it with enough ease, you can go up or down several inches with the same garment. I may have switched my modern clothes to construction lining, even though it’s a pain – my labor for myself is cheap.
*except when it’s not, caveat, do your research on specific time and place, etc.