10 March 2021 – Bodice fixes and the Kirtle

A couple of days ago I ran into a big mistake as I discovered I had cut two of the right-hand side pieces instead of a left and right. So I had to “frankenstein” material from the scraps I had left to make a piece of fabric large enough, and the correct shapes to recut the pieces. Thank goodness for stripes that can hid the patching.

The bodice back and sides are completed – here are four layers. The print, interfacing, sail cloth and silk for the lining. After attaching the lining I realized some of the stiffening material was not securely attached to the overall garment, so I did some channel stitching following the strips to secure all the layers together. Now I need to finish the front pieces

I realized I needed more material for lining the kirtle than I had purchased so went scrounging through my “stash” and I found this pinkish sild. YARDS of it. I have no recollection of where or when I acquired it but I was glad to use it.

I needed to insert pleats along the waist. Instead of using a ruler and marker to mark the areas for the pleats I am using a revised quilting hack. Marking the spacing on your finger so I could work around the waist and pin the pleat at each mark instead of marking then going back to pin. I then machine basted the pleats to hold the shape when I attached the bodice.

These are the sides of the bodice portion of the kirtle. No pattern used – just winged it by cutting rectangles for the bodice and straps. Each piece has heavy duck cloth layers between the material and lining to act as a stiffener.  I elected to use a grommet kit for the lacing holes instead of doing them all by hand, the duck cloth providing strength to the lacing holes. The lacing is a set of long shoelaces I found in matching colors.

She is basically done! it will need to be hemmed once I finalize the shoulder straps which will determine the final length.

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4 Responses to 10 March 2021 – Bodice fixes and the Kirtle

  1. Fionna Goodburne MacNicol says:

    Hi Fallon:
    Fionna again. I am curious–why are you using the silk as your lining and not your outer layer? Any particular rationale or am I misreading this?

  2. Melissande of Berwick says:

    Fionna – from what I have read these gowns would either be lined with linen or silk. IF I had modern garment lining on hand I would have used that.

    Additionally, the silk I used – I really have no memory of where or when I got it – is much too thin to serve for the overgown. It would not have been strong enough to handle the stress of multiple seams, the pressure of being laced tightly or support the weight of the fur sleeve linings etc.

  3. Aurelia di Stellari says:

    I am glad to see you were able to overcome the initial cutting mistake and piece the fabric to make new sections.

  4. Beatrice Domenici della Campana says:

    Hi there!

    I’m interested to see how the kirtle fits over your undergarments, and how it will look under your finished gown bodice–any chance of some sneak-peek photos as you do the fittings?

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