That Damn Role Player

Along with getting wearable garb ready for Winter Wonders, I have also started on a side project. My goal is to take The Awful Green Dress and turn it into something Tudor(ish).

First, here is my inspiration: Awesome Purple Tudor Dress (link: http://www.ninyamikhaila.com/galleries_c16th_towerelizpurple.htm )

And here is the Awful Green Dress:

Now there is going to be much ripping, cutting, sewing and swearing involved in this rebirth, but that will come later. First there are things that must be made to go with the dress, most notably the farthingale.

Part I: The Farthingale

In order to make the Dress work properly, some of that fabric around the hem will HAVE to go. However if I simply start whacking it off, its likely I will throw the hem off and end up with a funky hang once the farthingale is in place underneath. To prevent that, I must be able to hang the skirt on the farthingale to judge accurately where to cut.

Time to begin.

First I chose my pattern. There are many places on the net showing how to do period farthingales, instructions without buying a commercial pattern, etc. I wasn’t quite ready to trust my ability to follow generalized instructions for something as complex as a farthingale so I bought a commercial pattern.

I chose Simplicity 2621 (link: http://sewing.patternreview.com/review/pattern/45525 ).

Since this is an undergarment I chose a fabric that I wouldn’t be able to use for anything else. It was lightweight cotton in the most outrageous shade of scream-at-the-neighbors orange you could ever imagine. I am a strong believer in use what you have, however. I couldn’t afford to go out and buy new fabric for every project I wanted to do.

Overall it was fairly easy to follow though I did make some modifications. One thing I noticed when putting it together was that the final skirt came out considerably too big. I ended up having to take some fabric out of the waist before putting the casing on for the hoops. For this particular item I would suggest that if your waist measurement falls between two of their sizes then back it off to the smaller one. Too much bunching at the waist will cause problems when you go to put on the over garments.

For the hoops it calls for steel hoops however I’m notoriously cheap. I like to save money on such things where possible. There are a number of places on the web that offer alternatives to the standard hoops. Some have said they use tubing that you can get at the hardware store, another said she used ½” pvc pipe. I used pvc pipe as well, but I took a 4” pipe that I had laying in the back yard, cut it lengthwise into ½” strips using a jigsaw, and used that for my hoops. Not period, but it works for looks. That is my primary focus.

However the strips of pvc were larger than what the pattern called for to use for casing so I ended up having to make my own. While tedious, this was not a difficult task.

To make my casings I cut 2” wide strips of cloth from my leftover fabric, stitched the ends together to make sure I had sufficient length, then folded over the edges ¼” and ironed them. Then you go back to the instructions and attach the bottom casing first.

Since the bottom casing goes directly on the hem, you can use this for your “baseline”. With the change in boning and casing this threw off the measurements where the other casings would go, and honestly, the pattern just called for them to be marked on the cloth, then attach them at the marks.

Too much hassle and too great a chance for the casings to end up out of whack. I used the markings on the pattern to figure out approximately where the casings should go, marked that on the fabric, then measured from the bottom casing to place the second casing. For example you measure the distance, if it is 4” then you pin the edge of your second casing at the 4” mark. Move over some, do it again, and so on, all the way around the skirt. Thus you have even placement of the casing all the way around.

Again tedious, but it worked for me.

After attaching the casing I put my hoops in. Do not fasten your hoops together permanently until you have been able to hang it on you and be sure the hoops are even. I ended up tweaking mine a bit until they hung better. It still didn’t come out perfect but it came out usable.

When it came time to fasten the ends of my hoops together the pattern called for bread ties. This seemed rather weak to me so instead I chose to use zip ties. Yep it left that big ugly square end sticking out, but I had placed them so they faced into the skirt and I had left enough fabric on the ends of the casings to be sure I could close them up.

Unfortunately I didn’t have a camera while sewing the farthingale so I wasn’t able to take pictures along the way. However here is the finished product:

Certainly not perfect because I KNOW my sewing skills are lacking, but it is a good beginning farthingale.

Now that the farthingale is done, I can begin the process of cutting up The Awful Green Dress. The Tudor(ish) gown is a side project though so it will be worked on in between projects that I have prioritized before it.

Stay tuned for Turkish!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 9:51 am and is filed under Costuming, SCA.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.