Centuries-Sewing

Category: 16th Century

A 16th Century Kirtle in Olive Wool with Caramel Oversleeves
I started this kirtle in 2014/2015 cutting it from the leftover yardage of the olive fitted gown and an old bodice block I drafted on newspaper. This kirtle differs from ones I’ve made before in that it has a very full skirt (possibly too full) and half sleeves.

Images from the Da Costa Book of Hours at the Morgan Library and Museum served as my main inspiration for the half sleeves. I did not try for the deep V back neckline, I have sloped shoulders and have had issues with the straps pulling if I go too low in the back.

A woman churning butter – Da Costa hours  Illuminated by Simon Bening (1483/84–1561)Ghent, Belgiumca. 1515MS M.399, fol. 5v

A woman milking a cow – Da Costa hours  Illuminated by Simon Bening (1483/84–1561)Ghent, Belgiumca. 1515MS M.399, fol. 5v

The whole project lived in a large shoe box through two moves, getting taken out from time to time, worked on and then returned to the box.

This year I was determined to finish it. If only to make sure I wouldn’t misplace the half sleeves again.

I already sewed the skirt together, so that left me with the bodice to wrangle.

Building the Bodice
- Pad stitch interlinings by hand
- Flatline to bodice
- Cut bodice linings
- Baste bodice and try it on
- Adjust the bodice to fit and piece shoulder seams
- Sew the bodice
- Hand sew in the bodice lining
- Hand sew the eyelets in black silk twist
- Sew shoulder straps
- Test fit sleeves and cut the lining
- Sew sleeves
- Set the sleeves
- Bind the armscye
To piece the shoulder straps I made small lined rectangles and whip stitched them in by hand. I’ve done this a few times before, but I’m not fond of how bulky the area becomes with all the seam allowances building up in that small area.

The sleeve head is looking a little sad in the photos because I have mannequin arms stuffed and pinned onto a dressform they did not come with.

Once the bodice was together I attached the skirt by hand and folded over the bodice lining to hide the join. When I got ready to level out the skirt I realized in my excitement to get every bit of skirt out of the fabric I had I went a little overboard. I was looking at a 6 yard hem to level and bind.

Speaking of binding, I was down to a handful of scraps.

This became frankenbinding. Some strips were on the straight, some on the bias, the widths varied and once I had all the binding sewn on I was still 6 inches short. So I pulled some slightly darker wool from the stash and used that.

Once the hem was bound, pressed, steamed and clapped into submission I faced the cold hard reality that leaving my skirt unlined was a mistake. The wool I used for the kirtle is tropical suiting weight, this makes it very breathable and easy to wear but it does like to fray when cut along the straight. Now it was not fraying like some brocades do when you look at them, but it was enough that clipping the threads that worked their way lose would be bothersome.

So I hand sewed the seam allowances down in a bastardized stitch that is a mix of the prick stitch, the running stitch and the back stitch in black silk thread.

The final finishing was reinforcing the stress points along the kirtle with a very fine whip stitch at the corners of the bodice front and back and at the front skirt seam opening.

The Half Sleeves

Sleeve fabric choices

The caramel wool over sleeves are a mixture of machine and hand sewing. I used my green half sleeves as a pattern and made them a little longer and a little roomier. All in all it is just a two part tapered rectangle. I sewed the wool and the linen lining up on the machine. Pressed. Matched the seams at the top and sewed the tubes together and turned them out. To finish hem off I bound the bottom edges in stripes of the wool and finished them by hand. I decided on the bottom edge as that is where these will get the most wear and tear over time and the binding is easy to replace.

The sleeve pin on to the upper sleeve with my handmade brass pins.
August 27, 2018
16th Century Brass Pins

For Christmas, I got myself a butane-fueled jewelry torch along with brass wire of various gauges, gold colored hard solder, and other accouterments. I have several projects planned but for now, I need lots of practice with the torch.

Brass pins are just the right amount of fiddleyness for a beginners project and each time I’ve made some I’ve learned something new. Also, shout out to Scott of The Renaissance Artisan for his in-depth work on the history of pins and pinners and who made this process much easier.

I have in my collection a small 16th century Dutch pin that I am using as a base. The wire it was made with is about 18 gauge and it is 34mm long.

Brass wire next to original pin

I start by trimming my brass wire into small sections with my flush cutter and filing one end flat.

Work hardening brass wire

Next, I work harden my wire on my bench block with a rubber mallet. While this works, it isn’t optimal. On my next batch of pins I rolled the wire between a wooden cutting board and my bench block.

This works much better for hardening and straightening the small lengths of wire without the risk of pinched fingers. Ouch!

Brass pins after the first pass of sharpening

After work hardening the wire I give each pin a rough point with a crosscut file. In the 16th century, a pinner’s bone would be used to help position and angle the pin for filing. I don’t have one so I filed a small notch into my wooden cutting board.

This is something I need to practice. While getting a sharp point is easy, getting a smooth taper can be tricky and if your wire is not hardened enough it likes to bend.

For the pinheads I’m using round nose pliers to make little spiral hats from 22 gauge brass wire. My plier points are not as thin as the 18 gauge wire so I found this process extremely frustrating. The pinheads end up slightly too large for the wire and I had to individually tweak and adjust the top of each spiral so it wouldn’t fall down the pin shaft.

On my second batch I wrapped the pinhead wire around the pin shank as it was done in period. This was slightly less frustrating and had the added benefit of not needing to adjust the tiny coils and took out the extra step of fluxing the pinheads in place before soldering.

Brass pins with wrapped wire heads

I poked a few holes into my soldering block to hold the pins upright and then fluxed and soldered each pinhead in place.

Brass pins after torch firing

After soldering the pins are dirty covered in flux and oxidation. Ew!

Pins after coming out of the pickle.

To clean them I put them in a solution of white vinegar and salt, this eats away at the baked on flux and oxidation. It also brings a thin layer of copper to the surface of the brass. I might be able to prevent this by adding some hydrogen peroxide to the pickle but for now, the copper comes off with some polishing.

Brass pins before clean up with original 16th-century Dutch pin on the bottom.

Brass pins after polishing

February 26, 2018
My First Cut Work Lace Project with Free Motion Embroidery

I’ve fallen in love with free motion embroidery. it doesn’t require a fancy machine, digitizing software, or hunting down designs that might not be quite right. I’ve been working on several different projects trying to push the bounds of what I can do.

Needle lace pattern from Du Debvoir des Filles by Jean Baptiste de Glen

Traced on to a linen/cotton blend

Pink dots remind me which parts to cut away

A quilting pin for scale

Cutwork Lace

September 28, 2017
16th Century Shoe Hack: Painting Shoes
A month ago a Facebook post on Elizabethan Costume showed me some inexpensive* shoes (non-affiliated link) that looked very similar to cutwork shoes found in period.

The price was right, but they came in only one color: white.

I ordered 2 pairs, not seeing the FB thread till much later about sizing up (and again if you are a half size). It took about 2 weeks for them to get to me but they were true to size for me with a few exceptions.

I have wide feet, high arches, and a rectangular toe box shape. This makes shopping for shoes online hit or miss. Often the toe box is not wide enough and there is not enough width across the ball of my foot.

When I tried the shoes on they highlighted these issues, but since they are faux leather I knew I could you a hair dryer to stretch them out. I put on thick socks, wrapped my foot in a face cloth, and then managed to get the shoes on.

Then I took the hairdryer and slowly heated the areas that were too tight or rubbing. While doing this I wiggled my toes and shifted my feet around in the shoe to speed things along while being very careful not to burn myself.

Once the material was warmed and my toe wiggling done, I switched the temperature to cool to help set it.

Painting the Shoes

Before I broke out the paintbrushes I prepped the shoes for painting. I used rubbing alcohol all over the surface of the shoe to remove any factory finishing or random grease or oils.

While they dried I got all my supplies and materials together:

Materials
- Acrylic paints, textile medium, and matte varnish
- Soft paint brushes
- Disposable gloves
- Paper towels
- Cardboard to paint the shoes on
- Plastic bags
- Paper plate to use as a pallet and something to use as a mixing tool
I stuffed the shoes with the plastic bags so they would keep their shape while painting and to keep the paint off the inside.

The textile medium calls for 2 parts paint to one part medium. I kept to this ratio, adding a small amount of water to thin the paint out.

For an oxblood color I added only a few drops of black to the Quinacridone red-orange to deepen the shade. I had to remake the color several times as I painted and learned it is easy to go overboard on the black.

I started painting the shoes in with thin layers to start with, wanting to “stain” the material to keep the white from showing through later. After the first three layers of paint (which unfortunately I don’t have photos of) I thinned the paint out less and concentrated on coverage.

This is where the soft brush is very useful it will help keep brush strokes to a minimum, but be sure to watch out for brush hairs getting stuck in the paint. There are a few in mine that I wasn’t able to remove in time.

The last two layers of paint I thinned out again, working on shifting each shoe to a similar color. As I remixed the paint color several times there were some subtle variations in tone.

My last pass on the shoes was around the edges and along the back of the strap. This was to keep any of the white material from being glaringly obvious.

I let the shoes dry for a few days just to make sure the paint was set. The acrylic and the textile medium dried to a glossy shine and also left the shoes slightly tacky (enough that they tried to stick to each other). As I was not able to heat set the shoes as the textile medium suggested I decided to seal them instead with a matte varnish.

I gave them several thin coats which worked well to seal them (no more tackyness yay!) but done very little to knock back the gloss. Once I wear them the gloss may on longer be an issue, but it is something to keep in mind when working with textile medium.

All I have left is some final clean up. I need to clean out the cutwork sections that filled up with paint and take some steel wool to the buckles.

Other Painting Options

For anyone who wants to paint their shoes with less fuss I have heard very good things about Angelus Leather Paints for shoes but have not tried them.

*These shoes were very inexpensive, there was some loose thread that needed to be clipped and a few specks of glue to remove. They are not perfectly period shoes but would pass the 10-foot rule. For indoor events a few times a year I think they will hold up fine. For outdoor use, I would add insoles and change out the buckles.
July 7, 2017
WiR: Hand Sewn Silk Sleeves Done!
16th-Century Handsewn Silk Sleeves

This week I finished the silk sleeves, yay! The last few steps ended up being very fiddly, as I needed to change the curve of the underarm section of the armscye and take it in by an inch.

The last few steps ended up being very fiddly. I needed to change the curve of the underarm section of the armscye and take it in by an inch. One sleeve was finished when I decided this, so I spent some quality time with the seam ripper unpicking the main handsewn seams and the prick stitching I put in to control the fraying.

Once I adjusted the armscye all I had left was the sleeve hem. Match seams, finger press the linen down by 1/2 an inch, pin and fold silk down to match.

Done.

Everything else on my worktable has been eyelets this week.

The Eyelet Countdown
- 4 eyelets left on the early 16th-century olive wool kirtle
- 12 on my 14th-century cotehardie
- 18 on the black silk taffeta kirtle
- ~~6 on the silk sleeves~~
June 23, 2017
WiR: A Pair of 16th Century Silk Damask Sleeves

The main project this week was revising my 16th-century sleeve pattern and making up a pair of test sleeves. I was not happy with how my sleeves turned out in the caramel wool petticoat bodies. Some of that was from how thin and lightweight the fabric was, and some of it was from the pattern I used.

I plan on revisiting those linen sleeves to fix some of the issues, but knew I needed a new base pattern that didn’t cause so many headaches.

A New Sleeve Pattern

Over the years I’ve drafted a lot of sleeve patterns. I’ve drafted them using modern drafting methods, using diagrams in costumes books and at least one-time using aluminum foil. Sometimes they have been successful, other times they have been a hot mess.

This time around I turned to Juan de Alcega’s Tailors Pattern Book but instead of breaking out the bara strips, I opened up Inkscape and traced the sleeve shape.

From there I adjust the pattern shape to have less of a dramatic curve and match my arm measurements with some ease included.

I printed out my digital pattern, cropping it to fit on two sheets of paper and taped it together. Then I made a mock-up out of some rough linen, giving myself some extra wide seam allowances for adjustment. It took some back and forth in front the mirror with pins until I was happy with how the pattern was shaping up.

Measure 400 Times Cut Once

A few weeks ago I ran across a very good deal on some scrumptious silk damask, it was dirt cheap due to a flaw in the weave. Into my shopping cart it went along with some linen to use for various projects. I figured I could cut around the flaws.

When the fabric arrived I found the weave flaw ran all the way down the yardage. The thought crossed my mind to try and reweave the damage, but I decided I was not *quite* that dedicated.

I cut out my linen lining first and then jigsaw puzzled my way down the silk trying to pattern match where I could. Not having the missing thread run through the main part of the sleeve was a challenge as I wanted to use as little of the fabric as possible.

To make everything fit I ended up piecing the upper back of the left-hand sleeve.

It took me at least an hour to cut out the sleeve, due to not wanting to mess up a very nice fabric. I also cut it flat so each pattern piece needed to be flipped over while I triple checked that I did not somehow cut two left sleeves (which has happened before).

Once everything was cut out I sewed the linen lining together using the running stitch with a small section of backstitching at the elbow points to reinforce that area. Next, I sewed the silk together using cream silk thread with the back stitch.

As I handled the fabric it started to fray. Usually, I would overlock or zig zag the raw edges to prevent it. But I was worried about the extra bulk of the threads shadowing through the silk.

Instead, I prick stitched the seam allowance down, taking tiny stitches through the outer fabric, this also meant I did not need to worry about ironing the seam flat.

Once all the sleeves were together I put the linings in and basted along the top of the sleeve cap. Then I tried them on with a kirtle, pinning the top of the sleeve to the shoulder strap and looking at where the wrinkles formed. They needed some adjustment.

That is where I am now. There is a pin stuck in where the underarm curve needs to dip down a little more. I have some narrow bias tape cut from scrap linen to bind the edges and some braid should be arriving in a week or two to trim the seams.

June 16, 2017
Hand Sewn Red Linen Hose

Queen Mary Psalter (British Library Royal 2 B VII, fol. 72v), c. 1310-1320

This week I unearthed some unfinished projects while “Cleaning” aka where did I put my photo box? How could it have vanished? I’ve looked in that box three times now and I’m running out of places it could be.

That is the problem when I clean, I put things in a safe place and never find them again.

But, nestled happily in a plastic bag was a half finished pair of linen/rayon hose in screaming red. I think I started these two years ago when I wanted a small project I could work on while watching Netflix. I know I draped a pattern for hose at least 4 years before out of some thin cotton but never got around to the actual making till now.

Socks have never been high on my priorities list, most of the time I wear O Rayons from Sock Dreams under my skirts.

My memory is a little fuzzy but I think I draped my original pattern from this tutorial: http://www.faucet.net/costume/research/hose.html

I sewed the right foot up with dark red Londonderry linen thread using the backstitch. Then referencing Patterns of Fashion 4 I trimmed down the seam allowances along the foot, sewed down the seam allowance along the gusset with the running stitch and whip stitched over the top of the gusset point to reinforce that area.

The fit is good if a little loose. By the way that’s my sleeve form and some quilt batting, not my leg.

I still need to sew up the left foot and may make some adjustments to my pattern.

June 15, 2017
Week in Review: Silk Pincushion and Bobbin Lace

This post is a tiny bit misleading, I’m smooshing together last week’s missing review in with this week. I was sick last week and while I sat at the laptop with the Edit Post tab open it, it just wasn’t happening. (After typing the week that many times in a row the word has lost all meaning.)

I have one big project off my plate, it just needs a few threads clipped and proper photos taken. Then I can pack it up and sent it off to its new home. It is a surprise for a friend so I won’t be able to post photos until she receives it.

But until then here is what I worked on this week!

Bobbin Lace

I’ve been trying to learn bobbin lace for the past two years. It has been an on and off process. The books I have don’t always explain the whys and sometimes I’m looking for very specific information with no idea what to call it. It is the beginner’s curse of standing on the edge of a mountain and looking at a sea of knowledge below, knowing that you can’t swim very well.

Bobbin lace has a very long and rich history that crisscrosses various cultures and techniques. I know in a round about way there are different styles of lace grounds and different ways to work footsides. There are different ways of holding and working the bobbins depending on who teaches you and where you are taught.

That is something I am not ready to dive into.

For now, at least my interest in bobbin lace intersects with the 16th century and stays there. That means various types of laces usually based on plaits and braids. I’ve found a few resources online, some books that have filled in gaps. Staring at Le Pompe and at zoomed in paintings helps too. The silver lace I made is far from perfect, working with a faux metallic thread is a new experience, my tension is wibbley and I suspect my pattern is too large for my thread weight.

But it stayed together when I unpinned it and that counts for alot.

Sewing Experiments and Samples

This week I also made a few test pin cushions. These are made from an inner pillow of linen, stuffed with linen scraps, covered with silk damask and edged in gold cording. They are inspired by the embroidered pincushions that are often found with 16th century sweet bags, but I don’t know if they were ever made of fancy fabric in period.

I might put a few of these in my Etsy shop, they have a nice weight to them and have kept my work table from being covered in random pins and needles.

I also revisited my pouch pattern and streamlined how I make them. Prototype number 2 turned out a little smaller than version 1 but I’m overall pleased with my process for them.

Next week I need to work on the silk taffeta kirtle and there are some silk damask sleeves that need my attention.

June 9, 2017