Sunday 20 November 2011

Saxon Mk1

So Atlantia November Crown (2011) has come and gone. Since I'd managed to kill all of my good dresses while teaching medieval history or scorched the good under-dresses doing who knows what, I was stuck with the typical girlie problem - I had nothing to wear!. Well, that's a lie but I would have frozen in a saree and I thought wearing my slopping-around-the-campsite-viking garb wasn't respectful of a crown event. So I pulled out one of my UFO's and decided to complete it.

I've been working on this Cranach dress (after the dresses depicted by Lucas Cranach the Elder) for about 5 years. I'll admit, when I started this I didn't do much research. I found some images and fixed them in my head rather than actually studying the construction methods. With some help from Ms Dawn (Montjoy) I managed to get the chest section in mostly right and I finished the sleeves with some scrap I received from Bryces mother way back when.

It was in a wearable state for crown but now I've done some actual research, some things need to be done to finish / fix this outfit.

  • The key to any good outfit is accessories. I need to create some headwear, make myself some jewelery and work out a pouch or token storage option (sometimes the boyfriend doesn't have pockets either).
  • I need to actually put some puffs in the puff and slash sleeve sections (I had the fabric ready to go for crown but ran out of time).
  • I need to exchange half the clips holding the breast band in for pants clips. The pants clips sit flatter and have a little lump helping them lock into place. They seem more secure
  • I need to make the skirt fastening more secure as this system only works when there is tension on the band and doesn't like it when I slouch as I have a tendency to do. I got stabbed alot my the pin I used to ensure my dress didn't gape
  • The breast band sits too low (top is just above nipple line). I need to raise it by about an inch. This will have the added benefit of pulling in the shoulders of the gown so they don't slip.
  • Once the chest is raised I'll then need to extend the lacing section of the gown.
Things learnt so far:
  • I'm not very good at sleeves (but that's nothing new)
  • Fully make the bodice before attaching the skirt as tightening the lacing pulls the bodice and skirt up higher on the hips.
  • Temporarily lace up dress then set the breast band.
  • Overlapping knife pleats are a pain to sew (cartridge will work better given my waist-hip ratio)

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