Doublet
Laying the groundwork
04 May 03
I have decided to make a little more down to earth version of it all. Wool it
is, not velvet. Velvet is a very expensive joy for my narrow budget. (as is wool,
but you can use it more often) I also drew the pattern onto millimeter paper:
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I have begun to enlarge it, but the back looks a little freaky, so i might change that a little to make it more symmetric. I have been looking trough all my scraps, just to discover that I have no scraps of unbleaced linen. That is really, really annoying. If I manage to wait until tomorrow, I will but it then. If not, I might just use cotton. Patience is not what I have most of.
04 May 03
I made a mockup. It was a little tight, but we'll fix that. I drew the pattern,
made the mockup and tried it on 'my little dress dummy'. I am very happy that I
have a brother who is into Fantasy, RPG, Larps and Lord of the rings related
things.
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It is a tad small, but the shape looks all right. Not bad! Now I really need to buy some fabric. After school tomorrow it is. I am so extremely impatient. Perhaps it is because i know how quickly I forget things.
05 May 03
I am so angry today. I live in a fairly small town. 75000 people, the 6.th
biggest in Norway. We have only one ok fabricshop, and that shop had a new owner
this Christmas. I have barely bought any fabric since the shop reopened, and
when I came there today and asked for green wool, she gave me some pretty thin
wool/polyester/acryl blend. I can't use that! Then I thought that I might just
buy unbleached linen for the lining. It cost 130 kr (ca 13£). At IKEA, it cost
ca 65 kr. That is a big difference. The only problem is that I will have to go
to Oslo to buy the fabric. Nevermind. My brother is away this week
anyway.
07 May 03
My mother bought me the linen for the Lining. Am I happy or what? Tomorrow, I
will be going to Oslo to buy some fabric. Finallt, I will be able to get started.
12 May 03
I cut the fabric, and tried it on The Brother. I have chosen an interlining of
thick cream coloured cotton.
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Look at that smile! As you can see at the back, there are some wrinkles, but I think that is because of all the extra fabric on the sides. I never dreamed that it would fit this good, and therefore calculated a lot of extra fabric. I still need to decide upon eventual embellishment, though. Hopefully I will before I begin to sew.
23 May 03
As you may see in the research section, I have been
having problems with whether or Not I am going to have a peascod belly (almost
pregnant look, it was very fashinable during the late 16th and the early 17th
century because it made you look impressive and wealthy). I have ended up with a
compromise. I will have to alter the pattern a little, because I have
reduced the size of the peascod belly. The whole front is padded, and the layer
at the lower part of the stomach have an extra layer of padding. Handsewing is
rather fun after all, although I usually get tired of it rather quickly. On the
'front side' image, you can see that the padding at the stomach is thicker than
the rest. (Have a look at my cat
trying to eat the linen)
 front side of padding |
 back side of padding |
27 May 03
The padding is done. The pleasure of handsewing is absolutely a kick! I am on to
the boring part now, the fitting! I am trying to transform this little angel (nice
picture?) Into a nice little late 16th century boy... and then the clothes
have to fit. This is actuallt my first attempt at man's clothing, and it is
therefore very difficult.
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What do the evil wrinkles say? I guess that I will have to move the back needles a little, to give more room. Some of the wrinkles are caused by the too small arm-openings, but the fact that the padding keeps bulking tell me that something is wrong. The most difficult is the front. What am I supposed to do with the stomach part? As you can see, he is a little tired, so we will do some more fitting tomorrow. Tomorrow, I will be looking for silk yarn and metal thread in the embroidery shop. I hope they have something that I like and can afford.
02 June 03
I have finally pulled myself together and I am now done with the fitting. I have
no images, but it looked good. Due to exams I am a bit late these days, but
hopefully, I will start to sew everything together within a weel.
04 June 03
Just a mini update. I have bought the wooden cores for the buttons of the
doublet. Now I just need to find some fitting yarn to make the trim and buttons
with. Any colour suggestions? (post
here... no need to log in)
09 June 03
I sewed it together by machine a fewdays ago, but it just didn't look good, so I
had to undo everything and do the fitting again! By now, I have been doing alot
of handsewing. For instance, I have made 10 out of 26 buttons,
and I have bought ten metres of trim.
