Giant Parti-Colored Kirtle Of Doom!

O.K., so I didn't get the kirtle finished in time for the first weekend. It's looking like it's going to be ready for the second! (Of course, since I didn't have it ready for the first, I ended up borrowing my boyfriend Mark's one extra set of garb for this past Monday, and went to faire as a boy.) *grin*

Here it is, all laid out, pinned, and ready to be sewn (except the sleeves, which I fitted onto myself).


I got no sleep last night whatsoever, opting instead to watch many, many episodes of "Dharma & Greg" and sew buttonholes. These are my very first hand-stitched buttonholes, so I think I did ok for a first try. I had Mark pin me into the dress to figure out where the buttons should go, since my measurements must have been quite off somewhere, and thus the really crooked row of buttons. I made the buttonholes as straight and as evenly spaced as possible, hoping to make up for the randomness of the buttons.



Here's the (almost) finished kirtle! The bottom edge isn't hemmed yet (if you look closely, you can see pins), and I think I'm going to make a very, very small hem on the sleeves (to hide the machine zig zag edge). Since it buttons instead of laces (like my natural-colored kirtle does), it's not *quite* as tight as I'd like, so I'm thinking about sewing some minimal supportive padding in the bust area, just to help prevent sagging.



By the way, I'm using 3.5 oz. handkerchief-weight linen from Fabrics-store.com. I used a mid-weight linen for my cream-colored kirtle, and I like the way it drapes much better, though the part-colored kirtle is a bit better when it's a bajillion degrees outside. *grin*

In Which I Express My Affinity For Parenthetical Statements

It's going to be a long night. and I spent a lot of time today (technically yesterday) practicing music and learning new songs for Kansas City Renaissance Festival (for which we're leaving this Thursday night). Since we've got a 3 day weekend coming up, and I'll jump at the chance to *not* wear my too-small-and-therefore-tight-and-uncomfortable Moreseca bodice (it works better when it's cold out), I've decided to go ahead and use the 3.5 oz. handkerchief-weight cobalt blue and forest green linen from Fabrics-store.com that I've got left to make a parti-colored fitted kirtle to wear one day this coming weekend. When I'm done, it'll look something like the kirtle on this page but with no hood (yet.) My first kirtle (which I made out of mid-weight natural-colored linen) turned out really good, but I'm going to widen the neckline by an inch on each side, add 1/2 an inch to each front center edge (so it won't be *quite* so tight when I sit), and shorten the whole thing by 2.5 inches since the first one ended up really long (not sure what happened there...) I have all of the green pieces cut out, and now I'm taking a short break to eat the chocolate chip mocha muffin loaf I baked while I was cutting the pieces. Mmmm.

I know, I haven't posted any pictures of my first kirtle. It's because I finished sewing it in the car on the way to Pennsic, and no one has posted any pictures of me from Pennsic (though I *know* there are a lot out there, because people took pictures of us every time we busked). I will get pictures of me wearing it next time I have it on, and I'll get pics of the blue & green kirtle after I'm done with it. For now, I leave you with a picture of the chocolate -