Waisted Kirtle

Black shall be the color

Ok.. all productivity was put on hold during the move. Luckily the move is done now.. now it’s just the interminable unpacking.

Anyway. I’ve decided I want to wear my black waisted cotehardie for Cynaguan Coronet May 25-28. A while ago, when I thought I’d be able to wear this for Gaston Phebus, I put together the bodice. At the moment it’s totally sewn together and I can pull it on over my head and shimmy into it. It’s fitting.. but not as tight as I’d like it to be. The current plan is to make the skirt portion and attach that to the bodice. Then, if there’s enough time, split the front seam of the bodice open, roll each side back 3/4 of an inch and add eyelets for spiral lacings. The idea is that I really want it to be wearable for Coronet (pull over the head).. but long term I want to be able to lace the dress tighter.

Cutting the skirt panels

To that end I’ve finally laid out and cut the skirt portions (yes, that is the fabric laid out on the back patio.. it’s the only big flat surface I could find to lay out the fabric to cut it corner-to-corner). I’m going to do an unlined skirt.

If my mental image is right.. I’m doing 8 sections where each section is 1/2 of a 58″x58″ square of linen. The sections will be french seamed together with a bias edge to a straight edge.. and if I figured it out right.. that should just about make a skirt that drapes very fully. In fact, I -think- that will make it a full circle skirt.

After I get the triangles sewn together I’ll cut out the top of the triangles to fit the length of the bottom of the bodice. I think I will be cutting the top of the triangles so that the tops are flat and ~8″ wide. If I was math smart I probably could have laid that out when I cut out the skirt.. but that math eluded me.. and since I didn’t want to mess it up, I decided it was ok to end up tossing a circle of fabric where all the triangle points come together.

When the skirt is attached to the bodice the skirt will be lined up so that one of the seams exactly matches up with the center front seam on the bodice and the opposite seam exactly matches up with the center back seam on the bodice. Then I’ll take up the excess of the skirt by adding a box pleat to the center back..and knife pleats evenly to either side until the excess is taken up. Then I think I’ll us a binding strip to attach the skirt to the bodice. I could french seam it.. but a binding strip seems much cleaner. Changed my mind.

The dress will have short sleeves with pin-on lower sleeves. I think I’ll also use a binding strip to attach the short sleeves to the bodice. Changed my mind. See next post.

Then I just have to hem it an I should be good to go.

5 thoughts on “Black shall be the color

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