Waisted Kirtle

Waisting Away: Pics or it never happened

I ended up finishing the hat in the hotel room on Friday night but the dress was done before then. I wore this dress on the Sunday of Cynagua Spring Coronet 2012 to act as inspiration for my Lord Fearghus MacAirt. Fearghus went to finals but ended up losing to Sir Mari Alexander.


Good:
– I love the colors I think it really popped with the black and gold. BUT I do believe that black is -totally- the wrong color for a working woman’s dress. I’m ok with it.. as a re-enactor wearing “Cynaguan colors”.. as long as I keep in mind that Black at this time was pretty much reserved for nobility or sunday best.
– I like the fit. The dress was supportive all day even with being pulled on over the head. I do want to make the next dress with a lacing.. and plan to go back an re-do this dress to add eyelets and a lace.
– I like the hat but I think I’ll play with the pattern for a bit before I will call it finished.
– I thought I’d be annoyed by the squared off back of the neck… but I think I like the way it looks.
– The night before we left for the event I found a paternoster(rosary) I made YEARS ago. Since it’s an amber and coral rosary I thought it would match the dress sleeves well. I like the way it looks hanging off the left shoulder but I think I need to use a smaller pin for it.

Bad/Ugly:
– I ended up making short tapered tube lower sleeves. I don’t like the way they’re hanging. I think there’s too much chemise showing at the armpit. I’ll need to spend a while fiddling with a pattern for the lower sleeves to get them right. Also, reviewing the inspiration pictures, I pinned these on totally wrong. The sleeve should be on top. I think by doing it this way I could pin the sleeve up higher and cut down on the amount of chemise showing. I think this means that my lower sleeve will need to be a lot longer. The current sleeve is 15″ long. That is just barely enough to go from the bottom of the short sleeve to my wrist. If I want to cover the chemise I’ll need to make the sleeve longer. Probably about 4-5″ longer.
– I hate the way the dress looks with the belt (or rather the way I squish out above and below the belt). I’ll try wearing it with the belt looser next weekend and see if I just had it too tight. Otherwise I guess I’ll be wearing this without a belt. At least until I can buy the proper fittings for the dropped belt I see in some of the inspirational images.

This weekend was a lot colder than expected.. so I don’t think this event is a fair test to see if the dress will work for Pennsic. That said.. I’ve already ordered and received red and blue linen which is destined to be two more dresses like this.

Overall.. I’d call this a winner.

January 25, 2014. After splitting the front and adding eyelets and a lace.
January 25, 2014. After splitting the front and adding eyelets and a lace.

Waisted Cotehardie Todo:
– (done) Make fitted pattern for bodice
– (done) Cut out and sew together the bodice
– (done) Cut out and sew the skirt together
– (done) Cut out the circle for the waist of the skirt
– (done) Sew the skirt and the bodice together with a binding strip
– (done) Remove skirt. Adjust the length of the back bodice.
– (done) Sew the skirt and the bodice together with a binding strip (again)
– (done) Make the short sleeves (two layers of black linen) and attach the short sleeves to the bodice
– (done) Remove skirt(again). Sew the skirt to the front layer of the bodice and then flip the back layer of the bodice around to make a hidden seam.
– (done) Make a chemise to go under the dress.
– (done) Hem the dress (it took 3 days of commuting so ~6-7 hrs)
– (done) Finish the neck, wrist and hem on the chemise.
– (done) Make the lower sleeves (I have some lovely gold linen set aside for this)
– (done) two-tailed linen cap (more details posted on this later)

Edited to add:
In Januray 2014, just after I gave birth to my son, I updated this dress so that it would be open down the front with eyelets so it could be closed with a lace. This turns out to be fantastic breastfeeding garb.

Future projects for this outfit:
– knee high linen hose
– appropriate belt and pouch
– Adjust short sleeve pattern. Rotate sleeve pattern so that the sleeve seam matches up with the side seam
Adjust bodice pattern so that shoulder seam is moved to the top of the sleeve cap (?? no proof of this.. but the current placement “feels” wrong) I changed my mind. I’m going to leave it as it is.

Other Relevant Entries

Waisted Kirtles
Crimson Waisted kirtle
Cobalt Waisted kirtle
Mocha Waisted kirtle
15th Century Tailed Cap (aka: Flemish Kerchief)

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