Blood (Beet) Red linen waisted kirtle started 4/12/2022. Never going to be finished.
Mama needs a new kirtle. It turns out stressing and sheltering in place for two years ran riot with my diet. So now all my old clothes don’t fit (except for my really really old clothes.. which I don’t want to wear).. so new clothes it is. Add to that we moved cross country and I’m in a new Kingdom.. and I’ve found my sewing Wa [Spoiler: I hadn’t]. So “Allons-y!”.
DETAILS FOR MY kirtle:
– kirtle will be made of linen.
– kirtle will have no sleeves (though it could be worn with pin on sleeves)
– bodice will be lined. The seams will be prick stitched open and lining will be added as a bag lining
– edges will use bias binding in narrow black.
– spiral lace down the center front.
– the skirt will have an inverted box pleat at center back with knife pleats evenly on either side.
– skirt will be unlined and use French seams
– Skirt will have a padded hem made with wide bias strips of black heavy linen (4C22) interlined with more bias strips of natural heavy linen(4C22).
kirtle TODO:
- (done) Dig through my fabric stash and decide I don’t ANY fabric (in the right amount or a color I want to use). Buy 4 yards of beet red wool from Fabric-store.com. Fabric rec’d on 4/18/2022.
- (done) Wash and iron fabric (4 yards fashion fabric, 1 yd lining necessary)
Bodice - (done) Draft a new kirtle pattern (C: 45, W: 40, L: 33). Make up a mockup with a zipper at center back, tweak the support. Transfer fitting adjustments back to the paper pattern.
- (done) Make a second copy of the paper pattern EXCEPT remove the seam allowance around the armseye and the center front opening which will have the spiral lacing (they’re going to have bias binding).
- (done) Cut out the bodice (fashion fabric and lining). Cut the fashion fabric. Then use the fashion fabric to cut out the lining.
- (done) Sew the side seams and the strap seams on the fashion fabric. Press and prick stitch the seams open.
- (done) Sew the side seams and the strap seams on the lining. Press
and prick stitchthe seams open. - (done) Make bias binding 2″ wide (~110″) from the fashion fabric.
- (done) Bind the neck, armseye openings, and front opening.
- (done) Add eyelets to the bodice. (1/4″ from the edge, 3/4″ separated offset for spiral lace)
Skirt - (done) Cut out the skirt (fashion fabric). Front should be cut on a fold to eliminate the center front seam.
- (done) Cut a ~6″ slit into the top of the center front panel of the skirt.
- (in progress) Sew skirt together (French seam 1/4″+1/2″ SA). Bias-to-bias in the center back. Fold in center front, bias-to-straight on all the other seams.
- (done) Attach the skirt to the bodice fashion fabric (Put a reverse box pleat at the center-back and then divide and conquer knife pleat either side to fit the top of the skirt evenly across the back of the bodice. It should fit pretty close on the front edge ).
- (done) Hand sew the bodice lining bottom edge front and back to enclose the skirt seam (slip stitch, felling stitch or whip stitch).
- (done) Continue the bias binding from the center front edges down to enclose the slit at the top of the skirt. Reinforce the bottom of the V.
- (done) Find a lace.
- (todo) Re-do skirt front and reattach to bodice.
- (todo) Mark and cut the hem to desired length.
- (todo) Add the hem padding.
COSTS
IL019 BEET RED Softened – 100% Linen 4 yds $47 (purchased April 12, 2022)
4C22 Natural – 100% Linen – 1 yd $8.82/yd (purchased February 26, 2020)4C22 Black – 100% Linen – 1 yd $11.84/yd (purchased April 7, 2022)
Skating lace from Amazon $7.99 for 2 (purchased June 2016)
LEARNINGS (AKA TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS)
4/12/2022
Pennsic is coming and I have nothing to wear. Quick, let’s churn out three kirtles. Ordered up three hanks of fabric from fabric-store and set about making it so. Because this is for Pennsic and I want to do it quickly I’ll be cutting some corners and choosing “Don’t die from heat exhaustion” over “The Perfectly Period things they did in Jolly old England that stays a peachy 70F”.
Ideally I’d love to be able to wear this first one of these at Atlantian Spring Crown on May 7, 2022.
4/20/2022
For this one I’m planning to do a lace center front (because that’s where most of my fitting is). I tossed back and forth A LOT about center laced vs side laced and finally decided to just do it simply and move on from there.
Most of the back and forth is because I know I want to use this as the support kirtle under an open-front gown in the Antwerpen style and having a lace down the center front seems wrong. That said, I dearly hate side laced kirtles and getting good support without having a seam down the center front has been an issue in the past. Finally due mostly to lack of time and unwillingness to be caught in analysis paralysis I’ve decided to damn the torpedoes. If it’s really a big issue I’ll plan to pin a placket under the gown and over the kirtle lacings but in the meantime I’ll have kirtles to wear.
4/23/2022
I finally took my measurements and did a pattern draft. I’m using the draft from my Conjectural late 15th early 16th century women’s kirtle pattern draft. The neckline on that draft is VERY conservative. So much so that it suppresses the spring of my bosom and when I added a less conservative neckline it drastically altered the fit and ruined my first mockup. I think next time I’ll do the first full initial fit, include altering the neckline while wearing a supportive sports bra.
4/24/2022
I cut out a new mockup and took more care with adding the neckline. Despite having my bosoms spring forth enthusiastically I was able to complete the last 10%. I did end up adding a bit of curve into the top of the side seams to combat the pesky side-boob that seem to plague every fitted dress I have ever made (Honestly I suspect it’s the fact that I HAVE pesky side boob which is why is shows up in ever fitting). Regardless I got the fit to a place where I like. I transferred these fitting alterations back to my paper pattern and then made a copy of the paper pattern and removed the seam allowance from the center front opening, and armseyes. I did not remove seam allowance from the neck opening since it already felt like it was in the right place.
I’m going to be using bias binding on the armseye, neck opening and center front opening so I don’t need seam allowance at those locations.
Paper draft -> mockup -> fitting adjustments -> back to paper draft -> copy of paper draft -> remove various seam allowances -> Cut out of beet red fabric (what could possibly go wrong?) 😀
4/25/2022
I cut out the fashion fabric and the lining. I’m using Fabric-store.com Beet Red IL019 (5.3 oz) for the fashion fabric. It’s a deep red that’s slightly on the purple side of true red. For the lining I’m using some of the natural 4C22 (7 oz) I have. I had planned to use IL019 but then the IL019 felt so insubstantial I decided instead to use the heavier linen. I think I’m also feeling a bit guilty for not interlining the bodice. Regardless.
I did not have any red thread in my stash and I can’t be bothered to halt the project to go buy thread so I will be using black thread instead. I sewed the fashion fabric together and pressed/prick stitched all the seams. Then I sewed the lining together. I pressed the seams but I didn’t prick stitch them. It seemed an additional bother that I didn’t need to do (nobody can see those seams and it was midnight and I wanted to go to bed).
Next I’ll need to make the bias strips for the binding.
4/26/2022
Because all of the bound edges will be essentially visible and because I’m doing a bag lining (rather than the “proper” interlining and then applied lining) I’ll be using folded bias tape on all the bound edges. This means I’ll need to cut 2″ wide strips on the bias out of the fashion fabric.
For the binding on the bodice I’ll need 110″ total of bias strips at 2″ wide. That means I’ll need 220 square inches of fabric (110 x 2). Taking the square root of that, I should be able to get the bias strips I want out of a 15″x15″ square of fabric.
(top) 4mm pressure foot
4/27/2022
Using the beet red fabric left over from when I cut out the bodice I cut it into 2 inch strips on the bias. I didn’t bother to do continuous bias since I only need a few pieces and making continuous bias seems too much bother for as few pieces as I’ll need. I joined four of my strips together, pressed the seams open, ironed the strips in half and then attached it to the front of my bodice. I then seam ripped it off since my “1/4″ seam allowance” was slightly over 1/4″ and the bias strip wasn’t going to fully wrap the front edge of my bodice. I also think I applied a bit of pressure to the bias strip as I cut them and my 2″ wide strips read closer to 1.75″ wide strips. Regardless I re-attached the strip on again using a 4mm (1/8″) wide pressure foot on my machine and now it looks like it will fully wrap the edge.
After I’d made the first pass at attaching the bias strips it occurred to me that right now would be the easiest time to do machine done eyelets along the front of the bodice. After I finish attaching the bias binding the edge gets too bulky for machine made eyelets. I plan to finish sewing down the bias binding by hand.. so really doing the eyelets by machine now as opposed to having to do them by hand later.. now seems like a better option.
I used my handy template to mark the eyelet placement on both edges. Of course I was an idiot and marked it on the outside of the bodice. Next time I’ll need to be sure to mark the placement on the inside of the garment. It looks like I’ll need 36 eyelets at the front opening.
4/28/2022
I started the night with 0 eyelets done and finished the night with 36 eyelets done. I dearly love the Elna plate that I frankensteined to work on my machine(video of this that made previously).
Next up, I need to bind the armseyes and cut out and attach the skirt.
4/30/2022
I laid out my remaining fabric and realized that with buying only 4 yards of fabric (and laying out the skirt/bodice portions separately) I was a smidge short of the fabric needed for my skirt pattern. After harumphing about this for a while I came up with a plan B. I decided that rather than doing some crazy piecing to fit my original skirt pattern I’d change to a completely different skirt pattern.
A while ago from I-don’t-know-where I ended up with a copy of a paper written by Mistress Mathilde Bourette in 2006 about using a trapezoidal skirt (I contacted her and got permission to share this with you all). Given the fabric I had remaining I figured I would be able to end up with a nice full skirt made of trapezoids. I ended up cutting 8 trapezoids which are 8″ at the top, 50″ long on the straight edge (50″ seems long but that’s what I’d used on the original skirt pattern. I’ll try it out here but may adjust depending on how it works out). This will give me about 52″ at the waist once I’ve used all the seam allowances. That should allow for pleating in the back and should also give me a nice full skirt.
5/1/2022
Happy year 57 of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Also, happy anniversary of my Laurelling to me (2016).. I’ve now been a laurel for 6 years.
Today I was able to finish the hand stitching for all of the binding on the whole bodice. It’s just so very very pretty.
I also completed the first half of the French seams for putting the skirt portion together.
5/2/2022
I finished the second half of the French seams on the skirt. It still needs to be ironed but I forged ahead and started attaching it to the bodice. The front is fit to the bottom of the bodice and the excess is pushed to the center back. At the center back I have an inverted box pleat and then a couple of knife pleats on either side to use up all the excess at the waist. This is attached by machine with 1/2″ SA. Then I turned under the seam allowance on the bodice lining and will attach that to the skirt by hand with a slip stitch.
5/3/2022
I finished stitching the bodice lining down at the bottom. This is turned under on the inside of the bodice and stitched down (with slip stich) at the seam line which attached the skirt to the fashion fabric of the bodice.
Then I lengthened the slit on the center front of the skirt to 6 inches. That should give me plenty of room to get in and out of the kirtle. When I added the binding on the center front of the bodice I left a very long tail at the start and end of the front edge so I could continue the binding down the center front slit. I got the first half of the binding sewn down and should finish it tomorrow.
5/4/2022
I finished sewing down the binding at the slit on the front of the skirt. We also decided that we’re not going to Crown.. so no longer have a deadline driving this.
5/15/2022
Yesterday finally tried on the almost finished dress.. and realized I’d made a mistake. Well okay. Not a mistake.. but I’d forgotten that I am not flat across the front.. and putting a slit into the center of the front panel and then pulling that tight across my lower belly led to a bit of gap-i-osis. Chances are really good I’ll end up wearing an apron right over the gap.. but it’ll still bug me. So plan B.
Luckily I have not yet cut off the excess from the bottom of the skirt (I was trying it on to mark the hem). anyway there’s about 5-6 inches at the bottom of the skirt.. and the panels widen as they go down to the hem.. so If I take the excess out of the top of the skirt (by removing the skirt, moving it up and then re-attaching it) then I should have the width I need to prevent the gap. I may even put little pleats on either side of the slit to give it plenty of space.
I should have gotten a picture of the problem but I didn’t even think of it until I was done removing the skirt from the front of the bodice. I’m going to try removing the front of the skirt, sewing it to the bodice and then angling it towards the back of the skirt. Any new excess will be put into another knife pleat on the back of the skirt.
1/19/2025
And there it sat.. for more than two years. I dealt with the gap-i-osis.. and adjusted the skirt.. and decided I hated the adjustment.. and hated the bodice pattern and threw the dress into a corner and ignored it for LITERALLY two and a half years. Until now I’m not even that same size any more and I’m going to give it away with the hem unfinished so hopefully someone else will wear it. Meh.
POST MORTEM
I complained about this dress on my Facebook page (Research Dumping Grounds) and someone contacted me offering to buy the dress from me. This dress was sold in January 2025 for $100+shipping costs.
SOURCES
Gnagy, Mathew. The Modern Maker Vol. 1: Men’s Doublets. Charleston SC: Printed by creativespace.com, 2014. Print.
Gnagy, Mathew. The Modern Maker Vol. 2: Pattern Manual 1580-1640: Men’s and women’s drafts from the late 16th through mid 17th centuries. . Charleston SC: Printed by creativespace.com, 2018. Print.
BINGE LIST
When I sew I tend to have something on TV in the background. I’ve decided it amuses me to record what I watched with the item.
Frozen II (Disney) A – This was my pandemic movie. Early on in the pandemic I watched this movie repeatedly (like 2-3 times a day). “Just do the next right thing” has been my pandemic mantra. Olaf saying “we’re calling this ‘controlling what you can when things feel out of control'”. I’m annoyed that ostensibly the Frozen stories are about Elsa.. but really Anna saves the day both times. Anna’s face when Olaf calls her “Powerless” is priceless. I’m pleased to say that I’ve mentally moved past this movie.. but it’s still resonates with me.
Avatar: The last Airbender (Netflix) A – Seasons 2-3. I started watching this a while ago with my son but I think he was too young and wasn’t terribly interested. He seemed much more interested this time.
Space Force (Netflix) B – Season 2. I can’t decide if I love this show or hate it. It sways madly between cringe-y camp and heart-touching poignancy. I suppose I’ll settle on hate it since I’ve heard it’s not renewing for another season.
