Accessories, Kampfrau (Trossfrau)

Bones.. and that damned hemd :D

I ended up adding short bones under the hook/eye tape on either side of the front opening. As a happy coincidence the tapes are almost exactly wide enough to hold the bones. So it was very easy to tuck them into place. The bones are about 7 inches long.. so 1-2 inches shorter than the hook/eye tape (I was using…

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Kampfrau (Trossfrau)

Pics or it never happened

Sunday was the first run with the new Kampfrau dress. Good: – Wulsthaube worked fantastically well. I will be publishing my “how to” as soon as I finish writing it (and include pictures).(Published here) – Dress and hemd were “done” – Vertical stripy socks are cool. I’ll need to buy more of these. Bad: – I’m still fat.. no dress…

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Kampfrau (Trossfrau)

Down to the wire

I see the end.  It’s over there. I’m supposed to wear the dress for the first time in 5 days. I think I’ll have it all done in time (I’m hopeful that I won’t be madly finishing hand stitches on Saturday morning). Still left to do: Required: – Finish Hemd(Plan to finish this tonight) Line the collar Add ties Add…

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Kampfrau (Trossfrau)

Sleeves (said with fear and horror)

I’ve only ever draped sleeves.. or left them for last and just kind of faked it. This time I want to draft a pattern so I have a sleeve pattern to use on my next dress. I’m planning to make a bunch of German dresses so it seems silly to have to fake the sleeves every time. So.. I grepped…

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Kampfrau (Trossfrau)

Skirt: The Fiddly Bits

The bottom of the bodice is smaller than my hips. In order to be able to get into/out of the dress I needed to leave a slightly longer opening. To hide this I want to slightly overlap the front skirt closure. The right-hand side of the skirt ends flush with the right hand side of the bodice. The left-hand side…

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Kampfrau (Trossfrau)

Skirt: the pleating

Sunday was for pleats (not all day.. but a good chunk of it). I’m totally cheating.. and I’m ok with that. For pleating the skirt I’m going to use a cheater strip of gingam. I’m relatively certain -they- wouldn’t have done this.. but I’m fundamentally ok with the cheat. I found a nice woven-in gingham with (mostly) even blocks. Each…

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Kampfrau (Trossfrau)

Bodice

Saturday was about German-ating. I started the day with a nice fitting single layer of linen bodice mockup pattern and end the day with a mostly complete bodice. I clipped my seams on my mockup to 1/4 inch. Then I seam ripped my mockup apart. Using these pieces I cut two copies in linen and 1 in wool. Then I…

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Kampfrau (Trossfrau)

My sewing muse is a BITCH

First she disappears for like 3 years. THEN when she finally comes back and starts hinting about how spiff it’d be to wear Germans.. and I actually start sewing.. ONLY THEN does she remind me that I’ve totally forgotten how to sew fitted garments.. and although squares and straight angles are nice to sew for early periods (and look nice…

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