Dyeing, sort of

[frualeydis]

I'm just going to put 5,5 metres of a pink wool blend and lots of strong tea in my bath tub.

Comments

[frualeydis.livejournal.com]

With Maja ill I really don't have the time to answer this in a proper way. Maja's tunics, which are similar to children's tunics that was used well into the 19th century in rural Sweden are made in a very simple way. Some are made the "proper way", with gores in the sides, front and back, but others, like the blue linen tunic she wears here (http://w1.412.comhem.se/~u41200125/Maja.html) is made without shoulder seams and the sleeves in one with the body. So there are only two seams, running from cuff to hem on each side. To determine the size I took a velour overall that fit her and made the dress after that, remembering to add extra width both in body and sleeves to allow for the fact that the fabric wasn't elastic as the overall was. The tunic widened from wiast to hem to give it a proper dress shape. I made it just as long as the overall too, so that it would cover her feet.
The most common problems one run into when making children's tunics is that you make the sleeves too narrow, because the proportions are so different from those of a grown-up person. The other is that for babies it's easy to make the hole for the head too big. Babies doesn't like to have tight garments pulled over their head, but if you make the hole big enough to get over his/her head easily the tunic will fall off her/his shoulders because of babies' very big heads. So you make a keyhole neckline.
Since simple tunics like this were worn for so long for small children it should be suitable alos for the renaissance, even though I suspect set in sleeves were more common then straight cut sleeves.

Eva

[goldilocks-va.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your reply. As with your other post, I am learning a great deal about historical costuming and I thank you. Sending lots of healthy baby wishes to Maja so she feels better soon.

[frualeydis.livejournal.com]

Thank you for you kind words. I more and more feel the need to create a special page on baby-related things, like how to make easy clothes, different solutions to nursing in garb (I've tried several different ways to open my dresses for nursing), how to wrap a baby sling (http://www.skauma.org/bildarkiv/dynpage.cgi?last=1092119709&dir=/2004/Visby/Fight_o_fence/Stora_Visby/P8049707.jpg) etc. But that will have to wait, there just isn't enough time to do everything I want.

Eva