The red kirtle is all finished

[frualeydis]

I sewed the skirt to the bodice last week. I had to unpick the waist seam once after trying it on, since I saw that the bodice was too long. I'm not fond of unpicking hand sewn stitches.

For the closing of the wool edges at he front of the bodice I decided to follow liadethornegge's example and use hooks and eyes, though I suspect that pinning them together over the lacing was more common in hte 16th century.

The hem is made by sewing a ca 4 inch wide linen strip to it and then sew it down on the inside. Then I added a decorative strip of fulled black wool on the outside.



The light really was bad when this photo was taken, but I think that you can see a little how it looks on.

Comments

[snowywolfowl.livejournal.com]

It looks very nice. Well done.

[m-nivalis.livejournal.com]

Looks really good!

[florentinescot.livejournal.com]

just gorgeous.

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

Very nice, very nice. Like I said else-web "sketa-snygg"!

Although I wonder why you chose to put a strip of linen on the inside of the hem? Won't that just attract all the moisture you might be passing?

Pins may be more period, but also much more troublesome and likely to break or get lost. Or poke you in the stomach at inopportune moments! :)

[frualeydis.livejournal.com]

I put the linen strip for the very un-period reason that it gives a neat hem and because it was so common in swedish folk costumes 200 years later ;). And I chose the hooks and eyes for exactly the same reason as you did, but I use pins for my 18th century dress and it works just fine too. But I thought that I may want to throw myself down on the grass in this dress and then pins might be a bad idea.

/Eva

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

A neat hem is a good reason :)

[marymont.livejournal.com]

Makes you look tiny! I have one red kirtle, but it isn't wool. Next time.

[frualeydis.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I actually think it's my relatively big head that makes me look smaller than I actually am on photos. Proportions and all that stuff.

/Eva