Final Pictures
I actually finished everything a couple days ago, but I just now got the final pictures taken. I raised the lacing strip and the hose fit right, but it was too high in the back to bend forward. I lowered the center back of the lacing strip back down as far as I could, and it fits about as well as I think it can. I also finished the new buttons. So, on to the pictures! Front view Side view Rear view Canion slit Front opening of trunk hose Codpiece Buttons Pocket slit If anyone would like to see details of anything else, feel free to drop me an email. Thanks for reading!
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New Buttons
I started making new buttons. It's amazing what resources there are on the internet; I learned about thread covered buttons here. Now that I finally have some wooden beads, I've found (unsurprisingly) that they are far superior to plastic.
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Finished!
On the way back from the fabric store today I stopped into a random thrift store to poke around. Tucked in the back of a jewelry case I found a set of two clip-on earrings and a pin. The pin had three tassels on it that I replaced with drop pearls. I also swapped the clips on the earrings for pin backs. I'll get some pictures up when I have a camera again. On the clothing front, it's pretty much done! All I have left to do is put hooks on the slits in the canions. The codpiece is also a little too frisky; I think I'll have to do a little alteration to it. I may have time before the event I want to wear it at to make a new hat and maybe a cloak or something.
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Getting Closer
Finally got all the cartridge pleats tacked down and finished putting in most of the waistband eyelets. I also finished the slit in the right canion. I installed the center pane of black linen, though I still have yet to put in the eyelets at the top CF. I got some narrow bias tape to bind the canion slits and the edges of the front opening and codpiece. I could conceivably have made my own bias tape, but I'm just not that hardcore. I thought about putting buttons on the canion slits, but I think I'm just going to do hooks and eyes. All that's left is some eyelets, one canion slit, a bunch of panes, and the codpiece. I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. My finger's starting to get torn up again, so I'm slowed down a little bit.
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Catridge Pleating
After getting all the panes on the right side of the trunk hose attached, I can safely say that cartridge pleating is a pain in the butt. It looks good, though, and I hope to get some pictures up as soon as the camera gets back from vacation. I put everything together and it feels like the trunk hose are too low, so I need to move the lacing strip up a couple inches. Hopefully I'll be able to find a stable enough place to attach it. If it comes down to it I may have to raise the bottom edge of the doublet, but hopefully I'll be able to avoid that. All that's left is twelve panes on the left side and a codpiece. I'd like to have it all done in the next two weeks.
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Tweaking Trunk Hose
Between our wedding anniversary (observed) and being deathly ill, I've been a little slack in updating. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to do a whole lot of sewing done either, but enough to tell about. I went back and sloped the bottom edge of the trunk hose lining, going from the bottom corner of the rear center to 8 inches from the bottom of the front. I really need to draw a picture to show how this worked out. Anyway, I put in the darts, leaving the rearmost one undone so I could use it to take up any slack when I attached it to the foundation. So I backstitched the lining and foundation right sides together at the top of the canion then flipped it up, basted down the top edge of the pocket bag, and tacked a few of the cartridge pleats. At some point I tried it on and noticed that the back seemed a little flat, so instead of a dart I just made a pleat for the last one. Even still, the whole thing didn't really make the shape I wanted. I really had wanted to avoid padding these things, but when I stuck a rolled-up towel in the bottom of the lining it looked just right. So I plan to use a sizeable roll of batting just sort of laid in. Hopefully it won't shift around too much. If it does, I can just reach into my pocket and shove it around to where it should be. After the weekend and the worst part of being ill (I hope), I finally got a chance to work on the right side. Knowing what I was going to do made things go much faster, but as it turns out it's easier to do the cartridge pleats first (flattening them back out after the gathering stitch is put in) than it is to try to make them when the bottom's already pleated. Alas. In other news, I tried making a thread-covered button again. This time I used some pearl cotton, which I figured would greatly speed things up over plain sewing thread. In hindsight, this seems obvious. At any rate, the operation went quite well, though I think the strange shape of the plastic pony bead I used made the threads sit funny and increased their tendency to gap. I need to pick up some round wooden beads and try again. Eventually, I'd like to go through and replace each of my current buttons with a proper thread covered one. As promised, a diagram of the trunk hose lining. After drawing it out, it seems clear that the better way to have done it would be to slope the top edge rather than the bottom edge, but at the time I already had the batting in for the cartridge pleats and I wasn't about to take it off. I think it will all work out, though, between the gathers, pleats, and various other deformations.
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Trunk Hose Lining
This morning I took out the cartridge pleats and went ahead and installed the pocket bag while I had everything flat again. I redid the pleats with twice as many and it fit the waistband perfectly. Fortunately, the stripes on the silk are just less than an inch apart, so I can use them as a guide for pleating. I pinned some darts in the bottom edge and pinned it all to the foundation. It looks good, but it's still droopier than I want it to be. About half the length of the canion is covered, but it really looks pretty good. As I was driving in to work I realized that what I need to do is slope the bottom edge from back to front, to compensate for the sloping waistline. It drooped much more in the front than the back. I'll re-pin it tonight and see how it looks.
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Down To Business
I finally got started working on the trunk hose. I decided that there wasn't enough of the corduroy to get the fullness I wanted, so I used more black linen instead. I cartridge pleated the top edge after adding a double layer of quilt batting (which was much thinner than I thought it was). The pleats looked nice, but they didn't fill enough space. I'm going to go back and do twice as many and see if that helps. I pinned it to the foundation to see how it looked, and at this very rough stage it doesn't look like I'll be able to get quite as much fullness as I wanted. But there's a lot of things left to try, so I'm not giving up hope yet. I'll redo the cartridge pleats, then baste in some big darts on the bottom and see how the shape looks then. I may have to trim the length down some, but better to have too much than not enough. At least the silk looks nice.
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Dithering
No progress yet. I know that I'm stalling on the trunk hose because it's the only part of this project that I'm really not sure about. It's a lot of material to deal with, and it would take just as much work to mock it up as it would to do it for real. I've at least decided on the materials. The base lining for the poofy section is going to be a light cotton corduroy that I only have a couple yards of. I could use it for a doublet or bodice or something, but I'm trying not to use corduroy for that sort of thing if I can avoid it. The outer lining (which will be seen between the panes) is a medium green silk with a faint broad stripe pattern. It's very pretty and shiny, and I really hate to use it, but there's not enough to do an entire outfit with it. I'm sure i'll feel better about it once I start cutting. The panes, of course, are going to be black linen, though I'm not yet sure what I'll use as an interlining. I may use the green wool or I may try to scrounge up enough of a tan loosely woven wool I've had lying around for ages. It may not need any interlining at all, or perhaps only something light.
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Interlude: Gloves
I took a little time out to try my hand at making leather gloves. I got the left one done and it's functional, but not terribly pretty. I don't know if I'm going to make the right one or save the leather for something else. I'm contemplating trying to make a leg mannequin to drape my trunk hose on. I can't really tell what my backside looks like when I'm wearing them.
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