Friday, July 29, 2011

And so it begins...

Today I managed to get started on the coat for the ACC.  The final product will be a dark grey wool coat with all seams hand stitched with dark grey linen thread.  The seams will then be finished and reinforced with a herringbone stitch.  If things work out the way I plan it will also be lined with a lighter grey linen.  The extant garment (fragments) were not lined but I'm using the grey linen as part of the pattern drafting process so I might as well make a light weight version of the coat or line the wool with the linen.

the dark shaded area is the actual garment fragments.
I went from this


to this

Getting that far was a bit of a hassle.  Firstly the pattern in the book is on a 1:5 scale with everything in centimeters; this involves math and math is not a good friend of mine, and secondly although Varia taught me sewing by zen I still get lost on silly things like remembering to add seam allowance to the pattern.

Finally I got to this.



I still have sleeves to draft and cut out but that can wait until after I check ease of movement in the armpit area. 

I'll be using the machine to baste the pieces, fit it to Hoggar for adjustments, take it apart to cut the wool and we'll see what happens after that.

Photos of extant garments for the ACC

Sock with attached foot.
Coat from excavation.  The dark brown material is the actual piece found.  The other is part of the restoration.
Hat found at excavation

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Getting started

This is more of a test than anything else.  Over the next few days I'll be posting information on the costuming project I'm going to be working on for the Artemisian Costuming Challenge.  I will be making an oufit for Ron/Hoggar as he's half the man he used to be.  I'll be starting with the outer garment required in the challenge.  A coat from the 1921 excavation at Herjolfsnes Greenland.  As soon as I can figure it out I'll post a picture of the extant garment.