House Capuchin 3

So there have been a number of questions about the gown I wore this weekend at AnTir’s 12th Night. I will address a few of the more frequent ones here in a brief summary post. It isn’t going to cover every possible question, admittedly, but as it has been suggested by Tristin Tayla Sablerose on the ride down to 12th night, and by Charles de Bourbon and Shannon Christensen at 12th Night, and Michelle Height after……..a more detailed write up of the process of conception/planning/budgeting/construction is imperative given the project constraints I placed on myself to execute this and how I then went about meeting them. Jonnalyhn Wolfcat Prill has also requested a “boot-camp” day of teaching about processes and techniques employed in making this ensemble….so planning for that is in the very initial steps of coming together. Khalja Khorkhoi was also a strong influence on this because last year she put the thought in my head about teaching about making late period clothing more economically so it can be accessible to a wider audience of people with different spending thresholds for their SCA clothing.

1-“Is it uncomfortable?” Nope. I wore that outfit for most of the day and only changed out of it because I was going to be having pasta in a marinara sauce for dinner and didn’t want to risk spillage and stains……I could have gone well into the night with it but for that concern.
2-“What does the hem text Say?”

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

It’s the litany against fear from Frank Herbert’s Dune….and while not strictly period, I think its a perfectly apt mantra for running at your creative “fears” head on and tackling them.

3-Yes it was a time consuming project, made the more so because I hit a wall regarding patience while working on the heraldic roses and walked away from the creation of the skirt yardage for about a month and a half. That being said…..had I not opted to create checkered yardage for both the doublet and skirt, this would have gone together in about a week of evening sewing sessions averaging 3-4 hours each….the actual pattern piece shapes to create this are really quite simple, i just complicated this and lengthened the time line by deciding to create it from several miles of different scale checkers

4-There is a mixture of hand sewing and machine sewing employed in the creation of this gown. Despite having created the additional construction hurdle of checkered yardage…..I was conscious of the need to keep somewhat of a lid on the amount of time the project would take because I didn’t want to get to a point where I started resenting the time it was taking to make the thing and have it end up in the “bad project pile” because I was sick of dealing with it. So I sought ways to economize the time necessary to put this together and focused the fiddley hand sewing only where it was best employed for final effect…..long running straight join seams or hems that no one was ever going to be able to see the stitching…yeah, I was TOTALLY ok with deploying the sewing machine on those.

5-there are only 5 basic stitches you need to be able to do (or have a sewing machine that can do them) to accomplish something like this
-pad stitch
-running straight stitch
-whip stitch
-button hole stitch
-back stitch

None of them are difficult…and for the ones that get done by hand, are very easy once you get a rhythm down and figure out what your optimal working thread length is to maximize your speed at stitching.

6-YOU TOO CAN DO THIS……if you have made a T-tunic, you can make this. I purposely set out to make this gown out of the most economic fabric possible and then elevate it through how I used it to look more fabulous than it originally seemed when on the bolt. I used the cheap cotton broadcloth that everyone makes their first starter T-tunics from when they join the SCA. Having set myself a 100$ budget for this outfit ( with allowed addition of scraps and materials from my stash of left over fabrics from pervious projects)…..cost was certainly one of the main reasons for opting for the humble cotton broadcloth, but there were other factors that made it my preferred choice as well. And while I did end up going over the 100$ budget point by $7.53……I still am chalking this up as a success for staying that close to the budget over all.

7-the design impetus was my coat of arms. A red Letter A, in a sunburst, on a black and white quartered ground, with a red border around that, in which there are white heraldic roses. There is a veil that will be made to accompany this frock, and on the veil will be my coat of arms so that there is a complete version of it to accompany the outfit that is a “deconstructed” version of it.

8-my intent when creating this was not to represent accurate period clothing worn by a person in the late 1500s-early years of the 1600s. Rather, much like how people in the SCA regularly make 14th and 15th century heraldic clothing that did not actually exist within those times, this is my take on how someone could interpret incorporation of their heraldry into a late period design intended for a court masque, a masquerade ball/ carnival or festival. I pulled inspiration from the super over the top period costume designs Indigo Jones was creating for masques and masquerades in the late 1590s and early 1600s. I added the component of tight budgeting because I’d gone well over my normal working budget the previous year on a suit of men’s clothes made from only period appropriate materials. While I really enjoyed the process of creation for that ensemble, I was acutely conscious of the fact that clothing like that telegraphs the implied message that for one’s work to be taken seriously and be perceived as worthwhile, one must have the cash flow that can absorb throwing around 1.5-2K in materials and I really didn’t like that implication. So I set about creating something just as fabulous, but utilizing very humble, readily accessible fabrics….but just use them in very period methods, with a very period appropriate approach to cutting and patterning and fabric use efficiency, so that while the materials might not be period, the mentality governing their use and manipulation would be.