Posted by dravon in LiveJournal, Project Review | 5 Comments
Burgundy and Tan Doublet
This is a design that Miles specifically requested, saying he’d seen it lots of woodcuts but I never saw any of the reference pictures. He wanted it as a pullover, with the front pulling closed at the base. That’s exactly what he got. There were a few things I had targetted to experiment with on for this doublet:
1) Points. Upper class had points like lower classes did, but you don’t see them. I wanted to experiment with a way to put the points in without having them show on the surface of the garment, and yet not pull the lining down or otherwise stress the lining while the points were working to hold up the pants.
2) Since the sleeve fit of the green one was so bad, that needed to be worked on for this one.
3) Fit. Fit. Fit. Tailoring is what makes the biggest difference between well-made and poorly-made clothing. Well, ok. So does attention to detail.
The material for this was a burgundy corduroy-esque material. I call it corduroy because someone else said it was a period correct corduroy, but I’m not an expert on the various techniques for accomplishing textile looks so I’m just repeating here with the caveat that it might not be a correct label. I know it’s not a brocade, and indeed corduroy is the best label for it but do NOT think the material of today. heh. The slashing was lined with a good quality wool that handled more like a heavy cotton. The lining is a linen/rayen blend because JoAnne replaced all their linen/cotton stuff with linen/rayen and I was sorta stuck. The ties are a dress shoelace bought at Walmart. After I finished it, he took it out to the film shoot and wore it there. That’s why the front is all wrinkled, and I was clearly too lazy to iron it prior to putting it onto the dress form. My bad.
This was the first piece made completely with the new dress form. It was draped on the form, the mock up made and fitted to Miles. I was thrilled that I didn’t have to make single modification to the body, but I did need to adjust where I had placed the edges of the armholes. I’m still not pleased with them, so I’m going to using some folks who come to my sewing weekends as test subjects so that I can get a better idea of just how to judge the sleeve joint fit. Anyway, I eventually got the sleeve hole ironed out and working well. Then it was just a matter of cutting up the paper pattern and adding in the appropriate seam allowance.
Here are the sleeves. Because the burgundy material was so thick I didn’t want to shove that much bulk from the various slashes into the armskye itself, so I made a tiny sleeve cap which served to bridge the gap. It worked over very well! Very happy with that approach, and I have seen that in woodcuts so at least my logic is sound. As for the sleeves, you can see they aren’t so much slashed as they are pleated, with the surface of the pleat being the burgundy and the interior of the pleats being the gold wool. This worked out REALLY well and after Miles tried it on, he decided he liked the look of the sleeves when they were tied versus having them gape open. So I went back and added oval buttonholes and then stitches the various tiny bows so that they wouldn’t untie.The chocolate of the tie works well with the other colors without being too bland or too obvious. The cuff is just a band through which he slips his hand.
The only criticism that Miles got from this doublet was that the front was “too plain”. Well, can’t really argue there. It is. I also underestimated the size that the stripe at the top should be, so it looks weak. Oh well. In terms of how it fits, it does very well. Alas, if he gains or loses weight, that will affect the fit and either push the heavy higher or let it hang down so that the gold baseline is visible either way. In terms of front closure, this one doesn’t get much easier: two buttons, held closed by a tie that is wound around the posts of the buttons. The costume approval lady really liked that one apparently.
Because I still wasn’t positive of the fit of the sleeves, and trying to come up with an attractive but not too-much-tacky slashing, I went for 3 rows of 4 slits at varying heights across the back. Apparently, this went over REALLY well. Everyone commented positively on it. The doublet fit him so well that when we breathed the insets flexed a little bit for a constant peek-a-boo action that was exaggerated with every move he made. It was exactly the effeect I was going for!
The raging success of this piece was the experimental points. I used an interlining between the lining and the shell, and it’s actually the interlining that is doing the work of both holding the point in position as well as distributing the pressure of that pull all the way and into the neckline, if needed that high. This means that the harder his pants try to fall down, the more the entire weight is distributed acorss the garment to keep the point in position as well as keep the pants in position. The only thing I decided to change, after having seen it action, is to move the point positioning about 1/2″ higher inside the body of the doublet than it is now. Once that is done, the pull on the ties won’t be seen on the surface at all. In that second picture, I am REALLY pulling on that point. So much so that the dress dummy got pulled off the wall right after I took the picture!! With that much pressure in one position, you can see that the burgundy material on the surface is not doing any of the work! I couldn’t get a picture of it, but you can actually follow the line of tension up the interlining — the more pull, the higher the tension goes until it’s completely distributed and vanished from perception. But you have to know what you’re looking for to see it. I am beyond thrilled with this method of point construction and will be doing this from now on.
This is also the first piece I’ve made which was not for any class project that was indeed a completed garment. Complete enough that it required a pattern card made for it! *preen* Okay. It’s the little things. hehe. Here’s the pattern all contained in its new home, with the pattern card all filled out. Ready to use for another garment.
Another plus is that Miles was thrilled with the fit and the attention to detail – such as the interlining, the tacked ties, the stay stitching througout, etc. He said “this is what I knew you were capable of. Now I want more!” *lol*
Were my 3 objectives met?
1) Points. — Oh heck yes!!
2) Sleeve fit was better, but still not confident about it. Needs more work.
3) Fit was amazing. Fits him like a glove yet still able to move with him.
Verdict? Overall… success! yay!
Very cool! I love the point holes, and how you designed them. Most guys I know won’t use them, but someday when I find someone who needs them, now I know how to go about them. Thanks.
The fabric is a chenille, right? I’d not heard of this being a period corduroy before. Interesting.
And what is this pattern card? How do you make one and what is it used for??
And I would love to see pics of your husband wearing the doublet.
Pictures of Miles wearing the doublet are forth coming. He was at Fort Mac this weekend, and so hopefully I can get some of the images to post.
This is the only picture I have of him wearing the doublet. It’s from a pilot episode shoot, hence the cinematic/dramatic look to the picture. It doesn’t show the doublet very well, but it’s the best I have.
Yes, chenille! That’s the word. Thanks! I knew corduroy wasn’t correct, but it does have a corduroy sort of look since the fibers are laid down and then couched into place rather than woven as a typical fabric, giving is that ribbed look typical with corduroy. Just did a quick look up, armed with the correct work, and chenille (french for “caterpillar”) first emerged in the 1780s, making this very “not period” but it makes Miles happy. heh. Based on a quick google search, it seems corduroy was similar in origin, time and location wise. Looks like France was busy coming up with new textiles in the mid to late 1700s! lol
What is this pattern card: The pattern card is a sheet of paper onto which you write down pretty much everything for that pattern. You can see that each pattern piece is written down, sorted by fabric from which that piece is to be cut as well as how many of each needs to be cut out of the fabric. Other information includes the style number, which you write onto each pattern piece so that in case something happens you can still reassemble the correct pieces. Also recorded is a drawing of the final garment (I’m not an artist, but my little doodle is enough for me to recognize what this pattern is for), the yardage required for each type of fabric called for, as well as all notions and trims.
How do you make one: Well I used Word and just input the information that I wanted to record with each pattern that I created. I used one of the pattern cards from the pattern making class that I took as the template, and took some things away and added others. In theory, the card contains everything you’d need at a glance to identify (1) what the final garment will look like, (2) how much of each fabric type you’ll need, (3) when/where/why/sizes/etc for the pattern to give it a frame of reference, and (4) that all pieces are present once the package is opened.
What is it used for: In commercial design shops, the pattern maker creates a card to go with every single garment. In the shops, the pattern pieces are punched with what’s called a rabbit punch and then hung onto a hanging hook with the pattern card on the outside. Since I’m not going to hang stuff, I instead folded the pieces so that they fit into a full sized manilla envelope and then taped the pattern card to the face. Onto the back of the envelope (not pictured) I wrote down notes of what worked and what didn’t in terms of the pattern itself so that if I make another garment with this pattern, I can make those changes and then cross out the notes as I update the pattern. It makes filing and future reference much neater and cleaner, and it gets me into the habit of doing this so that if I ever go to work as a professional pattern maker I’ll already have some industry standard practices ingrained. Notice the pen color changes as I went through the different fabrics? That too is a fashion industry convention that I picked up from classes and figured I’d practice so that they became ingrained, but it’s not necessary.
🙂