Blog
Welcome to the DravonWorks sewing blog! Here you’ll find lots of sewing information. I’m one of the “technical” people, who likes to know the why’s of things. In my mind, once a Why is understood then the information can be applied in a myriad of different ways! You won’t find a whole lot of “make this item” tutorials, but you will find answers to questions like “why should I thread my machine like that versus like this?” or “do I REALLY have to do it this way?” Most of these posts are coming from questions asked by students in my classes, but if YOU have a question you’d like answered then please feel free to comment.
I know that understanding the technical stuff behind what is going on doesn’t work for everyone, but that’s why there are so many great sewing blogs out there! Find the teacher that speaks to you, and I’d love to be one of them. If you do like what you read here, be sure to share, subscribe and visit back often! Tell your friends about this sewing blog! Ask questions, share your projects or stories. Sewing is most fun when it’s a community of people sharing what inspires them. I really want to hear from you!
Book Review: Cut-Work Embroidery and How to Do It by Oenone Cave
Cut-Work Embroidery and How to Do It by Oenone Cave Originally published in 1962 in England, this book has the most exquisite pictures of 16th century cut-work that I have been able to locate — some of it unfinished so you can see the foundation! The first part of this book, which I’m primarily covering here, is aimed at getting a good grasp of the history of the art. I found the author’s exposition to be clear, concise, and very readable. It was also a very quick read – just a couple of days to get through the history...
read moreBodice of the white and turquoise 1850/60’s dress
While the process is still somewhat fresh in my mind, this is the post-mortem for the creation of the bodice only for this dress: This project was undertaken for a class called Apparel Construction, however I didn’t want to make a giant purple dress. I’ve been collecting images of real dresses from the era as well the many fashion plates of the time, so I turned to this source to inspire me when it came to color. There are several dresses throughout the 1850s and 1860s which feature a white base with turquiose or aqua or teal or...
read more16th Century German Quilt from the V&A – ready to start!
I found a mention to a 16th century German quilt in an SCA whitepaper someone did on the Tristan Quilts, which themselves are 14th century Italian. Figuring that was an area not particularly well represented at Faire or within the German groups that I’m aware of (okay, so that’s just 2), I was intrigued. Looking at the bibliography, I found out the quilt I was interested in was briefly described in another book. Finally I tracked down that the quilt was currently housed with the V&A. I had never actually seen a picture of it,...
read moreThe Painted Tent is done and UP!
Before heading to the Faire site, we put the tent for a “trial run”. Here we have the roof up, and you can see the poles as well as the completed roof. Everything going well so far… And now for one of the walls. This is the back and side of the tent. The walls are not staked down, so they are catching the wind. When the tent is put up for real, the walls will be staked down. I’m VERY glad we altered the design on the roof from the multi-tiered to the single tier. This is enough without being garish. Any more and it...
read moreFINALLY! *shouts from rooftop* Learn-to-Crochet afghan is COMPLETE!
Some time ago I bought a book called Crochet Your Way. Back in 1999 or 2000, I decided that I wanted to learn to crochet so that I could make a baby blanket for whenever my brother had his first kid, but I wanted to learn it from the ground up. Almost literally. I bought angora goats and rabbits for my little 9-10 acre plot of land which I was living on at the time. While I was able to shear them, I never did quite make it all the way through picking, cleaning, carding and spinning and so never had anything approaching real yarn with which to...
read moreMonogrammed Towels
I had been wrestling with ideas on what to do for reception gift favors and waffled around a whole lot. I know these things are supposed to be small and nothing fancy, but I didn’t want to do that. There would only be about 35 people there. As Miles said “most people are expecting a little personalized box with a bite-sized snicker’s in it … not a monogrammed towel!”. I replied “and if we had 150 people coming, you know that they’d get? A little personalized box with a bite-sized snickers in it. But...
read moreEmbroidered Collar Renaissance German Shirt – Project Review
This shirt is made of an undyed (or “natural dyed”) cotton of a deliberately low-quality so that it looks like a working shirt. I didn’t learn until loooooong after the material was purchased and not too much longer after the final touches were put on the garment that cotton had to be imported from India and in the early 1500s was very rare, and as such was DEFINITELY not used to make working shirts. heh. Live and learn. Suddenly I dislike every shirt I’ve ever made for Miles. Need to rectify this. I’ve been...
read moreIllustrated entry describing the 1880’s (most likely) chocolate brown dress jacket
Right at the outset, please accept my apology for my poor camera skills. While at the Vintage Expo last month, I picked up a couple of study garments. I found it amusing that on both items, the seller mis-identified them. It just makes me wonder how many vintage clothiers really know their fashion history. Not that I’m like uber educated there, but at least I can narrow it down to the general century. *chuckles* In the case of the brown silk jacket, the seller had is labeled as Edwardian. That’s, roughly speaking, early 1900s....
read moreDrawn-thread embroidery pillow case
I first came across drawn-thread embroidery about a year ago or thereabouts and wanted to give it a try. That said, I didn’t want to go overboard with it and I wanted to have a target project for it. Somehow, I dreamed up the idea that I could use the huge fat cross-stitch material I found intended for a baby blanket, and instead use it to make the cuffs of a pair of pillow cases. Here is one completed pillow case which is the result of that idea. * The design is a sampler that I picked from the embroidery book I got to learn this from,...
read moreGoldfish corset
This is only the 3rd corset I’ve finished to the point of “wearable”. It was made in a class taught at Farthingales of LA, technically this was the 2nd class with them. The first corset class I took used the material provided, and this second one I could provide the material. * The material used is Chinese silk (sun yellow background with pastel fishies!) for the facing and the suport fabric is the heavy coutil sold at Farthingales. The coutil is an awesome material, but very heavy. The silk is surprisingly strong but frays...
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