Sleeves

I thought I'd do a step by step picture diary thing of The Making of the Hinge Sleeves. I finished hemming the green cote last week, so on Thursday I finally had no choice but to face Cutting Out my sleeves.

STEP 1:

Open a bottle of wine. Om nom nom. Tempranillo is my favourite at the moment.

STEP 2:

Lay out fabric and pattern pieces. The wonderful thing about linen is that you can fold it, so you can cut out both sleeves at once!

NOTE: Cats love linen, and I'm pretty sure they can smell it a mile away. At least Tory can. I was laying out my pattern pieces when I heard a loud roaring noise, and it was Tory gleefully making himself comfortable on my linen, purring loudly. Five minutes earlier my sister had gone looking for him, and do you think he could be found? Nope.

STEP 3:

The actual Cutting Out part. I did it. I survived. Sleeves aren't as bad as a whole dress. The only thing about sleeves and linen being double sided is that it's really easy to accidently make two left sleeves, which I have been known to do on occasion. The bits are laid out above as they will be sewn together. Once you join the two pieces, fold it into a tube and make sure it's different to the other one :P

STEP 4:
Completely lose interest in the documentation process. I'm pretty sure on Thursday night I had stitched the two parts of both sleeves together, and finished the seam. I also finished a couple of glasses of wine. For a more comprehensive look at the medieval hinge sleeve, have a look at the La Cotte Simple page, there's also heaps of stuff there about fourteenth century things. The only thing I don't do is put buttons over my elbow. I made my first cote like that, and used rabbit poo buttons. They were uncomfortable enough to lean on, I wouldn't want to try it with hard metal or plastic buttons. I also ended up with gappy bits when I straightened my elbow, because there's extra fabric there to accomodate a bent elbow, it just bags when your arms are straight. Besides, I have long arms and usually put nine or ten buttons along seven inches of sleeve, which is only just over half way up my forearm. If I went all the way up that would be more than twenty buttons on each sleeve, which means more than twenty buttonholes. No thanks. Maybe one day I'll put some fake buttons on one of my cotes, because you don't need to undo them to get your arm in. As it is I only undo the four or five bottom ones, except when I'm in the kitchen or something and need to roll up my sleeves.

Anyway, I finished the green dress tonight. I made minimal effort on it during the week, so tonight I had to sew the buttons and buttonholes on the last sleeve, then attach them both to the dress. Done! Two weeks until Pencampwr, where I wanted to wear it with my green brocade surcote, but I wanted to fix that up first. I still need to warp up both my looms and get started on the band for my awesome bag of awesome, and that's for the class I'm teaching so it's number one priority. If I have time when that's done then I'll make a start on the surcote, but I can't see myself having enough time. Only three more weeks of uni left, and I have assignments due for all the units again. Plus Hairspray opens in two and a half weeks, so I'm busy with rehearsals and stuff for that.

Right now it's my bedtime. Goodnight.

Sleeves

I didn't end up doing any more sewing on Saturday night. Instead I made a lucet cord for Isabel to lace up her new dress, and then I did some more tablet weaving. On Sunday I had a very uninspired archery training session. I'd gone to bed with a headache, not slept very well, and woken up with the same headache. I hate when that happens. The result is a tired, grumpy person who doesn't feel like doing anything. After lunch at the pub I went home. This is a very rare occurrence for a Sunday afternon, because usually I go hang out with Mister Nathan and Catherine at their house, because their house is way more cooler than mine :P But they went away for the long weekend, so I was left to entertain myself for the afternoon. I started with taking some drugs and having a nap. A nice, refreshing nap that got rid of my headache :D. Then I wrote some LISTS. I like lists. I like writing lists and then rewriting them in order to make them more organised and neat. Then I like crossing things off the list. Anyway, I wrote a list of all the things I want to do before Rowany Festival. Then I divided the things onto different lists for each week between now and festival. Then instead of working on this week's list, I decided to do something from next week's list because I'm a rebel and you can't confine me to lists, man! I do what I want, when I want. I still like writing lists though.

I eventually decided it was time to work on this week's stuff, so with my belly all full from delicious Chinese dinner, I parked myself on the couch and made A MILLION LACING HOLES. Ok, maybe not a million exactly, but I did thirty-six, and that may as well be a million. Thirty-six lacing holes is A LOT. What this means is I have finished the lacing holes on my cotehardie, and I can finally put it on! I didn't feel particularly photogenic last night, so I took photos tonight.

It fits! It's a little wrinkly under the bust, but not too bad. I've had much worse. Side view:

The overall shape is what I was after, and it feels like it's gonna be a comfy dress, but I don't think I like it. I don't like that the front panels are so straight and narrow all the way down, and the side panels look like they flare out a ridiculous amount. The second panel on each side looks like it flares forwards as well as backwards, which is weird when you look at the shape the panels started in. You can't really see the details of the seams in the crappy photos I've taken, but they look funny too, a bit bubbly. The whole thing may just need a wash and an iron, but the whole skirt feels like it hangs a bit funny. At first I thought it was really narrow, but I measured it against my other cotes, and it's the same width. Maybe it's because the panels all flare less, so there's less bias in the skirt. Anyway, I'm definitely going to finish it and I intend to wear it often, but I think I'll go back to my eight panel pattern for furture cotes :P

Today I had to go to uni. On a public holiday. But I spent my evening doing some more tablet weaving, then some Cutting Out.

Sleeves! The left is the top piece, with the bottom far left curvy outy bit being the very top of the sleeve that joines at the shoulder, and the far right straight edge of the right piece is the bit that goes around the wrist. I always sew the two pieces together and finish that seam completely, like this:

The photo's a bit dodgy since the fabric doesn't sit flat because the seam is curved. Anyway, next I fold the whole thing in half and sew in closed along the edge, leaving about seven inches from the wrist open for the buttons. I finish the seam and then do a rolled hem alll around the edge along the open bit.

Sleeve shape! This is called a hinge sleeve, and I totally made up my own method of sewing it together. I've tried sewing each piece indiviually and then sewing them together, but I found that incredibly tedious and didn't want to ever do that again. This way works for me just fine. The first time I made them I put buttons up all the way over the elbow, and that ended up being a really dumb idea. Buttons over your elbow don't look good, because there's always gonna be gapey bits as you move around. Besides, they're uncomfortable to lean on :P. Also, if there's not enough room to slide your arm in with half of your buttons done up, then there's not enough room for the sleeve to be comfortable.

Anyway, that's what I did tonight. Sleeves. One is ready for buttons, the other needs its edge sewn up and finished. Yay buttonholes :( My stupid long arms mean I have ten buttons on each arm, even though I sew half the forearm piece together :P