Linen Cap and Smock

I made this linen cap and smock to go with my yellow wool kirtle.

The cap was based on the pattern in The Tudor Tailor.

I have a lot of hair, and I usually find that hats and caps either refuse to fit over it, or they end up comically large because I overdo the adjustment. To make this cap fit, here's what I did.

First I pinned my hair up in the style I'd be wearing. Two braids coiled into a wide, flat-ish bun.

I measured around my head where I wanted the band to sit. I cut the band and brim based on this measurement and sewed them together. I hemmed each piece individually and then whipped them together.

When the band and brim were all done, I tried them on for size. Looking good!

I positioned the band where I liked it, not too far forward. My hairline is very high and I didn't want to look totally bald from the front, which can happen if I don't let a little of my front hair show!

Fits around the hair! At this point I measured from the edges of the band over my hair, from side to side and then from top to bottom.

I cut a circle of linen about 4" larger than those measurements and wrapped it over my hair, then slid the band over it, tucking all the edges in.

Edges of caul/bag portion tucked in to check the fit!

I pinned it in place, took it off, then trimmed the excess fabric off the bag/circle, making sure to leave sufficient hem allowance, about 3/8".

I used a whipped gather stitch (I really feel like this should be called an overcast gather stitch since that is what you are actually doing) to finish and gather the edge of the bag. I joined it to the finished edge of the band with a whip stitch.

All done!

The hand sewing techniques are probably more 18th century than 16th century, but I thought they made for a lovely, delicate finish. And I'm not such a stickler that I care much. It's a cap, it's white, it's linen, it's the right(ish) shape, and it's hand sewn! Good enough for me!

All together this cap took me about a day to make. I really enjoyed hand sewing it and I love the way it looks. So cute! And all my hair fits inside!

The smock is the same hanky linen, cut from The Tudor Tailor's diagram. (I swear I read another book once!) I did it mostly by machine but used hand sewing in some of the parts that showed, namely, the cuffs and the neckline area.

Most of the following pictures were taken after I had worn it and washed it and shoved it, crumpled up, in a drawer a few times. And didn't iron it.

The smock is about 44" from shoulder to hem and falls to about the top of my calf. This is the perfect length for me: good coverage, but not so long that it wraps around my legs as I walk.

The neck is high with a band and a small ruffle. I have a feeling that historically, for the lower class look I was imitating, the neck would probably have been lower, a plain scoop, but I really like the neck/shoulder coverage of the high neck so I don't get so much sun exposure at Fest. I could've done a low scoop + a partlet, but this was simpler. 

All the main seams are flat-felled by machine. I love how tidy the flat-felling makes the underarm gusset!

The front slit is hand-hemmed. The very bottom is covered with buttonhole stitch and there is a buttonholed bar to strengthen the bottom of the opening.

The neckband was applied by hand in a manner shown in Janet Arnold's book. The band is cut as one piece and folded in half the long way. Both long raw edges of the band have their seam allowances folded in. The outside of the band is pinned over the neckline's raw edge and secured with a backstitch from the right side. The inside edge is folded over the seam allowances and secured with a fell stitch.

A photo of an original from Patterns of Fashion 4 showing this technique.

Janet Arnold's sketch of same (or similar).

Here is mine.

You can kinda see my little stitches! Everything you can see in this shot is sewn by hand. Backstitch on the outside (left) and fell stitch on the inside (right).

The neckline ruffle was hand-hemmed and then whip gathered to the folded edge of the finished neckband.

The cuffs were done almost the same way, but I fell-stitched both sides instead of backstitching the outside one. (I don't remember why!) The cuffs are left plain and I confess I never got around to sewing a button and loop to them. Maybe next time I wear it!

Yellow Wool Kirtle

I made this kirtle from the pattern diagram in the wonderful book The Tudor Tailor.

The wool was a gift from a coworker that came from her relative's de-stash. It's a gorgeous yummy color and kind of an odd weave; it's a double cloth with a somewhat coarsely woven layer joined to a finer, smoother layer. I'm pretty sure the rough texture was the proper right side, though both sides looked finished and usable. Anyway, I liked the coarser, fluffier side better.

I took these next few pictures in my backyard after a long, hot, sweaty day at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. I felt a bit bedraggled!

Here's the process.

I just did one mockup since the shaping is so simple. I put a few bones in the mockup because it's just muslin.

I used a set of fitting lacing strips to draw in the back more easily.

Not bad bust support.

Felt a little barrel-ish from the front.

Here's that same mockup with changes. I pinned out the small diagonal wrinkle at the corner of the neckline, raised the neckline slightly, made the neckline slightly wider, and raised the back waist a bit. I also ended up taking the whole thing in a bit at the sides. If the laces were touching, I knew it would soon stretch to be too big.

Then I started cutting and sewing! I had originally planned to hand sew the whole thing, but I ran into a deadline and ended up doing it about 50/50 hand and machine.

I didn't put in any bones, instead using cotton kitchen cord because I wanted a softer look (and I also kind of just wanted to see what would happen!).

The front and back were each fully flatlined in lightweight linen. I also cut a piece of heavy linen to interface just the front. The cord channels were machine stitched into the interlining layers only and the cords threaded between. I stitched the cords in small clusters of 2-3. When the interlining was corded, I pinned it to the fashion fabric's wrong side.

Right sides pinned together at CB, sides, and shoulders. I machine stitched these seams.

I turned the fashion fabric's edges under and secured them by hand with a catch-stitch.

The lining is a medium weight linen. I machine assembled it, then turned the edges under and used a fell stitch to attach it to the bodice by hand. I hand sewed the eyelets with linen thread in a spiral lacing pattern.

Onto the skirt! I stitched the side and CF seams by machine, then added a wide strip of linen to face the top, also by machine. I hand topstitched the CF slit opening. Then I started pleating the skirt to fit the bodice and whipped the pleats together to hold them in place. Finally I attached the skirt to the bodice by hand and hand-hemmed it!

I also made a pair of sleeves to go with this gown, also from The Tudor Tailor's pattern. They are a lightweight peacock blue wool, unlined, machine seamed and hand-hemmed, and simply pin to the kirtle's shoulder straps. It was a shame the Renaissance Festival was too hot for sleeves this year!

Overall, I was very happy with it. The fit was pretty good, and I liked the soft shape and support of the corded front. The color of the wool just felt happy. I felt very cute in it!

I wrote about the details of the cap and smock in a separate post here.

Red satin gown for the 6 year old

I made this dress for my 6 year old daughter for the local Renaissance Festival.

It's made from a lightweight silk and cotton blend satin (in her current preferred color: RED!). I interlined the skirt with a plain weave linen to give it more body. The bodice is interlined with cotton twill and lined with the same linen as the skirt. The hem of the skirt is edged with deep red petersham ribbon. I stitched two rows of narrow gold trim around the neckline.

The sash is made from a soft yellow-gold silk. I sewed a length of silk into a tube on the machine, turned and pressed it, then pleated each end and sewed on a tassel. I made the tassels from metallic gold thread and white silk and linen threads.

The bodice closes in back with hand-sewn eyelets and there is a bone on each side of the opening. I offset the eyelets for a spiral lacing.

The sleeves are made of two layers of blue-ish grey linen, trimmed with black petersham ribbon. The sleeves tie into the bodice; two lengths of black twill tape are sewn to the sleeve and a small brass ring is sewn to the bodice lining at the shoulder point.

Both the gown and the sleeves were patterned from diagrams in The Tudor Child, a super awesome book I highly recommend. Since my little one is a bit small for her age/height, I knew the 6-yo size pattern would be large on her, so didn't scale the pattern up exactly, but instead used the pictures as a guide to draw my own pattern to her measurements.

I have to confess I made the skirt a little skimpy because I was being cheap. It is gored smoothly in front and pleated in back.

I made everything mostly by machine, partly by hand, following the "no visible machine sewing" rule. So the main construction was done by machine and edges, linings, and eyelets were sewn by hand.

There is a petticoat of the same grey linen as the sleeves, trimmed with wider black petersham. The petticoat is just a rectangle, pleated all around, with a strip of wool batting in the pleats in the sides and back, to give a rounded shape. The petticoat is held up with two lengths of wide twill tape, sewn on like suspenders.

The shift details can be seen in this post. The cap is from her last costume. I made it when she was 3 and I am amazed it still sorta fit!

She loved her dress and enjoyed wearing it all day at the festival!

A shift for a 6-year-old girl

I made this little shift (or smock) for my daughter for the upcoming local Renaissance festival.

It's made of white cotton lawn. Why cotton lawn and not linen? I have no idea. Not sure what I was thinking. I guess maybe I wanted something very fine and sheer? But we do have a very nice fine handkerchief linen at work I could have used. Oh well, next time!

I cut this following the diagram in the book The Tudor Child. The book advises not adding seam allowances and just sewing them very narrow, 1/4" or less, but I wanted a wider allowance so I could make French and flat-felled seams more easily. I am very picky about a totally clean interior finish!

I started sewing it on the machine, and decided I would just hand-sew on the lace at the end. But I figured if I am handsewing the lace I may as well hand sew the neckband as well, and then I thought about maybe just handsewing everything that shows, and the idea of doing a little handsewing was appealing, so I went with it.

I could have done the whole thing by hand, but I just wasn't in the mood. For one thing, kids grow out of stuff so fast, and for another, this is going to be worn at the Renaissance festival, so hardcore accuracy is definitely not required!

So: the French seams at the shoulders and sides are machine-sewn. The flat-felled seams are machined for the first pass and then the edges are stitched down by hand. The neckband and cuffs were machined on the RS and the inside edge was hand stitched down. The neck slit is hand-hemmed. I actually did not hem the bottom, I just cut the body on the cross-grain and the lower edge is a selvage.

The sleeve seams are felled to each side so the sleeve end could open into a slit. As soon as I finished felling one sleeve seam, I realized I could have made the seam allowances MUCH tinier. (The Tudor Tailor was right.) They look huge! Alas. Another thing for next time!

The underarm gusset is felled all around, and the armscye seam allowance is pressed toward the body and felled.

This lace is synthetic, but I would never have guessed if I hadn't done a burn test. I thought it looked like a cotton bobbin lace and gave a historic enough feel.

The buttons are Dorset thread buttons I made using the directions in the book 50 Heirloom Buttons To Make. They are sz 50 linen thread over a metal ring. The button loops are also made in linen thread, and I stitched over the loops with a buttonhole stitch.

Next up: petticoat bodies and a gown! Little clothes are fun!