Let there be frills!

As said earlier, I´ve yearned for a frilled veil ever since I listened to Isis Sturtewegens lecture on frilled veils this August, but other things came inbetween. But the forthcoming weekend I´m going to lecture on details in medieval dress at Drachenwald Kingdom University and I just had to have one done for that.


Said and done, I found my really fine linen and started by cutting out a semicircular veil and the a thin band to make the frills. Then I hemmed the band along one side as well as the veil itself (tiresome work).


I then folded the band on the middle, sew it together in the loose end and then started marking out the seams to create small channels. Sewing them took some time as well since I made them rather small (two centimetres wide).


Then I had to find out what to use to shape frills out of these channels. Making wooden plugs like Isis has was not an option, since I´m a bit short of time. But I found a cheap and rather quick solution. Earplugs! Just the right size, easily accessible at the nearest pharmacist and easy to get in place since they can be squeezed together and then reshape on their own.


So, just pin the band of frills to the veil and stitch them together!




Then I bought a large can of spray starch and got the frills soaking wet before getting the earplugs in place. The whole thing was then left to dry over night.



And this is how it looks once the earplugs has been removed. Now I just need to carefully press the veil and I´m done.

Of course this is not at all as lasting as the starched frills of Isis http://m-silkwork.blogspot.com/2010/05/finished-swedish-frilled-veil.html and Elina http://www.neulakko.net/?page_id=743, but for a quick project I´m really happy with the result.