One for working days, one for Sundays

A very dear friend wrote to me in horror over discovering holes in her thin woolen veil I gave her some time ago. It had happened in storage, and nothing else in the same box was affected. Hard to tell what caused the holes. But as I have more of that gorgeous thin wool I offered to make her a new veil, but also to make an attempt at mending the holes. I had an idea I wanted to try. So I asked her to send the veil to me.

As it came I inspected the holes, not that big but many, right in the middle of the veil. I promptly put it in an embroidery hoop to keep the sheer fabric straight and still, and then I drew threads from the leftover fabric intending to use them to make a darning.

It turned out to be nearly impossible to make it as neat as I wanted too, as the weave is so very thin. I had to turn over two threads a stitch instead of one and it easily turned into wibbly-wobbly lines. 

As I darned the holes the darning made tiny crosses on the veil, not entirely undecorative in my meaning but I sure wish they would come out more even than they did here. It got better after a good pressing with a damp cloth between the fabric and the hot iron. All in all, the veil is now mended and can be used as a more everyday veil. And the new one I made for my friend can be for Sunday finery.

Tomorrow they will be sent back by post to their rightful owner. I hope she will find the darned veil usable again.

A kirtle´s diary

Since I couldn´t go to a whole week event with just one dress in thick brown wool, what if the weather turned out nicer than promised, I had to sew myself at least one new kirtle. Said and done, I had gathered some images and studied the sleeve-cut that I wanted to try out and thought I would challenge myself a bit again. And why stop there? No, I picked the fabric I got at a flea-market for handicrafts, one piece 1,5x0,5 metres and one piece of 1,5x2 metres. No chance of getting more anywhere should I cut it wrong. It is a really nice reddish brown thin wool in a twill weave.

It took some thinking, but I managed to get the bodice and sleeves fitted into the smaller piece which left the larger portion of fabric for the skirt-parts of the kirtle.

Then I had to try to decide on what to use for lining, the choices being a non-bleached linen or a really thin green wool. With some support I decided on the wool, mainly because it went so well with the brown colour-wise.

When the lining was cut I first basted along the seam-allowances to keep the to fabrics together before starting sewing the pieces together. Starting with the sleeves I stitched the sleeves and two gussets together, pressed the seams, cut down the seam-allowances and then started felling all seams.

Ironing the bodice back before assembling the bodice and then the easy part, stitching the four skirt-panels together and finally assembling it all. I use a hot iron and a damp cloth to protect the fabric when ironing it.

 I did consider sewing a strip of fabric covering the seam-allowance between the skirt and the bodice to avoid shafing, but decided not to. The fabrics are pretty smooth anyway.

Finally, time for eyelets, having felled all seam-allowances and hemmed the entire dress. This should be done in no-time, right?

The dress got done in time, eyelets and all, and I enjoyed wearing it with my new striped veil that got hemmed while traveling for the event. This is me outside Hovdala castle all dressed up, and the other picture is when wearing the striped veil, which came in very handy when touring the insides of the castle with really low doorposts and sloping floors. The guide spoke of a gardener that once got a concussion trying to get through one of the doors, misjudging the height entirely.

But of course there is always room for improvement. I find the sleeves a bit hard to move in, so I will take them out and tweek it for a bit. Might even make a new and longer gusset in the back in order to get more room.

I´ve got stripes!

I fell in love with this beautiful but oh so simple striped veil the first time I saw it and have ever since been looking for a woven striped linen. And that is hard to find, I tell you! But this weekend me and the husband ran away on a little vacation of our own in London (yes, without kids!) for my birthday. The birthday was wonderfully spent with shopping in the textile district at Goldhawk Road. And there I found it, an orange striped rather thin linen. And dead cheap too. Now it will be carefully washed following Marias instructions (http://indemejarecristi.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/a-short-guide-washing-guide-for-linen-2/) and then hemmed. I think I just might make into one three metre long veil...or two 1,5 metre long ones. Either way it will give my rather slim closet some well needed variation.