12th Night Stash Bust Challenge

-
The stash bust challenge was thrown to the crowd at an event - "12th Night is coming up... Good time to bust that stash for a new outfit!" Good enough reason to learn things as any.

I had just come across three beautiful panels of heavy cotton red IKEA curtains ($5!), and had a really cute bedspread that a neighbour's cat stained (while giving birth to kittens under my couch). But what to make with them?

I went through my FB group about plus size SCA garb and found a gorgeous outfit someone had made. She referenced patterns by Margo Anderson, specifically the Italian cioppa and gammura patterns. They have very generous sizing as well as how to modify patterns for uneven measurements. Which I have.

I got the patterns, washed up the fabrics, and laid them out to see if I had enough... And I did!! ( After cutting out the stains).

I started with the cioppa. Cutting the pieces out went well, and putting them together was easy.
Obligatory cat as helper.

I used interlining of cotton muslin and lined the inside with black linen for the bodice. It looks really nice. Below is the bodice and the skirt in pieces. Time to pleat, which was a main construction learning goal.

I admired Margo's practicality in the "divide and conquer" method of pleating. That is exactly what it sounds like - dividing sections until it looks right.

There is it! Last step was to sew it down/together and hand stitch the lining over the seams.

And the cioppa was basically done, except for the sleeves. We will circle back to that.

Next was to make the gammura. I wanted to make a wide laced front as it seemed more forgiving for fit (in case I lose weight and/or I lend this out to anyone). 

However fitting the bodice was a bit trickier than I expected. It took a number of calls to a friend to adjust the fit - back was too wide and shoulder straps were cut wrong. I embraced bias tape to fix the placement of the straps and took the back in. But otherwise, construction was very similar to the cioppa, including attaching bodice and pleating.


I came up against a big issue. I didn't know how to do eyelets. I tried a number of ways but got so easily frustrated. I eventually ordered grommets and pounded them in. Problem solved! Here's the finished version.

I decided to leave the gammura sleeveless. So I turned back to the cioppa and wanted to add those ridiculous, delicious sleeves that hang down where my hands stick out. I had enough fabric left over to do it! 

Adding sleeves brought me to literal tears. This was another good learning objective. I must have tried to attach them three times - backwards, inside out, wrong side to right side... Ugh!! I finally got them in but... I didn't line them and didn't really know how best to do it so they don't hang perfectly. You can see in the photo below. 

However... I love it! I threw together a little hair net using a headband and some Christmas coloured dishcloth yarn for my Italian stash bust. Ready to party!

And the overall fit is *chef's kiss*
Successes? Pleating. Garment construction. Pattern fitting. Things to work on? Eyelets and sleeves. 

All thanks and gratitude to: https://margospatterns.com/ 

YIS
AW

Popular posts from this blog

Snow day Språng

-
Image
The next learning goal is holes. I love holes! I love knitting holes. I'm going to learn bobbin lace one day. And my lovely språng mentor can make net using a series of holes. I have made eyelets before, so today's the day! The snow is pretty but I will be staying inside. Miscalculation #1 - I grabbed the nearest string which was way too fine for a learning project. I finally got the frame warped and started going for it. Plain weave... Ok so far. For the eyelets, I started on a single pickup row and did the pick one drop two, pick two drop one pattern. Being clever, I knew I had to reverse it so I did pick two drop one, pick one drop two for the second row. Not quite. I re read Halima's instructions and realized I missed the plain u1d1 row in between. Ok so I tried that, then offsetting the second row and... Still no 🤣 I threw together a practice warp to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I'm used to things coming easy...
Read more

Eyelets

-
Image
I figured out how to sew around an eyelet! And that's about a good enough place to start a blog as any.  I've been struggling with the eyelet hole since November, when I threw that project to the side and ordered grommets. (I'll post about that outfit later - it's a fun Italian number.) But today, it finally clicked. Needle into the hole, back to front, trap the thread, repeat. Look at that gorgeous thing! YIS, AW
Read more

Språng "Halima" pouch

-
Image
I have a proto sister! This is an SCA thing. In order to welcome her into the fold, I decided to make her a gift. We had just traveled to a class based event, where I had the chance to talk as many things språng in about 55 minutes with the person who has been teaching me the literal ropes. During this time, she showed me a pouch that she made. What a nice gift for proto-sis. I am seeing some progress. Warping is coming easier, manipulating threads more naturally, and I successfully chained across the middle. I feel like an advanced beginner! Here's the piece on the loom. I love how things look on the loom. This is again 1 under 3, a simple interlink. But with the colour warp, the white row looks spectacular. It was good to finally succeed with the chaining. It's not that it's difficult to do, but after just tying warps in the middle of stich patterns, it's nice to work on some finishing. Of course I forgot to take a photo of the final product, which I call ...
Read more