Turquoise Landsknecht-ish - Bodice
Let's make a bodice. I forged ahead with my original pattern, even though I wasn't 100% thrilled with the fit.
I had three layers - outside and lining in the breezy turquoise linen, and I interlined with a sky blue, slightly heavier, linen. I sewed the front and interlining together so I only had to worry about two pieces, an inside and an outside. I did not use period techniques. I used a machine to stitch them together.
Like this... Stitching well behind the seam allowance.
Next was to stitch together the pieces, first the interlined pieces, then the lining.
There's the back join, then under the arms, and lastly at the shoulders. Press for success - ironed all seams open.
I then stitched along the front opening and around the back (wrong sides together)...
Dangit, look at that bunched seam. I fixed that. Then finally I clipped the corners and turned it right side out. I pressed again. I love to pin, and I love to press.
I pinned some "proof of concept" guards in place. Boom. It's looking sharp.
I decided to use lacing strips. Never done them before so this is an experiment. I decided to use the same colour as the guards so that they might blend in a little better.
I made a 4 layer strip and oh yeah, those are eyelets! I'm making progress on those. Turns out that using waxed linen thread is amazing for eyelets.
Getting better. Still room to improve.
However, several weeks later and the lacing strips are done and attached to the bodice, like so:
And machine stitched down:
I added little tiny stitches around where my thumb is to help hold the lacing strips firm. We'll see how that works. It will make it tight to get the actual lace through. After the event, I can change things if I need to.
I sewed down the front guards and am in process of attaching trim all around the neck/back. Not great at corners though, so... Really don't know how to work with that. Some repair may be in the works.
And after all that work... I realized that the bodice is too long and the bottom is hitting where my hips flare out and not at my natural waist (as in the photo below). Drag. How did I miss that?
Stay tuned for the fix for that!
I ordered an underdress and hope to wear it, except it is made of polyester. I'm going to create a simple chemise of light linen for backup in case it is hot.
But for now, the bodice is (mostly) complete. I will show how they all go together and what my fix is for the bodice length in a future post.
YIS
AW
