24 October 2005

Quilted Pucker...

This post had another title but I decided not to go there...

I have consulted numerous experts and decided to live with the wierd collar thing. Denise Helm, who is a gifted seamstress and a Regency Costumer who will soon be offering her own patterns for costumers of that period, pointed out "Depending on what extant doublets you are looking at ... the owner might really have had the same drag lines, or it could just be hard to tell with the quilting if the collar is separate or not. I know by looking at Victorian photographs, some of the strange lumpiness and bulges are what women really looked like - if they couldn't eliminate it then it explains why I can't now!"

She also beat me soundly about the head and shoulders with a sewing machine for cutting real cloth without at least two hundred muslin mockups under my belt.

Yes, well, this is the tip of the day for newbies... even experienced sewers can get too big for their... um, doublets. So anyway, my wife and Denise actually agree that the thing to do (and it is incidentally a period thing to do) is make the collar separate, including the chevron shape at the back and then ease it in, which will allow me to compensate for any dragging as it occurs.

So next post will be about fastening solutions...

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