the BAG bag

When weaving the chair fabric I warped for several generous samples, and put on some extra as well. After the chair was done, I had enough for a big floor cushion (not yet done), and a smaller piece for a bag.

As the text was centered for the chair, either the bag would be very small, or I had to piece the back. I chose also to turn the fabric, partly because I thought it looked better to have the leather band vertical. Now the horsehair is vertical on the front side, horizontal on the back.



Many years ago I had a bag that I loved - but all good things must pass, so, when it could not be mended any more, I threw it out.
NEVER THROW OUT THINGS THAT CAN BE USEFUL LATER... I could have used the leather and the hardware...
Anyway, the design of this bag started with the memory of that old one.





The resulting bag is about 40 cm tall, 30 cm wide at the bottom. It is closed with three magnetic buttons.

The leather pieces? They are from an old skirt - I never throw out things that can be useful later - if they can be stored flat...

Reflections on production sewing

Done and delivered - 7 gowns for the new Linné Universtiy, plus one special for the rector (or, if you will, the vice chancellor). In the end, his was the only one making it on the actual stage.
The official pictures are no longer available, but there is one on my website.

Here is one:


When I got my first order for academic gowns, in 1999, I thought I could sew. I had never sewn other than "one at a time" - but, sewing several of the same would only make it easier, right?

Right.
Until I started to think... making calculations, timing myself and, well, reflect on the process of sewing.

These gowns, just delivered, consist of 14 pieces + collar: 2 fronts, 2 sides, 1 back, 1 yoke, 2 sleeves, 2 sleeve trimmings, 4 facings (inside and outside). The collar cosists of 2 pieces for the stand, 2 pieces for the actual collar and 2 pieces of horsehair interlining. Each gown has some 16-17 meters of machine stitching and about 6 meters of handstitching.

The first thing to consider is the design compared to the cutting. How much material does each gown need? How can the pattern pieces be laid out to minimize waste? Can the design be manipulated some, to maximize the fabric usage? (For instance: if the back is made 3 cm narrower, one side piece AND one facing will fit in the width of the fabric... or is more efficient to cut all facings beside each other and have some waste between the back and the side? Is the fabric reversible, so that the fronts can be cut the same, turning one "inside out" when sewing? If so - will the chalk come out easily, or do I have to reverse the fabric for cutting? If the chalk is difficult to get out - do I actually need to trace the piece, or can I trust my eye when cutting/sewing?)
Nearly always it is most efficient to cut all the "same" pieces at the same time. For seven gowns I needed 14 front pieces, 7 backs (which also gave me 7 sides). The other 7 sides could be cut 4 to a width, plus 3 with material over for 2 (or was it 3?) pieces of facings - and so on. As can be seen here I have a stack of drawers to sort the pieces. I also have a record sheet of what is cut, and what is missing, for each piece and length.

When designing, it also pays to think about how the sewing is to be done - if "this" seam is shifted some, then "that" seam will be easier to put in. In what order should the seams be done, for easiest assembly? When doing "this" seam, stop at "this" exact point, because "that" piece will be easier to attach...

Pins. Consider the material - how many pins do I need to put in? For the bourrette version of this gown, there is a minimal need for pins: the bourrette is sturdy and matte, it doesn't stretch or slide. Pins at top, bottom and around mid-length are enough. The special, however, is made of a silk crepe that needs pins every 5 cm - or more.

Meet my best sewing friend: Princess Pfaff. She is about as old as I am, and she has "needle feed" - that is, the whole needle thingy moves from front to back when the presser foot lifts and moves from back to front.



Pressing: again consider the construction. When is the best time to press a seam? Sometimes it is more efficient to sew (say) three shorter seams between pressings, sometimes it is better to press each seam immediately as sewn.

When it comes to the hand sewing - hems, inside facings, some special here-and-there corners. All in all this gown requires about 1000 hand stitches (give or take - ). If I took one stitch at a time, sweeping out with the whole arm - . So I don't. I test each material: how many stitches can I make before "sweeping" and tightening the stitches? When hemming the bourrette, I can make 5-7 stiches - take more, and the risk of breaking the thread is greatly increased. Take less, and feel the shoulder wear out (and the seconds adding up). When hemming the crepe, I can take 8-10 stitches.(Why I don't machine hem? Easy - the hem curves some, and it would take a lot longer to press, pin, "fix" and sew... I checked the time, so I know.)
Meet my two best hand sewing friends: the "Baronet" and the third hand. OK, so the Baronet started his life as a mortar, but now he is both pin cushion and a heay weight to help control the hemming. The third hand is better for shorter seams.




By reflecting on methods, trying out ideas and looking at the clock, I have shortened the construction
time of the Malmö gowns with nearly 2 hours PER GOWN... As I have made more than a hundred of them, it means I have "gained" several days just by looking at methods.

Read more about academic dress on the website of the Burgon Society. More about what I have done on the academic dress front can be found here.

One of seven

When I'm sewing several items of the same I like to do them a bit at a time: cut all pieces for best use of the fabric; sew (in this case) all the collars; sew all the "shells"; attach all collars and facings; hem them all (yes, my fingers hurt - I wish I could learn how to use a thimble!); line them all ...

This method is, on the whole, the most efficient. However, somewhere mid-point I tend to get depressed and/or panic: here I've been for a whole week, and nothing is achieved... So I decided to make one complete, with all adornments, closures - the lot.

One more week - then all of them will make their Grand Appearance on stage...

My own hell - and a red eye

As I allowed myself lunch today, I dug out the Arnold text to see what she actually had written.
This is from Patterns of Fashion (ISBN 0-333-38284-6, page 3):
"[... ] the tailor is cutting out with a large pair of shears, the small scraps left over being thrown into the box under the table. By the late seventeenth century these scraps and larger pieces of cloth appropriated by the tailor as his perquisits were described as "cabbage". The term may have derived from the word "carbage". The Oxford English Dictionary shows that in 1648 Herrick used both "garbage" and "carbage" apparently for "shreds and patches used as padding". "Cabbage" in the sense of a tailor's perquisite is in use by the 1660s and thereafter is also used as a cant word for private theft. This definition is given in A Dictionary of the Vulgar Tounge printed in 1811: "Cabbage... Cloth, stuff or silk purloined by taylors from their employers which they deposit in a place called hell, or their eye; from the first, when taxed with their knavery, they equivocally swear that if they have taken any they may find it in hell; or alluding to the second, protest that what they have over and above is not more than they could put in their eye".

It turns out that I did use "cabbage" in the wrong sense, as I used the scraps to cut the collars.
However, reading on, I found that in the translation of Alcega's Libro de Geometria, pratica y traca, done in 1979 (published as Tailor's Pattern Book, ISBN 0-903585-31-6), the Spanish word "medios" is translated as "cabbage". The Alcega "medios" were exactly the "cabbages" that I used...

Above is my black hell (all silk, 3 different qualities), below is my red eye (acetate lining, as is the green behind).
Today I have started another black hell, also scraps of lining.

From the sewing room

These days, I spend all my days in the sewing room. Black bourrette silk, 10 parts per item, organizing the cutting for best output - and keeping track of what has been cut, and what has not yet been cut.


After two days of cutting, I had enough "cabbage" to start with the collars - the most fiddly part. ("Cabbage", according to Janet Arnold, was what tailors called the left-overs in olden days.)


What I'm sewing? That will be revealed later... when the delivery is done. Here is a shoulder:

Reed marks...

The words "reed mark" take a different meaning:



This is a "score" reed - marked XI, has 218 dents (OK, they should be 220, but...). It has 30 dents/10 cm (7,5 dpi), which is the most common rag rug sett found in most Swedish books.

At both ends, the dents have distinct wear marks for about 5-7 centimeters. There are no marks on the dents in the middle.

I suppose it shows what can happen to your reed if you weave rugs without a temple...

old wooden reeds

As a nice holiday occupation I am examining the old reeds I have collected over many years.
One thing that immediately strikes me is that they are so short - most of them are between 5 and 6,5 cms (2 resp 2,6 inches). (Common height in Sweden today is 10 cm, or 4".)
The next thing is that they are so fine - the finest (yet - below) has 12,5 dents per cm (slightly over 31 dents/inch). The majority has between 8,5 and 10 dpcm.



New Swedish reeds are marked with number of dents per 10 cm, plus length. The fine reed above would be stamped with 125/10, 104. These old reeds are marked in different fashions, where the most notable is that the marking does not give number of dents per a certain lenght - instead it often gives the number of dents in the whole reed. However, it is given in different systems... the fine reed is marked as iiii iiii iiii iiii iiii iiii iii (27 small notches) in one of the endpieces.
The weaver has also marked off the 27 "partitions", each of them 48 dents long. (Why 48? Because in some parts of the country one, er, lea? hank? was supposed to hold 96 threads, and each dent usually held two ends - that's why!)



Others are marked with roman numerals, sometimes backwards - IIIV, for instance, means 8. Some of the "romans" tell the number of "score" (or is that "scoreS"? - score as in 20, anyway). Thus, the reed marked XIII has 260 dents total. All the "score" reeds I have identified yet are fairly open, between 29 and 35 dents per 10 cm (ca 7 to 9 dpi).
Then there are many with romal numerals that count the number of 30-dent partitions. (Why 30? Because in other parts of the country one, er, lea? hank? was supposed to hold 60 threads...) Thus, one reed marked XXVI has 780 dents total (26 x 30 = 780), which, re-calculated to dents per cm is 9,4, or 23,5 dents per inch.

To make things more confusing, I also have several that I can't see the system for... Take the VII-marked one that has 879 dents, has thread markings in each 30ieth dent and is 75,5 cms long. It has 11 dpcm (27,5 dpi) - but I can't figure out any relation between VII (which should mean 7, right?), 30 and the total of 879...

There are two different styles to them - either the separating strings are just wound one (or, in some cases, two) turns between the splines, or the string are knotted between turns.



Some of them also has pieces of fabric sewn on. The fabric could be protection against wear - or perhaps it is padding? We all know that it can be very irritating to weave with a reed that doesn't fit snugly in the beater.



The most good-looking one has both knots and decoratively carved end pieces: