Fringe twisters

In between the sewing - a new batch of gowns is under way - I needed to do something more "rustic".
This is the result: a bunch of fringe twisters with gold forks for handles. As they were so easily bent I suspect they are real gold ;-)



After lots of experimenting I started to make three-pronged fringe twisters about a year ago. They all have cutlery for handles, and chessmen for the turning knobs. Now I have fine-tuned the process, so I dare offer them for sale for a bigger public... Should you be interested, e-mail me.

The snake-adorned gowns in use!

The gowns were for the rector and pro-rector (some would say the vice chancellor and the pro vice chancellor) of Karolinska Institutet , Sweden's oldest medical universtiy. They are celebrating their 200-year jubilee this year, and wanted new gowns for the highest officials. (So now you know why the snakes are there... :-)

The gowns were first worn at the ceremony of promotion of the new doctors (I guess I should say the ceremony of conferment of the PhD degree in medicine) last week.

Now I have found the site for all the photos of the event. There are a lot, so... here is a short list of the photos most interesting to me:
This shows the rector in front, the pro rector in the background (opens in new window). Click "next" for a picture of the pro rector.
I also like this photo. Photo nr 499 and 501 are nice, too.

A rose is a rose is...

(can be) a piece of barbed wire and some silk cabbage.



Since I learned to make roses, I have a special eye for nice scraps otherwise too small to be used.

These roses were given to a friend for the opening of her new exhibition the other day.

After appliqué-ing...

my fingers look like this:



Probably I should learn to use a thimble...

The red silk had to be backed, and I choose a black bourette I had on hand. This meant the left hand not only got scratched, but also black from the crocking bourette.

For the first gown, I did the appliqué before I attached the facings. Easier to work, harder to attach to the gown.
So, for the second gown, I first attached the facings, and did the appliqué afterwards. Much more unwieldy, but easier to match.


Total: more than five meters of gold lace appliqué, with a golden "rod" in the middle.


Now the gowns are done and delivered, and I'm hoping for "official" pictures soon...

Below the collar...

there had to be something - a jacket, perhaps?

Again I browsed my Arnold (Patterns of fashion, ISBN 0-333-38284-6), and found this interesting sleeve cut:


It comes from a Spanish book (Geometria y traca, by Francisco de la Rocha Burguen, 1618)

So I made a simple front, a Spanish sleeve and a pleated back.
After having made the pattern, I wove the approptiate amount of material, using the weave I showed here
I used the same warp yarn as in the collar, merc cotton 30/2, but in two shades. For weft I used a softer merc cotton, still 30/2.

... as one cannot use a jacket like this over jeans, I also had to make a dress to go with it :-)
I found some shot doupioni silk in a slightly darker shade - and this is the result:




Now I only have to wait for the perfect party to wear it...

Horsehair collar

I have always loved the Elisabethan oversized collars - like this (from the cover of Arnold: Patterns of fashion, ISBN 0-333-38284-6).



As I also like to weave with horsehair... why not combine them? It ought to look, well, at least "different", with a horsehair fringe hanging to the back...

As these collars are curved, the first problem to overcome was the curving - .
Hmmm. IF the fabric was pleated at the bottom of the collar...
Or - if the fabric was elastic - could it them be persuaded to stay wider at the top? Kind of "built-in" pleats?

OK - I had read several articles about self-pleating fabric. (I had also tried making self-pleating fabric several times - most of them not being successful.) Tried to ask my local friends. Nobody had any idea.
Started to sample.

Several samples later, I had something that worked.

Now, I was concerned that, perhaps, the collar would not stand up to its own weight. What if it just "collapsed" and folded down?
So - I needed a stiffener. And it had to be integrated in the collar, as both sides were to be visible.
As it happens, I know about double weave ;-) - so I constructed a weave with pockets of double weave. But what to put in the pockets? I tried "polyester boning" - too wide, would not be folded double, and too weak if cut in half. Tried some other stiff plastic band thing - no. Then I remembered: a sewing friend had used these:


They are used for tying-together cables and such, can be found at the hardware store. (After nearly 14 ears in the neighborhood, half of the hardware store staff hide when I enter - the other half enjoy my "impossible" requests.)

In the sampling, I had found that both the number of picks per stripe ("block"?) and the number of hairs per pick were very important. In this case, I got a nice pleating with 12 picks of 5 hairs each before changing block.
As horsehair does not "turn the corner", I needed to do something to secure the selvages. Two tabby picks after each stripe was the solution. (The double-weave pockets were woven "to size", and the stiffeners were inserted on loom. As usual, I'm using different colours for the two layers, 'cos it is easier to see what's going on.)


I wove about 120 cm for the collar - hoping it would be enough. Every sample that is "smaller than life" is in some way deceptive... percentages sound (are) easy, but the smallest inaccuracy will turn into a big inaccuracy at double the length.


I cut it off, and - nothing much happened. Until I threatened it with the steam iron, that is.



The most succesful sample has got a life of it's own. It has been in a couple of guild exhibitions - once as a fan, once as a vase:



And... should it ever get "tired", a little steam will restore the elastic quality.

Belt, braces and basting

or: why painstaking pinning proves perfection (im)possible



Sewing velvet is something else...
A small test showed pinning was not enough. Nor was basting.

So, not to lose too much time (and fabric) testing methods, now I first pin the edges, then pin a bit inside, then baste near the edge, and baste again a bit inside the seamline. It works, sort of.
(Second basting not yet done)



And I'm glad I'm only making two of these!

However, I think they are going to look stunning - especially when the golden snakes are in place!