Wooohooo! I finally started the 12th century printed silk tunic project for my sweetheart!
And you find me quite excited as I was preparing for this very special project for some time now.
You might have already been wondering about all the new 12th/13th century inspired block printing stamps which I created during the last months. After finishing the last stamp we were finally able to put the new block printing stamps to good use.
And finally a picture of the OvO pouch with the medieval islamic inspired embroidery which I put together for Gloria, my awesome mother-in-law.
(OvO -> Order of the velvet Owl, Kingdom of Meridies, SCA)
Yeah, this quite special piece of medieval islamic inspired embroidery was the super secret project on which I was working on from the first day of January until our favorite SCA event – Gulf Wars – in March. And at Gulf Wars Gloria finally got introduced into the Order of the velvet Owl. Just right before the knighting ceremony of her son, my dear husband. And not a moment too soon as keeping this project secret was killing me… 😉
And surprise, surprise – I just managed to finish another 12th century dress! 🙂
Well, I admit it, I didn’t post much about my new 12th century dress project till now – only one short posting and that was all. But well, it was also just one of my “small” side projects which I took up or abandoned whenever I felt like it. “Just” some hand sewing in order to relax and to keep my hands busy…
I think it’s quite important to have small side projects like this. Projects which have no time frame or real importance and might not even work out. But projects like these can help to take one’s mind off things or provide some ease to eyes which just can’t make out any difference between the gold thread and the silk thread you are working with…
Continue reading
Todays posting about “how I made the counterpart for the 12th century neckline fastening and some other details…” brings us finally to the last progress pictures of the 12th century grey light-wool tunic project for my husband.
Though I already showed you my period inspiration for this quite special 12th century neckline shape and how my take on this special neckline form based on the 12th century neckline inspiration looks like, it seems like I neglected a quite important detail till now: the period inspired fastening and its counterpart…
It is finally happening – this is my last posting concerning the “reinforcement of neckline stress points“. 🙂
In my most recent postings I introduced you to an old hand sewing technique which helps to provide “reinforcement for neckline stress points”. I also already posted about how I used a simple variation of this old hand sewing technique for the quite special 12th century inspired neckline for my husbands new grey tunic as well as for the slit neckline of my red 12th century silk dress…
Well, it seems like I am finally getting to the second to last posting about my current topic “reinforcement of neckline stress points”.
Let me recap my postings about this topic till now:
In my last posting I showed you an old hand sewing technique which provides great reinforcement for neckline stress points. And in the posting before the last one I posted pictures of how I used a variation of this technique for my husbands most recent tunic.
But let’s not stop at this point as I also used this technique for some other necklines…
In my last posting I showed you how I strengthened and secured the stress points of the neckline of my husbands new grey tunic. But before anyone starts to call this “Racaire’s neckline reinforcement technique”, I would like to point out that I simply found and revived an old hand sewing technique. I did not invent this technique myself – I simply found it in a very old book I own. 🙂
Well, I admit it, whenever I face a sewing or embroidery related problem, I tend to turn to my quite extensive book collection and take a look through my beloved books. In many cases one of my books offers a very good solution for my problem.
In my last posting “12th century tunic for my husband – spotting the stress points of a 12th century neckline” I showed you how to find and identify the most vulnerable points of your neckline – or “stress points”, how I tend to call them.
Most of the basic 12th century neckline styles – like a simple round or keyhole neckline – don’t really require any extra strengthening. Due to their lack of real stress points (round neckline) or because their only stress points get exposed to a little bit of extra tension from time to time (keyhole neckline), it is not really necessary to take extra action…
In my most recent postings I showed you my period inspiration for my husbands 12th century neckline as well as how the finished neckline looks like. And today I will tell you how to spot the stress points of your own neckline before I show you how to strengthen and secure them in my next posting.
In order to prevent problems like ripping fabric at the stress points of your neckline, I need to give you some more information about how to find the stress points of your 12th century neckline first so you can determine and strengthen them:
In my last posting – “12th century tunic for my husband – 12th century neckline inspired by the “blue Dalmatika” & “white Alba” – I showed you my period inspiration for the 12th century neckline for my husbands new tunic. And today I am going to show you the finished 12th century neckline.
Well, it took a while and quite some thinking but eventually I figured the cut out and made a good fitting 12th century neckline. This part of the 12th century tunic project was definitely not easy as I also wanted to incorporate a tablet woven band I made myself. Unfortunately tablet woven bands only stretch little and make it therefore not easy to be applied along round edges…
Continue reading