I’ve recently started thinking about the sewing-together part of this project. Thinking about logistics, I mean. By a happy coincidence, Laura brought her embroidered jacket as part of her show & tell this session. I mentioned that I’d been comparing the original paper pattern pieces to the tensioned embroidered ones and that some stretching has occurred. I wondered aloud how much “spring back” we’d have when all the pieces are cut out of the frames.

Laura, who has actually done quite a bit of this work herself, said she thinks most of the stretching/distortion will remain, because the stitching will help to hold the piece in that position, even when the lacing that ties the piece to the frame is gone.

This started an in-depth discussion of construction techniques and choices. I wish we’d started earlier in the day – this was just as we were cleaning up to go for supper, and all very hungry and Laura with a severe headache that couldn’t have been helped any by delaying her meal. Laura showed me her jacket and described how she put the pieces together, and Robbin and Jen, who were still there too, looked up photos in various books and helped compare details between the Laton jacket and jacket 1359-1900 (the embroidery pattern jacket).

Here is a detail of the inside of Laura’s jacket, showing the center back seam. Laura folded in and hemmed down the raw edge of the pieces before stitching the hemmed edges together with extremely tiny overcast stitches. (Does that make sense written that way? She turned in the edge of the embroidered back and hemmed it down; turned in the edge of the side that should be seamed to that piece and hemmed that down, then overcast the two together. Then she did the same with the linings for each piece. This detail shows the linen lining. Each half was hemmed and then the hemmed edges were stitched together.) You can see from the right side that she also chose to apply a braid of silk over the seams and around the edges of her jacket. The Laton jacket has embroidery over some of the seams (but not all), and of course has the lace trimming the edges; 1359-1900 doesn’t have embroidery over the seams.

Before we talked, I had already decided to sew a trial jacket, cut out of the same linen we’re embroidering, and sew it up with a silk lining. This will of course only be a distant approximation of the real thing, but it will allow me to practice setting in the gussets (more on that another time) and work out how the cuffs and collar should be sewn (among other questions I have) before I’m dealing with all the embroidery etc. In fact that was why I was comparing the paper pattern pieces to the embroidered pieces in the first place.

Yesterday I cut out the linen for this trial piece. I’m thinking about which, if any, other construction methods to try (aside from the one Laura used) and I’m also thinking about whether we should embroider over some of the seams. Mmm. More embroidery.

This is the first email from Justin, the Village interpreter and weaver who is making the blue silk lining for the jacket in conjunction with Kate of Eaton Hill Textile Works.

Here are some pictures of the current progress on the silk lining. See yesterday’s entry for a picture of the sample. I knew it was fine, but Justin mentioned in this email that it is 80 epi (that’s ends, or threads, per inch). That’s some pretty sharp weaving, but as you’ll see from this entry, just as tricky is handling those fine threads through all the pre-weaving steps. The italics are quotes from Justin’s email.

This photo is a bundle of indigo dyed silk skeins and antique spools. I reeled the skeins from the cones on a long reel where we could wind several at a time. The skeins were tied, scoured, and then hand dyed in an indigo vat by Kate. After much fussing, the skeins were separated and dried.

Now they need to be spooled for warping. The next is a picture of the head of the great wheel on which I’ll be spooling. The wheel is from the 18th century and has been passed down in my mother’s family from Hatfield, MA. It seems quite early based on the turnings, iron rings on the posts, wooden axle, and drawknife-worked wheel post.

In this next picture, I’m using another spindle to run the silk over and onto the spool being wound, so as to prevent any cut fingers from the thread.

This last shot is of the swift and skein clamped to the woodbox and the wheel and spool beyond.

In addition to his interpreting and weaving skills, Justin’s a pretty nifty photographer. At least a couple of these, which he took at his home in Rhode Island, look like they were set up at a historic house museum for a magazine article.

Boy do I love this blog. I couldn’t find my notes on how much gold thread we needed and then remembered that we blogged about it! Sometimes you might read the blog and wonder why we go through all this detail and mindless calculations. Well, this is a perfect example. Not only did I find my answer, but also my estimation calculations and so I had confidence in the number.

1000 meters. Quite a bit of gold. Our friends at Au Ver a Soie found a cone of silk in a dark gold that fit Bill’s requirements. It is due to arrive here in the US this week and then it is off to England for a second spinning trial. Please don’t ask why this multiple ocean hopping is necessary, it really is the most efficient way at this point with all the language, currency, and industry differences. Trust me, I wish it were easier too.

When we did the stitching trials, I felt that the experimental thread was just slightly thicker than the No. 5 passing size that seemed to work a little better. We were willing to abandon the silk core but Bill really wants to give it one more try. He will reduce the number of ends of silk that are in the core from three to two. We will see if that makes it flexible and a bit thinner – but not too thin. Stay tuned!

Tricia

I got up this morning and found that my inbox was very, very full! I hadn’t had my caffeine yet and so it took a minute to register that Susan North (Curator at V&A) had been generous with her time and photographed motifs that I was having difficulty figuring out stitch direction and other details. Thank you Susan! What a treat and so valuable.

I bring this up as I saw something that was very interesting. On many of the motifs there were dark areas where it looked as if a silver thread had been used to make one small stitch. When magnified, I laughed. It was where the Gilt Sylke Twist (the real 17th century version!) had broken the metal wrap and it had piled up on itself as the stitch was made. In their case, they had used a very thin silver strip (visit our December blogs to see why we used a gilt wire) and so it looked like a pile-up of silver. So I guess the professional didn’t waste his (her??) time taking out those areas to fix them as we have been doing. Hmmm, maybe we can pick up some speed here!

I love these little details – seeing the same mistakes that we make really means we are on the right track. I am happy that we waited for these pictures to start motifs such as the bird, as I saw details in the tails that we didn’t pick up from earlier photos. Now I have to change the directions for them as there are more stitches used in the tail than we could earlier discern.

Tricia

I included the photo of Tricia’s first embroidery with the Gilt Sylke Twist. On the lower right corner you can see where the wire snapped and piled up. In an earlier comment, Tricia mentioned she hadn’t noticed the snag until she got much further along, but now the new information makes it look like a more exact recreation of the original. Gotta love that.
Jill