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Challenges Entered: Planning Stages, Plan Your Project, Two Manuals Enter, One Paper Leaves
Projects: Elevation Cloak, Elevation Outfit, “You’ll Have to Toss Me”: Two approaches to fencing with sword and cloak
Plan Your Project- Elevation Cloak
Project Blog Post: https://timetravelerswardrobe.wordpress.com/2021/02/02/mod-cloak-for-magistra-lilias-de-cheryngton/
Original garment: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O358300/cloak-unknown/
Cloak Design: My plan had been to make a half-length cloak, incorporating both the recipient’s heraldry (vert, a crequier within a bordure embattled argent), and the heraldry of the Order of Defense. One of my initial design sketches featured the same embattled border as the final version, and three rapiers, running almost the entire length of the cloak, from hem to collar, interspersed with two crequiers of similar scale. I wanted to offer several design options, but I think the more subtle version was preferable to this one.
Fabric selection: I knew I wanted to use a green damask, since he original piece was made with a red silk damask, and green would match the recipient’s heraldry. I was willing to stretch the price range on fabric a bit, since I knew that based on the dimensions of the cloak (half length, rather than full length) and my plan to piece it together as needed (even if not in the exact same way as the original), I wouldn’t have to buy a lot of yardage to complete this project.
I looked at and ordered swatches of several fabrics. I was hesitant about the cotton damask from Renaissance Fabrics at first, thinking there must be something even better out there, but after comparing it to the options for silk damasks, decided it was the correct choice. Some of the silk damasks I found online would put my astronomically over budget, even for a single yard. The swatches I ordered from Sartor weren’t quite right for this because the size of the design woven into the damask was much smaller than what I could see on the original, and the contrasting colors, while lovely on their own, wouldn’t pair well with the applique elements I was planning on adding.
Patterning: Even though we are now fortunate enough to have access to much wider fabrics than what would have been used in period, I would still have to some amount of piecing the cloak together. I initially thought about cutting it as six equal wedge shapes, based on the impression created by the lines of decorative stitching running from collar to hem on the original. Then I considered cutting it as a half-circle, and then a quarter-circle, and piecing together that way. Both of those approaches just felt wrong, and inconsistent with my idea of the original construction. I tried to think of the approach as I understood it from the original piece, and this is how I arrived at cutting the largest piece that I could fit onto the fabric that I had, and adding another small piece to fill in the missing corner.
Applique trials: I knew I was making some exciting life choices when I decided to use satin in this project, so it wasn’t surprising that it took a few trials to figure out how to adapt the embroidery and applique designs from the original piece to the needs of this project. My first trial involved basting some satin to a piece of linen, then working the outline of the crequier in silver thread using a simple backstitch. When that was done, I cut out the crequier and basted it to a piece of the green damask, and then used several different thicknesses of green embroidery thread, matching the damask, to follow outside the line of silver thread and try to replicate the effect achieved on the original piece, where the gold-embroidered applique pieces were outlined in red, matching the background fabric color, to blend the edges of the applique piece into the background fabric. This also achieves a lovely three-dimensional effect. I did run into some issues with this approach though: I had cut out the linen-backed satin crequier piece with too wide of a margin outside the silver embroidery (it was a tricky thing to do, because I was worried about the fabric edges fraying) so that even using the thickest green outline, I still had a significant amount of white showing up to the outside of it. I tried trimming this edge with embroidery scissors but still couldn’t completely get rid of the line of white to the outside of the green outline.
Based on this I decided to take a completely non-period shortcut, which would both save time and reduce the amount of fraying at the edges - instead of first basting the satin to a linen backing, I used an iron-on adhesive as the backing for the satin applique pieces. This would allow me to adjust the width of the border of the applique pieces as needed, without worrying about fraying.
I knew I wanted a silver accent on the satin applique pieces, and for the crequiers, doing an outline seemed like a fairly obvious choice (given my mediocre-at-best embroidery skills). However when working on the rapiers that made up the MoD symbol, I kept wanting to experiment with adding extra details. I would start with the backstitched outline, then try adding another line of stitching down the center of the blade, and this would inevitably turn into an attempt to depict the full swept-hilt guard, grip, and pommel. There are people who could do this well but I am not yet one of them. Despite several attempts (including an experiment with couching down a slightly heavier silver thread), I was not happy with the results of any of them. I also found that the single line of backstitching would sometimes get lost after the heavier green outline was added. This is what led me to the method I ended up using - couching down a silver braid that I had made from the same silver embroidery thread.
It took me several trials to figure out how I wanted to attach the embattled border. Since the sword and crequier pieces would only appear along the front opening of the cloak, I wanted to have at least one element going all the way around, as a call back to the original piece. I didn’t think I would have enough time to attach the border in the same way as I did the other applique pieces - with iron on stabilizer as a backing, with a row of chain stitch to blend it into the background fabric. I tried a more traditional applique stitch, but wasn’t happy with the results - the lines didn’t look as clean as I wanted them to. I experimented with adding a linen backing, both to stabilize the satin, and, in theory, create a cleaner outline for me to stitch down (with the satin and linen stitched together right side to right side, and then turned inside out). This ended up being more work than I’d expected, for a result that wasn’t really worth it - there was still more fraying, especially at the corners.
The Planning Stages Challenge - Elevation Outfit
Full Project Blog post: https://timetravelerswardrobe.wordpress.com/2019/03/11/elevation-outfit/
When planning this project, I knew I wanted to use the doublet pattern based on the drafting instructions described in The Modern Maker, Vol 1. I would also be referencing the suit worn by Sir Rowland Cotton, as described in 17th Century Men’s Dress Patterns, for some of the decorative elements, particularly the slashing.
Since I would be working from several different sources for the construction, I came up with a way to track the steps in the process without having to flip through both books at once (even though I did end up referring to the books quite a lot as I went along). It started as a way to keep track of which pieces I needed to cut from which fabric (since this was different from what each book suggested - I had two layers of silk, but unlike the example I was working from, only one of them would be slashed through, so the second layer was acting as the interlining, or "canvas") and ended up as a checklist of steps to get me to the finished project (presented here in its mostly-unedited glory):
Slashed doublet steps
Make Buttons (30?)
Cutting
Canvas (gold silk) - pinking shears
Outer (blue silk) - pinking shears
Lining (linen) - regular scissors
Use pattern weights to trace, pin layers of fabric together to cut
(DONE)Cut outer, leaving in pins
(SKIPPED)Use outer to trace canvas pieces
(DONE)Front canvas should be cut ½” bigger than outer
(DONE)Cut lining for sleeves and skirts using outer/canvas stacks
(DONE)Back lining - drop waist by ⅜”, remove collar, add ¼” at center of back seam (not top or bottom pg 43.)
(DONE)Front lining - open underarm by ½”, raise bottom of arm hole by ⅜”, drop waist by ⅜”
(DONE)Collar lining - trace around collar pieces to create one pattern piece
(DONE) Collar and skirt lining should be done in gold fabric???
(DONE)Cut layer of linen for epaulettes
(DONE)Cut layer of linen for collar pieces
(DONE)Cut linen lacing strip
Slashing
Pin slash pattern to outer pieces, slash (this will create mirror image)
(DONE) Collar, skirts, epaulettes
(DONE)Sleeves
(DONE)Back
(DONE)Front
Assembly
(DONE) Make a 3-4” cut in the canvas halfway between armhole notch and shoulder point. (DONE) Open by 1” and sew in small rectangle of fabric.Trim excess.
(DONE) Attach button reinforcement strip to left side, pad stitch in place
(DONE) Steam and stretch armhole (¾” if possible)
(DONE) Baste front outer to canvas (pg 91)
(DONE) Press gently
(DONE) Trim excess canvas
(DONE) Steam to stretch shoulder and neck
(DONE) Pin and baste remaining pieces around the edges
(DONE) Assemble collar pieces, pick stitch seam allowances open
(DONE) Attach collar to neckline, basting and then sewing. Clip neckline side before pick stitching open
(DONE) Sew center back seam
(DONE) Sew side back seams
(DONE) Attach front skirts to back skirts, then add lining
(DONE) Baste skirts onto body, then attach
(DONE) Create eyelet lacing strip (¾ of the total waist length by 2”)
(DONE) Baste in place, centered on back seam and sew in and press
(DONE) Left front facing - use gold silk. Baste in place
(DONE) Use gold silk bias strip to bind front edges
(DONE) Buttonholes
Lining
(DONE) Sew back pieces together
(DONE) Baste center back seam to body (except top and bottom 3”)
(DONE) Sew in at waist
(DONE) Baste sides
(DONE) Sew in left front lining first
(DONE) Right front lining
(DONE) Baste then sew shoulder seam
(DONE) Pad stitch canvas to collar
(DONE) Bind top edge of collar
(DONE) Sew in collar lining
(DONE) Attach body lining to collar lining
Sleeves
(DONE) Sew inner and outer sleeves together
(DONE) Clip sleeve 5” up from bottom
(DONE) Turn up and press ½” on out-sleeve
(DONE) Create facing in gold silk - entire 5” width
(DONE) Make buttonholes (3 each?)
(DONE) Sew up the other side of the sleeve
(DONE) Trim lining to match facing and sew in
(DONE) Attach lining to outer sleeve’s seam allowance
(DONE) Bind bottom of the sleeve in gold silk
(DONE) Baste lining to exterior at the top
(DONE) Press epaulettes in half and baste closed
(DONE) Baste epaulette to sleeve
(DONE) Baste sleeve into armhole
(DONE) Sew in sleeve
(DONE) Finish armhole lining with sewn in strips of linen
(DONE) Attach buttons
Pants
Cut Lining - Fronts, backs, Fly (DONE) Waistband, Legbands,, Pockets
Cut Blue - Fronts (need to be slightly longer at top), backs, Waistband, Legbands, Fly, (DONE) Pockets
(DONE) Cut Gold - Fronts, backs
(DONE) Cut Interfacing - Waistband, Legbands, fly
(DONE) Sew together lining
(DONE) Slashing on blue outer
(DONE) Flatline blue outer and gold interlining
(DONE) Back Seam
(DONE) Pockets (13 x 15 linen, 15 x 6 silk)
(DONE) Side Seams - leave open 4” from bottom
(DONE) Make and attach fly
(DONE) Buttonhole side is reinforced
(DONE) Inseams
(DONE) Make Waistband
(DONE) Gather waist of pants
Buttonholes
(DONE) Make Leg bands
(DONE) Leg band
(DONE) Buttons and buttonholes
(DONE) Attach laces to waistband
Two Manuals Enter, One Paper Leaves: “You’ll Have to Toss Me”: Two approaches to fencing with sword and cloak
Marozzo’s Opera Nova was first published in 1536. Ghisliero’s Regole di molti cavagliereschi essercitii (Rules of many knightly exercises) was published in 1587. Despite being published around 50 years apart, they share some of the same approaches to fencing. Ghisliero’s technique indicates an evolution from the Bolognese style that Marozzo teaches, while still being in the transitional period to the styles of later and more well known Italian masters (Capoferro, Fabris, etc).
I will be focusing on each of their respective chapters on the topic of fighting with sword and cloak. This is both for ease of comparison, and because as far as I’m aware, there is no published version of Ghisliero’s work currently available, so I’m making my own at home, and that is a fairly time-consuming process. Also despite studying Marozzo for close to a year now, I’ve still only managed a partial reading - getting through the full text is more of a long-term goal.
Full Paper: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-gUNKLflSca9L9m5UQn-ax9BjH3b7_OcER5V0fqetmA/edit?usp=sharing
Ghisliero Translation work: https://sites.google.com/view/ghisliero-project/home/sword-and-cloak
Image: https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Regole_di_molti_cavagliereschi_essercitii_(Federico_Ghisliero)#/media/File:Ghisliero_25.jpg
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