French hood, the final steps.
I have some time, and my right knee is popping when bent or bending, which hurts, so I am sitting here typing instead of cleaning this room. So, I figured I would get the last bit of write up for the French hood so I can get the info out there on how it turned out. I will take photos tonight and upload it all on my web site.
Last I was reading in my memories for the f-hood, I had finished the base of the hood, thinking I would add a crescent, which then led to the whole research section for the f-hood, which led to the realization I don't need to add a crescent, then I quit doing much sewing since the base was finished except for the crimped gold and jeweled billiments.
So, catching up from there...
I took a length of gold organza, doubled and basted along one side. I then used the hair crimper I bought to crimp the gold organza into little fine pleats, using a medium-low temp, and sewed the organza along the inside curve of the hood. I then hand sewed the linen lining onto the inside of the hood, covering one edge of the organza. I then placed it on my head to see what it looked like, and it was not pretty.
The organza stood away from the head, which is not what the images looked like, so I took a closer look at the images and on a few I could see a line of stitching along the crimped gold, so I hand basted a line of thread using silk thread near the edge (although the images were more in the middle of the gold), and then put the hood back on and gently pulled up the thread so the gold organza pulled in closer to the head and bingo! that's exactly what I needed to make the organza lie properly and look good. I later tacked the thread ends down to hold the goffered gold in place. It isn't perfect in sitting around the head, but it works well enough. I then had a baby and other things in life went on...
Then, finally, over a year later I pulled the hood out from obscurity, and finished the hood. I first made up the black hood from silk taffeta, using a pattern from the Tudor Tailor book. I sewed it together by machine using a French seam, then hand sewed the bottom edge hem using silk thread. I then sewed it along the upper edge of the hood on the top side so that the entire backside is covered. While her instructions mention basting the edge to help ease it into place, I found I didn't need it. It is not gathered, pleated or in any way have more fabric than the minimum needed to cover the back. My hair in a ponytail easily fits inside the tube.
For the lower billiments I put pearls onto a brass wire then handsewed that into place using silk thread. Each pearl is caught into place along the inner edge above the gold goffering.
I had bought some time back some plastic golden beads that were big and looked similar to some of the images of gold worked beads, and using pearls to stretch the line of beads, I figured out how to use the various sizes and styles, put the beads onto the brass wire, and made up the upper billiments. I sewed those into place as well with silk thread. I allowed the lower ends to hang free.
And then it was done! And there was great rejoicing in having finished a project after a year of letting it sit.
I will get my husband to take photos of me in the hood tonight after the kids are in bed, and post them later.
Last I was reading in my memories for the f-hood, I had finished the base of the hood, thinking I would add a crescent, which then led to the whole research section for the f-hood, which led to the realization I don't need to add a crescent, then I quit doing much sewing since the base was finished except for the crimped gold and jeweled billiments.
So, catching up from there...
I took a length of gold organza, doubled and basted along one side. I then used the hair crimper I bought to crimp the gold organza into little fine pleats, using a medium-low temp, and sewed the organza along the inside curve of the hood. I then hand sewed the linen lining onto the inside of the hood, covering one edge of the organza. I then placed it on my head to see what it looked like, and it was not pretty.
The organza stood away from the head, which is not what the images looked like, so I took a closer look at the images and on a few I could see a line of stitching along the crimped gold, so I hand basted a line of thread using silk thread near the edge (although the images were more in the middle of the gold), and then put the hood back on and gently pulled up the thread so the gold organza pulled in closer to the head and bingo! that's exactly what I needed to make the organza lie properly and look good. I later tacked the thread ends down to hold the goffered gold in place. It isn't perfect in sitting around the head, but it works well enough. I then had a baby and other things in life went on...
Then, finally, over a year later I pulled the hood out from obscurity, and finished the hood. I first made up the black hood from silk taffeta, using a pattern from the Tudor Tailor book. I sewed it together by machine using a French seam, then hand sewed the bottom edge hem using silk thread. I then sewed it along the upper edge of the hood on the top side so that the entire backside is covered. While her instructions mention basting the edge to help ease it into place, I found I didn't need it. It is not gathered, pleated or in any way have more fabric than the minimum needed to cover the back. My hair in a ponytail easily fits inside the tube.
For the lower billiments I put pearls onto a brass wire then handsewed that into place using silk thread. Each pearl is caught into place along the inner edge above the gold goffering.
I had bought some time back some plastic golden beads that were big and looked similar to some of the images of gold worked beads, and using pearls to stretch the line of beads, I figured out how to use the various sizes and styles, put the beads onto the brass wire, and made up the upper billiments. I sewed those into place as well with silk thread. I allowed the lower ends to hang free.
And then it was done! And there was great rejoicing in having finished a project after a year of letting it sit.
I will get my husband to take photos of me in the hood tonight after the kids are in bed, and post them later.