Henrician Skirt dress diary
I spent last night working on the Henrician skirt, putting on the last of the trim, and many, many, many yards of cord along both edges of the trim. Hmmm... rough estimate, about 31 yards of cording. Yeah, it's a big skirt at about 7 yards wide.
I am trying out a new (to me) technique of conspicuous consumption in the style of the skirt, and making it from lots of rectangular material, roll pleated into the waistline. So far, preliminary results show that the bottom edge is flaring into almost figure 8 pleats nicely (especially with the cording), while the upper pleated area will be tighter, looking a lot like Henry's image (and the statue of the Spanish lord). I have no idea if this is how it was done, but I've been wanting to imitate that peculiar pleated skirt look found in Henry's images, Spanish styles, and especially in German waffenrocks, but without the heavy padding & tape seen in the one extant base. While I know that would work, heavy padding just isn't a good thing for California weather. That and I don't want to quilt the whole skirt.
And I have no tips on how to sew cording with lingerie thread, as it gave me lots of headaches last night. It would get caught on one of the threaders on the machine, or pop off those threaders, causing it to bunch up under the fabric. I had lots of starts and stops with it. While I would rather hand sew the cording into place, I don't have the luxury of time, and that would take a lot of time, at least a week, considering the amount of cording.
And my machine sorely needs a tuneup. It is skipping stitches on a regular basis now. I hope it holds out just a little bit longer. I thankfully have two backup machines if something should happen.
I am trying out a new (to me) technique of conspicuous consumption in the style of the skirt, and making it from lots of rectangular material, roll pleated into the waistline. So far, preliminary results show that the bottom edge is flaring into almost figure 8 pleats nicely (especially with the cording), while the upper pleated area will be tighter, looking a lot like Henry's image (and the statue of the Spanish lord). I have no idea if this is how it was done, but I've been wanting to imitate that peculiar pleated skirt look found in Henry's images, Spanish styles, and especially in German waffenrocks, but without the heavy padding & tape seen in the one extant base. While I know that would work, heavy padding just isn't a good thing for California weather. That and I don't want to quilt the whole skirt.
And I have no tips on how to sew cording with lingerie thread, as it gave me lots of headaches last night. It would get caught on one of the threaders on the machine, or pop off those threaders, causing it to bunch up under the fabric. I had lots of starts and stops with it. While I would rather hand sew the cording into place, I don't have the luxury of time, and that would take a lot of time, at least a week, considering the amount of cording.
And my machine sorely needs a tuneup. It is skipping stitches on a regular basis now. I hope it holds out just a little bit longer. I thankfully have two backup machines if something should happen.