Last week, I started making my outer caftan. You can read about it here. Today, we start quilting. The caftan isn’t rectangular like a quilt, and I didn’t have enough fabric to quilt it before I cut it. So I was going to have to figure out how to do it elsewise. I contemplated basting… Continue Reading
Okay, I’m beyond late with this. I admit it. Why? Because sleeves are a pain in the ass. See, there’s this very, very distinctive way the Early Modern Irish tended to put sleeves onto garments. You see it all over the place, from the Kilcommon Jacket to the Tipperary Coat. The Killery Coat has it,… Continue Reading
Over the years, I have I’ve made a number of different Turkish outfits. But I’ve never made a fully-blown formal outfit with all the associated layers. My friend in Chicago invited me to a 16th century 12th Night celebration and it seemed like the perfect occasion for a complete Ottoman Turkish wardrobe. I usually begin… Continue Reading
…and a little more about the body, which we discussed last time. So the rectangles which make up the body are now on my dress dummy. The shoulder “seams” are pinned into place. Well, I say place. We’re still futzing with it. Because in the interest of keeping this as simple as Kass thinks the… Continue Reading
The bog was dark and desolate. The wind off Lough Gill was bitter, bringing the earthy reek of peat, and piercing through the wool of your father’s coat to chill your bones. You turned, put the view of Parke’s Castle to your back, nothing more than it deserved, built as it was on the bones… Continue Reading
No, not the body on which the garment was found, you morbid corpse-watchers. The body of the Coat itself. This week’s installment looks at the main pieces of the Coat. In the Introduction, we discussed briefly the historical data on record about the Killery outfit. To recap, Dunleavy in Dress in Ireland posits that the Killery… Continue Reading
In 1824, a suit of clothes was found six feet deep in a bog in the parish of Killery, County Sligo, in Ireland. Before we go any further, it’s pronounced “KILL-er-ee,” not “kill-AIR-ee,” which I learned to my great shame after a decade saying “kill-AIR-ee.” Take it from me, children: Go to someone who lives… Continue Reading
Have you ever seen a picture of something you would love to make and wear, but you don’t know where to get a pattern for it? In this series, I will teach you how to pick a good base pattern and modify it to make the garment of your dreams. The first step is to… Continue Reading
Last week we told you Why Your Pattern Doesn’t Work and I’m afraid we blamed it all on you. In my IT days we used to call that “Operator Error”. But there are some ways you can increase your chance of success with a pattern. Here are our top five. Always Make a Mockup No… Continue Reading
We’ve all done it. You’re in a hurry to make something new. So you buy a pattern, cut it out, run it up on your machine, and then it doesn’t fit. It’s so frustrating. Those damn Pattern Companies! Why can’t they make a pattern that works?! Well, as a pattern user and a pattern maker,… Continue Reading