15th Century Doublet Project - Part Ye Fifthe
Lining a doublet like this serves a couple of purposes.
First, a linen lining keeps yucky body stink off the nice, sploofy wool. Second, it adds structure to the garment.
The pattern instructions for RH003 - Men's 15th Century Doublet and Hosen - tells how to line the Doublet in two ways.
The modern way is to bag-line the Doublet by essentially making a second Doublet body and sewing it into place along the edges. The historical way is to stitch the Lining Body pieces to the outer-material Body pieces along the outer-material Body seams.
I did the latter.
At left is an image of part-way through the process. The Tabs were lined before attachment (see Parte ye Seconde). The Lining Body pieces will overlap the seams where the Tabs and Collar attach.
The Body Back pieces have yet to be added, and the Tab on the right is folded under the Body; serves me right for not paying attention to that before I snapped the piccy.
At right is an image of the lining seam where it covers the Tab seam. Pretty neat stitching, huh?
I have to admit, I'm a little full of myself with the stitching on this project (remember this; it'll come back to bite me). In my last Project Blog series, my stitching was pretty crude and I didn't really pay attention to seam allowances. In this Project, I'm specifically trying to do the best stitching I can. I'm also being very careful to maintain the 5/8" seam allowances Kass mandates in all our patterns.
It's hard! Sometimes I lose track, or stitch through something inadvertently - I stitched closed the wrist opening on one Sleeve, TWICE - but I'm rather insufferably proud of the neat, little stitching you can barely see in the made-for-Teh-Intarwebz image at right.
After what seemed an endless exercise in tiny-stitching tedium, the Lining was entirely installed, around the armscyes and everything. I'm sorry to say I goofed and made wrinkly one area of one armscye, where I let the linen "walk" on me (see the last Project Blog where I learnt all about fabric "walking"). But Kass tells me that'll iron out, so I'm not terribly concerned.
Oh, yeah - I didn't finish the front edges - where the closures will go - because those were cut a little large to give some "fudge factor". Look left; see?
All done!
Or so I thought...
Now look at these images. Gaze upon the horror of hubris, children. This is what happens when you get too cocky and think you're such a fan-flippin'-tastic period tailor that you can just sew it up and it'll be perfect.
Something has gone terribly wrong, hasn't it? Kass has diagnosed it - the sleeves. The lower sleeves are too short and too tight. That's pulling the puffs off the shoulders, which prevents the body from settling properly.
Remember when I first made the Sleeves and pulled them on over my arm and held 'em in place? I was sooooooo proud, because they looked soooooo perfect. Take a look back at the previous entries.
Ass.
Turns out I had them in the wrong place; I should have taken more time at that point, made 100% certain they were correct, before moving on. I should have realized they were too bleedin' small. They're so small they're getting stuck on my massive biceps, preventing the upper part of the sleeves from settling properly over the point of my shoulder. The puffy bits are actually over my biceps.
I mean, look at the neck! It's like I deliberately made it seven sizes too big.
Sigh.
So the sleeves are going to have to come off. I have to hope like hell I've got enough of the green wool left over to cut longer, fuller lower sleeves.
Frankly, friends, I'm rather heartbroken, frustrated and sick of looking at it. I feel like I've done all this work for naught. All because I rushed, rushed, rushed instead of taking my time and making sure everything fit right the first time.
Le sigh. That'll learn me.
Stay tuned for future updates. We're gearing up for a big event in Mississippi (but I can still spell, dammit! I didn't even have to look that up! /smug), so I can't promise when the next update will be. But it's coming! I'm gonna solve this if it kills me.
Until then, my little droogies, I remain
Yr Obt Svt,
Bob