Showing posts with label Garb. Show all posts

The second garment we learned to make in class is the Viking Apron dress. Actually, it's called a hangerock. An apron might go over the outside of this outer garment. Your Viking dress would go on over an undertunic, as did just about anything worn in the middle ages. Here is the recap of what Marsali taught, in my words!

She mentioned that the "right" colors for this, by the way, would be off white, white (it could have been bleached), a golden color, or blue (dyed with woad) because that's the colors linen would have come in, and it wouldn't hold dye in other colors. Of course wool could be dyed in other colors but linen was most common.

Measurement:
1) Measure yourself, all the way around, at your widest part. Add 3 inches to that (that's your seam allowance). This is the size of your starting piece of fabric. Cut that.
2) Now, to determine the size of the front panel part, ladies come up from your chest area just a bit and then make it wide enough to cover modestly, and that's the front width. Measure how wide that is and add 1 inch (which gives you seam allowance, a half inch, on each side). Cut that.
3) The remainder of the fabric you'll cut exactly in half, vertically. One of those panels is the back.
4) The other panel you'll cut into diagonals and use as the gores.


Sew one gore to the left, and one to the right, of your front panel. If using linen sides don't matter.


Now repeat for the back.

Now sew those together. When you're sewing one of the gores in, stop when you have a half inch of the top of the fabric left. That's the seam allowance when you go up the other side.
Add a thin strap over each shoulder.

Bling it and done! Not all Vikings would have worn all the bling, but hey, in the SCA we can all be a Princess, right? "Assumed minor nobility!"

This is a sub-post with Marsali showing us a little bonus - how to make a keyhole neck interfacing for your tunics, in my words as captured from class:

Make your facing as such:

Cut out a rectangular-ish piece of fabric.

Use the neckhole template you  made in the last post, and cut out a second piece of fabric like this. This can be some pretty/decorative fabric if you want it to go on the outside later.

Now lay them them together, with the right sides together, and pin.

Then sew! Make sure you sew really close together down this part, in two lines.

Cut out the neck hole. Also cut the slit down between the two lines you made, very carefully.


Now you need to cut the ease around the middle ring so that when you turn this inside out, it will lay smooth and pretty.


Now flip the top piece out, like this.


You can do one of two things, here. Put some decorative trim over the raw edge of your facing and sew it down.  Or turn it under and sew it down.


Alternately this can be the inside/backside of the facing. Whatever you prefer.

Every time I take a class, I pick up something new, even if I've learned the same topic in the past. This month's A&S class night at the barony was no different. I have learned how to sew a tunic before, and even a Viking "apron" dress, but I learned a lot more this time!

I learn and remember best by trying to save my notes as if to teach someone else so as I typically do, I am regurgitating what I learned here, both for myself, and for you. ;)

1) First, Mistress Marsali taught us how to make a Norse Sark. Basically this means a shirt.

Everything here was done in rectangular form, so you start with a big rectangle of fabric. The width is as follows: measure widest part of your body, divide by half, and add 4 inches. (This allows 3 inches of room, plus a one-half inch seam allowance on both sides.)

(The sad sketch below is supposed to be a rectangle of fabric, folded over in half. The neck hole would go at the top.)

The length is one long rectangle, like I mentioned. You make it as long as you want it to be. You'll want to fold this nice, long rectangle in half and mark the shoulder and the neck hole. -- We'll get to that neck hole shaping later.


Now you'll cut out the sleeves. For the length of the sleeves, measure from the "arm's eye" to your wrist, and add 2 inches. The arm's eye is the biggest part around your armpit to your shoulder, basically. The biggest part. (This makes sense if you look at where sleeves are inset in other (even mundane) garments you own...)

The width of this sleeve is the widest part of your hand (with your hand extended) (because you'll want to be able to get your shirt over your hands!) plus 1 inch for seam allowance.

Gussets go into the armpits. Marsali had a much more elegant method for installing gussets than what I have done in the past. You -gasp- plan for them, and insert them as your're sewing, not rip open the armpit of an existing shirt and add it after the fact! :)



Gores go into the sides. Make sure these go from the waist, to the end hem. When you sew in the gore, leave a 1/2 inch seam allowance at the top end, for when you sew down the other side. This is what makes it lay down nicely without puckering!


On the neck, you don't need facing in shirts. Tunics however were typically faced. But see the next post for facing if you want that neat keyhole look. This can be more comfortable for some.

For the neck hole. Take a tape measure and measure around the wearer's neck. Now draw out an oval on a piece of scrap fabric, as wide across as their neck was around, to make a neck template. Mark the shoulders, and the middle at the top/bottom. Notice how the neckhole is offset just a bit down past the center mark, and is not perfectly centered on the shoulders. That's because the neck hole on a garment comes down lower on shirts in the front than it does in the back and this is how you shape that.


Now you can put your neck template on the fabric where you marked the shoulders, and cut out the neck hole.
Sew up the garment pieces.
You can see here how first she attached the sleeves to the rectangle (this is when the gussets go in).

Next the sleeves would get stitched together.

Sew in the gores while stitching the body together.

Cut out the neck hole. Finish off the neck. (If you want to put facing in this garment to finish off the neck, I'll show you how she did that in the next post.)

Hem up all the raw edges.

So, you'd like to add a spiffy neckline to your tunic without using bias tape.  OK, Let's Go!

First you need to cut out a piece of fabric larger than the size of the neck hole opening in the tunic.

It can help to put some pins down to hold the neck hole open.

You can use dressmaker's chalk to help you mark the opening, then cut a few extra inches beyond that.
***See bottom for my alternate paper method.

Now all you need to do is flip that insert into the tunic, and you're done! You can stitch the insert down on the outside if you'd like.




***If you don't have any chalk, you can try the paper method. Lay down the neck opening over a piece of paper, and trace the circle.  Cut out the circle.

Do you know what gussets are?

No? They're little square pieces of fabric that insert into the armpit of a shirt/tunic/etc to give that area more room. These are really handy in men's wear, and especially fighting garb, so it has more "give" and won't be as likely to overstretch right there and bust a seam.  Also it's more comfortable to wear.

Yes! I already know what it is now, and I'd love to have some!  Where do I start?

To put gussets in to a garment that's already made, first you'll need to tear out the seams on the inside.


Cut out a square of fabric to sew in.


Lay open the square, and place the fabric square over the hole (turned sideways it looks a bit like a diamond) so it lines up with the hole you've made. See?





That's it! You're done.

So, you need some basic garb/costume clothing for the SCA! I can help you get a start on that. If you're ready to start making a few things of your own, I think a few basic T-Tunics are the perfect start.

First of all, you can check out the Known World Handbook for lots of handy patterns.
Second, you can also check the SCA's Chatelaine resources for newcomers for some links to sites with handy patterns. http://www.sca.org/officers/chatelain/newcomers.html
The one I am mainly going to model this post after is on the Introduction to Garb link, under "The Quicker Method -- with wide modern fabric" section.

If you can find a comfy t-shirt that fits loosely, you can use it as a guide to make your first tunic! (After that, you can use a tunic that fits well as your template for as many as you want!).
Just cut around it, leaving room for your seam allowance. Remember, it's better to be a bit loose than it is tight.

Take your fabric and lay it down flat. It really needs to be washed first, and ironed is preferable if it is wrinkled at all. If you're like me you will mentally balk over this at first, but trust me. Just do it.  It will save you hassle later when things don't work out right. It's so much easier to do while the fabric is nice and flat already anyway.

Next, you will cut it out to sew.

One method I used was to trace around the tunic or shirt (actually, a nightgown was my first) with dressmaker's chalk, and that was my line to sew on. You cut out the front and the back pieces and stitch them together.

 Or, just cut the fabric out, plus the extra room for the hem allowance. If you leave a 3/4" allowance, just be sure to come in 3/4" from the outside of the fabric as you sew.



Hem up your bottom hem,sleeves, and if you like, you can just add some bias tape around the neckline for a super easy finish off!  Now, if you want to, you can add some fancy trim around the sleeves and bottom. If you want to wait until you learn some simple embroidery stitches, you can make it look fancy that way too.

Want to know how to do a fancier neckline than the bias tape? Stay tuned for the next posting... we will learn together!

PS, I like this PDF.
http://snowplow.org/sarah/pers/SCA/tunics_stepbystep.pdf


SEE ALSO:

Making a Spiffy Tunic Neckline

Installing Gussets

1. Measure the fighter.  IN armor.

Measure all the critical points first to know how big to cut your fabric for sewing.
The neck should go over the unarmored head and neck so it doesn't have to be armored for measuring.

2. How to cut the fabric for the tunic.It's all in the fold.


Holding it as if it was a sheet of paper, the tall part up and down,

First fold the fabric downwards like this
Then fold it across like this, left to right.
Now you can cut out the shape! 
But first we must get some measurements before we start cutting....
For this tunic it was 13 inches here.  Seam allowance added!  Remember there will be 2 edges of fabric you're sewing on, and the hem will occupy additional space, so add in your seam preference x 2!  So if you are used to leaving 1/2 inch between the edge of the fabric and where you're sewing, you'd add an extra inch! VERY important!  Use a seam gauge to see how far away from the edge of the fabric you sewing.
So for this tunic, that was 13.5, including the seam allowance amount.
If you don't add extra inches for seam allowances, the tunic will be smaller than you measured it for!  This is very important!

5. Unfold it

6. Sew it up - stop sewing at the split, if your slits will be on the sides.  If not, then just keep sewing, and cut your slit on the front and back after you've sewn.

7. Hem the slits and the bottom.


8. Finish your neck.

Just make a square, hem in the edges, then sew it down over the slit.