The birth of Franken-kirtle....

Well, after being a good girl and marking 20 assignments before starting my sewing, I was finally able to start working on the Franken-kirtle. YAY! I have to say, marking those 20 papers was a loooong 5 hours! And I have 50 more to finish by Thursday morning! *groan*

Anyway, this evening I got the layers cut out -- inner out of linen (softer against the skin), heavy canvas for the middle layer and duck/twill for the outer layer. (I'll post pictures tomorrow.)

Now, before someone argues that a corset wouldn't be worn against the skin, let me explain my logic.


It is frequently said in SCA circles that the corset would go on over the chemise as the chemise would protect the corset from body oils, sweat and grime. For Tudor and Elizabethan garb this may be true, but for my time period (1480-1530) Spanish, this logic poses a signifcant problem, as period paintings show the chemise (including wrinkles) through the lacing of front and back laced dresses. So then why wear a corset? These dresses show a GENTLE curve of the bust, and when you are built like Mae West...gentle curves are hard to come by without serious reinforcement!

I have a metal boned corset, but it doesn't allow the gentle curve. So, I have decided to make a corded corset that will hold everything up, firmly, while allowing the gentle curve.

My plan is to wear the corset next to my skin, hence the linen inner lining. Then wear my chemise, so that my garb has the right 'layering' effect. Eventually I plan to make a full black linen kirtle (of real linen and not the poly crap Ken and I found) that is both corded and acts as a farthingale, to wear under dresses that lace up the back or against my skin since the linen would be easily washable.

Anyhoo...the franken-kirtle, corset section is now cut out. I've worked out that 4 twisted strands of jute are my preferred boning for this version. Now I just have to find the time to mark out the channels at 1cm each. *groan* Short of putting in the boning, marking the channels it probably the longest part of this project. That said, now that I have one channel sewn, I'm thinking of just using the 1cm mark on the sewing machine, then I can get away without drawing the lines on.

It's a theory anyway.