Torso fitting

Last night was a good news/bad news kind of night.

Good News:  The torso is in one piece.

Bad News:  It doesn't fit.

Good News:  It's too big.

Bad News:  Fitting yourself is a bugger.

Good News:  I have extra fabric if I have to start again.

Bad News:  Not that much extra fabric.

Good News:  I'm not on a timeline.

Bad News:  I'm not on a timeline.

Tonight and tomorrow night I've got guests coming by and Friday night I have a friend's party to attend so I probably won't get anything more done on it until the weekend.  I think my next step will be to pull the torso apart completely, remove a layer of twill, and try again.

To do list:

• Check pattern fit
• Cut torso
• Wool
• Cotton
• Sew Torso
• Put torso together the first time.
• Pull torso apart.
• Put torso together the second time.
• Pull torso apart?
• Repeat?
• Cut torso guards
• Finish torso
• Apply guards
• Finish armscyes
• Add hooks and eyes
• Add lacing holes for sleeves
• Sort out sleeves
• Make a pattern
• Try it out
• Fix the pattern
• Try it again
• Make a new pattern
• Make it work
• Cut sleeves
• Cut main part of sleeves
• Cut decorative part of sleeves
• Sew sleeves
• Add decoration
• Sew together
• Add lacing holes
• Cut skirt
• Cut wool
• Cut checky fabric
• Cut skirt guards
• Apply guards to skirt
• Finish skirt
• Sew into tube
• Apply hem binding
• Attach skirt to torso
• Enter the cartridge pleating
• Figure out how the skirt band thing works?
• Add hook and eye to close the skirt opening
• Finish dress
• Sort out anything left over
• Contemplate hat

In closing, I leave you with this:

From Avenging Spider-Man #10

It begins...

Things which I have acquired for this project:

• 8 yards "Medieval Blue" wool
• 4 yards "Biking Red" wool
• 2 yards "Medieval Blue" cotton twill
• A couple packets of "Scarlet" binding for the hemline.
• Thread in various colors.

Biking Red and Medieval Blue

Where I'm at right now:

• I've checked the fit of my existing fitted torso pattern.
• Having made the necessary corrections to the pattern, I've cut out the torso pieces in both the wool and the cotton.

My torso pattern on the cotton twill

My plan for the week:

• Sew the torso together.
• Cut the guards for the torso.
• Start sorting out the sleeves.

The Captain part

Carol Danvers has been through a lot.  Recently, she set aside her Ms. Marvel moniker (and very uncomfortable looking leotard) and took up the mantle of Captain Marvel.  She's powerful, smart, and not particularly interested in your shit.  I love it.

Her uniform is a dark blue unitard with a red yoke trimmed with two yellow strips and a yellow star in the center front, red gloves with yellow buttons, red boots, and a red sash at her waist.  

The universe is not prepared for me in a unitard of any variety.  I promise.

Instead, I will be making a blue gown with red guards and sleeves in blue with red decoration and yellow piping.  To mimic the red yolk, I'm making a red gollar with yellow piping and a yellow star in center front.

I'm pretty stoked.

From Avenging Spider-Man #10

new Avengers OGN by Warren Ellis, Mike McKone and Jason Keith

About the project

So maybe this doesn't happen to you, but given that you're reading a blog about historical costuming, I'm guessing it does.  

Sometimes I get really excited about things and that's all I can focus on for a few days/weeks/months/years.  For the last decade my thing has been the SCA and historical costuming.  More recently, I've gotten back into comic books after a long absence.  And, as I am want to do, I have become a woman obsessed.  

One of my favorite books right now is Kelly Sue DeConnick's Captain Marvel,which is about as bad ass as a comic can be.  I mean really.  Look at this:

Terry Dodson's cover of Avenging Spider-Man #9

How could you not love that sass?! (And how could you not love Terry Dodson's art?)  If you're a comic book person and aren't reading CM, then you should check it out.

So we've established two things; one, I love sewing historical costumes, and two, I love Captain Marvel.  So, can you see where this is going next?

Captain Marvel as a Trossfrau.  It's going to be awesome.

A lot more awesome than this rough sketch, I promise!

A couple of shots of Trossfrauen in their natural environment.

Seated Woman - Albrecht Durer

 Detail Woman and Knaves -  Max Geisberg

CAVEAT LECTOR (or Lectrix):  I am by no means an expert on 16th Century German costume or history.  Much of what I offer is my observations, and could be entirely incorrect.  If you've found something that is so erroneous that you just can't take it, feel free to message me and I'll correct it.

Trossfrauen, lit. Baggage Train Women, were the women that went with the mercenary armies of Switzerland and later the Holy Roman Empire.  They followed the Swiss pikemen and Landsknechts all over hill and dale; cooking, cleaning, sewing, and so forth for the most feared mercenaries in Europe.  Like the Landsknecht, they wore distinctive clothing, though their garments were not as... unique (nor as leather-dependent) as their male fellows.  

The dresses of the Trossfrau share some distinct similarities with the clothing of working women from around Europe.  Typically, the layers consisted of a shirt, a skirt or petticote, a kirtle, and a gown.  Most of what I have read and seen seems to indicate that there was not a kirtle worn under the Trossfrau's gown, but my experience in this time period is *very* limited and would recommend anyone looking to me for guidance to do their own research on this subject.

The overriding theme of the Trossfrau's garment is "workability", these were hard wearing garments that needed to be worn in the heat, in the cold, along roads, in camps, in dust, and in mud, and be functional for work. These were not fine gowns for fine ladies, these were hard-working dresses for women who didn't have time for your shit.  This is not to say that women didn't put time into the detail of their gowns, or were wearing potato sacks, but the decoration does not appear to have limited the functionality of the garments to a great extent.

Trossfrau gowns were made of wool or linen.  Mine will be made of wool, lined in the torso with cotton twill.  My choice of materials is a combination of desire for historical accuracy and ease of acquisition. 

I'm planning on lacing my sleeves into the dress, for ease of fitting as well as ease of losing the sleeves when I get too hot (which will happen).  I'd like to find some evidence of this in images of Trossfrauen, but I'm not having a whole lot of luck on that front.  

Up next, the Captain part of Captain Trossfrau!