Medieval Dress Sew-Along (Part 3)

Seam finishing on the blue dress (which looks rather gray in photos)!  And at the end of the day, I think I still, inescapably, approach this with a modern clothing mindset. But the finished result is pretty, strong, and it does mimic period construction, after a fashion. So here we go!

After I posted the other parts of the Sew-Along, a friend of mine sent me a screen-cap of the finished side of this set of seams, saying only, "This is sexy." So this is for her.

What you need to know before we really begin is that 1) the shoulder seams are already finished. That happened back during construction. So that will not be covered here. 2) All of these seams are flat felled. Here's a more in-depth tutorial on what that actually means. 3) Some of these can be done in literally any order. Want to do your godets first? Go for it! I did. Want to do them last? Rock on. Some of them, though, need to be done in a particular order. 4) I'm left handed! That may be useful information. If you are right handed, and literally try to sew in the direction that I'm sewing, in photos, it'll probably be uncomfortable. 5) Something I didn't do, something I almost never do, but something which is nevertheless quite helpful to do: IRON all your seams before you start. This won't seem intuitive. But turn the garment inside out, spread your seam allowance open, and press it. It helps, I promise.

Front and back Godets (sometimes called Gores)

Tiny little photo series on the actual process I'm doing, if you don't want to click on the link above:

My back godet is set in a seam, while my front godet is set in a slit. Let's do the back first. We're going to accomplish this in two steps. I want both seams to be felled in the same direction. Notch one side of your back panel seam allowance, where it meets the point of the godet. (Also trim off any top seam allowance you had on your godet, just above the stitching.) Trim the lower portion of that side panel seam allowance down, and fell it away from the center of the dress.

Did that sound like gibberish? This is a photo of the seams meeting (and after completing all the steps above.) The left side seam allowance has been notched at that point, trimmed down (in this case, I trimmed it all the way up, too.) And then I used the seam allowance of the godet to fell the seam, away from the godet.

But do you see, also in the photo above, how my other body panel seam allowance is still intact? And it runs all the way from the neck to the hem. I've trimmed down the unfinished side of the godet, and that and the back seam are all going to get finished in one long stretch, by felling over the body panel seam allowance. It looks like this when it's done. The second seam finish covers all the raw bits at the very top of the first. Everything is encased.

That was really easy! I promise.

Now let's look at the front, set in a slit. Remember how I said to add seam allowance to the top of that one? Don't trim that off! We need it. The seam allowance of our body panels, at the slit, grades down to nothing. So we can't use that to fell anything. We have to fell the entire godet to the outside. I literally like to start from the hem on one side, work all the way up, finish the point, and then work my way back down. The point really is the tricky part, but here's how you handle it.

Make sense? Everything folds down nicely, like wrapping a present. That's why having seam allowance at the top of this piece is SO important. This step also helps to anchor the godet in place, and provides some reinforcement for that delicate insertion point.

The front and back godets are done! And they went pretty quickly. Now let's move on to all that business happening at the side seams.

Finishing the Sleeves

I like to skip to the sleeves at this point, but you'll see where you could jump around here, in a bit. But this is what we're looking at:

(Side note: there's an absolutely LOVELY photo floating all over Pinterest of an orange gusset that's been fully finished, with some arrows drawn on it. It's amazingly helpful! It's what helped me, and I'm sure hundreds of other people figure this process out. I don't know who it belongs to, but that person is AWESOME. But if you want a bit more of a step by step, that's what my goal here is.)

First things first, we want to trim some excess fabric away. Every seam of the gusset will be felled IN, toward the center of the gusset. I like to go ahead and trim the entire thing to start off with. I find it faster, and easier. Part of why I don't notch my gussets in construction is because I actually want to cut those points off on an angle. Like so, just above the line of stitching. Never cut through your stitches!

I also want to go ahead and trim all those gusset sides.

Isn't that nicer?  You'll find a few other bunchy points that need to be trimmed off at various points, most notably where the sleeve is joined. Trim those as needed.

The very first thing we're going to do, super fast, super easy, is one little side of the gusset, where it joins to the sleeve. And we, of course, will use the sleeve seam allowance to accomplish that. It needs to be notched exactly like the body panel in the back godet section. The notch should be where the sleeve seam meets the gusset.

That little piece in my fingers is the other bit I trimmed off before starting to sew. Then I felled just that little 4" strip.

Now, see how the other side of the seam allowance continues from the shoulder all the way down? That's what you're going to use to fell that side of the gusset, and continue on to finish the rest of the sleeve. In this photo you can see that my gusset is, of course, trimmed. I just need to trim down the rest of that sleeve seam, where I notched it earlier.

See? Easy! You do have to ease the corners, where the gusset meets the sleeve, using your fingers to work the fabric flat. It just takes some patience. The same is true for godets, or anywhere you have different angles meeting.

I'm feeling accomplished, though! We're so close. Obviously, these steps need to be done in this order. And before we can finish the shoulder and the rest of the gusset, we need to hop down to the skirt, and work on that some more. This is the part that can be done kind of at any time, prior to the shoulder.

This is where we are now. I need to trim off the seam allowance from the top of my godets.

I also went ahead and notched one side of my body panel seam allowance. Again, we want all these seams to be felled in the same direction. We're going to start with that notched seam allowance, and fell away from the center seam.

Now we're going to repeat the process with the center seam. Felling in the same direction.

Now stop. We want to leave the last skirt seam alone for now. We're going to finish the shoulder, side seam, and that last skirt seam all in one go, and we're going to fully encase all of our raw edges at the same time! Can you see how?

Notch the side seam where it meets the gusset. And that's the same spot where you want to start felling. Fell toward the sleeve.  When you get up to that shoulder seam that's already finished, you can trim a little of the material away from the edge, on the underside, to remove bulk. But it fells nicely, I promise.

Keep going over the shoulder, down to the other side of the gusset.

And keep on going, all the way down to the hem.

And that's that side completed! Repeat the process on the other side, and all you have left is hemming the cuffs and bottom edge!

For previous posts related to this project:
A Basic Medieval Dress (or Tunic) Tutorial Post
Medieval Dress Sew-Along (Part 1)
Medieval Dress Sew-Along (Part 2)

And Now for Something Completely Different

Way back in February, I put together a red dress based on this pattern. The only exception is that I added small gussets, based on past experience. If I understand correctly (having heard this second or third hand) this pattern is a simplification of some of the Herjolfsnes finds, which date to the 14th century, and have shaped, inset sleeves. Translating those garments to straight rectangular construction, if it's loose enough, the gusset is maybe unnecessary. But to make it a bit more fitted through the shoulders (one of the benefits I see of this pattern) the gusset becomes necessary. I could also be totally off base about the origin of Meistara Vigdis's pattern, but one way or the other, if you want it close fitting in the shoulders, add a small gusset. (The shaped armscye and sleeve head offset the need for a gusset, but doesn't completely eclipse it, in the Herjolfsnes finds.)

Anyway, I got it all put together, and then it sat in my sewing basket while I worked on other things, and then just didn't work on anything for a while. I've finally finished the seams on it! And I want to talk about seam finishing just a little bit. First off, the raw edges of fabric should always be dealt with in some fashion or other. This could be as simple as running a wide, machine zig-zag stitch over the very edge of the fabric, after cutting, before construction. It works. It keeps the edges from fraying in the wash. A step beyond that would be to use a serger, if you have one. You might notice in my Sew-Along posts that some of my edges are serged. Those were serged for washing the yardage the first time around. Those edges will still get finished as though they weren't serged.

Period methods of seam finishing are sort of fascinating to me. (I'm a NERD.) But part of what I find interesting is the overall consistency, and the fact that several of the finishes that we can document as having existed for centuries, and maybe even millennia, are still used today in couture sewing, in commercial sewing, and in regular old home-ec sewing. We've made more efficient machines to accomplish it it, but the ways in which the fabric is manipulated have stayed substantially the same. And I love that. Flat felled seams, French seams, and hemming with catch stitch (occasionally indiscernible from herringbone embroidery stitch) can all be found, in some iteration, in modern clothing, and those same stitches are found in scraps of clothing hundreds of years old.

When working with linen, I choose to finish my fabric in ways that are documentable to linen. Even if the garment I'm making would maybe have been made out of a different fabric (wool or silk, which are sometimes sewn differently).  This website very handily shows various historical seam treatments for linen, with archaeological evidence cited. Yay! Most of those examples use a selvage edge (or two), or linings. Since I'm working predominantly with cut pieces in a single layer, I almost always flat fell my linen seams. Occasionally, when it works better with the garment pattern, I'll run and fell (that's where you press your seam allowance open, fold the raw edge under on each side, and stitch each side down separately--seen in a linen Coptic tunic from the 7th century, not cited at the above website, but I read about it separately). But flat felling offers additional strength and reinforcement to the garment seam, so when I can, I choose that method. The "Seam with applied binding" method shown on that site is intriguing, but I haven't used it yet.

My baseline goals with garb are to 1) make comfortable, flattering clothing that I enjoy wearing; 2) make clothing that's well detailed, so that it will withstand much wearing and washing, and not wear out quickly; 3) make clothing that is, at least from the outside, as close to accurate as I can make it, without expending too much time, money, or energy on any single piece. Of course, if a piece is particularly special, for a special occasion, or meant to be submitted to competition, there are different goals in play. But for my regular clothing, that pretty much sums it up. And of course, my understanding of "accurate" is a topic that's ever growing and developing, and I hope will continue to do so over time.

And frustratingly, after the red dress was completely done, I discovered that the sleeves were uncomfortably small. Note: If it's been six months since you made a thing, and you know you've gained weight, try it on before spending a week and a half doing handwork on it. Six hours later, new sleeves and gussets were installed and re-finished, and I did a tiny bit of very subtle embroidery based on the Oseberg ship burial finds (not an exact replica). I'm quite happy, though mildly frustrated with myself.

Finally, one of the more delightful parts about flat felling your seams is that the dress looks largely similar, when it's turned inside out, to what it looks like right side out. Which you can maybe see from the photos of it lying flat.

 
One of these days, I'm going to post a photo of how I style this, and the other cut. The picture above just shows you that this is not at all fitted. But that's okay! I can belt it on its own, and put on a headcovering, and I'm quickly done. It can also easily go under a Viking-style apron dress, or another 10th century over-dress. I had sort of thought I might be able to wear this under the blue dress, but I really need to try it all on together once it's all done. I think the colors might clash in a bad way. But we'll find out!

Medieval Dress Sew-Along (Part 2)

The pattern and overview are in this post HERE
Find Part 1 HERE
Find Part 3 HERE

Part 2! When we left off last time, the whole upper part of the dress was fully put together. You should have sleeves and underarms, and you should be able to try on what you have so far.

So we're on Step 9: My side godets are in two pieces. I want to attach one half to each side of the body panels before sewing the side seams. You can really play around with this order of construction a lot. I do it this way because I feel like it gives me flexibility to get everything lined up just right.

I want to make sure that the edge that I'm attaching to my body panel is the bias edge of the godet, not the edge that's running parallel to the grain. Lay the right side of the godet face down over the right side of the body panel, and stitch them together.

Repeat for all for half godets.

Step 10:  Fold your tunic so that it's tunic shaped again. I like to join the godet-halves together before doing the side seam. It lets me really make sure everything is lined up so it all comes to a single point.

Then sew up that little bit of side seam that's left. This is your last chance to make any tweaks to get all the points to line up together.  You'll notice that I leave seam allowance at the top of my godets. I'm going to cut that off later, in finishing the seams, but for now, it gives me a little extra wiggle room in case I need it.

This is what we should have now. You can really try it on at this point and get an idea of fit! Just remember that front and back godets, when placed at your natural waist, will affect the fit at the hips. In other words, if you you have big hips (hi! I do!) and the dress is a tiny bit snug in the hips right now, the front and back godets will give you that extra room you need for the dress to fit properly. Just make sure you're inserting them high enough!

Step 11: We're almost done! We just need to insert the front and back godets. Since my back godet is in a seam, it got inserted rather similar to the side godets. I joined each side of it to the center back panels, and then sewed up the rest of my center back seam. For the front, carefully cut a slit straight up the front panel, the length you need. For the godet going into a slit, you NEED top seam allowance. Your godet should be taller than the slit you're inserting it into.

See the slit? I didn't remove any fabric, I just cut straight up the dress. Use as many marks, pins, and measuring devices as you need to get that line straight and centered.

I put a pin at the very top of the slit as a guide. I want to inset the very tip of my godet by hand. It's easier to photograph and share. It also gives me absolute control over the insertion. I'm going to baste it in on one side, seam that up on the machine, and then baste the other side, before seaming it up. My basting thread is in a contrast color so you can more easily see.

You're looking at the right side of my dress, zoomed in to the top of the slit. I place the godet upside down, so that the insertion point of the godet and the point where I want to attach the two (marked by that first pin) are on top of each other. I take the tiniest of stitches through both pieces, right where that bottom pin is. Only catching a couple of threads. You can see that below, looking at the back side of the tunic.

Now I take out that other pin, and pivot the godet so that the edge is lined up with the edge of the slit. Because your first stitches are right on the edge/point of the slit, the edge of the godet is going to stick out here more. It'll gradually grade in to match the cut edge of the slit. Pictures speak a thousand words here.

You can see both my basting stitches, and then also my machine stitching line in the last photo above. You can see how the godet and slit eventually meet up edges, but that at the very top, the godet seam allowance is far greater than the slit seam allowance.  I took out these basting stitches before moving on, to avoid confusion.

You can see above how the godet lines up with the other side of the slit. Make sure it's straight, and not pulling down toward the hem. You should be able to lay the whole garment flat and check that your godet is going in straight.

And basted in place. The final step is to machine (or hand) sew this seam.  After that, your dress is fully put together! You just have to finish the raw edges. And seams, if you're going to do that. Again, I want to stress that if you don't finish your seams by hand, you should, before you ever start sewing, serge the edges, or sew a wide zig-zag stitch over the edges. Otherwise your fabric will fray in the wash and all your hard work could literally fall apart!

I'll discuss hand finishing, why I love it, and what order to go in, in order to get all your seams neatly finished with no raw edges showing, in another post in a few weeks.

Medieval Dress Sew-Along (Part 1)

As promised! I'm going to split this up into multiple parts because there are a LOT of photos. I want you to be able to clearly see every step of the process. I also want you to understand why I make some of the choices that I make. This is, more or less, the way I put together all of my dresses in this style. And I use this dress pattern a lot. This particular dress is going to be for a 10th century British Isles over-dress. So it's a little looser cut, a little shorter, and the sleeves are a little bigger and also a little shorter. It's really, really important for me to note that I always fully construct my dresses, and then hand finish all the seams afterwards (except the shoulder seams--those I do during construction). Not everyone does it this way, and you definitely don't have to! You can choose to finish your seams differently, and that might affect your order of construction. You have to do what works for you. I'm going to show you what works for me.

The pattern for this dress is discussed in this post here!

Step 1: I cut out my pieces. I needed to cut the back as two pieces, with a center back seam because of a snafu that happened with this fabric a while ago. It's a long story. Front and/or back seams are totally okay! Piecing is okay! I'm really lucky I could make this dress work with just that one alteration to the pattern.

So the very first thing I had to do was to partially sew up the back seam. If I weren't trying to follow the continuity of the steps I laid out in my pattern post, I'd have gone ahead and inserted the back godet. But to keep it simple, I just partially stitched up the top back so I could cut my neckline in. I used a V-neck for this dress. (I'm going to cover necklines in depth in the future.)

Step 2: Sew the shoulder seams. (You can see my back seam in this photo.) This is a great time to slip on your tunic so you can make sure you like the neckline.

 

Step 3: Finish the shoulder seams and neckline. I also partially finished my back seam, so I could do my facing. I wrote an entire separate post on the facing here! I'm flat felling my seam in the photo. I did the facing after this was completed.

Step 4: Fold your sleeve in half lengthwise, and align the fold with your shoulder seam. The right side of your sleeve (if you're using fabric with right and wrong) and the right side of your shoulder seam ought to be touching. Pin this center point, and then unfold the sleeve, and pin the whole edge. Stitch. Repeat on the other side.

A pretty important note about how I sew right now. Because I want to be able to go back and easily flat fell all my seams, I don't sew from edge of piece to edge of piece. I sew from seam allowance to seam allowance. Meaning that I back my stitching line up 3/4" from the edge of that sleeve piece when I attach it to the body panels. I also find this helps IMMENSELY when inserting the gussets.

Step 5: Attach one side of your gusset to the inside corner of the sleeve. I'm going to show you two pictures here. In my original directions, I suggested notching the corners of your gussets. Particularly if you sew edge to edge, you HAVE to do that. Because I don't sew edge to edge, I don't notch my gussets. This is what the next step looks like with a notched gusset:

You would flip the body panel out of the way, and stitch that edge that's lined up together. I do this a little differently, and I decided to show you how I do it. But this only works if you don't have that edge completely sewn down.

I leave my gussets square, and use the corner to line up with the corner of my sleeve piece. I still need to mark where my seam allowance is, because I want to sew, always, seam allowance to seam allowance. I usually mark that with pins, but you can also use a washable marker or chalk. Either way, I sew that seam, connecting the gusset to the sleeve.

Step 6: You can sort of see where the next edge of the gusset naturally lines up with the body panel. You want to stitch that seam next.

Repeat those two steps on the other sleeve.

Step 7: Fold the garment at the shoulder seams so it actually looks like a tunic, wrong side out. Insert the other sleeve edges of the gusset. The free point should set into the underarm point. This can get a little tricky, but go slow and use pins to hold everything together.

See how the sleeve is sticking out off toward the left? It should look like a sleeve at this point, even though it's not sewn up yet.

A different angle of the same thing. See how the gusset is sewn to the sleeve, but still free of the second body panel?

Another view of the gusset joined to both sides of the sleeve.

Step 8: Go ahead and sew up the sleeve seam. The flappy bits start to annoy me at this point, and it's a reassurance that you've got that gusset in properly. If your sleeve doesn't easily make a sleeve at this point, your gusset point is probably in the wrong spot.

 Step 9: Sew your last gusset edge to the remaining body panel. It might take a minute to get everything to line up, but that's okay. You're almost there!

This is how the body panel gets attached to that last gusset edge.

It seems complicated but if you hold the shoulder seam and pull everything down, the edges line up so nicely for you! Again, I haven't notched my gussets. I like the square points to help me line all this up.

Once you've done that on both sides, this is what you should have. A finished neck and two sleeves. You can try it on again at this point if you want to! All that's left is to finish up the skirt. That will be the subject of my next post.

Edit: Part 2 is live HERE
         Part 3 is live HERE