Griffin Needle Challenge is a local garb competition event, basicly you grab a team of 6 and plan to sew an entire outfit from the skin out over a 24 hour event. I participle most years, but this was the first time I sponsored a team, and was the model.
Before the event, you are allowed to pattern a garment, and create certain accessories ahead of time, but all fabric needs to be uncut and unmarked. We chose as a team to do a Pyx level entry, which meant everything was hand sewn. We ended up with a team of 5 people, and my co-lead couldn't make it, but at the end of the event we had some help from another individual there just to geek out and work on projects.
Typically this is a Judged A&S competition, but seeing as we ended up being the only team able to compete, it wasn't really a competition, but I was evaluated for our creation, and I am pretty proud of the work that went into the research, and how the team worked together to pull this off.
This Gown was inspired by Les Tres Riches Heures du duc de Berry; Avril. Cira 1416.
My documentation is here. In my documentation, I was trying to emphasize the importance of aesthetics in midieval society at this time period. While my inspiration is the manuscript above, it is only a visual, and the bulk of my research is based of the French inventories of the time period, trade, and sumptuary laws, along with many other manuscript artworks of the time, and extant fabrics.
My documentation also fall short of Chicago style citations, but at this point, I truly don't have the bandwidth for editing it any further at this moment.
The pattern was one that had been updated and used on garb just a few months prior to this event. See My previous write up here This is a curved Seam front, with armscye at my pivot point. It also has a bit of ease in the garment to be a pull over style since the simple cotte underneath will be doing the work of actual support.
Here are a few in progress shots of this gown at GNC!
Due to the nature of having a 4 person team at an overnight hand sewing competition, not everything on this gown was finished. Plus this fabric wasn't the most supple to work with and was tedious to hand sew.
Basicly everything from the waist down was just basted to together. None of the seam allowances finished, and the neckline and hem were still raw, and not cut to shape. And the sleeves were swapped!
Which turned out to be a good thing.
After GNC the project sat in a basket for some time, because real life. And when I had the time to pick it back up, there were definitely some adjustments needed.
My "helper"
Firstly the fabric was so stiff. the lining and the fashion fabric clearly had a significant amounts of sizing on them making them difficult to sew. So I found my largest lingerie bag and but the gown in the handwash cycle in my machine and let it air dry. It was much more supple and workable.
Then, I had to take off the sleeves, and pick apart all the basting seems from the waist down.
Then the slow process of hand sewing all the seams with a running back stitch, and flat felling the seam allowances. I like to flat fell my seam allowances, because I have found it to be the most durable seam choice for the way I wear my gowns. Gowns that are tight fitting, frequently get stepped on, and washed, need strong sturdy seams, and I found that encasing the seam allowances prevents them from fraying, adds a second line of stitching, and locks in any flat lining I might have, making my gowns *me proof* lol.
I estimate it was 20 hours of hand sewing just for this task.
After the seams were together I let it hang for a few days. So that the bias stretch could sort itself out before hemming. In the mean time I started to edge stitch the sleeves... And that turned out to be problematic. I got done with edge stitching one sleeve, and then realized how badly the lining had stretched. See my previous post!
And so I went to work tearing those completely apart.
I ended up with 4" of vertical stretch and 1" of horizontal!
And then spent another 4 hours trimming and sewing the sleeves back to their original state.
Edge stitching isn't something I am sure is period or not. But it's something that I learned many years ago to help keep any edges crisp, especially on curved hems, without having to figure out how to iron at a camp event.
It's kind of a variant of stay stitching. I iron the edges, and then pin them while still hot.
In this case I chose a black silk thread because it disappeared on the brocade surface, and it is essentially a back stitch, but on the side of the lining the back stitch is tiny so that all you see is a line of tiny dots at intervals.
And the result is a basicly invisible stitches, but a edge that stays crisp without needing to be ironed! It also has the effect of keeping the seams from busting out because there is another line of stitching holding it together. Again *me proof*.
At some point in this process I tried this garment on and realized that the bust wasn't quite giving the shape it should have been. The gown was flattening my bust, and pushing it up, much like a silhouette that is later in the century, instead of the more natural silhouette of this time. And It was much harder than it was to slip it on and off, yet looser in the waist.
Turns out bodies change. In the months since patterning the gown and now, I gained an inch in my bust, and lost some around my waist, Go figure. So to fix that issue I tore apart the side seams and added a small gusset on either side, to help alleviate the bust squish and to keep it a pull over style. I also made minor adjustments to the shoulders and armscye. Then finished the neckline.
So for those following along, that ends up being redoing almost every seam on the entire gown. Sigh.
After letting it hang I finally could trim and hem the bottom.
And a picture of the inside of the gown, in all it's handsewn glory!
I've spent at least 80 hours of hand sewing for this garment. Plus at least 20 pattering, ironing, cutting, seam ripping. Not to mention countless hours of research and previous experience.
A few more photos of the finished Gown!
And a little helper who thinks she's being sneaky....
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