The Pourpoint Commission: Beta Release

Action shot!

I misunderestimated how much time it would take to reach Minimum Viable Product, which meant a lot of late nights and sewing-over-lunch-hours; but the pourpoint was ready at the time the client wanted it, which was "after court, for the feast".  So, a success, as far as this goes.

Many people were kind enough to comment on how well they thought it looked, but I, of course, can only see the things I want to fix or do better.  Well, and there are some definite actual problems too--in spite of having cut the forearm pieces bigger, they are still an inch too narrow (WTF!?!).  Herewith, a list of items to amend before I hand it off to the client for good[1] at Pennsic:

• Buttons and buttonholes, duh.  Est. time: 20-25 hours maybe?  I am not super fast with buttonholes and I don't know how long it'll take me to cover/make the buttons.
• I still have to determine what I'm going to do about the round buttons.  Entirely fabric, like Red Charlie's?  Or solid-core, like the flat buttons definitely are?  AAAAAAA.
• Re-cut and re-quilt the lower sleeves larger.  6 hours or so.
• Add the cuff piece that I thought I didn't need 'cause the lower sleeve was long enough when I fit it but isn't now (though, aheheh, I think I can just cut off the bottom of the extant lower sleeves and use that?)  Possibly no time at all.
• I may have to do a little neckline fiddling once I've lined up the center front properly, which I couldn't do when stitching him in.  A couple hours.
• I really feel it ought to be a couple inches longer (though I only lost 1/2" from quilting shrinkage, so I guess that was a botch from the word go).  So I'm thinking of quilting strips to sew to the bottom of each body piece.  4 hours?
• This is a lead-in to a separate irk: the "skirt" of the pourpoint was flaring out in an incorrect fashion.  I am hoping that adding length will help that, but I don't know if that's enough to overcome the forcing-out by the thickness of the padding.  Theoretically, closing up the slits at the hips would fix this; but Gold Charlie has those slits, so...no.  
• Now, Gold Charlie also has a ton of additional tie points for hose, and if you tied your hose all around that would help drag the skirt down; but this also confuses me 'cause most men's hose designs I've seen only have a single attachment point in front, so I really am not clear WTF is going on here.  I'm going to try at least attaching the two hose points we have a little lower on the body, and see if that makes a diff.
• It's also too loose around the hips, at that.  Should be more form-fitting to match the imagery.  I don't know how to make that happen without closing the slits, though.
• And then after these tasks I gotta re-hem it all.  *drinks hemlock*

As a side note, I stuffed the upper chest portion as much as ever the fabric could hold, but it's not getting the pouter-pigeon effect.  I guess we just have to chalk that up as artistic license.  (Or a difference in body shape for dudes whose day job involves living in armor.)  

Oh, and I need to finish the linen test version too.  Probably another 10-12 hours of quilting and a bit more cotton bowing, and then maybe 5 hours of assembly + 12 hours of eyelets.

[1] with occasional borrow-backs for competitions & displays

The Pourpoint Commission: Coming Around The Clubhouse Turn

This will be a little more perfunctory and less image-enabled, because ain't no one got time for that, and also my phone forgot how to connect to wifi after the March 5 Android patches and this has caused me to use up all my data plan for the month and Google Support has not followed up after "did you try a factory reset?" so uploading photos is not currently a thing.  But at least I SPELLED THE POST TITLE RIGHT AFJDKFJKDFJFJDK

ahem

Right. So, where are we after a week of blitz?  

• All pieces are quilted except the right front, the two upper sleeves, one lower sleeve, and one back gore
• One of the two hose ties is made up[1]
• The upper back & lower back are sewn together (and the seam allowances are finished, TYVM)

This doesn't seem like a great deal of advancement, but to be honest, from an effort perspective we're over the hump.  I have all of today...modulo eating and, ahem, blogging...to put to it; that's probably a good ten hours' work available (well, I already put in an hour this morning finishing up other gores) and then every evening this week.  I have also rethought the order of events--I had intended to spend today quilting the right front piece (and that woulda been the whole day, too, probably), in the instinctive desire to prioritize the most fundamental pieces; but instead I'm going to do the upper sleeves.  Because why?  Because then I can take them into work and set gores over my lunch hour. I will have to jettison my workout routine, but needs must when the devil drives.

An hose tie.  It's made up of the lining linen cut into a forked
strip and then wrapped in silk quilting thread.

There is, as expected, no damn way I'm getting 50+ buttons & buttonholes done by Saturday, even if I farmed out the work; the client is OK with being sewn in for this.  So, the Minimum Viable Product task list, in no particular order: 

• Quilt remaining pieces
• Set gores in upper sleeves
• Sew lower sleeves to upper sleeves
• Sew front pieces to back (that's two side seams and two shoulder seams)
• Attach sleeves to body
• Hem all raw edges (not literally hemstitch)
• Make up 2nd hose tie
• Attach hose ties

Other than quilting, probably the slowest part will be closing up the raw edges... In the absolute worst-case scenario, I can do all the long(ish) seams by machine, and then rip 'em out afterwards and redo them properly.  

RIght; breakfast, and then on.

[1] which I did while watching a vendor demo. Who says vendors are a waste of time?

The Pourpoint Commission: Not So Much "Launch" As "Measured Acceleration"

the cult of Baron Samedi took a
strange turn in some clothworker
guilds

The past week's efforts were somewhat restricted by lacking any pale-colored silk quilting thread, because in my laudable Buy All The Things In Advance effort I had only gotten black thread. because I am genius.  shut up.

I became aware of this resource gap a few hours after last week's post; I had laid out the pattern pieces on the silk to get an idea of how much wiggle room was available, was pleasantly surprised to find a comfortable amount, and cut off (with some wincing and gritted teeth) a 6" square to test-swatch.  I set it all up on a small frame and went "...oh."  I put in a rush order for what I needed--getting both white and natural colors, since I wasn't sure which would look better and I didn't want to go through the same thing a few days later--and proceeded on the test swatch with the black thread I had, because it's a test swatch and who cares?  

Promising, yes.

Pleasant surprise #2: the silk, even when packed much more fully than the linen, didn't have any perceptible lossage either.  That meant I could proceed with cutting out the pattern pieces from the silk without any additional pattern-frobbing, hallelujah.  No; just had to do all the frobbing to make sure the brocade motifs lined up in an agreeable fashion.  This is a) not easy and b) nerve-wracking, particularly the first time around, particularly on fabric this expensive.  Also, my kingdom for space for a table I can cut out fabric on.  oh god my back. 

The rest of the week there wasn't a lot I could do, waiting on the thread arrival, so I stuffed it full of the social engagements I wouldn't have time for once I really got going, and did a few minor tasks, like ensuring I had lining fabric ahem.  I decided to use the Sartor heavy natural linen I had in stash already, because a) it's worthy, b) I have a goodly amount of it since I'd intended to make a dress for me and a suit for Himself out of it, and c) most of the other stuff I have to hand is fine, underwear-weight, and if you're anchoring expensive silk and a pound of cotton floof on it, not to mention OVER FIFTY BUTTONS AFJKDJFKDJFKLJG, I figure you want something a bit more solid.  (And it's not coarse heavy; just heavier than their other stuff, which is rated "fine".)  Regrettably, I have no information about Gold Charlie's lining, other than that it is linen, but I feel this is a reasonable choice.

in media res

I had all my critical resources in place to begin yesterday afternoon, so after doing a stay-stitch around the armhole curves, I got cracking on the upper back piece, which is comparatively easy: it doesn't have to match anything and the motifs line right up down the center back so you have some built-in guidance.  Happily, the brocade motifs are spaced in such a way that, by running the quilting lines along the the top and bottom of the quatrefoil lobes, this works out very close to the 30mm spacing on Gold Charlie.  That'll work for all the large pieces except the lower back, whose lines are on a slight curve, because there is no God[1]; the gores are a mixed bag, and I will worry about them later.

Some observations thus far:

• I should do the first, centermost line of quilt stitches on each piece with no padding in place, then stuff on either side of it.  That will make life so much easier.  Why did I not think of this sooner.
• The silk quilting thread is annoying as hell and wants to be waxed, which I was reluctant to do with silk, but a) it's unravelling and b) it's knotting itself up.
• Switching to a finer needle makes a huuuuge difference here.  My usual quilting betweens were just not doing it.
• Instead of laying out everything on a big-ass piece of lining fabric and just "scrolling" it into place on the frame, I'm breaking it down into smaller pieces.  This is going to be considerably more profligate with the lining fabric, but I have some compelling reasons:
• I don't want already-done pieces of the garment to get smooshed under the frame holders.  This is no big deal for a linen garment but I don't want to get marks on the silk.
• the downside is, I'll have some uncomfortable sessions getting to the center of the frame with my little T-rex arms, sigh.
• It's easier to manage the frame if there isn't 2 yards of excess linen drooping around it in all directions.
• I'll take some of the waste fabric, as available, and put it on the small frame to do the gores.  This also makes my project a little more portable. As long as I'm going to a place that has an embroidery frame stand. -_-

I also had the inspiration to outsource the cotton bowing to an under-employed friend, who is coming up today to do that thing.  I am pleased with my Very Medieval Solution to my critical lack-of-time problem.  Warning: do not come near my living room today.

I still haven't found a solution for the round buttons.  I checked all the usual vendors and so far have come up empty.  I wonder if only the disc buttons are metal underneath?  I wonder if the Charles IV exhibition people made assumptions because they found a bunch of metal buttons too?  WHY WILL NO ONE PUBLISH GOLD CHARLIE?

Current music: the Deadpool soundtrack. On auto-repeat.

[1] Actually it's because of the interesting shape of the waist seam at the back; once the upper & lower backs are attached, the curved lines look straight.  I have not taken the time to suss out why this arrangement is better than a straight seam. 

The Pourpoint Commission: It's Go Time

"It's 21 days to Mudthaw, we have six metres of
Sartor silk, four pounds of raw cotton, society
is collapsing and we have day jobs."  "Hit it."

After days of obsessive activity somewhat interrupted by being gone for a week for a work conference, I got enough of the test pourpoint together--i.e. the body + left arm, which is my patron's dominant side--for a fitting yesterday afternoon, and mirabile dictu, we are actually in pretty good shape here.  I need to add a little extra around the midsection (behold the difference between a human animal in summer and winter) and a little extra around the forearm muscle; no huhu.  My only concern is the way the front gore fits, which looks a little bunchy and puffy.  I took consultation with my panel of experts on how best to fiddle this, and by moving the seam inwards a little on the gore, it should do better.  (Viewers will note that there is some bunching under the armpit, which is true; this is a consequence of both the padding and the extra fabric needed to get the range of motion which is the whole point of the grande assiette sleeve.  So, that's okay.)  


It was interesting to note the difference in padding thickness on the pieces, as well.  The ones I had done first (the back) were much less full than the ones I did last (the sleeve & gores).  This wasn't at all intentional, and indeed I wasn't even conscious of it as I was working.  I think it's a combination of early trepidation + later confidence; at first, I was afraid of over-padding and turning it into a ski jacket, and with each successive piece I was worrying less about that and just instinctively adding Enough Padding To Make It Look Right.  And, as it is, I think I will want to up the levels even more, particularly across the upper chest.  

So.  Hurray.  We pass unit testing.  Guess what that means:  Time to do the real piece. And I am determined to have this in wearable state for the patron on March 25, which is an important event for him.  Possibly this is madness; though minimum-viable-product is having the garment done except the OVER FIFTY BUTTONS AND BUTTONHOLES AFJKDJFKDJFKLJG and sew him into it for the day, which reduces the number of required hours by a significant factor.  We'll see how it goes. 

aaaaaaaaaaaa I am being
trusted with this

Some thoughts:

• The big elephant in the room is, how differently will the silk behave in the quilting process?  I had no lossage due to padding on the test unit, but I'm pretty sure this is because linen is mad stretchy.  Silk is not.  And we do not have much, if any, excess fabric here to screw around with.
• How best to do the sleeves is an open question yet.  The pattern instructs you to assemble the upper sleeve (i.e., insert the gores) and then quilt it all down together; and I started with that, and then looked at the now somewhat three-dimensional item, and could not see how it could be done on a stretched-flat quilting frame.  So I took it apart, quilted each piece individually, and then assembled them.  This worked--though if you think setting a gore is hard, try doing it when all the pieces are thickly padded--but it wasn't the best or neatest.  Beth opined it could be done post-assembly by hand, sans frame, but I'm not convinced that'll end well for me. 
• also, damn do I wish I had gotten to the serious quilting before I went to see Gold Charlie.  I have a whole list of things I would look at more closely now.
• I estimate that 450g-500g of cotton is probably about right for padding one courtly pourpoint.  I still have a good bit left of my first batch of bowing, but a) I haven't quilted the right sleeve pieces yet and b) as noted earlier I should've used a lot more on the body pieces at least.
• Mem: make sure the quilting lines will line up with each other across the center front.
• I have been advised to balance the pattern of the brocade on the different pieces.  The medievals weren't obsessed with perfect matching like we moderns are, but if you look at Gold Charlie, they didn't just slap the pieces together willy-nilly either.  
•  I did order some 5/8" buttons; the flat ones will do the job for the lower front, but the domed ones are right out.  I need actually round buttons for the sleeves & upper torso.  
• oh hey let's make sure I have enough plain white linen in stock for lining this

The next order of operations is to lay out all the pattern pieces on the silk, getting the brocade lined up and all, so I see exactly how much extra I have to play with for testing purposes (and for covering 50+ buttons, fjdklajfdklajflajfakdkjagfdf).  If I have enough extra, I'll quilt say a 6" test swatch and see what our stretch factor is.  --Oh hey.  I could do the test swatch, and then disassemble it and use that for covering buttons, if I absolutely had to.  

ora pro me