Thursday, April 21, 2022

Khaki Tie-On Sleeves in the Italian Style

 Another pair of sleeves finished!

These are made out of a cotton fabric remnant that I found in an op (thrift) shop.

They are constructed in the same way as all the others; the lining and fashion fabrics were cut out using my favourite sleeve pattern and edged with zigzag stitch. The seams were sewn on machine with straight stitch and opened out and stitched down. Then the fashion fabric and lining were sewn together at the sleeve head (wrong sides out), curves clipped and then turned right way out. The top of the sleeve was top stitched by hand to stop the lining rolling out. The wrist hem was sewn by hand and the lining whipped into place. Eyelets were worked by hand at the top of the sleeve and an 'L' was sewn into the left sleeve to make lacing the sleeves on in a hurry easier.









Sunday, April 10, 2022

'Baronial Beautification' Group Project

I'm currently involved in our Barony's efforts to prepare items for a future royal visit. Lots of projects are planned to improve our infrastructure and increase the pageantry at the event. 

I haven't been well enough to attend weekly meetings, but the project manager (Sir Eva), is very empathetic and likes to give everyone a chance to be a part of these sort of projects if they would like to. So I had the opportunity to work on some sewing for the project at home.

It felt good to be able to contribute to a group project, and nice to have a change from the UFO pile. Who would have thought that 'sewing homework' would be such a breath of fresh air?!



Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Red-Gilt Tie On Sleeve in the Italian Renaissance Style

I finished another pair of sleeves this week, and boy! are they pretty. The fabric was purchased from etsy several years ago. A miscellaneous fibre content includes gilt threads. They were sold as silk brocade but I would be very surprised if they actually contain silk.

I'm very pleased with these sleeves. Eyelets are still very hard on my hands but I am getting faster at working them.

I made these sleeves to the same pattern and in the same way as the others I have blogged about recently. The lining is purple broadcloth.

Putting a small running stitch along the inside of the top edge to stop the lining rolling out with wear.


Hemming the sleeves. I sewed down the fashion fabric hem with tiny stitches, and then hemmed the lining separately.

Working the eyelets. (I've added an L for Left to save time getting ready before events.)

The finished product. The pictures fail to capture the richness of the fabric.