Finished Tunics

For those of you following the saga of Rachel's lily tunic - it is finally finished! Hooray! She came over and re-drew some of the detailing on the sleeve joins and the curly-q's at the end of the bottom panels better to her liking, and I finished it a couple of nights ago. I really like her improvements - I had her re-draw them because I didn't like my free hand work (its really not my strong suite). You can still see some of the extra markings since I haven't washed it yet.

Today I also have a Bonus Tunic! That's right - two tunics for the price of one post! My 2 1/2 year old son came with me to Kingdom Arts and Sciences and so I made him his own little tunic. Its about a size 4T, so its pretty small. My verdict on children's clothes is that they usually go faster and are a bit easier to sew, until you get to the neck and arms, which are tiny! I had to poke the eyelets in with an awl while I was in a hurry for the lacing to work, so I will try to stitch those up nicely before he wears it again. I meant to get a picture of him in it in action, but I totally forgot! Perhaps next time :)

Gloves #1 are finished!

I have finished the first pair of royal gloves for Their Stellar Majesties Ulsted the Unsteady and Ebergardis von Zell. The stitching is done in German Brickwork and is Rainbow Gallery Splendor silk on linen, with Kreinik Japan Gold #7 couched as outlines. I sewed the stitched roundels onto the gloves using a leather awl and the trim is braided Kreinik Japan Gold #7. The gloves were delivered at Bryn Gwlad's Candlemas event.

Details:

Since I was attaching the stitched roundels to leather gloves, I rummaged through my toolbox and found my leather awl. It was definitely the right way to go, especially since the gloves were already put together and I had to reach inside them. The German brickwork stitching has a lot of body when finished, which makes for a really thick finished piece. Even with some tight stitching on the edges I found that I needed a thick trim to keep the edge from being too abrupt.

I tried several different approaches to the trim. I think that finger loop braiding can make really nice trim, so I tried a few different patterns and discovered that Japan gold is terrible for finger loop braiding. It doesn't hold tension well, stretches unevenly, and doesn't flex gracefully - so you end up with a chunky mess that glitters. I was going for something a bit more elegant than that so I tried several flat braids. The final winner was a three strand flat braid with 6 pieces of Japan gold per strand - 18 total strands. The result was a smooth trim which (with some fiddling) I got to lay at a (mostly) 45 degree angle to smooth the chunky edges.