IRCC Update #3

I feel like I was quite productive this month despite being rather busy with planning a move and trying to declutter before packing. Anyways, my first goal for this month was to finish my first accessory, a pocket. I ended up trimming it with some green velvet ribbon from my stash. I don’t know that green really goes with the rest of my outfit but as this will be worn under my gown, nobody is going to see it and I like green.

The ribbon was applied by hand after the main construction of the pocket was complete. It wasn’t until after I’d sewn and pressed my pocket that I bothered to look at my old pocket to see how I’d made that one. Last go around, I was smart and applied the trim before construction so the raw edges were finished nicely inside the seams. Oops! So I had to fold under the ends of the ribbon at the seam. It doesn’t look as nice but I guess that’s what I get for not paying enough attention!

I folded over the raw edges on the top of the pocket and hand sewed a length of ribbon over it to finish the edge and make a belt. And the pocket is done!

My next goal was to make my camica this month. Not going to lie, this was a part I was not that excited about making. I am not one of those people who loves making underthings and I’d just made a gorgeous linen camica last year and have barely worn it. But, really, you can never have too many sets of undergarments and I did already have a tutorial handy to follow. I used Festive Attyre’s camica tutorial.

I decided serge all of my seam allowances on the camica and do the bulk of the sewing by machine. I do a lot of outdoor events in the heat and love just being able to throw my under layers in the washing machine after an event.

Look! A gusset! If only my geometry teacher had made me do equations with camica pieces, I would have enjoyed math so much more.

The thing that I knew I wanted to change from my last camica was the neck band. It came out too wide and all twisty and lumpy. So I decided to make a very narrow neck band this go around. The neckline was machine gathered and then machine sewn to the neck band. I finished the inside of the neck band by hand.

So far, I have also hemmed the camica by hand. The only bit left to do is finish the sleeves. I haven’t decided whether to gather them to a wristband or to just hem it and leave it open. Once I make up my mind, it’ll be a quick finish.

I also started on my giornea. I used a tutorial by Cathelina di Alessandri to make this garment. I liked that it was simple geometric shapes that would be easy for me to draft and sew up. Since this garment is not that complicated, I’ve been able to finish the main construction by machine very quickly. I’ve decided not to line my giornea because it’s quite heavy already. This leaves me with a lot of edges to finish prettily since they can be seen while the garment is being worn.

The center front and center back edges are selvages so I’m just slipstitching them down by hand. The neckline, shoulder seams and outside edges, I’m finishing with bias tape made from leftover linen from my petticoat which is almost an exact match for the giornea fabric. The bias is sewn to the edge by machine and then folded over and slipstitched by hand to the inside of the garment.

Looking forward to the next (last!!) month, I need to finish my camica and giornea. I also realized this week that while I have fabric for sleeves, I haven’t really given much thought to the design of the sleeves. Definitely need to work on that! I also still want to do some sort of jewelry to go with this outfit. I’ve not made jewelry before but if I have time, I do want to take a stab at it.