Let's take a look shall we?
First of all, the bodice which had been skin-tight during the draping process was now quite a bit too big for me. Since both the kirtle and the gown bodice where based on the same pattern, I was SWIMMING inside them. I have since removed almost 4 inches of fabric from the center back of the supportive kirtle and I expect to soon do something similar to the gown, just so it doesn't look like I'm wasting away from some horrible disease inside my clothes.
Secondly, the lovely partlet doesn't have any ties at the bottom. While the underarm ties and the throat button held it on my body, the lack of a tie under the breast line caused it to flap around like an over-sized lobster bib.Today I purchased some adorable handmade brass pins that will slow that flap down quite a bit and prevent me from looking quite so much like a refugee from Red Lobster. I'm going to have to search for more though, as there were only 8 pins in the pin case I found at the antique mall and I know they're going to work out of the linen and vanish once in use. I'd like to get these from Wooded Hamlet but it looks like they're out of stock for now. Jas Townsend has some, but I don't like the eye at the top of the pin, I'd much rather have it flat.
Last but not least, let us consider that coif. Oh that saggy, baggy, what-the-heck-is-on-my-head coif...Well, that's not exactly what I had intended to wear. Poor planning on my part is my only defense. I had been planning to wear the wired attifet found in Margo Anderson's excellent Elizabethan Wardrobe Accessories that I had made for a production of Merry Wives of Windsor some time back. That first attifet was out of a lightweight cotton and was generally a very well-behaved hat, with only the minor habit of wanting to twist around on my hair after a few hours. Since I had discovered that wearing a coif might work better with a forehead cloth underneath (How To Wear a Coif ) I felt that a few moments work with some handy linen and I could solve that problem. However, I have apparently loved that hat not often enough and for too long, for it appears to be totally missing somewhere in the craft room.
Step the next was to try and build something in a rush. I've really been loving the sevenstarwheel Transition Coif and made it up all in a hurry to see if it would do. I thought my head was pretty small, but using those measurements I created a coif that just barely squeaked over my ears and the back triangle didn't cover anything. The pattern seems to work out in all the other particulars, so when I have the time I'm going to scale it up and try it again. Very likely I did something wrong since I was in such a massive hurry anyway. However, as I was building it, my inner nag kept going "It's the wrong period for the dress, you know that", the she was annoyingly right. At that point I did the appropriate thing and went to bed.
As I had to work the next day I grabbed an old linen coif that had been given to me a few years ago. I've never worn it before due to assorted reasons and it took some fiddling to figure it out. The coif is a sort of bag with a sewn on front flap and gathers on a ribbon in the back. By cinching the ribbon down as tightly as I could and tying it on top of my head I was able to keep the bag on my head. There's not enough ribbon to go around the whole bag and my hair as well and everything slid off every time I turned my head quickly.I may be able to salvage it though with a forehead cloth and a little thoughtful trimming.
I consider this outfit a success in progress. It's not perfect yet, but it's all on the right track and I'm going to be very proud to wear it all when it's done. Not that it will ever be done-done. I need to get the shoes right, and I need a pocket, and a really good hat, not to mention trading the cotton smock for a linen one and... we shall call it a work-in-progress.
And now, the fun pic to remind me to get back to sewing!
