Lambswool research cont.

I managed to pick up some thin wool interlining that resembled lambswool linen used as interlining. This particular wool is fusible, therefore it is a more modern approach to interlining. As lambswool linen is very difficult to get a hold of, fabrics such as the one above must be the more up to date and cheaper alternative to traditional interlining.

I also did a little bit of research through the Whaleys samples again to see if I could find anything, and came across some options that were similar however not quite the same.

I then found this 'Voltaire Wool Fine Natural' which was almost identical to the fabric inside the tunic. However when I went to check the price it was £15.68 excluding VAT and postage. It is something that I cannot afford to buy a metre of at this moment in time, therefore I will look for other options which still would do the same job such as the mandors fabric which was £3.99 a metre. When to take in to conderation everything else that I have to purchase, the cheaper fabric would be my better option. Sometimes you have to compromise when you have a budget. Ultimately, this fabric is not a crucial necessity to my construction so I guess having lambswool as another layer of interlining could be taken out of the equation. However, it would still be good to have as an example of research.

Reflecting

Ordering fabric for this project has been a really tricky task for me to do because of all the researching and sourcing I have had to do beforehand. I have had to interpret everything for myself without the help of an expert to guide me. Most of my time has been taken up by this stage which has has a bit of a knock on effect in regards to me being able to do any practical construction work. A lot of this had been based on guesses and judgments that I have had to make in order to progress. No one that I have contacted had been able to provide me with any advice on the practical skills therefore my main source has been through examining costumes and hoping that what I am doing is right. You could say that a lot of this project has been a success in regards to how much I have researched, but you could say that it hasnt been as successful as I'd hoped it would be as I am not as far ahead as I expected to be at this stage. When you dont know what you are doing, researching in front of a computer screen as well as reading books is going to take it the majority of the time, and I did not anticipate this from the beginning. I thought it woukld be easier to find this informationn than it has been. I suppose this has all been part of the learning experience, however, I will not completely know what skills and materials are correct unless I am able to talk to a uniform tailor myself which is harder than it seems. I have taught myself to go down other routes to find what I am looking for, and even if I havent been as successful as I'd hoped I have still learnt a lot about perseverence and patience. This has been a very long journey and I dont intend to give up now.

Comparing fabric

The more I examine the tunics from stock, that the more that I get familiar with all the different materials, the more I start to notice how there are differences in what I would assume to be used and what is actually used. For example, the hair canvas that I have found in a couple of the tunics that you would assume to be stitched to the chest does not look like the chest canvas that I have sourced. when looking at it I wondered if this was mabye another type of canvas that I had not come across yet, however, the fabric actually looks more like a thick linen when I compare it to the Whaleys samples.

Linen has been mentioned a lot through my research as a layer of interlining, however it confuses me to think that it is used in the way chest canvas would be used. This leads me to think that there is no right or wrong way of constructing interlining fabric. There is not set fabrics that have to be used when interlining a tailored jacket, there are more options that you think. Or using linen in this fashion may be for particular types of tunics or from a particular era. As long as the fabric is doing what it is supposed to, then thats what matters. I suppose different tailors have their different preferences. It is hard to know whether I am right in saying this because I have unfortunately not some across a direct source of information yet which has led to this whole guessing game. I have ordered some samples for my folder.

Another layer of interlining - lambswool

I bought this muslin mandors thinking that it was the same as the layer of interlining above. However, form seeking some advice from Cate we have come to the conclusion that this fabric is wool based rather than cotton based like the muslin that I sourced.

After some research in to what exactly this fabric could be, I came across some information from the book 'Tailoring - the Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket' which I have been using a lot as a source during this project. This fabric could potentially be lambswool interlining as this is used as another layer to keep in the warmth. From what I have seen, the lambswool has been stitched on to the wadding rather than the top fabric. I decided to do a little sample with the muslin and some poly wadding just to get an idea of the look, however if I can I would would to try and purchase some lambswool interlining to have the correct type of sample.

After some more research I found that I was stuggling to find sources to purchase this fabric. I found this 'lambswool linen' which a) I dont know whether it is the correct fabric and b) is it too expensive for me to purchase to then find out that it was not the fabric that I was looking for. At the end of the day, this fabric is not a vital element to my costume, and can be made without it. I also found out from a forum on patternreview.com that this kind of lambswool used be to a staple for hand-tailoring, but is almost impossible to find nowadays.

http://www.scarlet-letter.com/linens/40lambswool.php is a US site that sells the fabric $70 per yard! What I can gather from this is that this fabric must be something that is very hard to get hold of, as well as it being a very traditional type of interlining that isnt necessarily used in modern times. I could be wrong about what this fabric is, but ulitimately this is all part of the learning journey.

http://thesewingdivas.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/sewing-with-fur/ I found this link, which has some good photos of the use of lambswool in an old fur garment. I shows it use in the collar as well as on the body.

Waiting for Samples

A lot of time on this project has been spent waiting for samples to arrive that I have ordrered from various companies. Because of the fact that I am researching in to fabric rather than knowing exactly what to purchase, I am not going to spend money on an item without having samples delivered first. I don't want to make the mistake of ordering materials that I think is approproate to then find out that I have spent a lot of money on a product that isn't what I was looking for, so it seems like the more sensible thing to do. The problem with this is that some of the companies that I have ordered from have been behind on their deliveries, which has then had a knock on effect on my time schedule as I have not been able to purchase some of the main materials that I need in order to progress. I have been sourcing fabric from many different sites, as well as mandors and comparing the prices, but it isnt they same as having a physical piece to touch and analyze. This process has taekn much longer than I'd expected as I did not take in to account that fact that there might be problems like these along the way that would ultimately affect my schedule. If I was to go back I would have given myself more time to research fabric earlier in the project so that by the time I cam round to construction I would have everything ready for me to start stright away. However, as I said before, it has taken me a long time to research in to materials therefore I couldnt really have ordered samples any sooner than I did. I think that in future this it an aspect which I will have in the back of my mind when I am planning to order material for a project, I will make sure to give myself plenty of time so that I am not waiting around and so that it doesnt put my time schedule out of sync. This has been quite a significant learning point about organisation which I will take on board for future projects.

Rushing ahead

I am very annoyed at my sitation right now because I ended up spending a full day working on the pattern block for my tunic, for me to then find out that I had made a crucial mistake at the very beginning. This then had a knock on effect when I stared to draft the sleeve, it was at this point when I knew that something wasnt quite right as the sleeve head was way too wide and short. I then ended up spending a substantial amount of time trying to suss out the error, which eventually appeared at the first instruction to add 4.5cm to the scye depth, which I did not do.
I think I am more annoyed about the fact that my time is very limited as it is and I dont want to be making silly little errors which I shouldn't really be making in the first place as a third year student. I am annoyed at myself for rushing ahead and not reading over the instructions more carefully. This could have been avoided, and the lesson learnt here is it is always better to read things twice as the mistakes that you make can effect your process later down the line. In regards to the style of costume that I am making, because of military uniforms being so precisely made not to mention the price of the material being rediculously expensive I cant really afford to make these sort of mistakes. I have decided to start again tomorrow, and I will make sure to take my time with the new pattern as well as with all the other parts of the process.

Sleeve investigations

Shoulder pad examples:

You can see here that these are very modern types of shoulder pads with the use of modern materials. It is said that should pads originally were made from horsehair. I can see myself making me own shoulder pads with the left over wadding from the lining so that I can have padding that is the correct shape and thickness needed for this particular coat. My plan is to gauge this during my next fitting. 

I came across these examples of should padding and sleeve heading. From what I can gather these have been removed from old suits are are very interesting to investigate. 

The use of canvas/linen to give the heading extra structure.

This looks like hand stitching to me.

I decided to do a practise shoulder with scrap wool fabric before I proceeded to the cutting the final sleeve. I thought that this would be a wide choice because of the fact that some materials sit differently when cut, in my case I knew that that there was a chance that wool would compared to the canvas toile fabric. If theres anything that I've learn't it is better to be extra cautious when insure of the circumstances.

I thought I would pin the should pad in first to look at the shape that it gives. From what I can see it creates a good amount of thickness. This may be the right size of padding that i'll ultimately need for the final garment. I also decided to buy sleeve heading from mandors; thats good about this stuff is that it has a layer of stiffened canvas which gives it an even better structure.



Having the sleeve heading and the shoulder pad has added alot of extra structure and thickness, but my main concern is how much would actually be needed for this particular size and style of garment. It is difficult to judge when I don't have my model in call whenever I need him.

Unfortunately the sleeve head test did not go the way I was expecting. Instead of the sleeve head sitting with a lip, it fell below the shoulder seam. I eventually came to the conclusion that it must have been because there is not enough ease in the sleeve. This does make sense because I felt that there could have been slightly more ease when putting the toile together however I didn't see it as an issue as the time because it looked perfectly fine during the fitting. However, this is a prime example of how fabrics can sit differently due to their nature e.g thickness in this case. I made the right decision in doing a tester because I now know what would have happened if I hadn't, I would have wasted very expensive fabric. In future I will be more inclined to make this choice as it will help my journey in the long run by correcting mistakes before it becomes too difficult to do so. Another issue could be that the thickness of the shoulder pad and the sleeve heading combined with the fabric actually creates too much bulk causing the sleeve to lie flat and pulled with no room. The next step is to reconfigure the paper pattern adding more ease before I progress to cutting the final sleeves.

These are some very formative links that I have come across in my research that guide you with how to set in a sleeve which will be very useful for me for the future progression on to the final piece.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7370831@N07/5418961364/in/set-72157625924156568/
http://everythingsewing.blogspot.ca/2011/11/setting-in-sleeves.html
http://thesewingdivas.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/sleeve-heads/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7370831@N07/5178543224/in/set-72157625253865870/
http://tuttofattoamano.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/sleeves

very interesting video to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qps2Uy4qSWw&feature=player_embedded#at=134

Sample of cuff decoration. 

Ideally I would have prefered to have used my Russia braid for this sample however there still is no sign of its arrival. I would like to use this decoration on my final costume piece... I like the idea of it being quite simple but still an interesting decorative piece.

example of cuffs

As I have already stated, this outfit is not going to be historically exact as I feel that it is important for me to investigate..

As you can see these Hussars captains from the 7th and 8th French Regiments have rows of Chevrons as a symbol of their high status in the ranks. However, I personally feel that I should approach this aspect in a more simplistic way due to factors such as budget; these laces are barely affordable for a student therefore for me in this present time I would work out much more affordable for me to use Russia braid only. If I were going for authenticity I would know what I would need to do in future, but as this is an experimental first time recreation I know where my limits are.