Coronation Garb for Abran and Anya
When our King and Queen announced that their reign was to be 14th Century Spanish, Bea and I were incredibly excited. Any excuse to bring the joys of Spain to the populace of Atlantia is a good one as far as we’re concerned, and getting to do so for monarchs we both hold in high regard is even better.
The final designs in all their glory. Photo credit: Thomas Beebe.
When they asked Bea to make their Coronation garb, she was naturally thrilled and jumped feet first into the project. As any good apprentice does, I jumped with her. 14th Century anything isn’t really my bailiwick, but after a bunch of research and some truly inspiring pieces (such as a tiny head purse I NEED to have), the design came together.
We had a couple of goals for this garb:
Comfort. Having pretty stuff is great, but if they aren’t comfortable and don’t feel good in the items, it doesn’t matter how good it looks.
Usable for after their reign. The styles we chose are things that are tailored more to their personal colors than to Atlantia, and that was deliberate. This isn’t just a King and a Queen’s clothing, this is clothing for real people.
Coordinating but not matching. We wanted each outfit to have its own feel and personality but still look like it was meant to go with the other one.
Bea’s Design Concepts are some of my favorite parts of this project. Getting to see how the source examples were sorted through and how she chose specific design features is always a joy. It’s a major plus that her design choices opened some doors for trying or practicing some A&S that I’ve had my eye on for quite a while.
Our first task was the patterns themselves. Most of my experience making patterns is on myself and is a highly trial and error process. We went down and Bea walked me through her process of how she makes patterns through draping with Anya’s dress first. This allowed us a) to discuss design choices amongst the three of us as we were going and b) for me to practice trouble shooting and identifying queues of fit issues before they happen. I found the whole exercise to be incredibly educational. Once we had her pattern done, we used an existing tunic of Abran’s that had the fit we were aiming for and traced that out on to fabric for a pattern.
Photo credit: Margretta
The next fun piece was fabric stamping. I’ve wanted to do a stamping project for about a year now but have not yet had an opportunity. We decided to stamp her overdress to approximate the somewhat random pattern seen in the concept art. Bea had a genius idea to use circular sponge brushes as a stamp, and those University classes I took on fabric stamping finally came in handy for picking out paint. She grabbed a can of latex indoor paint and it’s held up exactly as well as we wanted it to. For ease of stamping, I took the three sponge brushes and with the help of copious amounts of hot glue, was able to fashion a single stamp out of them. Bea determined their placement and did the bulk of the stamping, and I followed behind to do touch ups and make sure each stamp was fully opaque against the blue. The gold really pops and retained a lot of its lustre after drying.
Bea then knocked out the construction of the underdress. This allowed us to do a second fitting session in person at Fall University. I’m very pleased with the fit we were able to achieve with this dress and happy we got to do some fitting of the actual garment too. It was a great opportunity to see how the changes we made to the pattern actually affected the finished product. At the same time, we also did some measurements for his clothing, to confirm that the pattern as drafted would work.
As Coronation drew near, we moved onto the finishing stages and that’s where my work came in. I was responsible for the following items on her underdress:
Finishing the lining on the bell cuffs. All this really entailed was finishing the bottom hem and top stitching.
Attaching the buttons to the cuffs and neckline
Adding the goldwork. There were a few aspects to this, the primary being the button holes made out of gold cord. I managed to have extra time though and was able to add some to both the neckline and on the hem to add some pop to the silk there.
Eyelets down the front to allow her to lace the dress up.
Adding the silk hem facing to the bottom.
I started with the cuffs. Since the silk was already there, I wanted to make sure that got stabilized first and in place so I could start the goldwork later on. This process went relatively quickly. I whip stitched the bottom of the silk cuff down and then top stitched around the borders. While minor, I’m actually really proud of the top stitching. The work is neat and I was able to keep the stitches very small and unobtrusive against the silk background.
The completed eyelets.
After that, I moved on to eyelets. This is where I confess I actually really enjoy doing eyelets. I know many people don’t, but for some reason they’re so satisfying to me. I think it may have to do with the fact that they make the garment actually functional and wearable finally. Anyway. I used my usual method starting with an awl, then followed up with a US 11 knitting needle to stretch them to size. I find this size works well from a stability standpoint as well as just about any type of lacing can fit through them without snagging on thread. After the holes were stretched, I used a blanket stitch to stitch them in place. The eyelets were spaced for spiral lacing and there are 13 on each side. Getting through the multiple layers of linen was a challenge at times, so their shape isn’t perfect, but I am quite pleased with the spacing on this set. They lined up well where I wanted them.
Once the eyelets were done, it was time for buttons. Bea chose these adorable filigree shank buttons that I just love. They add such a pop of color against the red and are sturdy to boot. I added 12 buttons up each of the cuffs to allow ease of donning and doffing of the garment. We discussed and also decided to add two at the neckline to hold the silk facing there closed where we did not apply eyelets. I tried to keep these evenly spaced down the length of the cuffs and I think was relatively successful at that, but the real test was the goldwork.
The applied gold cord as buttonholes
I’ve done some goldwork before (see this project from June of 2021) but it’s certainly been a while. For the goldwork here, we used a polyester cord that was couched into place instead of a gold wrapped thread, but the principle was the same. The most important goldwork to add was down the cuffs. I started this gold going along the seam at the wrist where the bell cuff was attached to the sleeve, then went down the length of the cuff opening, creating loops in the cord as I went to serve as button holes. The effect is everything Bea and I wanted it to be. The cord proved an interesting challenge in that it is fairly stiff, so I had to fit it fairly exactly to the circumference of the buttons to get it to go over the button, but not so loose as to have them slip off. When there’s tension applied to the sleeve (i.e. she’s wearing it), this was more successful than just when it was flat. I also used the cord to create button holes for the two buttons at the neckline.
Then came the true challenge of this project: the hem facing. I am not too proud to admit that this was a really difficult aspect. The silk chosen is a brilliant match for the fabric but it is stiff and sturdy. Getting a straight piece of facing to fit well to a curved skirt hem was as difficult as that sounds. There was a lot of pinning, re-pinning, re-re-pinning, and minor threats made against the silk. However, at the end of the day, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect result. I knew some amount of folding and re-jiggering was going to be necessary so I decided to start on the right side at the back, so I could ensure that at the very least, that side looks perfect. We set the hem so that it hung just a little below the end of the linen base to even out the hem and bring the dress to floor length. I folded the top 1/4” down and then whip stitched it in place. Then the magic happened. Somehow, I got lucky enough that when all the folds were in place and even, I was able to move them just so so that the pattern matched. I just about cried. While not perfect, it really is the most perfect outcome I could have imagined for this part of the dress.
The right side pattern matching in all its glory.
The inside of the hem and its matching.
When the right side of the hem was done, I settled into the wrong side. I fully admit I was ready for this to not be nearly as neat, but honestly with one or two exceptions, I’m very pleased with how the wrong side went together. I made sure to attach it at or under the attachment point of the right side so that I could pick up only the linen and no stitches from the wrong side would be visible and was content to let that happen. However, the fabric fairies weren’t done yet, and the inside managed to have the patterns line up almost as well as the outside. Truly, I could not have asked for a better outcome yet again.
The even better news about the skirt was that it got finished about a day ahead of schedule. My original plan was to finish the skirt on Thursday and use Friday night after work to press and steam the dress so it would be nice and neat. I was able to finish the silk itself on Wednesday though and that left me with some time on my hands. I decided on two things: first to add some additional gold against the neckline facing and the hem and second to do a test patch to see if I could reasonably waterproof the silk hem in advance of what promised to be a very rainy Coronation day.
Please ignore the very obvious amount of times I stab myself in the finger while sewing…
The extra goldwork went smoothly and quickly and only included one dicey game of thread chicken (I won). I love how that little bit of shine makes the silk pop even more from the dress. The little bit of extra bling isn’t visible under the overdress but me knowing it was there made me quite happy.
The waterproofing was also a great bonus. I usually use Scotchguard spray on my shoes and backpacks for work but I’ve never tried it on silk before. I cut a patch test and sprayed several layers and between each, tested the patch for water resistance. Since this is a woven fabric, I did not expect perfect water tightness, but I was pleasantly pleased with how well even the single layer of silk performed. I ultimately decided to do two coats of spray on both the inside and outside of the hem facing. I think it held up well during the day and should protect the fabric nicely from both water and dirt.
The finished dress on its hanger.
Seeing my work on someone else isn’t something that happens to me often but this was so very worth it. I thought all the results were exceptional and I am so grateful to have been able to work on this project with such wonderful artisans and friends.
