A Comedy of Errors: The Summary
I called this outfit my Comedy of Errors.
It was my first foray into any sort of clothing sewing, so naturally, I chose one of the most complicated things I could possibly do: Tudor. Yes, I AM a glutton for punishment, thank you for asking.
So anyway, basically everything that could have gone wrong did. I'll get into that in more specifics on each individual post and how I'd have done things differently. Basically it was so bad that I don't think I have a picture of the full ensemble because I couldn't wear the full ensemble for more than about half an hour at a time.
I did however learn a lot which is why I haven't entirely written off this experience.
The things that went right:
Honestly, it was wearable. It wasn't comfortable, but at the end of the whole project, I still had a smock, kirtle, gown, foresleeves, and coif that were technically wearable.
Colors were cool. I plan to remake a dark red dress again in the future. Gotta love those jewel tones.
I made a lot of progress on learning how to hand sew and finish certain things.
Lastly and most importantly, I discovered blackwork. Which I love. With all my little heart.
The things that went wrong:
The fit was atrocious. There was so little give, even though I'd tried selecting the pattern based on my measurements. Since then I have learned about how to custom fit things, and that won't happen again.
So. Many. Mishaps. There were shipping delays, and lost orders, and incorrectly written instructions, and missing parts of the pattern and holy cow. Everything that could have gone wrong did.
Pleating on the ground is stupid. It is dumb. Especially when you have cats. I have yet to procure a solution for this.
Sleeves were an issue. The foresleeves made no sense and barely fit with the actual sleeves which were both way too long and way too skinny. The kirtle sleeves were flimsy and made it impossible to get into and out of the kirtle so I ditched them. My jury-rigged removable sleeve combo was disastrous.
Headwear was odd but I don't think I ever plan to have my hair long enough to pull off the style of coif I attempted.
All in all, I still have a lot to learn, but boy did this project school me. I ended up cannibalizing parts of the project for my subsequent attempts after 2 wears. RIP the Comedy of Errors.
