Gamurra
Fitting
November 10, 2003 - A few of the paintings of the slightly bustier ladies suggest a self-supporting bodice. Since I'm quite busty, I decided a self-supporting bodice was a very good idea. I took a class on pattern drafting from Marion recently and she helped me make a pattern for a supported bodice. I dusted off the pattern tonight, cut out a new bodice from some linen weave cotton/poly (to better simulate linen than the poly/cotton I bought for the class) and had Darling pin me into it. These are pics of the bodice mock-up after it was pinned and repinned so that I was lifted and supported, but with very little wrinkling. (My first attempt at the class had lots of wrinkling, we figure cause the fabric was wrong).
November 17, 2003 - This is actually the third fitting. I forgot to take pics of the second. I fit it over the my camacia for the second and third. For the third fit Darling pinned me while I was lying on the couch, so that we didn't have to fight gravity. I like the fit much better. Up until this point we had forgotten to check the back. I had him dart the back so it wasn't so poofy. Next I will incorporate the few changes from this fitting into a triple layer bodice with lacing holes, to make sure I get the fit with lacings correct.
November 24, 2003 - This is the first laced fitting. I made a triple layer bodice from the last pattern. I took the area under the bosum in a little too much and need to draft that back into the pattern. It wrinkles a bit, but I think the wieght of the skirt will take care of that. The only thing that really bothered me was how the spaces between the lacing puckered. I had the lacing pretty close together. I'm happy that I got the neckline even. I forgot to use a ruler before taking off the last fitting and had to eyeball based on my sketchy marks as to where I wanted the new neckline to be. You can see by comparing to the previous pictures that I widened the neckline and made the straps thicker. I also made the armscye smaller without fitting fitting first and I think it works pretty well. Looking a little closer to the period silouette I'm aiming for.
December 1, 2003 - I camped out in the laundry room for 15 hours yesterday, but, boy, was it worth it. I had to dye this piece of partially faded linen a nice red to make my wearable mock-up gamurra. I soaked it in the tub for three days and then agitated it in the dye bath in my washing machine, getting up every 10 minutes to reset the agitator. I am so exhausted. But look how gorgeous, even better in person. And soft!! I tried Milsoft for the first time, an industrial strenght fabric softener for getting rid of the harsh touch that dyeing usually leaves behind. Its softer than before I started dyeing it. I'm in lust with this fabric. So here is a before and after. Forgot to get a photo before I put the linen in the tub.
December 14, 2003 - Finally done with fittings. Now I just need to figure out which end of the fabric to start cutting from. When it was dyed it came out of the dryer with a hole in the center of the yardage, so I am going to do some creative cutting to see if I can't get the whole to be close to a cutting line so I don't lose too much.
December 23, 2003 - Had a very busy weekend. Went to Pendleton's Wool Mill Outlet in Washougal, WA and bought over THIRTY (30)! yards of VERY light weight wool for $1.50 a yard! Yes, that is not a typo. $1.50 a yard. The thing is they are all remnants, so I had to hunt through the pile to find remnants that would be long enough for the skirt pieces. I figured I need at least 1 1/3 yd, but tried for 1 1/2 yd pieces just to be safe. I got a black twill, a lt. green evenweave and a extremely soft evenweave in yard-dyed brown shades (technically the fabric is multi-colored browns but the yard was dyed that way before it was woven). I got enough in each color to make a new gamurra (gee I seem to be planning on making several gamurra's now) and enough to make some wool stockings out of the green.
I have now decided that I am going to line the red linen with the black twill wool and make a reversible gamurra. I am going to use the red silk thread that should hopefully be in my mailbox today, to do the eyelet stitches and then I am going to take the black silk paint we have and "dye" the thread on the black side of the bodice. I have even figured out how to make the invisible skirt lacing holes work for both sides.
Now your probably wondering why I am considering lining a LINEN dress with wool, instead of the other way around. Well Darling is allergic to wool and this way I can have the warmth of the wool without having to stay 10 feet away from him.
Also, I went to the bead store by my house on Sunday. They had hand soldered copper jump rings in the perfect size for lacing rings. I took them home to show Darling and he informed me that he had told me once before he could solder any jump ring closed I wanted. Shows how I listen.
I also lied about having done my last fitting. I went upstairs last night to finally cut out the bodice pieces out of the red linen, the new black wool twill and the canvas interlining and put my last fitting on one last time to double check and, sure enough, I found several problems that needed to be redrafted. The most important being the armscye. When we repinned the bodice straps to straighten out the v-neck back (I'm now starting to understand why the v-neck doesn't show up much in later period Italian, its a pain in the neck), the armscye got smaller and raised higher. Pretty uncomfortable. So I had to redraft the armscye and included the new placement of the bodice straps (which had migrated backwards again so I had to cut the toile at the shoulder top and draft the back piece with this extra strap sewn on). So I cut out a new toile last night to double check that the armscye and strap placement will work. Didn't quite get it pinned, but that is for tonight. Hopefully, if no further fittings are required I can get the real fabric cut out tonight.
Also, when lacing up the toile bodice I used a heavier cord and that reduced the buckling of the bodice edge due to the ladder lacing by quite a bit. So I don't think I am going to need as much extra support in the bodice edge as long as I use a decent sized lace.
December 29, 2003 - Actually got the latest fitting sewn together before Christmas but I was so frustrated I haven't wanted to type anything until now. Somehow when I made the latest fiting I drafted the side seams wrong and they go diagonally from the middle bottom of my armscye towards the bottom back of the bodice rather than straight down from the armscye. Not only was this annoying but it made the bodice painfully smaller. I couldn't be laced into for more than a few minutes before I started having pain in my lower midsection. The bust part fits perfectly. I had cut the opening a half inch smaller on both sides because I want my camacia to show through. Even with this opening the bodice still supports wonderfully. So now I have to make a composite of the last two paper patterns to try and draft some room back in for my midsection.
Thats's not going to happen for awhile because tonight and tomorrow night me and another friend are going to be working on stocking patterns
Gamurra - On to the construction of the bodice
January 3, 2004 - Well it fits. Not exactly right, but with me being so big busted its going to take a lot more tailoring skills then I currently have to get it the way I want. But that is for the next dress. For now I have a comfortable pattern that has most of the major elements I wanted. Now to go cut out the real fabric *S*
1488 Italian
Dress
Camicia -
Gamurra -
Maniche -
Fazzoletto -
Giornea -
Hair and Make-up -
Cuffia -
Stockings -
Scarpette -
Jewelry
Male
Shirt -
Underwear - Farsetto - Maniche - Calze - Giornea - Scarpette - Hat - Accessories
