first look

Now that garment was almost all in one piece, I could put it on the dress form and see how things were looking:




The collar was just pinned into place, but I could already spot a few minor trouble spots.

1) major collar roll:

I was kicking myself for not drafting a proper undercollar pattern that could help roll the collar under instead of just cutting two collar patterns. I briefly considered redrafting another pattern, but I decided that since I needed to wear the robe in less than 36 hours, I should probably just suck it up and hope that once it was actually attached to the gown and covered by a hood, it would not be so noticeable. To those who might be attempting this, I strongly recommend drafting a separate undercollar pattern.

2) the front undercollar was on the bias and had stretched out quite a bit. I had to ease this back in because I could not recut the collar without scrapping the whole thing and I had already nixed that plan. So I just pinned in the ease and hoped that this would work out:


In my pinning madness, I got a little obsessed with having all my pins "organized"


time was running out before the gown needed to be worn to the hooding ceremony...

everybody loves cartridge pleats!

No really, it's true, they do.

The fussiest bit about the whole gown in the cartridge pleating on the sleeve caps and back yoke. I have never tried them before, but I think they're just going to be tedious, not really hard.

The trick is going to be keeping all my running stitches straight and even. I've purchased so stitch guide tape. It wasn't super expensive, so I'll let you know how it goes. Sometimes you really can find the perfect notion, but I've spent plenty of money of stuff that looks like it's going to fix my problem, but really doesn't do the job.

People who do serious Renaissance costuming are all about these pleats and there are several great tutorials out there about them. Here are two that I've found.

Drea Leed's Elizabethan Costuming Page is a wealth of information. She as a great tutorial about cartridge pleating.

Also, Sempstress has an excellent description of her experiments with padded pleats here. If you costume or draft your own patterns, this is definitely a site worth checking out.

Now here are the last of the pictures and they're all about the pleats.

This is the front of the sleeve cap. Notice how the pleats taper. I imagine that this is done by stopping the running stitches farthest away from the seam a few stitches in from where the stitches closest to the seam will stop. Wow! What a sentence. I do some sketches before I sew so hopefully that will be more clear some day soon.


This one is of the back yoke. Notice how the seam comes together at an angle. This could be tricky. If I don't think I can manage it, I may try this approach from the Snape tutorial. Yvette has, I think, joined the sleeve pleats to the back pleats themselves.


Here are two more pictures about how the sleeve seam works, a front view and a back view respectively.




Attaching and lining the sleeves is going to be a little tricky, so I took some time trying to get good close ups of these areas.

Here is a picture of the way the pleats are stiffened. (You were right, Missa!)


And here's the last one. The lining will be something I'll have to work out. I'll post a drawing of it when I get around to it.



Next time, fabric swatches!

more photo research about the fiddly bits

OK, so here are even more photos that I took of an actual the gown I am trying to replicate.

This is a picture of the hem detail. They have simply turned up the hem, but haven't bothered to try to close up the hem. Given the level of detail in the rest of the garment,I have to assume that this was done for a reason. Must investigate what the reason is.



There are lots of small details to be considered because the robe has to help support and keep in place the hood. Here is a picture of the front of the hood and the front of the gown. There is a loop on the fron tof the hood which can be hooked around a hook in the front of the gown.




Here is a close-up on the top of the zipper:


There is a large hook and eye and a button with a large loop to accommodate the hood.


Also note that the velvet lining is part of the cover for the zipper. This picture is from the bottom of the zipper. It also looks as though the the velvet has been pick-stiched to the robe fabric, although it could have been the effect of the way I was holding it.


The last of the "fiddly bits" is the cord that extend from inside the neck. It comes down to a button and a loop. This is clearly so that the attachments on the hood can hook to it. The thing that confuses me is that I don't know what the cord down the back is doing. Is this just a bit of "fance" or is it because the velvet trim is only attached on one edge and the the cord helps hold down the trim in the back.


If anyone has one of these gowns and knows what this back cord is for and/or could be willing to take a picture of the inside back neck, I would appreciate it.

pictures and questions

OK, here are the pictures I took of the same gown. Despite some differences in the color, it's all the same gown. The gown color is navy with black velvet trim and gold piping. The hood will be provided for me, but I need to accommodate it when I sew the gown.

full view



sleeve


the sleeve has not real cuff, but instead is sewn into the lining, kind of like a bubble skirt.


They have run a length of elastic, sewn only on the top edge, along the hem, which I think is a pretty ingenious idea. It stabilizes the hem without compromising the "bounce" of the crepe (even poly crepe has bounce).


There are many more pictures, but the siren song of the dissertation calls me back. More pictures to come.

pattern resources

So here's what I've got to work with so far:

the Butterick pattern





a web image of the actual robe:




and this awesome costume diary of the drafting and construction of a Snape costume. Snape is shown in robes very similar to academic regalia and the author's pictures of the drafting process will, I think be very helpful.

Lastly, I actually went to the bookstore during the time when regalia rental people were there. They let me take lots of pictures of the doctoral gowns. I will post those as soon as I get the pictures formatted properly.