Getting started

It's important to note that, although I'm sewing them seperately, the kirtle ends up as one single garment. It'll become clear how, later.

The first stage is to cut out the fabric and, with a certain amount of trepidation, I did that last night. The costume notes recommend making kirtle skirts out of one long rectangle of fabric pleated onto the bottom of the bodice. That's certainly the easiest way of doing it. I've decided to make life difficult, and I've three good reasons for that.

• Firstly, I simply don't think I have enough fabric to get away with it. I've got a single fabric width plus the width the bodice pieces were cut out of. That would make a rectangle about two and a half metres long, and it's really not enough. I prefer my kirtle to be about three metres round the bottom and, with this little fabric, the only way I can achieve that is with gored (trapezoid-shape) panels.

• Secondly, I prefer the way a gored skirt flows.

• Thirdly, in my opinion, the bulk of the evidence suggests a gored construction. I'm not going to slow this down by producing documentation but, if you'd like to know more, then email me.

The first stage is to pin the wool to the lining and start to cut that out. After much dithering, I've decided to go with the chocolate coloured linen, not least because it goes better with the pink petticoat I want to wear with this. The plan was that would happen last night, but circumstances got the better of me.

I have a box for pins. It's very nice, it's made of leather, and it's large. So in theory it shouldn't get lost and I shouldn't spent half my time picking pins out of the carpet. Last night it vanished. So, instead of pinning out the skirt, I spent an hour in a quest for the pins. I finally gave up in disgust and went to bed, only to find the pins hiding under the bedding. I know I didn't put them there.

It's at this point I realise I've made a stupid mistake: the wool is different on each side. I've in effect cut two left gores and, because the sides are different, I can't just flip one piece over and call it the right. I'm still not quite sure how I'm going to get out of this one.

3rd April 2004

The solution... This bit may only make sense if you've got the sort of brain that understands geometry. Fortunately maths (unlike, it would appear, fabric cutting) is something I'm good out. Basically I cut a triangle out of one of the gores and rotated it downwards. Once it's in place I'll have a left and right panel, and the funky seam will be down by the hem where it won't be too obvious. Plus, strange seams are period. Honest.

Assembling the Skirt

4th April 2004

I've reversed that triangular piece and sewn it in and, I'm relieved to say, it's solved the problem very nicely. Then I laid the wool pieces right side down on the linen and pinned the heck out of them. I cut out the linen and, using the machine, sewed linen to wool all along what will be the waist edge of the skirt. Then, matching wool to wool and linen to linen, I machine sewed the skirt panels together. I did not sew the front seam because it's so much easier to pleat a long strip than it would be the tube that closing that seam, too, would have created. Then, finally, I sewed the front pieces to their lining down what will be the centre front edge. I turned the skirt right side out and pressed the seams, creating a long strip of fabric shaped like the illustration to the right.

The next stage is to start pleating. Knife pleats and box pleats are both equally acceptable, and there's a good description of both here. I'm using box pleats, largely because I like the look of them.

Starting at the center back, I pinned the half-way point of the skirt top to the center back seam, right sides of the fabric together, and with the skirt laying on the bodice with its edge lined up with the bodice edge. I worked my way round, pinning pleats into place. I don't want to extend the pleats all the way round - I want a flat front to this kirtle - which is fortunate, really, because I don't have the fabric to do so. So, when I ran out of fabric for pleats I just pinned the unpleated skirt panel to the bodice front. I then whipstitched everything into place. It's then a question of repeating with the other side.

Finishing the skirt

6th April 2004

I'm afraid I've been terribly lax about posting updates over the past couple of days, but it doesn't mean I haven't been sewing. The kirtle is finished and, although there are one or two tweaks I want to make, is wearable. In fact, I'm wearing it as I type, and very nice it is, too.

The first stage was to finish off pleating the skirt. I pinned the rest of the pleats and, again, whipstitched them into the place. That involves going through lots of layers of fabric, which is hard work on the fingers, but worth it in the end.

The next stage was to sew up the front. I'd already finished the front edges neatly in the machine, so it was a question of butting the two halves together, whipstitching the lining and, then, ladder stitching the wool. The whipstitched lining gives it strength and the ladder stitch makes the seam look neat on the outside. It's important not to sew up this seam completely; the top six inches or so are left open, and that slit allows me to get the thing on and off. You just might be able to see the slit in the photo to the left and, although it's slightly more visible when I sit down, it'll end up hidden under my apron.

Once the skirt was on I hung the whole thing for a couple of days. Wool, in particular, tends to stretch under its own weight, and I wanted it to do that stretching before I hemmed it. Which I did today. At work, in fact, much to the merriment of everyone there.

Of course, it needs rather more before it starts to look lived in. An apron, a coif, a pouch and a partlet will all help, and at some point I should be posting pictures of the whole lot assembled.

13th October 2004

I stumbled over this image the other day, and it's very exciting. It's a tiny snippet magnified beyond belief from Bruegel's Hay Making (1565). What's great about it is that it's a rare image of a woman without an apron. You can see the front of her skirt and - to my eyes at least - there's what looks like a very clear slit showing a lighter layer underneath running up the front of it. Is this evidence that the simple construction of this kirtle is correct?

The hardest part of sewing is evicting the cat from the fabric.