Necklines and doo-das.

Having pretty much completed my under kirtle, I could now do the neckline on my shift (instructions on this will follow when I make the 2nd one as 1st one was made before this blog). I made a small hole big enough to JUST get my head through, and then put on my kirtle. I pinned along the kirtle neckline to where it came up to on the shift and then pinned an inch above that as that was where I would want my shift neckling to (roughly) come up to.

I decided the easiest way to neaten the shift neckline was to make some binding - this was about 40" in length, and there was more than enough to go round the neckline. When I had made the binding, I blackworked the edge and blackworked a line just below it. I then had the guts to cut the neckline.

I looked to see how big the neckline was cut in The Tudor Tailor. In there, it had the neckline 6" down from the top of the shift and when I measured it against my pins, that was roughly how much I would want it to be. The width of the neckline was 2" either side from the basic neck hole, I thought that would be a bit too wide, so I made it about 1 1/4". I rounded off the back of the neckline 1 1/2" inches from the original neck hole I had. I then pinned the binding around the neckline, folding it at the corners, and sewed it with backstitch in black thread - just to add a bit more decoration!

Afterwards, I got out my black velvet trim, ready to go round the edge of my under kirtle. The velvet trim will be seen and the gown will be a little shorter than the kirtle. I folded the trim in half (this is 72mm trim) and pinned along the creased edge so I knew where the middle was. I then pinned the trim (starting at the back) and lined the pins in the trim to the edge of the kirtle neckline. Once it was pinned on, I first sewed down the outside edge (the side of the trim that will be seen) and then the inside. It now looks a little something like this:

As for the 'doo-da'. Now, I have shoulder length hair that's all feathered and layered and it's a real pain to try and do anything with, let alone plait it and curl it round on the back of my head (which is the Tudor thing to do). So, as I'll be wearing a French hood, I've decided to make a special 'doo-da' that will sit on my head and hold the hood up and on. All it is, is a homemade 'Alice' band that's an inch wide and big enough for the head. Then I traced around my French hood toile crecent and cut two out. I sewed around the edge with about a 1cm seam and left a hole at the bottom. Once turned the right way out, I stuffed the crescent so it was well padded and stitched up the opening. I then sewed the crescent onto the band...and hey presto, it works! I think I might patent it!