FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
Moving and Mourning
(click images to to enlarge)
Outline the story …
"And then there is you, Elva The girl with a sigil of a Rider upon her brow Dragon-marked and blessed to be with the wherewithal to perceive all that pains a person and all that will pain them."
Elva, from the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, is born to a member of the rebellion and orphaned as an infant. She's then cursed with an improperly worded blessing, which causes her to "be a shield from misfortune".
Based on my understanding of the character and personal experience with trauma, I inferred that after the fighting ends, Elva would more than likely take the time to mourn, both her losses and the lost time, and to learn to be a child and interact with her peers in the messy, rough ways children play. I tried to incorporate those ideas and the vaguely medieval fantasy setting into my design, while also making a garment that could incorporate into my overall wardrobe plans, and not be too ambitious for my skill level. Thus, the playground ready kirtle mourning gown. The bustling was incorporated as I assumed a child might need the bustling to avoid getting dirty, and the separates were chosen to make it easier to add length for a growing body, or just clean one portion at a time. Black velvet was chosen for its associations with mourning and Elva's proximity to upper classes, as an occasional guard to the Queen.
Outline the construction…
This is a self drafted kirtle bodice with slash and spread flutter sleeves, hand sewn eyelets, tatted lace and eyelet covers, and handmade fingerloop braid closure that ends at the natural waist, and a circle skirt with curtain tape reversible bustling and a hook and eye closure. The sewing was done entirely by hand in a running backstitch, with twill tape sleeve finishes and whip stitched hems and seam finishes.
This is the first bodice I have ever made, and the second really successful project. The biggest hurdles were the back seam, which was painfully difficult to get to lie flat and low-lump, and getting the eyelets to actually be large enough to lace through. I had to resew the eyelets around 3 times, realized my buttonhole thread was brown, not black, and chose to cover them with tatted rings. Tatting is also a new skill to me, as is fingerloop braiding, and incorporating all three new skills was a big challenge, as was meeting the deadline. The bustling ended up not looking great without a petticoat, and with hand sewing, I had no time to make one, so I chose not to photograph it, although I spent quite a bit of time making it line up properly. Getting consistent stitches was also a bit difficult. Trusting that the bodice would actually function was also a struggle.
Special thanks to makers of blogs and video tutorials, and the overall history bounding community. Your help and support has been invaluable.
Lots of hard work and love clearly went into this. I hope you do wear it and enjoy it. The fabric is sumptuous. Best of luck x
The tatted lace is lovely and it’s clear that a great deal of work went into this. Nicely done!
What a lovely result for all the new things you tried. I think the concept works really well. Well done!
This looks so good for a first bodice !! Love the details and the different techniques you’ve used.
So many first-time skills, with such pretty results!
handstitched eyelets… wow! they look really good! and over all handstitched…. really an ambitious firt time project and you mastered it 😀
Great effort, those eyelets came out so well!
That’s such a nice garment. I really like it! Thank you!
Thank you for your openness about the semi-healing nature of this piece. It’s really great and those hand-stitched eyelets (and the re-working 3 times pain haha) – spectacular! 🙂