The Hundred Years' Wardrobe

When we last saw the mold for this project, it had just come out of the oven, firm but squishy in the middle. At this point I still needed to carve a sprue so I could pour the metal in. If I had done this when the dough was still wet, it probably would have worked fine. If I had waited until everything was bone dry, it probably would have worked fine. Instead, I had a dry shell with a doughy inside, which was not at all inclined to cut smoothly. I tore out a vaguely funnel shaped chunk and hoped for the best. Things were not looking good for the home team. The inside of the sprue looked awfully moist still, and I knew that moisture and hot metal did not go well together. How would I dry things out in there? Propane torch? Sure, why not?

Mirrored from Lorenzo's Workshop.

I needed to make a new belt to go with the Alborghetti suit, so I found a new type of belt hardware to play with. Serafina came down today to work on some of her casting, so I cranked out a quick mold that I thought might do the trick. The extant piece I’m emulating has a lion face, with a perpendicular loop on one side for the belt hook and a wide rectangular loop on the other for the belt. Rather than make two molds for the two different belt loops, I tried to make a single mold that could be turned into either one. The owl face is from the household badge.
( Pictures! )

Mirrored from Lorenzo's Workshop.

Last night I tested how the doublet and trunk hose would work together. I pinned the trunk hose foundation to the lacing strip on the doublet, then put everything on and tried to sit down. The pins in the back immediately popped out. Discouraged but still hopeful, I went back and basted the doublet and hose together instead, and this time it seemed to work much better. I went ahead and covered the waistband with black wool, and plan to put eyelets in it sometime this week. I’ll also start working on binding the edges of the doublet and putting in buttonholes. Also sleeves. Each piece will bring me closer to the final fit of the whole suit. Finishing the trunk hose will probably happen last.

Something else that concerned me was whether the looser fit of the doublet would affect how my belt would sit at the waistline. The good news is that I think the belt won’t have any problem staying in place. The bad news is that my current belt is a good bit too short and can’t easily be lengthened. Since I sand cast the current clasp, I can’t just pour up another one easily. Instead I plan to make a new clasp in a stone mold. I looked at several different styles for the new clasp, and I think I’m leaning toward this one:

It will be easier to cast the loop if I don’t have to mess with rivets, and I’ll be able to move it to another belt more easily. Rather than casting a closed loop, I think I’ll make a flat bar and bend it into a loop. I can replace the lion head with an owl face as well, though it’ll take a little trickery to be able to cast both sides out of one mold. I have some ideas about how to manage that. I may just use the old S-hook for now until I decide I really want to make a new one. It would take a well-registered two-sided mold, which is hassle that I’ll avoid as long as I can.

Mirrored from Lorenzo's Workshop.

After all the trimming, filing, and drilling, the buttons still had some rough spots and edges, and I didn’t want to spend a million years trying to find them all and polish them. Instead, I tied the buttons up into four bunches with hemp cord, stuck them in a sock, and ran the whole thing through the dryer. They came out shiny and smooth, with all the detail on the button faces still intact. Lacking a dedicated tumbler, this seems to be the next best thing.

Also, a picture of the large buttons:

Mirrored from Lorenzo's Workshop.

I’ve been finishing a big pile of buttons, and I’ve decided that I need to make some serious design changes next time I make them.

1. While the fabricated shanks seem to be historically plausible, they’re a giant pain to do. I think I’ll make another mold back with integral button loops. It’ll be fiddly to make, but worth it for all the finishing time it’ll save.
2. I need to make the buttons thicker so they can have wider edges. Finishing the thin edges is annoying. Making things too thin is nothing new for me; I really need to stop it.

Mirrored from Lorenzo's Workshop.

This past weekend I showed Philippa how to do pewter casting, and she made a whole pile of bling for her Eleanora de Toledo gown. I’m looking forward to seeing how the rough castings turn out once they’re all assembled.

All of my old brache (linen drawers) have been wearing out, so I decided I needed to make some more. I’d been using a pattern with two tubular legs and a strip that went all the way through the middle from front to back. It works well enough, but tends to wear through at the top of the inner thigh. This time I switched to a square gusset in the crotch, and so far it seems comfortable enough, with less bulk at the waist. This weekend will be the test to see how it works in real life. I have high hopes.

I also finally started a pair of wool hose. I have some tropical weight worsted wool suiting that I bought at least a year ago from fabric.com. It’s very light and drapey, and I’ve been putting off using it for far too long. I cut out the legs (on the bias, of course) using my trusty old hose pattern, sewed up the back seam, and pinned them on to an old doublet. I am ashamed at how long it’s taken me to try this, as they look, feel, and fit wonderfully. We’ll see if that remains true once I get the feet and lacing holes in, but I suspect these will be my favorite hose. One step closer to a decent pair of full hose…