On Tue, 25 Apr 2006, Lorraine Herr wrote: > I'm looking for advice about vertical spacing of holes on the front > lacing of a gothic fitted dress. Three weeks of fittings, sewing, > bleeding, etc., and it's down to the finish line! Has anyone got > thoughts about how far apart (vertically) the holes ought to be? I > know they should be offset, and I think about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch in > from the front edge of the dress. However, ANY advice would be > appreciated!!!!!
In my experience, one inch apart is too little. I do them around 3/4 inch. I've noticed that this happens to be the width you'd get if you used your finger-width to space them, so I wouldn't be surprised if the medieval seamstress didn't bother measuring. However, I do, and I mark them all (both sides) before I ever start sewing, for fear that I'll end up with the two sides not matching up correctly at the end. Offsetting: I make the top two holes at the same height, about 1/2 inch from the top. Then on one side I go down at 3/4-inch intervals. On the other side I go down 3/8 inch for the first one, and then at 3/4-inch intervals. This allows me to have offset spiral lacing up the front, without the top coming together unevenly. (I saw this on a statue somewhere; if I was smart, I took a picture!) I put them a little further in than you have noted -- about 1/2 to 5/8 inch from the edge. Then the spiral lacing allows me to overlap the allowances, so as the lacing shifts over the course of the day, it never gaps enough to show chemise. However, if you didn't allow for that much overlap when you fitted, don't change it now! You will have to use the same overlap you planned for originally. (I generally mark my center line during fittings and pin on that, and then when I sew it up, I add half the overlap amount beyond the line for each half of the dress.) Somewhere around here I have a post I wrote about eyelets. Let me find it... OK, there were four of them. I'm copying them below. (If I can ever get my husband to update my webpage, I'll add another batch of GFD-related posts! I've been saving them.) --Robin four old posts follow Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 21:01:23 -0600 (CST) From: Robin Netherton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Historical Costume <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [h-cost] Lacing Eyelets On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Had to get on this bit. When making eyelets, the quick way is to use > grommets, what is the historical way? Are they like round botton > holes or what? Hand-done eyelets are so easy even I can do them. I do lousy buttonholes, but my eyelets are perfectly round and even. And they go very fast -- and never pull out like grommets can. There are some examples of extant ones in the Museum of London's "Textiles and Clothing" book and they're pretty much as one would expect -- round openings held open with overcast stitch, if I'm remembering right. This came up on this list a few years ago, and I just dug out a post I made then, about the method that works well for me. Here's what I wrote: <<First I poke a hole with the awl. Then I take something long and tapering, such as a chopstick or the handle of an artist's paintbrush, and push it through with a quick, sharp stroke. This enlarges the hole and firms it up. It also makes each hole uniform, as the chopstick will tend to go to the same depth each time. Then I use my nail scissors to snip just one or occasionally two threads from each layer on each side of the hole (not top and bottom, just the sides). I stab again with the chopstick to firm up the hole again, and then before the hole relaxes again, I give it a series of about six quick whipstitches all around the circle. That holds the shape of the circle in place while I do the second, neater round. For the second round you can use either buttonhole or whipstitch, I think; it may depend on your period, but my understanding is that medieval and renaissance use both methods. Using the awl and chopstick will give you nice round holes, and the stitching tends automatically to make a round hole. It's really hard to do otherwise! >> To the above I'll add a note: The reason you clip a thread or two on the sides is to keep the fabric from puckering between the eyelets. This applies only to a series of eyelets in a row along the fabric grain. You see, you're mostly just pushing the threads apart to create the hole, not cutting or punching a hole. The unbroken threads keep the hole very strong and stable and means you don't get threads pulling away from the hole (a real problem with modern grommet-setting, which involves punching a hole and cutting threads). However, if you do a lot in a row, the vertical threads that would have run right through the middle of those holes, down the whole row, have to "detour" around each one, and end up pulling tight and puckering along the line of the eyelets. Clipping those particular threads prevents that problem. Don't clip the threads that go perpendicular to the row of eyelets. --Robin Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 00:27:09 -0600 (CST) From: Robin Netherton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Historical Costume <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [h-cost] Lacing Eyelets On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > thanks you and Robin make it sound easy, so will try this way instead > of grommets as they do tend to pull out over time. theresa Do some tests on scrap fabric first, to get a sense of things like stitch size, hole size, etc. and to get your rhythm. Then start your eyelets from the bottom, where people won't be looking closely. By the time you reach the top you'll be a pro. Something else I do: Since I'm usually working on lined fabric (or with a facing behind the eyelets) I run a line of basting, either hand or machine, along the line where I want the eyelets to run, before I start working. That holds the fabrics together and also ensures I get the line of eyelets perfectly straight. After all the eyelets are done, I pull the basting. It's OK if the basting gets caught in your eyelets; just clip the basting off close when you're all done. I do the basting before I mark the eyelets. Then I take a pencil or marking chalk on the wrong side and make small hatch marks along the basting line at even intervals; these form little X's where my eyelets will be. --Robin Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 08:02:14 -0600 (CST) From: Robin Netherton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Historical Costume <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: LACING--was Re: [h-cost] Lacing Eyelets On Thu, 24 Mar 2005, J Schueller wrote: > Ok, now that we are on this topic, I have dutifully put in lacing > holes to spiral lace in all my dresses for the last wo years, and have > achieved a problem (besides lacing it up!). How does one tie it off > at the top or bottom? With only one lace, one can not make a bow. > This is compounded by the fact that most of my lacing is in the back > and I need random people to tie me off, so I would love a good way to > *describe* ow to tie off spiral lacing. Interestingly, I've never needed to tie off. I snug up the lacing completely (this usually means waiting about five minutes after I've fully laced, and retightening, because the dress relaxes -- I do my hair or something in the meantime) and then pass the thread through the top two holes a couple more times. I then roll the rest of the lace around my fingers into a bundle and stuff it down my cleavage, and slip the needle into the lining in such a way that it doesn't poke. And then I forget about it for the rest of the day. I've never known it to slip. I should note that I do my holes offset so that the lace moves on a diagonal from one side to the other, and then I make the top two holes even: o o o o o o o o o o One thing nice about the spiral is that you can overlap the sides of the dress, so any "adjustment" that the dress makes over the day won't cause a gap. --Robin Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 11:39:38 -0600 (CST) From: Robin Netherton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Historical Costume <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [h-cost] placing of Eyelets (was Lacing Eylets On Thu, 24 Mar 2005, Genie Barrett wrote: > Some Italian laces have staggered holes, and then many other countries > have the holes lined up. > > How do I choose... I've seen both straight and staggered on English/French/Flemish 14th-15th c., so I don't think it's a national issue. Do what you like ;-) > and if I choose the staggered ones, is there some sort of ratio that > makes the top fabric edges line up? > > Last time I tried, they were always between half and one inch off. I > know that some of it is the method of lacing, (eg. wrap vs. > criss-cross). But I'd like to do the single wrap up the edge. Not sure about ratio, but I always mark my eyelets before sewing them. I start marking from the top, making the top level on each side at the same distance -- say, half an inch down from the top edge. Then on one side, I go down in even increments; on the other side, I go down half an increment for the first eyelet below the top one, then full increments for the rest. The result is as I drew earlier: o o o o o o o o o o o o Those even eyelets at the top seem to be enough to square everything off. I've seen that arrangement on at least one sculpture. Interestingly, I've also seen some paintings that show spiral lacing on parallel (not offset) eyelets, and the bodice edges meet unevenly. I suppose for an underdress this doesn't matter, but I think I'd personally feel a little skewed wearing it ;-) Flemish paintings show some interesting variations that seem to represent a rather casual practice: Evenly placed eyelets, but the lace going offset, skipping every other hole each side; or lacing that skips an occasional hole, so that the spiral goes slanted in one direction for part of the stretch, then slanted in the other direction. Oh, on marking technique: Realistically, I know they probably didn't measure. I've stopped using numeric measurements for almost every part of my fitted dress construction, and I think I'm at about the point where I don't need to measure eyelets either. I imagine the medieval seamstress spaced eyelets with her finger or thumb, all the way down the row. --Robin _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
