Constructing a 16th century bodice with the bara system

 So I have said that before I make my next bodice, gown, or whatever I need to make a pattern that actually fits well. I wanted to restart from scratch rather than using my old pattern pieces. Since I made my first 16th century gown I had also heard about the magic of a curved front bodice, that can support the bust, and the bara method. 

Well it was time to see what I could do. The first explanation of making a curved bodice pattern was in a landsknecht facebook group, and that started with a modern bodice that fit well, and then you altered that to remove darts and princess seams. Well I haven't sewn a modern bodice in a long time, and it looked just as fiddly as starting something from scratch. I then found this pattern and tutorial on Magnifica Sylvie la chardonnière blog - Research dumping grounds. I will say this even if I personally haven't felt attracted to the SCA, as an historical costumer I am very much indebted to all the wonderful people in that group who share their knowledge freely with us all through their blogs.

The pattern was built around the "bara"-system. I had heard about it and now I decided that it was time to dwelve into it. The bara system is a measurement and pattern system as used in Spanish manuals from the late 16th century. Mathew Gnagy of The Modern Maker has created a modern instruction on how to use it and published patterns based on it. The basics of it is that you use your own measurements (chest, waist, hip and length) and create a tape for each measurument, that tape is then divided into pieces (quarters, thirds and so on) and since it is all based on your own measurements it makes it possible to make a proportional pattern only using those four tapes. He explains everything in his book "The Modern Maker volume 2"  I also bought volume 1, since I didn't quite understand which one was best. Volume two is all about creating the pattern and lets you set up your own bara system and then use that for several patterns, the volume one is about construction one specific garment, a man's doublet and has more information about the construction of the garment. There is also a volume 3 that is all about the handsewing techniques needed, but I haven't bought that one (yet). In order to make your own bara and understand the pattern drafting you need to buy the Volume 2. 

So on Sunday me and my friend Emma set out to create our bara measurements and make a bodice pattern.

Creating the different bara tapes was quite straight forward, but it was good to have one person doing the dividing of the tape, and one person reading what should be done and then mark it. When doing the third tape it happened that I said "I know what's next", and then Emma said "no, it's this step".

There was one measurement we had a problem with, but thankfully the Research dumping ground pattern had a mathematic formula that we used to calculate it. Then it was an issue of measuring and drawing out lines and connecting the dots. The one issue we had from the bodice pattern was how to find out where to put the waistline on the front, but with the help of the book rather than the pattern we figured it out.

This was my first draft of the bodice, and it is the best bodice pattern I have made. If the plan was to make an overgown I would just have scooped out the neckline and made the armholes larger (I hadn't been too careful when drawing them out so that they ended up small has more to do with me than the pattern).

I want this to be a bust supporting underkistl though, so I needed to get it tighter. To help with the fitting I added a zipper in one of the side seams, so that I could really sew the front closed, and not just pin it to fit. I definitely needed my husband to help me close the zipper, so even if I do the fitting myself it is a two peson job, and knowing that I should probably have put the zipper in the back so that I could fudge with the side seams as well. During this process I also decided that this kirtle will have be closed in the sides, since I haven't done that before and I hope that will help with creating a smooth and supporting front. I am also doing the fitting over a thin cotton top, since the kirtle will be worn over a shift. The most important thing is that you get a really tight fitting band under the bust that acts as a bra band, and will keep everything else from riding up or down. I could take in around 2,5 cm on each side at the front jus under the bust to get that fit.

My main issue so far is wrinkling over the bust. It starts just over the the tight fitting band. I am starting to think that when I took my chest measurements, I did them too tight, on the other hand all the measurements except the main bust, that is built around the chest measurement fits really well. 

Hee is the first bodice pattern, with an adjusted armscye and neckline, tigher under the bust, you can see the seamlines moving inwards.

Here is the origional paper pattern to the left and the new one to the right. There is a very visible curve outwards over the bust. The next mockup will use this new pattern, and I might also adjust the sideseam to get some more room over the bust

And here are the front and back pattern pieces, I have done no alterations to the back piece since it fit perfectly from the start. I really want this to end up perfect and I am almost there, so I will take the time to make more mockups before cutting out the real pieces. It is already a lot better than the bodices on both my pink gown and mustard kirtle though,

Female tusken photos

 So as usual it was so much fun finally being able to try your new costume for the first time. The weather was lovely, so I brought my husband and decided to go to work for some photos.

It was fairly easy to get into the full costume, even if it of course helped to have someone help you with things like holding the gloves and wraps, since those are put on after the mask when your vision is quite impaired.

After the more formal photos it was time to have some fun with my tusken baby

Taking the costume out for a spin, before it's time to actually wear it to an event is good. For this I learnt that it's quite light and comfy, and I feel more mobile than in my old costume. A bad thing though is that when I lift my arms the bodice of the undergown shows, that's in another fabric than the skirt. I need to fix that someone, but since the skirt is quite long it will probably not be a problem to shorten the bodice quite a lot and raise ths skirt. I also need to do something about the sash and belt that keeps the bag on, I need to combine them into one piece so that the bag belt is always hidden under the sash. The final thing I need to fix is the bump on the back of the skull, I still ned to take in the top part of the hood to make it lie more smootly against the head.

And a final thank you kiss to my husband, who hasn't even seen all Star Wars film, but was nice enough to come with me as a photographer.

The cosplay vs recreator community

So this is something that I have thought about for quite a long time, and I feel that I need to get it out of my chest, and I would be happy if it could lead to some discussion. This is about historical recreators, and before someone gets upset of feel personally targeted I must say that since coming in to this hobby all the people that I have gotten to know have been wonderful, helpful and open people as individuals. Historical recreators as a collective though, not so much I am sad to say, especially for recreators doing pre-1700s.

My first 16th century kit

I came to this hobby from cosplay, and especiatlly Star Wars costuming. The 501^st legion, and its sister organisations, have had a rumour about being elitist, but my experience is that if you come as a new person you were welcomed, showed where you could find resources for your big costume project, and also showed standards on how good the costume needed to be in order to become a member.  Once you have your costume you are encouraged to take on responsibilities in the club and help organise events. Outside of Star Wars costuming the different cosplay groups have always been open on when and how you can meet them and  they are happy to see new people tag along.

As a contrast it took me 4 years from finishing my first 1520s project until I got into contact with a group for that time period, and it only happened because I got to know a person, who then added me to a private fb group. That seems to be the norm, now after a few years getting to know people I have been added to more private fb groups. Looking at the webpages of several recreation groups you are more likely to find information on how to hire the group for events, than you are to find information on how you can join them. So you first need to figure out how to make your costume, which depending on your chosen time period can be more or less challenging, and then once you have a nice costume, then you need to find a person who can introduce you to other recreators. Many of these private groups, that you can get invited to if you know the right person, also have very strong informal hierarchies. It is a pretty tough social environment, especially for introverted persons.

If any cosplayer would like to take the step into historical recreation, I am happy to help you find your way, not the least because I have at times myself been frustrated by how closed the community is.

The female tusken gown

 I realised that I had never posted about the gown that I will wear as the base layer for the female tusken.

I sewed it up in the summer, because me and my friends were planning a dye day.

It was a day when we had access to our combined large pots, an outside kitchen and a garden with both garden hoses for water and a place to hang the fabrics to dry.

I had problems finding a good dye. The fabric in the dress is raw silk and viscose, while the shawl is polyester. I also didn't want to dye them brown, just sand coloured. In the end I used a dye that was called "caramel" and it didn't really dye as dark as I wanted it to. The photo above shows the fabric for the shawl and the gown when they were still wet.

And this shows the fabrics when they were dryed. It's also very clear how different the fibres take on the dye, with the viscose taking on the most and the polyester the least. That was also why I needed to make a really strong dye bath for the shawl to darken it a bit more.

The fabric for the skirt and sleeves is a gorgeous, slubby raw silk, or silk noile. I only had a limited amount of it, that's why I made the bodice out of viscose, since that won't be visible anyway. For the tusken you can opt for short or long sleeves. For my old tusken I had rather short sleeves, but it was always hard to make sure that the arm wraps stayed up well enough to leave no gaps between the sleeves and the wraps, so this time I went for longer sleeves. 

Reusing my old parts for the female tusken

 With a new shawl, new gown and new mask and bracelets it was time to go up to my storage and retrieve the parts from the old tusken to see what I could use.

I found a plastic box with quite a lot of stuff in it, both for my jawa and tusken. Except for the old shawl and hood, jawa scraps and fabric strips I found quite a lot of things that I can reuse.

The armwraps and gloves. The armwraps are sewn on to a loose sleeve of stretch fabric, so I can just pull them on and don't need to rewrap them every time.

A gauze sash and a long strip of fabric to use for holding up the bag.

My old boots. Strips of fabric wrapped and glued to a leather boot. I think the extra strips of fabric that I had in the box are in case I wear these out.

The bag was actually not from the old tusken, instead this was the first piece that I remade when I wanted to redo the tusken, so still more than 10 years ago. It is still the most complicated leather work that I have done, and back then I thought I would like to learn leather work, so I also found a pair of leather scissors and some other leather tools. The bag lacked the tusk decoration, so I made one out of foam clay and added it on to the bag.

I also had kept my tusken baby waiting to finally get a day out.

The final things that I will keep are these shoe covers. I made them for a journey to a Celebration in Orlando, I'm thinking it must have been 2012. I didn't want to pack my whole boots, so I made shoe covers that I can use over any shoe when I need to be mindful on how much I can pack while travelling to an event.

And with all these old parts down from the attic I felt that it was time to get it all on and take new approval photos for the 501st and Rebel Legion

Tusken female shawl take two

 When I just want to finish something, then I'm bad with documenting what I do so I just rushed this process on to get the shawl finished.

For my take two I gave up on working with tucks. Instead I started with just sewing myself into a sheet and adjusting it until I had a good fit. Then thankfully I had a friend that I could dress up in this and I freehanded the segments with a pen and cut the sheet up at the lines to get a pattern.

I started from the top and made sure that I got that fit right before going downwards. This was a bit tricky since it needed to be a lot tighter than I had planned at first. In the end I made it tight enough so that when the mask is on, it is held in place just by the hooded part of the shawl. This is unlike my old version, where the mask was first held in place, and then I simply put the shawl on over it.

Getting the hole for the mask was the most fiddly thing though, and in the end that process ate a more fabric than I thought it would, so that after four segments in place it was a lot shorter than my mock up. The good thing with working one segment at a time though was that I could simply make the fifth segment a bit wider to be back on track.

Finally the shawl was done! Then at least it was time to do the fun part, weathering it.

First it got a a proper dunk in a strong teabath, the tea should really look black. And then it was time for me to unleach my secret weathering weapon.

This was something I discovered when I did my original tusken. The water from the mine where I work reacts in interesting ways with the tea stains. It's not a water that I would recommend drinking or bathing, but it's perfect for this. For my last tusken I simply took the costume on and walked a bit in the mine, for this I felt it was easier to get some water up and spray it on the fabric. Once the mine water hits the fabric that's been in a tea bath it both lightens the fabric and turns it into a strange grey colour. So I worked the shawl from the bottom and up, making sure to get it more dirty at the bottom. I also had the gown that goes under it get the same treatment and I hung them up together so that I could work on them at the same time.

And with that the shawl was done. I made sure to protect the bathroom walls behind the shawl since I didn't want to stain them.

Female tusken failure

 So it was time for me to start with the soft parts of the female tusken, the main thing I have left to do.

After having stared at this image in high resolution for far too long I realised that there is omething strange going on with the fabric. The weave of the fabric continues without a break over the frayed edges and into the next segment. Either they have done some crazy pattern matching when cutting out, or the fabric simply isn't cut. The more I thought about the only solution would be if the fabric was pleated into tucks, and then those tucks would be cut open and the fabric frayed to create the edge. Tha would also explain why there is a female tusken whitout a frayed edge on the seams, it looks like it is inside out, and it might be possible that the tuck is so small that it didn't create a nice fray so then they just turned it the other side out. That is purely my speculation.

A huge issue here was to be able to work this by my own, it would have been a lot easier to work on a body.

Well some creatitivy with a styrofoam head and the stand for my dress making mannequin at least gave me something to work on, even if the head is way smaller than my own.

After a day of pleating and pinning and tacking this is where I was at. I felt like a Christmas tree when wearing it, definitely not the body hugging shawl of the female tusken. It was also way too short in the back.

I simply couldn't get enough fabric on the sides to shape it. With that I decided to give up on this experiment. I still think there is pleating going on, but I think that the shawl was probably first sewn together to get the silhouette, and then smaller tucks were made to create the fringe. Since I want to finish this fairly quickly I will probably go back to the common way of doing the shawl, which is to cut cut fabric strips and sew them together. Like I did with my first tusken female. Bonus is of course that it's a fairly quick and easy method, I only hope that the fabric I have, and that I have made some cuts in, for example the face opening, will be enough. But first it time to undo all the pleats.

I still think it's important to show when something goes wrong, it's so easy to just post the good results. And I am still convinced that there are tucks and not separate fabric pieces, I am just not the person to figure it out completely.