The Two Hour Tarpush

I am finding that Google Docs is a far more convenient way to handle storage for my class handouts than uploading and linking to a domain I am not really using for anything but storage.  So I will be moving my handouts to google docs and embedding them in a blog post to make them easier to find.  I'll also be updating the links on the Class tab of the nav menu.

Today it's the Two Hour Tarpuş class

The Ten Day Turkish Coat -Italian style

Royal University Meridies (RUM) was last weekend and I taught Online Resources for the Independent Researcher Parts 1 & 2.  Since I needed to write the classes before I could teach them, make a gift for the Largesse Swap and I was also hosting a Silk Road Sewing weekend the weekend before RUM (not to mention working full time and having mundane adult responsibilities), I made the sensible decision to take new garb for RUM off the to-do list.


Then ten days before RUM I start thinking about what garb I was going to wear. In July. In the Deep South. Everyone generally goes Roman in the summer to survive the heat, but I kind of hate my Roman garb (which isn't extremely HA anyway) so...  new garb it was going to be. 

There's a mostly Venetian fad in the mid-late 16th century in portraits of a pseudo-Ottoman coat worn over a camicia.  You can see more examples on my Pinterest board but the most famous is Titian's 1550 "Woman Holding an Apple"

Woman Holding an Apple

Titian c. 1550

National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.435.html

Looking at the various portraits, they all shared some characteristics:

1. Buttons were usually pearl
2. There was generally some form of elaborately beaded/ jeweled trim running down the front
3. There was not much contrast between trim and garment color -definitely not the striking contrasts that the Ottomans loved 

I had some lovely cherry red linen printed with a Renaissance-esque pattern and Mistress Jadi has tested one of her pattern drafting methods for her book on me, so I had a kaftan pattern that fit nicely. Even hand felling seams, I can knock out an unlined kaftan in ten days, no problem.

Ironically, moments after I finish cutting everything out, I found reference to a pattern for a Ropa Turca in Alcega.  I don't own a copy of Alcega (darn it) but Mistress Leda does and she was happy to send me the relevant sections in her copy -complete with Master José's notes from figuring out the Bara system.

The Alcega Ropa Turca pattern

This was both good news and bad news.  Good news in that if there was a pattern in Alcega, these garments were actually worn and not just the fantasy of Italian painters.  Bad news in that the pattern in Alcega has some decided differences from the Ottoman kaftan pattern, which was already cut out.  I liked the fabric too much to scrap it, so I managed to convince myself that this one would be fine  -I could use the Alcega pattern to make the next one.

On the Sewing Party trip to Fine Fabrics (exactly 7 days before RUM), I found some coordinating cherry silk dupioni with a very very low slub and some faux pearl buttons.  My plan was to use the silk to create facings on the right side of the garment and at some point in the indeterminate future, I can think about trimming the front and sleeves.  Hand sewing the facings on this week is going to be time-consuming, but doable, I thought.

Sunday morning, I see off the houseguests from the Sewing Party and settle into cutting bias strips and beginning the hand sewing.  After a little bit of progress, I am liking how things are turning out. 

And then Compulsive Elaboration Syndrome hit. 

There. 
Must. 
Be. 
Trim. 
For. 
RUM.

Sunday afternoon, I run out to a local bead store and spend more money than I want to think about on pearls.  Only to end up deciding that what I like better are the $1.00 a strand pearls from Fire Mountain Gems that I'd bought for earrings only to find them completely unsuitable. This is not a complete crisis because with real pearls on the front I no longer liked the look of the faux pearl buttons and I decide to use some of the new pearls (which are coin pearls and relatively flat) for buttons.

Somewhere around Wednesday, I decided that I also absolutely needed a row of gold couched at the edge of the facing.  Thank heavens Tied to History is local and that she has started carrying goldwork supplies.  Mistress Alessandra was kind enough to drop my order off because she was going to be in the neighborhood anyway.

The rest of the week, the drive to RUM and Friday evening, once we've arrived are all fraught with hand sewing facings, trim and button loops.  By the time I am too tired to sew another stitch on Friday, it's nowhere near done, but trimmed enough to be wearable.

It was astoundingly comfortable to wear.  The only problem was that the button loops had stretched a bit as I made them and frequently slipped off the buttons. It was unlined, so even with a camicia under it, I was still only wearing two layers of linen. And with the wide camicia sleeves, there was some air flow.  This style is definitely my new go-to for summer events.

It took this past week to finish getting the rest of the pearls on the facings.  I still have the second motif to bead in between each set of pearl flowers but the beads I've ordered for that are shipping from India and the larger coin pearls I bought to resolve the button loop issue are shipping from China so I am on to other projects until the next round of supplies arrive.

Online Resources Class Parts 1 & 2

I wrote and taught Online Resources Part 1 & 2 at Royal University Meridies on July 21.  Both classes seemed to be well received so here are the handouts.  If anyone has sources that I have not covered here, I would love to hear about them!

Sewing Tools 1150-1600

There have been a few people interested in building a period sewing basket recently so I wanted to provide a more convenient link to my 2016 A&S project.  I've found a lot of sources since the paper so I also plan on pulling together a source list for the tools sometime in the near future.  Watch this space!

The 1920s One Hour Dress (a Great Misnomer)

I've been dabbling in the 1920s recently.

Last September, there was a Great Gatsby Lawn Party in Atlanta, that Jay and I went to with our friends Heather and Hannah.  Dardanella hosts these public parties in various cities and if you ever have the opportunity to get tickets for one, I highly recommend it.  Attending was a last minute lark, so I only had 24 hours to come up with something to wear.  (I ended up wearing a late 1910s dress that I already had on hand and stitched a couple of big millinery roses to a picture hat) Then Heather hosted a private Miss Fisher/Great Gatsby party, and now there is another Gatsby Lawn Party in May that we are going to. Great fun.  But I needed something more 1920s than my late 1910s dress.

I'd always wanted to play with making a "One Hour Dress," so step one was..  you guessed it:  research. A quick search in the Historical Sew Fortnightly FB group, turned up a number of blog posts on the dress and 30 minutes of reading blogs lead me back to a tips for the One Hour Dress at Vintage Dancer (VintageDancer.com is a lovely site for down and dirty dressing for historical parties/events that don't require strict historical accuracy-if I'd had sense, I probably should have checked Vintage Dancer first)

Following the changes in fashion in the 1920s (and there were many!) took me down a rather fascinating rabbit hole and I finally settled on 1923-early 1924 as the look I wanted to emulate.

The One Hour Dress concept is credited to Mary Brooks Picken of the Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences in Scranton, PA. The reprint I have includes a photo of a letter from August 3, 1923 and attests that Miss Leonore McCormack of the Women's Institute made the One Hour Dress in 34 minutes at a public demonstration at the second National Merchandise Fair.

There seem to be several versions of the original booklet out there: one, possibly two versions from 1924, a 1925 printing reportedly with some style variations and a 1929 edition called Easy Ways to Pretty Frocks)  Better still, there are several sellers on Etsy that are selling PDF scans that they have restored to excellent readability of the booklets.

I had a gorgeous black tissue silk saree with deep pink beading and embroidery that I do not remember buying (because it wasn't suitable for any sort of sewing that I do) but it was absolutely perfect for the 1920s.

I've been doing a lot of 16th century Italian lately and I was astounded at how little fabric a One Hour Dress takes;  I plenty of leftovers...  which was good because despite making a mockup, I managed to cut the top 6" too short.  *facepalm* I had enough fabric to totally re-cut the top -if I didn't mind losing the random embroidery motifs scattered over the fabric.  To keep those, I ended up adding a piece around the bottom to bring the waist low enough for the silhouette.  But with some judicious use of the excess border trim, my oops wasn't noticeable.

It's not a mistake.  It's a feature!

The dress definitely took more than an hour, but it was a pleasant and restful project and if we keep doing 1920s events, I may make several more to expand my 1920s wardrobe.  Now to figure out what I am going to do about a hat!

Roman Moretum (or Strong Garlic Cheese)

Several friends have asked for my version of this recipe, so a blog post it is!

I first found this recipe while I was researching a Roman themed Royal Lunch last autumn in Grainger & Dalby's Classical Cookbook.  Grainger takes her redaction from the poem Moretum by Virgil. 1    Full disclosure: I did not do my own redaction initially; at the time I was focused on a palatable menu not experimental archaeology so I read her translated excerpt of the poem and used her redaction as written for my initial batch.

2 heads (25 cloves) garlic (no, this is not a typo)
8 oz Pecorino Romano cheese
large handful coriander leaves (coriander is the British name for cilantro)
2 heaped tsp chopped fresh celery leaf
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp white wine vinegar  (one of the people this was for was sensitive to vinegar so I used white wine)
1 tbsp olive oil

The Roman way to combine everything would be in a mortarium with lots and lots of grinding.  I used Grainger's alternate method:  my food processor.

   Reproduction mortarium from Der Romer Shop  

I kind of want one to try just one batch the real Roman way.

I have a Vitamix and I just tossed everything in and turned it on. Surprisingly, it was hard work getting everything combined.  Grainger says that the garlic juice and notes that the vinegar and olive oil are to soften the mixture not turn it into a spread.  I ended up having to add a little more wine & olive oil just  to get everything to congeal but followed the caution not to make it a spread.

It was so garlicky it was spicy.  The other garlic lovers at the taste test liked it, but I though it was a bit too much garlic (and I consider myself a garlic-lover). It was also a bit hard and crumbly and difficult to get onto bread to eat.

The next batch I dropped the garlic down to 20 cloves but it was still pretty in-your-face garlic. And it was still kind of crumbly.

My current version is very much a "based on" the original recipe.  I've toned down the garlic and added enough liquid to make it semi spreadable, just for ease of serving.  Is it entirely HA?  No.  But my first goal is to serve food people want to eat, so I am OK with my changes.

12 cloves garlic
12 oz Romano cheese
handful cilantro, chopped (I have never had anyone that dislikes cilantro notice it was in the recipe)
2 tsp celery salt  (buying celery that will go unused just for 2 fresh tsp of leaves seems wasteful to me)
white wine/white wine vinegar & olive oil as needed

Toss the garlic in the food processor & chop until juicy.
Toss the chopped cilantro & celery salt in and blend
Add the cheese, 2 tbsp white wine & 2 tbsp olive oil and combine, stopping frequently to scrape the sides.
Keep adding white wine alternated with olive oil and blending after each addition until your desire consistency is reached.

This past January Tavola Mediterranea (a fascinating food archaeology site that I follow) posted recipes for several other versions of moretum, at least one of them in a primary source I already own. One of these days I may make all the versions and host a moretum tasting party.  

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Dalby, Andrew and Sally Grainger. The Classical Cookbook. Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996.

Monaco, Farrell. "Edible Archaeology: Columella's Fresh Cheese and Herb Moretum." Tavola Mediterranea. January 15, 2018. Accessed April 25, 2018. http://tavolamediterranea.com/2018/01/15/columellas-moretum/.

'Twas The Week Before Christmas....

Around Thanksgiving,  I had the idea to make Jay a short cloak to use as an offhand defense in rapier combat.  Master Gauge had given me the measurements on his ages ago but I could not remember them, so the idea went by the wayside. Until the Sunday before Christmas when I got the measurements again..

Master Gauge's short cloak was a simple thing:  two pieces of upholstery fabric machine sewn together, turned right side out and a collar added.  Easy peasy...  I can totally get this done before Christmas, heck, I can get this done in an afternoon.   What I hadn't taken into account was a flare up of my chronic Compulsive Elaboration Syndrome. <cue onimous music>

I didn't have any upholstery fabric, but I did have plenty of 7 oz linen.  Linen might even be better, I thought, since I'm sure it will need to be washed from time to time.  But 2 layers of linen still seemed a little flimsy...  elaboration #1: I added a linen canvas interlining.

Elaboration #2:  I don't like the look of a bag lined garment...  aaaaand I'd been wanting to play with a half bound technique that I learned in Master Jose's workshop this summer.  It was, of course, all hand sewing. But I loved the way it came out, so it was totally worth it.  It would, however, require that the lining go in by hand.

 inside (before lining) using Master Jose's technique

 Outside edge using Master Jose's technique

Elaboration #3:  This is so plain...  it really needs some trim -nothing fancy...  just some black bias trim.

When in doubt, add more trim!

Elaboration #4:   You know...  a second row of trim would make the cloak *really* pop...  and it's only Wednesday....

All in all, despite the time frame, it was a pretty restful, no-stress project.  I find handwork very zen and this was a 99% handwork project.  I finished by December 23 and had it wrapped and under the tree in plenty of time for the opening of presents.  Jay had not gotten even the slightest hint that what I was up in the sewing room working on was a gift for him.

Done, despite myself :)

It was a hit on Christmas morning.  He commented immediately that it had a nice heft for an off-hand defense and another rapier friend that saw it commented similarly.   While I think I would make it a couple inches longer if I made one again, all it all it came out well for a six day project.

 Christmas Morning (photobomb by Charlie)

Have the Happiest of Holidays, whichever you celebrate!