Frock Chick

I really should just publish what I have and build on it later. It’s hard though as I really want to do everything at once. But I don’t even have good photos of my early work! I’ve passed so much of it on but really have no decent photos of any of it. So I really feel like my own history is lacking, let alone how that feeds back to me from the public. But it does sort of mean I’d like to remake a few things in new fabric…

That said, just looking up frazzled frau on google brings my old tripod site up! I really need to see if I can open that up again 🙂 Oh man, looking at all the lovely comments about my old site really makes me want to get her all properly revved up again. If you like something tell the person 🙂

It’s tough because there has been a massive influx of images in the last few years. But I do have pin boards, and my tumblr is still there, but a bit forgotten, sorry!

https://www.pinterest.nz/michaeladebruce/

I have some in progress boards to come up, but it’s rare that any pin I add is uncredited. I try and find the most current location. Usually that means the best quality but not always. But it means people finding and bookmarking pins should be able to just click and go at their convenience.  Even so, some museums change their content enough that I will have to go back and check some. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has recently upgraded their databases to an amazing degree, but it means old links do not work and often there is not enough information to quickly find the item. But it’ll be worth it 🙂

I am more tired than ever, RA does not get kinder the longer you have it, it generally just becomes more chronic than traumatic. But the fatigue really is difficult to manage. So it means all research takes a massive toll even before I get them in some sort of order.

But I have enough new information that yes. It will be done this year. As are all my patterns. Yesterday I overlapped my own bodice pieces to see if I can create a modifiable pattern. Yes. And it does work literally for every single garment I have made if looked at from perspective of scale and engineering.

So that is extremely exciting! I knew that I used previous patterns for newer gear but I also found some experimenting that worked (shifting to side seams) and some that worked by virtue of a bit of luck with fabric choice and use of stay tape (pretty accurate for a lot of gear when viewed as narrow woven goods used to stabilise a neckline.)

I think this will work a lot better than the Victorian workshops due to the reduction of seam lines. Victorian bodices do rely on all the seams even if some are less customised than others. Simply cutting fabric into a curved seam changes the engineering properties to a degree that is very hard to understand. But it both stabilises and adds stretch. There is usually enough change in the properties to be able to fit to a back with very little change. It’s usually possible with the CB and side seams with a pattern block that already has som curve for the shoulder blades and lower back built in.

So having seams in places that are easy to self adjust or have someone else work on is great!

I will get some more watercolour board this week as I have now got enough of a pattern block for those pieces, and enough thumbnail sketches of where to measure that there is enough to commit to good quality paper 🙂

Yesterday I got my skirt templates drawn on nice card stock. this makes it easier to hand, and I’m able to use a compass to do curves 🙂

Today I managed to scale up all my bodices currently made so I can see the over all picture of what I have done. I knew I basically built everything from the patterning developed for my kampfrau so it was interesting to see how true this was. Only my open front dresses seem to deviate from this.

I need to get a pattern from my new Cleves dresses too. So will try and do that today as well. It’s interesting construction wise in the absolute simplicity.