Testing testing

[stellar_muddle]

Currently sitting here in a 3/4 done roman tunica/stola and palla. Top edges of the the tunica have been hemmed and it has been safety pinned in appropriately the right places.
Initially just putting the tunica on, the bagging on the top (and the stiffness of the cotton*) gave things a bit too much of a balloon feel, but once the palla was wrapped around, things came far better into shape. Will need do dig out jewelry - bead necklace and maybe some prettier dangly earings (though the hoops are ok) and the palla will need to be pinned to the top of the head (have the veil pin for that though).

Breast band centred at the front and wrapped that way seems to work so far.

Now need to hem (luckily just a rolled hem) the bottom, stitch the top together at the points that are currently safety pinned* (possibly adding in two more on each side (cause the statues have more than 3...) and work out if the palla can be safely fringed. Probably while watching Life in Cold Blood with Z.

Would like to know if there is an easy way of keeping the palla fabric on the left shoulder though. Can see the novelty of pulling that up wearing thin. Also wondering if should make the extra stola layer to see if it curtails the bagging a little. May make things a bit hot though and the tunic/palla combo is currently quite comfortable to wander around the house in.

* It really doesn't drape as finely as the statuary draping. Suspect some of the light wools we have (eg the light blue wool that the bias cut bliaut is made out of) would drape better but that would defeat the purpose of the light weight clothing for this Faire. But might be a good idea for the next outfit...
** front over back or back over front? Looks like back over front in a number of the statues.

Comments

[tyghra.livejournal.com]

Heya, made a couple of cotton tunicas to start with and really hated the ballooning effect, even with a pallah. Ended up spending a stupid amount of money on some hand woven silk (you could see the weave but not slubby) from Tessuti Fabrics ($55/mtr x 3 mtr). It drapes beautifully. You might have seen it when I was at Canty Faire last year? Bright apple green with an eggplant coloured fine silk pallah. I generally just tuck a bit of the pallah under the tunica shoulder and drape a little bit more over that spot to stop it falling down. Yes, you do get tired of it. My first pallah was 4mt but being a little bit taller, I ended up with 5mt. Headpiece is fake pearls and amber coloured glass on wire top and bottom with square brass plaques sitting diagonally (diamond like) in between the two. Tied closed at back with a silk ribbon. It's my favourite costume. Especially for Sydney's humid summers. 43C yesterday at Penrith - 39C in the CBD where I work. Love to see a pic when you're finished. Have you found Artemisia's working website? She did tons of research and I have a cd somewhere of all the books and images/doco she put together. Can copy if you want to pursue this avenue....

[stellar-muddle.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen Artemisia's working website, though have run across one or two of her blogs dealing with other stuff. And would be interested in seeing some of her research - I missed her class on Roman clothing at CF last year - doh!

Now about to start chasing down a very nice light purple silk that should be lurking in a chest at home. Fingers crossed there is enough of that. At least the tunicas are very fast to knock up, even if I am hand sewing them.

Will try and make sure pictures result at CF :)