The Kirk - Final Entry

I finished the hem and Sven wore his "Kirk" tunic to its first event this weekend.  He seemed pleased with it.

In truth, he said it was very comfortable and served him well.  That's the lovely Tanzeda in the background.  Isn't that shade of blue gorgeous?

Final sewing notes:

• Made of 100% linen. (IL019 Autumn Gold from Fabrics-store.com), and some black linen from the same site.
• Metallic gold braid on the sleeves was from Jo-Anne's if I recall correctly. Trim hand-stitched on.
• I used a huge variety of sewing techniques on this thing.  I hand sewed part, hand flat-felled, machine sewed, machine flat-felled, and even serged part of it.  This is what happens when a project goes through phases of completion over the course of a year and you gain new tools and plans on how to deal with things.  Hems sleeves, and facings were all hand-sewn.
• Basically, it took way too long due to life situations (flood, flood, buying house, packing, moving, unpacking, etc).
• I really enjoyed making an historical garment that was inspired by something so unexpected.  I'm sure there will be more to come on that front.  Sven is already talking about a Spock Tunic...

This picture has nothing to do with the Kirk, but Their Excellencies Vilhelm and Bethany are family to me, and this picture turned out too gorgeous not to share.

The Kirk

Now I have to be honest... The Kirk is not 100% done.  I asked the husband to try it on so I could mark out the hem, the last remaining thing to be completed.  I'm pretty pleased with it, but he has lost a little weight since I started the project almost a year ago, so it's a little loose on him.  We're just going to roll with that though.  It gets belted in anyway, so I'm not altering it.  Especially since those side seams are all hand-sewn and hand flat-felled.

He decided that with his new buzzed head that he looks like Kerry King and therefore wanted an impromptu photo session.  What can I say?  He's got metal in his blood.

I'm finding that with each new piece I make, I learn new things.  This time, I've found that Sven's shoulders are pretty deeply sloped, making a true T-shaped tunic drape oddly on him. The armscye really does need to be cut in and fitted to him or it slides around and makes the neckline look very sloppy.  Duly noted.

New Studio's Maiden Voyage

So last week we got a warm spell after a horrific winter of snow, snow, and more snow.  We recently moved to an area further up the mountain, and expected to get more snow than we were used to, but this was ridiculous!  The neighbors reported that this was the most snow they'd seen in 30 years.  Lucky us for perfect timing?

Back to the aforementioned warm spell... my studio flooded a little.  Yep.  Seems I'm cursed to have a sewing/art room that is plagued with water.  We are attributing it to the excess snow melting into the foundation area.  Everything is cleaned up and dry now though, so I'm not too panicked (though we're putting a pin in that for later).

This weekend I finally broke in my new studio.  Woo!  Can I just say I LOVE it?  I found I still need to move some things around a bit, to maximize the room's potential.  I worked on a project for the hubby, and gave my new serger its first spin.

I think I need to do more reading/watching videos, and perhaps take a class on sergers.  I haven't used one since my junior high home economics class, and we weren't required to thread those machines. I had a crazy time trying to get the tension right.  It seriously made me want a cocktail.

In other news, I also pulled The Kirk from its sad, dust-gathering perch, finished the sleeve hem, and began couching the gold cord onto the cuffs.  Eight moths later, and I'm finally making serious progress on this thing.

Do you ever have projects that feel like the world is conspiring against you, and you will never finish it?

The Kirk

A few months ago, Sven asked me to make him a Norse tunic inspired by Captain Kirk's gold uniform.  While not necessarily period, I'm making certain concessions because this is what my husband wants, it's fun and silly, and hopefully a few people will "get it," and it will make them smile.  In searching the wonderful web for images, I found two distinctly different uniforms.

The difference here is the gold bands around the wrists (congratulations, Captain Obvious).  Sven picked out a braided gold trim, and asked that we go with two bands instead of trying to do three as the top version has.  I'm glad for many reasons, not the least of which is that middle band appears to be broken/woven into the fabric or something.  Hooray for the easy way out!

The tunic is coming along nicely.  I am felling my seams by machine instead of by hand in order to finish this in time for him to wear to an event on July 28th (which I also have to finish a scroll by, on top of some other artistic endeavors with deadlines).  I am hand sewing and felling the underarm gussets, however.  This is because every time I try to do those by machine I bugger them up.

I also hand finished the neck facing.  Here's some poorly photographed evidence.  More photos will come after it's all finished.

Have you ever used modern things as inspiration for your historical dress?  If so, I'd love to hear about it!