Fiddly

[liadethornegge]

Main Entry: fid·dly
Pronunciation: 'fi-d^&l-E
Function: adjective
chiefly British : requiring close attention to detail : FUSSY; especially : requiring an annoying amount of close attention.

That is the perfect word to describe what it is like to stitch on the gathered ruff onto my gathered partlet. Particularily the last, special, definition.

I am forced to hold down the uneven gathers with my thumb; I am getting bit by pins and my own needle; the thread keeps getting tangled with the pleats of my ruff and in pins and I keep having to untangle it before I can pull each stitch tight; I must make sure to take the stitches along the same line that I used to fold in the extra fabric of the embroidered collar.

I'm not even sure if I can keep my stitching away from the gathering thread. May have to leave it in, but I guess that's fine. I'm unsure if my single seam will be enough to hold the ruff there. I may want to whip around the lower edge of the ruff. Then of course I will cover it with the inside of the collar too, and I must stitch that down securely.

It may be a bit stupid of me to stitch the ruff directly to the collar, I may have been better served to do it "the right way", using a separate band. Well, I'm not undoing it now.

I think I shall have to do a proper suit of ruffs for the English fitted gown in any case, so I shall soon have the experience.

On the illness front: I went to the store today and came back all exhausted - blech - I thought I would've fared much better, bugger it all. Usually when I get a cold it plays itself out over the course of a handful of days at most. I'm still hacking up half a lung.

Comments

Ruff making...

[purplemermaid.livejournal.com]

We must compare diaries and see when we will be meeting up again ... then I will teach you the figure of eight method of doing ruffs. It will not help you in your current predicament but it is a great way of making them, especially if you are mathematically minded.

Re: Ruff making...

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

Would like to meet you again! Haven't been out and about to events much. Next one I'll go to is probably Nordmark University, last weekend of January. Next one I know about will be Double Wars. Before that - not sure.

I know the theory with the figure-eight ruffs, but I get so paranoid, not to mention bored.

The paranoia comes from not knowing how wide to make the ruff itself, then how wide to make the pleats. I mean, it's all fine in theory but what if it doesn't work!! And since I'll end up doing it all by hand it is really odious to have to unpick and re-do.

The bored part comes in when I'm supposed to do all those neat orderly pleats. Bollocks to that! I tried that with the partlet's ruff, but, well, the ruff itself was quite tiny - not alot of fabric left over for it - and I just couldn't face all those pleats. So I just took the nearest bit of embroidery floss, threaded a needle and ran a running stitch all along the edge, scrunched it all together and pinned it into place. And it's still fiddly as hell.

[systemgoddess.livejournal.com]

I'm skipping the ruffs on my Mom's English fitted gown. I'm going to stay with a plain box pleat. Less fussy and I think she would complain about fussy. I found some scrummy scarlet and black shot silk to line the gown with.
What color are you going to do your kirtle in? The green and blue combination for your fitted gown looks wonderful togther.

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm a fan of the simple method, but I have been avoiding ruffs like my life depended on it. And all the pictures I see of this type of gown shows a ruff. So, I'll try to go for one at least. We'll see if I succeed.

The kirtle? Not sure. I figure I can use the light blue one I made out of linen. If I'm lucky I can wear my working class kirtle as well underneath this gown - and that's a dark blue, about the same colour that the lining is in this one.

I think my fitted gown will be a marvellous item of clothing. It doesn't really weight much and it will be nice and flowy, and pretty not least.

[myladyswardrobe.livejournal.com]

I hate making ruffs! Fiddly and tedious are perfect words to describe them.

BTW - did you intend to make your link to the English fitted gown point to your recent posts or were you intending it to point to a specific post?

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

meant it to go to all the posts about the making of it :) May be a bit confusing, I know. I'll change it to just the post with photos I suppose.

Thank you for your spiritual support of the dreariness of making ruffs :)