When I showed up at the Tuesday night Bryn Gwlad Populace in the Park and expressed an interest
in making clothing, I was introduced to the friendly and fearsomely-skilled
Simona della Luna, who spent the next
few hours talking me through many topics, most importantly, how to get started
from pretty much zero knowledge. Then they turned out the park lights. I went
home and made a practice smock that week.
Pattern
The Elizabethan Smock Generator is great! You enter your measurements and it gives you measurements for a custom-fit pattern, plus assembly instructions.
Note that for ladies, the “From Shoulder to Hem” measurement
means to “shoulder to mid-calf”. Knee-length is too short and will ride up
under your dress.
Simona recommended this tweak: When taking your
measurements, replace the “Around the widest part of the hand” measurement with
your flexed elbow measurement - otherwise, your sleeve will be so narrow you
can’t push it up. You want to be able to do work without getting dirty cuffs.
Practice smock
Make a practice smock out of a similar-weight fabric to test
the process and the fit. I followed the "Authentic Pieced Smock Pattern" process.
An old sheet worked well for this. But it was just long enough
for the long body piece, and I’m 5’4” so taller ladies may find a sheet smock
to be a bit short, or have to stitch on an extra section of cloth to get the
right dimensions.
Mine turned out encouragingly well. I was excited to show it
to Simona. I had chosen to round out the hem shape when I hemmed it -
fortunately she approved. The only pattern
change Simona recommended was to narrow the shoulder to shoulder measurement an
inch or so.
Success!
And then fabrics-store.com did not put lightweight white
linen on sale for a month, so my linen smock plans were delayed. To be
continued…
