Trossfrau redux...

I'm going to just copy paste the text from my saved copy of my diary in individual posts, similar to how they were originally written, including the day I wrote them, so it doesn't appear as though I'm so awesome to have come up with all this in the last few minutes.

Feb 16^th

I’m starting to do a little research on my Trossfrau.  So this all started after the move to Oregon; I decided that I wanted a new project, and to make a dress that was more complicated than my usual Romans.  You know, almost anything?  So I stared trolling through the links I’d saved to my bookmarks.

At first I was lusting after the Flemish working women’s, but soon realized everyone had a version.  In my “quest to be slightly more unique”™.  I choose to go Landsknecht.  Yeah I know Flemish and German are crazy different.  But there were fewer of them, they offer much more customizing options, and I already had a huge chunk of fabric to make one.  Though technically, it was intended for a Cranach, but let’s be realistic, I’m never going to make one of those.

The Curious Frau’s website had introduced me to the Trossfrau, and I’m eager to get going.  I fell in love with this jacket.  I mean, L-O-V-E.  I’ve started looking for fabrics to make it from, and I haven’t really decided how to make the dress underneath it yet.  Or the smock under that yet either.

All in good time.

So my goals with this dress (besides just making it):

1) Some degree of authenticity,

2) Some serious effort to write a Dress Diary (starting now)

3) To do well in the An Tir Costuming Contest 2012

That’s right; I want to enter a contest.  Me, who shies away from even looking at the entries, I want to entry one of the highest level contests in my Kingdom.  SMRT folks, I am so smart.

So let’s break down what’s going on in this outfit, and where I want to deviate from the original.  I love, love, LOVE that jacket.  It’s one of the few motives I have for making a Trossfrau (the other is German Hats!).  I want that jacket, in some bright color if I can find a nice brocade for it.  Probably in either red or orange and gold, should I be able to find something not too crazy expensive and with a nice pattern.

From looking at other images from the same book, The German Single-Leaf Woodcut: 1500-1550, the cuff isn’t on the jacket, but on the sleeve of the dress underneath the jacket.  I’m loving this simple style of sleeves, only a little bit of slashing at the elbows and the decorative cuff that’s left open at the hand.  I think I want to incorporate this sleeve and cuff into my dress, even though the cuff on the woman with the jacket is clearly not split.

I can’t decide if the line on the forearm indicates that the sleeve is split and has some form of closure, or if the artist is just documenting seam placement like is shown on the side of the bodice.  I’m wishing for an opening since I would love to be able to open the sleeves and roll them up like in this image.

So APPARENTLY LJ won't allow to me to put up any more photos without difficulty. So we'll go to bed tonight, and deal with it some other time.

Tomorrow I want to dig through Vols. 1, 3 and 4 of the German Woodcuts in more depth, and decide whether or not I should do the high-necked smock with this outfit, or if I should do the vast tracks of land approach. I'm thinking I should do the tracts of land, since I haven't seen any high necked smocks on anyone wearing an over garment of any kind. Usually they have one or the other, high-necked underwear or partlet/gollar/jacket. Also, in my flipping through the books, the high-necked smocks seem to be mostly on older or wealthy ladies, not poor, young things. But that is for another night.