Tag Archives: kleve

by Michaela de Bruce | 2020-02-06 · 08:39

overdue update

I am trying to post content or at least positive updates. So first off I had a good sleep last night so that I can’t remember my dreams- this is a lovely stay cation from my mind 😉

I have taken all my jewels off my various pieces. There are not many of the brass filligree pieces left online so I might see if I can get a few of them as well.

And I am ready to tackle the difficult task of putting in a bit more support and frame up my Cleves hat (mutzger) for the old and new pearls.

And I decided to recreate a specific pattern of pearls for a belt (perlengurtel) and a specific pattern for the borstlappe.

I keep remembering specific sources I don’t have on my site yet, and I have spotted that all my images are now also categorised when they shouldn’t be. So I still have a bit of writing to do today.

Yesterday I was overwhelmed.

It was the fourth anniversary of the passing my Kitty Boo Bear and I had to have a big time out and then I was able to got bed at a time most people manage and had a very good sleep.

So today I’ll limit myself to adding in a few easy to add images and then see if I can draw that belt pattern and see if I can work out the borstlappe pattern.

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Tagged as health, kleve

by Michaela de Bruce | 2018-04-25 · 19:08

After years and years of searching I agree, yes, stickelchen does refer to headgear. It’s been harder to confirm than might be thought, however dictionaries of the region during the time frame that the term was used are rare. But one has been found. A copy and a transcription.

*faints*

“sticksel” seems to be the original term. But it still may refer to the band at the front, not the bulk of it.

Why is is so difficult?

A “stuck” is a piece and “stick” can refer to a pointed stick, literally, or embroidery.

And “chen” is a diminuitive. Also “gin.”

So little embroidery just doesn’t seem correct for a rather large hat.

And at the time “perlen” was most frequently used to describe pearled pieces.

Many of the headpieces were pearled, or made from gold fabric, or covered in netted work. Rarely do they seem to be embroidered in a general sense.

The front piece more regularly is decorated in pearls or jewels.

Clothing is also tough. There are lots of garments, but very little in the way of definition. Rock might be a gown or it may be a skirt alone. And the lovely huge inventory I have is full of spanish styles!

I’ll just have to take time to read the full texts not just skim! 😉

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Tagged as cleves, kleve, stickelchen, stickelsche, sticksel

by Michaela de Bruce | 2017-01-12 · 17:22

cleves progress

Today the carpal tunnel injections have proven their worth 🙂 If I can do this one or two more times before I have to have surgery I’ll be happy. Sounds like I need my ulna’s chopped off sooner, but, maybe?

Also I may have gone through 1/4 of my Hot Cinnamon Sunset tea. Now if I could get a perma-stash of that I’d be happy 😉

Okay so putting fabric away up high just made my radial stuff really make a statement but I am just wandering around with bandages around my wrists not full splints 🙂

But I have cut my Cleves skirt fully, an entirely new kirtle bodice (hey Michaela it’s summer, you do not want linen canvas, cotton twill, and silk underneath those layers for the bodice) from my linen twill.

Just took a break to share this. I usually work with non easy to photograph fabric so this is why I’m sharing now! I usually use a mechanical pencil and draw directly under the pins that emerge from the top but I just had chalk out there today.

Using pins to transfer newly fitted seam lines. I was never taught this and it is so instinctive I forget to record. I don’t usually do this on such pristine fabric but this will get heavily washed!

A video posted by Michaela de Bruce (@neimhaille) on Jan 11, 2017 at 9:12pm PST

Also yes, florist pins. They grip better and I can really pull in my seams to fit properly. It’s easy to see how, I also overlap them to work like boning/support.

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Filed under life with disability/illness, projects: early historic

Tagged as cleves, health, kleve, kleves

by Michaela de Bruce | · 10:54

cleves bodice fitting

I started with taking a copy of my Braunchweig gown and a transfer of my “german” kirtle to make my two bodices.

This is the Braunchweig copy as it is regionally close but also able to swing into the more dutch bodice shape.

I did also keep the Mary of Hungary bodice in mind.

How this works is the edge is on the grain so you have to smooth and stretch the fabric from there under the arm and to the waist. So yes the waist is off the grain. This is how the Mary of Hungary gown works too- if the edge was taken off the grain you get stretch going around the neckline that needs to be stabilised.

The down side to this is it makes fitting the armscye a nightmade.

But I kept going.

Ugh, look at how that now sits. Oh the back fits beautifully but where the excess fabric is moved to shows I needed a longer narrower back to be able to support this open neckline.

So my options were to remake the back panel or put in a seam. I dislike putting seams in the CB of my German gear but I am also running out of this fabric!

But it worked.

Then of course I had to copy the seam placement from one side to the other.

Side back matching, and shoulder matching.

SIde front matching.

The silk has almost no give! So I also also had to do a few tweaks on the form. I smoothed the left shoulder up and pushed the excess to fold over the shoulder seam.

As can be seen the armscye is very tight in the front of the arm, this will be clipped but only after I have properly assembled the kirtle layer and have the support this gown needs.

So I may see if I can get the kirtle underneath already to fit the way I need it!

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Filed under projects: early historic

Tagged as cleves, cliues, kleve, nordrein, north rhine

by Michaela de Bruce | 2017-01-05 · 17:31

stickelchen

I am incredibly happy with how the braid looks. Yep, it is laid over pearls rather than all being flat as that is the dimensionality that is seen in all forms of pearl work from this region. The tapering is right as well, I just used pearls that were oversized originally and while I know this I want to keep a lot of my original work as possible.

But look! There may even be enough leaves to really fill in the back, but that may be part of the work that will go into joining the sides together 🙂

Today also saw the skirt linings cut for two gowns. Yep. Pink. Pink is returning to the wardrobe 🙂

Oh hey, also went on a saree buying spree! This one was a spur of the moment buy when I picked up the ones intended for the cleves hem 🙂

The gold tone trim it what I grabbed these for and totally didn’t realise there was potential for the coloured embroidery….. now there are Thoughts(tm).

This one was riskier. not sure if it’s easy to spot but those repeats can be cut in half to mimic the trim of the Moulin Rouge wedding gown. It’s a start. Also once in hand it does look like thr ground of the repeats is cotton so it should decolour really nicely!

I hope!

But there is a lot of unpicking over the next few days!

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Filed under projects: early historic

Tagged as cleves, kleve, stickelchen, stickelsche

by Michaela de Bruce | 2017-01-02 · 22:12

cleves leaves progress

I don’t know how I got this energy- well I do and it has everything to do with my therapy and being able to actually do stuff and then build up on that to do more stuff 🙂 Had a day of sleep at one stage though 🙂

So the frame is apparently the perfect cat shape as he makes a bee line for it no matter where I set up!

These leaves are the same as my Krantz, and in order to make sure they sew in place I had to hammer out holes from the pointy end. (I have found there are indeed flitter haube from further west, it makes sense with the influence from Nurnberg but it’s not close enough to Kleve!)

It’s very bright. Like blinding in bright light!

And how it looks as of just shy of the end of my birthday 🙂 So yay! That is a very good birthday present to have 🙂

(Subtle laurel is not at all subtle, though might have to get less subtle in the back.

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Filed under projects: early historic, Uncategorized

Tagged as cleves, cologne, kleve, kollen, koln

by Michaela de Bruce | 2017-01-01 · 11:12

perlenmutzer

Progress from 2006:

Progress 2016 after stripping all the fire damaged bezants and sequins:

New pearls on the upper right, the same pattern was repeated on the upper left and a matching overlapping design added to the lower part.

Yes, it looks very wobbly. This is part of how the fabric was eased over the original support. I’ll be clipping the cotton tulle to let it ease as well.

Stash of pearls used for the update. There are a good number left to be able to use over the seam once assembled.

I am about to add the leaves again, these are different, they are what I used on my Krantz for my laurelling, so these are very apt 🙂

Again the pearls look wibbly, I don’t want to stretch the stitches once I put this back on the support so am having to live with it until then. Once on the support these will have heavier thread passed through to support the curves.

So happy to get this progress. I am doing eat therapy on my hands every couple of hours, 10mins at a time.

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Tagged as anne of cleves, cleves, cologne, kleve, koln

by Michaela de Bruce | 2016-12-31 · 10:02