|
Sewing
Tutorial:
How to sew fichets or fitchets.
OMG! That dress has pockets!
I hear you squeal in excitement, but I'm sorry to tell you...
it doesn't. What you are looking at are fichets or fitchets,
and they are slits in the outer dress. Why? I'm glad
you asked.
When you look at pictures of women wearing these dresses, you'll
notice that there is no belt visible. Why? The belt is
being worn on the kitrtle or gown underneath. Hanging on that
belt is a woman's purse. This prevents thieves from cutting
the strings of her purse and making off with it.
A medieval woman would
not lift her kirtle up to access her purse, so for a while,
it was the fashion to have fichets, slits where she could put
her hands through the top layer and reach her protected
purse. Not pockets. Access points. Nifty, huh?
Some fichets are barely
seen, but others, like this image, have made a real feature
of them.
What
you need:
All you need is Tailor's chalk (or anything to mark with that
will wash out), thread, a needle, a pair of small scissors with
really sharp points and some white material. I used a fine wool
for mine. It's possible somefichets may be fur, but I would
only use fur if there was fur at the hem also, so it has a cohesive
look.
|
Step 1
Decide where
your fichets will be located. They are usually seen around
the hip area or lower, towards the front. They are never
on the side seam that I have seen.
Try your kirtle on and mark the spot where you think they
should go with chalk.
|
 Step
2
Take your kirtle off and draw downwards as far as you want
your fichets to go. Put it on a hanger, dummy or Helpful Friend
and see if it looks straight.
It does? Fantastic!
|
|
 Step
3
Measure into the centre seam.
And by that, I mean,
measure to the centre of the buttons, not the edge
of the fabric, as there's some overlap when it's all done
up, and you want them to be even.
|
 Step
4
Using your tailor's chalk or anything that washes out, measure
the same amount on the other side and mark a matching slit.
Check they look even. They do? Great! |
|
Step 5
Get your wool, fabric
or fur which you are using to surround your fichets. Lay
it next to the fichet marks and mark how tall and wide you
want them to be.
You can just measure your fichets with a ruler and go from
there, but I'm visual and like to see how it's going to
look.
Check your hand will fit through the cut size.
|
|
Step 6
After marking out your surrounds, they'll look like this.
Rectangle shapes.
Cut 2, one for each side, but do not cut the centre line!!!
I'm using a very, very thin white wool which was an Op Shop
find in the fabric offcut bin.
|
|
Step 7
Carefully place both fichets over the marks you made. Double
check they look straight.
So far, so good!
|
|
Step 8
Start by pinning the centre lines of the fichets.
It's much easier to keep the rest of it flat and straight
if you start with the centre line so the rectangle doesn't
pull out of shape quite so easily.
Do another quick is-it-straight check. Still good?
|
|
Step 9
Pin around the edges of the fichets.
Use a ton of pins close together so they don't start moving
around as you start to sew.
At this point, it's a good idea to do another try on
and make sure you've pinned them on level and you don't
want them higher or lower. If you need to readjust, now
is the time, before you cut anything!
|
|
Step 10
It's time to sew!
If you're using a wool surround like I am, use a fine wool
thread to sew with.
It's very helpful to wax the tip of the thread before you
thread the needle. This will stop the end from fraying and
let you squish it flat so it goes through the eye easier.
I sometimes do likewise with a linen thread but I often
don't, so do what makes you happy.
|
|
Step 11
At this point your kirtle should look like this.
I cannot stress enough about using lots of pins before you
start to sew.
|
|
Step 12
Start at the bottom corner and just sew upwards with a hemming
stitch but close together to prevent fraying.
You can see how I've gone in just a little bit... only a
few millimetres... and the stitches are very close.
This means it will take ages to do what is essentially a
small-ish rectangle, but spacing the stitches out will make
you sad later on, trust me. It may snag on things and pull.
|
|
Step 13
Work your way around the edge making every effort to keep
your fabric flat as you sew, so it doesn't pull out of shape.
Move the pins towards the centre instead of removing them
entirely. This will help keep it in shape.
You'll be doing the middle bit next, but it should look
like this now.
Photo is a bit wonky, but it's straight. I checked!
|
|
Step 14
Using the small, sharp pair of scissors, carefully cut the
centre line.
Make sure it cuts through the white fabric and the
kirtle fabric.
Keep your scissors as upright as possible, not sideways
like the photo here. If you cut at an angle, when you sew
the layers together, they won't sit flat together and will
pull weirdly and make you cry.
|
 Step
15
Once it's cut, it looks like this.
You can see both layers are together.
Now it's time to sew them together. |
|
Step 16
Treat the fichet like an enormous buttonhole. Carefully
sew up and then down the other side using buttonhole
stitch for extra sturdiness.
If you don't know buttonhole stitch, there's a How To on
the buttonholes tutorial. Buttonhole stitch is just
like the hemming stitch we used around the edges, except
you wrap the thread around the needle as it comes
through the fabric, which you can see in this photo.
Again, make the stitches close together to prevent fraying
and tearing.
|
|
Step 17
Congratulations!
That's one side done!
It should look something like this.
Now all you need to do is the exact same thing for the other
side.
|
|
Annnnd you're done!!
Your new fichets should look like this!
Mine looks a bit not-very-straight as they're on a dummy
which doesn't have much in the way of hips, but when on
me, it lines up straight perfectly!
Happy
Sewing!
|
Copyright
© Rosalie Gilbert
All text & photographs within this site are the property of
Rosalie Gilbert unless stated.
Art & artifact images remain the property of the owner.
Images and text may not be copied and used without permission.
|
