To Fatten a Horse

Our school is currently undergoing some changes and our department will be moving to another location next year, so there is much to go through in our stash of materials and work equipment to see what gets to come along and what will be gotten rid of. As it happens, I received one of our old ironing aids. I don't think they're called horses in English, but in Finnish they are. It's sort of like a very big tailor's ham, and here's how it started out:

Pretty worn and not really that useful a shape. The top was way too flat and the cover had holes in it so I thought my new equestrian companion required some fattening up and a new blanket to cover her. I didn't have any oats and she didn't have a muzzle so I had to perform a bit of plastic surgery instead of waiting for nature to take its course.

I took some of this fusible felt-like material and cut the shapes I wanted out of it. Here they are stacked from largest to smallest to get a better look at what the end result should be, but I used them in reverse order to smooth out the edges of the layers. It took 17 layers and about a meter of the material to get my preferred shape.

Here's how it looked all fused. I started with the smallest layer, measured where it should go on the horse and started fusing it with a hot iron and lots of steam. I lay the next layer on top, made sure I aligned it properly and steamed it thoroughly. I did a few layers at a time and let it cool down a little in between to make sure it all stayed down and I wouldn't have any loose bits between the layers. I love how smooth it turned out, even better than I'd hoped.

Next I took some wool we had also had lying around in the school's stash, lay a piece over the horse and ironed it to shape. I traced the edges of the horse with chalk, cut the shape out (with seam allowance) and sewed two strips of the same fabric around the edges to form channels for some tape to hold the cover firm. It didn't quite conform to the curve in the middle, so I added another tie on the underside to hold the "waist" of the pear shape tight.

And here's the finished horsey. The fabric reminds me of my grandpa's hats, but it's smooth and firm, and curved like a lady's body now. I'm sure the small trouble it took will pay for itself in my next project already, the corset for my 1880's gown. And with this addition I'm very happy with my ironing equipment. With the horse, a sleeve board I also bought from the school and my newly repaired Trevil Domina iron, I'm pretty much set. If only I had the room for an ironing board with suction...

Here's what I've been up to lately...

I had quite an amazing stroke of luck in finding a traineeship at a movie's costuming department. For the last close to three months, I've been sewing 17th century garments for the Girl King, a movie directed by Mika Kaurismäki and filmed right here in Turku. It's an international production between Finland, Sweden, Canada and Germany. I'm under a non-disclosure agreement so I'm afraid I can't share too many details and especially no photos, but here's a segment that was aired in yesterday's news. Our part starts around 18:30 but I'm afraid there aren't English subtitles. To be honest, I don't even know if the video can be watched outside Finland.

Christina, the name sake of the movie was a Swedish queen who was raised as a boy and grew up to be quite an interesting person. It's been an amazing ride getting to know the 17th century and I've learned more than I ever could've imagined in such a short time. It's slowly drawing to a close, though, as after next week it's time to return to normality and turn my brain forward by about 250 years: I'll be starting my final project at the school, an 1880's bustle gown.