Accessorizing Head-to-Toe - February

For February the challenge was jewelry.  Since I'm trying to shore up my regency wardrobe, I wanted to make a rivière or collet style necklace.  Lucky for me Michaels not only had a sale but had some cool chains... Some were bigger and fancier that what I purchased but I wanted something not chunky.  It was pretty easy to remove jump rings and extra chains to put three pieces together to make a necklace.

Things I learned at Costume College Part 1

So one of the classes that I took at Costume College was 18th Century Petticoats and Aprons.  Now I've made a few petticoats (corded and otherwise) but even with all my reading and looking at photos of extant garments, I knew I was missing something.  To be HA (which I'm not normally super concerned with) you use natural fiber fabric in linen, wool, silk, or even cotton and you hand stitch it.  I usually end up machine stitching at least parts of my garments (and I did with this one.)  The hems are ferreted (sp?).  Below is my best definition of "ferreting".

"To ferret the hem" was new terminology to me.  I looked it up on Google and all the old sewing books I had to no avail - even Wikipedia couldn't help. Ferreting is a technique when you sew linen tape or bias tape to the right side of the fabric with about an 1/8 of an inch seam.  Then you wrap the tape to the underside of the fabric - leaving just a hint showing at the hem and sew it down.  In the 18th Century this would protect the hem from wear....

 Here is my first attempt.

I used button hole stitches along the bottom of the side slits.

Look at the white peeping out!  That's the tape!  It protects the hem and helps it stand out a bit!

18th C petticoats are tied on in two halves.  This one is short enough to be a petticoat.

Lemon Sorbet Skirt

As I'm preparing for the GBACG's Tissot Picnic, I needed to make at least one underskirt.  I will be making two, but I wanted to share the "How" of skirt making (for me).  I usually employ the 18th century technique of altering the already hemmed skirt at the waist.  For this skirt I used two 60" panels that are 36 inches in length.  After building the "tube" of the skirt by sewing the selvages together, I created an opening in the CB which will allow me to put it on.  For the ruffles, I cut out 6-60 inch long 6 inch tall strips and hemmed top and bottom to 5 inches.  Then I pleated the fabric and tacked it on the machine.  I then steamed the pleats down (using a vinegar water spray and let it sit overnight.  While this was cooling, I wrapped the "hem" end of the linen in the bias tape.  This will give me a fun little touch on the inside.  I then pinned the ruffle to the hem of the skirt and draped it on Prof. Sprout to get the waist sorted out.

As you can see above, I raise the fabric at the front so it sits the same distance from the floor (about 3" for this skirt).  For me this means employing a helper to slide a ruler around telling me where to raise and lower the waist. Then I pin the waistband to the skirt and take it off my form to sew.  For me this works well as my dress form is withing an inch of my height so this hem should sit about 3 inches off the floor when I wear it.  Also, I know it looks weird, but I designed this to sit just below my corseted waist as I don't want to add a lot of bulk there.

Below is the finished skirt!  I like it enough that I may wear it to work or a party some day.

      

Fabric: Yellow Linen (or linen blend)
Pattern: none
Year: Bustle Era
Notions: hook and bar for closure and calico bias tape to enclose hem where the pleated ruffle is attached.
How historically accurate is it? I used stash fabric so content in unreliable (most is from the 1980's and 90's).  The pattern is draped on Prof. Sprout (my dress form).
Hours to complete:4 hours (I had trouble setting the ruffles the way I liked)
First worn: not yet, for Tissot Picnic
Total cost: <$3 for thread (go figure, I didn't have a lot of yellow) Everything else is from my stash.

Quilted petticoat aka HSF #9

A couple of years ago I started purchasing fabric for a Georgian/Colonial American dress.  Then while at Walmart (I know, but they have very inexpensive mirrors in the fall) I saw this quilt in the store.  I picked up a King size and put it away to be sewn another day.  I thought it would be perfect for the flora and fauna challenge.  I love the colors and it seemed an easy project.

After doing some internet research, I found that most quilted petticoats are between 90" and 100" if worn without supports and can get up to 120" if worn over hoops.  Since most of my opportunities to wear costumes are in the Bay Area (a 45 minute drive at a minimum), I decided to make a 100" petticoat so that I could wear it under several eras worth of skirts and STILL fit in a car.

I made it in the 18th century skirt method where you build from the hem up and have two halves that tie around your waist.  This allowed me to keep the scallops as the skirt hem.  Taking my handy waist to floor measurement chart, I measured the quilt 45 inches up from the scallops to mark my cutting line.  Then was the more trying/time consuming part - although not NEARLY as time consuming as quilting it myself.  I took out the batting where I would be putting the seam (one - Center Back) and the waist tape (two inches all the way around)  I took out stitches and batting in sections and ended up varying the depth so that around the waist I didn't pull out partial designs.

I apologize, but I don't have a corset for this era yet.

With bustle/bum pad

Without bustle/bum pad

Front

The Challenge: Flora & Fauna

Fabric: Quilted bedspread

Pattern: none

Year: 18th century

Notions:thread, patience and 1" twill tape

How historically accurate is it? Its a modern quilt with a machined quilting design, but its 95% natural fibers and hand stitched.

Hours to complete:4 hours or so.  Most of which was pulling out batting around the seams.

First worn: For photo

Total cost: $20-$40

18th Century Cap

Earlier this week I decided that I wanted a cap to wear for the fashion show today.  I did a little internet research and found some lovely instructions here.  Gail give instructions that are easy to follow and I was able to put together my cap in an evening.  I made some changes to my construction to make my cap suit me.

I'll post photos later!

HSF #1

A fichu

The Challenge: Sew something from __13, whether it be 1913, 1613, or 13BC

Fabric: Indian cotton

Pattern: self drafted

Year: 1713 ish

Notions: lace from my stash

How historically accurate is it? machine sewn and the lace isn't of natural fibers, so yes and no. ( I have theories about machine sewing and visions of my ancestresses hitting e over the head for not using one when I can.)

Hours to complete: 1-2

First worn: GBACG Open House Fashion show

Total cost: $0 all from my stash

This and That - UFPs

So, I've been spending a lot of time working on UFPs and little projects.  I added ruffled cuffs to a dress I purchased from a de-stash.  I may add ruffles around the collar but I want to wait and see...

Ruffled cuffs!

 I finished the strawberry embroidery for a pocket and just need to add the ties.

pocket embroidery done!

My new scrap basket (a $2 basket and a liner made from stash material)!

A pin cushion made from scraps of Prof. Sprout!

Draping

I prefer to drape on a person, because no matter how close a dress form may be it isn't exactly the same.  And dammit, if I'm going to work on something for someone else - they should be willing to show up and participate. ESPECIALLY if I'm doing it for free.

and - its a cool blog.

Read here:http://stay-ingalive.blogspot.com/

Chemise

I've just finished a chemise for my daughter.  It's made of Indian cotton.  Due to her unique fitting issues I decided to drape the fabric on her to get what I wanted. (One shoulder sits higher than the other)  This also made the hem look off but it sits well on her. the side seams are machined and flat felled by hand.  The neckline, armseye and hem are all hand stitched.  I find in calming to stitch by hand.  It should be good for several time periods as I made the straps narrow enough and put enough scoop in the neckline to allow the straps to be pulled down on the shoulder. I added a lining in the shoulders to help sturdy it up a bit.  It's fairly simple and she will be adding lace around the neckline. We are considering adding a ruffle at the bottom; but I want to get started on my Victorian corset now...

The easy (supposedly) 18th century petticoat

I tend to do lots of research before I make something... sometimes its specific but most times I just read everything I can find on the subject and look for the similarities.  In making this skirt, I read all the blogs/articles listed below, some were merely (ha!) inspiration and others were like a map for what I wanted to do. 

Jessamy's Regency Costume Companion
La Couturiere Parisienne...
American Duchess 
La Couturiere Vienoise
Armed & Slightly Dangerous
and many others that I just can't seem to find at this point...

I just completed this petticoat for my 19 year old daughter.  The quick and easy description of what I did was measure the circumference of her in her pocket hoops and the distance between the floor and her side waist over the hoops. 

To make my life easier I cut the panels and sewed them together and hemmed the bottom.  The (probably) was way easier than trying to hem it while it was on V.  I used grosgrain ribbon for the waist ties.  I had her put on the pocket hoops and dropped the skirt over her head until the hem hit the floor.  Then I simply (kind of - if anything is simple when pinning to a squirming person) pinned the skirt to the waist ties...

Although this is all you HAVE to do to create this type of petticoat; I, OF COURSE, had to add a knife pleat ruffle along the bottom.  In general this wouldn't have been a problem at all, but the fabric tried REALLY hard to not have a pleat at the bottom of the skirt.  The sewing complications actually caused a lot of hilarity, but suffice to say 'tis done!

Costuming Shoes!

Here's a blog about shoes. The American Duchess is starting a line of costuming shoes. Check them out!

Adventures in 18th Century costuming

I have just finished Victoria's 18th Century corset. Why did I make Victoria an 18th Century corset? Because in a rare bit of mother-daughter bonding she told me that she wanted one of those fancy dresses from the Colonial/American Revolution era. So after some research (which did require some arm-twisting) I was able to determine that she REALLY wanted an a la englaise.

So as with all good costuming, the underwear comes first. My good friend Hannah was over one day and was able to draft a pattern for a corset. The photo contains the finished product. Along with the pocket hoops that *only* took 5 hours from idea to completion made by Hannah as a gift for Victoria. Victoria's only job is to add a hook and a bar to the waist band of the hoops.

Alteration notes have been taken on the corset - it needs to be longer and smaller in the shoulders. As it stands now the corset closes and the back. Because of her scoliosis, the front doesn't look just right - to help with that I may add an inch to the top of the left side. This will make the corset look odd on paper, but should help with coverage in her front.