Purple Spott'd Dress

I have finally had a chance to post a finished project that isn't a cap!  Unfortunately, I won't have pictures of me wearing it for a while (excepting ones of me working.)  But as I do not know when I will actually be able to get photos, here are a few of the finished product spread out over my lovely floor.

Fabric:  Burnley and Trowbridge cotton muslin, lined with linen and sewed with linen thread.  The tucker is silk organdy.

Period: Early 1770s

Time:  About a week, discounting the time that it took me to get the sleeves and shoulder pieces put on correctly (finally fixing a fitting issue that I have wrestled with for months)

Final verdict:  I have worn this gown several times and have grown very fond of it.  The fabric is light and malleable, and the purple print is beautifully crisp.  I want to make a nice new white kerchief and apron set with a crisp breast bow and a little chip hat for it - it looks so simple and clean!  

I had a few fitting issues, ranging from my failed attempts at altering for size, misbehaving back pieces, sleeve settings and the like.  Luckily, the fabric has stretched a bit to forgive my mistakes.  I did raise the neckline, as most of the dresses I've made from this pattern have been a little low for my tastes.  Next dress I make I'll make the bodice longer in the downward direction, as well.  I might make self fabric cuffs or ruffles with my 1/2 yard of extra fabric, but we'll see about that!

I'm making up something useful out of that terrible wool jacket and petticoat set I made a while back, but until such time as I am able to wear it I will probably be focusing on making smaller projects and expanding my repertoire of skills.  I hope you all are staying warm and having a good winter!

A long overdue riding habit

This, unfortunately, is the one case where waiting too long to finish something only diminishes my pleasure in it being done.  But it is perfectly alright now, and I can move on to the projects I put on the back burner!

What is it:  A riding habit from approximately the late 1760s.

Materials:  Wool from Burnley and Trowbridge.  In retrospect a plain weave was a poor choice; I think a twill/gaberdine would have been stiffer.  But there was a whole fiasco involving fashionfabrics.com, and I just wanted a dealer I could trust.  The lining is linen except for the silk taffeta skirts, the thread cotton, the brass buttons also from B&T.

How long it took to make:  A very long time, working in increments.  I could have been done in a week or two, but I dragged it out until the end of the semester.  I also wore the petticoat for the halloween tours, and it was quite warm indeed.

Construction:  Roughly based on the Janet Arnold pattern, as well as a large cross-section of later 18th century riding habits.  I debated making the front one-piece, but ultimately decided to keep it as a separate bodice and skirt; I took the round collar off last minute because it kept flipping up.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to take any construction pictures, but oh well.

Verdict?: I wish I had made this out of a twill so that the bodice wouldnt've been quite so disastrously wrinkled.  And the collar needs a little bit of work, and the hem could be taken up a few inches.  But overall it's surprisingly comfortable and cozy and I love the color and the buttons.

Secondary verdict:  It's sturdy enough to climb in!

With the boo....

I'm not quite sure what my next project will be, but I'm almost done with a 40's dress I made from my rejected wool and I have plenty of colonial/regency projects planned for local events and for when I get home for break.

I hope all my followers have a happy holiday!

My oft-repurposed silk

Despite this fabric's tendency to get horribly, uncleanably stained, I really do love it.  And that's why I took apart my 1840s dress to use the skirt for something that I would actually, you know, wear once in a while.

I like that this picture makes me look a lil' bit like Laura Linney as Abigail Adams.

Once again, as I can't seem to grasp the schematics of hooks and eyes on a 1770s dress, this one closes with pins.  Which probably explains the occasional and grotesque wrinkles.

But it's smooth in this one!

Just the facts:

Pattern: JP Ryan's English/round gown, approximately 1776

Fabric: Silk-faced satin for the dress, linen lining, and a silk brocade for the petticoat.

Time:  An awful long.  I forgot how terrible it is to hand-sew fabric that's this stiff (look at the seeve ruffles stickin' up like icicles.)  Probably 2-3 weeks for both the dress and the petticoat, but I also had loads and loads of APs and finals and recitals to do.

Cost: About $25 for the silk brocade, but the rest is all stash.

Ultimate Prognosis: I really like this dress!  I'm never going to wear it outside, though.  It gets way too dirty way to easily. Just getting it onto my body in a decently clean condition was a trial.  Next time, I am definitely going to summon the courage to do hooks and eyes, and also try to fit the back better.

And I also have a choice photo from the english project that C and I did for our senior final, not only because I made the dress but because I think all of the pictures we took are comedy gold.

(HE'S WEARING NEON BLUE BASKETBALL SHORTS.)

My next project will be an underbodice for my sheer, because graduation is literally next week and I still haven't done that yet.  Until then, friends!
(Also, poll: does that brocade 'look' correct?  I might buy more of it but, you know, not if the pattern is off.)

And some more general exciting news!  The lovely Adi from Basically Creative Me has awarded me with the Liebster Blog Award.  I am so honored to be recognized by such a talented seamstress!  I promise that I'll have the requisite questions, responses and nominations up within the week.

Selfies in interesting headware

Taking pictures of onesself with a handheld is pretty difficult.  I apologize for the orangeish tint.

I decided I needed some more forms of headwear besides my straw plate hat, so I made a silk capote for my camp impression.  It was a quick, easy project, and I made another cap to go with it out of cotton organdy left over from my graduation dress.

       I generally went along Samantha McCarty's guidelines on how to make it, though I winged it a considerable amount.  The silk was left over from my black dress, the brim is cut from the back of my sister's watercolor paper pad, and the pattern is self drafted.  Took approximately two days to make, and the cap took about two days as well.

The brim was the trickiest part and I'm not thrilled with how it turned out, but it's a cute and passable little project to suck up some of my stash.

Speaking of stash taming, I'm doing a little project with my silk duchess satin 1840s dress that I have only worn once.  Let's just say that It's not going to be 1840s for very much longer.
Toodles!

A very Easter-ey dress

Proving, to my surprise, that 1770s fashion is considerably more comfortable than 1860s.
Also, in which I need to remember to buy more hooks and eyes at some point because I ran out.  Please do excuse the resulting fitting issues...

 

Just the facts:

Fabric:  Gorgeous tropical weight wool from Vogue fabrics. It's as soft and sheer as cotton voile, and at first I was so reluctant to make it into a 1770s dress rather than a summer Civil War sheer.  But I'm glad I did, because it's insanely light and comfortable.

Pattern: JP Ryan, as usual, altered to make a jacket instead of a polonaise. 

Time: About two weeks. We're having our house painted and I have finals coming up, so it's been pretty hectic at home.

What I learned/would change:  I'm definitely going to put some pleated trim on this and bone the back (it's so wrinkly I don't dare show pictures of it.) Also, the jacket is short in the back so the ruffle sticks up like a duck butt. It's not very attractive.  And of course, I need some hem tape. And I think the sleeve pleats are a bit too far forward, but that's my fault for being to lazy to put it on my dress form.

Me tripping (thanks, dad.)

I think the colors are very Eastery.  I'm going to put linen ruffles on the sleeve and put the hooks and eyes on for real before I wear it, but I'm pretty happy with it now.

Revwar basics

Yes, still kitting up, as it were.  Bit by bit.

 Ignore my (admittedly pretty quality) AP Euro t-shirt.

I actually made this last week in a day and a half, which is pretty impressive given my record of procrastination.  We were driving down to Springfield to see the Lincoln Museum, which was a wonderful trip wherein I took selfies with Robert Todd Lincoln, but that's a whole different story.

 The entire cap is one layer, as is correct (instead of double layers with the caul and ruffle sandwiched inbetween)

 The kind of sloppy whipped gathers - each piece was individually hemmed with a rolled hem and then the ruffles were drawn together using the thread from the hem.

 The drawstring at the neck.

The view from the top!

I used Kannik's Corner's mob cap pattern with some very fine linen and cotton tape that I got from Reenactorfest, and will definitely be making a few more of these for Williamsburg (maybe one with a double ruffle, or a pleated ruffle.)

Now I'm on the last leg of refurbishing my black silk 1860s dress and I've rec'd a good amount of royal blue silk taffeta as a present for that blue ballgown that I've been dreaming of ever since I found all of that antique chantilly lace at a thrift store in Watervale.

Hopefully when I'm done with them it won't be too snowy out to take pictures!

My first 'good' dress

 

Naught but the most quality selfies in 3 feet of northeastern snow.

 

I finished my second Revwar dress this week, which I'm pretty gosh darn proud of.

 Just the basics:

Year: Roughly 1770

Fabric: Williamsburg collection cotton print, linen lining, petticoat of unknown and unknowable organic origin, cotton and linen thread.

Pattern: My usual JP Ryan pattern

Time:  About a week and a half, working all day in class, entirely handsewn.

What I would change:  I might re-set the sleeves, but at least they're long enough.  And I want to re-do the pleats and make them smaller, and make a matching petticoat if I have enough fabric left.

I also went to Reenactorfest last weekend, which was an absolute blast- I wish that I'd brought my camera, but we had all sorts of high-energy fun and met some wonderful people, and I spent a lot more than I should have.  For instance, this lovely (and unironed) short cloak, a lot of period makeup from the lovely litttlebits, and a lot of fabric, notions and patterns from various and sundry sources.

And here are some detailed shots of the dress itself as a closing statement:

 The inner lining with the en fourreau pleats tacked down

 The skirt pleats, which are tacked on then overstitched.

The shoulder-piece, which is overstitched down on top of the sleeve cap.  (and also a bit of basting thread, whoops.)

1770s basics

Alright... This is not going to be a 'sexy' post in terms of fun or fancy clothing.  I just wanted to show off my fun new undergarment, that's all! I apologize for the lack of posts of late; I feel like I'm working on 10 projects, all at once.  As well as this, I've been fixing and altering a lot of my older stuff.
I've finally gotten around to making a decent Revwar chemise, though!

Sorry, no risque on-the-model pictures

 Just the facts:

Materials: Linen, cotton thread.

Pattern: marquise.de, drafted to my measurements

Time: about a week and a half, which is a really long time for me, but all of those hand sewn flat felled seams eat up time like nobody's business.

Period: 1740-1780, probably.

What I'll do differently next time:  Use a lighter weight linen and linen thread, and make the armholes a loooooot bigger, erp.

 I'm inordinately proud of my stitching, though.  This is a running stitch on the hem.

 The neckline, with the binding.

 The triangular sleeve gusset

And the big frickin' side gusset.  Sigh.

While waiting for the linen to come, I ended up re-doing my paletot yet again so that it looks a little more presentable.

argh.... I look like crap... I apologize.

 I changed the collar to a standing collar and neatened out the shoulders (though it still puffs out a bit on one side thanks to my not basting it before I sewed it,) re-set the trim on the ends so that it didn't bubble out and FINALLY put on some fur cuffs!

 Nee hee hee, I love them so much!

And the full thing.

Right now, I'm working on re-doing my black silk 1860s dress as well as making a reallllllly fancy 860s lace fichu to clean out some of my lace stash, and then on to a black silk Revwar bonnet, then my chintz cotton print dress.... The list never ends....