Hand-Sewn Linen Stays

Or, the doomstayers.
My first pair (which excuses a few of the mess ups, I think.)  I really need to make the bust larger next time I make this, but other than that I think the pattern worked pretty well.

 I don't yet have proper 18th century undergarments, so enjoy my post-school loungewear outfit and mussy hair.

 Bosomlicious!

 I didn't have anybody to tie the top off for me, so I'm just holding the loose end (it's spirol laced.)
As for the stats, it's two layers of thick linen from B&T, boned with reeding from the same, stitched with silk thread, bound with brown cotton and the eyelets are done in gold cotton embroidery thread.  It took me from the start of school (late August) until now, so that should give you an idea of the time it took to make.

Hopefully the gap-osis will be eliminated one I tie it all the way up, erp.
And now I have no projects to do at school... I hope my cotton organdy arrives soon so that I can start on Project Hide Dupioni with Lots of Organdy Puffs.
Cheers!

Heaps Farm and the trippy camp dress

Well, that event was certainly an.... adventure.  An adventure, meaning that the journey was as worthy as the destination!
It was my first time driving, and between C and I the 1 hour trip was lengthened threefold and I also ran our poor minivan into a wall and dented the fender up.  Whoops!
The event itself is the first of two to happen in Minooka, and if you have a choice, you ought to go to Dollanger instead of Heaps.  The battlefield here was absolutely tiny, which all the menfolk were grumpy about.

 At Ian's behest, we set up a civilian tavern and supplied hot meals, pickles, peaches and booze for a flat fee.  It ended up being a great success that we plan on recreating at Minooka next month!

 Unfortunately, it was very very cold, and a cold me is a cross me.

Me, with a pilfered Anne jacket. V v cold.

My poor dress also needed a fair amount of TLC, given how much we ran around in the dirt and frolicked.

 We also made a midday Walgreens butter run so we could cook our stew-

actively being able to believe that it's not butter

My dress was the cotton print dress from my second-to-last post.  Not particularly unusual, cartridge pleated skirt, gathered at both the bust and shoulders, slightly v-necked so that I could wear a fichu or a collar with it.  And as you can see, the cartridge pleating could have been done more evenly, erp...  Well, there's always next time.

And then after hours, in true tavern form, there was lots and lots of (fake) period gambling.

I'm still waiting on fabric to make my new ballgown, so until then, I am your alls' humble and ob'd. servant!

Fast-Forwarding

This is a wee bit later than my usual time frame!

I got this 1950s pattern on vacation with friends (I got a few more, too, but this was by far the simplest!)  I decided to make the gored skirt with fabric I got from my AP Art teacher last year, some sort of wool-like poly blend.  Unfortunately, the pattern called for 2.5 yards and I had.... 1.25
And thusly an 8 gored skirt became a 4 gored skirt!

 I actually really love this skirt.  It isn't quite so blindingly neon in person, but it's still bright enough to add some personality to an outfit, modern or otherwise.
The blouse, alas, is not my own creation (it's Lauren Moffatt) and the shoes are Campbell's that I got eons ago.  The hairdo is the post-getting-pushed-into-the-boy's-pool look (so fetch!)

It's all machine done except for the hem, which I had to take out and redo by hand.  It was my first time setting in a zipper, what a conceptual nightmare, ugh.  It also closes at the top with a fun little red-white-and-blue button.

The older projects are coming along well.  The stays are troublesome, and I'm almost done with my camp dress.  I have a CW event this weekend so stay tuned for more about that!

Selfie! With fun psd filters.

How to size up a pattern using photoshop

Because I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to do this.  And drawing it out by hand can be a drag with all of those squares and boxes and arbitrary lines, especially if one pattern piece is smaller and very complicated as to curves and darts.  So without further ado, here's a poorly explained tutorial about sizing up little patterns to scale!

Douglas Day, version 2

Don't worry, friends, I am still alive! And sewing!  I've mostly been working on my new CW camp dress made of wonderfully garish print, but I want that to be a surprise for when it's finished. c:  I've just been mending and retrimming my old stuff.
But I did take advantage of the last halcyon days of summer and youth to drag friends out to the Douglas tomb (right in our town) and have a picnic and roll around and whatnot.  It was a chiefly amusing day!
As if you all didn't think that I was Douglas crazy enough.

 The artifice itself is actually Douglas' tomb.  It was started in '61 and finished around 1888 (due to cost difficulties.)  It stood on the land where he had intended to build his grand Chicago estate, Oakenwald.  Never did get around to it (thanks to typhoid and a history of alcoholism....)

 

It has all sorts of cool reliefs carved around it depicting scenes relevant to the early American experience!

I left a few flowers in front of his tomb.

                                               We also had a lot of fun with the statues!

Our very pc picnic bench

 We set up in the lovely park around the memorial itself and ate little cookies and cucumber sandwiches and drank lots of bubbly!

 The caretakers came up to us and complemented us on our outfits.  Apparently they have period events around there and once or twice a year they have a Douglas reenactor!  And I've been missing out on 7 whole years of going to see a punk rock' Stephen Dougas! But they promised to contact me and send me info and were generally very kind.

 Anne came, as well!  It was awfully nice to see her.

I never got around to showing off the finished bonnet I was making for C for APortfolio, so here it is, beautifully modeled by the owner herself.

 And we got a little jumpy by the end of the day, and what better way to honor an energetic woman-loving man than by flashing our drawers all about?  (and nobody told me my hair was falling out! :c )

It only goes to show: if there aren't any events around, make one yourself!!!

Julia Tyler in Night Vale

I suppose my interest in accurate sewing has reached a point where if something was made before 1855 or so I feel the deep, burning need to sew it by hand.  Remind me never to do that for a ballgown again, though.
So last year on a spring break college tour I found a fabric store in Providence, RI, and I found some 60" silk duchess satin for $10 a yard, so I snatched up the last of the bolt because it screamed '1840s' to me.  And now I have finally done something with it!  Hurrah for stash taming!

tumblr.com

metmuseum.org

 I used several different inspiration pictures.  I meant for this dress to be exceedingly spartan, but I ended up with lots of lace and ribbons and a bertha.

Yaaaay summertime in Chicago!

"I swear, even though Senator Douglas was only THIS tall, he was still cute as a button!"

The back didn't fit me so well, and the whole thing could stand to be taken in an inch or so and it doesn't make my waist look very small at all (oh well.)  Despite that, I feel really rad in it!  The light really makes it shimmer and glow.

Obligatory harp picture

My preeeeciousssss

This was the dress of many design flaws... It was originally supposed to have intricate pleating at the front but I wussed out and made it up as a plain bodice.  I should have made a center front seam so I could have boned the point and taken care of some of the front wrinkles.  The armscythe fits really strangely, but the bertha covers it up wonderfully!  Also, one side of the skirt is fuller than the other because I tied off my gathering stitch too quickly.  My bad..

 

 The skirt was cartridge pleated and both the neck and waist piped (I tried to doble pipe the waist and failed amusingly)

Boning in the dart

 The bertha was only attached at the shoulders and pinned to the center front for easy future removal.

The bertha was made by stitching bias strips to a plain cotton base.

(About the name - I did most of the work on this dress while listening to Welcome to Night Vale, a really weird and excellent podcast.  Go listen!  All hail the glow cloud!)

A quick poll

(Which will probably be deleted in several days time, but I have a desperate need for opinions!)
So at the moment my 1840s bodice looks like this, but without the sleeves:

From Antiquedress.com

 What initially drew me to this style of dress was the brutal simplicity of the style that let the fabric quality shine; no silly doodads or lacey bits, just immaculate fit and quality fabric.
But I still have at least a yard of fabric left after making up the skirt, and I'm starting to think that I might like to put a pleated bertha on as well.
 

Something like this

Do you like it plain better? Or with a low bertha (like the one in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion?)  I don't think a detachable one will work, as in the 40s it would have been sewn into the sleeve seam.
Thanks!