The Shadow of My Hand: white embroidered gown

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tiistai 9. toukokuuta 2017

Photoshoot day

Last Saturday a fellow doctoral student who is also a photographer invited me to model for her and another photographer. They chose some of my dresses that they wanted to photograph and I managed to smuggle in some dance poses as well :)

Here are some of their shots. All photos Suvi Korpi and Anni Ylkänen

Please be considerate and do not copy or repost the photos without permission!


The parasol is a vintage item from the 1930s but it's so pretty that I couldn't resist!		Photo: Suvi Korpi

Photo: Suvi Korpi

The good old Courtois dress. I did better with the hair this time, though it's not perfect still. Photo: Anni Ylkänen

Photo: Anni Ylkänen

I've made an evening bodice for the Courtois dress skirts. I'm especially happy with how well the hook and thread loop fastenings centre front work! I was sceptical and undecided about the fastenings for months and months, but decided on these because I wanted it photographed at this session. Photo: Anni Ylkänen

Photo: Anni Ylkänen

Some dance shots :) Photo: Anni Ylkänen

Photo: Anni Ylkänen

sunnuntai 18. elokuuta 2013

Bath, are you ready?

Let's begin with a massive beret. I finally found fabric for (unintentional alliteration, I better stop before it gets ridiculous...) a beret (phew!) that matches the pelisse. When I say matches, I don't mean it's exactly the same colour or even purple because that's just too matchy-matchy for my taste. That's what always bothered me with the bicorn hat, it's purpleness and too closely matching colour. So, a long story short, I found nice rosy satin, not too shiny or artificial looking and the colour looks very nice with the pelisse.
The beret has no particular pattern, I cut a circular piece, ca. 60cm in diameter, a headband that fits my head, pleated and sewed the beret piece on the headband, added lining, and folded the headband lenghtwise and sewed the edge. The feathers aren't sewn on, because I use them with other hats and headwear as well. Some photos of the whole get-up:

I have to adjust the feathers, they're not drooping the way I intended.


I kind of like the chemisette with the collar open like this as well

There's my promenade costume all finished; can't believe that the Jane Austen Festival is less than a month away!

I've also been sewing some 18th century things. This was my first attempt at robe à l'Anglaise and at first it seemed that I had managed to fail spectacularly at it. I had cut the back too long but luckily I was able to shorten it from the neck edge and now it looks the way it should. I still need to attach the sleeves and the trimming but the biggest part of it is done.
The pattern for the gown came from the Costume Close-Up by Linda Baumgarten. You know, the pink Williamsburg anglaise. I followed the pattern and the instructions quite closely and I like the result.
Note, this is NOT a pink gown. When I started sewing historical clothes I swore that I'd never make anything pink because that's just too cute and girly and just not my thing. I don't wear pink, period. So this gown, however it may appear, is not pink. the fabric has narrow red and white stripes and this makes it look, well, pink. But it's not :)

I want to make a white petticoat to go with this gown.

I really like the polonaise effect here. There are tapes on the inside of the skirt which are tied together to lift the hem.

See? Not pink.

Who am I kidding. It's pink. :P

sunnuntai 9. kesäkuuta 2013

The Museum of London pelisse (oodles of photos)

Today I went out to a nearby park with an obliging friend to take some pictures of the epic pelisse I finally finished this week. This was the biggest sewing project I've made so far, and the result pleases me very much.

I saw the the fabulous 1820s pelisse in the Museum of London last September and was instantly smitten. Here was a garment that needed to be reproduced! I begun the project in late February this year and now it's finished. In retrospect, it didn't really take that long; I had other projects in the making at the same time, so maybe if I had only been sewing the pelisse, it would've been ready earlier.

The coat pattern itself is not that complicated, I used my trusty Regency bodice pattern and took the hem pattern from Jean Hunnisett's book; it actually is the 1820s hem pattern, so the shape is very similar (at least to me) as with the original. I think I might have made the bodice a little bit longer, as the waistline begun to creep downwards again in the 1820s, but it works like it is, too.

I drafted the petal sleeves and the collar myself, and I'm especially pleased with how the collar turned out. It's so pretty! For the sleeves I used my standard Regency sleeve pattern and added the slightly flared cuffs.

The most time-consuming bit of the entire project was obviously all the trimming and the beading. I made the rouleaux piping out of the pelisse fabric; I just cut about 2,5cm wide strips of the cloth on the bias, sewed the short ends together and then machine stitched the long sides together. I then turned the tubes right side out and pinned and handsewed them on the pelisse. The coat is entirely handsewn, I only used the machine when I made the piping, because... well, it's pretty obvious why!

I drew the leaf motifs and the beading patterns on tissue paper and pinned them on the coat and then sewed the piping and the beads on. When I was finished I just ripped off the paper. This way, the piping and the beading came out very even and it was tons easier to manage the symmetry and the mirroring patterns on the front edges. I actually use the tissue paper trick pretty much always when I embroider, I find it works very well and I don't have to trace the patterns on the fabrics.

The pelisse has 140 grams of glass beads on it and - I would guess - about 30 metres of rouleaux piping.

Want to see what it looks like?

All outdoors pictures by Suvi Saraste, construction photos by me.

The pelisse and the belt have hooks and eyes closing

The original pelisse had the leaf trimming on the shoulders as well but I chose to have just the two repeats of the pattern.

I wore the fern dress underneath

I also made a little bicorn hat to go with the coat. I made the massive red bonnet earlier, but somehow that doesn't look right with the pelisse. I might make a big turban hat later, those seem to be very popular in the 1820s fashion plates.

The bicorn came about when I was watching the 1995 Pride and Prejudice for the umpteenth time; I noticed that Mrs. Hurst (Mr. Bingley's married sister) wears a jaunty little bicorn whenever she's out and about. Inspiration! I had a couple of those floppy 70s-esque felt hats lying around, one black and one plum, I had bought them with 1 euro apiece and hadn't really done anything with them. But now!

I don't know how period accurate the bicorn really is, especially on ladies, but at least they were around at the time and soldiers and even civilian men wore them. And anyway, women's Regency fashion took a lot of influences from the military uniforms of the time. You could even say that the Museum of London pelisse has the sort of military cord trimming going on, only the cords have been arranged in nice, feminine leafy patterns.

There are some construction photos of the hat further down.

The hair was a problem, as ever. You'd think that Regency dos would be easy, but I think that nonchalant "I just whipped my hair up in a bun like this, and doesn't it look cool and simple and nicely curled" style is difficult to achieve. My hair is wavy and curls very easily, but making a nice bun with some pretty curls around my face just never works out the way I'd want. Meh. Got to keep on practicing.

So, how did I make the pelisse? Luckily, I did take a lot of photos.

Beading the back piece, I attached all the beads one by one. I found that that way the beading was more stabile and it was faster and easier than attaching a long string of beads.