Bits and bobs

This is not going to be a very uniform post, just an account on a handful of projects that I recently finished.
First up, a dress in a day. Not the Colonial Williamsburgh variety, sadly, but an everyday dress that for once wasn't left to float around the sewing table waiting for hemming or buttonholes. The other day I went to the fabric shop, again, "just to look around" (famous last words). I came home with wool blend for trousers and this:

So, I made a dress out of it. There was just enough for my favourite pattern and I'm happy that this time there really was no extra fabric left over to fill my already overflowing stash. The pattern is my own, and I've made a couple other dresses using the same pattern, only altering the collar and the shape of the neckline.

Next, the 19th century reticule. I knitted it after this pattern and it really was a nice project. I don't really have anything special to say about it. I lined the bag with ordinary lining fabric and used leftover rouleaux piping for drawstrings. I like it.

The thing was big enough to fit my headt :)

The yarn is lace weight wool, some random find from a trip to Stockholm a couple of years back.

I've saved the best for last; the pelisse. Let's make it official. This week I finally finished the Museum of London pelisse. When I first saw it in the museum last September I knew I wanted to make it, but I never dared to think it would turn out this beautiful. I still want to take some proper photos of it to do it justice; somehow it doesn't feel right to just take a couple of pics in my kitchen and be done with it. It's an outdoors garment, so I try and do a proper photoshoot if I can lure somebody to help me with the camera. For now, this will have to do:

Block printing

So, I've been slaving away with the pelisse trimmings and have almost finished the left side. Still some beading to do (found more beads in the shop, hooray!) and then I can move on to the right side. After that it's just finishing, sewing on the collar, and attaching the bodice lining, the front edge facings and the hooks and eyes. Can't believe it's nearly done!

My block print stamps that I ordered a couple of weeks ago came yesterday! They're so pretty!

I ordered the three big stamps, the little flower stamp was an additional present :)

I dyed the flannel and I really like the result: the colourway was supposed to be Tulip Red, but it's more like very vibrant fuchsia. Today I printed it with my new stamps and the fabric looks great! The paint I used is Panduro Palett, colour yellow for dark fabrics (they have two lines, for light and dark fabrics). I just dabbed the paint on the stamps with some superlon and printed away. The trick is to have enough paint on the stamp, even what would look like too much. At least that worked for the flannel.

I still need to do some more printing because I only did half of the fabric. It was surprisingly fast work and fun, too. Can't wait to print a gown fabric with the stamps!

Things from 1820s and 1920s

First things first: the Nordiska Museet spencer is finished. Here's the original:

I haven't been able to find any information on this on the internet, so the picture is my photo of a photo in a book called Empirens Döttrar (transl. Daughters of the Empire or Daughters of the Regency Age, depending on one's point of view). The book says that this is a riding habit from ca. the 1820s.

Here's my version of it, worn with my massive red bonnet. The hat is maybe leaning over to the 1830s, but I like it anyway :) As said I haven't yet found suitable decorative buttons but the jacket works well without them, too.

I really like the silhouette here.

The gown is the very first Regency dress I ever made, with the fern embroideries on the hem.

Ok, let's take a time-warping jump, 100 years ahead. I've been waiting the Great Gatsby movie for ages and it finally opens here this week. With that in mind, I made a little cloche hat which I intend to wear with my American Duchess Skidoos when I go and see the film :) I drafted the hat pattern myself, but I was inspired by this DL Designs hat. Have a look at some photos, do!

Overtaken by the Charleston craze

The shoes are actually red and white, it doesn't show here very well

The brim can be worn asymmetrically like this or symmetrically, framing the face more

20s-esque accessories with the only actual thing from the 20s in my possession: my fiddle, built in 1928

 

By the way, I've also been a good girl and started sewing on the pelisse trimmings :)

A quick post on what's to come

I've been busy with the needle lately. The Nordiska Museet spencer is done (sans the decorative buttons, as I haven't found anything suitable yet, and I need 104 of them...) and I'm currently hemming the blue, to-be-embroidered-with-white gown. I was very inspired by the neckline of this dress and I think I've managed to create something akin to it. My dress will have short sleeves, so I can make a long-sleeved chemisette to be worn under it.

The pelisse is still waiting for the trimmings. I was lucky to find more of the fabric when I was visiting another city (and met up with the lovely Rococo Atelier, btw :) ), so nothing is going to save me from making an buttload of rouleaux piping now.

Today was one of those days when you go to town to look for something and come home with five other things besides. I went to buy bargain flannel to make me a dressing gown and just happened to find cotton,  just the perfect shade of green. And it was on sale, too. So, let's add a new 18th century petticoat on my to-do list. Then I got the idea of embroidering it, something like this, this or this. I must be mad or both.

I also ordered wooden block print stamps from Blockwallah, because I have one such stamp and I've been meaning to print a gown fabric with it but (as usual) haven't found the suitable fabric yet. Now I think I'll try the stamps on the dressing gown and then print a gown fabric if I ever find any. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to find suitably thin, white (but not too white) cotton.

These are the stamps I ordered:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/129718394/wood-block-stamp-paisley?ref=shop_home_active
http://www.etsy.com/listing/129626753/border-hand-crafted-wood-stamp?ref=shop_home_active
http://www.etsy.com/listing/129526208/paisley-wood-block-stamp-especially?ref=shop_home_active

If I don't have trimming for the pelisse or the spencer...

... that means that I can make a gown, right? I've been itching to begin making a day dress out of this blue fabric I found a couple of weeks ago. I intend to embroider it with white and use one leaves and flowers pattern I've had lying around for ages. The pattern goes around the hem and up the centre front of it; I might sprinkle the rest of the dress, the bodice and the sleeves with some random leaves depending on how I feel.
I browsed the net today but couldn't find that many blue gowns. I wonder why that is; there were tons of white embroidered gowns, of course, but for some reason not that many blue ones.

The fabric, a sketch and the embroidery pattern

I have a chance to hit fabric and haberdashery shops in another (and bigger) town next week, so I'm hoping that I'll find suitable trimming for both the unfinished coats, but until then... :)

New short stays

On Monday this week I decided that time was ripe for a new pair of short stays. I used the same pattern I drafted for the first pair I made and decided to make them a bit sturdier than the previous pair. I found a piece of mint green taffeta in my stash just enough for this project and made that the top layer of the stays. I cut the middle layer of hard-wearing cotton (they call it "raw fabric" in the shop) and made the lining out of some mint green cotton I had lying around.
I also decided to do some cording on these stays to prevent them from stretching and to give them additional support. For boning I used semi-stiff plastic bone in two widths, two lengths of the narrower on both sides of centre back and two lenghts of the wider one on centre front and the sides. I also used jute cord for the cording.
I finished the stays today and I'm very pleased with the result. I might even go so far as to say that they're the first stays of any period that turned out just the way I wanted :) Here's a load of pictures I took:

I added a drawstring inside the top edge of the stays to improve the fit

The bones I used

Some construction photos, top layer and the middle layer pinned together

Putting in the gores

Everything is handstitched, as usual

Cording lines skecthed on a paper mock up

Centre front boning and cording on the reverse side

Centre back and lacing holes; the bones refused to lie flat

In fact, I actually liked sewing on the cording and was thinking that it might be interesting to make a pair of stays that are entirely corded.

Random craftiness

This week I made portrait miniatures to accessorise my costumes. I had been meaning to make them for ages and when the glass cabochons and the little frames I had ordered finally arrived I jumped right in. I took some pointers from the miniature making instructions American Duchess posted some time ago and I must say I like the result. Maybe the glue wasn't the most perfect one to use, but I kind of like the "aged" look it gives to the pictures.

Dashing white sergeant. He's actually a captain, one W.S. Dawe of the Indian Infantry. I've had a crush on him ever since I saw the original portrait miniature in the V&A last year :)

I couldn't resist this :)

Major Samuel Ringgold

I've also been working on the pelisse, the beading is coming along nicely. I think I might have to look for some ready made trimming for all those leaves that go on the front of the coat because I don't have enough fabric to make enough rouleaux piping. I decided to use my trusty tissue paper trick for the beading as well, to make the pattern as even as possible. I'm sewing the beads on individually and I like the result, it's much more stable and less fiddly to sew than if I had sewn on lenghts of threaded beads.

The cuff, still need to add another pattern row just below the piping

Centre back