Accessorise!

So I've made some Regency accessories lately. You might remember my red stovepipe bonnet? Well, I finally trimmed it and I like it. I'm not sure if I let my 21st century sensibilites take over; I didn't place the rosettes as high as on period fashion plates but frankly, they looked stupid on a 3D hat (as opposed to a 2D drawing of a hat, seen only from one side) so I feel my hat trimmings and their placement are justified.

I also made a new reticule. The fabric is the same cotton velvet as on the bonnet. The embroidery pattern is an original from 1823 Ackermann's Repository I found here.

The hat with my Museum of London pelisse

My turquoise bedroom walls really make a wonderful backdrop for photos :)

I modified the original pattern by adding a monogram letter in the middle

Blue robe à la francaise

I finished my first robe à la Francaise yesterday! Hooray!

*Throws confetti*


I've worked on it on and off for months and months and originally it was supposed to be ready for the Bal Masque in the end of April but that didn't happen. There'll be other events to wear it, though. I decided that I would rather take time to finish it properly than hurry to get it ready in time and do sloppy work.

The vital statistics of this robe are:

The style/pattern: I wanted a later model of the francaise, with a front closing bodice, not a stomacher and the fiddly "pin these pieces on your stays" business. I suppose my robe would be somewhere in the 1770s; I was inspired by this, this, this and this extant example. I used my anglaise bodice as guidelines and consulted the Janet Arnold book for the back pleats and the front hems. Also, a thanks to Sanna of Rococo Atelier, who gave me advice on the width and depth of the back pleats.

The fabric: some kind of viscose (?) blend, with a woven stripe. The fabric was originally silver gray, but I dyed it and it became sort of forget-me-not/periwinkle/pennywort blue. It's very hard to photograph but just take my word, it's a beautiful shade in person :) The bodice is lined with cotton. I chose not to make the conventional adjustable lining for this dress.

The petticoat is a surprise find from the stash. I had been searching for a suitable fabric for the petticoat because I never had enough of the robe fabric for a petticoat too. It's a cotton blend (I think).

The trimmings are of the robe fabric and leftover scraps of my Courtois dress fabric.

Onwards to the pictures. There are loads.

The amazing bunny ear feathers. I recently bought three of these brown ostrich feathers from an interior decoration shop that was closing down and selling everything half price :)

I like how the train pools on the floor. Though I might be of a different mind later, I have yet to wear this around other people so I haven't experienced the dreaded trample on the train.

Awkward 18th century portrait pose with a harp.

"This is good. Where are you going to sit?" :)

Where did March go?

Whoops. It's been a while. There's nothing much to report, the francaise is a bit further along than the last time I checked in, but I still don't have petticoat fabric and the swatches of potential fabric still haven't come even though I have now been waiting for them exacty 1 month. I still have a couple of weeks before the ball where I originally meant to wear the francaise but I'm not really optimistic about finishing it on time.

This is where I am now. Plant stands can be surprisingly useful while sewing. Presenting the decoy-me :)

The hem pinned on and the front pinned (a bit wonkily) closed. The petticoat is not final, still looking for suitable fabric.

The torso part here is a couple of pillows trussed up in the stays. It's considerably flatter in the chest than I am, but I mainly put this contraption together to pleat an pin the hem so it doesn't matter.

I have sewn other things though. Easter is a long four day weekend around here, so I really indulged myself and sewed like never before. I produced a dress, a spring coat and two pairs of shorts for dance.

Seeing double

It's definitely spring because I have so many projects on hold at the moment. The francaise, the Vernet project, a 1920s inspired dress for everyday wear, the red bonnet, a new pair of Regency short stays... But am I rolling up my sleeves and digging into any of those? No.

Instead I browse Pinterest.

And the other day it hit me. I've come across some extant pieces of clothing that aren't actually that unique. There are doubles. Two of the same. Or at least very similar pieces, in different collections.

Like these hats from the Kyoto Costume Museum and the Met:

These two are not exact copies but the style is very similar. (Source: KCI, Met)

Or these spencers, both from the Met:

The material, the decoration, the time period... They all match. These would be identical if it weren't for the sleeves.

And because I've been on a 1920s fashion binge all week, let's take a time-warping jump, 100 years forward:

Again, not an exact match, but remarkably similar. The dress on the left is from the Museum of Vancouver collections, the one on the right is at the Museum at FIT

These two are listed on antique/vintage clothing auction sites, here http://www.thefrock.com/FW_page6_main.html and here https://www.pinterest.com/pin/562527809682184862/

I'm sure there are other examples and I would love to see them!

Adventures in hatland

I'm procrastinating with the francaise, so I decided to try my hand at hatmaking. The hat still needs to be trimmed, but I must say I like the result!

 A big thanks to Sabine and Megan who generously shared their hattery wisdom and patterns!

I'm going to trim the hat according to the hats on the right on this fashion plate:

No idea of the source, sorry! If you know, tell me!

Apparently Regency is my go-to project period with which to regroup when I'm stuck with sewing projects from other eras. I also found new (and cheap!) Regencyesque shoes in the local supermarket which I can restyle for my dresses. I already have two older pairs of the same model in black and nude, and I was thinking that I could keep the new black shoes as they are and use the older black pair for my Vernet project shoes. The new white pair I might decorate or paint since I've never done that before.

I'm also waiting for a lace order to arrive so that I can really start with the Vernet project... Maybe next week!





But no worries, the francaise has a deadline in late April, so that I can wear it at a masked ball, so I'm not forgetting it and I'm going to finish it, I swear :)

Guess what I'm making...

Failures and new plans

Based on recent sewing attempts I think it's now been established that I cannot make a pair of long Regency stays.
You know, those corded, lightly boned, white and embroidered contraptions.

I had my doubts before taking up this project, since I had tried out the 1820s pattern in Norah Waugh's Corsets and Crinolines a couple of years ago, falling on my face rather spectacularly with it. So many things were wrong with that project, from fabric choice to fit. So you'd think I had learned something. Apparently not.
I'm not going to show the second version to anyone, let alone post any pictures here, so just take my word for it, it's not pretty. Or well, parts of it are pretty (like the embroidery), but the fit is still wrong and weird, the cording pattern turned out annoyingly asymmetrical and it's very clear, and the stupid fabric which at first seemed like a good choice, stretched in odd places during the sewing and the cording. To top it off, I foolishly thought I could pull off trying my own pattern, but how wrong I was.
I think I might try to fix this some day when I'm not so annoyed and frustrated with it, but for now I've hidden it in the sewing cupboard and decided not to look at it for a very long time.

The primary reason for trying to make those wretched stays was that I wanted to finally make an 1830s dress. In retrospect the stays were all wrong, however much the museums and costume researchers try to convince me that these stays were worn with the 1830s dresses. I  mean really. Stays with straps, when your dress has a low, almost off the shoulders neckline and sloping shoulders. I know, I know, the strapless corsets didn't (apparently) come along until the 1840s but still. It seems a bit odd to me.

So bring on plan B. Or plan F, or M, I've lost count. I'm going to try and make a pair of stays/corset along these lines, maybe trying to use this pattern, slightly modified. I've also started a corded petticoat, which is slowly coming together, since I'm handsewing it. The dress itself is going to be some sort of combination of these styles:

I like the bows and the low neckline with chemisette. Source: Kyoto Costume Museum

This has always been my favourite 1830s dress. Source: Kyoto Costume Museum

Other sewing plans include an 18th century robe à la Francaise which hopefully won't fail like my first francaise attempt. I dyed the fabric for it last weekend and I love the periwinkle blue colour!

I'm also participating in the Vernet's Incroyables and Merveilleuses project, so I'll have a secret Regency project to post about over the whole of this year. I haven't yet got any supplies for that, but I guess I should start tracking them down soon.