Lithia Black goes 18th century

I'm not dead...

2011-05-04T01:27:00.000-07:00

...life just kinda of got in the way of costuming and hence costume blogging.

But now I'm back on the horse, since a couple of months. I've made myself a bumpad and a decency petticoat but I haven't photographed them yet.

Something I have photographed is my stay making process. Me and Isis finally managed to get togheter a couple of weeks ago and I got my mock up stays fitted. I then adjusted the pattern (I had to make it a lot smaller, some one has lost some body wisdom since the pattern was made). I also made the neckline and the arm hole lower.

Then I cut out the whole shebang in two layers of heavy duty linen twill (= an old bed sheet scored very cheap on a swedish auction site) and outer layer in silver silk dupion. I have decided to make the back pieces half boned, the side front fully boned and the front will be boned with a sun ray pattern (but since my stays are in silver maybe I should write moon rays instead.) The idea for the boning on the front comes from these extant stays found in Norway:

Images from Norsk Folkemuseum's colletion.http://digitaltmuseum.no/things/thing/NF/NF.1914-0210

I have just started with sewing the boning channels. I'm doing it with my trustworthy Husqvarna Zig Zag from the 1950's and I'm using button hole silk twist for top thread and ordinary sewing silk for the bottom thread.
It looks really nice but oh, boy this baby eats thread! This is what I managed to sew with two 10 m rolls worth of thread:

I did do some errors and I'm using the threads I rescued from those to sew the eyelets, last night I managed to get 3 of them done:

The first eyelet was damn near perfect but the last two is not as round as I would like them to be. Oh, well I'm the only one that are going to see them anyway...

One thing learned so far in the process:
It is a great idea to have seam allowances bigger then 1 cm. This will work but bigger seam allowance would have made things a hell lot easier...

/L

New pair of stays in the making...

2010-09-01T03:25:00.000-07:00

Since I'm not completely happy about the fit of my old pair of stays, I've started on a new pair.

My first plan was to make them fully hand sewn and use taffeta for the outer layer and stiff linen twill for inner layer with a soft linen fabric for lining. But then I decided that I don't want to make a hand sewn pair until I find a pattern that I know works for me.

So the new plan is to make a fully boned pair that have the boning channels machined but all the assembly, lacing holes and bounding of the edges made by hand.

Here are the outer fabric, the bounding tape and the string I'll use for lacing:

The fabric is a lovely silk dupion from my stash. It's got a subtle sheen that's almost metallic which I think comes from the fact that the warp in it is black and the weft is a very light grey. The bounding ribbon is a synthetic duchess satin tape, I totally fell in love with the color that matches the string I plan to use perfectly. The later is a gift from Isiswardrobe, I think it's made of viscose.

The two inner layers that holds the boning will be made of a stiff linen twill I got in my stash. It's an old bed sheet that I scored on Tradera (the swedish ebay) and it's big enough for several garments.

I'll use some leftovers from my chemise for the lining and the hole thing will be boned with synthetic whalebone except for the center front, center back and the horisontal bones, there I'll use flat steel.

Here are my mock up sans the boning:

I got the pattern from Isiswardrobe, we have similar body type but she is bustier than me and have higher waist that me so I had to do a few alterations to the pattern. It was still better than my old pattern because that has a totally too low waist.. The stays will lace up fully in the back and partly in the front. I choose to make them this way so I can get in and out of them myself. If I remember it correctly this pattern is from around the 1780's but I don't remember Isis' source right now.

I hope to get some fitting help after my fashion show is over in the middle of september. I'm itichng to have my stays done, I have some many garments to go over it I want ot make...

/L

Captured in the Linnegardens

2010-08-16T23:33:00.000-07:00

Isis over at isiswardrobe snapped some pictures of me at the Linné garden event:

Admiring the hollyhocks

"What a naughty hollyhock bud"

"Close up of the hollyhock bud" (taken by me)

"Wow,that's a huge shrubbery of flowers"

"Admiring a pretty flower"

"The whole she bang in front view"

Me and Johannaelisabet in front of one of the tree's at the entrance of the garden
(and me doing the "framing my uterus" gesture. I have no idea why I always do that pose with my hands :P)

You can see some of the linen cap I wrote about yesterday. I'm wearing the only 18th century outfit that I own, my pet en l'air that still are a work in progress ;)

For this event I managed to get all three sleeve cuffs on. Now I need to finish my new stays, then I can make the stomacher to close with hooks and yes (with buttons for show) and properly attach the pet en l'air to the sides of the stomacher instead of pinning it on. I've also decided to add the pleated self trim on the robings and the stomacher. I feel that this garment need all the flair it can get because I'm all in it for the bling ;)

/L

The second finished item of the year...

2010-08-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

...is a little hand sewn pinner cap made of linen (left overs from my chemise) and the same cotton lace I used on my chemise. Here it is adorning a big stone in our garden:

I wore it yesterday to an event in the Linné gardens in Uppsala. I didn't manage to be captured on my own camera but Isis took several photos of me so hopefully I can show you action shots soon.

It felt good to work with my 18th century wardrobe again. I hope to be finished with my new stays this side of new year, because I can't make any new garments until it's done.

/L

A serious case of the "bleh"

2010-04-05T01:29:00.001-07:00

Sorry for my disappearance. This early spring has been a little heavy for me. First I had economy problems. Then I got ill a couple of times (nothing dangerous only colds and a upset tummy). When ever I started making something from my costume list, something immediately went wrong.

To show one example, I happily started decorating my wide brimmed hat with silk. It looked terrific. When I was about to sew the first pleated panel down on the brim, my millinery needles were nowhere to be found...I still haven't found them...

But last night I had a very whimsical dream, I was in a 18th century kitchen (a big one, must have been a castle or something) making cookies. They were some kind of shortbread cookies spiced with orangepeel, cinnamon and coriander. The Swedish 18th century poet/singer/satirist Bellman was with me in the kitchen making big mischief and amusing me at the same time. When I woke up I was feeling were giddy and inspired to start over with my 18th century wardrobe. So I hope I'll get back to you soon with the first project, a new pair of stays.

Carl Michael Bellman
Source: Svenska Familj-Journalen/Wikipedia Commons

/L

Pink damask jacket - Part 1-- Just a little teaser

2010-02-02T02:12:00.000-08:00

It will take a while before I can truly start on this jacket, I need to make a new pair of stays first, but I will show you a quick sketch of it:

The jacket is from PoF 1, but I have changed the front from a stomacher closing to a closed front with hooks and eyes, like a caraco. I think that with that alteration this jacket will be dated somewhere between 1770-1780, which means that I can wear it with both hoops and bumroll.

The trims will be made of a gathered strip of striped cotton voile with a gathered ribbon stitched on top on both sides. I have not decided yet what color the ribbon will be, maybe a dusty green? Or a matching pink?

The lining will be a pink cotton satin from my stash, it's actually ripped out curtain linings ;)

Now back to the things I was supposed to do :P
/L

The first finished item of the year...

2010-02-02T02:02:00.000-08:00

*drumroll*
...is my pocket:

It's a bit wrinkly from being carried around in my purse while I worked on it. Most of the work was done while I was traveling by bus and trains. I live in the country side so it's a 40 min trip if I want to go to Uppsala or a 2,5 hour trip if I want to go to Stockholm.

I'm quite satisfied with it since it's my first serious try ever at embroidery :)
It's made of two layers of linen and are embroidered with silk button hole twist and bound with silksatin ribbon. The embriodery stitches used are bouillon knots for the leaves and stem stitch for the rest.

Now I better get back to the male corset and the uniform jacket I'm working on for some customers. I'll be back with a finished frou frou hat soon :)

/L

A completely diffrent era - Part five - The final result

2010-01-13T09:54:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to show you how it all looked. It's a rather poor picture (my phone cam) but I was photographed by a photographer too so there will be better pictures as soon as I get them.

/L

Costume plans for 2010

2010-01-11T00:02:00.000-08:00

As you saw earlier I started my costuming year with a sewing marathon that was a bit to much work in too little time. I did not like it. My fantastic M did not like it. So now I'm giving myself and M a late new years resolution:

NO COSTUMING ON DEADLINE THIS YEAR!

With that taken care of, here are my "list" for 2010:

1. Started projects that needs to be finished or things that needs to be mended
Pet en l'air - Needs to have the gown properly fastened to the comperes front and hooks & eyes sewn in. It also needs to have some raw edges on the front sewn in.
My pocket - I have finished all the embroidery and the supporting lining is cut. It only needs to be assembled.
Under petticoat - I did a poor job around the pocket opening on one side so the side seam are rewinding itself.
A wide brimmed hat - I have made the base after this great instructions, it only needs covering and decoration.

2. New projects

A jacket made of pink cotton damask that I bought before christmas. I will use one out of PoF 1 for inspiration but I will make it without stomacher. I want ot make it so I can use it both with pocket hoops for an earlier style and with a false rump for a later style.

The damask are really hard to photograph, the color varies between different light sources. The picture above is in artificial light in my studio. The picture below is taken outside on a cloudy day. The real color is something in between them...

A false rump - I have the outer material and I'm planning to make it a bit like the wingeo style (but I will make the pattern myself). I have not decided what to fill it with yet...I might slaughter an old pillow for this since my budget is a bit tight.

A floaty petticoat inspired by The Duchess movie. I've found a perfect, satin striped cotton voile over at B.R Export for this project.

An under petticoat to go with the floaty one

A 1780,s pierrot from "Kvinnligt mode under två sekel" (a swedish book about 18th and 19th century fashion). When I saw this garment the first time I thought "OMG the red cotton velvet in my stash!" and I have been in love with it since then. I will line it with the infamous ANNELI fabric in black and white.

And I need a Gainsborough hat to go with my new later wardrobe. I have all materials for this one at home already. It will be covered with some black velvet I have in my stash and I will make a sash out of the floaty petticoat fabric. And black feathers. I have two great, fluffy ostrich plumes that have been living with me forever :P
(Yes I got inspired by The Duchess movie again)

3. Long term project

A new pair of stays. I want them to have front and back lacing and be suitable for late 18th century and be fully boned in the front. I have the foundation layer fabric already. I scored a really stiff, tightly weawed linen twill sheet on Tradera. The outer layer will probably be a candy pink silk taffeta and I will use ANNELI in black and withe for the lining. I have not decided on the binding trim yet but it will probably be bias tape cut from the outer fabric.

4. Projects on hold

Remember the pretty pink striped fabric I scored earlier?

I have decided on a project for it. It will become a real polonaise with inspiration from Galerie des Modes, mainly this one:

But I will change the petticoat a bit, I'm not very pleased with the strange fold that are above the white frill. This project are put on hold until my economy allows me to splurge on the mother load of silk organza that are needed for all the trims.

Well that's all folks. I hope to get back soon with some pictures of a finished pocket ;)

/L

Pet en l'air - Part six - Premiere at th 12th night ball

2010-01-08T06:45:00.000-08:00

Believe me, dear readers I really had the intention to share my sewing process on the pet en l'air with you but due to poor planning I just couldn't manage due to time constraints. For some strange reason I thought that 12th night was next week. I discovered that this was not the case 2 days before New years eve and then panic kind of struck...

So two days before New years eve I cut out all the parts for the outer shell and I dearly thanked the gods that the lining and the front was already finished. And that the petticoat only needed the back waist finished. Then I started a sewing maraton race that I never want to do again. But I did manage and I had something to wear at 12th night ball. It was a great evening and I had so much fun!

On with the pictures, shall we (they are all taken by Isiswardrobe, who also did my hair):

I have no idea why I always make so strange faces in photographs...this time I really manged to do a "you're so below me" face :P

When I realized my time was running out I omitted the ruched and pinked decorations that I planned to have running down the robings and on the stomacher piece. I also sewed the comperes front shut to create a plain stomacher instead. And I only put on the biggest of the three sleeve cuffs. I was a bit irritated at first that I had no decorations, but now when I look at it I think I will keep it like it is. (But make some minor alterations so the inside looks a bit better). And maybe add another row of lace to peek out in the sleeves?

I'm quite satisfied with the back, but the weight of the fabric really pulls it down at the neck. I have no idea how to solve it though :/

I think what I like the most with the whole ensemble is the petticoat. I love the stripes, the rustle, the shine. I originally planned for it to have a pinked ruffle of plain light blue fabric at the bottom. There was no time for it for 12th night but I can always add it later. But a part of me likes it the way it is too...
What do you all think, pinked ruffle or no ruffle?

I like this photo even though I manage to do a strange face here too ;)

Here you can see more of my make up.I went for super pale but not stark white. I first covered up my very red nose (it was almost -20 degrees Celsius that night) and other red areas with a green concealer. Then I covered my dark circles under the eye with a pink one and finally I applied a quite generous amount of white mineral foundation. On top of that I put a thin layer of a pearly white eyeshadow to give that fashionable and polished, shiny look. The rouge is a really pigmented pink mineral one and I brushed it quite generously on the apple of my cheeks and dabbed it sparingly above my eyes.I have a wine colored lipstick on but on this picture most of it is gone.

The good thing with not having any decorations on this outfit is that I now have 3 yards of light blue silk taffeta that needs a project. I think I will use some for a matching wide brimmed hat and the rest for a jacket....we'll see what I come up with.

/L

A completely different era - Part Four - End of the line

2009-12-14T01:49:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry guys I didn't mean to leave you with a cliffhanger like this. I did finish the outfit in time and wore it with great pride, felt fabulous and had such a lovely night out that I completely forgot to get pictures taken of me in all my splendor.

I planned to dress up four you guys last week but an urinal tract infection made me feel in no mode for fancy dress up. I'm still battling this beast and as soon as I conquered it I will dress up, put on the same make up and fix my hair so you can see what I looked like that fantastic night. I might get dear M to dress up four you to but I cant promise that for sure ;)

The corset it self turned out to big, again. M managed to lace it completely shut all the way in the back. I spent most of last Sunday pondering how a 28" corset could close on me...then I compared the shape of my 28" vollers and the corset I made. And it hit me. The vollers has a very straight shape while the 1880's corset is curved. The later makes it possible for my bust and hips to expand while my waist gets compressed. Apparently there are no limit to how much I can lace my waist as long as my bust and hips are allowed to expand...

I also discovered that the stiff steel bones only work at CF and CB on this type of corset. I had put some at the side fronts and side backs and it was not comfortable at all. So I will change those bones to spring steel and then sell this corset for half my regular price since it has been worn twice.

And I will pray that the last changes I made has rendered my pattern to perfection this time :)

Anyway, here are the last two days of sewing madness for this project:

Friday the 4th of December
07:45 Starts to assembly the fascinator with the hot glue gun

(It's almost finished on this picture it's only the bias edge missing and the comb that keeps it to my head.)

08:11 Starts to finish the CB's of the corset

08:34 The CB's are finished and I start with the bottom edge

09:33 Bottom finished and the hard steels gets pushed in to their channels
When that's done I went inside the main house and got my self ready for goin to Stockholm. I spent most of the day and evening there, shopping, going to a shop called Pom Pom Parlour and introducing myself and my sewing business (and hoping that they will like my stuff and wants to sell it) and I spent the rest of the afternoon and the evening drinking tea and chatting with Isis :)

Saturday the 5th of december
09:55 Starts finishing the top edge

10:41 Starts setting grommets

11:12 The grommets are in and the corset is finished!

Cut out a lining for the fascination and a strip of fashion fabric to make a bow out of
Goes inside the main hose and sew a comb on the lining, glue the lining on and edge the hole shebang with hot glue and bias binding. The fascinator is finished!

Then me and M goes to Uppsala for some Christmas shopping. We arrive at home base at approximately 16:30. Then I start to sew the bows and bells to my skirt. When that's done my outfit is done 2 hours before planned departure to the party!

Now M realizes that he needs a cravat for his outfit (He wore this smoking jacket, a fez, black shirt, suspenders and black dress slacks). I dig through the fabric stash and find the left overs from his jacket that I originally planned to make the corset out of and some matching lining fabric. Whips up a pattern for the cravat, cut it out stitch it together and turn it. Do a quick try on M to see that it looks like it should. I does. Great. We hurry inside and I fix my make up, my hair and M laces me in to the corset. While we drive to Stockholm I finish the last on the cravat by hand in the car...

/L

A completely different era - Part Three- Making nice progress

2009-12-03T12:26:00.000-08:00

Todays madness:

06:30 The bell rings. Time to get up and eat breakfast

07:30 Starts to cut and insert the spring steel boning. When that's finished I cut and file down the edges of the hard steel.

10:07 All I can do is done. Time to go inside and freshen up for the meeting with the great girl that takes care of my horrible economy papers. (I'm suffering from dyscalculia, it makes me very bad at handle big amounts of numbers.)

10:53 Miss the buss to Uppsala. Goes inside and try to get more of my papers ready.

11:53 Catches the bus to Uppsala.
Do the horrible papers, discover that I've probably misplaced some of them and then enter the fun part of the day - shopping. I found some black ostrich feathers at Panduro ( a craft store chain), some gorgeous red metallic net and black bias at a store called "Tyg Centrum" (= Fabric Central"). If you go to Uppsala, go there. It is a small store but there are fabric stacked from the floor up to the ceiling. And the girl who owns the place are really nice. The prices are a bit high on some fabrics though, but I go there anyway.

17:00 Arrive at home. Take some chicken out of the freezer and while it tawns I cover my fascinator base with the fashion fabric. I also make a gathered fan shape out of some of the net. My plan is to attach it to the base with my hot glue gun tomorrow, add the shortened feathers and crown the whole glory with a bow made of a pinked strip of the fashion fabric.

My fascinator, so far:

I haven't decided yet what side to have as front. My first plan was to have the point as front but now I think it might look cool to have the point as top?

When the covering was done I put the chicken in the pan and while it cooked I covered the tips of my hard steel bones with electrical tape. It's not my favorite solution but I couldn't find anything suitable to coat them with in Uppsala.

This is what I have left to do:
Finish the CB's on the corset with black bias
Insert the hard steel bones in the corset
Close the edges with black bias
Make and attach 4 bows to the skirt and glue one to a pin for the corset
Attach four bells to the skirt and one to the pin
Assembly the fascinator

I need to buy:
One pair of seamed fishnet stockings
A metallic comb for fastening my fascinator to my hair

I'll end this with the words of fantastic M, my fiance:
- Skall du ha ett löv på huvet? (= Are you going to wear a leaf on your head?)

He said it with a tone that made me feel like I was planning something very indecent ;)

/L

A completely different era -Part 2- More sewing madness

2009-12-02T11:07:00.000-08:00

I'm quite accomplished with todays achievements. The vision has under gone some tweaks but it is only to the better and less time consuming. This was my sewing madness today:

06:15 For whom the bell tolls..time to get up, try to awaken and get some nourishment into the system. Reads Cut of womens clothing and Patterns of Fashion 1 during breakfast.

07:15 Starts cutting the foundation layers and marking boning channels

08:35 Starts to assembly the corset
10:19 Time to start working on the Steam punk coat since my official work hours has started. Pins the assembled pieces to Vermont.

Don't like the skirt, at all. Too much red.Rips it off. Pins some "bows" made of scraps on underskirt.

Ahhh, much better! And all I have to do skirt wise now is to make proper bows!

12:00 - 13:00 Lunch break
While the food gets warm in the oven I start to stiffen a fascinator base with glue.

I plan to have BIG hair on Saturday and then my all black hat will disappear in the blackness of my hair. So a fascinator it will be. I will cover the base with the same fabric as the corset and edge it with black bias just as the corset. I'm not sure what to embellish it with yet, I will take a hike to the big craft store in Sthlm on friday and see what they can offer. A black feather and some gold net would be nifty.

The fascinator base is made of two layers of heavy canvas stiffened with two or three layers of wood glue. I like to work with wood glue, it is easy to find, gets very stiff and since it's water soluable before it's dry it is easy to clean up any mess ;)

During food warming I also manage to stitch one more panel to the corset and cut some ribbons of the fashion fabric with my pinking scissors.

17:19 After 4+ hours of fiddling with the lining of the steampunk coat, I had enough. I don't do modern lined clothing very often so I tend to forget how to do it between the times :/ I find it erasier to make a corset than to make a modern lined garment....So I will continue with the lining tomorrow and I continued to assembly the corset instead.

19:07 Corset is ready for boning! Yay! I will try to put in all the spring steel tomorrow and cut the crinoline steel. I need to buy tipping fluid when I go to town tomorowr afternoon. I also need to buy 4 m of black satin bias binding and find some hat decorations. I don't have high hopes for the latter, Uppsala is not a good town for costumers, but you newer know... Here is a picture of the unboned corset on vermont.

I have also pinned some bows and bells to the skirt. I'm not sure about the bells. I kind of think they look cute but maybe they just look silly? If i keep them (one at each quarter) I will also add one with a bow at the neckline CF on the corset.

So my shopping list for this outfit:
4m of satin bias binding
Tipping fluid
Gold net+Black feather?
Black fishnet stockings with back seam (I've found a pair here, I hope the IRL store has them too)

Now I'll snuggle in the couch with a warm wool blanket, a big cup of yogi tea and work on my striped petticoat while looking at The Duchess.

/L

A completely different era...

2009-12-01T12:05:00.000-08:00

This is totally off topic for this blog since it's main focus is 18th century but this creation that are going to take form during the next couple of days is a costume, so it kind of fits a little bit.

I'm completely, utterly insane and this crazy idea kind of proves it. Yesterday me and Fantastic M, decided to go to Stockholm Burlesque on Saturday evening. Cool, great idea. But then the thought " I have nothing to wear" kind of ice skated through my mind.

I do have a burlesque outfit, this one, but the corset is getting a bit raggedy after heavy use and it is also a bit big on me. But the under skirt is still going strong and still fit. I also have a pattern for an 1880's OB corset that I've already made a mock up of and that only needs a minor alteration to fit. I also have in my stash somewhere a red flock printed taffeta with medallion motif.

With this in mind I went to work today in my sewing studio. I looked at my red taffeta but wasn't 100 % pleased.Then in the afternoon, inspiration hit me like a thunder bolt:

16:11 An idea is born... I suddenly realized that I had a fantastically, glittery fabric in my stash that I got wrapped around my birthday present this year...I hastily went through my stash,found it and pinned it to Vermont. It looked terrific so I quickly added some accessories to get a feel for it all. I also estimated how much new material I needed to buy. This is how it looked:

(The blue fabric that sticks out at the bottom is my 18th century under petticoat, it will not be in the finished costume)

Then I felt very accomplished and got back to work on the steam punk coat I'm making for a client.

18:16 My official work hours are finished and I start to transfer the changes from the mock up to the pattern.

18:29 Pattern is finished and I start to take out the corset pieces from the glittery fabric.

18:39 The cursing starts...there are not enough fabric for both a corset and a skirt! Arrrghh! Dives into the stash.

18:41 Found a skirt made of red metallic fabric. It needs a new waistband, shortening and some more ribbon decor added but otherwise its fine.

19:22 All the corset pieces are cut out from the fashion fabric and the seam allowances are covered with Fray Check. I leave them in the studio to dry and wanders into the main house, hungry and dizzy from the Fray Check fumes.

To be continued...

To clear all things up a bit.I have until Saturday evening to make my self a corset, add som ribbon decor and change the waistband on the skirt. I think can make it. The corset will have black piping in the seams and black ribbon on upper and lower edge. The skirt will have ribbons aded so it looks like I've made it in sections instead of a full cicle.I think it will look good when finished. I need to find myself some fun stay ups or hose, maybe fishnet ? Or classic ones with a back seam? What do you all think?

/L

Pet en l'air - Part five - fifth bodice fitting

2009-11-30T08:28:00.000-08:00

I tried the new sleeve on last Friday and I think that I'll settle with this one. It's not perfect but it will have to do. I will cut the real fabrics with a bigger seam allowance so I can do some last minute fiddling with them.
This is what we got (boobs ahoy):

Front

Front with arm down

Back

In the pictures I have turned the hem and pinned my engagente to the sleeve instead of the chemise and it feels and looks much better. I'm still pondering if I should take out some of the fullness from the chemise sleeves. I like the little puff but it's not practical under the tight sleeve. And since I'm getting more and more into the look of 1780- to 90's the sleeves will get even more unforgiving for puffing chemises.

I hope I will manage to cut the lining and sleeve lining tomorrow. I'm starting to get a bit stressed about this outfit, I really want to have it finished in time for new years eve since we are goin to a really big fetish event.

/L

Done some shoppping

2009-11-25T11:16:00.000-08:00

Today I was in Stockholm and did some shopping, my main reason for going was the fact that one big fabric store are closing this Sunday and they had 50% off on everything in the store. I was hoping to score some twill to use as corset linings for my corset line (my day job is a designer and producer of my own fetish brand) but all the twill had already gone. I'm not surprised, they started their sale a couple of weeks ago.
I did however score a perfect fabric for making myself a cute bum roll and it cost me only 15 SEK :)

I also visited Old Touch, a fabulous vintage store and got some very pretty embellishments. I finally ended my journey at IKEA and bought 2,85 m of the now infamous ANNELI fabric. Well, enough with boring text now and on with the pictures ;)

In the front we have a sturdy cotton fabric. It's a herringbone twill weawe and the stripes are also wowen. It's pure white and red, the light was not so good when I took the picture. In the background whe have ANNELI in black, I will use it as lining in the red velvet pierrot I have plans for.

Next are a couple of silk roses who need a little steam to get back in shape, they're a bit crusched from lying in a big pot in the store. I have not decied wich goes where yet but one or two of them will go on the wide brimmed straw hat that I've made as soon as I get it covered with fabric.

And last we have these ostrich plumes. There are two pink ones and one purple. I'm not so fond of the purple and the pink stuck together so I will take it a part and use them on different hats. The pink ones will probably end up on my tricorn and I think that the little jewelled buckle will serve as a front decoration on it.

I'm very pleased with todays haul. Over and out.

/L

Pet en l'air - Part four - fourth bodice fitting

2009-11-25T10:59:00.001-08:00

You are not going to see any pictures from my third fitting, because that fitting was horrible and I deleted all the pictures out of pure anger. (Geesh, I really should work on my costumeing temper.)

Last Sunday I was at a "syjunta" (a swedish word that means " a sewing get togheter" held by Gustaf's Skål.
E, the writer behind Isiswardrobe, helped me fit my much hated sleeve and this is how it
looks now:

I'm almost there now, but I need to add 1,5 cm at the back of the sleeve because now it was too small for the armhole there, I think I'll add it at the sleeve seam. I think those 1,5 cm will make the sleeve large enough to fit comfortably over my chemise sleeve too. So hopefully, the next sleeve toile are the last one...

The poking at the front near the armhole is my stays that are protruding a bit, lovely boyfriend M accidentally laced me a bit too hard. It wasn't his fault my body quickly adopts to being laced so every time I do a fitting the gape in the back gets smaller and smaller...

I've also decided to baste my engagentes to the pet en l'air sleeves instead of my chemise because I think it will look and feel much better. Perhaps I should loose the cuff and puff on the chemise too?

/L

Pet en l'air - Part three - Second bodice fitting

2009-11-18T12:13:00.000-08:00

I HATE SLEEVES!
There I said it. My bodice fit me fine without sleeves but when I put them in, they create havoc with the fit.
Now I need your help to figure out what to do. Lets start with some pictures of the misery, shall we?

Here you can see how the sleeves drag my shoulder straps of my shoulder.
And a closeup:

My thoughts goes as follows:
The overarm width feels OK, they are snug but not overly tight but I think I need to add at least 1,5 cm since muslin stretches and damask and stiff linen will not.
I think that I need to make the sleeve head higher, when I move it feels like the top of my shoulder doesn't have enough room to move around and drags the bodice down over my shoulder.
I don't know, maybe I should make the armhole a bit bigger in the front too? Or will that make my problem worse?

Oh, I really want this to fit so I can start with the fun part. I've already stitched together the back panels so as soon as the lining is finished I can just cut and work.

/L

Pet en l'air - Part two - Bodice fitting

2009-11-16T12:10:00.000-08:00

Today during my tea break I stitched together the mock up for the bodice and the sleeves. I was skeptic to the sleeves the minute they were in. They looked like they might be too tight and the pleating was not nice at all. I also discovered that my tries to eliminate the need of darts in the shoulder strap area failed a bit, there was still a bit to much fabric there.
*le big sigh*
I know that a dart in that area is period, I've seen it in PoF but I really want to have a smooth inner bodice so there will be at least one more bodice mock up.
So this is how the bodice looks like on Vermont:

Front

Sleeve

Back

Tonight the Fantastic M, (my lovely boyfriend), helped me to lace up and then helped me to fit the back of the bodice. I have to take quite a bit away at the top CB. I think it's because my body mass are at the front while Vermont has his on his back ;)

Apart from the gap in the top CB, the bodice fit me fine. The sleeves did not. At all. The length was right but the width over my forearm was too tight. I need to add at least 3 cm there. I'm also playing with the idea to make the sleeve head rounded at the top not square because I think it will be easier to set in. I've seen both versions in PoF so I think it's safe.

Since it was so dark when we did the fitting on me, there are no pictures. But to comfort you here are piece of muslin that I've tested my pinking skills on. I think it looks nice and I will use this technique on the bottom frill for my petticoat. The strip is 23 cm wide and I marked both edges in 2,5 cm intervalls. Then I used those marks as guies for the pinking shapes when I cut with my shears.

The rounded shapes will be the head, I think.

The shopping finger is itching again...

2009-11-16T11:05:00.000-08:00

I'm contemplating on buying these pair of shoes and redress them to look something like this:

(I found these pretties over at Fuschias blog)
Or maybe like those fabulous 1780's shoes that are in the end of 17th&18 th century fashion in detail *drool*

/L

Pet en l'air - Part one - Adventures in pattern draping

2009-11-10T12:47:00.000-08:00

I've finally pulled myself together and started to work on my pet en l'air.
Today I made my first try ever at pattern draping. I'm used to do flat drafting but it is so darn hard with 18th century garments. So I decidedt o give it a go and damn it was fun and quick!

Please allow me to introduce to you my dress dummy, monsieur Valmont. He is a strange thing, it is like something between a man and a woman in body shape. But he has my measurements (although he has the most of his body mass in his back muscles and I have mine in my boobs). I'm going to make him a companion that are my exact body double but until I actually get around doing it, Valmont will have to stand being a cross dresser.

Anyway I put my stays on Valmont and tighten them to the measurements I know is comfortable for me. Then I pinned some muslin to the stays and started pinning, smoothing and pinning and drawing. Here are the result:

Front:

And back:

I made a slanted line at CB so I can make a lacing there. The first 4-5 cm will be stitched close and the rest will be open. I think I will put some synthetic whale bone around the opening to strengthen it a bit.

Tomorrow night I aim at taking the pieces of Valmont and clean up all lines and to make a full bodice mock up. If the bodice fits I can start on the sleeves.

/L

A queen bee?

2009-11-10T03:42:00.000-08:00

I really have enough 18th century projects to work on already but I need to write this one down so I don't forget it.

I'm a bit in love with this cute fabric (a close up):

And a approximately 22x22" piece of the fabric:

It is a silk/rayon brocade and the bee are in dfferent nuances of gold from thaisilks.com

I want to make this pierrot from 1790:

Or perhaps this caraco from 1780 (with trim made of matching taffeta):

I think both will look really cute in that fabric.

/L

Trinkets for the Trinket box

2009-11-02T04:44:00.000-08:00

This is a pair of earrings that I whipped together in ten minutes or so. I bought two pairs of earrings ,one pair had the bow part and one pair had the pearl drop. I cut the drops loose and put them on a new pair of hat pins that I attached to the bows.
I think they look cute and a bit Marie Antoinetteish. And they cost me only 50 SEK ( about 7$) since the earrings were on sale :D

In the background you can see a glimpse of my engagentes that are made of a very fine cotton lace. I attached them to my chemise sleeves with very big whip stitches so they are easy to take of if I need to.

/L

Bad mood

2009-10-29T01:00:00.000-07:00

Today is not a good day. I'm so angry at myself because I lost an ebay auction for the prettiest fan frame ever and I lost it with 4$. It feels so damn...evil. Why and why didn't I put in more money in the bid before I got to bed?

I really liked the frame because it was made of ebony with really pretty carvings and gilding, nice curvy shapes and everything. And it was big enough to pass for an 18th fan. And the frame was totally intact, no broken sticks. The only thing broken on the fan was the fabric.

I really hope another good frame will show up, because I really, really would like to make myself my own fan. I found a good 1770 fan that I can borrow some design elements from and settled on a color scheme and on the motifs. It's only the frame that's missing.

I've found another frame today on ebay but I don't know If there are any way to fix the two broken sticks on it:
Fan frame on ebay (it's the biggest one in the lot).

I feel so silly, I'm so upset over this that I feel like crying and that's ridiculous. To cry over a god damn fan :(

Finished chemise & renovated stays

2009-10-25T09:22:00.000-07:00

I've finally finished my chemise. It's completely hand sewn with linen thread and all seams are flat felled. It felt like this one took for ever with all those long seams and all the lace. It turned out a bit on the short side, I blame it on the fact that I cut the pieces one evening when I was very tired. But I'm over all pleased with my result anyway. I think it's awfully cute and I love wearing it, the linen is so soft to the skin. I really hope that the fabric store will have this wonderful linen in stock again next summer because I totally need one more of this comfy garment!
Here it is:

I was originally planning to buy a white silk ribbon for the neck but noow i think I will go for a pink one instead because it looks so cute :)

And here are the "after" pictures of my stays. We start off with the front:

The very shiny synthetic organza ribbons will leave and some white silk ribbons will take their place when they arrive. I think my cleavege looks much better now, but my next pair of stays needs some adjustment of the shape of the neckline. I think it's a bit to wide beacuse the shoulder straps land a bit to far out on the shoulder. I think a bit more narrow neckline will help me a bit with bust lift too.

And here are the side wiew:

Not much to say here, the side seam hit my sides perfectly. And the armhole feels good, no chafeing since I moved the end position of the horisontal bones.

And finally the back, and the horror:

I admit it, I'm vain when it comes to lacings, I want them to lay exactly parallell and be bone straight. But since I've gained som much...body wisdom...my stays can't to that on me any more. Here you can also see that my shoulder straps base need to move in a couple of centimeters, so the armhole will fit me better. I also think that the waist line is a bit low right now. If it moves up I think the stays will fit more comfortably in the waist area.

But these pair has an acceptable fit so they'll have to do until I feel like making me a new pair.

My next project on the loong to do list is to make myself a pair of engagentes and fix my shoes. I need two quick fix projects before I start to wrestle with fitting my pet en l'air.

/L

It's MINE!

2009-10-18T11:39:00.000-07:00

It was a hard bidding fight, but I finally won the fabulous fabric for 450 SEK!
So now I got 9. 75 m (= 10.6 yards) of pink striped silk goodness!
The only caveat is the with of it, it's only 90 cm but I can make an "polonaised" anglaise with shorter over skirt. I've seen it done in both extant garments and in fashion plates from the time :P
Weee I really need to finish my blue outfit so I can start this one!

/L

My shopping finger is itching....

2009-10-15T08:09:00.000-07:00

Fantastic fabric
I'm so tempted...it has "striped anglaise with pulled up skirt" written all over it.
But it looks like it might be a dupion fabric which is not so good.
What to do, what to do ?

Update:
I'm going to ask the seller about the width and weight and see what he/she says. But almost 10 m of fabric for 250 SEK...its a great price.
I'm having crazy ideas of matching it with a black/white striped fabric and make that cutaway dress from the Marie Antoinette documentary I've been blabbing about before.
Like so:

And here is a (quick) sketch of the gown in question:
The idea is to use the black/white in the petticoat and main part of the bodice and the pink/purple in the top layer. At the back it will have two buttons for looping up the skirt. I have not decided if I should go with 3/4 sleeves or long sleeves yet.

Another Update:
Spoke with the seller and the fabric is only 90 cm wide and it's striped horizontally and not vertical. That means that if I want to have the stripe vertical I must cut it on the width grain and not the length grain. That's OK with me, it's the lining of the garment that takes the strain but 90 cm is not long enough to get a over skirt that reaches too the floor and with a train as I had planned for my anglaise :/
But I have deciced to buy the fabric anyway :D

I will either make a real polonaise jacket like the one in Cut of womens clothing ormaybe make the 1770's "polonaise" in Kvinnligt mode or maybe a striped short jacket (also from Kvinnligt mode) with a peplum and matching petticoat with ruffle.
/L

Distractions

2009-10-01T05:49:00.000-07:00

My stays are done and the day before yesterday I started flat felling the long gore seams on my chemise. But yesterday nothing got done because of this lovely fellow:

His name is Akilles and he's a 1,5 year old Rottweiler. He is going to live with us for a little over a week as a try out period and if everything goes well, he'll be a new family member.
Right now it feels like we've been invaded by a 50 kg tornado with a huge heart that loves everyone. He even cries when the cats don't want to play with him...

Tonight I have to work with my chemise. It must be in a wearable state on Sunday because I'm going to participate in a 18th century salon arranged by Gustaf Skål. The very awesome Isis Wardrobe has promised to lend me an outfit. I will bring my stays, pocket hoops and the chemise.

This weekend there is also a 18th century lecture weekend that I'm going to participate in. I will take classes is 18th century beatuy, a madames wardrobe and 18th century cooking.

Now my tea break is over, I better get back to work.

/L

Trims, accessories and bargains

2009-09-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

My stays are finished but the batteries in the camera was out (they are in the charger now) so the pictures of it whith me in it will have to wait until tomorrow.
While waiting for the batteries I would like to share some ideas with you, we'll start with the trims:

On the top is a silver metallic braid that I intend to use on the edges of my cuffs. I bought it on ebay mostly because it is very similiar in the design with one braid that was on a 1750 stomacher in the FASHION book.
Now my pet en l'air will be of a later date so I'm thinking of making a narrow version of this kind of trim (the bottom one) out of the plain taffeta I got instead, but I haven't made up mind yet:

The picture is borrowed from Art, beauty and well ordered chaos and her tutorial for making different kind of ruching.

In the middle of the top picture is the lace I'm going to use in the neckline of my shift. It's 100 % Cotton and slightly cream colored. I got it on my last job, when I made the orders for the factory I was allowed to order some for myself too. So I got 25 meters of it ;)

And at the bottom we have another ebay find. It's 100% Cotton and cream colored and I love the flower and bow motif. I will use it for my engagentes, in double layers and heavyly gathered. (I have 10 yards of it so I can splurge ;) )

While swearing over my stays, I have had plenty of time to ponder about acessories. My biggest issue was what to wear around my neck. Simple strings of pearls are not my thing so I decided to go with the silk ribbon in a bow with a charm option. I've reserached a bit and the most common version of ths is to wear a cross. I'm a pagan and out of respect for those who are christians I will not wear their religiuos symbol as an fashion acessorie, now matter how period correct it happens to be. I found this pendant in a flea market about month ago and I've decided to use it:

I think it's made of silver because it was covered in those blackish smears that unpolished silver has. I paid 5 SEK (under 1$) for it! I like the peacock motif and think it's suiting since this we'll be one of the most decorated outfits I've ever made. I willl try to get a rather wide ribbon so I can tie a big bow like this one:

I've also decided to try to make myself some new earrings. I''ve found a place that sells real pearl drops so I will go for those with a silver bow accent.

Then we ave arrived to the most fun part. HATS!
I will make two,one tricorn and one wide brimmed. I love the tricorns but I also know that they are not so very historic accurate for all occasions, hence the need to make a wide brimmed one too.

The tricorn will be covered with light blue velvet or light blue silk taffeta. The trim will follow my pet en l'air so it will be silver or ruched taffeta. It will have a sash round the crown made of white thin silk adorn with the metallic buckle that I bought earlier.I'm planning to buy some very pink feathers and a white silk rose to top it of.

The wide brimmed one will probaly be covered with some black silk (note to self, need to buy it). It will have a white sash or maybe a wide pink silk ribbon and the same kind of buckle that my tricorn has. And a plume made of ostritch feathers. BTW for my swedish readers, I found this site while searching for feathers and it looks like a cheap and promising source...

I've also been thinking about a fan but I'm not done planning this one yet so I can't share so much about it.

To top this superlong post of, here are pictures of too great bargains I've made:

This is a trinket box that I found on Tradera (a swedish auction site). It needs a new lining, the old one is ripped, but I liked the design on the lid so much so I decided to buy it anyway.

This is 60 spools of silk sewing thread. Some of them are full and some of them are only half but for a beginner embroiderer as myself, it is a gold mine! I got all this silk, a pair of very cute embroidery scissors and a package of needles for 185 SEK with shipping. (It's about 26$). It's a steal considering that one roll of sewing silk thread costs me 15 SEK at my other supplier. And I get the cute containers that the spools are living in too :D
I bought this stuff here (sorry only in Swedish):
http://textilaterbruket.iqdesign.se/

Now I'm going to drink some tea and start sewing on my chemise.

/L

18th century coat/waistcoat pocket tutorial

2009-09-13T07:11:00.000-07:00

There are many great tutorials out there that I've had great use of so now its my time to give something back to the costume community. Bear with my though, this is my first sewing tutorial ever written in English.

I learned this method of putting in pockets during my "practical vocational training" at the costume department at Borås City theater. They had learned the technique on a costume class for Lena Dhalström, a costumer that works for Drottningholms Slottsteater. (I've had "practical vocational training" there too and Lena really knows her stuff, I learned so much during the months I spent there).

Any way on to the tutorial:

Mark the position of the pocket flap and the pocket hole:
Cut out one pocket bag, it should be the length of your hand measured from the bottom of the hole x 2 + 2-3 cm. Cut one piece of your outer fabric thats about 2-3 cm wider that your pocket hole:
Stitch the fabric piece on to the pocket bag in such position that it will fit over the pocket hole. You must have the pocket bag sticking out a couple of centimeters over your marking for the pocket flap.
Put your pocket bag and your coat/waistcoat right sides together, mark the shape of your pocket hole on the back side of the pocket pag and stitch through all the layers around the outline. Cut ut your hole and leave 2,5 mm edge.
Turn your bag into the hole and press it flat. The 2,5 mm edge you left will help you form a neat frame around your hole. "Dot stitch" (for swedish readers prickstygn) around the edge to keep everything in place :
Take your bag and fold it so that at least 2 cm are sticking out over the flap marking (on the backside). Press and pin so it stays there. Place your pocket flap right side down and the point upwards, with the seamline on top of the marking and stitch it on though both layers. Fold you flap down and stitch down your lining with small stitches to hide the seam allowance . Press and voila you have installed a pocket!

Here are some pictures of a finished one:

Front flap closed

Front flap open (You can see the 2,5 mm frame I was talking about earlier if you look at the upper edge of the hole)

Back, the top line is the stitch that's holding both the bag and the flap.

The stays - before remaking

2009-09-11T02:56:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm working on binding the bottom of the stays and when that gruesome task is finished I will move on to inserting the horizontal bones. Since this takes a lot of time I thought I might amuse you with the background of these stays.

I made these as my final project when I was in tailor school 5 years ago. I had limited time to research, make them and making a paper on them so I choose to sew them with machine and only do the interior finishing by hand.I couldn't find any reliable sources back then on how the 18th century silks looked so I made my stays of stiff linen in two layers. I boned it with reed thorough and bound the edges with cream colored lambs leather.

I used this pattern from Corset and Crinolines:

This is how they looked back then:

I was much more fit in these days so the stays turned out too big on me. Now they fit much better due to the more eh...wisdom I gained....

So in these pictures you can see that I have too fitting issues (besides that they are too big), the angle on the straps needs to be adjusted and the neckline at CF needs to be lowered so my boobs have a little more room. I also added two extra bones at the side of the bust and at the side on the front for more support.

I hope that I can post pictures of the refurbished stays soon.

/L

And the award goes to...

2009-09-07T02:13:00.000-07:00

I'm late with this but I've had trouble deciding and have wrestled with my stays all weekend.
Here are my nominees (in random order) :

Johanna over at 18th century blog
For making a fantastic resource and for posting beautiful pictures of her costumes, events and museum visits.

Maria and Fuchsia's 18th century dress project
For it was her blog that sparked my inspiration to start my project

Gail with her blog Art, beauty and ewell ordered chaos
For a very inspiring blog with a lot of interesting projects

Vivcore author of Fancy Girl and her Vivcore journal of Power!
For kindly sharing lots of inspiring information and nice tutorials

Hanna and the Quasi-Historical costumer
An inspiring blog and interesting projects (and she has a ball jointed doll, I'm so jealous!)

/L

Power cuts can be useful sometimes...

2009-09-04T10:49:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday this week, the power was out for almost a whole day and night. I could not work in my sewing studio, since I needed the electricity for both the machines and the light. (I currently only have artificial light in the studio but my lovely M are going to install a window for me).

So I had nothing else to do than resort to my hand sewing. First I embroidered on my pocket until I ran out of thread. Then I started to painstakingly remove the cream colored lambs leather I had bound the edges of my stays with. Oh, my what tiny stitches I had used :/

When that was done I started to remove all the bones. I was astonished when I discovered that it was only the horisontal, the shoulder bones, the center back ones and the longest side bones that were broken. The rest were completely intact.

I decided to go on and replace all om them any way, because I still think synthetic whale bone is better boning material. I also discovered that the pre cut crinoline steel I had ordered for CB was to shoort. I must have done a complete screw up when I measured the lenght of them or I screwed up the numbers when I wrote them down. (I hate having dyscaculia, it truly sucks sometimes). So now I have for precut and dipped lenghts that are completley useless for this project :(

Instead of the crinoline steel I now plan to use spring steel bomig, the same as I used in my pocket hoops. (I just have to find it, it's somewhere in the house or in my studio...) It's rather sturdy even though it's only 7 mm wide so I think it will work. I will put two lenghts in each channel though just to be sure of good support for the lacing. I will use the same steell boning on the horisontal boning too since I've read in Corstes & Crinolines that this was a common method for good bust support.

This evening I altered my straps and added some more boning channels and I will spend the rest of the night cutting, smoothing the edges and putting in plastic bones in my stays while watching this documentary of Marie Antoinette (again) and drool over the black/white and pink/white striped polonaise I want to make.

To finish this horribly long post, here are a picture of my pocket (again):

And one of my stays before I started to remake them:

Pocket progress...

2009-08-31T02:14:00.000-07:00

Lots of posts here today but I've have lots of things to tell.
Here are my progress on the pocket so far:

Not the worlds most clear picture and the linen is very wrinkled from being carried around in my purse but anyway...
The stem on the wine and the outline of the dragon fly is made with stem stitch, and the leaves are made with satin stitch. I'm not very happy with how the leaves look, so I think I will try to make them with buillon knots instead. I work on this when I travel because I always get bored I don't have anything to do and have to sit still for hours.

/L

I'm swimming in silk...

2009-08-31T01:59:00.000-07:00

I got my silks that I ordered from B.R exports last week. The goods were absolutely fabulous and I'm so impressed by the service and the shipping speed.Five days! From India to Sweden!
Anyway, enough with boring talk and on with the pictures...

These are for the petticoat, trimmings for the pet en l'air and for covering and trim a mini tricorn that I'm planning to make. I ordered 3 yards of each. I can't wait to put my needles in these, they make a lovley rustling sound and they are so smoooth and shiny and lovely to touch and...so on.
I also discovered that the pale blue goes very well with a red velvet that I have in my stash and that I've planned to make an 1790's pierrot of so I can wear the lovley petticoat with more than one outfit!

This isn't so exciting as the other twoo. It's just one yard of a white, thin plain silk that will be transformed into a hat lining and wide ribbon on my tricorn. On top of the silk is two samples of dupion that I was a bit curios about. I hade some ideas of making an 1780's cutaway gown with one of them but they were to slubby for my taste. It's a pity, I really liked the color combos.

/L

One done, one (or two) to go...

2009-08-31T01:47:00.001-07:00

I finished the under petticoat last Thursday, it's completely hand sewn and are made of a fine linen.
Here it is , worn over my pocket hoops:

I beg you pardon for the bad hair day and the strange facial expression :P
It's a bit funny, when I first made the hoops I thought I've might made them too small. Now I think they look freaking huge :P

I also put the buckles on my shoes just to get a feel for them and I'm quite happy with the look:

I still need to get some suede to make fake lapels and to cover the double straps and buttons but the overall look it's OK. (I have to tell you a secret, the buckles are made of 100% plastic which I discovered when I got them home but I think they look so good so I decided to stick with them anyway.)

/L

The Amadeus award!

2009-08-27T01:54:00.000-07:00

I've never got one before so this is so fun!
Thank you so much Madame Berg.
I will ponder which five i will give it too (it's so hard!)
And I promise that it will be a more sewing related post soon, as all my materials for the outfit has arrived :)

/L

A quick update

2009-08-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

Today will just be a quick list of what's going on right now.
My under petticoat is almost done, both waistbands are sewn on. I'm waiting for the sturdy cotton tape I've ordered to arrive, so I can sew on ties. I decided to go with cotton tape purely out of the economic factor. I get 3 m for 16 SEK, if I should go with the more historic correct linen tape I would have to pay 13 SEK/m. I felt that I prefer to spend my money on visible things ;)

The same place that had the tape also had other sewing supplies and some buckles. And I found very cheap but good looking ones for my shoes. They are made for a strap that 4 cm wide which should fit my covered shoe straps well. (9 SEK for one buckle, it's a steal ;) ):

I have transfered the embroidery design to my pocket today so tomorrow I can start to work on it. I will do some traveling this weekend so I hope I can work on the pocket on the bus and in the car.

Last night I tried on my stays (I was afraid that they would be to small) But they fit me pretty good even if I probably should loose some weight. I need to adjust the angle of the strap a bit and I will add some more boning to the side of the bust. I'm also contemplating to cut the armhole a bit deeper because it chafed me a bit yesterday. But maybe the chemise will prevent that? I think I will leave it for now and try it out. I can always lover the armhole later.The new boning material is on it's way to me, I'm going with synthetic whalebone for the body and crinoline steel for the bones at center back.

I've also started to construct the lining bodice for my pet en l'air. Originally I planned to use the pattern in Patterns of Fashion, but that one has a back that you can't adjust the sizing on. That means that I have to always tie my stays the same. That's noot so good. So now I decided to use the this method instead:
http://marquise.de/en/1700/howto/frauen/contouche3.shtml
When I compared the pieces for the lining and stomacher with the pieces for my stays I made another discovery. My waist is almost 4 cm higher that the pattern waist. That means that I have to change the pattern quite a bit. Very well, I can't do so much about this until my stays are finished so I will just read marquise's instruction and get my self familiar with her process.

/L

My pocket

2009-08-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

Last night inspiration struck me hard and I took a pause from sewing my petticoat (which is almost finished, I'm currently sewing the waistband on the back).
This is what was left on my drawing pad when my muse was finished with me ( I've cleaned it up in photoshop):

The design for my pocket! I found the main inspiration for the wines in a fabric from the FASHION book and the dragonflies are well...I like dragonflies. First i tried to add little bows and roses and stuff to it but then I decided that I liked it better like this. I think its beautiful in it's simplicity.

I will embroider the motif with red work technique but with medium blue button hole silk on light blue linen instead of the standard red thread on white. The linen is a left over from my petticoat, it's a bit thin so I will interline it with a heavier linen before I bind the edges and the opening with blue silk ribbon.

Tomorrow night I'm going to order the boning for my stays so until they arrive I will work on my petticoat and the pocket. I love this project!

/L

I've been shopping...

2009-08-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

Today I found a goldmine for button lovers. The boutique is called "Knapplådan" ( wich means "the box of buttons") and is situated in a residential area in Uppsala. If you ever come to Uppsala, go there. There are buttons in every shape, material and color you can imagine!
Besides the butons they also have a great selection of pure button hole silk and ordinary sewing silk. They also have some buckles and a nice selction of ribbons. And the lady who runs the place is super nice! I will definately return to that place again.
Here are the link for their website (no online store though only info and the story behind the shop):
http://www.knappladan.se/

I had to limit myself to only buy things for this project, otherwise I would have left that place ruined...this is what I bougth (this time):

The spools is button hole silk in two diffrent shades of blue. The palest is for making the loops for buttons in my stomacher and the darker one is for the embroidery on my pocket. I plan to try to cover the wood button with fabric, if it works I will go back and buy more. The buckle will be one of several decorations on my tricorn that I'm planning, but more on that in a separate post.

/L

Shoe update...

2009-08-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

I've decided not to redress my shoes. I put my damask beside the shoes today outdoors in the sunlight and the light blue and the dark burgundy/maroon looked great together!
So my new plan is to make removable lapels and sew a removable cover for the straps that also covers the buttons. Then I can add a fancy buckle to the cover and voila, 18th century looking shoes :D

I made a quick try in some scrap fabric this afternoon and it looked pretty good. So tomorrow I will go into town and see if I can find some nice buckles and a good fabric for this little project. I have a upholstery velvet that almost match but I will give the fabrics stores in Uppsala a fair chanche before I cut the velvet.

I feel so clever now :P

I think I saw buckles similar to these in a craft store and I think they would look fabulous on my shoes.

I've also started on my under petticoat today. I'm sewing it by hand with white lined thread. I willl use "reinforced runnning stitch" i.e a running stitch wich a occasional back stitch. I read about this technique in "Kvinnligt mode under två sekel" and according to that book this was a coomon method for seams that don't take any strain.

/L

"Oh, honey, does my hips look big in these?"

2009-08-13T03:30:00.000-07:00

Here are finally a picture of my pocket hoops. I've used three sources for these, marquise.de, Corsets and crinolines and a hand out I got when I was in tailor school. I just compared all three patterns and made something that was in between all of them ;)

The hoops are made of a sturdy cotton fabric with a herringbone weave. I've used it for corset lining before and had some remnants left. The boning channels are made of some unbleached cotton bias tape I had laying around. I used sewer tape for boning, I just put some electrical tape round the tips of it. I went with this because it was cheap and easy to get. (And stronger than plastic boning or cable ties)

I machine sewed all the seams and the channels but cast the seam allowances over and down by hand. I also hemmed the pocket opening and sew that the channels for the string by hand with a running stitch. I used cotton embroidery floss for the pocket slit hems and white linen thread for casting over the seam allowances and for top channels.

The whole thing is tied on with corset lacing made of polyester (it's sturdy and I had it at home and it won't be visible from the outside so I decided to go with it). And spend my money on things that will show instead :)

Next step is to repair my stays and make the bottom petticoat. When that's done I can start on my pet en l'air and calculate exactly how much material I need to buy for the striped petticoat and for the ruschings for the jacket.My plan is that it's easier for me to decide what lenght I want my jacket to have when I see how my skirts will fall over the pocket hoops. I think I will go for a short one, that hit like 10 cm below the edge of the hoop or something.

I found a pair of shoes...

2009-08-11T01:18:00.001-07:00

So I found these darlings on a Swedish auction site called Tradera. They are made of a dark burgundy suede, have quite a heel and the perfect construction for remodelling into a pair of 18-th century look a likes.
My only concern is that I feel a bit evil to remodel something that's already so pretty...
And that they are a lot more high heeled than I'm used to (I'm usally a dr. marteens and sneakers kind of girl). I have worn heels like this before, but they had a platform deisgn wich made them much easier to walk in. But I have plenty of time to learn ;)
Here are some more pictures of them from different angles:

I have'nt decided yet if I should redress them in black velvet or blue velvet. The black veriosn would make the a perfect "go with anything" shoes, but the blue would look stunning togheter with my outfit.

All those decisions!

A sketch and some research

2009-08-10T01:53:00.000-07:00

A lot have been done since my last post. The pocket hoops are done, I just need to find a suitable string to tie them with. I will post a picture of them when string is found.I've got some nice shoes for cheap that I can redress.I have also made a sketch and lots of research and decided on what pattern to use.

But we start with my sketch:

When I made it, my plan was to make a gown/pet en l'air from the 1750's so I have a stomacher from that era on the sketch. I also made one side gown lenght and the other one short just too get both models in one picture.

But now I've discovered that I only have enough fabric for a pet en l'air from the 1770's so I will make a
comperé (button up) front instead as this was more common during that era. I will use the pattern on page 35 in Patterns of fashion by Janet Arnold. This pattern is for a sack dress but I will shorten it to get pet en l'air lenght. The good thing with this change of model is that I hopefully can get all sleeve cuffs, all ruchings and the stomacher front out of the same damask as the jacket. Wich is more period than my other soloution wich was to use a plain silk taffeta for ruchings and blue velvet for cuffs and stomacher.

On this sketch I have made the petticoat of silk taffeta with a self ruching. That's because the stiped fabric I aaawed about in prior posts was out of stock when I got to the store :(
This is what you get when you are to slow with making decisions :(

But I've still not completely decided if I should go with plain taffeta, I've found these fabrics at an online shop:

Both are 100% silk taffeta that is 54" wide. I'm thinking of a striped petticoat with one ruffle of the stripe on top a wider ruffle of the plain taffeta. I think it will look absolutely fabulous but I'm not 100% sure if it's historically correct. I've seen striped petticoats on both survived garments from this times and on fashion plates but they are always worn with a striped dress. I've not seen any proof of a not striped top and a striped bottom. Right now my inside historian and my inside designer has a big war going on... :P

Anyway, I think I will finish the pet en l'air first and then see what kind of petticoat I would like to wear with it. That gives my historian and my designer time to agree and it will buy me some time to do more research on the subject.

/L

Some better pictures of the striped fabrics

2009-07-20T04:18:00.000-07:00

I managed to take some pictures of the blue striped fabric I was talking about in the last post, here they are:

And here is a close up:

I really like this fabric, but I still have a hard time deciding between this one and the light blue silk taffeta. Both are so terrific.

I've made a list of pros and cons for both fabrics:

Silk taffeta:
+ Historically accurate
+ I t will go with more than one gown
+ Natural material
- price tag is a bit high (I would need about 7 yads to make a petticoat + ruchings for the gown and petticoat and that would cost me about 730 SEK)
- It's ebay, I'm a bit worried that the silk fabric willl be a dupioni and therefore be not accurate after all...

Striped fabric
+ Natural material (cotton)
+ Low price (59 SEK/M)
+ I really love the pattern
+ I found it in a local shop
- Not 100% historiacally accurate
- Very bold fabric, might give a clown effect togheter with the other fabric that my gown wil be made of

/L

The fabrics so far

2009-07-16T11:39:00.001-07:00

The velvet fabric that will turn into a stomacher and cuffs is in the top of the picture, at the bottom we have the cotton damask for the jacket/gown and in the middle you can se a small piece of upholstery velvet that I will use for redressing the shoes.
The colors are pretty accurate, but all the fabrics looks more shiny in the photo than in real life and the white parts on the damask are much stronger in the picture.
Here are a close up of the damask (with very distorted colors):

We move on to yesterdays major fabric finds, 6 meters of fine quality, light weight linen that I got for 49 SEK/M! (that's about 6$/m).
In the top right corner are the chemise fabric, in the middle we have a (coming to be) petticoat and on the bottom are an old linen sheet made of a twill weave that I found for 75 SEk in a thrift store.

On this picture below I'm trying to show the transparency of the white linen fabric, thats my hand barely showing under it.

And now for the hard decision...which one of those should I go with for the jupe...
First we have the striped fabric, it looks like the one in the picture below but instead of the green stripe there are a light blue one and the fabric are not so dark as i appears here. (I borrowed this picture from Fuschia , go check out her blog, it is awesome!).

Then we have this lovely silk taffeta from ebay:

I have a really hard time with this...should I listen to my wallet or not?

/L

The master plan

2009-07-16T10:54:00.000-07:00

So, all projects need a plan and here is mine.
To make a complete outfit I need these items:

Chemise - I have bought fabric, a sheer white linen. I just need to shrink wash it then I can start cutting and sewing. I will sew it all by hand, with linen thread and I think I will make flat felled seams so this garment will be durable and feel nice to the skin.

"Modesy skirt- My plan is to find some old linen sheets either on tradera (a swedish auction site) or in a thriftstore to use for this skirt. I've already found one sheet, but that one is already booked for lining of the jacket/gown and for my pocket.

A pair of stays - I have stays that I made as my exam work when I was in tailor school. Due to the time restriction for the exam project they are not completely hand sewn. I have to change the boning in them, the old ones made of reed are broken. (I still recommend reed as bonig though, they are extremely light, easy to work with and gives good support. But if you cant store your corset lying flat, the will brake as mine has due to moving house approximately 2-4 times a year for a five year period). More info about the work with the stays will come in a post later.

Pocket Hoops - I'm currently working on those, these are also partly machine sewn, I had to have one done quick so I could calculate yardage for petticoats. (I live in the countryside and don't go in to town so often so when I do, I want to hunt for fabric.

Pocket - I've will make one out of linen and embroider it with button hole silk. I have not deiced on a motif yet, but I'm would really like to find some kind of traditional regional motifs from Östergötland (= a region in Sweden). My grandmother who was a great crafts person was from there, and I would like to make my pocket in some kind of hommage to her.

Under petticoat(s) - I've already bought some light blue linen of the same quality as the one in my chemise. I will start with one petticoat and see if and need to make another one to hide the pocket hoops.

Petticoat (jupe) - I have not decied about what fabric to use for this one yet. I'm torn between a light blue silk taffeta that I've found on ebay or a striped upholstery fabric I saw at my local fabric shop. I would like to use the same fabric that is in the petticoat as frills and other decorations on the jacket/gown.

Jacket/Gown - I have a beautyful light blue cotton damask that I want to use, but I don't know If I have enogh of it to make a gown. I found in a thrift store a couple of years ago and it is cut in panels. So I have a 55 cm wide fabric that are 12,26 m long and are cut up in four panels. I see a lot of cutting and piecing coming my way in the future...

Stomacher - At the same time I found the damask I also found some light blue cotton velvet, this one was also a curtain but a very narrow one. I have a pice that are 38 cm wide and 4,98 m long.
My plan is to use this velvet as a base for the stomacher and decorate it with pieces of the damask and frame it in silver trim. I'm also planning to use the velvet for the cuffs of the/jacket gown.

I also need to find some decent shoes to redress, figure out how to make a pair of period stockings and garters and try to get some kind of hat. But they are later problems :)
Now we'll end this post and move on fore something more fun...Fabric pictures ;)

/L