Trims, accessories and bargains

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

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

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

A quick update

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