Rescued and Resurrected #2

EXPERIMENTS WITH MORI KEI

Another insanely productive and demanding year in college is finished and I've finally landed from all the stress and press alas there are lust and time for blogging again. I've created lots of thing during my schoolyear, but I will show you, dear readers, all about them in later posts. This post is about my first try of adding even one more style to my eclectic style palette, mori kei! 

I've been attracted to the whimsical mori kei style since I stumbled across it last summer, but I had a hard time handling the rather loose fitting silhouette, being a full busted curvy viking woman, not a tiny little waify asian girl. But when I and M was in Spain last summer during a massive heat wave, I bought a linen dress at the market, in white from an Italian lagenlook brand. It was a huge step for me, I've never attempted dressing in all white/light colours and loose fit before. But I realised that it wasn't so unflattering as I first thought. And in 40 degrees Celsius and blasting sun, it was really comfortable to wear something that actually allowed air to circulate along my body. 

A rather blurry photo of me in the lagenlook dress, taken late in the evening. I think I'm trying to give M directions about something...

 

 

 When I got home, I found myself pairing it with longsleeve tops, knitted sweaters and boleros, grey thick tights and a white petticoat, still loving it all autumn and winter.  Loose fit and light colours wasn't so dangerous!

So when I stumbled across this tunic in a recent thrifting spree, I decided it was time to add more breezy, loose clothing to my wardrobe:

The thrifted tunic on the right, a broken blouse from my RR-stash on the left.

Close up of the fabrics

The tunic looked cute as it was but I decided that I wanted to make it mine by adding to it. I used material from the chequered blouse and added pockets and a bow at the back. I also added a ruffle at the bottom, made from a broderie anglaise duvet cover I found at yet another thrifting spree last summer.The broderie anglaise trim was also rescued from the same duvet cover. The pockets and the bows was made from the sleeves of the blouse and those had a button tabs that kept them rolled up. I looked at those tabs, they were so cute somehow,  and decided that I wanted too use them on the tunic. I played around with placement and finally decided to use one as a whimsical detail at the front and the other as the center piece on the bow. To top it all off I aded som mother of pearl buttons I had in the stash. And I love the final result!

But now I was on a roll. I decided that I needed something to wear under the tunic, I tried with my white petticoat but I didn't like the look, so I made a pair of pants/bloomers of the remaining broderie anglise from the duvet cover. They are Plinka pants, a pattern designed by Tina Givens (can be downloaded for free if you register to her site). I've modified the pattern in the crotch area, the original is super baggy drop crotch, something I hate so I used my standard loose fit trouser crotch instead. I also made the bottom ruffle wider than specified in the pattern, skipped the bottom facing due to thickness of the material (the serger is a saviour in those situations) added a separate elasticated waistband and omitted the pockets and the little patch. And gosh, I love these pants. They are super comfy and I love that if I stand with my legs together it looks like I'm wearing a skirt.

The tunic and pants together? It's an outfit to be happy,giddy and whimsical in. I feel like putting on rubber boots and jump in water puddles :P
M, my trusty photographer,had a hard time capturing these following photos, because yours truly was feeling so giddy that I couldn't stand still ;)

Clickning at the photos makes them bigger, as usual.

Oops, should have smoothed out the bodice after all that exercising ;)

Now I'm off to work on the unicorn dress I found earlier...

Hope to see you all soon!

/L

A sketch and some research

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

The master plan

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