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

The first finished item of the year...

*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

18th century coat/waistcoat pocket tutorial

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:

1. Mark the position of the pocket flap and the pocket hole:
   
   
   
   
   
2. 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:
   
   
   
   
   
3. 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.
   
   
   
4. 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.
   
   
   
5. 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 :
   
6. 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.
   

Power cuts can be useful sometimes...

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...

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

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

My pocket

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