A pierrot for Harlequina

This post i s way overdue, the masquerade where I first wore this outfit was early this spring but my life has been kind of hectic so costume blogging ended up last in my priorities.

I have always liked comedia dell arte and harlequin in particular so I really enjoyed making this costume.
The costume consists of five pieces, a velvet mask, a neck ruff, a velvet jacket with gold lace, a gold silk waist coat and a petticoat. I also made matching shoes and a ridicule.

 

The mask is made of papier mache, moulded over a plaster copy of my face, water proofed with flax seed oil and then covered with velvet on the outside and linen on the inside. I really like the shape of it, it almost stayed on with out strings! And the high forehead kind of give it quite a spooky appearance.

The ruff is made of a very wide,white ribbon with gold edges. I box pleated it and then folded it in the middle lengthwise and attached ribbon ties.

The waist coat is made of gold silk dupion and I created the lattice pattern with carefully sewn on velvet ribbon. I'm really proud of it because it opens and closes in the front with hooks and eyes and I managed to match my harlequin checks so well so the opening is invisible if you see it from the front!
I interlined the front with a thick linen canvas and the back is the same black velvet that I used in the jacket. For lining I used a black silk matka remnant I had in the stash. When I have time I want to go back and re fit this garment because I'm not 100% happy with the back.

The main inspiration for this ensemble is this striped so called zone front jacket from KCI (image found on pin interest) and the victory outfit from the Duchess movie (original image from The costumers guide to movie costumes):



I draped the pattern for the jacket using the victory jacket and the KCI jacket as main reference. I chose to make my sleeves without pleats and I also made my back with a little different seams but the overall shape is very similar. The peplum was the hardest, I swear, I lost count on how many different shapes I tried. Then I stumbled over Bauhausfrau's struggle with the victory jacket and she had kindly enough shared her pattern for the peplum. Even with that I help I stood in my sewing studio scratching my head and stared at the cut out and sewn together half moons of fabric that just lay there in a puckering mess and wonder how the f**** it was supposed to work. Then when I lifted the test peplum up from the cutting table and sewing magic occurred, all the pleats fell in to place and I had an eureka moment!

For some reason all the pleats ended up lying in the same direction in this image, but they usually lies flat :P

From there it was more or less smooth sailing with the jacket, and I'm very pleased with it, although the combination of cotton velvet and cheap linen lining has stretched so I need to go back and alter the fit in the back a bit. But I love the overall shape, the gold lace that my sister kindly bought for me and I feel very pretty wearing this pierrot.

The petticoat I'm wearing is completely hand sewn and made from a lovely super sheer striped cotton voile from puresilks.us. Hand hemming that bottom ruffle and sewing it on was not fun but it really was worth it in the end!

And finally here is a picture of the front of my shoes:

These were a pair of boring old ladies shoes, but the leather was good and the heel sturdy so I bought them for 20 SEK ($3), attacked them with gold paint and remnants of the gold dupion and got myself some fab harlequin shoes :D

Since the masquerade I have worn this outfit without the mask and ruff and it works nicely this way too, although warm summer weather and black velvet is not the best combination. (The super fabulous hat I borrowed from Elisa over at isiswardrobe and she also did my hair and took the pictures):

Here I'm doing the last stitches on my Galerie de modes inspired polonaise that I wore in the evening on this event.More info on that project will follow in another blog post.

I really like this angle because it show of the silhouette nicely, although the wind has caught the peplum.

/L

The stays are finally done!

Here they are, in very romantic candle light. I'm quite pleased with them, I love the fit and their appearance.
The front and back lacing is wonderful. My beloved M laced me in once and now I can get in and out of my stays by my self. WIN!

I use 6 mm baby blue satin ribbon for lacing, because it looks pretty and are sturdy. Not very period correct, but I couldn't find anything else in the right colour. I tried plain old white corset lacing but it looked horrible and with all the work I have put in this pair of stays I want them too look their best.

So here are the final info on my stays:
Pattern: c.a 1780's from Jill Salens book, modified to fit my body
Materials and construction: 2 layers of linen twill with a silver silk dupion on the outside. Silvery blue silk dupion for piping and binding. Channels made with machine, threaded with silk button hole twist for top thread and regular sewing silk for bobbin. Eyelets done by hand with silk button hole twist. All assembly was done by hand using white linen thread. Binding by hand used threads pulled from the binding fabric for a perfect color match.. For lining I used white cotton/linen (remnants from my chemise), and it was sewn in by hand after the binding was done using white linen thread.
Boning: Steel flats made from sewer tape in centre front and in centre back (sewer tape is much stiffer than regular steel flats and crinoline steel).  Synthetic whalebone for the rest.

In the photo you can also see my modified chemise, I removed the lace ruffle because it was a PITA to iron flat after each washing and I felt that it often was in the way when patterning garments.

I'm also wearing my new decency petticoat, I decided to make one since my chemise is so short. It was very simple to make, I just took an old linen bed sheet and sewed it into a tube by hand.Then I made a drawstring channel at the top, made two tiny button holes and threaded a ribbon through. DONE!

Now I'm working on my outfit for the masquerade held by Gustafs Skål in March. It's a secret what my character are going to be, but I can tell you that the outfit will consist of an pierrot jacket, floofy white petticoat and reticule. With hedgehog hair of course. And a mask and some character appropriate accessories ;)

I'm currently working with the jacket pattern, the papier mache mask base is recieving some moisture protection before I can embellish it, the floofy petticoat is cut out and ready to be sewn together and my under petticoat is also cut. I'll sew the floofy one by hand and the rest by machine with some hand finishing. I hope to be able to start making the jacket this weekend, so I can measure how much trim I need. I'll have to order the trim from my sister (the fabric stores in Uppsala are not well stocked on pretty trim) so I must hurry so it will get here in time.




Well I'll better get working on it then...and hope that I'll be able to post some more pictures soon.

/L

"Almost finished"

...it feels like my moon ray stays has been in the "almost finished" state for a really long time. I've worked on them on and off since my last post that was painfully long ago. The reason for this project taking me so long is several, some is work related, some is due to personal issues .Anyway bare with me, here comes a recap of what happened to the stays since my last post.

In the end of 2011 I only had the sewing on the straps, piping, binding the edges and lining to do when I decided to wear it in it's half finished stage to an event. I ripped it, one of the front panels tore right of in the seam. I got so mad that I lost the urge to work on it.

In the second half of 2012 I started to long for 18th century again. I looked at my stash of fabrics intended for my 18th century wardrobe and decided that now I want this damn thing finished!

So I fixed the ripped seam (it was only the thread that broke, not the panel it self), re-enforced it and all of the other seams and worked through the painfully slow process of adding the piping on top of the seams. When I was doing it I hated myself for coming up with the idea of piping but now I'm glad that I did it. My stays looks so nice with it!

With the help of Elisa from Isiswardrobe I did a new fitting and we discovered that I would benefit from a gusset at the bottom edge between the mid back and side back panel. She also helped me to fit my straps.
Both the straps and the gussets are made of one layer of dupion backed with one layer of the linen twill, I believe it's sturdy enough.

Moon ray stays - front

So here are one half of my stays, (I focused on the moon ray front) the only thing left on this half is making two eyelets for the ribbon that connect the strap to the front. The other half not pictured is in the process of getting it's top binding stitched down, then I'll add the lining and I can work eyelets on that half too. Then they are finally ,truly finished and I can work with the rest of my wardrobe again!

I promise to post better pictures when this forever project are truly finished!

So, sorry all my readers for my absence, but look forward to me being back in the costuming game with a vengeance!

/Lithia

I'm not dead...

...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...

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

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...

...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