Day 27: Future Projects

Just the other week I was lamenting that I hardly had anything [18th century] to sew... now I have the opposite problem!

There was a fabric sale with some incredible deals the other week, and I am now prepared to make a new jacket, a caraco with matching petticoat, and two full gowns (although I might make one of those gowns into a second caraco with matching petticoat).

Aren't they all so pretty?! I think my favorite is the one in the top center, but the bottom one will be absolutely perfect for a caraco. The total price for all four new outfits will be around $50, or less than $15 each!

I also have a couple of Regency projects on the docket, although those won't happen as quickly since I can only work on them in the evenings. Keep your eyes peeled for a new set of short stays, a wool spencer, and a gown modeled after the one in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion though!

This fabric is from Verna's, which I love to visit with my Mom when I go back to PA - there's so many great finds in there!

The description of the original fabric for this gown is very similar to the fabric I already have (above), so clearly this is a good choice for a new Regency gown!

Finally, I have a few cold weather projects that I can sew, just as soon as the weather cools off and autumn begins. I have some wool that I found at a thrift store (for $3! For three yards!) to sew a petticoat with, and my parents got me some lovely sky blue wool and cinnamon brown Virginia cloth from Burnley and Trowbridge last Christmas that I'll be turning into something fun come fall. Lastly, I bought a little bit of faux fur trim a few years ago and stitched it together, but I am yet to turn it into the muff it was meant to be - hopefully that project will be completed in time for the snow!

I love the look of fur, but I could never support killing animals just for their coats, so faux fur is one of the very few modern concessions I will make in my 18th century costuming. (To quote one of my favorite movies, Christmas in Connecticut, "No one needs a mink coat except for the mink!" I do, however, need a faux fur muff, and a faux fur trimmed mantle, and...)

In addition to all of my future sewing projects, I am also hoping to undertake some more blogging projects. I haven't made any official decisions, but I have some cool prompts in the works, and some more challenges to keep me blogging through the rest of the year - so stay tuned!

Day 26: Media

As anyone who has ever tried to watch a costume drama with me knows, I am very picky about historical eras portrayed in the media. However, I do have a few movies that I absolutely adore the costume design in - feel free to comment and let me know what you think I should watch next! I love costume eye-candy!

Anna Karenina is a beautifully done movie, and although the costumes are a bit out of my era (1877) I could still watch it all day long. The plot is pretty depressing, but the clothing and filming is gorgeous! It's no wonder that the movie (and costume designer Jacqueline Durran) received five nominations for costuming awards, and won four.

The movie is super sad, but the cinematography alone makes up for it. If you liked the scenery and film techniques in Grand Budapest Hotel, you'll love them in this movie

The Duchess is another one of my favorite costumed movies. This one is in my era, and has already inspired a giant hat that I made in a millinery class in college (well, the movie as well as the painting of the original Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana). This movie (and costume designer Michael O'Connor) won five awards for the costuming, and there are so many outfits that I would like to sew!

I really like how the neckerchief/fichu works with the gown here. This is one of the few times I felt like a neckerchief completed an outfit, instead of simply adding on to an outfit.

This outfit was my all-time favorite. It's only a matter of time before I sew something like this...

However, as much as I love those two movies, my all-time favorite costume drama is Marie Antoinette. The clothes are so pretty, and the color scheme is to die for! Of course there are a few costumes that aren't quite accurate (as is the case in every costume drama ever), but I really love how well the movie conveys the extravagance of life at Versailles as well as the lead up to the French Revolution. Marie Antoinette was by no means an innocent character, but it is interesting to see the background she came from and some of the things that drove her choices. Plus, the use of modern music does a great job giving contemporary audiences a sense of the era in a different way than is normal. Milena Canonero did a great job with the costumes, and definitely deserved the three awards she got for Best Costume Design!

I might make a gown very similar to this one soon!

My favorite outfit in the entire movie is the light blue gown with the red belt. I would love to make it some day, because there isn't a single thing about the dress that I don't like! However, I could also say that about almost any gown Marie Antoinette wears in the movie, so...

Day 14: Dream Project

            I have always loved flowy, poofy dresses that use way too much fabric and are completely impractical. Therefore, my dream project is Scarlett’s Prayer Dress from Gone with the Wind. I do have a corset and a shift that are from the correct era, but my hoop skirt needs work (or I just need to sew another one entirely, I’m not sure), and I don’t have the right shoes. Even worse, the gown itself uses a ridiculous amount of fabric, and I don’t have a single occasion to wear it! However, I want to sew this ensemble something awful.

            I’m hoping that some ridiculous costume party or a crazy costumed ball will come up in the future so I have an excuse to finally toss my hair and say “fiddle-dee-dee” in the right clothing, but until then I’ll just stick to sketching the pattern and guestimating yardages in my notebooks!

Just look at how this dress moves, of course I want it!

A Look at the Past

Even though I just started this blog a year ago, I have been sewing historical garments for six years, and I have been sewing for nine years. So, I thought I would give a quick overview of some of the other stuff I've made, and if anyone has any questions about anything you can feel free to comment and I'll reply!

Let's start at the beginning... This is me, age 8, in my very first sewn garment, a skirt! The material was really nice, a blue cotton with silvery-white dandelion puffs on it. It was an introduction to simple straight sewing, as well as sewing a drawstring and a casing. This is still hanging up in my closet :)

Me, age 8... yup.

So, I sewed a pair of pants after that, followed by a pleated skirt and a sundress, before deciding that I needed a colonial dress. I hadn't been to Williamsburg for five years, but when I was twelve we returned. I saw that they had a costume rental program, but it was out of our price range and really meant for smaller kids, so my mom suggested that I sew a dress of my own. She made one first for me, to see how hard it would be, and then I sewed one using the same pattern for my best friend.

Me, age 12, and Hopey, age 13

Hopey, TJ, and me two years ago! Our dresses still fit us, although I had just finished my blue dress and so I wanted to wear that. I wore my purple dress in December for the Illumination though!

Then, after a particularly cold December debut of the new dresses, I realized I needed a cape. So, I made one!

Brr! It's too cold for Hope and me to be out in just our dresses! (By the way, that's my Mom in the middle) :)

So I made a cape! This is my friend Nicole (we're practically sisters) playing with me in the Powell House, wearing my purple dress and a Civil War cape of her own.

Nicole and me in the stocks with our capes.

Following that, I made the blue Civil War dress that I've already posted about...

And then I made a corset, 1770's reproduction mitts, and a shift.

Of course, the corset is where my blog started covering my sewing life, and the prom dress, Dolley Madison gown, side panniers, pocket, muffs, and 1770's dress followed. And now here we are! I know that some of that stuff still needs to be posted, but all that is on its way. If you have any questions about anything I've sewn or posted pictures of, please just comment and let me know! :)

A Civil War Ball Gown! a.k.a. My Blue Dress

For my Sweet 16 a few years ago, I desperately wanted to go to Colonial Williamsburg, and I really wanted to go in a completely historically accurate dress. I couldn't find a pattern that I was happy with that corresponded with the 1770's, but I did stumble upon Simplicity's Museum Curator collection, and I fell in love with this one. Even better, it was on sale for a dollar at our local Jo-Ann Fabric, so Mommy let me get it. This was in September, my birthday was in February, and the trip (which I didn't know about yet) would be in April.

Since most of what I sew is entered as a 4-H project, we decided that the dress could be entered under the category of 'formal wear' (they don't have a history category...), and I was ready to start. Because it called for so much fabric, and expensive fabric at that, we drove out a little farther than usual and discovered the sewing section of Surplus City. It was incredible! They had so much material, hundreds of trims, and everything else you can imagine. The employees were also really nice, and once we explained what we were looking for, we all spent the afternoon finding trims and fabrics, and just generally having fun. Everything cost so much less than it would have at Jo-Ann's, and it was also much less expensive!

When I started sewing, I knew that this dress was going to be the hardest thing I had ever sewn. I was fifteen, and had only started sewing historical things a few years ago, mostly doing costumes that had zippers and weren't that difficult. I had to learn how to make my own bias tape out of velvet, which was challenging, but really cool once it worked. I got to hand sew 72 rosettes, most of which I worked on during school when I didn't need to be taking notes. :)  I learned about different ways to attach trim, and discovered what a nightmare trim can be sometimes. I worked with boning for the first time (although certainly not the last!), and I learned that when gathering a big skirt, it's always a good idea to have multiple lines of basting, in case one breaks.

Finally, the dress was done. It laced up the back and fit perfectly; it never itched and it looked good. I was extremely excited to wear it to Williamsburg, and even more excited because my dance teacher had loaned me a ton petticoats to wear under it, as I didn't have a hoop skirt (we had fooled around with different ideas of how to make one cheaply, but none of those came to fruition). My best friend came with us to Williamsburg, and wore the dress that I had made her a few years before for wearing in Williamsburg (my first Williamsburg dress was the same pattern as her's, although different material). It was one of the best trips ever! We ate at the King's Arms Tavern, and our server told us that in colonial times they would have extra-long tablecloths that tied around their necks like bibs, and at the end of the meal the tablecloth would just be gathered into the center and taken off - and then he went and got us a special tablecloth, and did just that for us! That was the first time I can remember thinking - I want to be able to do this for someone someday; take an already special experience and just make it as amazing as possible. I felt like a true colonial lady, and I can't wait until I am able to help someone have the same experience. We also went on a carriage ride, and visited all of my favorite places. Everyone treated me like I belonged in the time period, and a lot of tourists thought that I worked there!

Even though the dress was from a time period 90 years later than CW, I still felt radiant the entire time that I was there, and I know I'll always love that dress. I have a lot of pictures of myself in the gown, but this is one of my favorites, taken in the DeWitt Wallace Museum in Williamsburg during my birthday trip.

The back of the dress, it laces up

Just TJ and Me

Patrick Henry!

My favorite founding father, Thomas Jefferson

A carriage ride through Williamsburg :)

Meeting the Marquis de Lafayette for the first time - he said we were clearly intelligent, as we both knew that blue was a superior color!

Ta-da!

My 48-Hour Dress - The Dolley Madison Dress - Just in Time for Easter!

Almost a year ago (has it really been that long?) I posted about my visit to Montpelier, and how I absolutely fell in love with the dress that the Dolley Madison interpreter was wearing, as well as a lot of the other dresses in the museum. I had never looked into regency clothing much before that, but I am hooked now. The late 1700's are still my favorite time period, but I am slowly falling in love with the 1800's as well. Anyway, I had a pattern (Simplicity 4055) and an inspiration, and a break from school coming up, so it seemed like the perfect time to sew! Well, it's always the perfect time to sew for me, but that's besides the point. :)

The Dolley Madison interpreter from Montpelier, wearing the dress that inspired me.

The dress Dolley wore (well, a reproduction of it) in the museum at Montpelier.

So, on Maundy Thursday, Mom and I went to three new fabric stores and spent all day looking at wonderful fabrics, trims, notions, and pretty much being in a costumer's heaven. It was nice to have a mother-daughter day like that, and we got everything I needed for the dress! It was also nice, because I had just found out two days before that I got into my first choice school (William & Mary - Go Tribe!!!), and when we came home my acceptance letter from my second choice school (Washington & Lee!) was waiting for me in my inbox - it was a great day all around!

Anyway, I wanted another white eyelet dress, and we found the perfect material at a really good price at an Amish store called Verna's. I highly recommend checking it out if you live in central PA. It was a bit of a drive for us, but totally worth it. I also got a few different ribbons and trims there, as well as the buttons for my dress. We then went to another store (Hoover Bernina) where we didn't buy anything, but did discover how far sewing machines have come in recent years. I haven't sewn on a machine younger than 40 years old, and so seeing that new machines have color touch screens and USB drives for embroidery was eye-opening for both Mommy and myself. The staff there was really friendly, and I would recommend checking it out (again, if you live in PA), especially if you are into quilting - and they even offer workshops and classes for making different projects! We followed Hoover Bernina with a trip to Ben Franklin, where I bought more ribbons and trim (I love that sort of thing, and I can wear different ribbons with this dress), and ended at our local Jo Ann Fabric, where I bought the plain white material (it was cheapest there).

My fabric, lining, the new ribbons I bought, and the pattern that I used.

When we went to wash the fabric, we discovered that the embroidery on the eyelet didn't go all the way to the edges! So, after a quick trip back to Jo Ann's we learned that it's always like that, and the pattern accounts for stuff like that - crisis averted, and time to get sewing!

From doing some research on the internet, I had discovered that this dress has a very short bodice, even for an empire waist, and that I would need to extend it by a few inches so that it would sit below my bust and not rise up periodically. I would recommend doing this too, because the way the pattern lays out the top of the dress would not work well for anyone.

The bodice cut out, longer than usual...

...but fitting perfectly!

A back view of the bodice, no buttons yet!

Other than extending the bodice, this dress didn't really have any necessary changes, and was pretty easy to sew. I would suggest doing the lining first, so that you can make sure everything will fit you as this pattern runs small, but that's what I do for everything, as it's the easiest thing to do, and the lining is easier (and usually cheaper) to fix if you need to change anything. Even though there was nothing else that needed to be changed on this pattern, I did opt to make the skirt overlay the same length as the lining, because my overlay was not sheer, and was the same color as my lining. Also, that's the way the Dolley Madison dress was!

So, after putting the fabric in the wash, I started ironing it all out at noon on Good Friday. I sewed all that night, went to bed around midnight or one, woke up the next morning to sew in between setting up for an Easter egg hunt at church and dying eggs with my family, I sewed until midnight, woke up at 4:30 the next morning, sewed on the three buttons, and went to Sunrise Service for Easter, wearing my new dress!

The buttons! They're pearl buttons in the shape of hearts with carving on them - so pretty!

This dress was a lot of fun for me to make, mostly because I felt really professional while making it. I proved to myself that I could sew all day and still be smiling at midnight, and that I had the ability to make clothing that quickly if I needed to. Since Easter, I have worn the dress for a class presentation on Pride and Prejudice in English class and for Sewing Showcase with my 4-H group (a little fashion show for a local nursing home). I might wear it to Williamsburg some day, especially if I go to see a James Madison interpreter!

  

The back, you can just see the top of my shift as well... Stay tuned, as I'll be making another one some day!

Some Other Pretty Stuff to Look At

So, I've been doing historical costuming for multiple years now, although I have only recently started documenting the process. I thought that maybe I would post some of my other creations, so that you can just see some other things that I've made, and ask any questions/discuss similar things. So, here are a few of my other projects!

This is a pair of gloves that I recreated from a pair of 1770's Quaker mitts from the book Fitting and Proper. I am hoping to embroider them someday soon, but for now they are just plain white. They come up to my elbow, and have an opening for the thumb and the fingers. This is my sixth try, as the first couple mock-ups didn't work out that well. However, I am really happy with them, and I wear them often!

This is the best picture I have of my cape, although hopefully I will have another excuse to put it on and take more pictures soon! This was in Williamsburg, posing with my favorite Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson. The cape is dark gray felt with a silk lining, hood, and collar, as well as a silver clasp (I'll post pictures of it later, it's really beautiful). The purple dress under my cape is not historically accurate, but was my first step into historical costuming, and as it is easier to wash than my other things, it was what I chose to wear for a rainy day. My bonnet was made by someone else, but is historically accurate.

Finally, my dress! This dress is Civil War era, and is my pride and joy. It took four months to make, but was totally worth it. It's blue silk, purple velvet, and over a hundred yards of trim with 72 hand-sewn rosettes.

Just the skirt...

...a close-up on one of the panels (six hand-sew rosettes and a covered button, with three different trims)...

...the back...

...with TJ...

...with another TJ...

...and with accessories!

The nice thing about this dress is the versatility of it. Technically, it is 1860's. However, depending on what type of hoops and underskirts I wear with it, I don't look that out of place in other time periods. I used Simplicity pattern 2881 for this dress, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a nice Civil War era dress to make. Happy sewing!