Day 29: Ensemble

I had big plans for this post, but unfortunately a couple of things derailed it. Primarily, getting sick and not having anyone to help take photos were the biggest factors, but the rainstorm today and the fact that my outfit is mostly silk certainly didn't help either!

If you remember a few days ago, when I posted about my UFO, I said that I was hoping to get it done in the near future - the near future is now! The original gown, from Snowshill Manor, was made of white silk, but for an outfit perfect for both travel and autumn I thought that brown silk would work better (and be far more practical).

In addition to the fact that the entire outfit is made of brown silk - petticoat, stomacher, and jacket - there are many things you can add on to this outfit to make it a true ensemble, and this gown is specifically 'accessorizable' since both travel and changing weather require lots of accessories! In the photo, I've paired it with a brown felt hat that I might add trim to in the future. However, I could also also wear my calash with it, a market bonnet, a different brown calash (I have some scrap silk I'm contemplating using for that), or a hood. Additionally, I can wear a cape or a mantle with this gown, and mitts or a muff for especially cold weather. It can also be worn with or without hoops.

Essentially, I'm hoping that this outfit will be my most versatile one yet, and that there will be lots of ensemble possibilities here! As soon as the skies clear and I start to feel better I'll hunt down some friends and edit this post with some new pictures of all the different ways you can make an ensemble out of one 18th century outfit. Until then, happy sewing!

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 25: Fave Friday - Favorite Resource

I have a lot of resources that I go to on a regular basis. I don't know if I can pick a favorite, but I'll list some of my favorites here - feel free to comment on what you like best, or if I missed something here that you think should be included!

Pinterest:
     This one is sometimes problematic, because there aren't always links or sources included with the pictures, but there are so many other historical costumers/fashion nerds who are great about citing their posts, and also organizing things based on era and type of clothing. Pinterest is a great jumping off point for a lot of projects, and it can be helpful when trying to find a primary source to back up a new idea. Plus, if there's no citation on the post, you can always just search for the image on Google!

Books:
     I've already talked about a few of my favorites on here, but I'll run through my main list again. Janet Arnold, Fitting and Proper, The Cut of Women's Clothes, and Costume Close-Up are my most used books, but my historical costuming bookshelf also includes Fashion in Costume 1200-2000, Corsets and Codpieces, Survey of Historic Costume, What Clothes Reveal, Pictorial Encyclopedia of Historic Costume, The Fashion Book, Fashion Museum Treasures (from the Fashion Museum in Bath), and Undressed (from the exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum).
     The first four I listed all include patterns and measurements from extant garments, and the rest are really good resources for inspiration, fact checking, and just enjoying learning more about clothes! If everything above still isn't enough for you, here are the few books that remain on my wishlist: How to Read a Dress, The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking (this one comes out in November, and I am so excited for it!), Corsets and Crinolines, and Costume in Detail.

Museums:
     Pretty much any museum that has clothing is a resource that I love. My most recent museum visits in this category include the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Museum of London, the Fashion Museum in Bath, and of course, Colonial Williamsburg! However, I also appreciate any other primary source I can find, so paintings and fashion plates on display catch my attention too!

The Internet:
     This might be a bit of an easy answer, but in today's world this is the fastest way to find things. When I was pretty sure a cotton print I found was accurate to the 18th century, but I wasn't certain, I ran a quick Google search (pink spotted neckerchief 18th century), and was soon presented with a painting showing a woman wearing a neckerchief almost identical to the fabric I was holding. Even if the internet isn't where my research stops, it's a great jumping off point!

Blogs:
     I'll end this post with a quick story: When I was just starting to research and sew historical clothing, I didn't have the library or easy access to all of the costuming resources that I have today. So, I was mostly looking things up on the internet and trying to figure out how garments went together and what the major trends were. One of the most helpful things I came across were different blogs. The Dreamstress really helped me in the beginning, and I gained so much confidence by following her pannier-along! Before the Automobile was also one I flipped through on a regular basis, and Stay-ing Alive was another favorite. There are so many more that I've read, and this month I've discovered so many more! The facebook page for CoBloWriMo has a whole list of them, and now that I've come farther in my own sewing I'm really enjoying being part of such a welcoming and enthusiastic community. And, if you want something with more photos (unlike this post, sorry about that!), just scroll through costuming tags on Instagram!

Fabric:
     I'm just going to list these quickly:
-Burnley and Trowbridge
-Fabrics Store.com
-Silk Baron
-Dharma Trading Company

Happy sewing, and happy researching!

Day 23: Made for Yourself

I love that I get to sew at my job, but every now and then I need a little bit of inspiration. So, when I was almost out of fabric and projects at the end of July, I started flipping through some of my costuming books and decided to make something a little different than my normal fitted gowns - a chemise a la reine!

I've sewn the one featured in Norah Waugh's The Cut of Women's Clothes, with just a few slight modifications. Essentially, a chemise a la reine is made of three tubes with gathering and shoulder straps, so it's not a complicated pattern, but there is a LOT of sewing involved! The gown has a circumference of 134 inches, and so sewing gathering channels along it and hemming it was quite the endeavor.

No sleeves yet, but progress on the gathering channels!

However, once I put some ribbon through the casings, the gown really started looking like what I was hoping for! I shortened the shoulder straps a little bit (although I might have cut them a bit long in the first place) and put the sleeves on, and voila!

The finished gown, it's so floofy!

Now I just need an excuse to wear this, other than around the house... That's why I'm showing off this project today, with the prompt Made for Yourself - even though this gown is accurate to the era we interpret at work, it doesn't really fit with what I do every day, so I probably won't be wearing it as part of my job. Still, the light cotton muslin is so comfy for summer wear, so I'm content to just wear it at home for now!

I don't have a wig or the ideal head wear for this at my apartment right now, so my market bonnet is a temporary stand-in

Day 21: UFO

For those of you who are unaware, in the sewing community the term 'UFO' usually refers to "UnFinished Object(s)". Although today also would have been a good day for a space theme, seeing as we had a solar eclipse!

I'm usually not one to have many UFOs lying about, because I'm usually sewing something with a deadline in mind, and I like to sew in my free time. However, I currently have two UFOs in my sewing [bed]room. The first is a set of regency short stays that I can't sew while I'm immersed in the 18th century, and the second is a gown I'm replicating.

The front of the gown - sorry it's a little wrinkled!

The back of the bodice - I just have to hem a few edges!

While I'm not certain how soon I'll finish the short stays, I'm planning on finishing the gown pretty soon. I just have to finish a few edges and sew a stomacher and petticoat, and I'm ready to go!

The front detail (which also needs to be hemmed)

The sleeves, which are finished, and which I absolutely love!

The gown itself comes from Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion, and is taken from the quilted white gown from Snowshill Manor. However, since I wanted something that would show a little less dirt, I decided to make the gown in a brown silk that I found on sale. It will still be warm in the autumn and winter, but I won't have to worry as much about leaving the house in it! However, I am considering eventually sewing another one out of pre-quilted white cotton, so that it will be quilted and white, but a little bit easier to clean.

My drafted pattern pieces, as well as the gown I'm copying

I started this project last summer, drafting the pattern from the book, and I cut out the fabric in the fall. Hopefully I'll have it finished with a post on the completed gown soon!

A throwback to the window seat in my last dorm with the flowers I loved, and the day when I actually put needle to fabric and started sewing this gown!

Day 16: Small Project

            If you’ve clicked back through my blog, or been following me for a little while, you have probably seen my post on garters. In essence, garters are a great part of 18^th century material culture, because they could show off a lot of personality, as well as carrying important messages. Since I do most of my 18^th century sewing at work, I like to work on projects that show a side of historical people most visitors wouldn’t have considered otherwise, and garters are a great way to do that.

            This month, I’ve taken a saying from an extant pair of garters, halte la, on ne passe pas (stop here, do not go further), and mixed it with a design found on other sets of garters from the period.

            It’s a nice way to work on my embroidery skills while also sharing a small peek into the personalities of the past. In 200 years, historians might find a Grumpy Cat t-shirt and wonder if its owner was particularly anti-social, or simply had a sense of humor. This is the same question we get to ask today when we look at garters like these, and it’s exciting for me to be able to connect the past to the present in such a vivid way.

I don't have a lot of information about these individual garters. I know they were used in a museum exhibition showing underclothes and accessories from 1812, but I also know that this style was seen as early as the 1770's. Furthermore, one of my colleagues who speaks French much better than I do pointed out that "la" should have an accent to indicate its use as a place and not an article. I don't know if this was optional in 18th century French, or if these were perhaps made/decorated by a young lady who was just learning French. After all, you can buy lots of shirts that say "amour" and "bonjour" on them today, why wouldn't French, the language of diplomacy, be just as popular for ornamentation in the 18th century?

Day 9: BIG Project

            So, every now and then you see something, whether it’s in a store, on the screen, or in a book, and your first thought is, “Well, that’s just ridiculous”, followed up immediately by, “I must have it.” That was the story of me with the calash. I saw it in the Milliner’s Shop in CW when I was young, and after the half second required to make a face at how ridiculous it was, I decided I needed to sew one someday.

Some period depictions of different calashes

            Last summer, I sincerely thought about starting one, but I didn’t have any fabric suitable for it. I wanted to make one that was green silk, with a pink or red lining, since I had plenty of documentation for 18^th century calash bonnets fitting that description. (There are so many shapes, sizes, and colors of calash bonnets though, check out the MET's collection!) I found a bargain on green silk and ordered it last August, and then in March of this year I found some pink linen that I loved at the Fort Frederick Market Fair. One of my friends had some reed she was giving away, and with that, my calash was born.

            I started by analyzing the calash from Fitting and Proper, and replicating the measurements at their full scale. From there it was simple straight sewing to make the rectangle with all of its boning channels and gathers, and then add some ruffled edges and insert the boning.

My half-gathered silk in one of my favorite break rooms/sewing spots at work

            The biggest challenge was probably trying to keep my stitches invisible – no matter what color thread I used, it would show through on one of my layers. I experimented with different stitches, keeping them discreet, and eventually found something I was happy with. If I was to do this project again, I might consider using tapes to make the channels on the linen lining, and then pick-stitching the green silk over top. However, this method was certain cheaper and faster! I am also contemplating making another with just the green silk, and folding the silk around the reed to sew the channels that way. It would be lighter, and would also solve the problem of visible stitches.

Sewing gathers after boning channels

            One of the things that really excited me about this project was how much I would get to learn. In addition to the basic research one does when they undertake a historical sewing project, I also realized that I would be learning more about how an 18^th century lady carried herself. As I sewed, I interpreted the project, and found guests asking the same questions I had been asking myself: Would it really balance on my shoulders with just the small ruffle and tie? Would it actually stay up like I wanted it to? What if my arm got tired from holding the ribbon? (I especially love questions like that last one, asked by a very young girl. The smallest visitors usually have the most insightful questions regarding the practicalities of everyday life that would otherwise be overlooked.)

At this point, most visitors who saw me working remarked that it looked like an accordion or a caterpillar! You can also see some of the reed I used in the lower right corner.

All of the cane cut to length and inserted into the channels - it was quite the monstrosity at this point! (And I can't wait to make an even bigger one!)

            However, once I finished the calash, I had answers! I still haven’t added the ribbon, but if your arm does get tired, it’s okay – the calash stays up on its own! I don’t know if I could run in it, or if it would stay put in gale force winds, but I am certainly able to walk around and go about my business at work with it on.

            So, for a project I spent a month affectionately referring to as my ‘starburst watermelon hat’, I’m pretty pleased with my fancy outcome!


*This post should have been published on Wednesday, August 9th. However, I was on vacation and was not able to photograph everything before leaving

Day 10: Visual Source

            As an interpreter in Colonial Williamsburg, I’m in costume every single day. While I sometimes wear my own 18^th century clothing after sending it through the review board, most of the time I wear clothing from my allotment, made by our Costume Design Center. About a month ago, I paired my brown jacket with my blue petticoat, and one of my friends told me that I looked like a painting she knew!

The Chocolate Girl, by Jean-Étienne Liotard, 1745

            Obviously, I looked it up, and the similarities were striking.

            It only took me a moment to decide to replicate the rest of the outfit (and maybe the petticoat and jacket eventually, but not quite yet). The apron would be easy to make, and the cap, while slightly different than other caps that I’d made before, wouldn’t present too much of a challenge.

            For the apron, I was fortunate that I had a length of linen in my sewing stash, so I whipped up a pinner front apron using the portrait and a few other extant garments as my references. I mostly used the apron from Costume Close-Up, although I altered a few of the measurements to make it fit both my body proportions and the look of the portrait better.

            The cap was a bit different, since I had to do some more guess work and a lot more research, but it did come together. You’ve probably already seen my post from Day 2, but if you haven’t you can go back and check it out.

            The final step was to stage a photo shoot in the only place that made sense – the Charlton Coffeehouse! They serve sipping chocolate made using an 18^th century recipe, and so I posed with one of their trays and some china, and the help of a few of my friends.

Day 6: Book Recommendation

            I have a lot of costuming books, and especially historical costuming books. So, choosing a favorite is pretty difficult. However, Fitting and Properstands out to me, being one of my first costuming books, as well as the first book I drafted a pattern from.

            My parents got it for me as a reward for finishing an extra online class ahead of schedule, as well as buying me my first pair of 18^th century shoes. I’ve sewn a gown, mitts, shortgown, and a calash so far from the patterns in the book, and it couldn’t have been easier to follow!

            In a similar vein to The Cut of Women’s Clothes, the book places traced patterns on a grid, so they’re easy to reproduce exactly as they exist in real life, but they can also be sized up or down to fit each individual. The book also provides the thread count for the materials, instructions for the construction, photos of the original garments, and a written history of both the generic idea of the type of garment as well as the extant piece itself.

            I highly recommend this book, especially for those costumers who are just entering the historical costuming world, or anyone who is learning how to draft patterns. And, even if you don’t make anything from it, it’s still a wonderful book to flip through and learn from!

Day 3: Extant Garment

            One of the most common mistakes made in the costuming world is neglecting your undergarments. The proper foundation makes any outfit look even better, and in a century like the 18^th century, where structural undergarments were such a key part of every ladies’ wardrobe, it’s important to build your ensemble from the skin up. Before I had ever sewn a dress that required side hoops, I made a pair of hoops, also known as panniers, to wear while draping my future gowns.

            The hoops I constructed were made with the help of the Dreamstress’ “Panier Along”, and very much inspired by a pair of hoops currently in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. When I visited the museum this past March to see their exhibit Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear, I was thrilled to find the hoops featured at the beginning of the display.

            It shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone, but costumers and historians can both be a little crazy, and I have my feet solidly in both camps. So, one of the most special parts about my trip to England was getting to see a garment that I had studied through a computer screen, recreated with my own two hands, and worn in the heat of a Williamsburg summer, staring right back at me in real life. I had done everything that I could to learn about panniers and understand them, and after I felt that I had finally gotten almost all of the knowledge I needed from that particular subset of history, I was fortunate enough to see the piece that started it all. I know, I know, that’s really nerdy, but it was a really exciting moment for me.