Quickie Capote

To go with my new pelisse, I needed a new hat, so I turned to a few of my favorite sources of Regency images to help me pick out a style.  I can't tell you how many hours I've spent browsing through the incredibly helpful collections put together by Ginger from Scene in the Past, who has a large number of fashion plates webbed on Flickr, and Taylor's Tumblr site Dames a la Mode, which features a wide variety of Georgian fashion plates.  Both of these ladies have made it possible to search for images by year, which is invaluable when you are trying to pinpoint the styles and trends for a particular era.  So I would like to thank them both and dedicate this project to Ginger and Taylor for the Historical Sew Fortnightly "gratitude" challenge.  Taking the time to categorize and share image resources like these takes a ton of dedication and patience, and I am SO thankful to people who make the effort to share this sort of research information with others.  

Although I waffled back and forth between a variety of styles, I finally settled on one of the most popular shapes that seemed to occur between 1805-1810, which I often see referred to as a jockey cap.  Costumes Parisiens in 1806 showcased a variety of "toque et capotes de velours" which inspired my own black velvet cap.  Although I didn't copy one hat exactly, most of the major design elements that I used can be found in the charming collection of hats depicted on this plate.

I have to confess that this hat was a VERY last minute project, and I whipped it up between 11:00 and 2:00 on the night before the picnic.  There are a variety of great regency bonnet tutorials online, but I sort of just "winged it" on my own hat.  I started by cutting down the brim of an old wide-brimmed felt hat and steaming into a bit more of a bonnet shape.   This allowed me to skip any sort of buckram and wire building, which saved me a ton of time.  I covered this felt base with velvet, and because it was such a rush job, that part was mostly attached with hot glue.  (shhh - don't tell!)  The poofy part on top is just a large oval which I gathered down at the top to create nice folds and covered this bit of stitching with a button.  The trim was a lucky find in my stash, and I did take the time to hand-sew that part to cover all the raw edges and ugly bits.  I'm sorry I didn't think to take construction pics, but I was so tired at that point that all I could focus on was finishing it and going to bed.  

So here are two more views of my quickie capote.  It's a pretty simple little hat, but it covered my short hair nicely, was easy to make, and it felt very appropriate for an 1807 gown, so I'm calling it a success!  

The Green Pelisse

This past weekend was the DFW Costumers Guild's 5th Annual Georgian Picnic, and this year, I decided to make a Regency pelisse.  It also tied in perfectly with the Historical Sew Fortnightly "green" challenge since I had a dress-length of spruce green wool in my stash that I set aside to use for a pelisse many years ago. Unfortunately, even though I started working on this project during the challenge, I had to put it on hold for a few weeks so I could make faire and Halloween costumes for my boys during October.  So forgive me for being late with it, but better late than never, right?

There are SO many Regency pelisses that I love, so deciding on a style was actually the hardest part for me. I agonized over it for weeks, but then I finally picked this very simple design from 1807 as the main source of inspiration for my own dress.  I'm really pleased with the way it turned out for the most part, although I do plan on re-doing the collar before I wear it again so that the fur comes all the way down to my waist.  It's not "wrong" as it is, and there are other examples from 1807 with fur collars that end above the waistline, but my slightly short collar was an "oops" more than an intentional design decision, and I didn't have time to change it before the picnic.

To construct my gown, I used the pelisse pattern from The Cut of Women's Clothes as a starting point, and I made a few very minor alterations to make it look more like my chosen fashion plate.  The hardest part was figuring out how to pleat/gather the skirt.  I started out gathering it like pattern instructed, but I found that my wool was too thick and springy, and it looked very hunchback-ish when I was done.  So I ripped the skirt back off the night before the picnic, and I decided to do a very simple inverted box pleat in the back, similar to this 1807 pelisse on the left. This definitely helped keep the dress smooth in the back, although I think it would have looked nicer if I had made the pleat narrower.  But it's not bad as it is, and it was interesting to try out a different treatment for the skirt.

The pelisse is entirely hand-sewn, and I tried to get as close to period construction techniques as possible. There's not a lot of information about the nitty-gritty details of Regency pelisses out there, but I found this pinterest board showing the construction of a pelisse and this article on Your Wardrobe Unlock'd to be very helpful.  My pelisse is fully lined with thin silk, except for the back of the skirt, which uses a cheaper cotton fabric, much like the pelisse from the Pinterest board.  The bodice has a thicker cotton duck interlining to give it more structure, and I padded the front of the shoulder with a layer of cotton batting to help keep the area above the bustline smooth.  The collar and cuffs are made of vintage faux lamb, and they are lined with silk taffeta and pad-stitched to thin cotton batting.

Here are a few more pictures from the picnic, and I'll be back to talk about my new hat tomorrow.

the young pirate

For the All Hallow's Eve weekend of the Texas Renaissance Faire this year, I decided to make my wee boy a pirate costume.  I also thought it would make a great entry for the "masquerade" challenge in the Historical Sew Fortnightly since it is a bit of a fantasy version of 18th c. boys' clothing.   Luckily, he already had a shirt which I had made for the HSF "white" challenge, so all I needed to do was make a waistcoat, breeches, and a few piratey accessories.

The waistcoat is a modified version of the Mill Farm boys waistcoat pattern.  I extended the bottom edge in the front and back to make longer flaps, rounded the neckline, and enlarged the pockets a little more.  I am not very knowledgeable about 18th c. men's waistcoats, so I don't know if it is historically correct to make the back flaps as long as the front (I usually see them cut off shorter than the front), and I couldn't find many back-views of waistcoats from this period.  But I've always thought the cut-off backs were a little odd looking when worn without a jacket, so I decided to make it long all the way around.  The front of the waistcoat is made with blue-grey wool with a very small check, and the back is recycled from a man's linen shirt that I dyed to match.  The whole thing is lined with tan cotton duck to give it a little more body. Although I wanted his outfit to be more of a "real" looking pirate instead of the bright and flashy Halloween pirates that you usually see, I think the silver buttons definitely add a bit of pirate panache as a finishing touch.

His breeches are made from a vintage Halloween pattern from the late 1960's, which made them really fun for me because I love working with vintage patterns.  They ended up fitting him great, and the construction is worlds better than most modern Halloween patterns.  The original pattern does use a zippered fly instead of a buttoned fall-front, but I thought the buttons at the knees were a really nice historical touch.  The pattern actually calls for a buckle on the knee strap too, but I used mother-of-pearl buttons for all of it because I didn't have the right sized buckles in my stash.  The pants are made out of striped linen that was recycled from a pair of my old capris, and I used some checked cotton for the waist and leg facings, which makes me happy even though nobody will ever see it.  All of the materials and buttons for his costume came from my stash and from recycled clothes.

For his accessories, I bought him a pair of cheap girls' boots from Target and added a flap of faux leather at the top to make them look like the bucket-boots that you always see in pirate movies.  His shoes are probably the least historically accurate part of his costume, but they are cute and he has a lot of fun wearing them, so what the heck.

I also took a large-brimmed wool hat blank and wired and bound the edge, then I tacked the brim up into a tricorn shape.  My son's one request was that he have a skull and crossbones on his hat, so I made a rosette out of the selvage edge of some black corduroy (I love how the selvage has a fringed look to it), and then I tacked on a pressed-brass skull that I found on etsy.

We finished it all off with a paisley scarf for his sash, an old belt, and a variety of toy pirate weapons and bags-o-loot.  I'm really happy with the way it all turned out, and I had a wonderful time playing pirates with my boy at faire.  

Regency shawl hacks

1803 fashion plate via Scene in the Past

1801 fashion plate via Scene in the Past

I LOVE Regency shawls - especially the decadently long ones that nearly drag on the floor.  Shawls of this type found in museums such as the Met are typically a little over 100" in length, but others from this period could go up to 140" or more.  Unfortunately, it is difficult to find modern shawls that are longer than 70 or 80 inches, and it is also hard to find modern shawls that are simple enough to replicate the look of their Regency counterparts, which usually had a plain ground and designs along the borders only.

So for the Historical Sew Fortnightly "outerwear" challenge, I decided to alter a few inexpensive shawls from ebay to make them more appropriate for Regency costuming.  I found 4 different shawls that have paisley border designs and plain grounds, and they were cheap enough that I could easily buy two and piece them together in the middle to make them longer.

I started by cutting off one of the bordered ends on each of the two shawls (so you don't get a border in the middle of the shawl).  Then I sewed the two cut edges together to make one super-long shawl with a seam in the middle and borders on both ends. I used a flat-felled seam to make it look nice on both sides, and each shawl took me under 30 minutes to complete.  I sewed some of the shawl seams on my sewing machine, while others were hand-stitched.  Out of the four shawls, the one that I think turned out the best was hand-sewn on both sides with a wide 1" overlap in the felled seam.  When I tried to make the seams very small, they were more difficult to work with since the weave is relatively loose and threads have a tendency to pull out when there isn't much selvage remaining to help hold it together.  With the exception of the green shawl, which was shorter than the others to start with, I made all of these between 108" and 115" when pieced together.  

There is, however, one feature of a real Regency shawl that is noticeably different from my "hack" shawls: the ground on historical shawls would be the same color on both sides, and all of my modern shawls have a different color on each side.  But I think that's a pretty nit-picky thing to worry about - especially considering how cheap and easy these are to make.  But if it really bothers you, you could also cut the border designs off of a modern shawl and sew them onto a solid piece of wool fabric.  I found examples of Regency shawls that were pieced together during this period using a similar technique.  

 

Shawl #1: Acrylic/Viscose from the-bestdealmarket

This was the cheapest option that I found at $8.50 per shawl.  It also has the loosest weave and the design had the least amount of detail, but it is very silky and soft, and there is a good range of color choices available.  Not bad for a $17 accessory!

Shawl #2: Cashmere/Silk from thelakegalleria

These shawls are probably the highest quality since they are made of natural materials, and they only cost $9.95 apiece.  The pattern in less bold and they aren't as long as the others, but wow, they feel great.

Shawl #3: Wool (maybe) from aashigifts

I ordered these shawls from India, and they have a nice tight weave and a very detailed border design. The seller claims that they are wool, but there wasn't a fiber content tag on them, and I haven't done a burn test to see if they really are what they claim to be.  These were the most expensive shawls that I bought at $17 apiece, but it's such a pretty garment that I definitely think it is worth the $34 total cost.

Shawl #4: Rayon from jokotkat

This last shawl is another beauty that is sold in multiple colorways.  They cost $12.99 each and are very silky and soft.  I also have the same shawl in a burgundy color, and I am trying to restrain myself from buying a pair of the blue ones too.  The border pattern works so perfectly for Regency.  

Hopefully, this will give you a place to start if you are also in the market for Regency shawls.  If you don't like these options, all of these sellers have other shawls that might work for this period as well.  I was very pleased with my shopping experience with all four sellers, and the shipping was fast and free, which is exactly how I like it!  You can also do your own ebay search using some combination of the words "paisley", Kashmir", "pashmina", "wool", "shawl", or "wrap", which is how I found the shawls that I bought. 

Do you know of any other wonderful Regency-esque shawls that could be modified into a longer garment? If so, let us know in the comments and we can all share our shopping tips!

1790s transitional stays

I've always been curious about the 1790 linen jumps from Jill Salen's Corsets, so I thought that the "wood, metal, bone" challenge for the Historical Sew Fortnightly would be a good excuse to test them out.  My original theory was that they were misdated and actually came from later in the decade, but I was surprised by how low they sat on the body.  After making them up for myself, I think the earlier date is probably correct.  They look like they would work well for the pigeon-breasted look of the early 1790's when the necklines were quite low and the waistlines were starting to creep up.  But I also think they would work for some Empire styles as well - especially when the dresses were in transition and the bust was still more shelf-like vs. rounded, like you see in the fashion plate on the right.

To make these stays work better for both styles of dress, I shortened the shoulder straps by 3 or 4 inches, and I also cut down the back, underarms, and front tabs of the body so that the bustline could be raised to a higher level (the front was not changed at all from the original pattern).  I can always lengthen the ties on the shoulder straps to drop the stays down to where they originally started, and this way I can have the best of both worlds.  In the picture below, you can see the changes that I made to the straps and top edge.

The neckline is cut so low in front that it has almost an underbust effect when laced closed.  I didn't photograph it that way to preserve a bit of modesty, but it's definitely a "cup runneth over" sort of look.  I think a lot of the shaping of the bust will come from the chemise and the gown more than the stays.  A fabulous article about short stays on the blog Kleidung um 1800 shows that the underbust effect was used in other forms of short stays during the Empire period, which makes me feel better about wearing a garment that provides such scant coverage.

My stays are made from heavy linen, and they are entirely hand-sewn with linen thread.  Salen's instructions for making these up seemed to use more modern techniques than would have been used in the 18th c., so I constructed mine using the le point a rabattre sous la main stitch around the edges, and a spaced backstitch at the side seams.  Salen also theorized that these stays would have been boned with metal, but I talked to a few friends who are quite knowledgeable about stays from this period, and they seemed to think that walebone was a much more likely option.  They also encouraged me to try German plastic boning since it seems to be the closest substitute that you can get for real whalebone.  Although I had originally planned on using metal or cane for the boning on these stays, I took their advice and I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out.  I have to admit that it seems a bit ironic that I have no wood, metal, or bone in a garment that was made for the "wood, metal, bone" HSF challenge, but hopefully you all will allow me to bend the rules a little and include other types of boning in the "bone" category.

new OLD content

Okay.  So last year I promised to re-web more of the missing Renaissance-period pages from my original website... and yeah... that really hasn't happened.  And a lot of you have asked me about specific articles or costumes over this past year, and I'm really sorry that I haven't been able to help you out.  But please have sympathy on me - it is incredibly tedious and time-consuming work to re-web the old stuff, and I have so little time to work on my own projects as it is that it kills me to put aside fun new projects so that I can re-do work from a decade ago.  This is my hobby, my stress-relief, my fun, and re-webbing old content is decidedly NOT fun.

But, I also feel bad for being so selfish and lazy about my website, so I'm going to take another stab at it this fall.  First on my to-do list was was my late 15th c. Florentine Dress Diary and the 1475-1500 Florentine image gallery that went along with it.  Hopefully I can get a few more pages done before I get swamped with work again this fall.

Oh, and while I am confessing my sins and begging for forgiveness, I wanted to apologize for rarely replying to comments on my blog posts.  I HATE the fact that I can't directly reply to the people who ask questions.  I've tried several times to create threaded responses with Blogger, but I can't get anything to work.  I always feel incredibly awkward posting replies when I don't have time to answer right away - I never know if you are going to come back and see my answer days or weeks later, or if I'm just talking into the void... so I have a bad habit of just not posting anything at all.  You would probably be better off emailing me if you want a reply, but I confess that I'm pretty forgetful about replying to emails too.  *sigh*  I'm a bad, bad, blogger.  But feel free to email me more than once if I don't reply within a few days.  I promise I'm not ignoring anybody on purpose - I'm just forgetful and overwhelmed by my hectic "real-world" life most of the time.

I'll continue to post updates here when more of the old articled have been added, and you can find a complete list of my archived articles, tutorials, and image galleries by clicking the RESEARCH tab at the top of the page.

Thank-you for having so much patience with me!

natural form skirt supports

One of the biggest hitches in my natural form dress plan this past summer was having to make a whole new set of skirt supports before I could start the dress.  When I first planned out this project, I naively thought that I could get away with just my regular Victorian petticoat under the gown, but I quickly discovered that even though this period claims to be "natural", it takes a good bit of engineering to support the swooping trained skirt shape of the late 1870's.

I ended up making 4 different skirt foundation pieces to wear under my ball gown, and all of these pieces include recycled materials in them in one way or another, so I'm using this set of skirt supports for my Re-make, Re-use and Re-fashion entry for the Historical Sew Fortnightly.  I'm bending the rules a bit because the bulk of these garments were made well before the challenge started, but I did put some finishing touches on them this month by adding a few final hooks and ties.  

The first garment that I made is a hip pad, which was constructed from embroidered taffeta and cotton batting that came from a fancy coverlet that was given to me years ago.  My version is modeled after the 1901 patent drawing shown on the left, but a wide variety of hip pads also existed in the 1870s as well, so I felt confident that the idea was sound even though I used a later style for reference.  Although the shape is subtle, it adds a bit of "umph" to the hourglass look, which is so important with princess-line natural form dresses.

Next I made a set of natural form hoops by using one of the patterns in Fashions of the Gilded Age.  The hoops help hold the train of the skirt out below the knees and give it a much nicer line.  The fabric is cotton sateen, and the hoop wire was recycled from a beat up vintage hoop skirt that a friend gave me.  I modified the original pattern slightly by leaving off the front slits, and I also made a laced panel behind the legs like you see on lobster-tail bustles, which allows me to adjust the size of the hoops.  I have never worn a bustle so low on my legs before, and I was worried that it would make it difficult to walk and dance, but I just left a few buttons at the bottom undone for the gala, and I barely even noticed that I was wearing it.

Over the hoops and hip pad, I wore my usual Victorian petticoat, but then I added a tie-on ruffled back piece to fill out the train.  The pattern for this garment also came from Fashions of the Gilded Age, and the organdy ruffles all came from a ripped and stained vintage petticoat.  This piece is actually a good bit longer than it appears in these pictures. It has a flat section at the top that is folded under when worn with this particular dress, which shortens the train length to work with demi-train styles.  If I ever get a chance to make a gown with a longer train, all I have to do it flip up the top and it will work for longer lengths too.

Finally, I made a balayeuse for the train, which is just a ruffle of fabric that helps support the skirt hem, provides a bit of decoration if the hem flips over, and it keeps the inside of the train clean.  All I did for this one is cut the ruffle off of a badly damaged Edwardian petticoat and baste it to the inside of the skirt train.  You can see my balayeuse at the top of this post.

To show you what a difference these foundation pieces make in the overall look of a dress, I took two sets of pictures of my natural form ball gown - the first pictures show the dress worn over these four new foundation pieces, and the second set of pictures shows it with my corset and petticoat alone.  It all flows so much nicer with a proper foundation, so I'm very glad I took the time to build the right support garments for my dress.