Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Historical Sew Forthnightly #4 Under It All.

I'm a bit late posting this, but actually I finished my entry for this challenge even before the March first due date, But first I was too busy sewing to write a blog post and than my friend procrastination came around.
But as I always like to say better late than never. So here's my blog post about my ghettotastic pocket hoops that I made for the HSF Challnge # 4 !

The Challenge:  Under it all
http://thedreamstress.com/2013/11/historical-sew-fortnightly-14-challenge-4-under-it-all/

Fabric: Cream colored glazed cotton.

Pattern:  My own. I came up with it by looking at images of original pocket hoops. like this one...

original 18th century pocket hoops

Year: These work for a range of years. but i think they fall somewhere between 1760 and 1785

Notions: gutermans sew all poly thread, bias tape for the ties, and the reason why i call these gettotastic, 3/8" plastic tubing from the hardware store for the hoops. I didn't have the time and money to order hoop steel to bone these, so a friend of mine who works in theater told me to go buy some cheap plastic tubing. so i did and it works like a charm, was way cheaper than steel and much much easier to work with.  if you don't know aht im talking about heres a link to the stuff.
polyethylene tubing
How historically accurate is it?  Not very I'm afraid, its all machine sewn, and then there is the plastic tubing of course... but at least the fabric and pattern are fairly period correct, so i would say 30% accurate

Hours to complete: This project didn't take long at all perhaps 4 hours or so...

First worn: On March first for the 3rd annual Francaise Dinner ( I will devote a whole blog post to this awesome event sometime later..)

Total cost: Not quite sure, some of the materials like the bias tape came from the stash, the fabric was a recent acquisition at $1 a yard, I used about 1.5 yards. The main expense for these pocket hoops was the tubing. and it was cheap at $6 and i even have some left for future projects. all together i think the project cost me under $10

Here are some pictures taken of me in my now complete set of 18th century underwear.



It's kind of like wearing little kegs strapped to your hips!


You can store things in your pocket hoops, lots and lots of things!