Historical Sew Forthnightly Challenge #3 pink

I'm finally getting around to doing some of the HSF challenges again. And this time I even finished on time!

For HSF #3 Pink
 http://thedreamstress.com/2013/11/historical-sew-fortnightly-14-challenge-3-pink/
I made pink 18th century stays, though they could also count in the next challenge#4 Under it all, I chose to present them for the pink challenge, since I actually have some pocket hoops in the works for the the next challenge. I also think that a pair of pink stays is rather appropriate for Valentines day! 

So here we go.

The Challenge: #3 pink

Fabric: Pink glazed cotton outer, denim interlining and a totally adorable but not very period appropriate white and green cotton toile for the lining. 

The cotton toile lining.

Pattern:   Simplicity 3536

it's a decent pattern, but whats up with that wig?

Year: These stays work for a pretty broad range of years. But I would say. They would most likely be worn sometime between 1750 to 1785

Notions:  Gutermann's sew all poly thread, cable ties for boning, metal grommets, embroidery thread, for the little decorative embroidery on the center panel and to overcast the metal grommets, and bias tape for the binding.

Center panel embroidery detail.

How historically accurate is it? Maybe 40 % or so. The body is entirely machine sewn with poly thread, the pattern is a commercial  pattern that's not based on an extant set of stays. The boning material is cable ties, the lining is a modern cotton toile print, the bias binding is store bought, and the lacing eyelets are thread covered metal grommets, However, I did all the binding by hand, the stays give me the perfect period shape and while that pattern isn't officially based on extant examples they do look a lot like many period examples I've seen, so the overall look of the stays is perfectly period. The outer fabric is glazed cotton which was a popular material in the 18th century, and the stays are spiral laced as originals would have been.

Extant pink cotton stays.

Hours to complete:  I entirely lost track, but I worked on these stays pretty intensely for a week or so, and I know I spent at least 6 hours hand sewing that binding on, so a rough guess would be 30 hours, perhaps a little less perhaps a little more...

First worn:  They haven't been worn yet, but the stays will make their premiere on March 1st  at an 18th century dinner party I'm going to.

Total cost: I used a lot of stash materials for this. The pattern I've had for years, I picked it up for a $1 at some point. The lining and interlining where remnants from other projects, and the glazed cotton I recently got for $1 a yard! The only things I specifically bought for this project was the binding and the cable ties. I used 2 packs of cable ties at about $10 and 3 packs of bias tape that I spent $5 on.So all together I spent perhaps $15 to $17 on the stays.

 This is my first set of 18th century stays and for that I'm really happy with how they came out. They are comfortable and fit well. They where a challenge to make, but really more  because they where work intensive than actually difficult to put together.

And now some pictures of the completed garment!

front view

Back view, before I overcast the metal grommets with thread.

Side view

  

And the overcast lacing eyelets.

Happy Valentines day!

The Empire Diadem Hack!

Ever since I started doing regency reenactment I have been coveting an empire diadem.

Coral and pinchbeck diadem, early 19th century

They seem to have been extremely popular in France and to a lesser extent the rest of Europe.

pearl and pinchbeck purported to have belonged to Madame Recamier'

Garnet and pinchbeck comb

Diadems often came in jewelry sets called parures.

Everyone wore them from queens and empresses to the daughters and wives of the bourgeoisie. 

Victoria Duchess of Kent, mother of queen Victoria

Miniature on ivory of a girl wearing a coral parure with diadem

Woman wearing a pearl diadem, by Boilly

Unknown sitter and artist ca 1810. Wearing a pearl diadem.

They came in a myriad of styles from gold sent with real precious stones to pinch beck set with paste. But the single most popular style seems to have been pinch beck with coral, followed by pinch beck with pearls ( mostly faux pearls).

glass pearl and pinchbeck diadem, early 19th century

 But despite these diadems being all the rage back in the day they are rather scarce today. They are very hard to find especially in the United States, I come across them more often on European auction sites.They do sometimes come up on eBay or on the antiques website Ruby Lane. But they are always without fail way out of my price category. You can easily spend $800- 1000 on one on Ruby Lane, and while they tend to go cheaper on eBay( if one is lucky enough to find one) I have never seen one go for under $400. They tend to be cheaper in Europe but even there you can expect to pay at least $250 and thats usually for one in not so great condition. As a stay at home costume designer married to a post doc, I just can't justify paying that kind of money to buy something to put on my head so I can play pretty pretty princess...

So I have been trying to come up with a way to fake the empire diadem look.

This is harder than it would appear. Modern tiaras don't have the right shape. They tend to curve backward like a crown, but the diadems of the empire period where more crescent shaped and followed the curve of the head running from temple to temple. Also the decoration is all wrong, modern rhinestones are too sparkly to pass as 200 year old paste and the settings are all wrong coming mostly in very shiny silver tone, when back then gold was more the thing. A while back I did make a diadem out of a belly dance necklace that had a bunch of gold tone metal crescents on it.It's still available on eBay here 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/UNIQUE-BELLY-DANCE-GOLD-CRESCENT-CHOKER-NECKLACE-HANDMADE-IN-EGYPT-18-CC-N-G-30-/251430697727?hash=item3a8a6ffaff

Weird bellydance necklace I made a Diadem out of. only the top crescent is big enough though for a diadem. However,the smaller ones make nice hair combs

I took the necklace apart and simply wired a comb to the back, it actually looked pretty good and I think it works well for perhaps the earlier directoire style . But it wasn't quite the classic diadem look I wanted.

Somehow I don't seem to have any pictures of me wearing the belly dance necklace diadem, this is the best i could find.

Then about a month or 2 ago my friend Kat who is the queen of buying tiaras on eBay, found this tiara. From this seller on eBay http://stores.ebay.com/myfreerange/

eaby picture

back view

The shape was perfect, the pearls too and surely something could be done about those rhinestones and the silver color. Besides the thing cost $10 so it wouldn't be a big loss if it didn't work out. So I ordered it.

It took a couple of weeks to come from china, but I wasn't disappointed once it came, the thing defiantly had potential. 

Tiara before I pimped it.

My first idea was to pry out the rhinestones and replace them with pearls. But it tuns out the rhinestones are glued on with some sort of magical glue that entirely resisted my attempts of prying the buggers out, not even acetone could soften the glue, now that's some hardcore jewelry glue! So there I was with this tiara that was just wear to sparkly for me to want to wear it for regency. Then I had an idea. I had some wax based gold leaf paste that you can just apply over just about anything to gild things. 

Rub on gold leaf paste

Perhaps it would work over the rhinestones? I wanted to gild the metal anyway so why not give it a try. So I did and it worked like a charm. I used a brush to apply the gilding being careful to not get it on the pearls. It was really easy and only took about 15 minutes. Then I let it dry for about and hour and voila!

After applying the gilding

The stuff covered the rhinestones and silver metal making it look like cut steel jewelry, only in gold. I'm not sure what the style is called but I'm 100% sure that I have seen gold toned cut steel jewelry. I do not know if gold toned cut steel was around in the early 19th century, but I know that cut steel jewelry was all the rage. 

Early 19th century cut steel diadem

I think the diadem turned out looking pretty awesome, and even if I'm not sure if they had the gold tone variety of cut steel in the early 19tje century, I'm just going to roll with it. Because when worn with a period hairstyle it looks very much like an authentic empire diadem. 

Looks pretty good with a period hairstyle and matching pearl jewelry.

Close up.

Besides,for $10 and 15 minutes of work applying the gilt, this is the cheapest, fastest and most authentic looking faux empire diadem known to man! I plan to buy more of the tiaras I used as the base and experiment with painting the rhinestones. I've seen some tutorials online where people have painted rhinestones with nail polish and it looks just like enamel. That could be really cool. Also I'm pretty sure they have the paste I used in silver color, which could perhaps yield a nice faux cut steel look. But it will have to wait because when I contacted the seller to do a bulk order they told me they where out and wouldn't have more until February.  So I will have to wait a bit to get more to do some more experiments and make some diadems for sale in my shop. Because even though I just told you how to make a knock off diadem, you should still totally buy one from my shop!

Lovely Josephine

I've not done much sewing yet this year. I had grand plans of catching up on my work and all, but other than Lottie's twelthnight dress and cleaning my sewing room I've not accomplished much on the sewing front. You see I just came down with some sort of flu like plague that has left me totally retched and unmotivated to get any work done. I did however do a tiny bit of work yesterday. I finally finished my Josephine reticule. I started it way back in November, it was intended for the HFS challenge # 25 one yard. But then my dad passed and my life went  topsy turvy for a while,I never got around to finishing it, until now.....

I've been wanting to make a medallion reticule, and while this sort of decoration seems to have been more popular on muffs,

silk muff with chenille embroidery, french 1785-1810

Silk muff cover, late 18th century, Museum of fine Arts Boston

Silk muff cover 1785-1810. Museum of fne Arts Boston

I've come across at least two extant reticules of that style, and I think they are charming. 

Silk net reticule, early 19th century, Baretto/Lancaster collection.

So when I found out that you can upload any image you want to spoonflower.com and they will print it on fabric and send you a sample for just $5, I figured I would give it a try.I thought the results would probably turn out way better than if I tried the whole print your own iron on transfer thing. So I ordered 2 samples one with empress Josephine and one with queen Luise of Prussia( She's my homegirl ! No really, she grew up in Darmstadt which is only 15 kilometer from the village I grew up in.)

These are the samples as they arrived.

The samples yielded 4 pictures each, not bad for $5 a sample, and they turned out nice and crisp and defiantly better thank if I had tried the whole iron on transfer for sure.

My friend Erin had given me a small piece of mustard yellow twill silk that was perfect for th. is project.

I cut a simple rectangular shape then cut out one of the Josephine portraits in an oval shape and applied it and covered the raw edge with some mustard colored vintage trim.

Why stop here if you can pimp it up with embroidery?!

 Now I could have just sewn the thing up like that and have a really cute little reticule, but I got bit by the embroidery bug, I felt the thing needed some floral embellishment so I added a little embroidery underneath the picture. Once I was done with that I decided why stop there, there's a whole backside that's just calling for a monogram, and my initials just happen to be the same as Josephine's!  

The Imperial monogram of empress Josephine

So I copied out Josephine's imperial monogram to put on my humble little reticule. And because you can't just have letters on there I surrounded them by a floral wreath. So my simple little reticule turned into a multi day embroidery project. 

Front View

Back view

And of course Amadeus the evil thinks its his toy!

I think it turned out so pretty! As a finishing touch I added some neat vintage tassel that I got on a recent trip to Philadelphia. And voila. A colorful new reticule for moi! I love it! And I hope Josephine would have liked it too.

 I actually find it very appropriate that the first thing I made for myself this year was the Josephine reticule. Because, I have declared 2014 to be my year of all things Josephine. It's the bicentennial of her death this year after all. And I've been busily reading books  about her and just thinking of her a lot. I know I'm weird for thinking of some long dead French lady like I know her personally of something...

But anyway, for all my regency or should I rather call it empire costuming projects of 2014 I will ask myself WWJD? No, not what would Jesus do, but what would Josephine do! What Would she wear, what color would she pick and so on. Cause while Jesus is a great guy and all, he's not exactly known for his fashion sense.....

New Years Sewing.

I haven't done any sewing since the middle of November. Shortly before Thanksgiving my father got very ill so I hightailed to Georgia to be there with him and support my mother. I didn't expect to be down south very long so I didn't take my sewing machine or any of my many projects with me. But sadly my father died on the Monday after Thanksgiving. First there was so much to do with the funeral and all, and afterwards I did not want to leave my mother all by herself, so I stayed through the holidays and ended up spending over a month away from home. Granted I wasn't much in the mood for sewing anyway, but I do feel rather guilty at being utterly unproductive for such a long time, as I have a rather heavy workload for 2014... Oh well these things do happen and family is more important than playing dress up or my little business. Thankfully I have some very understanding customers.

Anyway, I came home to Pittsburgh on New Year's Day. The house is super messy and I really have more pressing sewing projects but I decided to go easy on myself and make my first project of the year fun and simple. So I made a cute little twelfth night frock for Lottie. I had originally planned to go to a friends twelfth night party in Philadelphia ,but my husband had to do some work on the weekend and couldn't watch Lottie for me, this did have the advantage that I could go the Woodville Plantation's twelfth night party instead. I already knew what I was gong to wear.

My 1790s Christmas frock.

My red and cream 1790s open robe and polished cotton petticoat are perfect for such a festive occasion. 

the Amish dress, I got it and the bonnet on ebay for a steal. They only needed a some small alterations to work for regency, but they are rather plain...

But the only winter frock that currently fits Lottie is rather drab ( no wonder since it's an altered Amish girls dress) So of course she needed something a little more festive. I had just the right fabric in the stash as well! An adorable cotton print in red and black on a cream ground that I found on clearance at Jo Ann's sometime this fall. 

Dress fabric closeup. I love the diamond pattern.

They only had 2 yards of it left just enough for a child's frock, so I got it for a new winter gown for Lottie. With the occasion quickly approaching I sat down Saturday afternoon and cranked out a regency gown for my little girl. 

I used the sense and sensibility girls regency gown pattern which is super fast and easy to put together I think it only took me about 2 or 3 hours altogether. The result was a simple and charming winter dress that goes so perfectly with her little red cloak and her new winter bonnet. 

Lottie's winter ensemble.

Her new winter frock, her pantaloons are getting rather short on her. I will have to let them down soon.

Somehow she lost her shoes and found my i phone during the course of the evening.

It also kind of matched my outfit. It was nice to wear some cheerful bright colors after my self imposed mourning of wearing mostly black, gray and purple for a month. 

we kind of match.

So now with the new year in full swing it's time I pick myself up and throw myself into work. I have grand plans for 2014! I'm branching out into 18th century costuming next, and there's of course endless regency sewing and commissions to tackle. Jane fest is looming on the horizon and I need to do some serious shop restocking for that! And then I have a super exciting top secret project, that's going to have its reveal later in the year! But first I have to get trough this arctic vortex thing that literally froze my sewing room!

Tonight it is cold that the windows of my sewing room have ice on them on the inside! I don't think my dinky space heater is equipped for this kind of cold, so sewing will have to wait till temps get above 0 again...

Happy New Year my Friends! May all your costuming projects be successful! 

The Belle Goes Victorian

Dear readers, I wrote this blog post 2 months ago, all that I had left was a bit of editing but then my life turned upside down and I've had some serious personal things to deal with, so I never did get around to posting. Also my I pad kept eating the pictures... Anyway here is my very very belated post about my new early Victorian gown that I made at the end of summer.

So I made my first Victorian gown, it's a late romantic period style and I think it's rather gothic looking in that Edgar Allen Poe or Jane Eyre kind of way.

It all started when I was invited to my dear friend Robins 30th birthday party, a Victorian birthday party held at a graveyard. Robin was laying her youth to rest instyle at Philadelphia's Laurel Hill cemetery

I wanted to go, but all I had costume wise was regeny clothes, and some random bits of renaissance garb and one lonely Edwardian gown. So I had to make a Victorian dress. Now Victorian is a pretty broad time range, Queen Victoria ruled for over half a century, from 1837 to 1901.

Young Queen Victoria, she had some petty spiffy clothes.

So plenty of differnt styles to pick from. I decided I wanted a late 1830s gown. I don't care for the hoop skirt look of the 1850s and 60s, nor do I care much for the11880s and 90s fashions. I do like some of the early bustle gowns, but quite frankly the thought of making a bustle gown freaks me out! Besides it would have involved having to build an entire set of new underwear as well. And I simply did not have the time.

I wore this kind of polyester atrocity, but hey I was short on time...

 You can kind of get away with wearing regency undies for 1830s with some added pettiticoats to puff out the skirt, I was ghetto tastic and re purposes my massive wedding dress crinoline made from nasty scratchy tulle and polyester, but hey it worked and was free!

 So 1830s it was. 

Truly Victorian romantic dress pattern.

I went ahead and got the truly vitorian romantic gown pattern as it came highly recommended by several of my friends. At first I had visions of one of those lovely frothy sheer summer dresses, 

This is what I had in mind....

but I didn't have the right fabric in the stash and I was to cheap to go buy 7+ yards of fabric for something that will get next to no wear as I don't do Victorian reenactment. I did ,however happen to have a very Victorian looking floral and paisley striped cotton in my stash. I had gotten it on clearance at Jo Ann's this summer for $1.50 a yard, and it was just the right amount of fabric. 

This is the fabric I ended up using, it came from the stash so yay!

So I used it, dispite my misgivings about it being a bit drab and actually looking almost exactly like the the fabric, I made my regency work dress from. So with the fabric selected began my epic journey of making a Victorian gown. As it usually is with me I can't just make the simple version, no, my dresses need to be special so I decided instead of the large leg of mutton sleeves of the original pattern I wanted those slightly later smocked sleeves. 

 

Smocked sleeves became popular after the short lived fad of leg of mutton sleeves. In many cases the upper part of the original mutton sleeve was  smocked to take in the fullness.

I also chose a pointed bodice instead of the straight one,of course I had to do cool things with the stripes. Cause you know stripes call for chevrons and cool matching and what not, also 1830s needs piping! Lots of piping!

Neckline piping.

So between endless smocking of the sleeves and one endless day ( it took me 8 hours to pleat the skirt to my satisfaction) of pleating and re pleating the skirt so that the stripes where placed just perfectly on the skirt front, I was ready to jump out of my sewing room window to put an end to myself... But I prevailed and finished the thing even though I was still sewing on the bus from Pittsburgh to Philly . I got the finishing touches done just in time.  My friend Kat picked me up from the bus stop in her mini.

3 women in Victorian gowns and my HUGE "India sized " suitcase, in this car, fun times!

 It proved rather comical squeezing 3 women and a HUGE suitcase in a mini! But somehow we managed. We drove to the cemetary for the party where I resorted to changing into my Victorian dress behind a mausoleum, which was probably the most scandalous thing these dead Victorians had seen in a long time. The party was fun and everyone looked just lovely.

A nice group shot.

 

The fabulous Taylor , she not only makes beautiful costumes but also makes and sells awesome collet necklaces!
 

 

how could we not pose in this mausoleum?!

Also this, yes I think I'm going to hell...

I had way too much fun at the cemetery birthday party!

Birthday girl Robin.

 But to my dismay I discovered that apparently to everyone else "Victorian " means bustle dresses, because I was the only one not wearing one. 

I like big butts and I cannot lie.....that I lack a bustle...

 

Oh well.... I guess this just means I will have to make a bustle dress at some point. But bustle or no we all had a great time. After they kicked us out of the graveyard at around 4pm Kat took Taylor and me (still in vitorian costume) to this mythical ghetto tastic fabric store called Jomar.

Jomar Shenanigans. Someone asked us if we where orthodox Jews, cause you know orthodox Jewish women go shopping in 19th century clothes accessorized with tiaras and Louis Vuitton bags!

 Turns out Jomar is awesome! It's basically a warehouse with just totally random and often really old dusty and dirty fabrics just kind of piled up on huge shelves. But there are treasures to be found if one knows how to dig! Cheap treasures!

Look at all my loot, Soooo cheap!!!!!!

It's a good thing I do not live in Philadelphia because I'm pretty sure I would spend all my money at Jomar.
We spent the rest of the night drinking champagne and wearing tiaras while watching period costume movies. All in all it was a perfect day!

I can't wait to go back to Philadelphia to hang put with my costume friends again, even if it means that one day I need to tackle my fear of bustle gowns so I'm not the one weirdo at the bustle party looking like Jane Eyre.

And last but not least here are some nice shots of my new gown.

I think I need a better petticoat the wedding crinoline dosen't give quite the right shape...

Otherwise I'm very pleased with how the gown turned out.

I wore my Regency wig because I didn't want to sit on a bus with curlers and dint have time to do my hair once I got there, It kind of works for 1830's

and here is a good picture of my smocked sleeve.