Miss Philomena

First, the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's WWII weekend!

The usual suspects went, and like usual I will lazily link to their posts (Amanda, Alice, and will add Robin and Jess if they write something eventually). I actually arrived at the agreed upon time, everyone else rolled up an hour later. This is a huge and popular event, so parking was quite a distance away, and a school bur ride to get to the entrance!


I was feeling quite spiffy if I do say so myself. And immensely glad I decided on my way out the door to bring my sweater just in case, because it turned out to be chilly! I don't think it got over 68F. Not usual for early June around here, jsyk. For my hair I did Victory Rolls in the front, perhaps a little smaller than they could've been, but I didn't have a lot of space to work in with my hat. The back I just rolled up.


I'm honestly a bit meh about this dress. It was much cuter in my head than in actually sewing. I had more fun with accessories instead. I picked up my hat on eBay, and the sweater is a modern one, but I spruced it up with some antique button pins and an adorable vintage (probably 50s) chain with red, white, and blue rhinestones.

The event was definitely fun, and I'd love someday to actually drive out my 1936 coupe, but when it's an hour and a half each way, and I'd need to have the car on site for setup Thursday, and not be able to get it home until Sunday, that'd require being there the whole weekend. So maybe some year further down, but 99.9% not for next year. It's been sitting for a while and needs some work anyway. But how much fun would it be, to be able to drive around with people in costume in the rumble seat in the back?

There was a flea market there, and I bought a very cute pair of mid-length yellow cotton gloves. No idea what I'll wear them with, but they were too cute to pass on, and actually fit! And completely randomly, I also bought a Victorian black crepe mourning veil. It probably won't go to Gettyburg this year, because I don't have a mourning outfit planned, nor do I have fabric for it, so it'll have to wait.

My full flickr album is here.

On a different note, this week has been a headwear week!


While I absolutely adore my gigantic and insane silk gauze cap, it's a bit impractical for regular wear. So Monday evening I cut and started a new cap using the Kannik's Korner 1740-1820 cap pattern, and finished it Tuesday afternoon. The pattern has been in my stash for ages, along with a yard of silk organza I purchased around the same time, to make said cap. I kept it fairly simple, with a single pleated split ruffle. My construction method is not the standard hem every piece separately and then whip it all together. Instead I used the method I was taught by Janae Whitacre of Williamsburg's Margaret Hunter Millinery Shop. This method is: turn down a small seam allowance, here a hair under 1/4", on the band piece. Lay it over the pleated ruffle, then baste the pieces together, done here in black. Then cover the raw edges with a 1/4" silk ribbon, stitching through all layers on both edges of the ribbon. Repeat for the caul. This creates a single layer cap with no raw edges, and it actually gets finished in a timely manner. I constructed my giant ruffle beast cap the same way.


My other bit of headwear this week is a spoon bonnet! It's mostly finished, and was intended to wear tomorrow for a Victorian Picnic here in Philly, but we've switched from hoops to natural form so it'll have to wait for it's first outing. I'm going to put the crown lining in after lunch, as well as the ties and curtain. But I'm going to hold off on trimming it for now, and wait until I actually need it. mandie_rw made the buckram frame for me, and mulled it as well, so all I had to do was cover and decorate it. I used a shot blue and pink semi-slubby dupioni for the outside, and the same pink taffeta from my gown for the big-ass hat tea earlier this year. The ties are the pink silk as well, and I'll probably put white feathers and flowers of some color on the outside eventually.

Okay, so I'm super far behind, but now that I've successfully imported all of my lj posts here I'm gonna start working on the list.

Things I Need to Write Up:
New Castle, Dec '16
Regency Tea, Jan '17
Victorian Skating, Feb '17
Suffragette, Feb '17
Big Ass Hat, April '17

I am, of course, going to skip over all of that and jump to my current project, which needs to be finished for Sunday.



Back in November at Burnley and Trowbridge's hat making workshop I picked up two and a bit yards of this lovely pink and blue crossbarred silk with vague plans to make some sort of jacket with it eventually. Well, 3/4ths of the usual suspects are going to a tea demonstration this Sunday, after having made most of a dress in a day for robinsnest there this past Saturday. Apparently it's to be silk day, and I decided I wanted something new, so into the stash I went!

I opted for a pet en l'air, as they're fun and light and a fairly quick make, though I've had to redo a few things when I decided I wasn't happy with how it looked. But for having started Sunday evening and only putting in 3-4 not very dedicated sewing hours in the last two days, it's close to done. Today's plan is to finish trimming the sleeves, and then set them along the bottom so I only need to put my stays on once to finalize the shoulder straps and set the top of the sleeve. Then it's only the shoulder pieces to cover, and a hem! (And a good pressing)


Back pleats pinned into place // back panel completely attached to lining // front pleats pinned into place

For the weekend I plan to wear it over my plain white taffeta petticoat and my baby pocket hoops, made for my 1740s mantua a few years back. I'm not looking for a super hippy shape in this, just a little extra oomph. There might be pictures over the next couple days, if not, finished pictures after Sunday!

It's after midnight as I get ready to post this, so I am now exactly 275 days away from my wedding. Insanity!

And my best friend is getting married in something like 55 days. I have no idea what I'm going to wear to hear wedding yet either. It's a cinderella's ball type theme, so I told her I'd just wear one of my Victorian ball gowns, but she was less than enthused by that idea. I have a really nice evening gown, and while it fits in the body, it's too tight now in the bust. And the boobs are the one place I haven't lost weight from as my weight has gone down. I'm trying to decide if I want to see if I can find myself a dress for under $150 or so, or just make myself something.

But that's not the point of this post! This is my 2015 in review. It was crappy in some ways, and good in others. The best of course being that my mom is still here, followed very closely by Joe proposing.

( Here's what I made )

I'm also starting to plot out what I want to sew next year.

I've already decided to spend January and February making new undies for all periods. I need three chemises: 18th century, regency, and Victorian. I need pantaloons. I need to finally sew the regency stays I cut out a year ago. I need to do a little repair work on my 1780s stays, mainly replacing a couple of the broken cane bones. If possible, I want to make a new pair of fully boned stays appropriate for Pennsbury Manor. I need to decide if I want to just take in my Victorian corset, or make a new one.

I want to do pre-raphaelite/faux medieval for my birthday, which is April. I've got the fitted gown, I just need something to go over it now. I'm told one of my spring semester professors expects a fully sewn piece every week though, so we'll see how much time/energy I have outside of schoolwork for personal sewing.

Beyond that I'm not entirely sure what will be happening. I've got linen to make a new Pennsbury mantua as well, but I probably won't need it until May or June. And those don't take a ton of time to make. It'll probably come on the train with me where I can sit and hand sew for a good 80 minutes each way.

I also want to flesh out my late 18th century wardrobe. I've been doing that more than Victorian lately, and I want to keep at it while it holds my interest.

I'm hoping to move sometime in the summer, i.e. between semesters, so I'm not sure how much time I'll have for sewing in general. 2016 is going to be a very busy year in a lot of different ways.

"Let there be sleeves."



The tops are just pinned at the moment. I somehow magically managed to, without actually measuring at any point, make sleeves that fit perfectly into the armhole without any ease or pleating needed. Go me?

PS I love stripes.

I swear I wasn't trying to line the stripes up on the side back seams. It just happened.

As much as I really wanted to dive headfirst into all my sewing, I was good and did what really needed doing: new stays. My yellow stays, as wonderfully comfy as they are, are too big. I can lace them fully shut, and still pinch a good inch and a half out of the front while wearing them. So for my new pair (which accidentally matched HSF#3) all I did was lay down my current pair, trace the shape, then take off some width from the front and back, then add in new seam lines. Easy stuff. I didn't shorten the waist because I like where my other pair sit, and I'm somewhat short-waisted already. I patterned these to work for either 1780s with a center front gusset, the way I sewed this pair, or to work for 1790s stuff with bust gussets, based on the 1790 linen corset in Jill Salen's "Corsets".

For this pair I wanted that 1780s "prow" front shape, and put a long gusset in the middle. On the side shot you can see the forward curve of the stays. Making these was quite an adventure, as I used, quite literally, every single kind of boning I had in my house in these stays. The problem of working a) on a deadline, and b) while snowed in repeatedly. The center front and center back bones are 1/2" German plastic whalebone. The rest of it is a mix of 1/4" steel bones, cable ties, and for the longest channels where I didn't have anything else, the same cane I used in my other stays. I hadn't turned down the edges before trying them on, just to make sure everything would work and fit right, but after taking them off I've done the top edge. I'll get to the bottom at some point. I don't think I'll bind or line them before the dinner unless I have extra time at the end.



I also made myself a new rump yesterday to go under everything. I went by the article demode wrote for Foundations Revealed, about late 18th century skirt supports. It gives me both hip oomph as well as rear shape, so I'm happy with it.


(my mirror looks so dirty! Eek!)

The reason I'm going for the rounder look with this, rather than just using pocket hoops as the Denmark piemontaise appears to show, is because I really like the shape of this francaise in the Met's collection, and because having the back shape makes the pleats stand out even further, being further away from the body.


I'm trying to decide if I should press the pleats down to where they'll attach to the skirts. All of the existing piemontaises show flat pleats, but is that how they were originally made, or is that from storage? I'm not sure.

And to round out this post, yesterday I also draped the bodice pattern, based on the Denmark PDF. Either later today or tomorrow I will cut out a full bodice and sleeve in scrap to make sure it fits, then onto the silk!

Finally posted my Dress U pics! It's a combination of my own and ones stolen from others.

I don't have pictures of Friday night and Saturday day for myself, but I did get the rest, so here's the quick list of what I wore:

( Saturday Night Titanic Dinner )

( Sunday Day: Let Them Eat Crepes & Mad Tea Party )

( Sunday Evening: Tiaras and Jampagne )

And that's Dress U for me!

Is it wrong to plan an outfit around a certain type of hat? More specifically, this type of hat?



It's big and over the top and at the same time simple. I love it. I might even attempt to do it in straw if I have enough narrow braid to do it.

I'll probably go for either a zone front like Hilary Swank is wearing with it, or perhaps some type of round gown. I'm still deciding. It depends on what the stash says to me.

The Met's website is such an amazing, evil thing, isn't it? xD There are so many things on my someday list from their collection, and I just want to toss up a list so I can remember for myself.

1. Robe à la Polonaise ca. 1787 I love love love the golden yellow damask trimmed with blue taffeta combination. And the shawl collar and ruched oversleeve. I just love the whole thing, though I think when I do make this style I'll make it a bit more fitted than this.

2. Visiting Dress, 1867 It's striped. It's transitional early bustle. It's floofy and over the top. Do I really need to say anything else? :3

3. Dress, 1865-1870 I really like the shape and draping of this skirt. (The Met gave this a range of 1865-70, but I'd definitely put it closer to the end of that than the beginning, given the style of the skirt.)

4. Afternoon Dress, 1870-1875 This is definitely a dress where the fabric makes the gown. But I just love that bright blue in the brocade that's then repeated in the trim.

5. Dress, 1872 I love how light and airy and soft this looks. I really want to make a summer ensemble, with either a printed gauze like this, or just a plain organza.

6. Afternoon Ensemble, 1880-1885 This blue is such a beautiful, rich color, and the brocade, of course, is the perfect highlight with it. And I love all the mix and match pieces and the various ways it can be worn.

7. Dress, 1885-1888 I know koshka_the_cat is planning on making this, but I've been drooling over this down for a couple months now. The stripes! Who could say no to that?

8. Afternoon Dress, 1912 I want to do the DPP for Your Wardrobe Unlock'd, and while my first thought went to an evening gown, this one with it's deceptively simple lines (and stripes!) is lovely. I think the only thing I'd really change is the neckline. I really, really can't stand high collars, or really anything tight around the neck.

So, I've actually cut down the list from what I'd originally planned, believe it or not. But this seems like a good starting off point. xD

Oh and one last thing! I've made myself a twitter account, if anyone has one and would be interested in following it, though I don't know how often I'll use it.