miss_philomena | Entries tagged with fabric:plotting

So the stays workshop in Williamsburg this past weekend was awesome. I had fun and I feel like I learned a lot. AND I've got the start of a lovely pair of 1780s stays, and I feel more confidant about drafting up some earlier stays as well. Knowing how they should fit and where they should be was always my biggest stumbling block, after all. I definitely intend to take more workshops with B&T in the future. I also plan to use the same pattern, once I finish the blue stays I started in the workshop, for the yellow silk stays I bought fabric for years ago.

Other news: Apparently the Met's website and Chrome don't get along? Or is that just me? I have no problem browsing the Met in Safari, but in Chrome I get the 'down for maintenance' thing all the time. But anyway. I've already picked out what I'd like to make for the Titanic exhibit at the Franklin Institute in January, though I probably won't start working on it until December. I still like having a plan, though, and this way I can keep an eye out for fabric. This adorable little dress is what I have in mind. I'm trying to decide if I want to keep it black or go with a different, but still dark, color. It'd probably be easiest to find black taffeta and chiffon/gauze that aren't too far off from each other, and I have tons of black velvet ribbon that I can do the edging with. I also have four or five yards of some amazingly gorgeous azure blue silk velvet that I'd like to make a cocoon coat with, and black won't clash with that. But I've got time to make final decisions on that as well~

Isn't it cute?

Did I just make a Spoonflower account just so I can make this dress? Yes, yes I did.

but I did take pictures of what I picked up in NYC today~

The main focus of the day was getting fabric for Mom's dress for the Titanic dinner. She's going with this Liberty of London gown from the Met. She decided to go with a nice light sage green for the color, and we found some lovely silk charmeuse for it.

As for me, I picked up a wild purple and blue dupioni. I'm thinking of a combination of this and this for it. I don't know when I'm going to do it, but probably not for Dress U.

On the other hand, I did pick up fabric for something I am going to do for Dress U. I got this striped blue and copper silk a few months ago, but there was only three and a half yards, so it got binned while I contemplated what to do with it. I finally decided what to do for the Mad Hatter tea party, so I grabbed the solid copper silk today for my idea. The color match really is a lot better than it looks in this picture. So anyway, what I want to do is basically this gown with some slight differences, make it a bit steampunkish. I'm only going to do one tier on the skirt, so it'll be knee length instead, and the bodice/collar might be a bit different as well. I'll figure that out when I actually start working on it. And this also means I'll need to make myself a short bustle, as I only have my long lobstertail bustle and the 1872 hooped bustle from Corsets and Crinolines.

And lastly, we hit a couple of the stores in the wholesale district to pick up some jewelry. I grabbed a couple nice choker sets, as well as some hair pins, and lastly an adorable pair of fascinators. The one looks kind of blue in this picture, but it's actually bright purple.

And that was today \o/

CADD is hitting and it's hitting hard. It tends to come when I'm past the halfway point of a project, and all I want is to play with the next pretty thing. I think the only reason why I haven't started working on my blue striped summer bustle is the fact that I haven't unpacked my 1872 bustled crinoline yet, and I need to actually measure out the skirt lengths, because I'm not doing a train for this dress. And by no train I mean I'm probably going to do just a sweep, about 4" long in the back. I just need to see by how much I need to shorten my 7-gore pattern side back and back pieces, because I drafted it for about the 16" train as seen in my icon. (Yes I realize I could just cut the back 12" shorter. But I want to double check.)

I also want to make a nicer petticoat than the plain white one I wore at CosCon. I have a few yards of eyelet, so I'll probably use that. I think I'm going to do a yoke for that to keep the very top of the bustle smooth.

But I think most of all I'm in an accessories mood. I just dug through a bag of vintage gloves I have and pulled out four pairs that fit me. One pair is white fabric, two pairs are kid leather, one white and one pink, and a lovely suede pair that are burgundy. I'm also really itching to make some more hats. IDK, they're just so much fun. I've got a blue straw hat I picked up a while back from Goodwill that I'm going to use to make a little topper hat to go with my summer bustle. And even though I don't really have anything to wear with it I'm in the mood to make a ridiculously large hat, either something like the giant purple hat Kate Winslet wore in her first scene in Titanic, or a large high-crowned 1780s hat. We'll see, I suppose~

The auction for the damask I was bidding on was pulled. D: But there were six days left and bidding was almost up to my limit anyway, so even if it had run the full time, I probably would've lost it anyway. Sooooo I went looking for something else and snatched this damask as a BIN. It's pink and gold, obviously, but as the V&A mantua was a blue and silver damask in what looks like a large, repeating pattern, I figure it will do just fine. There's 8 yards of the pink and gold, which is what I was figuring on needing.

It didn't process when I first started looking at the Met's mantua, but it has a center back measurement of 104 inches. Now, going by my own measurements at 5'6, from the back of my neck to the floor is about 54 inches. That means the train of the mantua is 50 inches, or over 4 feet long. Now that's a lot of brocade dragging on the floor. But for the sake of ~~pictures~~ being faithful to the original, I'm going to make mine that long as well. Because of the way the Met has it draped, I think I can sneak some type of lining/backing for the train. I'm toying with the idea of flatlining it with silk organza, because it won't add much bulk. Do you have any thoughts on that, flist?

I also (finally) stopped dragging my feet about the stays I'll need for under this. My original thought was that I'd either have to use steel boning or order reed. But then I realized there might be something left over from when my dad used to re-cane chairs. His stuff was all either round or square, so I grabbed the smallest he had, which is about 1/8" diameter. (It's been hanging in the garage for who knows how many years collecting dust and dirt, so I'm soaking it in the tub overnight to get it a bit cleaner.) I'm hoping two reeds per channel will be strong enough. I might also do every fourth or fifth channel with steel anyway, to add a little extra support.

And now, to bring back an old theme~ The Mom chronicles! I convinced her to make a journal (

gwenevereofisis) a couple weeks ago, and she's been lurking around in the comms I added her to, but apart from me she has no friends yet. D: But that's not why I'm bringing her up now. We're going to an SCA event on Saturday, and I've been helping her make a basic 6 gore kirtle. I draped a muslin on her, and then drafted the pattern off of that. We were a bit short on the teal-green wool for it, only about 4.5 yards, so I laid it out and did all the cutting and pinning, but she's done all the piecing on her own. Tomorrow we need to put in the sleeves and sew the lining in, and then it'll be picture time! And then mom will be on her own for doing all the hand sewing, i.e. the eyelets for the front lacing, the buttonholes for the sleeves, and the hem. I've got my own hand sewing to do to finish up my outfit for Saturday, after all.

So there just might be 13 yards of a lovely pink and cream plaid silk shantung making it's way to me. Perhaps.

And should this fabric potentially show up in my mailbox, it just might find itself being made into something like this. And possibly a second bodice like this, so it can go for either day or evening wear. Since there is so much yardage that might be coming.

But that all depends on if this fabric is coming or not, of course.

I've got the Watteau polonaise all pieced, apart from the stomacher and sleeves, and pinned up on my dress form. (No pictures because I haven't gotten around to digging my camera out and charging it. >_>) I'm not entirely crazy with how the back of it lays over my bustle, but I think part of it is because it's only over a petticoat right now, which a) is nowhere near as full as the matching skirt will be, and b) only has a couple inches of train in the back, so it's not flaring out there to support the polonaise. I'm also toying with the idea of making Laughing Moon's train supporting bustle, which will flare out the back of the skirt and polonaise nicely. But I think that, which is not specifically needed at this point in time, will have to wait.

I've also started planning my next project as well. I've wanted to make an 18th century mantua for a while now, when the style became a bit more defined and regulated. My first plan was to style it after the 1710s mantua in the V&A, but now I'm thinking I want to go a touch earlier, before it became standard to loop the train up. And I can't deny that I've always been drawn to the Met's 1708 mantua. I've been looking at all the pictures of it for a while today, trying to figure out how exactly they arranged the poofs in the back, and I think, rather than folding the skirt back over itself and securing it at the center back waist, they either tucked the sides under, or just much lower, and then puffed a bit of the back up over it to make that big puff. You can kind of see that it was done slightly differently in the two different sets of pictures, as the train is longer in one set.

As for fabric for the mantua, I have my eye on a couple damasks on ebay, and if those fall through, I'll just look for something in New York next time I'm up there. I'd really prefer a damask or brocade, but worse comes to worse I'll use something solid. (I'm holding out for a specific damask, though, if it doesn't go too high. >_>)

I bought some red and tan linen off of Ebay last month, intending to do a more casual, everyday polonaise with it. But when it arrived, it turned out that the red stripes are printed onto the solid tan fabric. So, is this completely not period, and therefore not appropriate for a polonaise? If I end up not using it for it's original purpose, it might end up in something steampunk-y, where it won't matter.

Hit all the stores I wanted to in New York yesterday. It doesn't matter how many times it happens while I'm up there, snow still seems wrong. I picked up a few sample cards from C&J, and I've changed my mind on what fabric I plan to use for

charlesii. It'll cost less than Distinctive Fabrics, which is always a plus. I also picked up the ribbons I need, as well as some new purse frames and crochet cotton. And on an unrelated note, I picked up some cotton jersey and ribbing. My cousin is having a boy in May (her due date is actually Mother's Day), so I plan to make her some stuff. I got butter yellow and olive green jersey, and off-white ribbing, which I also plan to use for some of the fleece and flannel stuff I plan to make.

If (and this is a very big if, because I'm slightly suspicious of the price) what I've found is in fact silk moire, then my

charlesii will be a topaz/cream gold instead of the light blue/grey of the portraits. Because if it does turn out to be 100% silk, then I'd be insane to pass it up even if the color isn't right. After all, who's to say my dear princess didn't have more than one moire gown?

[Poll #1328906]

So, I can't decide between purple or green. Which seems better for a villainess?

(Fear my not-so-awesome photoshop skills.)

One of my favorite colors is yellow, more specifically the warmer yellows- buttercups, goldenrods and the like. And I look really good in yellow too, which is a bonus.

And how many yellow things do I have in my closet?

Exactly one, the dress I wore to my winter formal my senior year of high school.

I don't often see yellow things is stores though, and what little there is tends to be a cooler, lemon yellow, which I don't care for. This is also why I don't want to buy any yellow silk online, even though I have four dresses planned that need it, because most of what I've seen is either a lemon or greenish yellow.

Good thing my other favorite, blue, is so easy to find. XD

No pictures today, because I'm lazy.

I finished the rest of the boning channels in the stays, and have about half the bones in. My metal sheers are old and getting dull, so I had to stop cutting the steal boning. I'll finish tomorrow.

I have all three skirts pieced, and the waist pleats are pinned and waiting to be sewn. I decided to use dark green wool for the middle skirt, and I plan to use the leftover wool for my mitts. I dyed some silk twill a light olive green, which I'll line the mitts with. I also want to make a calash with the silk twill, but it might be too light.

I also drafted a pattern for a round ear cap, and I'll probably make that tomorrow, along with a new chemise. I pulled out my old one, tried it on, and couldn't breath. Of course, I've had it since I was 13, and back then I was much smaller in the chest area.

I'm feeling good about this. Thursday will be entirely devoted to the jacket, and Friday will be for odds and ends.

Upon further thought I've decided I do want to try and reproduce the exact jacket in La Belle Chocolatiere. The front of the jacket is mostly obscured, but there's enough visible to hint at the details. There's a narrow collar in a somewhat odd possibly inverted scallop shape, and I think the jacket might be open in the front, with a blue stomacher to match the petticoat. I'm not sure what exactly the little bit of lighter orangey-yellow visible between the jacket and the shawl is. It seems like the wrong color for lace, but I don't think it's her stays peeking out either.

In terms of actual productivity today, I did up a muslin for half-boned stays, and then redrafted the pattern with a few changes. Tomorrow I'll cut them out and hopefully get at least the piecing and boning channels sewn. I know I have enough steel boning to do them up, I'll just have to dig it out. I'd like to get them fully done tomorrow, but hand done eyelets are definitely not high on my list of favorite activities. I have both yellow and orange creamsicle linen that I might use for these, or I might go in a completely different direction and use dark purple linen instead. I'll decide that tomorrow though.

The Idea	The Fabric	The Base Pattern

La Belle Chocolatiere by Jean-Etienne Liotard	burnt orange wool & blue/grey linen	1760-70 Jacket from Patterns of Fashion 1 by Janet Arnold

I've volunteered to help out at the Battle of Trenton reenactment next Saturday. And because I'm insane, I plan to make myself a full outfit rather than borrow one. I've decided on a jacket and skirt rather than a dress, for several reasons. For one, I don't have enough of any one color wool to make a full dress from. For another, a jacket will be easier to fit (and look better) if I don't get my stays done in time. And finally, and this is mainly a vanity thing, I don't want to be in a dress like most other women will be. I want to be a period correct non-conformist.

I should be able to knock off the petticoats in one sitting, really. I'm planning on three. An aquamarine flannel will be the innermost one, followed by wool of yet undetermined color, then topped with the blue linen. I'll have to run the linen through the wash a few times tomorrow; it's still pretty stiff.

I'll also scale up the jacket pattern and start working on that tomorrow as well. I'm not sure if I'll include the cuffs yet, that'll depend on if I have enough of the wool. I've only got about a yard and a quarter, but I'm not worried. Piecing is such a period practice, after all.

I think I have a round ear cap somewhere, but I might just make a new one, along with a stuffer shawl and mitts. I have one of the wide-brimmed felt hats from Williamsburg, but I'm not sure how to trim it, or if it's even appropriate for winter. That's at the end of the list though.

And over all of this, because it'll probably still be in the mid to upper 20s next weekend, I have a massive and heavy cape, made of dark blue wool and lined with light grey linen. I'll have to stop being lazy and finally sew a clasp on to it.

So, six days and counting.

PS- I didn't go into this intending to copy the color scheme of the painting. I spread all of my wool and linen out, picked the two I liked best together, and ran with it. THEN I went and looked up the painting for the style, and realized I'd picked the same colors. XD

Because this sounds like it could be lots of fun, I went through my folders of fashion plates and picked out something new (and cold weather appropriate) to do.

I decided on this 1875 plate, because I love the false vest look.

Much as I'd really love to use a plaid for this, I have to go with what's on hand (and I'm already working on another plaid winter dress). I dug out some dark blue velvet and some striped blue silk that I've had for ages. I'll take a picture tomorrow probably.

And to go with it, a coat, of course.

If I can, I'd like to use some bright blue wool flannel that I have, but it'll be a tight squeeze because I only have 4 yards of the 60" wide stuff. Depending on how it looks, I'll either use the dark blue velvet to trim the coat as well, or some white silk velvet I have tucked away. If I don't have enough for a full length coat, I'll go with something shorter. I have a few doleman patterns I can pick from.

In other news, I have a mockup for my Poe plaid dress sewn, I just haven't bothered to try it on with my corset yet. I finish the semester on Tuesday though, and I'm going to try and have both of these outfits fully finished by the end of the month. Well, the 1875 set has to be done my then away, since the stoll is on January 3rd.

Went to Philadelphia today, and picked up the velvet and buttons for my 1844 gown, among other things. So now I have everything I need for the gown itself. I was going to start the petticoats yesterday but I couldn't find my white muslin anywhere. I'll have to pick some up from Joann's tomorrow. On a slightly related note, how wide did the skirts tend to be in the 1840s? I'm half tempted to do everything on the cross grain, and just use the 5 yard piece I have for the full skirt. Otherwise, I'll just do 3 panels of the plaid, but it's only 44" wide. I just feel like that might be too narrow.

One of the other stores in Philly had the most gorgeous teal/peacock green heavy silk satin, for an amazing $19 a yard. I'm half tempted to go back and get it, even though there's probably only 3 yards or so. It'd be enough for a long-sleeved 1650s bodice, at the very least. Maybe tomorrow. It really was an amazing color, even if I do prefer the bluer end of the teal range.

Time to pass out now. *running on about 2 hours of sleep*

There's a Dickens Faire in two weeks in Clinton, which is about an hour's drive from me, and I'm thinking of going.

For my wallet's sake, I can't do anything new, but I can try and whip up the 1844 dress I'm planning. I picked up an extra 5 yards of the plaid last week, and I'll be going down to Philly on Tuesday, so I can see about getting more of the velvet then.

I didn't post about this before, but I'm also planning a bonnet, coat, and muff to semi-coordinate. This is the coat I'm planning to do, with an inverted color scheme. I have three or four yards of bright blue wool flannel that I want to use for the body, and I'm thinking maybe light blue velvet or satin for the trim. I'm going to pick up some quilted cotton for the lining, probably white. If I had more time I'd quilt it myself with a silk face and cotton batting, but I'll just have to live with the premade poly batting stuff. I might double-line the top of the sleeves with silk, just to make it easier to put on, but a number of plates show quilted linings for coats and capes, so mine will be visible as well.

I've started the buckram frame for the bonnet, but can't get any further till I dig out my millinery wire. I saw it recently, so it can't be too far down in the black hole known as my sewing room. I plan to make the bonnet blue as well, as I've seen in several fashion plates. I know I have a darker purple-blue silk floating around, but I might have something brighter as well.

I'm trying to decide if I want to make a lace cap as well. I don't technically need one, since I'm not married, but I like the look of it in the plate. Oh well, a decision for another day.

I have a pair of antique fur muffs packed away somewhere, one of which is fairly large. I'm pretty sure that's the one that needs to be relined though, so I'll have to do that as well. Not that it'll take long, it's just a tube. I don't remember what color it is though. I know the smaller one is black, but I can only fit one hand in it at a time, so it wouldn't be very useful for me.

Before I get any further, though, I need to make up petticoats for this.

I've been doing more poking around and finally found an 1840s plate I really like. And here's what I've decided on.

I'm definitely liking the plaid dress on the right, and since it's a November 1844 plate, it'll be a great starting point for the Poe event in January. I've even got fabric that'll work for it, sort of. I think the pink really makes it, don't you? I say sort of, because I only have three yards of the plaid, and I'll probably want another three to four, since it's only 45". I'll have to stop in before my class Tuesday to see if they have anymore, because it's been almost a year since I bought it. I'll also need more of the velvet, but that'll have to wait until I know if I can get more of the silk. Plus it's from Philly, which is the opposite direction, and requires driving down there.

But first things first, this outfit needs a whole new set of undies. I'm quite tempted to just use my 1870s corset, rather than make a new one, so for now I'll just start on all the petticoats I'll need.

I ordered a swatch book from Decorative Silks, so once it arrives I'll be deciding what color I'll use for my

charlesii dress, since silk moire is out of the question. Looking at the site, I'm between the Pistachio/Antique Gold and Saddle Grey/Gold. The Antique Gold/Champagne might be a possibility too; we'll see when the swatches arrive.

I've also started working on the pattern for this. I've decided to make separate stays and bodice, but I plan to baste the two together along the neckline, and possibly at the front point for wearing. But there are a couple other 1660s gowns I'd like to make as well, so having stays that can move from gown to gown will be much easier.

And bouncing into another century... Because they just look like so much fun, I've got almost everything I need to whip up a Chemise a la Reine. Can I just say that finding a buttercup yellow silk taffeta is surprisingly hard? In the mean time I've got cotton the color I want that will work for now. I stopped in at Greenburg and Hammer yesterday and picked up another pound of 1/4" steel boning for the pale yellow silk stays I plan to make after this pair in the McCord Museum, which I plan to wear with the chemise dress. I've also got half the boning channels sewn in the green cotton sateen stays I'm working on, and will get around to the rest at some point soon.

Does anyone know if there are any costume/period events going on in the NJ/PA area anytime soon? I want to dress up for something, but there doesn't seem to be anything.

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miss_philomena

December 2018

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Miss Philomena

resolved to take fate by the throat and shake a living out of her

Entries tagged with fabric:plotting

catching up with things

oops

there was no grommetting today

urgh

CURSE YOU, EBAY

oops

next on the cutting table

Printed Stripes?

Blah...

Hmm...

last post of the night, I promise

This does not compute

The Halfway Point

Five days and counting

Masochism, thy name is Adrienne.

New Stash Dress!

Fabric shopping in Philly

More Babble on a Different Note

I feel so talkative. XD

Talkity Talk