There are a couple of challenges that I missed along the way, and I'm using this challenge as a catch up to get them done. First up is #10, Literature, which was originally due May 20th.
Fabric: 3 yards of 54" wide 4.7 oz weight linen
Pattern: mostly followed Katherine's tutorial
Year: mid- to late- 18th century
Notions: polyester thread, cotton twill tape for ties
How historically accurate is it? 9/10
Hours to complete: 3
First worn: over a pair of jeans so I could run into my honey's office and say "Look what I did!"
Total cost: fabric runs about $8/yd, so that plus notions, plus dye and we're up to about $32.
From our Challenger: In this challenge make something inspired by literature: whether you recreate a garment or accessory mentioned in a book, poem or play, or dress your favourite historical literary character as you imagine them.
I was reading through a copy of Sally Wister's Journal (available here), which is the account of a young woman living in New England in 1777/78. I was terribly amused at the line : She is much mortified to have Captain Dandridge find her wearing her greenish "skirt and dark short gown. Provoking."
I kept trying to think of what the late 18th century equivalent of the sweat pants and ratty tee shirt must have been and was inspired to add something along those lines to my own wardrobe. I had three yards of purple linen leftover from my 1870s Linen Walking Skirt that I decided to bend to my will. I wanted to avoid having multiple items in my wardrobe being too obviously out of the same material, so I hemmed up the raw edge and tossed the material into the wash with a stupid dose of bleach. The dye came our fairly well, leaving me with a light mustardy looking cloth that I then dyed with an amalgamation of Dharma's Fiber Reactive Dyes in Avocado, Blueberry and Dark Green. This resulted in a lovely spruce color.
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| Could not replicate this color again if I tried, which is sad, as it was very pretty. |
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| I made a bit of an error in the cutting and ended up having to repair a bit right there in the center front. I'm not too worried, though, as it just adds a bit of authenticity to this being my "around the house" clothes. |
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The fabric being 54" wide, I simply cut the 3 yards into two panels with 12" piece left over for another day. The selvedge was used as my side seams, which mean no seam finishing necessary. Combine that with machine sewing throughout and the whole thing went together rather quickly.
