HSF 9: Black & White - white Natural form petticoat

What it is: petticoat
Fabric: white cotton with lace and pin tuck lattice pattern, plus some plain white cotton for the back.
Pattern: Truly Victorian 170: Victorian Petticoats, View 2: 1877-1882
Year: Natural Form era, around about 1880
Notions: polyester thread and 1/2" cotton twill tape ties.
How historically accurate is it?  Close enough.
Hours to complete: 4-5
Total cost: No idea as it was completely from the stash.

When I got done with the black accessories to complete the 1920s outfit, I thought that perhaps I could squeeze in a white project to round the challenge out.  Costume College is coming up this summer and they're doing an under dressed breakfast full of wrappers and banyans that I'd kind of like to have a tea gown for.  I've had the TV432 1882 Tea Gown pattern for a couple of years now and it's about time I get around to making one up.  I've also had this funky lacey pin tuck cotton taking up space for several years.  I've always thought that I'd make up a bustle era underskirt with it to show it off, but no project ever really materialized to use it.

Fast forward to last month when All The Pretty Dresses showcased a petticoat with extra eyelet decoration down the lower half of the center front that was most likely intended to be seen under an open wrapper and I had my Aha! moment.  (side note, if you're not already following this blog, the author is cataloging extrant garments that come up on auction sites so that the informtion that they provide can be available long after the auction has ended.  SUCH a resource.)

Cotton eyelet petticoat, American Civil War Era on All The Pretty Dresses

I had just enough of the material to do the front panel and a ruffle at the hemline.  The last back panel has a plain cotton upper piece with a couple rows of piping, then the botton half was the last odd rectangular shape of the laced/tucked fabric, since the tuckes helped give it body and the lower back half is where I want the fluff to be.  There is an eight inch slit in the center back waist that closes with a drawstring.  The drawstring doesn't go through the entire waistband, instead being cut in two pieces and anchoring at the side seams.  This way, the front panel will stay flat and any gathering will happen in the back.  It ended up quite sheer in the front, which I didn't notice until I broke out the flash photography.  I might have wanted to flatline that front panel, in retrospect.  Instead, I think I'll just make up another plain white petticoat to go under it.

Now I just need to pick a fabric from the stash to use for the tea gown and I'll be ready to roll.  I'm a little hesitant, beause the blue and cream floral linen blend that I was eyeing for the project doesn't seem like it would pair well with a pure white petticoat.  Any thoughts on the matter?  Should I tea stain or lightly dye the petticoat to get an off-white/ivory color, pick a white-friendly fabric for the tea gown, or just say screw it and wear white and ivory together like the rebel that I am?

HSF #24 Redo, Part the Second: Pretty, Pretty Princess needs a pair of Engagantes

From our Challenger: This one is super easy. Pick any previous challenge and re-do it (or do it for the first time).

My second pick up is to redo challenge #12: Pretty, Pretty Princess, which was due on June 17th.  I had originally planned to do a cheeky play on this and make up a long-sleeved, all black velvet bodice to pair with the black taffeta skirt and black velvet over skirt that fits over my bustle as a nod to Queen Victoria and the tremendous impact on mourning culture she had when she dealt with the death of her husband by wearing mourning for the remainder of her life.  Well, that obviously never materialized.  But what has happened since June has been me signing up for the 18th Century Court Ensemble sew along hosted by Demode.  I'm planning to do some of the foundations for that dress early in the HSF 2014, but to get me started, I've done up a pair of detachable engageantes.

The gown I'm recreating on Queen Maria Carolina.

The lace was sewn together with a flat felled seam which would lay unobtrusive between the forearm and body.

Laying out flat with the raw edges gathered and bound with rayon ribbon.

I pinned them into the project currently occupying my dress form to give you an idea of how they'll
be worn.  The rayon ribbon binding will be hand sewn to the inside of the cuff of my court gown.

Just the Facts:

The Challenge: #24 Redo, Redoing #12: Pretty, Pretty Princess
Fabric: 4 yds nylon chantilly lace
Pattern: self-drafted
Year: 1770s
Notions: rayon ribbon, cotton thread
How historically accurate is it? meh, 5/10
Hours to complete: 4
First worn: need a dress to stitch it to
Total cost: $50, lace is expensive, yo.

HSF #17: Robes and Robings

more info here

I thought I had this challenge all mapped out in my head, weeks in advance.  I was going to use that yellow paisley silk to make a Regency era open robe.  Or if that fell through, a 1920s robe de style, to wear to the Kansas City World Con in 2016 bid parties.  I tried several times to get myself to get started on these, but I kept running into snags.  Not enough material, couldn't figure out the support structure or not the right foundation garments, and so on and so forth.  A week into the challenge and still not getting anywhere (although I did make a lovely snood while I procrastinated) and I was ready to give up.  So I did just that.  I threw my hands in the air and pulled out a pattern that's been in the to do pile for a couple of years now, the 1870s Polonaise.  It was Victorian, for which I already had all undergarments in triplicate and it's a Truly Victorian pattern, of which I've made several and had a pretty good handle on.

TV410: 1873 Polonaise

So last Sunday I had an entire day to myself.  No plans, company gone, and jack all nothing that had to be done and it was GLORIOUS!  So I bust through it and instead of the time wasting waffling I've been doing on a lot of projects lately, I just pulled out the linen that was once upon a time intended for this and got to work.  No mockup, because I felt like living on the edge.  I skipped lining the bodice and just cut it a little larger than I knew I needed, figuring it'd be simple enough to just take in the darts where needed after it was put together as I've done for a few other quick-and-dirty TV bodices.  It went together fine and the first fitting showed nothing that couldn't be tweaked taking in the darts or seams, I was soaring.  Here I was, all set to finish a whole new garment in about a week.  Go me!

So I get the thing mostly sorted and move to the trimming stage.  Now, the instructions have all sorts of lovely notes about how you can attach your trims in many places while you're assembling, hiding raw ends in seam allowances and the like.  That'd be great, had I any clue how I wanted to trim the damn thing before I started.  Perhaps some people can do this, see the final product before they've started, lay out a fabric and a trim or two and have a sketch all done about what goes where but alas, I am not one of them.  Sewing historical garments is more of an organic process for me, one that evolves and changes direction as I go.  Does that make me an artist?  Anywho, so here I am, pulling things out of the stash, playing the mix-and-match game, and what do I do?  I was set on brown trimmings.  Velvet bows, linen binding and piping.  Even a 3" brown nylon lace.  Woo hoo for using the stash!  

But then I whip out this ivory lacey collar bit with matching cuffs that I picked up in the vendor room at Costume Con.

Hmm, not bad.  I like how the collar points hide some of the darts and really draw the eye in, minimize the waist.  It's a bit old fashioned, but hey, it's the 1800s.  In fact, it looks a bit more like something that would have been worn in the... well shit.

HSF #17: Robes and Robings

Make anything that 1) could be described as a robe (T-shaped), 2) is usually called by the name robe (open robe, robe a l'anglaise, or robe de style, or 3) has robings (the flat trimmings around the neck and down the front of the bodice of 18th and early 19th century garments). 



I had unknowingly came all the way back around to the very challenge that I'd thrown my hands up at and abandoned.  Yeah, the style is perhaps a bit dated for the 1870s, but if fashion's taught us anything, it's that nothing ever truly goes out of style forever.  If the 1980s have taught us anything, that's it.  I like to think that this dress could have been made by a woman pulling the lacey bits from her mother's stash, or perhaps lovingly picking it from one of her late grandmother's dresses. 

Just the Facts:

Fabric: dark purple floral print linen, dark chocolate brown linen (bows and bias tape), white cotton canvas for flat lining the bodice and white cotton muslin for lining the sleeves and bustled portion of the skirt.

Pattern: Truly Victorian 410: 1873 Polonaise

Year: early 1870s/first bustle era

Notions: twill tape, ribbon for bustle ties, lace cuffs and collar, faux pearl buttons, hook-n-eye tape, silk ribbon for sleeve cuff facing, silk thread for top stitching and lace anchoring,

How historically accurate is it?  I'm going to give it a 9/10.  Machine sewn wherever possible, but otherwise pretty darn close. 

Hours to complete: 16 or so.

First worn: I do believe I'll be scheduling a picnic in the park for the costumers' guild with this outfit in mind.

Total cost: I probably dropped $60 or so on the linen when I bought it, but what the internet said was lavender showed up at my door as PINK!  So add in purple and brown dyes, plus all the linings, trimmings and boning and we're looking at around $100 USD.

There's a waist tape made of twill tape that attaches to the waistline on the side seams and ties in the front to make that dip in the lower back sit snug without pulling too much on the front closure. The front closes with the hook-n-eye tape and the buttons are purely decorative. I want to find a way to make the top layer lay a bit flatter, so I might stick a couple of small snaps in there. The bustling is held in place with safety pins for now, as I'm wanting to make a new underskirt for this and should probably have that finished before I make the bustling permanent. I'm still not 100% satisfied with the sleeve head; it's a little too poofy, me thinks. I may just fold that bit of extra and top stitch it down, cover it with a bit of trim. I'm definitely wanting to do a bit more trimming on the front of the polonaise. Probably pull a bit of the brown linen to the front. Maybe a few inches of binding on the front points? Any ideas from the peanut gallery?