Chambord Fairy: skirt

Preparations for Costume College are beginning to pick up speed.  As I was clearing out the crafting kingdom of finished pieces for Costume Con, I set out a little inspirational pile of my CoCo projects to be there to welcome me home.  The 1950s Avengers dress there at the bottom is already done, so the next step was up to the pink and gold ridiculousness in the upper left.

There's a cluster of us that are doing a twist on the Absinthe fairy, picking a new booze and a fairy style of our own choosing.  I decided to go with Chambord, mostly because I liked the sound of the flavor and was digging on the burgundy and gold color scheme.

Then plotting led to ruffles and ruffles led me to a tutorial from Tea in a Teacup about making a steampunk skirt and a cohesive theme was born: late Victorian Steampunk Chambord Fairy.  Since the skirt was the driving force behind the costume, I started with that first.  I used the suggested cutting diagram as more of a guideline.  I originally thought to use a crisp silk like tafetta, but finding the right color at a reasonable price just wasn't working out for me.  So I ended up getting the hot pink shantung pictured above for something like $11/yd and I tried my hand at dyeing it.  The fabric took up the burgundy dye beautifully, but the texture was forever changed by the super hot dye bath.  What was once shiny and crisp had been turned into something dense and of an interesting texture...

AND I LOVED IT!  I started playing with scraps and totally fell for the petal-soft fabric with the tiny cross-hatch appearance.  I was getting a Moulin Rouge can-can dancer type feeling going on, and the ruffles just made it happen.  The skirt has a raised front panel that shows off some leg, and a faux-bustled back with two extra layers of ruffles.  Rather than a boring old zip or button closure, I embraced the hardware-heavy steampunk style and put in some gold grommets for lacing.

Three tiers of ruffles in across the back.  Each row has a three and a six inch roll of ruffles, set off with a strip of gold satin piping.

The bulk of the skirt is flat-lined with brown cotton bed sheet.  I ended up cutting the narrow side panels away a bit, to give the skirt a bit more of a swept-back look.  But this mean that a bit of the brown could be seen by someone sitting.  I'm going to add some twill tape ties to the seam between side and back panels, using these to bustle the skirt a bit.  This should help that side panel to curl inwards a bit and hide the lining.  It'll also pull the back hem up just enough to keep it from trailing on the floor.  I also took a lesson from my Avengers dress on built-in petticoats and used extra sheeting to make a small built-in bustle for added umph.

I ended up doing bias-cut ruffles and giving them a rolled hem by hand.  The super-tight weave post-dye bath didn't really need finishing on the raw edges, but the fluttery fabric was so thin that I worried the ruffles would just hang limp and lifeless.  The rolled hem makes me think of the curled edges of a rose petal, and I flipped the ruffles over so that you see the 'wrong' side of them, added additional texture.  All told, the skirt has roughly 30 yards of ruffle.  I got through the entire first season of Daredevil working on that nonsense.

Next up, I need a bodice.

HSF 16 Terminology & HSF 17 Yellow - 1880s Tea Gown

Sooo... I had all of these grand epic plans to make a tea gown for the HSF Terminology post, but I ran into a bit of a demotivating wall when it came time to put the sleeves on and I couldn't commit to a trimming scheme.  Lucky for me, the fabric I ended up making the gown out of was a lovely, buttery yellow gold and the next HSF challenge in line was yellow, so not all was lost.

I've been in a decluttering mood here at the end of the summer, so I thought I'd try to focus on a couple of projects that would help me make a dent in the stash.  Do you remember that dye fail project from back in February?  The one where I realized that the yellow/gold rayon faille that I bought turned out to be a rayon/acetate blend and attempting to dye it red just left me with ten yards of fleshy pink nonsense? 

Yeah, that one.

So I had the bright idea that I'd make a tea gown out of it, because hey, what the hell.  I've made up enough Truly Victorian bodice patterns that I felt comfortable just making the necessary adjustments to the pattern on paper and skip the mock up.  Easy, one piece project, cheap fabric, no mock up... I was totally going to get this done in the two weeks that I had until the challenge was due.

I was wrong.  I took a break from cutting pattern pieces to dye up something like 12 yards of nylon velvet ribbon for trim.  The goal was to get a nice, deep burgundy color to complement the fleshy pink.  But the ribbon had been dyed and bleached once before in a failed attempt at making ivory by my sewing buddy over the summer and it didn't quite take up the dye the way I wanted it to.  In fact, the ribbon wasn't burgundy at all, but a nice, grapey purple.  Seriously, we're talking grape jelly here.  Well that was definitely going to clash with the pink.  So I tried to darken it into a more brown color, but that didn't work, either.  Eventually, I ended up with a rich, deep eggplant color that I totally loved... that also totally clashed with the pink.  So I scooped all of the pink fabric up and dumped it onto the floor, pulling out the five yards of undyed yellow gold that were left.  This was a bit shy of what the pattern stated that I'd need, but as the faille didn't really have a nap or directional pattern pattern to it, I figured I could get away with it, and so I started cutting all over again.

We'll start with a split pic, because the flash was doing absolutely nothing polite to the color of the faille.  The cutaway on the left was done without flash and, although a bit blurry, is much a truer representation of the actual color of the gown.

Some people are the sort of person that they can plot out a project to the end, complete with what trim they want where, so that the ends of trim can be inserted into the appropriate sleeves as they go along.  I am not that visionary.  I personally have a lot of trouble imagining how I want to trim a garment until I can look at it mostly assembled.  But sewing the ribbon onto a garment that I couldn't lay flat would have been nearly impossible.  So I sketched and I pinned and I stared and I waffled and re-pinned and then set the whole project aside for a bit instead of finishing it off over Labor Day weekend as I'd planned.  My biggest stressor was the pointed bits on the front and back of the bodice.  I couldn't figure out how I wanted the points to meet.  As is, the center of the points is ever so slightly off center from the front of the gown, which is along the line of buttons.  It took looking at a lot of asymmetrical gowns in order to convince myself to be okay with (and perhaps a glass of wine or two in order to find the courage to start sewing), but once I got over that hump, the rest of the trimmings just fell together.

The finished gown is floor length in the front, with a sweeping train in the back.  I'll probably stick a bustle pad under the petticoat to help fill it out a bit in the back.  And a faille petticoat over the cotton one will help hold the train out and keep it from collapsing in the back.  (also, an actual butt instead of my broken, hip-less dress form will help, too,)

Hmm, I'm good with the front, but that's an awful lot of
blank space there in the back.  But bow, perhaps?

After the points on the front of the bodice, I kind of wanted to embrace this asymmetrical theme that I had started.  I made cuffs that were not a uniform depth, so that they wrapped around the cuff and looked as if they buttoned closed, encasing the narrower end.  The same style was used on the tops of the pockets.

Pleats seem to be one of those things that I just can't not do.  They consume so much time, but damn if they don't just define the late Victorian look for me.  I sped up the process a bit with these in a couple of ways.  They are only finished on the lower edge, and I used hem binding tape to avoid the bulk of double turning the edge.  Then I inserted one three inch space after every three one inch pleats.  You can't really tell, because I hung the pointed ribbon tabs in the center of each of these wider spaces and unless you're looking for it, you probably wouldn't notice.  The tabs were cut into points and then treated with fray check.  Lastly, I avoided finishing the top edge of the pleats by sewing them directly to the hem and sewing the strip of ribbon over it.  Since the velvet ribbon is dark and bulky, you can't see the added bulk that it hides.

Gasp!  Sneaky cheating.  Also, I was running low on matching thread at this point
and went with a "close enough".  Luckily, I only had to do this on the hem

I was able to use up a spectacular amount of the hem and bias tapes that I inherited from my grandmother.  Since no one would see them on the inside, I felt no shame in using up whatever odd colors I could come up with.

I had just enough fabric left over to cut a partial front panel for an underskirt that I'll doctor up with the leftover bits of ribbon so that I'll have another option if I want to wear the tea gown open over a matching skirt.  I'll utilize some of the pink fabric to finish the top four inches of the front panel, as well as the side and back panels of the skirt.  As it'll be hemmed to a couple inches shorter than the tea gown, I'm not too worried about the pink sticking out.  As it stands, the cotton petticoat I made back in May doesn't give quite enough boost to my bustle-less bum, so making an underskirt with a good bit of yardage gathered into the back of the waistband will certainly help, regardless of whether or not I unbutton enough of the tea gown for anyone to see  it.

Hmm... now what to do with the remaining scraps of ribbon?  Surely the dress needs a bow somewhere.  ;)

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?

Steampunk Tea

Had a lovely time at a tea put on by L and members of the Lawrence Steampunk Society.  I was surprised to run into a handful of people I knew, and please to meet lots  interesting people that were new to me.  The greater geeky community in the Kansas City area has a lot of overlap among the various forms of geekery.

Several weeks late, but I thought the members of my household did themselves up quite nicely and I wanted to share.

M rocking out the top hat from my purple/black/chartreuce stempunk outfit.

My honey looking quite dashing in the trousers, waistcoat and cravat that I made for him.

And I finally got the opportunity to wear my recently completed polonaise and walking skirt.

Yay for bustles, except for the part where I had to try to fit into the car in this.
Not my most graceful moment, for certain. 

And because I just cannot pass up the opportunity to share some adorable...

HSF Challenge #22: Masquerade



Oh, was this my kind of challenge.

From our challenger: Create something inspired by historical fancy dress and masquerade that takes you out of reality, in to another world (purely historical, fantasy, steampunk etc are all allowed).

I decided to finally get around to finishing that Queen of Hearts costume that I've been working on in fits and starts since last winter.  Some of the undergarments were completed back as part of challenges 3 and 4, but I got distracted by other projects for Costume Con and it was set aside.  I wanted to go with a classic interpretation of the character and, to me, that means the old school Disney version:

The decision to use the silhouette from the 1860s was largely based on the skirt.  I had just made up the Walking Cage Crinoline from Truly Victorian and I used that as my starting point.  The whole costume ended up as a mashup of patterns from the 1850s-1870s. 

Hmm... Victorian Harley Quinn?

I really wanted to hit the little details that make this costume come alive, so having the heart bloomers and a lace hemmed petticoat was important to me. 

I couldn't find a heart printed fabric that would work, so I ended up using a stencil and fabric acrylics to make my own.  The bloomers were made out of a layer of painted kona cotton over a layer of white rayon (gotta keep it opaque if I'm going to be flashing people my drawers) and were made using Simplicity 9769 The Fashion Historian - Drawers.

Scandalous!

The petticoat was made of white kona cotton using the Free Hoop Petticoat Diagram from Truly Victorian.  The same heart eyelet lace that I used on the bloomers runs the hem of the petticoat.

The underskirt, made from Truly Victorian's 1869 Grand Parlor Skirt and modified to have a hem parallel to the floor.  The front panel actually wasn't as hard to make up as I thought it'd be.   I traced the center front pattern piece onto brown paper, then drew in the pieces, cut them out and traced those onto new paper, adding in a seam allowance to the center front and diagonal lines between color blocks.  I did end up adjusting the way the front panel fits into the waist band as the intended darts kinda made the top bit a bit wonky.  But what couldn't be tweaked was easily hidden by the overskirt.



Underskirt

I have been itching to try my hand at cartridge pleating ever since I learned what it was.  This was one of those cases where, once you knew what it was, you'd see it EVERYWHERE!  The velvet of the overskirt was pleated onto a piece of 2" wide petersham ribbon I found in the upholstery section.  Sturdy stuff without, adding a lot of bulk.

The bodice was a Frankensteining of two Truly Victorian patterns: 1872 Vest Basque and 1875 Ball Gown Basque.  I wanted to pair the neckline from the ballgown with the sleeves from the vested bodice.  About the only thing that these patterns had in common was the basque back, and that was the first thing I drafted out of them.  Just to give you an idea of what a horrible idea this was, take a look at my first mock up:

Urgh.  I don't know if there was a better way to have gone about this, but I really wanted to avoid having to buy additional patterns if at all possible.  Luckily, much was fixed by extending the bodice up higher on my shoulder.  The sleeve fit better when the armhole was enlarged and the gathering to fit was much smoother when done in the velvet.

The crowns were made of craft foam wrapped around a round cardboard base, then covered with layers of gold acrylic paint.  Small ribbon loops were glued to the inside of the base and the crowns were worn on headbands to keep the tiny crowns in place.  The scepters are just dowel rods hot glued into a hollow paper heart found at the local craft store, then painted with shimmery acrylic paints.

In summary, just the facts, as best as I can recall them:

The Challenge: #22 Masquerade

Year: 1850-70s

How historically accurate is it?  Not terribly.  May 25%

Hours to complete: I could not even begin to imagine.  Certainly 60+.

First worn: to our Halloween party

Total Cost:  Over $300, at the very least.

Fabric/Pattern/Notions split up by component.

Bodice: Black and red silk/rayon velvet, cotton canvas interlining, black polyester lining for the sleeves.  TV 405 1872 Vest Basque and TV 416 1865 Ball Gown Basque.  Hook-and-eye tape (best invention ever), cotton eyelet lace collar, black taffeta piping (over cotton cord) and spiral steel boning encased in commercial bias tape.

Underskirt: Black and gold crepe back polyester satin.  TV 202 1869 Grand Parlor Skirt.  Black shoestring for the drawstring closure.

Overskirt: Black and red silk/rayon velvet.  No pattern, as it was just draped on the dress form.  White faux fur trim, petersham ribbon waistband, and hook closure.

Bloomers: White kona cotton painted with acrylic hearts  and white rayon.  Simplicity 9769 Drawers.  Heart eyelet lace and cotton twill tape ties.

Petticoat: White kona cotton.  Truly Victorian free hoop petticoat pattern. Heart eyelet lace.

And to make this into a proper couples' costume:

My Honey, as the King of Hearts



So very dapper.

Proof that his costume really is pink.  Sorry Honey!

 The King's robes were made of synthetic pink velour made up in a modified version of Butterick 3648: Dickens Victorian Christmas Robe, trimmed with the faux fur and close with safety pins (because I ran out of time to get proper hook-and-eye closures put in.  The collar is just a layer of  heavy interfacing sandwiched between two layers of cotton and trimmed with white cotton piping.  I claim no responsibility for that monstrosity of facial hair.

1870s Linen Walking Skirt

A little over a month ago, I had whipped up a floral linen polonaise that conveniently fit into the Robes and Robings HSF Challenge, but it was a color/fabric combination very different from any of my other Victorian outfits and therefor needed a coordinating skirt of its own. Cue another low stress, not-for-competition, sew all that crap on the machine garment. I've found that doing this from time-to-time really helps balance out the stress induced by having garments that are entirely hand sewn and take months to finish.

 

Pattern used was Truly Victorian 201: 1870s Underskirt.  Fabric is three times dyed 8oz linen from Dharma Trading Co.  The three tries at dyeing was because I was at first trying to match to the polonaise purple, then when that didn't work, match to the maroonish bits of leaves on the polonaise, then the 'screw it all, I'll make it brown" when I tried to match it to the linen trims on the polonaise.  Obviously, none of them worked.  But the depth of color ended up being something I was really pleased with.  The brown gave it a nice 'weathered' look to it, something that I appreciate in historical recreations.  In most cases, I don't WANT to look like I'm wearing something fresh out of the box.  

 

 

 

The false panel of pleats was fairly easy to assemble.  I just took as long of a rectangle as I could cut out of whatever fabric I had left over, hemmed one end, then pleated it an arbitrary width of knife pleats.  The pleats were sewn together on the machine at the top, then the back portion of each pleat was sewing with a very narrow hem to help the dress hold it's pleats, even when the skirt has been traveling.  Even if they're not crisp and freshly ironed, they'll at least not have fanned out like a train and lost all pleating. 

 

 

 

The belted portion trimming the top of the pleats is just a length of brown velvet folded in on the sides and one ends.  It's sewn down to the skirt on the top, then tack stitched to the edge of each pleat on it's bottom edge.  I wanted to give the impression that it was the belted bit that was holding in the pleats.  The pointed end was left unanchored, except for a single button to help aid in the illusion.

 

 

 

The entire skirt is hemmed with narrow strips of velvet that were folded and topstitched at the top and bottom to give it the impression of being velvet ribbon.  WAY cheaper than using actual velvet ribbon. 

 

 

The complete outfit.  I had to go back and tack up the skirt on the polonaise a bit more in order to see the belted bit at the top of the pleats, but bustles are good about accepting that.  I'll try to fiddle with it so that the skirt of the polonaise hangs lower on the left side.  I'm aiming to wear this to a steampunk tea in December, so that's motivating me to get a few more cold weather accessories out to go with it.  There's a fur muff in the works, and I'm toying with the notion of trying to draft my own pattern for a talma wrap of some sort. 

Fly-by Progress Post: HSF 18 and Head-to-Toe Hats

I had decided to participate in the Head-to-Toe Accessorizing challenge, in addition to wrapping up the year of Historical Sew Fortnightly. 

http://trystancraft.com/costume/accessorizing-head-to-toe-challenge/

 

I completed two hats or head coverings in the month of August.  The first is a black silk hat to wear with my late 1870s mourning dress and it's doubling to fill the HSF challenge #18: Re-make, Re-use & Re-fashion.  I kept putting off posting the this thing as it was a pain to try to photograph, but getting around to doing my hair up in a wig, during daylight hours when someone else is around to snap a picture just wasn't happening.  So your imagination at placing a fancy updo in place of my plastic sack covered wig stand may be required.

 

 

The Challenge: #18: Re-make, Re-use & Re-fashion: Sew something that pays homage to the historical idea of re-using, re-making and re-fashioning.

 

Fabric: Black silk velvet, black silk gauze, black habotai silk

 

Pattern: Truly Victorian 1880's Buckram Hat Frames

 

Year: 1880-ish

 

Notions: milinary wire, nylon net (basting four layers together made a passable substitute for buckram), black silk ribbon, black silk thread, and the repurposed part, black feathers (likely dyed chicken, from the looks of them) repurposed from an old feather boa that I quit using because it would stain my skin when I sweated.  And the only not black in the whole getup, a white pearl-headed pin for pinning the veil up and out of the way.

 

How historically accurate is it? Meh, I'll give it a B+.

 

Hours to complete: six

 

First worn: opportunity hasn't presented itself

 

Total cost: around about $40, but that's guessing as nothing was specifically bought FOR this project.

Made to accompany: late 1870s Mourning Gown (of which I don't have a picture in completed form.  Must be getting on with that.)

 

* * *

 

Black silk seems to be the theme for the month, as the other head covering accomplished is this snood, made of black silk velvet decorated with criss-crossed silk ribbons held in place with white faux pearls.  The headband is interlined with silk twill and the snood itself is lined in black habotai.  All of the fabrics and ribbons (save the velvet) were dyed black by me.  The ribbons were various short links of brightly colored pastels and oranges from my mother's stash from her crafting days.  I couldn't think of what to use so many short pieces of odd colors for, but overdyeing everything black worked out pretty nicely.  There is a very subtle hint of "something else" to the finished colors in the ribbons and I think that really helps add interest to the final product.

 

Luckily, the 18" diameter that I needed for the snood was

exactly how big my standing embroidery hoop is. 

 

 

The gory details:

Tutorial from RedDawn.net.

Fabric: 18"x18" square of black silk velvet, cut down to a circle after decorating.  18"x18' circle of black silk habotai.  2"x22" strip of black silk twill.

Notions: black silk 1/8" ribbons and white faux pearls.  Black silk thread.

Hours to complete: about 6, five of white was sewing down the ribbons and pearls.  After decorating, the snood goes together fairly easily, just gather circle into a head band and go.

 

I don't really have much in the way of Medieval costume, so this is more likely going to get tossed into the bin of costume accessories to get paired with whatever black fancy dress needs a hat when historical accuracy isn't high on the list.

 

Hmm... have also realized that this now makes three separate garments which have been made out of the black silk velvet that I acquired last summer, none of which are the costume that it was intended for.  Perhaps I should be getting on with that.