Faking it: Earrings for the 18th century court gown project

I was able to scratch another small bit off the epic To Do list that makes up my 18th century court gown project:  the earrings. The lovely person or people over at the Grand Ladies website where I first laid eyes on this painting of Queen Maria Carolina of Naples and Sicily describe "the only jewellery she is wearing are large pearl earrings with diamond surrounds."

Since this was her only jewelry, I really wanted to make sure that the earrings were just right.  It's a big dress and a big wig, so I needed something a lot larger than what I would normally wear.  Plus, they needed to be pretty decadent, since this was a queen I'm recreating here, and your standard costume jewelry might not cut it.  Cue the Google-fu and this is what I found:

Over 1/2" across and they fit the description to a T.  They were gorgeous.  They were perfect.  They were no longer on sale and cost $275!  Which is... no.  Hard limit, I cannot spend more money on the earrings than I did on the dress.  So, on to Plan B.  I'd been keeping an eye on the buttons and such whenever I happened upon a crafting store or website, with the hopes of being able to make something up on my own.  In amongst the wedding supplies at my local JoAnn's I found these lovely buttons:

I think I might actually like the look of these even MORE than the fancy expensive earrings.  The ivory tone makes them look so much older and, as they were flat backed and not raised, they would sit flush against the lobe of my ear.  And even though anything that's intended for "wedding" use is going to be stupid expensive on principle, a pair of these and a pack of earring backs came out to a grand total of $20, which is a far sight better than the alternative.

Here's how I made it work:

The supplies: buttons, earring posts with 10mm pads upon which to attach the buttons,
Jewel-It glue, large and fine wier cutters and safety glasses.

I folded up a tissue pad to set the buttons on so that I didn't scratch the faux pearly finish.  Then Iplaced the heavy duty wire cutters and covered the lot of it with a second tissue to discourage projectiles.  I needed the large cutters to work through the heavy shank on the back of the buttons, but it wasn't a clean cut.

So I used the smaller wire cutters to do a bit of fine trimming, but there was still a bit of a rough edge.

One of the must haves in my craft room is several old containers of clear nail polish.  You know how gunky that last quarter of the bottle always gets?  Well, hold onto it.  It's dead useful.  The thick stuff dries clear, makes a hard surface, is skin friendly and ultimately removeable, should it come to it.  I use it on all sorts of rough parts of costumey bits.

To attach the posts, I used Jewel-It glue.  The Jewel-It is good for this sort of project because you can embed your bits into it and it dries to form a sort of setting that's more secure than glue alone.  For this project, I used a toothpick to spread additional glue around and up over the edges of the disk on the post to secure it, then let it dry overnight.

The finished product.  Looking at the buttons in the store, I was really worried that they'd be too big.
While much larger than anything I'd ever wear normally, they weren't very heavy and, once paired
with the stupidly-sized wig and dresss, I think they should work just fine.

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 9: Black & White - 1920s Accessories

I didn't really have any projects on the to do list that would work with both black AND white, so I had to split it up a bit.  It turns out I had LOTS of small and medium projects that were one or the other.  So this fortnight was all about getting some of those smaller projects off the list.  The first thing that I did was focus on projects that would complete an outfit for my chartreuse leopard print charmeuce 1920s dress.

First up was a hat to kind of round out the outfit.  I've been on an ultra-short hair kick lately, and that's been making it where I've had to get pretty creative figuring out what to do with my head when I costume.  The cloche hat is awesome because it totally covers the head.  So not only do I not have to do my hair, it's completely irrelevant what it looks like.

What it is: cloche hat
Fabric: black wool felt and dark blue silk habotai for lining
Pattern: http://mymagicmom.com/cloche-hat-tutorial/, modified to add in another triangular panel to the crown, up-size for an adult head and seam allowances added to allow for a lining.
Year: 1920s
Notions: polyester (construction) and silk (top stitching/embellishment) threads. 1 yard of 1 inch wide black silk satin thread.
How historically accurate is it? I'd say pretty close.
Hours to complete: 4, including adjusting the pattern to fit a grown up head.
First worn: not yet, but this is part of completing my 1920s outfit, so I hope to find an event to break that out for soon.
Total cost: < $10 Everything was from materials on hand, even though I'd marked that ribbon for for tying back my honey's 18th c hair.

I didn't have any black habotai laying around, so I used a bit of the dark blue left over from the MIL's
Acadian short cloak.  A bit of fudging on the challenge, but a white lining would not have looked nice at all.

What it is: poncho
Fabric: 1.75 yds of 51" wide black silk burnout (so most likely a silk/rayon satin)
Pattern: inspired by the tunic that's included in the Folkwear Monte Carlo dress pattern, but they didn't have the 3 yds I would have needed to pull that off, so I just made do with what they had.  Turned out MUCH simpler in the long run.
Year: 1920s
Notions: polyester (machine stitching to attach bias for neckline and prep hemline) and silk (for top stitching/finishing) threads.
How historically accurate is it? meh.  Close enough.
Hours to complete: About three.
First worn: see above
Total cost: Fabric was on sale, so about $12.

As you can see, the poncho is super thin.  It's not so much that I wanted something to keep me warm as I wanted something to kind of break up the top half of the Monte Carlo dress, which was fun, but not of a style that's very flattering for a pear-shaped human.  This way, you can still see the top of the dress, but hopefully won't focus on the boob-waist-hip ratios.  It also adds some flow to the top half to kind of balance out the movement and scope of the hemline of the dress.  The abstract garden design gives it just enough interest, without being too interesting.  And it's vague enough that the pattern on the back half being 'upside down' shouldn't be too much of an issue.

The construction was simple.  I just folded the yardage in half and cut a narrow oval for the neck, placing more of a dip in the front than that back.  The neckline was finished with a narrow strip of fabric cut from the ends.  Not a true bias, but the fabric was so light that it didn't really matter.  The front and back hemlines were cut in a shallow point and finished with a hand done rolled hem.  I left the selvedges along the side seams alone because I figured that there's nothing I could do to them that would look nicer or less obvious.  My only complaint is that the satiny bits of pattern tended to fray whenever they were manipulated, so a close inspection of the hemlines shows lots of tiny little threads sticking out.  Let it be a message to me to treat it VERY gently when it comes to washing.

I had kind of wanted to take pictures of the complete outfit, but I can't seem to figure out where the hell I put the dress.  Needless to say, organizing the costume storage is at the top of the list for projects to get started on this summer.

Recap from Figments & Filaments

In things that kind of blow my mind, we now have a costuming convention right here in Kansas City last weekend.  Figments & Filaments was a first year costuming convention whose goal seemed to be to draw together as many of the different avenues of costuming under one roof.  There was a heavy representation by the SCA and Ren Faire contingents, as well as a ton of steampunk.  Not too many of the recreationists (is that a word?  I think I'll declare it one) and definitely not the usual 'con costuming' vibe.  But this was great, because it meant that almost everything there was new to me.  I brought out mine and my niece's hanboks for the display gallery, which turned out really well.  I was surprised by just how many people recognized them as being Korean and were knowledgeable enough about them to have good discussions.

I started my weekend off with a lecture from Matthew Gnagy.  I can't even remember what the official title of his talk was, but it was two hours of everything from fashion education to historical costuming to tailoring for TV.  What really stuck with me, though, was how many Ah ha! moments I took out of his talk.  You know the feeling.  You've been working on something for months or years, plugging right along, when some little thing that you read or see somewhere just makes you go OH!  THAT'S how that's supposed to be done.  Weird shifted sleeve gusset things and the shoulder padding in suits were demystified.  As well as the concept of using trim as both a stiffener and anchor for gathering, rather than sorting out the garment, THEN applying the trim.  So lots of time cuts and the like.  There was also some great discussion about the history of (and the differences between) tailoring and dressmaking that gave me lots of thinky thoughts to ponder while noticing my own hand-sewing habits (good and bad).

I also attended a great show-and-tell about cotton and other textiles in Medieval Japan.  Getting to touch all of the fabulous fabric types and examples of the different dyeing techniques was a real treat.  Another surprising jem was the talk on the changes in military uniforms leading up to and throughout World War I.  A group of living historians from the Liberty Memorial came out and they had TONS of fun stuff to look though.  I learned a lot about the changes in warfare tactics and how the uniforms had to change because of it.

Saturday, I co-hosted an informational meetup for the Kansas City Costumers' Guild.  Which meant fully dressed first-thing in the morning.  But we had muffins, so that made it okay.  We got a lot of new faces pop up, so hopefully we'll be able to use that to help boost activities in the Kansas City area.  Our first post-F&F activity is a sewing circle at my house next weekend, so we'll see how it goes.

Saturday night was the fashion show.  I got V to wear her Poison Ivy dress again and I showed the kimono and obi that I made for my mommy.  Unlike the usual con crowd, a hotel full of historical costumers instantly zoomed in on the little details in the beading and embroidery, which was a lovely ego stroke for me.  They had a neat setup where they projected complementary images on the backdrop, which I thought was fun.

Lounging about in the halls, putting the finishing touches on my petticoat.
It's a bit warm, but oh man, the Mr Freeze smoking jacket is so comfortable.

Sunday morning was largely a wash for me, as we stayed up late the night before eating pizza and doing an MST3K of Man of Steel.  By the time that I rolled out of bed, I had to scramble to both dress and pack at the same time.  Luckily, I had slotted my 18th century getup for this, which required no doing of the hair and makeup.  Yay for caps!  I've got 8 different projects from the Historical Sew Fortnightly in this outfit, having just completed the short gown a few weeks ago.  I was tickled to finally have a complete outfit so that I could get some use out of the things that I'd been working on for the better part of the last year.

And the best part, they've just announced their dates for next year. APRIL 24-26th, 2015 at a new larger) hotel down in Overland Park.  It's three weeks ahead of Costume Con this time, so there should be plenty of wiggle room to do both .  So excited!

ASL

A bit late getting this out there, but a few weeks ago, I got to do an impromptu road trip out to St Louis for Anime St Louis.  Now, anime cons are not my usual cuppa, but I had friends competing in the qualifiers for the World Cosplay Summit and I agreed to come out as moral support/gopher/roadie, etc.  The WCS, for those who've never heard of it, is a competitive thing for cosplay duos from a whole slew of countries compete to get a trip to Japan to represent their country in competition.  It was facinating to see costuming with a different purpose than what I usually get up to.  These were artists who really focused on embodying their characters and telling a story.  I'm more of a celebrate the craft of it kind of person, and only have a few character cosplays for the fun of it.  Don't get me wrong, there was pleanty of mad skills being represented, they just take it that one step farther.  All of the teams had elaborate props and stage setups, as well as well-choreagraphed presentations including everything from dancing to fight scenes!

Aren't they just amazing?

It felt like a bit of a waste to drive all the way across the state and not compete, though.  So I took a look at ASL's Masquerade info and they actually had no rules prohibiting non-Japanese source costumes.  Score!  So I brought out my Queen of Hearts costume and entered it.  A local friend also happened to have plans to be at the con, so I batted my eyelashes and G agreed to dress up as the King with me.  Now, these were never intended to be competition costumes, so I was unsuprised that out of 80 or so entries that we didn't get anything.  But it was fun as hell to play dress up for a different kind of crowd.  One thing I noticed that's different from my usual haunts was in how the average person interacted with me in costume.  Usually, I'd get someone say something to the effect of complimenting me on my costume by name in order to show that it was recognized.  But amongst the anime fans, I was addressed in character.  Like, to the effect of people holding doors and bowing and saying "Your Majesty."  Such a treat.  Note to self: more cosplay of royalty.  

Tsk, tsk.  Trying to pawn off the wrong color of roses.

HSF 8: UFOs (UnFinished Objects) - Cranberry Short Gown

I first started working on this back in November, thinking that I'd finish it in time for the last HSF challenge of 2013 - Celebrate.  I'd already completed every other item needed for a simple 18th century outfit, all I needed was the top.  Well, life being what it is, I got preoccupied making Christmas gifts and then investing everything that I had into the 1920s Batman villains group.  So, into the bottomless pit that is my WIP basket on the shelf.  Four months later, I finally found the few hours that I needed to finish the trim and stomacher.

So this gown is made from a single decorative shower curtain that I picked up at Goodwill for a whole $2.99.  I kid you not.  It may be polyester, but there's a small diamond pattern woven into the material and it's just worn enough that, from a few feet away it's kind of hard to tell.  I found that using stupid cheap materials helped me get over the freak out of trying something completely different.  Most of my historical sewing has been from the Victorian era onward, so the drastically different construction styles of the 1700s were a bit intimidating for me.  But with this, I found I could just let go of the stress over trying to get it 'right', since hey, it's an effing shower curtain.  It's already so far off of accurate that it's just not worth worrying about.

Pattern listed in this Duran Textiles newsletter, which I almost certainly came across on the HSF Facebook.

As you can see, I took some serious liberties with the pattern.  I had to sew two panels of the shower curtain together to get a piece of fabric wide enough, but then I cut the gown in one piece, just like the pattern said.  But when I tried it on I felt like I was wearing a sack.  While it's not intended to be a flattering piece, I kinda felt like it needed a little something more.  So I took in the side seams down to the waist, putting the rest of the skirt into an inverted box pleat.  There's a box pleat in the center back, which is top-stitched down to the waist, then left open in the skirt.  I also cut back the center fronts a couple of inches and had the gown close over a stomacher instead.

I took advantage of all of those pre-hemmed ruffles from the shower curtain to add ruching around the neckline and sleeve cuffs.  This was one of those things that sounded simple enough in my head, but ended up being awfully cumbersome in actuality.  While technically straightforward, hand gathering all of that trim felt like it took forever.  Seriously, 80% of the time spent on this had to be working on that trim.

The gown closes over a stomacher in the center front, but the front edges tuck under
the giant ruffle so that you can't see them.  It kinda makes it look like it's all one piece.

From the side, showing the box pleat that lets the skirt open up over the petticoats (that I'm not wearing).

It dips down low enough in the back that I shouldn't have any trouble tucking a fichu around the neck.

And the stomacher all on it's own.  There are six zip ties at 1 inch intervals sewn between
two layers of cotton canvas.  then the front and back were covered with cranberry fabric.  

What the items is: 18th Century Short Gown

The Challenge: #8 UFO

Fabric: one ruffly polyester shower curtain from the Goodwill

Pattern: modified from the one published in this Duran Textiles newsletter.

Year: mid- to late-18th century

Notions: polyester thread, zip ties.

How historically accurate is it?  Maybe 40% if I'm stretching it.  I took some liberties with the pattern and the materials are laughable for accuracy.

Hours to complete: 15+ (hand ruching only sounds simple in your head)

First worn: Figments and Filaments is coming up this weekend.  I'm thinking of breaking it out for that.

Total cost: $3 for the shower curtain, perhaps a $1 worth of interlining for the stomacher and a half dozen zip ties.


And to top it off, here are some of the extant garments that I used for inspiration:

18th c Cotton Caraco (Belgian), from the Met.

Caraco Jacketc 1760 (altered 1780), LACMA.

Silk Dress c 1778 (French), the Met

Plaid silk caraco jacket, c. 1770 listed by Whitaker Auctions.

HSF 7: Head and Toes - 18th century court gown project

I thought I was taking an easy out on this challenge, but oh my gods, no.  I've had these shoes for something like two months now, but had been so intimidated by the thought of punching holes in them that I've left off on attaching the buckles until there wasn't much choice left.  Despite viewing both the tutorial and video on the website, I was still having trouble visualizing how the buckles went together.  However, Lauren was great with a prompt response to a plea for help via her website and having a different photo of the buckles in action certainly helped.  I still ended up poking about twice as many sets of holes as necessary, but there's nothing to be done about that now.  Most of them are hidden by the upper latchet, but at least one prominent set of holes isn't, so I'll be looking for a way to embellish them that covers that.  Giant silk ribbon bow, perhaps.  Must put ivory ribbon on the shopping list.

I'm still kicking myself for my first few holes that I made with the awl, as that was quite a struggle.  However, with a bit of leather conditioner, I think that those holes will be the easiest to minimize the appearance of.  I later switched over to the punch on my grommet setter, which was super easy and made perfect little round holes which look great everywhere, except smack dab in the center of the upper latches on the shoe turned away from the camera.  Ah well.  The sting is eased a bit as I chose to go with a pair of the Imperfects.  What little damage I could find was nothing compared to the scuffs I made putting on the buckles, so I consider that a choice well made.

I haven't done any further embellishment on these because I'm wanting a pair of straight up ivory shoes to go with the 18th century court gown that could double to be worn with my more generic 18th c outfits.  Also, I can't stand to cover that leather up because it's soooooo soft.

Year: 1770s
Notions: reproduction buckles
How historically accurate is it? pretty spot on
Hours to complete: 2, but at least half of that was spend staring at them in terror with an awl in my hand.
First worn: Hopefully next weekend for Figments and Filaments
Total cost: round about $150 for shoes plus buckles

HSF 6: Fairytales - 18th century short cloak

For the Fairytales challenge, I decided to make myself a Little Red Riding Hood cloak.  I used the pattern diagrammed out in Costume Close Up, partnered with the instructions from The Hive Online's discussion on short cloaks and building on what I learned from the short cloak I made last fall for my mother-in-law to wear with her Acadian costume.

The wool is re-purposed from a plain hemmed shawl that I wore with my Melisandre costume.  It had been run through the abuse of a hot wash and high heat dryer cycle to get it a bit felled and a softer, more abused look.  The lining is silk twill and it and the silk ribbon for the ties and hem facing were dyed together.  (The ribbon went into the bath first, then the twill.  But at that point, I needed to add a touch more water to keep everything submerged, and thus the lighter tone of the hood lining.)

The entire thing is hand-sewn, with a silk ribbon used as a lightweight hem facing instead of leaving the edges raw.  I doubt it's terribly historically accurate to accentuate the ties with buttons, but I had the wolf head buttons on hand and couldn't resist.

The Challenge: #6 Fairytales

Fabric: wool outer and silk twill lining

Pattern: from Costume Close Up, with modifications from The Hive Online

Year: mid to late 18th century

Notions: silk ribbon, gold tone buttons and cotton thread

How historically accurate is it? Just about as accurate as I can get.

Hours to complete: Maybe 12, I didn't really keep track.

First worn: you're looking at it

Total cost: $18 for the wool, $1 worth of silk twill, $3 worth of ribbon and $3 for the buttons.  So $25 total.

Yeah, ignore the fact that I'm in my skivvies.
I was pulling double duty and photographing an upcoming project at the same time.

I just LOVE the way this falls over the shoulders.

Yay for an even hemline on the fist try

Close up of the back of the hood.  I'm still not sure I got the pleats arranged the way they were intended,
but this is what I could manage to make work.  The instructions were very insistent on there being a
correct way to do this, but not terribly clear on exactly what that way was.

Close up of the buttons and ties.

And the hem facing.  I pretty pleased with the color matching.  Even though they're not all the same intensity,
they are all the same shade and I think they go well together.

Now, to find myself a basket!

HSF 4: Jeogori for Hanbok

I spent the weekend out at Naka-Kon, a local Japanese cultural and anime convention and I wanted to share something new I made up for my niece to wear to her Very First Con!  Ahem.  Proud aunty, much?  You betcha.

A friend and I had agreed in advance that we'd wear our hanbok together at some point over the weekend, and once it became confirmed that my 14-year-old niece was going to join us, I wanted to make one for her, too.  Cue the last minute side-lining of the court gown project to work on this.  It turns out that I'd loaned out the Folkwear hanbok pattern that I'd used, but I lucked out in that the individual pieces from my own mockup were still in the drawer.  Having know measurements, but a vague notion of my niece's dimensions, I just sewed any of the broken down panels together and then sewed a one inch fold down the center of all of the pieces.  It came out, not actually that bad.

The fabric was a yellow synthetic organza with screen printed roses in silver from the stash of fabrics that my friend D brought back for me from South Korea.  Like the other samples intended for jeogori, the fabric was sold in one length and the designs were pre-arranged specifically for that garment.  The black of the cuffs and matching chima look pretty dark in pictures, but in natural lighting, she made quite an impact.  The chima is organza over bridal satin, with the organza tucked up and stitched onto the satin base to give it that fluffy look.

What the items is: Jeogori for Korean Hanbok
The Challenge: #4 Bodice
Fabric: pale yellow synthetic organza with silver screen printed roses, synthetic black taffeta cuffs, synthetic silver satin for piping and white cotton sheeting for lining.
Pattern: Folkwear 147
Year: modern adaptation of the jacket length popular during the mid- to late- 1800s.
Notions: cotton cord for piping, black satin blanket binding for ties (shut up, I had some leftover from a Christmas present and it's stiffer than ribbon), and white tailors tape for finishing the sleeve seam and the bottom hem..
How historically accurate is it? Meh, I'm kinda stretching it with this one.  While the shape is technically fine, the materials are a purely modern adaptation.
Hours to complete: 8, but only because I let myself hand finish all of the internal seams and hem facing.
First worn: just today for the panel on Korean clothing at Naka-Kon
Total cost: while I had to make a last-minute run to get the materials for the chima, the jeogori was entirely from stash.

HSF #4: Under it All - Petticoat for an 18th Century Court Gown

Next milestone in the 18th century court gown project is the petticoat.  Now, at first glance, the dress looks like it might have an open skirt on top of a petticoat of the same red fabric, with a bit of additional fur trim.  However, if you look closely at the far right hand hem of the dress, there's a small bit of something off white -ishsticking out there at the end.

Hmm... might have to find me a stuffed spotted dog to go with the costume.

The lovely people over on the Grand Ladies website where I first spotted this dress have hypothesized that it's a pale bit of petticoat sticking out and that, consequently, the fur-trimmed panel in the front is simply intended to create the illusion of a second petticoat underneath.  Now, I'm all about keeping it simple, and it seems that having the skirt be all one piece will not only save fabric, but also be easier to maneuver in. There's no worrying that the heavy fur will flip parts of the skirt open and look unsightly.

So, a pale petticoat it is.  I decided to keep it simple with this one and use what I had on hand.  I had eight yards of un-dyed dupioni silk left over from a cosplay project that never materialized, so I opted to use that.  Bonus points in that if I ever stop wearing this costume, I'll have large pieces of silk that I can tear out and dye to fit whatever the new project needs.  It's what they would have done back then.

On to the math.  My panniers have a 160" circumference at the bottom hoop.  For simplicity's sake, I'm going to pretend that's in a perfect circle for the next bit.  Working under the assumption that each additional petticoat is going to add 2" out from the body has worked well for me thus far in life.  If you'll remember from your geometry classes, the circumference of a circle is equal to 2πr, where r is the radius of the circle and π is Pi, (approximately 3.14).  So my pretend-it's-a-circle panniers would be have a radius of 160/2π, which is roughly equal to 25.5 inches.  Assuming that the ivory petticoat is going to stand out two inches from that, the petticoat would have a radius of 25.5 + 2 = 27.5 inches.  The circumference of this would be 2(3.14)(27.5) = 172.7 inches.

The fabric I have is 45" wide.  Assuming 1/2" seams, that leaves me with 44" of usable width per panel.  If I had 4 panels, then that would give me a circumference of 176 inches.  That sounds close enough to me.  So, four panels it is.  Now, how long should I cut those four panels of fabric?  I came across a couple of great tutorials from La Couturière Parisienne (excellent break down of the length requirements over different sizes of foundations) and The Fashionable Past (superb step-by-step instructions for the pleating that deals with all that extra fabric).  While the final dress was going to be floor length, I wanted to make sure that the petticoat was a good 2" shorter than that.  Keeping in mind that I'd be in 1" heels, and that another inch was going to get eaten up in the hem,  I decided on 44" for the raw length.  I'm trying to be careful about keeping track of the math now, because this is acting as the trial run for the outer skirt.

I used machine stitching to assemble the panels and attach them to the waist band, then hand stitching to finish the hem, waist ties and the top of the side pleats.  The lengthwise seams were pressed open and the selvages left as is.  Openings were left on each side to access the pockets, and these seams were turned under twice and finished with a running back stitch.  The hem took about 3 hours of hand sewing to do, but it was a simple stitch and kind of meditative.  I figure that some people can spend 3 hours watching tv in a single night, so I don't consider that time wasted at all.

From the front.  You can still see a bit of hoop showing through, but the pleats stacking up on the ends should offer enough cushioning where I'll need it.  I'll wait and see how the fashion fabric drapes over it before I decide if I need to make another petticoat to go under this one.  It's hard to tell from this angle, but my friend crawled around on the floor and assured me that there's about a hand's width gap between the hem and the floor.

Side view.  While it't not quite as narrow a depth as historical references, neither am I.  So I'll call this good.

And THAT is how I plan to get through doors in this costume.  Will just have to make sure that the chemise is long enough to provide some modesty in the elevator.

Just the facts
What the items is: petticoat for an 18th century court gown
The Challenge: Under it All
Fabric: ~ 5 yards of un-dyed silk dupioni
Pattern: La Couturière Parisienne and The Fashionable Past
Year: 1770s
Notions: poly thread for the panel assembly, gold silk thread for the hem, un-dyed rayon ribbon for the waise binding and ties
How historically accurate is it? 9/10
Hours to complete: 6, about half of which was spent hand-sewing the hem
Total cost: $55 US

Epic Fail

Ha!  You can tell I'm relatively new to this world of blogging.  I've just now realized that when I delete comments on the comments tab, I'm actually deleting the comment.  Here this whole time, I thought I was just deleting the comment notification.  Epic fail.  So, apologies to anyone who's noticed a comment of theirs disappearing.  It was wholly unintentional.

Along the theme of epic fails, my dress form bit the dust today.  Apparently, the court panniers were just too much for her to handle.  She had a good run, though.  I figure that with all of the heavy Victorian bustle gowns that I've hung on her, it was bound to happen eventually.

So sad.  :(

On the bright side, though, a replacement has been ordered.  I went with the Dritz Twin-Fit Dress Form, Full Figure.  Ordering through Amazon, I was able to get it at a much better price than if I'd purchased it in the store.  Until it gets here, I'll just have to set aside the petticoat for the court dress and work on something else.  Perhaps I'll start drafting out a pattern for the bodice.