HSF 12: Shape and Support - Bodice to the 18th Century Court Gown

I'm playing a bit of catch up as far as the blogging goes.  I leave for Costume College in two weeks and my summer thus far has been absolutely packed with sewing and other costumer prep for it.  I've thus far been able to find a current project that applies to each of the recent Historical Sew Fortnightly challenges, so at least I'm caught up there.  Challenge 12 was Shape and Support and, while I hadn't finished the court gown for the Bodice challenge, I was able to buckle down and get it done for this one.  I was originally intending to wear this over stays, despite most references to court gowns stating that this wasn't the case.  To be honest, I just wasn't sure that I could get the support that my plus size figure needed without them.  However, once I started putting the layers of the bodice together, the whole thing started feeling way too bulky. (My stays are fully boned, and with cane.  So they are a tad thick.)  I already had already made an interlining layer which had a handful of bones set into it, so I went back and added about ten more and then left the front three inches of the lining and fashion layer separate so that I could tightly lace the inside closed, then pin the outer layer into place.  Adding in four inch wide facings to the linen lining and silk outer was necessary to hide the raw edges, as well as the unsightly (and somewhat doodled on) cotton canvas interlining as well as the last of the pepto pink cotton sheeting that I'd been using to flat line the silk.  Come to think of it, that's four layers of fabric.  No wonder it felt so bulky over stays.

I chose to attach the overskirt to the bodice along the back half of the waist line instead of finishing the waist band of the skirt and wearing it over tabs.  I liked the added security of knowing that the top and bottom wouldn't separate while sitting or dancing.  The front half of the waistline of the overskirt was faced and finished and still needs a hook to anchor it at the side.  The open front will then pin closed under the front edges of the bodice.  This also gives the added bonus that I can adjust where the fur trim on the open front comes out from under the bodice so that I can keep the look of a solid strip of trim down the entire body.  The bodice still needs a bit of fur trimmings to make it look like the inspiration painting, and then I'm going to attach my engageants to the dress sleeves instead of the chemise, but it is otherwise done. I'm pretty stoked about it, as the bodice was the part of the project that I was dreading the most.  (Not knowing how to do something usually results in a frankly astounding amount of procrastination on my part.)

One of my goals for this project was that any stitching which could be seen on the finished garment had to be done by hand.  This made the bodice a cumbersome project, but I really am pleased with how it turned out.  I managed the edges by turning under the linen lining and whip stitching it to the interlining.  The edges of the red silk were then turned under and stitched into place.  With hand sewing, I find that I have a lot more control over how the edges of my fabric meet.  It's much easier to make minor adjustments between stitches, as opposed to just pinning everything in place and hoping for the best under the speed and indiscrimination of the machine.  Also, hand stitching makes all those pretty little stitch marks that I love so much.  

Info for the HSF:
What the item is: bodice to an 18th century court gown
The Challenge: Shape and Support
Fabric: red silk jacquard flat-lined to cotton sheeting (the pink stuff left over from the pet  panniers!), lined with coffee-stained linen and sandwiched in the middle is a boned layer of cotton canvas interlining.
Pattern: I used JP Ryan's Robe Anglaise as a starting point, adjusting the lower edge to end at the waist in the back.
Year: 1770s
Notions: reed boning, boning channels, silk buttonhole thread for the lacing eyelets and cotton thread for the top stitching.
How historically accurate is it? I had to do a lot of guessing when it came to construction techniques of a court gown, but the overall 18th century-ness of it is pretty good. All hand sewn, excepting the construction seams and boning channels, which are now sealed up insde the layers.
Hours to complete: hmm... maybe 20 or so.
First worn: for the Gala at Costume College in T minus 16 days...
Total cost: probably around $50 for this part.

HSF 11: The Politics of Fashion - Chemise de la Reine and Bergère Hat

I ended up doing a bit of a whirlwind entry for the latest challenge at the Historical Sew Fortnightly. The theme was The Politics of Fashion, where we were challenged to create something that demonstrates the interactions between dress and political history.  As I'd been focusing on the 18th century lately, I decided to try to find something from around about that time.  Following shortly after the time that my court gown is from would be the time leading up to the French Revolution.  Those decades were rife with political and social change, a great example of which was the fad amongst wealthy women to dress in a style reminiscent of the working class women of agricultural areas.  The chemise a la reine was often paired with straw bergère or shepherdess hat.  The look was supposed to bring to mind the simple, carefree life enjoyed by no actual shepherdess, ever.  It was also an example of a simplification in the style of dress of the upper classes in response to significant social pressures from the masses.  Sarah Lorraine of Mode Historique is doing her master's degree research on the chemise a la reine and has some great information up that I found super helpful.

What I loved about the dress was how simple it was (relatively speaking), as well as how comfortable.  The bodice and sleeves are gathered, not fitted.  And if I wanted to skip my stays, the pair of quilted jumps I'm working on would do just as well.  Bonus points that I had plenty of that window pane cotton lawn that I did the smocked bib Regency apron out of and this made a nice little side track from the court gown project.  I found a scan from The Cut of Women's Clothes 1600-1930 by Norah Waugh that sketched out the basic shape of the gown and I used that as my starting point.  (as well as ordering a copy of the book for myself, as it was looking pretty useful).  I decided to go with an open front gown so that I had the option to wear it over a colored petticoat, should the inclination arise.  Yay for options.  I skipped adding any sort of front closure beyond the drawstring at the neckline.  Once the sash is in place, everything holds itself together quite nicely.  To hide the bow from the drawstring, I plan to wear this brooch with an image of Gainsborough's Blue Boy on it.

The sleeves were gathered once above the elbow, but I put no gathering in at the waist as I found it fairly easy to arrange the fullness to my liking and then hold it in place with the sash.  Thanks to Katherine for pointing out that, unlike how it was illustrated in Waugh's book, the channel for gathering the waist would not actually be along the straight of grain but curved to fit around the hips.  Without that heads up, I'd have likely gone ahead and put it in following the weave of the fabric and then had to invent new swear words when having to pick the white stitches out of the white lawn.  I may revisit the notion of the drawstring waist  later, after I've had a chance to wear it around a bit.

All told, the dress probably took about 20 hours to make, but a lot of that time was spent hand sewing a rolled hem for the ruffles on the cuffs and neckline.  The sash and contrasting bands on the sleeves were made from silk taffeta.  The sleeve bands were just strips of fabric with the long ends folded under that were tack stitched directly on top of the gathered channels.  The sash was three 10 inch wide widths of 54" fabric that were sewn into one long strip and then into a tube that was turned inside out.  The ends were tucked under to form a point and I've ordered some spring green silk cord to make a pair of tassels out of that I'll hang off the ends.  

I hope I don't regret putting a train on a white dress.

The hat was a garden hat I picked up at the Goodwill and modified.  There are a million tutorials out there for making a make-do 18th century straw hat if you need one, but it's terribly simple in concept.  You just cut a section of the crown height out to drop it down to the desired height, then sew/glue/fuse with mastiff spit the crown back onto the bring and cover your likely terribly ugly hack job with a hand band and decorations.  I tried meticulously hand sewing the crown back onto the brim, but the woven straw wasn't keen on the notion of holding together, so I went back and slathered on a frankly obscene amount of tacky glue to finish the job.  I fashioned a bow out of the last of the light green taffeta and paired it with a bit of this blue-green silk shambala that I impulse bought from Silk Baron because it looked interesting.  The fabric is a blend of three different silks and it takes up dye in an interesting varigated pattern.  As is, I feel like the hat is missing something, but I can't tell what.  Maybe some fake wildflowers?  Some lace?  I don't want to do ties as I'll be using a hat pin to affix the hat to an as yet unmade tragic abuse of a curly wig.

It's not often that I pick a project simple enough for me to do up an entire outfit in just over a week.  I'm aiming to wear this number to the Fantasy Tea at Costume College.  

Some other useful blog posts:

http://diariosanacronicos.com/blog/tutorial-chemise-a-la-reine-chemise-gown/

http://www.thefashionhistorian.com/2012/03/chemise-la-reine.html

http://persephonemagazine.com/2013/05/the-chemise-a-la-reine-an-eighteenth-century-fashion-trend/

http://www.koshka-the-cat.com/chemise_dress.html

HSF Challenge #10: Art - the skirts for the 18th century court gown

The 18th century court gown project is coming right along.  After this, it's just the bodice and the wig that's left and it'll be done!  The skirts on this monstrosity took a bit of thinking, actually.  There were several different ways I could have done it.  The major decision here was how to do that open front.  I had originally thought that it would be the most fabric-conservative if I just simulated the appearance by applying the fur trim.  But then I worried about that looking TOO false.  Even if I shortened the hem on the center panel and layered the fur, the whole piece would still move as one when I walked.  On the other extreme, making a full under petticoat seemed wasteful, and there was NO WAY that I was using up any more of that silk than I absolutely had to.  

So to compromise, what I ended up doing was making a single panel and attaching it to the ivory petticoat.  The panel is single width (45") wide and flat-lined with some of the leftovers of that lurid pepto pink cotton sheeting that I used to make the panniers.  I've given myself permission to machine sew all of the internal seams on this project, so that sped things up quite a bit.  I also basted the two layers together under each of the fur swags with a zig zag stitch on the machine.  This helped avoid puckering of the silk since the two layers were feeding under the machine's foot at a different rate.  The whole panel was then inserted into the waistband on the ivory petticoat and is currently held out with safety pins, although I'll go back and tack stitch it in place once I've decided just how much it needs to be stretched.  The panel is heavy, and is sagging  bit here on the dress form, but when I wear it over stays, there's enough waist-to-hip contrast that it stays up nicely.

The next decision had to do with cutting panels.  The ivory petticoat was cut in four panels, then pleated to curve up over the humps of the panniers.  The silk is so light, I was afraid of putting any vertical seams into it.  I could have flat-lined it, but then I'd have lost that lovely flowy feel of it.  So instead of cutting 46" long panels and sewing them together (2" longer than the petticoat), I just cut one long length of 45" wide fabric and wrapped it around.  Luckily, the pattern of the jacquard is intricate and not terribly direction-specific, so no worries there.  The cut ends were faced with 3" wide strips of cotton sheeting and red silk - the silk to keep it pretty if the ends flap open and the cotton to give me something weighty to attach the fur to.  This left me just a touch short on length.  One of the patterns that I had been playing around with was of the 1751 coronation robes of Queen Louise Ulrica of Sweden (as patterned out in History of Costume, From the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century by Blanche Payne).  In this dress, there was a keyhole-shaped piece of fabric that went over the top of the panniers that the panels were sewn into.  S and X being the front and back at the waist and V being the most lateral point of the hips.

I set up the panniers and petticoat on the dress form, then took the single length of skirt and made a narrow hand sewn hem along one selvedge.  I then pinned the piece to the petticoat adjusting so that I had an even hem all the way around.  I took a piece of scrap cotton and laid it over the gaping holes above each hip and outlined the shape of the piece that I needed to fill it in.  I cut a pair of these out of the silk and used a narrow strip of fabric to face a slit just a bit forward of the center of each piece so that I could access pockets.  The narrow ends are for wrapping tot he front and were faced with silk that had been flat-lined with the cotton.  These are the bits where the vertical strips of fur will hang down from and, as they'll just be pinned to the stomacher, they needed to be finished.  The larger, sweeping curve was left with 1/2" seam allowance as it'll be sewn into the back waist of the bodice.

Instead of making large box pleats, like I did on the petticoat, I gathered all of the excess fabric over the hips.  I turned under a narrow seam on the keyhole piece and basted it in place, then pinned it to the skirt panels so that it only just covered the narrow selvedge and the entire thing was whip stitched into place.

Showing off just how much narrower I got the panniers to go by tightening the internal ties a bit.

And the specifics for the Historical Sew Fortnightly:
What the item is: the skirts for my 18th century court gown project
The Challenge: #10 Art
Your inspiration: portrait of Queen Maria Carolina, painted by Francesco Liani, ca. 1770s
Fabric: red silk jacquard with leaf and scroll pattern, "grizzly" synthetic fur, some of the pepto pink cotton sheeting leftover from the panniers project for flat-lining and facings.
Pattern: none/draped
Year: 1770s
Notions: cotton thread
How historically accurate is it? Pretty damn close
Hours to complete: around about 14, me thinks
First worn: it's for the gala at Costume College
Total cost: $150-ish

Also, holy crap, these things are HUGE!  I was as wide as the kitchen.  I know I'm not the only one showing up to the Costume College gala in a court gown, so I just have to wonder.  Has anyone thought about how on earth we're all supposed to sit down for dinner?  Will everyone in a hoop skirt be sorted to the left to sit at the tables with chairs spaced farther apart?

I suppose that if we get kicked out of the hotel for partying too hard, we can always camp out under it.  ;)

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