Sunday Update

No matter how much I keep trying to make anything and everything blue for my 18th century wardrobe I keep ending up with red tones. This weekend I found some red linen for $4 a yard so I got 5 yards of it. Actually I would have gotten more but that was all that was left so hopefully that will work! I'd like to make a round gown similar to this

I also ordered the American Duchess Antoinette shoes... I almost didn't and I literally ordered them with 2 hours to spare but I couldn't stop thinking about them! Of course I got the blue... and I'm a little worried about that. I still want to make a dress out of my magenta redish taffeta so blue shoes aren't going to go great with that but maybe if I dyed them dark blue... 

And because this post feels empty without a picture, three tie blankets I made this weekend! 

1908 Corset Mockup

I decided to make something for the 2014 Foundations Revealed competition. 

I don't really have any ideas for the geometry theme but the 1908 Transitional Corset I thought would be a great thing to make. I've never actually made a corset, the closest was making my 18th century stays.  Early 1900's is also an era I haven't looked at before. 

I got the pattern and found a lot of helpful information from this article. I think you have to have a subscription to see it though. 

It did not have seam allowance and I decided not to add any because the measurements the original came out to be were a bit bigger than me and I'm not great with math so I figured I'd just go with this. 

As far as I can tell, I think the mock up size worked well and except for taking out one of the gusset pieces, it works. So next I'll cut out the actual fabric, when I decide on it! 

HSF Challenge #23: Gratitude

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While finishing up this dress, I was super excited to realize this could count as an HSF challenge! I couldn't have gotten through the making of this dress without the great tutorials and pictures that others have put out there. This was my first 18th century gown so I had tons of questions and no pattern so I relied on what others put out there! 

Research:

Here I learned more about chintz fabric

William Booth Draper sells a blue chintz fabric here that has the same white background with floral blue print similar to my fabric.  They also cite, The Pennsylvania Gazette which said "Run away... a native of Ireland... has on, and took with her, one chints gown, stamped with blue."  The same site also sells patterns and says that printed cotton is an option for a robe a l'anglaise seen here. This helped reenforce that my fabric wasn't completely inaccurate.

Before I could start on the actual dress I had to make a basic bodice lining pattern and the pictures of her draped lining on Jenny La Fleur's Robe a l'Anglaise dress diary helped a ton! Not too mention her other 18th century projects I looked through just to get a better idea of how to make my dress.

After completing my lining I really followed much of the tutorial here from The Fashionable Past

As mentioned in a previous post, when I got completely stuck on my sleeves, this website and dress tutorial here gave me a sleeve pattern that got me back on track!

I'm sure there are even more links that I am missing because as this shows the first place I turn to when I'm stuck are the tutorials and even just pictures others have put up. Anytime I make a historical item I spend a ton of time researching by looking at examples others have made. I love this challenge because I really am so grateful for all the research and pictures others put up! It's why I always try to document mine because you never know what little picture, or way of wording something, will help someone else with their project!

The Challenge: Gratitude

Fabric: Blue and white cotton chintz, blue linen, cotton lining

Pattern: Robe a l'Anglaise self drafted

Year: late 18th century

Notions: cotton tape

Accuracy: It's pretty accurate, I've hand sewn the entire outfit including both petticoats and I think I got the shape down pretty well. It's only issue may be the fabric. While there was blue chintz on white, the pattern on my fabric is probably not the most accurate in terms of the design size. The blue linen petticoat is accurate.

Hours to complete: many

First worn: For pictures!

Cost:  I bought this fabric in the early summer so I don't remember that anymore and am calling it stash fabric. The linen I got from an old table cloth! So no money spent for this one!

This is my favorite 18th century outfit so far. I really love how it turned out with the blue linen petticoat. It's very simple and I'd like to go back and trim it one of these days. Besides some problems with the sleeves it went together pretty well and was a great step in learning to make 18th century gowns.

The matching petticoat!

For all previous posts of the making of this dress click here.