1860 Sheer Dress

I'm about to start working on my sheer 1860 dress so that I'll be able to volunteer at the historical village near my school when fall comes around and being in Texas it will still be ridiculously hot! So a sheer dress will be perfect. I have some voile fabric and as soon as I get more of it I was planning on using that.

I would really like to try to stamp a design on the white fabric somehow. I haven't fully figured out what I'd like to do.

Secondly, I'd really like to make a swiss waist for it. I've mostly only seen swiss waists over a sheer top and contrasting or same as swiss waist fabric skirt but I've found a couple over a sheer or at least not a skirt top combo.

Via

Via

The second is actually a girl in Texas and a homespun dress. From what I take from it seems that someone could have very well used it over a sheer dress or any dress they wanted to dress up or change a little bit

From an Ebay auction a while back

The last I found on Ebay quite a while back and it's what really made me want to make a swiss waist!

As for sheer dress inspiration I've kind of got some ideas for it but I think it may just be pretty basic so I can add things to it like the swiss waist. I keep thinking I should make short sleeves but I already have the pink one...

HSF Challenge 15: White

About a week ago I saw this Lucile dress from 1916. I've seen it before but this time I knew I had to recreate it. I loved that it was 18th century inspired! After I started it I realized I could finally use it for a Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge too!

I love the skirt bustled on it!

scalloped petticoat

It's not perfect... it has a lot of small flaws I'm annoyed about but I don't know how to drape patterns and this didn't turn out horrendously awful, so I feel like I got just a little bit better at sewing in this project. I really do love the original dress and after making it I love the skirt bustled up and showing the underskirt. I think this would actually make a really gorgeous wedding dress if you really spent time to put detail into it (obviously it was a wedding dress but it would be pretty today too!).

There was a blue sash for it but when I got my friend Cait to help me take pictures I forgot the sash at home! It's unfortunate because I love the blue with it! So here's a bad self phone pic to get an idea of the blue sash. 

Things I changed: The original has four skirt layers: a scalloped shorter skirt, a sheer skirt with a lace pattern on it and a loop around the skirt of one boning line, a sheer apron with a ruffle to cover the boning line, and the outer skirt attached to the bodice. I didn't have the right kind of boning to put into the skirt layer so I left it out and then didn't really need the apron with the ruffle to cover that boning line. I could have added it anyway for the added effect of a ruffle but on the original you can't even see the underskirt's lace and I like the lace.  A zipper instead of hooks and eyes (I have no good excuse I was just being lazy and once I see a project isn't going to be perfect I start to take short cuts). Finally I didn't put in the sort of under sleeve? that is sheer and is longer than the sleeve and peeks out. I don't like it, I think it looks weird so I left it out. I may go back and add the small sheer ruffle on the neckline behind the trim, but probably not. 

The Challenge: # 15 the color white

Fabric: I think a silk blend fabric for outer dress, voile for underskirt, and a white cotton  for scalloped petticoat, grey cotton fabric for lining.

Pattern:  draped on mannequin

Year: inspired by 1916 Lucile wedding dress with obvious 18th century influence

Notions: zipper, lace for skirt

How historically accurate is it? The fabric is not accurate to the original but could be accurate to the time. I guessed on construction of the dress so it could be accurate with the skirts separated from outer dress. The zipper isn't accurate but I didn't want hooks and eyes on the back though they did have zippers at the time so it's just not accurate to the inspiration dress. 

Hours to complete: 20+

First worn: For pictures

Total cost: everything was fabric from my stash except for voile which cost me maybe $10

And because the original dress was a wedding dress I had to try one picture with a makeshift veil from lace I had. I love the sharp look of the dress from the side  in this. 

Exciting Monday

Sometimes the best way for me to be sure to finish something is to just go at it right away and work like mad till I finish it. It's when I put things down and pick up other projects in between that it never gets done. Fortunately that didn't happen with the 1916 Lucile dress!  I'm so excited to say that I finished it tonight! I'm going to give it a whole post later this week when I can find someone to take real pictures of me in it! Here's  a preview-

I'm so excited about this dress and I have lots to say about it but I'll save that for it's own post!

And as a bonus! I finally finally completed something I can use for the Historical Sew Fortnightly because this dress is obviously perfect for the challenge 15 which is the color white and it's not due till July 29, so I'm early! This has inspired me to push myself to get some more historical things done before summer ends and I really want to do more of the challenges!

Lucile Dress Mock-Up

I have attempted draping my first pattern! and the Lucile Dress is slowly coming along.

Via

Besides figuring out a pattern for the bodice I've been trying to figure out how to attach the many different layers of the skirt. I've pinned some different layers and have come up with a plan.

Grey Fabric is just for the mock-up

I will attach the the white silk outer skirt to the bodice because that obviously looks attached. Then dealing with the three layers under that which look like a white scalloped skirt with a lace skirt over that has some kind of boning run through it's middle and then a lace sheer panel/apron that is on top in the immediate front. I considered attaching the lace apron to the bodice also but instead I'll attach it to what I am calling the petticoat now.

So I will start with a white cotton scalloped petticoat. On top of that will be the sheer layer with boning through it's middle. I want to do some kind of lace design like they have on it. I think I will attach it near the top of the petticoat but not too the waistband because my other concern is the waistband getting too bulky. Finally the apron will be attached. With the apron I am still not sure how I will attach it yet.

My design plan for this petticoat (apron not here). I tried to show it flat and then gathered into the skirt.

Secret Life of Bloggers 4

This week is the first week I got a picture for every single day! Yay! It helped that I had more to do this week than school work... I've got lots of sewing projects coming up and two of my classes end in the next week finally!   Check out the rest over at World Turn'd Upside Down! 

Friday June 14

Worked a little bit of sewing in on a doll dress and of course put the ruffle on backwards. But it's starting to come together and I love the pink and white together!

Saturday June 15

Went to the antique store nearby and picked up this pillowcase to add to my collection of pillowcases!

Sunday June 16

Finally made use of my big white board as a To Do list to organize my school work this week!

Monday June 17

Planning out how to sew and make the 1916 Lucile dress. I'm not really the best at sketching clothing but it works to get my ideas down!

Tuesday June 18

I found an old box of family photos in storage and am excited to go through them and put them with the  rest of my genealogy work! This is my great grandma Viola.

Wednesday June 19

Found my great grandma Carrie Mae's China from 1920 or earlier! They say Theodore Haviland from France on the bottom and I think it's some kind of dessert set. There's a teapot and tea cups and little plates, a sugar bowl, and a coffee pot with little coffee cups!

Thursday June 20

And the first mockup bodice of the 1916 Lucile dress! My first time draping a pattern and my next step this weekend is actually sewing the mock pieces together to see if the fit is still good! Draping it actually came out better than I expected. 

1916 dress inspired by the 18th century

I recently saw a picture of this 1916 lucile wedding dress and fell in love with it. I found more detailed pictures of it on the digital collection of the Chicago History Museum website.

Via

I have absolutely no reason to make this dress and it would be a little ridiculous to spend time making this. BUT I do happen to have lots of a white silky blend fabric left over from my graduation dress I made two years ago and I've never had anything to do with it... and well I'll just use the need for practicing pattern drafting as an excuse to be making a random 1916 wedding gown. 

The only thing I think I would change on this dress is the sleeves, possibly make them longer and definitely get rid of the netted undersleeves. I do love the trim though. I think the hardest thing for me would be the way the skirt is attached to the bodice, I'm not sure I like how it looks up close. 

I'm really glad this Chicago Museum's photo allow you to zoom in so closely and see the details it will be a huge help in constructing this!

Secret Life of Bloggers Post 3

Here's another week of posts! No internet issues this week, so it's on time! Go check out the others here! In my rush last week I didn't really get to say what a neat idea I think this is. By having to take a picture it makes me think about my day and document something of it with just a short sentence or two. I have a diary but it's something I don't write in as often as I'd like just because it takes time to write a lot, but the idea of just documenting the day with a sentence or two makes it so easy!

Check out the other ones over here

Oops I just realized I missed Saturday!


Sunday June 9

Bought paint to paint my nightstand blue!

Monday June 10

Started first day of learning Latin! 

Tuesday June 11

Lots and lots of studying for summer classes!

Wednesday June 12

Finished a t-shirt quilt for a friend's sister and a matching bow pillow!

Thursday June 13

Watching TLC bride shows with my best friend Cait!

Secret life of Bloggers Post

 This was supposed to be posted earlier today but my Internet got cut yesterday and they aren't fixing it until Monday! So there's not a full week of pictures unfortunately because I had to go with what I had already in the post and finish it up from my phone! Next week will be better! Go check everyone else's posts out over at World Turn'd Upside Down! ( I don't know how to link from my phone either ... Ill fix this later!)

Saturday June 1

- Repainted my new iron bed, it is now bright white and fresh looking!

Sunday June 2

- Moved lots of things out of my apartment and found a street named Alton! (Like Alton Brown the cook!)

Monday June 3

I finally tried this Papillote curling technique from the 18th century and I loved it! I did large curls so it was really quick to do but I bet this would work really well for historical hairstyles if you did small pieces!

Tuesday June 4

Worked on a t-shirt quilt for a friend's little sister.

Wednesday June 5

I was trying to come up with some floral designs to embroider and ended up just sketching and coloring in this picture. I'm not really the best drawer but I do love to do it sometimes just for fun!

Sewing for Dolls

I love sewing smaller clothes and using the scraps I have left to make them. I have a pinterest boards filled with vintage children's clothing I'd like to make someday! Since I don't have a child to sew for, I've been experimenting with sewing up doll clothing. It's different from normal sewing because it's SO small.  A while back I found a bunch of historical clothing patterns from the American Girl doll company so I've meant to use some of these to sew up some and maybe get good enough to sell them eventually!

The first one I tried out was the basic pattern for Kristen's dress. Besides closing with velcro the patterns are pretty accurate for a doll's clothing. I started with hand-sewing this but got impatient and started to machine sew which actually worked just fine. 

I think the patterns would be pretty easy to modify... which is something I'd like to try eventually. 

It was my first time really closing something with velcro so that was interesting mostly because I couldn't find a long skinny strip so had to cut some in half and it's in three pieces. 

It's a quick sew though, so it's nice to sew up "a whole outfit" in a relatively short time. I'm trying the other dress patterns so I'll have more to show soon!