Costume Closeup Jacket #2

Costume Closeup Jacket #2

First time wearing my American Duchess shoes!

Details:

Pattern: Costume Closeup Jacket with modifications mostly to the front to make it rounded and meet and close with pins, instead of using a stomacher.

Year: 1780s

Fabric: Blue cotton print with a cotton lining, both from fabric stash

Accuracy: Entirely hand sewn with period stitches but would probably need a linen lining to be really accurate

I took more pictures than this, but somehow no one caught that my skirt in the back was caught up and the under petticoat is showing, so I've only got front pictures to show right now :(

I started this and mostly finished it back in December but as usual got stuck on the sleeves. I wanted the style sleeve with the little elbow area that is in the original costume closeup pattern but no matter how I tried I couldn't enlarge it correctly to fit me. Finally, this tutorial at At the Sign of the Golden Scissors saved me!!  I think I could perfect the sleeve fit on me a little more, but at least it actually fits me well this time around!

I don't like that the front is not very flat and wrinkles in places, I wonder if it would be accurate to place boning in a jacket front? I know there's example in dresses.

Childhood

via

I came across this picture about a year ago when researching 18th century clothing and I just loved it. I'm pretty sure everyone probably thinks otherwise, but I think the little girl is just the cutest thing (I mean she has a cat, a doll dressed in 18th century clothing, and chubby cheeks- it doesn't get much cuter!)

I found some more books I hadn't read yet at my library particularly one about children's fashion and came across this again and had to share. Fun fact I didn't know until now: the pink ribbons attached to her back are actually leading strings and show how young she is. Leading strings are strips of self fabric sewn to the shoulders of the dress to help the toddler who is learning to walk. The book showed another example of a young boy who had a ribbon that tied around his waist as a leading string.

The only baby I've known recently learned to walk around one year, and I know children wore clothing styled like adults, but I still can't believe the little girl in the painting is so young! If I only had a one year old... my next project would be making this dress to copy the picture! 

HSF 2014 #1

HSF #1: Make Do and Mend

I really wanted a hat to go along with my silk 18th century dress so I took a horribly inaccurate old 1860 hat I made out of cardboard and covered in silk, and used the silk to cover a new straw hat! Well a blue straw placemat that I molded to become a straw hat! 

Yes that is the finished 1780 dress but I'm really really trying to keep up with the HSF challenges this year so since this one was due, I think two days ago, I wanted to get it up! Pictures of the complete dress are coming though! 

Completely inaccurate but to help make it a tiny bit more stiff I ironed on interfacing. It actually ironed on well too.

The Challenge: Make Do and Mend

Fabric: White Silk and Lavender Silk

Pattern: None

Year: 18th Century

Notions:Velvet ribbon, thread

How historically accurate is it? It's a straw placemat molded to a hat shape and covered with silk. I read somewhere that they did cover straw hats with silk but they probably weren't blue straw... The fabric is accurate and I hand stitched it all down. There is some interfacing in it though to make it a little stiffer.

Hours to complete: 2 maybe

First worn: for pictures

Total cost: $6 maybe, since the majority of it is the white silk from the old hat

Zone Front Part 3

I need to have my dress done by tomorrow to take pictures of it but thanks to horrible awful sleeves, I spent the last day and night trying to get my sleeves right and it put me super behind schedule on my dress! 

I literally have made 11 different sleeve patterns trying to get it right, I tried everything. Originally I planned to do long sleeve, but the one I tried fit horribly so I went to a elbow length sleeve. What I really wanted for that length was the kind with seam at the elbow like the jacket in Costume Closeup. Unfortunately that sleeve pattern didn't fit the first time I made the jacket and no matter how I tried the pattern I couldn't get the size right this time. So I just finally somehow got a basic sleeve with no extra seams. I don't love it as much but at this point I'm just glad it works. 

I did cut out the skirt and made buttons (first time ever! I lovee them!!). 

I plan on putting two buttons on the back to loop up the skirt with. I also ended up with plenty of fabric to trim the skirt with! Now I just need to decide on how to trim it, and the bodice, sleeves, and hat! Tonight's probably going to be a long night trying to get this finished up but at least I'll have pictures soon! 

1780 Zone Front Dress Part 2

I've discovered that to enter my dress I've got to turn it in by January 15!!! I'm a little nervous because I just ordered the fabric yesterday but I think most of the time consuming work will be in drafting and getting the pattern just right which I can be working on now. I do want to add trim to it but I'll have to see how much taffeta I have left over since I just got 4 yards. 

I did make the white silk petticoat!  

Simple and fast! Yay!!

It's shorter than any other petticoat I have but if I can convince myself to take apart my old 1860 ballgown of the same fabric I'd have enough to add a pleated ruffle to the bottom which would make it longer.

I made a second mockup of the bodice. Unfortunately I'm reaching the end of my old scraps pile and had to use a zebra print which means you can't really see the zone front, on the left at least.

I plan to make up a lining today in some scrap fabric just to make sure that fits fine and hopefully I'll have the actual linen lining cut out and started today too. 

1780 Zone Front

Beginning Construction and Fabric Plans

Originally I planned to try to use a pattern scaled up out of Patterns of Fashion or Costume Closeup but since I made a basic 18th century bodice block a few months ago and I would have been redrafting any patterns from those books anyways, I figured it would be easiest to make my own pattern. 

First I had to figure out the right shape for the front section. I went with the left side which is a little rounder and goes further out to the side. In the back of my mind I keep wondering if I should do the more pointed zone front than the rounded... 

In this pretty rough first mockup, once again, the left side of the zone front looks better even though I cut them both the same. I think it was just a mistake in the sewing on the right side folding over a little too much of the top piece. It was too large so I ended up just taking out the very side back piece and I'll extend the front piece just a little bit to wrap around. The neckline also had to be cut lower and widened. I also added more shape to the waistline. 

The back bodice will be disconnected from the skirt and have a point. 

For a fabric color and fabric update, I found some beautiful silk taffetas but for how much I'll need and how expensive it is, the cheapest color option was actually the lavender and white. Luckily, I found about 2 1/2 maybe three yards of white silk left over from an 1860 ball gown 6 or 7 years ago! Yay! I hope mixing a rough silk (the kind with those lines and whatnot in it) with a silk taffeta will look alright. I ordered the Lavender taffeta today from Renaissance Fabrics, I can't wait to see it!

Contest Dress

I'm making a dress for a contest due by February, and it needs to be within the time frame of 1780-1829. My first thought was to make another 18th century gown like the Patterns of Fashion, 1775-85 Snowshill Manor gown,  and use my moire fabric since I have so much of it but I have a few problems. 

                            

                  The Original Plan (The faint zone front was added later when I began to think of doing one)

1. I feel like this dress is so easily early 1770's and because the date starts at 1780 and not 1770 I need to make something that definitely stands out as post 1780. 

2. I know moire fabric has been around since before the 18th century but I found the huge role of fabric I have from an antique store and I am no expert at fabric and couldn't tell you if it was moire silk or a synthetic. For this it's important that the fabric is accurate. 

I considered making something from the regency period but I already have the undergarments needed for the 18th century and I don't have a huge amount of time to start a new period from scratch. After looking at ton's of dresses I decided on a zone front, I'm hoping will look very 1780's-1790's. I also am going to go ahead and do long sleeves for it which I'm pretty nervous about. I have enough trouble with 18th century sleeves as it is! 

Since I don't feel 100% on the moire I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with new fabric, and I'm thinking a blue and pink color scheme. I've seen the color scheme in period paintings. I really love the idea of a belt and played with the idea of it being dark blue.  I also liked the idea of a lavender color with white contrast and a plum or dark purple belt.

Inspiration for colors via Pinterest so I don't have any info on what it's from :(

The trim for the petticoat I wanted to keep simple and was thinking something similar to this gown from The Kyoto Costume Institute. As for trim for the overskirt, I have no idea yet. I know I want to do something with it though! 

Via

I'm actually leaning more towards the lavender color (the inspiration for the color came from the dress in Costume Close Up that is now faded to pink but used to be lavender). I did order the American Duchess Antoinette shoes in blue though... which makes me want to do blue so they can be worn together. I do know though, that matching things like shoes in the 18th century wasn't a concern so maybe they would be fine with a lavender dress. The color in the end may depend on what fabric I can find! 

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! 

HSF Challenge #23: Gratitude

*********************************

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. 

18th Century Cap

I did get pictures and a post of the Patience Tabitha dress, but I realized it was a perfect dress to use for the HSF challenge: Generosity and Gratitude  so I'm going to wait on that post for another weekish so it's closer to when the challenge is due!

I am somewhat taking a step back from the 18th century this week, to work on a halloween costume inspired by this dress (Though ending up very very different because I was working with the only star fabric I've got in my stash, but the idea of a starry night is the same!), my never-ending quilt of doom, and hopefully a football game day dress for a game this upcoming Saturday! ( I don't have high hopes for this last dress...) 

And finally the 18th century cap!

**********************

Inspirations: White with Yellow ribbon cap here plus many more I forgot to document. I mean to get a better actual silk blue ribbon or maybe yellow for this I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Pattern: Made by me from information on these websites, here, Fashionable Frolick, and Art Beauty and Well-Ordered Chaos

Fabric: Very thin white cotton (I'm pretty sure it's cotton) from my stash

Year: 18th century

Accuracy: All hand sewn. Each edge was hemmed with a tiny hem and then whip stitched to the other piece.

It was pretty hard getting the proportions just right particularly when you are putting pleats around your face. I don't love how my pleats look, I rushed to finish the hat for pictures with the P.T. dress so I think they could look better than they do.

It was kind of awkward taking closeup shots of my face with the hat on so to show the direct view of it I cropped a picture from the full outfit. I tried to make it look cool and rounded and old timey, it just looks like I cropped it into a circle... oh well

Sleeves Finally!

After my complete fail and frustration with my PT dress sleeves I spent a good while searching for 18th century sleeve patterns and any kind of visual that could help me make a better sleeve. I couldn't find anything that would help me draft a sleeve to fit my specific dress, which was my original plan to fix the sleeve, but I found a pattern that worked!


Using the sleeve pattern from this page, I was finally able to get some good sleeves! I actually just enlarged it on my computer screen till I thought it was at a large enough size then traced it bit by bit onto paper. I had to make it a little bit larger and a little bit longer after the first try but that was simple enough.

I lost my original scaled up pattern from the costume closeup jacket and tried to do that general shape after draping it and things are in the wrong place and it's just a mess! I do love that seam at the elbow though, I just couldn't get it right!

and finally the pattern that worked!! Yay!! 

Here are the finished sleeves!! Which makes this dress officially finished! I'd like to add trim but I'm going to move onto other projects before I come back and trim this. 

Hopefully I'll get some full outfit pictures of it up by tomorrow! 

More Sleeves...

I tried measuring the armhole and adjusting the pattern I had and that still didn't work. Then I tried to drape it which also didn't work.

Draping it I got a sleeve that fit the armhole and went and cut the fabric only to once again have the sleeve go wrong. 

I'm really really frustrated with these sleeves. I know the armhole may be too big but I can't think of any way to fix that without starting over. The newest sleeve fits the armhole but it just gets all weird and starts twisting. On top of that its too big around my arm and the elbow is too far down. 

I did finish the solid color linen petticoat to go with it, so all thats left are these awful sleeves! 

18th Century Handsewing

While working on my shortgown, I looked up a lot about 18th century hand sewing and different types of stitches. I started a list of sites with information about different stitches and sewing techniques and I figured I'd put my list on here so it's easy to find again later and to update when I find new information!

• This one is an examination of multiple short gowns, not necessarily sewing techniques but helpful. I learned that piecing at the end of my sleeves and corners of my peplum were period appropriate from here. 
• 18th century button holes hand sewn here
• Dorset Buttons
• PDF of lots of sewing techniques here. Tells you where they found the stitch used and what the stitch is/ how to do it. also shows sleeves.
• Diary of a Mantua Maker- this post has a drawing of different stitches and explanations for them
• Period Sewing Techniques- some drawings of stitches and descriptions of different sewing techniques
• Annekata- this post doesn't really have sewing techniques but it does have a great picture from Costume Closeup on how to sew with the lining. 
• Crooked Tree Farm - this has some links to sewing techniques which I think are some of the above links. It also has links to how to make men's clothing and children's. 

The P.T. Dress Hit's a Roadblock

If there's anything that sets me back in historical costuming, it's the issues that come with patterns and sizing up etc etc.  Math is not my strong point!

I spent the weekend working on the Patience Tabitha dress and finished just about everything except the hem and the sleeves. I even got the matching petticoat done.

The finished and unusable sleeve

I very stupidly took the pattern from my costume closeup jacket (and even that pattern needs to be altered to fit me better!) and used it's sleeve's pattern. Of course I cut out both sleeves, floral fabric and lining, and sewed up a whole sleeve before discovering it didn't fit my dress. I did try to make it fit... but that resulted in weird bunching and messed up neckline.  To be fair, I think some of the issues are possibly from draping it. I think I cut the armholes larger than they should be, which I need to remember to fix on my basic 18th century pattern I made. 

I now need to go back and make a new sleeve pattern that actually fits but I think I may take a day or two and step back from this dress and work on some other projects. 

The Patience Tabitha Dress

This new dress I'm working on is "The Patience Tabitha Dress" named after my 6th great grandma and who was 30 at the time of the American Revolution.

I started off making a fitted lining and a fitted lining pattern that I can use for future dresses. I machine sewed this together because I wanted to be sure it was going to work before taking the time to handsew. In the future since it works, I'll hand sew this. The rest of the dress will be hand sewn. 

I'm realizing as I look at this that the front is rounded... I don't know why I didn't catch that before. I may need to recut the front lining pieces. I'm sewing it on the mannequin without the stays beneath because I know the lining fits me with stays on, so as long as I sew to the lining it will fit me fine.

The back smoothed out and pinned and the skirt pleated to the lining. 

The pleats are being whipstitched to the lining and then with the top fabric folded back over the pleats a spaced backstitch. 

pleats pinned down

closeup of pleats sewn with spaced backstitch

Finished Pleats and cut neckline

Hopefully, tonight I'll get the front of the bodice on and the front skirt pieces attached! 

The Short Gown

Fabric: Cotton fabric from the Stash

Pattern: self made from instructions from here and here

Year: 18th century

Accuracy: Fully handsewn. 

Overall Opinion:  I loved working on this dress, because it gave me a good starting point to work on sewing and stitches and making a petticoat so I feel really prepared starting on my first full gown. But, I really don't like this outfit. It just looks pretty unflattering on me and I don't love the fabric design or color.  When I get around to making an apron it will look better. I tried it on with my 1860 apron and that helped a lot and gave it a little more shape.