A Ball...of sorts.

Just south of us is a tiny French town with deep 18th century roots, and every year they throw a "12th Night Ball." It's a fascinating mishmash of re-enactors, people who just like dressing up, people who don't dress up at all, and a lot of little teenagers in prom gowns. Quite the mix. But hubby and I were excited to go because we had taken a dance lesson the month before and really enjoyed it, and were encouraged by the teacher to come to 12th night to help keep order along with the other couples who had been taking lessons. I'm sure the dances don't seem very complicated to most people but I have two left feet and a desperate desire to get it right. My gentleman had to keep kicking me in the shin and saying "It's just a dance, stop stressing!"  We had a great deal of fun though and danced for hours!

            The paper called up any participants from the neighboring county so we did get to be in the newspaper later!

   My lovely handmade shoes did pretty well for the night although I started to get blistery toward the end.

It took us a little while to remember what we'd learned at lessons, I'm sure the poor teacher felt like she was herding cats from the stage. I took my neck handkerchief off...too hot...but should have taken the apron off too...oh the things we regret when photo evidence turns up.

I've given up on a pair of stays I was hoping to finish soon and think I'll just do slightly boned jumps. I've got nothing to support!

Hopefully next time I post, I'll have pictures of my finished crafting room which has been loooong in the making, but now has beautiful shelves full of folded fabric, and a cheerful color theme of light grey, gold and hot pink. Can't wait to finish it up soon!

*creeps in slowly*

What a disgraceful lapse of costumery and news...but I have a legitimate excuse! I am now married and trying to keep house with a lovely but absentminded husband, a giant hunting dog, and a very young and incontinent puppy. Good heavens. 90% of my time at home (which isn't much since I'm still working full time) feels like it's spent cleaning up other people's/animals messes and the other 10% is used for looking in despair at the jumble of fabric/trim/art supplies in my new craft room. Which occasionally has water running through it thanks to a leaky basement, yay!

That being said, at present I'm back in the swing of sewing because the debilitating migraines have lessened and I've actually felt very anxious and unsettled during the long stretch of time when I couldn't do anything hobby-related.

On the work table right now: a striped 1750s vest for hubby, a maroon brocade one, and a maroon 1750s-60s coat (that will be plain for a while but eventually I'd like to try my hand at embroidering button covers and maybe down the front of the coat edges and pocket flaps.)

Also I have finished a brown work gown (I might have gotten that mostly done last time I posted though), and here are a few photos of that in action at the local Fort:

                                                            My good man and myself

                                                           ...and with some friends.

          Yes, I do favor Chardin-sized aprons...the more voluminous, the better. When in New France...

By the end of this week I will have a chintz shortgown finished for a local dance so I'm hoping there will be pictures from that this Saturday). The much-neglected blue sacque may yet get finished in the next couple of months, even my mother is eager to see me get done with that because it's such an ambitious project and I mean to trim it nicely...we'll see.

I'd love to do the HSF '16 but I think I'll just plug along at my own pace and enjoy everyone else's inspiration. Deadlines seem to have the exact opposite effect on me than is intended.

Alas, poor Annabelle

I would apologize for my lonnnng absence but I have not the mental energy for abasement right now. Suffice it to say that severe and frequent migraines have been taking quite a toll on my sewing and I don't have a whole lot to show for the past months! Little by little I have been working on the dusk-blue sacque and hopefully will have some pictures soon. The petticoat is finished; since I've made a number of them by hand before, I thought that was the easiest bit to get going on during a time when I was barely dragging myself to and from work, but following several lovely blogger tutorials I'm doing quite well on draping the rest of the gown.

I DID manage a pair of pocket hoops though! They are regrettably mostly machine sewn, which if didn't want to resort to as I was hoping to have a totally hand-made ensemble from the underthings up, but when health is involved sometimes it's best to just admit defeat.

I also hand-sewed a white, very light cotton-linen under-petticoat to go over the panniers but under the silk petticoat, for extra floof, and it will be getting a ruffle at the bottom to help kick the silk petticoat out a little more. So I haven't been entirely idle, just unfortunately not making as much progress as I would have liked to this year :(

HSF #3 - Pink

Sigh, behind again. I'm not going to post about challenge #2, Innovation, because I was counting the red Indienne print neck handkerchief I paired with my new wool bedgown (#1: Make Do And Mend) and was thinking about doing a long post on the innovative cotton printing that was catching on in Europe. But I'm too lazy to do all that research for just a simple triangle of cloth!

The Challenge: #3: PINK - A little bouquet of silk flowers and ribbon to be pinned at the center front of a gown. Very pastoral (hoping for spring soon)!

Fabric: Not really much in the way of fabric in the traditional sense, although I suppose the flowers, leaves and ribbon are technically all fabric!

Pattern: I'm really unlikely to be using any pattern for any of these challenges, I'll just get that out of the way now...I feel much more free looking at photos and scale drawings and letting the item grow organically from that. For this simple little project, I looked at a couple of cute little nosegays pinned to display gowns like these: 

Year: Not sure there is a specific year although I'm most likely in the future to use this with my pink anglaise as it already has floral motifs and some green in it. 

Notions: ALL notion, really!

How historically accurate is it? I'm really not sure, I couldn't find any specifics about extant artificial nosegays, but silk flowers as ornament seemed to be in use on hats and other accessories fairly frequently.

Hours to complete: Not even 1...finished it up in about 15 minutes while watching Olympic figure skating.

First worn: Not yet! I need to take pictures of all my ensembles to date though and pair them with the best accessories so maybe as the weather warms up. 

Total cost: Nada...all stash materials.

The reason it's taking me SO long to get anything up lately is THIS:

Eventually, MAYBE, it'll be lovely light pink stays bound with cream linen tape, half-boned with cable ties, with straps and a stomacher, but right now I have never more regretted swearing a solemn promise to never use the sewing machine again on any of my 18th century clothes or accessories. Shoving a needle through six layers of heavy canvas-like material has been murder on my fingers when joining the pieces, and I'll never really love boning channels much, even less so by hand. If I'm wanting to make the #5 bodice challenge (will count this for #4 Underneath It All as well), I really have to book it. 

They are not very nice looking, but they are drafted off my first stays, which are machine-sewn and actually fit quite well despite some design flaws. Those are fully boned though and hot as Hades in summer so I'm going a lighter, less bulky/more flexible route -- I know there's not much documentation for half-boned stays with visible boning channels, but I just have this idea in my head of what they'll (hopefully) look like, so bear with me. If nothing else, it'll be a good exercise in humility and facing failure! 

My plans for the HSF for the rest of 2014 have changed drastically, and once I finish these stays up, I hope to be devoting the rest of my year to building two ensembles (click for accompanying Pinterest boards)

The Dusk Blue Silk Sacque

And

The Gold and Cream Stripe Regency Gown

More to come on those soon after the FrankenStays are done torturing me!

HSF Challenge #1 -- "Make Do And Mend"

The Challenge: #1 – Make Do and Mend
I’ve recently joined an F&I era group and the one winter event I went to, they just could not seem to leave me alone about not having cold-weather clothing (albeit in a very sweet and kindly way). I had mitts and a thick shawl and lots of petticoats, but I’ll admit my torso was a little chilly in the evenings with just a corduroy jacket. So my “make do” was to cut up an old wool blanket, line it with warm fleece (I know, cheater cheater), and make a very heavy bedgown to go over anything.

Honestly, I can't say for certain if that is something the French Colonial women around here would have done. Still, it makes sense...goods came up the Mississippi River infrequently in canoes, and somehow I don't think the women, when they first arrived in "New France," would have been adequately prepared for the sometimes frigid winters. I could see them whipping up a rough bedgown out of a blanket to throw on over many layers of clothing.

Fabric: Old grey woolen blanket, grey fleece

Pattern: basic “T” shaped garment, hits just above the knee. I know the sleeves look lopsided, but they're not...and I probably won't leave them rolled up and showing the fleece like that when I wear it. The back has a seam down the center until about waist-height, then releases to leave a little bit of a pleat and fuller appearance to the bottom half of the garment.

Year: 1720-1780? You might find something like it in just about any art depicting the lower class of the 18th century I guess, shapeless sack that it is.

Notions: Just thread

How historically accurate is it? I left the typically-seen shawl collar off of the bedgown because my skin doesn’t tolerate wool and even with a neck handkerchief I just KNOW it would end up rubbing against my skin and driving me insane. It’s entirely hand-sewn, but I think the fact I lined it with Wal-mart blanket fleece kind of negates that. But I think with my grey petti, an apron tied over it and the handkerchief, it’ll look very passable.

Hours to complete: Probably around seven

First worn: Not yet! This weekend at a women's event.

Total cost: The blanket was probably around $20 when I got it a few years ago, the fleece was about $6.

Tiny Treasures

Working at a library, sometimes I run across sources for 18th century details I would not have expected to find; my co-worker found this one for me when she weeded it out of the collection due to dis-use: "Classic Dolls' Houses" by Faith Eaton.

 The sweet little Delft tiles in this 18th century kitchen! Adorable!

It details several doll houses; "Mon Plaisir" - an 18th-century German court, the 18th century Dutch doll house of Sara Ploos van Amstel, the 20th century fairy castle of Colleen Moore, West Wood House - a 20th century English dollhouse, and the Thorne and Carlisle Miniature rooms.

The 18th century houses were of course of the most interest to me, but all the houses were beautifully crafted...I remember seeing Colleen Moore's fairy castle in Chicago once, came home with a beloved coloring book of it and built my own equally grand house (so my eight-year-old-self thought) out of shoeboxes.

I would definitely recommend that you try to get this through interlibrary loan...it's probably not worth shelling out a whole lot of money unless you really love historical dollhouses, and in fact I couldn't even be sure I found the correct title on Amazon. However, the textiles and color combinations and accessories on the 18th century dolls are extremely valuable in my opinion because they haven't been disturbed or re-dressed based on some well-intentioned museum director's best guesses...they are perfect representations of what was worn at the time by various classes. My pictures here don't even begin to capture the detail - it's quite crisp in person.

 ^Can you believe this is a miniature? It looks like a real room in a colonial house!

 

Also the tiny dishes and furniture, bed-hangings and curtains, miniature artwork and other housewares are wonderful sources of detail for any re-enactor, arranged just how they would have been used in a domestic setting. Worth a look!

Historical Sew Fortnightly 2014...hurry up, January!

Oh, I am SO excited for this coming year as far as sewing goes. Please pardon the long absence....I have been struggling with increasingly severe migraines, leading to an MRI and trying various medications that make me drowsy and sedated most of the time, and finally the doctors seem to have figured out the correct drug and dosage. It's really hard to focus on sewing when either the drugs are knocking me out or the teeny weeny stitches are giving me terrible headaches, so I sadly didn't complete nearly as many challenges as I wanted to these past few months. BUT...fingers crossed that drugs keep working...here are my plans for the first few challenges Leimomi has already posted!

• #1: Make Do & Mend – due Wed 15 Jan. 

I have an old grey woolen blanket...and no good cold-weather 18th century wear. Could the resourceful Frenchwomen in the Mississippi Valley area have repurposed a blanket into a rough but warm bedgown? Well why not!

• #2: Innovation - due Sat 1 Feb.  To celebrate the way inventions, introductions and discoveries have impacted fashion, make an item that reflects the newest innovations in your era.  Be sure to share the research you did on your innovation, as well as your finished item. 

While browsing through the thrift store for fabric, a neat cotton print jumped out, it looks sort of like an Indian chintz on a dark red background.  Kendra at Demode writes "Although some countries passed legislation against the import, manufacture, and sale of painted and printed cottons in order to protect domestic textile industries (as in France from 1686 to 1759 and England from 1700 to 1774), by the 1730s printed cottons were serious contenders in the European clothing and furniture market".  I would like to make a neck handkerchief out of the material to go with the "new" bedgown from the previous project, in honor of the Europeans figuring out their own version of fabric printing.

• #3: Pink - due Sat 15 Feb.  Make something pink!

Many of the projects during the first half of this upcoming year will hopefully be leading up to this Court Gown nonsense I foolishly bought into (ok who am I kidding, I'm so excited)....possibly I can cut down on the amount of work by finding little "double duty" projects for both that endeavour and the HSF. Little nosegays of silk, ribbon or paper flowers always look so sweet at the bosom of a beautiful gown, for this challenge perhaps a pink and blue flower nosegay is in order. My birthday falls during this particular week and friends and relatives like to cut into my sewing time (imagine that!) so I figured it would be best to keep the project small.

Eye-candy...I mean...examples: 

• #4: Under it All – due Sat 1 March.  Make the foundations of your outfit: the things that go under it to provide the right shape and support, and to protect your fancy outer garments from sweat and grime. 

AND

• #5: Bodice - due March 15th.

New stays. Ugh. This moment has been coming for a few years and fills this seamstress with much dread. Combining these two challenges makes the project a little more doable. My last set is all machine-sewn with metal grommets, the tabs turned out bizarre, and fully-boned turned out to be uncomfortably unnecessary for me, I'm kind of small of bust. Really cannot avoid tackling it at this point because constructing the upcoming court gown over ill-fitted stays is just a complete waste of my time, so I will just have to buckle down and get on with it. Partially-boned with cable ties is the plan; I would never use anything else, having seen enough comparisons from other bloggers that lead me to believe its sturdiness is comparable to baleen without the ethical issues. No interest in trying cane/reed/wood; I am too active at events to want to have to deal with snappage and replacement of my boning materials. 

• #6: Fairytale - due Tuesday 1 April:

Leimomi mentions that Cinderella is often portrayed in an 18th century light and I have been meaning to get to a common brown a la anglaise that is cut out but not sewn. I have some really cute ideas of a pre-Princess photoshoot for Cinderella, involving a dirty apron, sweeping with a twig broom by an old stone hearth, and a few fake bird "helpers" (ok that might be too much cheese...but I'm willing to embrace the cheese for a fairytale)!

Cannot wait to get started on this after a somewhat failed 2013 HSF, although certainly I finished more projects than if I'd gone without it! Do you have any projects brewing and bubbling over in your mind for this upcoming year?