Old Maid

Yesterday I turned 28 and spent most of my birthday sewing and having a Jane Austen DVD marathon...just myself and my unsociable rabbit. I came to the conclusion that maybe I will be one of Those Old Ladies and I rather like the idea...a lot.

Ok I didn't spend the WHOLE day by myself like a hermit, the parents lured me over with promises of Dairy Queen ice cream cake and presents and of course I happily fell for the trap. After much ice-cream-snarfing and opening my very first coffeepot with all sorts of accompanying coffee flavors, I settled down on the couch and sewed more. GREAT day!

Mom took pictures of me dressed up because I've been promising to show her what I've been working on, and I was happy to not have to take blurry shots of my new en fourreau in the mirror like usual.

Why is it so hard to get stomachers pinned correctly? I see why people prefer closed-front gowns, big time. I am so proud of my cute little maroon pincushion, I copied it off of:

And I think it'll be quite handy! Here is a close up of it:

A full-length picture of the gown...the back is all wrinkly and ill-fitting right now though so I'll post that after I fix it.

And my own mom wanted me to pose in a most unladylike and provocative manner (really, Mother! The indignity!) to show off my shoes and stockings...she was quite charmed by them. Although who wouldn't be? Yay for American Duchess products!

Interim - teapot and pocket

So I'm making decent progress on Mr. E's striped coat (I guess it's...erm...1750's...ish? We'll pretend like Simplicity patterns actually have historical dates they're aiming at) but it's buttonholes next, which I am NOT going to do by hand, forgeeet that, not for a man-coat. If he protests, I'll tell him to do his own darn buttonholes. Then I just have pockets to put in it and it'll be done, hopefully in time for his birthday on the 7th. I'm also plugging away at a boring off-white petticoat for the HSF "Under It All" challenge, and that's coming along easily since I've made a number of them. I don't want to put up any progress pics yet, but I will stick up a couple of other things because all posts need photos!

First off is the lovely little teapot won in the giveaway from Sew18thCentury...Thank you so much, dear fellow blogger! I am quite in love with it and am enjoying how it looks on my dining room table with my pewter and china! My mother came over and I was hard-pressed to keep her from taking it home with her, she was so charmed by it as well.

 And also I realized I never did put up a picture of the matelasse pockets being worn, so just a quickie of cream and pastel goodness...the pockets are bigger than my previous ones which is great because I have manhands and also like to carry a lot of un-period-correct junk around.

Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #2: The UFO.

Alrighty, here is my official post about the UFO: a dotted apron. It was inspired by some 18th century art prints like this:

The Challenge: I had gotten to the point where I had one edge of ruffle on and the waist gathered, but it has been sitting for half a year and I keep turning my nose up at it. So I think that definitely qualifies it for a UFO!

Fabric: Prooobably not natural. I think it's some sort of poly net with white dots kind of painted on it.

Pattern: None, just kind of eyeballed it from the pictures and prints.
 

Year: I think lacy, frilly aprons were fairly prevalent through the 18th century amidst upper classes, but the dot print and the ruffle might lean it more towards the last quarter?

Notions: Off-white linen thread, ivory silk ribbon.

How historically accurate is it? It's definitely no reproduction, that's for sure. I guess I was wanting to make something that just resembled extant transparent aprons in life and print, sort of suggesting rather than duplicating to a T.

Hours to complete: Steadily working, maybe 10? The rolled hems gave me fits!

First worn: Yesterday for a try-on!

Total cost: I think around $15 for the old curtain and the ribbon.

The apron laid out...

The apron on me. It's HUGE. I think it's too big still, so feedback would be appreciated. It's kind of fun though and makes me feel very girly! Pardon the iPad, with nobody in the house to take pictures, I have to make do with a large mirror.

A pastel sort of day

I'm in the middle of watching Nannerl, la Soeur de Mozart (Mozart's Sister) and maybe my American sensibilities are getting in the way but I'm not really enjoying it. The acting feels really stilted to me, and the costumes are so-so other than nice color schemes. Because the library waiting list is so long for it, I sort of feel obligated to watch it all the way through having waited a month, but to take my mind off it, I dragged a lot of my stuff up from the basement to do an inventory and kind of fell in love with all my accessories again. My living room looks like a confectioner's shop right now! Pinks and blues and creams, yum. Also, here's a quick look at my UFO for the Sew Fortnightly challenge; I'll do a real post on it tomorrow when I put it on over a gown but I'm not sure I'll like it any more then. Bottom line...I really dislike this apron. Hate might be a strong word but this just doesn't please me much right now and I can't figure out why. It looks like a cross between my grandma's old drapes and a naughty maid outfit from a cheesy lingerie shop. But then I had a really bad day at work and that might be coloring everything for me at the moment...maybe a good night's sleep will help.

I will gladly take suggestions on how to improve the apron. Narrow the ruffles? Take them off entirely? Is the apron too wide? Argh.

Challenge #1, Some pocketses, Precious...

First challenge from Sew Fortnightly, headed up by The Dreamstress!

The Challenge: #1: Bi/Tri/Quadri/Quin/Sex/Septi/Octo/Nona/Centennial – due 14 Jan.  Sew something from __13, whether it be 1913, 1613, or 13BC

Fabric: Linen, cotton.

Pattern: Eyeballed it! I liked this shape best out of all the extant pockets I looked at and sketched it out on paper first.

Year: 1713, or so I'm going to claim.

Notions: Cotton tape, thread

How historically accurate is it? They definitely had pockets at this time but I was unable to pin down any quilted ones before 1740, so that feature is guesswork on my part, although they do exist within the 18th century (also the quilting design is not handsewn, I just had matelasse remnant). Everything else though is, I think, correct and handsewn.

Hours to complete: Probably only three but I stretched it out over days. 

First worn: Not yet! Just finished it Sunday!

Total cost: $0, everything came from my stash!

Challenged

Since The Dreamstress wants to make my life a sewing nightmare, there should be more regular posts coming from me, SHOULD. I can make no promises during this fortnightly challenge of fashionable fortitude! I was very much hoping to get through challenge #0, but I think I'm going to hold off on posting what I did until challenge #1's deadline because there's a little tweaking needs done. But is that happening in my living room right now? No.

This is all that remains in scraps from cutting out a mancoat, I hope to goodness I didn't mightily mess up or I'll have to do some true 18thc patching. As it is menswear and I just DON'T UNDERSTAND why men are so hard to fit, I'm kinda half-cheating by modifying a Simplicity pirate frock coat pattern. Don't judge me. He's just gonna have it stained and torn up the first time he wears it anyway, like always.

Coal is lying in the background pretending to be dead so the moment I turn my back he can leap up and gnaw holes in all the wrong places in the fabric. Look at him, all innocuously bunny-like back there...looks are deceiving.

While procrastinating on the pockets, I've also been etsy shopping, and have some pretty lace coming to me:

I really don't have any business buying lace for 18th century stuff because it would have been rare out here in the Illinois frontier, although it WAS French territory, and they were definitely shipping silk ribbons and stuff out here for the demanding ladies so who knows. Also, I'm honestly not a great judge, I tried to compare everything I looked at to extant pieces of 18thc lace, and would like to use the top lace for lappets on a cap, and the bottom lace for sleeve ruffles if I ever get around to making a silk gown...so we shall see. Maybe they'll just sit in a drawer and I can pet them occasionally.

A lot of tv and a little sewing.

Still putting off Christmassy things, I've been ordering movies through my interlibrary loan coworker...all are supposed to be set in the 1700s but the costuming says otherwise in a few, oh well! A listing so far:

Tom Jones: I keep watching this one over and over because I love the lower class clothing! The upper class is hit or miss but the bed gowns, striped petticoats, checked aprons, caps and such on the less-than-gentry are awesome. Plot: a lot of lighthearted fun and drama with comical star-crossed lovers.

City of Vice: again, loving the lower class, someone did some good research. Fairly dark subject matter but compelling look at the beginning of London's police force. Sad there are only 5 episodes!

A Harlot's Progress: I really liked some of the caps the women were wearing, and again there was some great middling to lower class clothing. Based on what might have inspired Hogarth to sketch his series by the same name (kind of depressing, really, but I can sit through anything for good clothes).

Fanny Hill: oh Lordy, I think there's more clothing OFF people than on them, but what can you expect of one of the most racy novellas ever to be banned from sale? There are some really pretty gowns and I definitely want to take some screencaps of a few of the hats to reproduce them. Plot: the debauching of a young country girl who finds her love in a bawdy house, loses him, sleeps with a lot of people, and then finds him again. If you have the vapors over nudity, I don't advise this one. The producer is Andrew Davies of Pride and Prejudice fame, and I have to say this is pretty well done too, just very, very naughty.

The Brotherhood of the Wolf:  this had pretty much nothing to do with the 1700s, costume-wise..most of the female clothing looked like Halloween costume parodies of what uninformed people think 18th century clothing looks like, with some weird peasanty renditions of 17th century wear as well. Awful. But I've always been interested in the legend of the Beast of Gevaudan, the creature who prowled the mountainous region of France, so this fanciful rendition of one of the theories about it was fun enough to make me want to watch it again. Just not for the clothes.

And speaking of clothes I have made a tiiiiny bit of gown progress...in between all the tv. The sleeves are on and are pitifully set in but I refuse to tear them out and recut just because I didn't have enough fabric in the shoulder to prettily pleat along the top. Whatever. I'm so over 18thc sleeves *grumble*. The gown has robings down the front, and I think the back has turned out really pretty with the trim along the top. Going to bed happy tonight.