historical costume part II

Wow. Does anyone else fall into a well of old Christmas cookies, prolonged sleep and shuffling around in bathrobes post New Year? Sometimes I feel like it's the pressure of "New Year, New You" jargon, or perhaps its the fact that I'm suddenly staring down all the things that I put off right before the holidays, but I often find myself feeling supremely unmotivated come January. I know all the tricks to help me out of such funks - chip away at the to-do list, exercise, don't neglect self-care, etc. - but sometimes holing up with the heating pad and shooting resentful looks at the dog because she can't take herself for walks comes more naturally to me!

So it is in this spirit that I bring you this long-overdue post, which I totally intended to write before we jetted off for our East Coast Family Holiday Bonanza.  Hopefully it's not too anticlimactic!

Even though I posted many pictures of my finished historical costume on Instagram, and even wrote about it for my December Mood post, I really wanted to give it its full due with a proper, long, overly wordy post here on my home turf.  This costume was many months in the making, and I'm quite proud of it.  If you're new here, or are reading this post without much context, I suggest reading the post on my historical undergarments first, as I explain why I ventured into historical costume making to begin with!

As I mentioned before, the Victorian era was an extremely long one, spanning Queen Victoria's reign in England from 1837-1901, and within that features some truly spectacular fashion movements. In trying to decide what era I wanted to "personify" with my historical costume I took my personal tastes into account, but I also wanted to consider the time period itself and what it signifies. I completely agree that playing historical dress-up should, first and foremost, be fun. It's about indulging in fantasy, because we can't, after all, go back in time.  However I also think it's important to observe that, in doing so, we are romanticizing a past which often doesn't deserve romanticization. 

One of the most recognizable silhouettes in Victorian fashion is the giant hoop skirts of the 1850's and 60's.  In other areas of the world, this look may not seem very loaded, but here in America it defines the Civil War era, and there is something about dressing in Civil War era clothing as a white woman living in a previously slave-owning state that does not sit right with me.  That is not a past I have any interest in romanticizing.

The other most iconic silhouette of the Victorian era is the bustle gown of the 1880's.  These fashions are beautiful, elaborate, and extremely feminine.  They also remind me of curtains. And sofas. In fact, call me crazy, but doesn't it seem as if the well-to-do Victorian lady practically became a piece of furniture herself during this time period?

All politics aside, my other, more pragmatic reason for eschewing these two iconic Victorian looks was that they are very well represented at the event I was making this costume for, and I wanted to give a nod to a lesser appreciated fashion era, and, let's be real, stand out from the crowd.  Show Pony wins again!

And so, I turned my attention instead to the later Victorian era. I've always had a soft spot for this era. Honestly, my true love is Edwardian fashion.  So I attempted to get as close to the Edwardian era while still keeping a toe in the Victorian.  For my gown I used Butterick 5970 from their "Making History" line. Since this was my first time attempting a historical costume, and I really didn't give myself a lot of time to make it before the deadline, I decided to go with a Big 4 pattern to have the comfort of modern instructions and sizing to work from.  I also just thought this dress was very pretty.

In general, this pattern was pretty easy to work with.  It was a crap-ton of pattern pieces, and sourcing all the fabrics and trims and bits and bobs was time consuming, but once I actually started motoring along with the construction it wasn't anything too foreign to me.  

No, my one main complaint with this pattern - and, I'm assuming, all the "Making History" patterns - is their smudgy historical accuracy.  They do not date their patterns, nor even give them a general name like "Edwardian Dress" or "Flapper" or "Regency Era gown and jacket" or whatever... I know, I know! If I am going to be such a stickler about historical accuracy why didn't I go with a pattern company, like Truly Victorian, or Past Patterns, that prides themselves on their historical accuracy? Well, I didn't know that I would be so bothered by the smudgy time period of this dress when I set out to make it! As I got deeper and deeper into this project my interest in historical fashion grew, and the more research I did, the more I wished I had been more rigid in my choice of costume. Does that make sense? So while I think this dress is lovely, and is general enough to fit into my murky vision of "Late Victorian/Early Edwardian" - it is precisely that generalness that bothers me.

Because I'm a nerd, I attempted to find fashion illustrations and historical examples that would help me date details of this dress.

I was able to find examples of the full, gathered bodice as early as 1893, however many of the 1890's silhouettes are defined by the large sleeve or shoulder, which the Butterick pattern does not have quite as pronounced.

The skirt, with it's slimmer front and full, pleated back, with minimal trim and adornment definitely seemed accurate for the 1890's.

Here is an example of a day dress from the late 1890's which features a similar skirt style, as well as the more narrow sleeve and lacy shoulder adornment of the Butterick pattern.

However the droop of the gathered bodice - the "pouter pigeon" breast - is really iconic of the early 20th century Edwardian look.

One detail that seemed to elude me was the ruffled sleeve. I was ready to write it off as just a pretty detail that the pattern designer, Nancy Farris-Theé, thought looked nice, rather than having a real root in fashion history. But then (Oh you guys... how deep into the rabbit hole I did delve!) my husband gifted me with this book - Costume in Detail 1730-1930 - for Christmas. This book is fascinating! It is full of illustrations of actual garments, detailing how they were made, what type of closures they use, measurements, etc. And lo and behold! What should I find, but this:

Look out, Nancy Farris-Theé! Your secret is out!! This illustration details the exact sleeve pattern - dimensions and all - from the Butterick pattern! And looking at the gown as a whole, it would seem that Butterick 5970 is really just a simplified version of this gown from 1903-07 belonging to a certain Miss Nora Hawker!

And a detail of that sleeve, as recreated by yours truly...

Of course this kind of bungles my whole "Late Victorian" thing I was trying to go for, as these dates place this gown firmly in the Edwardian era, but hey who's counting?!?! Just me, you guys, just me. 

Okay, let's get back to my dress...

The fashion fabric for this dress is a beautiful peachy-pink silk taffeta from Mood Fabrics.  It's no secret that historical costumes are fabric hogs.  I desperately didn't want to break the bank with this project, so I tried to limit myself to fabrics I could get through my partnership with Mood. I really lucked out with this silk taffeta, which is both lovely, and was a really great price for such wide yardage of silk.  I've never worked with taffeta before, but I really enjoyed the crisp, dry, almost papery hand it had.  It made constructing this dress feel almost sculptural.

The taffeta bodice is built on top of a fitted and boned lining, made out of cotton lawn in a similar peach colorway.  Most women's clothing from this time period - even robes - were constructed on top of a boned inner structure, no matter how loose the outer silhouette.  This reflected women's preference for clothing that shaped the body into the fashionable look of the time, but it also gave the clothes a structural integrity that is rarely seen in contemporary clothes.

The skirt is completely underlined with the same cotton lawn, and about two feet or so, around the hem, is interlined with cotton flannel.  This gives the hem a really nice structure and also supports the weight of the lace trim.  As I mentioned in my post on my undergarments, I didn't create any petticoats to wear with this costume, and I think I was able to get away with it because of the natural sculptural hand of the taffeta, the additional support of the underlining, and the added weight of the flannel interlining.

The bodice closes up the back with hooks and eyes on the inner layer.  Much to my annoyance, it wasn't until I saw these photos that I realized the flaw in this design was that, if I wasn't careful, the outer, taffeta layer would gape open to reveal the lining. How unladylike!

The cream overlay on the yoke and the sleeve flounce is point d' esprit that I picked up locally. It is actually a stretch fabric, most likely used for dance costumes, but it was the softest, and drapiest of this type of netting I could find.  The gathered lace trim is from Cheeptrims.  Finding the right kind of lace was actually the most difficult thing for me to source. I wanted a netted lace with embroidered details, and it had to be gathered, preferably with a pointed edge, and I needed almost 11 yards of it! I admit that I ordered a few duds before I found one I liked. The machine gathered edge of all the lace trim had to be concealed with more trim and for this I used cream petersham ribbon.

One of my biggest pet peeves with the way this costume turned out is actually the collar.  For some reason the circumference of the neckline ended up much larger than the collar piece. It would be easy to assume that my neckline stretched with sewing, but I actually had this problem with a lot of the pattern pieces where I was attaching two circumferences - like the waistbands.Which leads me to believe it's a drafting problem with the actual pattern. I even measured the pattern pieces and they don't match up. Anyway, I redrafted the collar to fit the neckline opening, and I'm not a fan of how big it is.  When you look at fashions from this time the collars were quite tight, so my loose collar makes me feel like a dork.

The belt was made with pleated, avocado green rayon velvet that I interfaced with horsehair canvas to give it structure.  I've never worked with velvet before either and, oof! What a bear! This fabric shifted around like no one's business under my presser foot, and I got so annoyed (it was also one of the last things I worked on, right before the deadline) that I ended up just sewing the whole thing by hand! Here's some details of my questionable process. My backstiching leaves much to be desired...

Oh! And let's not forget the hat!! Completed at the eleventh hour...

For this I used the La Belle Epoque hat pattern by Lynn McMasters.  This hat uses a double buckram for the structure.  I could only find single buckram from my local Joann's so I fused together two layers with iron-on adhesive.  The brim, crown and tip were all wired, then covered in flannel, then covered in the fashion fabric.  I used the taffeta for the outer brim, crown and tip, and the peach cotton lawn covered in gathered point d' esprit for the underside of the brim.

Here's some photos of the hat, in progress:

Attaching the crown and tip by hand, after the wire was sewn on all the edges by machine.  

The wired buckram form, waiting to be covered in flannel.

I've never made a hat before, so all this was learning on the job. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I anticipated.  It was more crafty than anything else.  Of course the real fun was decorating the hat.  I had lots of inspiration ready for my hat decoration:

But as it turns out, decorating a hat is hard!! Also, I was feeling incredibly burnt out by this point, so unfortunately, I don't think my hat turned out quite as fabulous as I would have liked.

But still! I made a hat!!

Working on this project was such a wonderful challenge, and wearing it was beyond fun! As I said in my post on my undergarments, I tend to think of myself as a thoroughly practical sewist, but it was a wonderful adventure to make something purely for the fun and imagination of it.  This whole project, from start to finish, took me three months to create.  Three months for just a few days of wear! I know many of you will say, but you can wear it next year! 

... You guys... you should know me better than that! Yeah, I am already scheming a totally new costume for next year! I'm really feeling gigantic sleeves... what do you think?

And now, I'm going to photo dump all the pictures that I put old-timey filters on, because it's my blog and I say so.

Many thank you's to Nick, for being my photographer and putting up with my Victorian airs. Many thank you's to everyone over at the Galveston Historical Foundation for putting on such a great event and giving me an excuse to indulge my fantasies.  And many thank you's to you, my sewing friends, for following along and supporting me with all your kind comments on Instagram and the blog.  You guys are the best!

Happy 2017, everyone!

xx

the first sweater i ever knit but never blogged about

Hey pals! While I'm on a knitting streak here I thought I'd finally do a proper post for this sweater so I can stop referring to it as "the first sweater I ever knit but never blogged about" because that is a long title for such a humble sweater! So since I wore this outfit to work today, and felt pretty good about it, and there was still a considerable amount of daylight left when I got home, I decided to go for a walk and take some outfit shots along the way.

Behold! The First Sweater I Ever Knit but Heretofore Never Blogged About! This was actually the third knitted item I ever made, and therefore, despite it's myriad of quirks, I'm intensely proud of it. I started it early February 2014 (I think...?) after learning how to knit over my Christmas break. It reached completion, I believe, around May - sped along by a rather tenacious upper respiratory infection that had me couch ridden for much of March and some of April.  Which is why it never got photographed or properly blogged about. By May it is already much to warm to even pretend to wear wool for the sake of the camera here in Texas! Just the thought of donning this sweater made me break out in a heat rash! So it got carefully folded and stowed away until the cooler temperatures decided to make an appearance again. And let me tell you, what a lifesaver it has been this winter! Anytime our fickle winter temperatures thought about nearing freezing (or really anything below 50F because I'm a thin-blooded southerner)(yes, I know, cue the tiny violins from all you northerners dealing with real winter!) I pulled on this jumper and immediately felt swaddled in warm, loving, hand-made, coziness.

So the deets. This is the Bedford Pullover by Michelle Wang for Brooklyn Tweed Fall 2011. I knit it up in BT Shelter, a worsted weight yarn, in the color 'Cast Iron'.  This sweater was knit from the bottom up, completely in the round.  It doesn't have any shaping, so the finished look is quite boxy. I think I knit the second to smallest size, although it's been such a long time I don't totally remember.  I do remember that I learned a lot. There was a lot of YouTube-ing various stitches and techniques and knitting jargon! And a lot of visible improvement was made on the sweater as I went.

One of the biggest things I think I finally got the hang of was finding a uniform way to tension my yarn as I knit (of course this is also something that I want to experiment with a bit on my next make to see if it makes a difference in efficiency - constantly learning...).  Sadly this means that the 1x1 ribbing at the bottom of the sweater isn't the prettiest, but you can kinda see in this picture that I sort of got the hang of it by the time I was doing the arm cuffs.  In the end, the fact that this sweater isn't the most uniform really doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. I think it's a lovely memento of my growing proficiency with this new skill, and a humbling reminder that I'm never too old to learn a new craft.

The sweater used a twisted stitch to create this lovely textured pattern, that almost looks like a small scale cable.  There is about a 1 inch 'racing stripe' of purl stitch that runs up the side, a bit hard to see in these photos, but a nice little detail all the same.  And the sleeves are all reverse stockinette - or purl stitch. I got very good at purling...

One issue I've had with both of the sweaters I've knitted is that the neck opening always seems much higher and tighter on me than it ever seems to be on the models.  I think this must have something to do with my wider shoulders, but I'm not sure. It might just be an adjustment that I have to make with all knits, like adding length.

And speaking of length! That was one thing I was pretty disappointed about with this sweater.  It ended up much shorter than I would have liked. Of course it's still 100% wearable, it's more of a wearing preference than anything else. At least in the body. The sleeves really are too short, there's just no denying it! It was for this reason that I was very conscious to add length to my Carpino sweater, despite the fact that I was itching to speed up the knitting process. I knew I would regret not having that additional length in the long run.

While I'm blogging about old(er) knitting makes I thought I would give y'all a two-for-one here and throw in this little hat! I knitted this up in January of this year when I was starting to feel some serious Carpino burnout! I thought maybe taking a bit of a break and focusing on something else, but still knitting, might help me push through the last couple of steps. And I guess that technique worked...? I mean, I did end up finishing my Carpino, but I think this hat was less the result of some fancy scheme to increase my productivity and more the result of me being unable to resist the siren song of a shiny new ball of yarn!

This is the Purl Bee's Traveling Cable Hat (a FREE pattern!) knit up using one skein of Manos del Uruguay's Maxima in the color 'Oxygen' (which I'm not seeing on Purl Soho's site anymore, but trust me, it existed).  I wanted to knit this hat to brush up on my cabeling. Last year I made Purl Bee's Chunky Cable hat, which was a great introduction to cables, but this year I wanted to try a more complicated design, and this seemed like the perfect next step. Plus, I love wearing knit hats in the winter. They are an essential during my chilly bike rides to work, and it's nice to have options.

Nick found me this lovely pink barnacle (note: that is not it's scientific name!) while I was shooting photos, so I had to show it off! 

My one pet peeve about this hat is that it's a little snug - and I have a small head! According to Revelry, this is a pretty common complaint about this pattern.  I could have added another pattern repeat, but I think then it would have been too big. If I make it again I might experiment with sizing up my needles and seeing if that makes a difference. Other than that, I think it's a really pretty hat! I love the way the Manos hand-dyed yarn creates this very subtle shift in blues throughout the hat.

And here I am with the ultimate accessory, lovely Lucille. She's not great at posing for the camera, so this photo was the best of the bunch. It looks like I'm giving her the Blessing... 

Well, I think that about brings me up to date with my knitting, save for a hat I made for Nick as a Christmas present, but I think it just might be asking for a miracle to get that photographed! Just imagine it - it's a very straightforward men's sailor cap in a tweedy navy blue. Exciting, no? So there we go! All up to date! Whew that feels good!

Alright guys, that's all from me! I hope you all are having a great March! Stay warm! Spring will come!

xx

two very different hats

I usually try to avoid grand, sweeping, generalizations. However, in this instance, I feel pretty safe in saying that for the continent of North America this winter has been one mean mother f*cker! Okay, okay... I actually have no idea what's going on in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm pretty sure California is making out okay... but for the rest of us this has been a brutal one! Usually February is the month that I try to coax my northern friends into visiting me, since they're typically just recovering from their third flu of the season, and our weather tends to be perfect for talking about every aspect of your life while sitting at an outdoor cafe. But this year, forget it! Ya'll just stay put! Don't let the sunshine, greenery, or my lipstick in these pictures fool you. It's cold!

Also... the heat in my apartment is broken.  This means that I've been spending every evening curled up into the same corner of the couch with a heating pad, Netflix, and something warm to put in my tummy (hot tea, curry... a stiff shot of whiskey... just kidding. I don't drink whiskey. It turns me into a weepy drunk.)  And if this nighttime ritual sounds familiar to you than perhaps you know what else these wintery evenings are perfect for...

Knitting. Yeah, I've been bit hard by the knitting bug! It's the perfect thing to do with your hands while you're listening to Game of Thrones on audio book! What? You don't do that? Well maybe you should try! 

To recap - my amazing, and knitting wiz of a sister taught me how to knit while I was home for the holidays this year.  I immediately started on this first hat - Wiksten's Jul Hat pattern, using the recommended Blue Sky Alpaca Suri Merino yarn in fog (a gift from my Mom and Pop - thanks guys!) It was a great pattern for an utter newbie like me. I found the directions easy enough to follow, I learned a lot while working on it, and I think it delivered a really spectacular finished product! I wear it alot. 

Right after finishing my Jul hat I swung into this Chunky Cable hat - a free pattern from the Purl Bee. I once again used the recommended yarn (I'm not nearly confident enough with this stuff to diverge from the directions) Purl Soho's Super Soft Merino in red zinnia.  I thought this would be a great project to teach myself how to do cables, and I'm pretty happy with the result! I mean, granted, it's kind of a crazy hat, so it doesn't get as much wear as my Jul hat, but it also makes me smile every time I don it.  It definitely turned out huge, despite the fact that I double checked my gauge, but I also think I might have a smaller-than-average-head.  If I were to knit this again I would maybe size down my needles to a size 11 (rather than the suggested 13 - which felt disconcertingly like knitting with baby carrots...) and I might use a smaller needle to knit the first couple rounds of the rib pattern, since it has a tendency to flare at the bottom after several wears.

Neither of these hats are perfect, but, honestly, I'm kind of stupidly proud of them! After these two hats I decided it was time to jump into the deep end, because... you know... sink or swim, right? And as of right now I'm about 6 inches into Brooklyn Tweed's Bedford sweater pattern.  So... at that rate... I should be finished by the time summer arrives, right?

How about you guys? Are you finding the cold weather conducive to knitting? Any big projects on your table?

xx