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

30!

Hi Guys! As you can see, the sun has decided to come out and play, and I've basically been walking around like this in a sun-drunk haze. It gets very awkward when you're constantly running into things, but Igottasoakupdatsun!

But, hey! Yesterday was my birthday! I haven't done a proper birthday post in... gosh... years. Not since I turned 27 (I still love that dress, btw. So pretty). But seeing as I turned 30, some fanfare seemed in order. 

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be feeling existential or what, but I'm actually quite happy to see the back of my 20's! Don't get me wrong, a lot of wonderful things happened in my 20's - I got my BFA and MFA in Painting, I met Nick, got married, taught myself how to sew, started this here blog, and got to know all of you wonderful people. But it was also a decade of a lot of uncertainty and, well, growing up. I'd be perfectly fine if my 30's were a little less momentous! I know a lot of people have anxiety about getting older, but I think with each passing year I get closer to my internal age. You know how some people are 'young at heart'? Well, I'm the opposite of that.  I'm not joking when I say my true age is, oh, somewhere between 65 and 85, but firmly planted in the senior citizen zone. Which is good! I've got awhile before I peak!

But enough navel-gazing! I don't care how old you are, birthdays should always be at least a little bit about having fun and feeling great, and nothing makes me feel better than a new dress. After the sewing extravaganza that was my jacket I needed a palate cleanser.  So for my March contribution to the Mood Sewing Network I turned to some of my sewing favorites - my comfort food of sewing.  In this case it was a combination of gorgeous silk crepe de chine, a tried-and-tested pattern for the bodice, a circle skirt, and straightforward construction. From start to finish this dress took me two days, which is about as instant gratification as my sewing gets!

A few months ago I snatched up this Ralph Lauren Dark Blue Polka Dotted Silk Crepe from Mood Fabrics online with the intention of turning it into a sundress as soon as the weather warmed up.  As any fabric enthusiast knows, a good polka dot is hard to find! So when I spot one, I jump! And this is a good one.  The blue is one of my favorite shades to wear – a brilliant deep cobalt – and the scale of the polka dot is perfect.  Plus, silk crepe is one of my all-time favorite fabrics to sew with.  If you’ve ever been intimidated by silk, do yourself a favor and pick up some silk crepe de chine.  It has all the luxuriousness of silk with none of the finicky handling.

This silk is pretty lightweight, but still very opaque, which might mean it's, like, the unicorn of silk fabric. It also meant that I decided to skip the lining on this one, making this the simplest, slinkiest little slip of a dress in the history of dresses. I did use a one-inch strip of fusible interfacing to reinforce the opening for the invisible zipper, which makes inserting a zip into lightweight fabric like this much more manageable. But other than that, when I'm wearing this dress, there's nothing between me and the world besides a little shimmy of brilliant blue, polka-dotted silk! Just the way I like it!

I wanted to pair this fabric with a pattern that would be simple, timeless, feminine, and flirty.  For the bodice I used By Hand London’s Holly jumpsuit bodice, variation 2, which I made once before. I love the disco-vibe of the cowl neck paired with the skinny strap. For the skirt I just used a half-circle skirt, my favorite of all the circle skirts.  I think it has the perfect balance of volume and swish and   also body-skimming sensualness (can skirts be sensual? I think half-circle skirts can). After letting the skirt hang overnight I hemmed this skirt at my preferred midi-length using a narrow folded hem.  Overall I think the look is classic, and slightly retro without being overt.

For such a fast sew, I actually did a surprising amount of hand stitching on this dress.  The entire neckline and all the bias-binding was slipstitched in place (just ignore that bit of staystitching that you can see peeking out near the straps... Ignore it I say!). I happen to really hate sewing bias-binding by machine, I can never get it to look neat! So this time I didn’t even attempt it, I just stitched the binding to the bodice right sides together, then folded over and slipstitched to the wrong side, including the straps.  It was way more time-consuming than tackling it by machine, but it was also much less of a headache. And I don't know, there's something about hand stitching that always feels very zen to me.  And in the end I actually really love how it turned out! So much neater than my awkward attempts at the machine.

And speaking of those straps – the original Holly bodice has a regular spaghetti strap, attached at the back bodice.  I had intended to do this, but when I put the dress on mid-construction to do a test fit I just quickly tied them around my neck to keep them out of the way.  I ended up really loving the way the neckline looked as a halter so I decided to keep it like that. I can always tack them down later if I change my mind.  For now though I just folded over the raw ends of the bias binding and stitched them in place.

I wore my new dress all day yesterday on my birthday and it really helped me feel great, like a modern day Sophia Loren. And really, what more can a girl ask for on her 30th birthday? Of course I also ended up enjoying so many sweets and drinks and decadent meals that by the end of the day I was more than ready to unzip and give up all pretense of any sort of ladylike or sensual airs. And my birthday ended as all good birthdays should - by washing my face, dotting myself with zit cream, putting on my ratty robe, popping a couple of ibuprofen and heading to bed!

So here's to new decades, new dresses, and sewing something that makes you feel great! Hope you're all having a great March! And if you're not, try sewing yourself something you love. 

I'll be back in the next couple of weeks with a tutorial for the Minoru pattern, so stay tuned!

xx

greenness, gathers, and gratitude

So I'd like to start this post off with a little announcement, one that I've been struggling to keep in for the past few weeks, but I've been given the green light so I figure it's time to shout it from the rooftops!

A couple weeks ago I received an email from BurdaStyle informing me that I was voted as one of their Top 50 Best Bloggers for Sewing Enthusiasts!! I was so floored by this news, I can't even tell you! As so many of you know, sewing and blogging can feel like a lonely pursuit if it wasn't for the amazing community I've been able to connect with by doing both.  Every single person who takes the time to comment, email, stop by, lurk, or end up here by accident makes my day brighter and makes me so happy.  I love to share what I love to do, and you guys make that pursuit worthwhile.  So thank you to whoever nominated me for BurdaStyle's 50 Best Bloggers, and thank you to all of you who took the time to vote for me! I feel so incredibly grateful to have so many wonderful ladies (and gents) by my side, encouraging me and letting me be a part of this lovely community. Thank you guys! I love you!

Burda hasn't gotten around to posting the full list of all the 50 bloggers, but I can't wait for them to! I love discovering new blogs, and this list is sure to recommend some awesome new-to-me blogs! I promise to share as soon as I get wind...

Now that I got that off my chest... let's talk shop! One of the things I love about all the sewing blogs out there is that they present a never ending stream of inspiration. Sure, this can sometimes be overwhelming (I never seem to have enough time or resources to make allll the dresses!) but it can also light a little spark that makes you want to try a style you never considered before, or dredge up some forgotten love for a particular detail.

This particular getup was inspired by some of my favorite lady sewing bloggers. Last spring, Morgan from Crab & Bee wrote a few posts about her love for yokes and gathers as a design feature, and proceeded to make a few, utterly lovely, garments that featured said yokes and gathers - such as this one, this one, and especially this one (that last one... sigh... be still my heart!) Those makes got lodged somewhere in my brain, and ever since then I've been on the lookout for a good "yoke 'n gather" look for myself (sadly, that Built By Wendy pattern is out of print... *sobs*).  Then Mary from Idle Fancy went ahead and added fuel to this slowly building fire when she made two, back-to-back, swingy, artist-smock-esque tops, here and here. And then I remembered that I went through a brief period on Pinterest where I couldn't stop pinning looks with full, romantic, 19th century poet sleeves, like this one, and this one. And in a thunderclap of yokegatherbohemianbigsleeve mania I decided I needed to have all the things on One. Dress. Because I'll practice self-restraint when I'm dead, dammit!

The result of said mania is the dress you see before you! This might be another one of those makes that just isn't everyone's cup of tea. There's a lot of poofiness going on here, and a general shapelessness that some might consider 'unflattering'.  As I was making it I was getting some pretty distinct "nightie" vibes from it, followed by "choir robes"... Hopefully this amazing fabric (more on that in a bit) helps steer it from "housecoat" and more into the romantic-bohemian-artist territory that I was going for. The pattern is Burda 10/2010 #122 which I selected as one of the five free patterns I was awarded by BurdaStyle (seriously hard to choose five patterns, by the by!) I changed the sleeves to be 3/4 length and added serious width at the hem by slashing and spreading the pattern piece to create the full sleeved, slightly 1800's, look I was going for.

If all of this is looking a little too Little House on the Prairie for you, don't worry, because this dress also delivers some serious leg!

(Complete aside: Is Little House on the Prairie still a relative cultural reference? Did I just age myself by bringing that up?? Not that I really care because I loved that show! It made me feel lots of feelings!)

Those side slits are verging on indecent! However, I decided to go with it as a counterpoint to all the poof that was happening up top. I zeroed in on this pattern because I loved the squared off yoke (with the prerequisite gathers, of course) on the front, and the little placket and mandarin collar.  However, like most Burda patterns, the instructions are a bit scant. I love Burda because they have such a huge, insanely affordable, offering and they really cater to trends. I don't sew with their patterns nearly often enough, but any time I'm looking for a hard-to-find style in a sewing pattern, I always start with Burda. However, you definitely do not get the generous hand holding and lovely illustrations and thorough instructions that we've all been spoiled by with indie pattern companies. This wasn't a huge issue, since I've got a nice bit of sewing under my belt at this point, but in the future I think I'll trust my gut more and follow my own sewing instincts rather than trying to decode the included instructions.  It took me sewing the front placket according to their instructions to figure this out though...

Egads!!! Are your eyes bleeding?? What? You want to get in closer??



The HORROR! 

Ah well. You win some, you lose some. I'll know for next time!

I treated myself to this fabric from Emma One Sock (sadly, all gone) specifically for this dress.  It's a light weight silk that seems to fall somewhere between a crepe de chine and a habotai, and it's completely lovely.  Ya'll might remember how I was going on about green not being my favorite color when I made this skirt.  Well, that skirt must have started something, because I'm all of a sudden finding myself drawn to all sorts of amphibian shades! Primarily this lovely grassy shade.  But really, it was the print that sold me on this fabric. I just can't get enough of painterly prints, and there is something about this one that I just find especially lovely (it's slightly 'leopard-y').  It definitely wanted to be made into a voluminous, billowy, bohemian look! It was lovely to cut, lovely to sew, lovely to handle, and lovely to wear. The only sad thing is that I've used it all up! 

I wish I had had enough fabric to make bias tape to face the curved hem (and keep a bit more length) like Rochelle and Lauren, but I was literally down to teensy scraps (definitely filing this tip away for the future though! So simple and so genius - especially when you don't want to sacrifice length).  So I had to make do with a simple 1/4" narrow hem.  Oddly enough, sewing these sort of hems on lightweight silks like this one is (dare I say it?) one of my strengths when it comes to sewing. Isn't that funny? I hate bias binding (different than bias facing), but I don't mind narrow curved hems.

Ah yes, and pockets! I'm not entirely sure what I plan on putting in these pockets, but it's fun to have a place to hide my hands amongst all those rippling folds. 

Well my best beloveds, there you have it! My take on yokes and gathers and artist smocks and poet sleeves and maybe more than a dash of Little House on the Prairie. I had another length of fabric earmarked for this exact same pattern as well, but I think I might give Tessuti's newest pattern, the Alice Dress / Top a go. Or should I save that one for spring... what do you think?

And as a final note, can I just say how hard it was to shoot this green dress in front of my usual photo backdrop of 'some stranger's garden'? Talk about dueling greens! It's hard to compete with nature!

Have a great end to your week everyone! 

xx

*Disclaimer: This pattern was given to me for free by BurdaStyle, but I selected it because I loved it, and wanted to make it, and I'm very happy I did. All thoughts and opinions on the pattern are my own and not influenced by the lovely people at BurdaStyle.