2015 Year in Review

Tags

18th century clothing, 19th century clothing, Historical Sew Monthly, sewing projects

I really love the end of the year when all the seamstresses post their “year in review” with all their photos. It’s great to see everyone’s hard work. While I’m proud of the work I’ve accomplished, I feel bad that two years in a row, I had very ambitious plans, but did not finish much. I think after three years, I’ve figured it out. I am on Christmas break for two weeks. School is in the background – it practically no longer exists once I step out the door on the day before break. I look at pinterest and get all these ideas. I think, yeah with my skill level, I can totally whip that out. Except in the past two years, I’ve forgotten that I work 12 hour days (6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m), with the hours of 3 – 6 spent coaching. When I get home, I eat and fall into bed and do it again the next day. I spend all of my Sat from mid Jan to the start of April at Forensics tournaments and these are 8, sometimes 9 hour days. I get home, sleep for 12 hours and grade whatever I can on Sun. From Jan to April there is zero time for sewing. Zero. I think after 3 years, I have finally come to accept that. It is what it is. So given that a quarter of my year is spent not sewing, I guess what I accomplish in the other months is pretty darn good.

Finished projects:

May – Corded petticoat (for 1830s/40s dresses)

May: 1830s Dress

June: 1815 Dress (for my sister, who wore it at the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo)

 

August: Two 18th century jackets (and not pictured – re-done/fixed waist band on brown wool 18th cent petticoat)

Linen

 

Wool

 

November: 1840s Blue/white striped wool gown

Quilted Petticoat

 

I didn’t think I had made that much this year because not many (or most) of my projects fit with the Historical Sew Monthly Challenges. Because of that, I felt like a wee bit of a failure because every one else was cranking out these awesome projects that fit all the challenges. As a result, after three years of trying to make things for challenges and then getting frustrated because I feel like I’m not keeping up, I will, as usual make my start of year list for what I want to complete that will fit the challenges, and whatever gets made, gets made. Whatever does not, does not. It’s not the end of the world. I just have to do what works best for me, my historical clothing wardrobe and my living history needs.

Then I struggle with wanting to make more of the same garments for the centuries I’ve sewn for already because I want to make a better product, but at the same time I want to make more accessories, but at the same time I want to branch out more and try more eras – even though I have zero events in my area for that time period. It’s such a conundrum!!!!!! 🙂 But in a good way. #thesewingstruggleisreal

Here is my proposed list of projects for 2016 that won’t get started until after April 1, 2016.

Jan – Procrastination: Regency short gown

Feb – Tucks and Pleating: 18th century cap

March – Protection: Mantilla Cloak for Mid-Victorian OR 18th century pinner apron

April – Gender Bender: Regency Pelisse

Aug – Patterns: 1920s dress (will most likely make this because I have patterns and fabric all ready to go; more to come in later posts!)

Nov – Red: 1920s Middy blouse

 

I’m for sure going to bite the bullet and make myself a new 18th cent cap. I only have one, and while it’s okay, sometimes when I see myself in pictures I think woah, my head looks weird in that thing. Vain – perhaps, but a good enough motivation to make my own finally!

 

Conundrum: what to do with beautiful fabric

Tags

18th century, future sewing projects, hand sewing, sewing projects

I think many of us have been there: we are wandering around the fabric store, not really looking for anything in particular; more so we are waiting for the fabric to choose us. My husband laughs. A few years ago I found a bolt on the sale rack that screamed 18th century. I pulled all of the fabric off the bolt to see how much was there. Exactly enough for a petticoat.

This fabric is lightly quilted cotton with a dusty pea green and dusty “colonial blue” pattern. I LOVED IT. I also lovingly bought all of it.

My hand from wrist to middle finger is about 8 inches long.

So here is the conundrum. I found ONE example (so far in my initial pinterest search) of a quilted petticoat with a pattern printed on it. And I’m having trouble finding the original source for that one even. I’m not exactly one for just “inspiration” pieces when I’m at events. As I get more involved in my hobby/passion, I want to wear garments that are as close to an original as possible. I know that not every detail can be perfect, but if I can come close, I feel better.

My options:

• make it anyway and whatevs…I wear it saying it is inspired
• think some more about this and keep researching
• toss aside petticoat idea completely and make it in to a caraco or quilted jacket of some sort

I just love sewing large rectangles together…ya know?

Warm Clothing for Cold Weather Finished (for now)

Tags

1770s jacket, 18th century clothing, hand sewing, sewing projects

Almost a year ago I set about making some cold weather clothing for my 18th century impression. Read about that here. The petticoat was finished immediately for an event last Oct because sewing two rectangles is easy. The jacket was not finished on time because the entire process took a lot longer than I had anticipated / had patience for. I also needed to set sleeves about six times in order to get the hang of it.

Last week I finished this jacket. And today I finished my “warm weather jacket!” Hurray!!

Here it is:

I debated about the style of sleeve. I used the same sleeve pattern as I did on the previous striped linen jacket and my gown. It fits me well enough and there is one seam.

The only fiddly thing I did was make the sleeve a wee bit larger around. I followed this tutorial.

Here is my pattern piece laid out:

And a close up of the exact space between the two pieces:

I didn’t want it huge, but I wanted some wiggle room (because it’s wool and thicker with the lining). In the above pic, I cut out my lining first, then used that as the pattern piece for cutting the wool.

I used the same technique for attaching the lining and wool. Here are the pieces attached and “fileted”:

The wool is a little stiff so is laying funny at the shoulders which really bothers me because when I look at other people’s beautiful work, the shoulders on their garments don’t stand up like that. Because this is only the third or fourth set of sleeves I’ve done, I’m thinking it could be that the wool plus lining makes it bulky (what is the period correct way to get rid of that?); it could be I have too many pleats (is there a proper number?); it could be that my sleeve head is too big (how do I trim it without chopping too much off?). I have a lot to learn yet, but at this point, I’m just happy to have a lined wool jacket to keep me warm!

 

Two different types of lining:

The pinky red is just on the bodice and is worsted wool. The sleeves are natural colored linen. Between the wool and worsted wool is a wool batting interlining. I knew flatlining this to the striped wool would make things bulky in some spots, but I didn’t realize how bulky. You can’t really tell from the pictures or if you were just standing in front of me, but when you handle the garment…yeah. But it works. And it’s all hand sewn. And it’s done.

 

And now my little cold weather ensemble:

It’s all ready for an event Sept 12 – two weeks ahead of time!!!!!! (almost 3 – wow!) No deadline fear here!

The wool for the petticoat, wool tape for petticoat hem, and all fabric for jacket was purchased from the most wonderful, WM Booth Draper! (For this petticoat, we miscalculated the amount of blue wool tape and at the next event I got the 10 inches I needed and Mr. Booth sewed it on my petticoat himself! Now that’s service. 😉 )

 

 

 

 

Miss F’s Dress on location – Waterloo 2015

Tags

19th century clothing, hand sewing, Miss F's Dress 1815, Regency, sewing projects, Waterloo 200

The dress made its debut in Brussels on June 19 2015 for the Inferno Opening Spectacle at Waterloo 200. My sister was a really great sport about running through the downtown Brussels train stations in period clothing.

Here are a smattering of photos from that day and then a few from our hotel in Bruges. (The more artistic photos are on her camera, so those will be posted later).

 

The hotel, Hotel Patritius, is an 1830s house right near the Grot Markt in Bruges. It was the perfect hotel for our architectural souls. Though the house is a later date than our dresses, it made a gorgeous backdrop for our little photo shoot!

Here are some random photos at the Battle of Waterloo site.

 

Obligatory selfie

Right as I took this photo, a huge gust of wind poofed her dress. Bahahaha.

 

 

Challenge #6 Out of my Comfort Zone

Tags

1830s, 19th century clothing, Historical Sew Monthly, living history, sewing projects

Normally, I’ve been sewing 18th century and early 19th century, but nothing past 1815. This was a perfect challenge for me because I literally did not have to think super hard about what to make because the plans had been laid for this dress.

Here is me at Apple River Fort! (You can tell it’s a fort because of the wooden palisade behind me).

1830s Dress

Underneath: 2 petticoats: 1 plain and my new corded one. I think the corded one gave it the perfect poof! While I feel pretty girly in my 1780 – 1815 wardrobes because I portray women, I’m usually ripping meat apart with my hands and my apron is super dirty. But at this event, I did not have any cooking duties, so that, combined with my poofy skirt, made me feel ultra girly!!! Or maybe it was the sleeves? Or the brand new first worn American Duchess Gettysburg boots?!!!! Yeah it could have been those! (I totally forgot to take a picture at this event where I showed them off. Will need to do so in a photo shoot soon).

I really like this style of dress. It was extremely comfortable. The only part that felt a little odd were the shoulder/arm holes. I’m not exactly sure if they were too small or what. When I made the mock up, it fit perfectly. I was like oh yes, this is comfortable. Swell. Then when I actually attached the sleeves, I was like hmmm. Well too late now. I do have an extra one or one and a half yards left of the fabric. If needed to, I could redo the sleeves or add another panel to the skirt. I can’t decide which, if either of those, needs to be done.

Because I was on a huge time crunch to get this thing done (literally cranked it out in two weekends) I did not make a tutorial or anything. There are enough of those online already. Also if I were truly a lady of the 1830s, I don’t think I would have been showing my arms/wrists, however, I did not put on the cuffs on the sleeves because I did not have time. Woops!! But no one asked me why I had them rolled up, which I found odd because it’s not like I was scrubbing floors or anything.

What the item is (and why it was out of your comfort zone): early 1830s Day Dress. It is out of my comfort zone because I have never made anything in this time period that involves piping. I drool over the creations on other people’s blogs who produce gorgeous pelisse’s or spencers etc with perfect piping. Jealousy was a good motivator and I figured if they can do it, I can do it! I sewed the piping by hand and then found when I constructed the bodice, it was easier to feel where I should place stitches along the piping to get it to lay neatly and be uniform in how much of the piping is seen.

The Challenge: Out of my comfort zone

Fabric: 100% cotton with brown background a peachy/pinky/coral vine-y pattern to it. Up close I love it. Far away, it just looks brown like so much of my “day dresses” in my historic clothing wardrobe.

Here is a picture from Andoverfabrics.com Jo Morton’s collection:

Pattern: Period Impressions 1828 Day Dress

Year: 1828 (officially), but I dropped the waist line about 2 inches because I needed the dress to work for 1830s also and the waists dropped a bit.

Notions: Hooks and eyes from my friend’s stash

How historically accurate is it? 92% I think the neckline is supposed to be piped (it’s not); and I’m not exactly sure about the waistband. I know it’s how “it’s supposed to look,” but I would like to know the proper historical construction so I can do it correctly the second time around. Oh and I machine stitched all the seams you can’t see because I did not have that much time. But for the record, my piping was all made by hand – I did not use the machine for that.

Hours to complete: Several weekends – two of which were 8+ hrs of sewing both Sat and Sun. I had the pattern drafted in Feb, but did not get around to it until later.

First worn: A few weekends ago for a new event where I *needed* to be in 1830s!!

Total cost: $50.00 for the fabric (I think).

 

The other thing I want to make to go with this outfit is a pretty white collar – one that is just coming into fashion in the 1830s. I also want to try my hand at white embroidery work for this project. I think it would really dress up the ensemble a lot. While I love my fichu that I have thrown over my shoulders, I feel like it hides the waist part of my dress and some of the sleeves. The next thing I’m debating about making are the under sleeve poufs of obnoxiousness. That may be one of those projects that looks simple but turns out to be a bit more complicated. We shall see.

Oh and the next 1830s dress I make will be pink. And maybe a green one. I don’t have anything green in my historic clothing wardrobe.

 

Challenge #1 – Foundations – Corded Petticoat

Tags

1830s, 1840s, 19th century clothing, corded petticoat, historic clothing, Historical Sew Monthly, sewing projects, Undergarments

Just getting around to finally posting about the first challenge now that it’s, oh gee, the end of May. Woops!!

In preparation for some 1830s/1840s events I will be attending in the next year, I made my own corded petticoat. I hemmed (no pun intended. ha) and hawed about whether I should just buy one, but I already had fabric and the cording and I figured, how hard can this really be? It was time time consuming (like I had read on several blogs), but mine required more hand sewing because the fabric I used was a heavier duty muslin that once folded, is very difficult to push a needle through with bare fingers, thus requiring me to wear my leather quilter’s thimble (no I don’t quilt). This made it bearable. I used this information to guide me.

If I can (read: have the time), I usually prefer to hand sew everything for the time periods where a sewing machine was not around. But with school and coaching responsibilities, winter sew projects have a bit less time dedicated to them and I needed to wear the item Memorial Day weekend (the day I’m writing this), so I did what I needed to do to get it done on time and that meant hand sewing all the channels and the waist band, but machine sewing the side seam.

Also because of my time restraints, I have very few construction process photos and so this is not a tutorial. But here are some “making of” photos:

Sewing the cords with Twiggy’s help

(I don’t know if anyone else experienced this when using cording, but my cat LOVED the smell/texture of the rope. She could not stop rolling all over it. I had to open up a separate package of cording and put it off to the side for her so she would not roll around on my fabric. However, white fabric and white cat works well…).

Just a few notes about my construction process:

1. All cords are sewn with a basic running stitch.

2. Fabric is 80 inches wide.

3. I sewed on the “right side” of the fabric and constantly folded my fabric over on itself to get the cording in nice and tight.

4. Not sure if this is period correct, but I had the fabric out flat while I was sewing in the cording. This actually lead to a boo boo. I left a few centimeters at each edge free of cording because I knew I would machine sew the side seam. I didn’t think my older machine could handle going through the thicker fabric plus the rope and the last thing I needed was for the needle to break because it’s my last one. So……really nice stiff cording all the way around except right along the side seam resulted in a collapsing side seam area. When I have it under my dress, it’s not super noticeable but when I first put on the finished petticoat and noticed this it was like a “awwwww oh no! (but too late now!)” moment. *sigh*. Redo.

5. The other thing I “messed up” was measuring my waist. I have wide hips which keeps things from sliding down. However, my waist is significantly smaller than my hips. I swear I measured the fit of the final waist size before I attached the waist band. However, it was at least 5 inches too big!!!! How did this hapen? NO IDEA! Grrrrr. When I recently wore it, it worked just fine and was in no danger of falling off. Now I’m debating whether to re-do part of the waist band or just add hooks and eyes and call it good.

Overall, I’m SUPER excited to have this kind of petticoat now!!! I can’t wait to make more 1830s/40s dresses to wear over it. I want one in ever color!

 

(Ignore the top thing on the dress form, it’s the mock-up for the 1830s dress).

 

Challenge #1 – Foundations

What the item is: corded petticoat

The challenge: foundations

Fabric: creamy off white muslin

Pattern: none, a rectangle, but based on these.

Year: 1830s/40s

Historical Accuracy: 80% – all materials are cotton. Most of it is hand sewn. I’m not sure if laying it out flat and folding it up as I laid in the cording is historically accurate though. I machine sewed the double running stitch for gathering the waist band because I was not going to hand sew 80 inches twice.

Hours to complete: several weekends. One of those weekends resulted in two days of 8 hours of sewing (minimal half hour breaks in between to feed myself and change the load of wash).

First worn: Memorial Day Weekend at Apple River Fort

Total cost: aprox $10.00 for the cording; all other materials I had on hand

And just a few more photos!

One seam. It opens all the way to 10 inches down from top of waist band. The waist band is actually at the bottom of the picture.

Up close cording at the very bottom.

Miss F’s Dress – the first fitting

Tags

19th century clothing, Miss F's Dress 1815, Regency, sewing projects

Due to unfortunate circumstances, Miss F and I were able to meet up in Mi for a fitting. Our grandma passed away last week and Mr. H and I made the drive over for the funeral. I forced my sister into a fitting session when we had some down time at the hotel. I’m pretty pleased with my hand sewing technique and how much it has improved since my other previous garments. Everything is coming along nicely and I’m glad I added extra length to the front and back skirt panels because my calculations were perfect.

Here are some photos. Please ignore any wrinkles as well as Miss F’s obnoxiously striped tank.

 

The sides seams are just pinned and the front bib part still needs to be made and sewn on.

 

 

The angled side gore is not very visible in this photo. I’m wondering if I should have made it larger. But then I looked at some photos on pinterest or some other blog (can’t remember where) and I saw that the 1815/18 silhouette is not all that poofy/angled but it is also not a column. I think mine works! 🙂 Success.

I’ve also been going back and forth in my mind about what type of bib front to add. So far, I’ve only done rectangular ones for myself because that’s what the pattern called for and it was easiest given my sewing skills at the time. However, now that I’m learning more and am more ambitious, I’ve been mulling over the options. (These are the things I think about at night).

I tried a little mock up on my dress form a few weeks back, saved the pieces and then tried them on Miss F. She was confused (mainly because she does not sew), and I had to tell her to keep standing still and be patient.

 

I’m not sure if it was my horrid first time draping ability or my crappy pinning job (because she was rushing me) or my cutting it on the wrong grain, but we were not entirely happy with the look. It could be the shape of her chest and this style just doe not suit her, or it could be my fault. But I made the executive decision to just go for a basic gathered bib front that will pin into place. I’m going to make the top a drawstring so that it is more adjustable for Miss F.

Also it may or may not be evident in the photos that she is not wearing any stays. We decided that because she is not a hard core living historian like I am that it was silly to force her into uncomfortable undergarments (she does not enjoy clothing that physically constricts her) for this event. I know all the purists out there are gasping because how can you make a historically accurate dress without proper foundations?!! Well I am and I’m really okay with that because it’s for someone else and I want her to have fun and feel comfortable.

*Update: since posting, the side seams are now halfway sewn.*

More progress on Miss F’s Dress – Attaching skirt and bodice

Tags

Miss F's Dress 1815, Regency, sewing projects

I wasn’t happy with my pleating job last time. It sat for a week on the dress form across the living room where I stared at it. I made tinier pleats and ended up getting nine on each side. I love pleats.

First try:

 

Second try:

 

With the new pleating job, I moved the sides of the back skirt back just a tad. I basted the pleats into place and sewed the skirt to the bodice. It hangs quite nicely now and looks even better than I had planned/hoped.

On the dress form:

 

The way the gathers ended up on in the middle, it looks like a bunch of pleats, but it’s not.

I’ve decided that because I will need to double check the bib/apront part that goes over the bust, I have to make a mock up first. The same goes for the sleeves. My sister is larger than me in these areas and I can’t risk anything. She also gets cranky if clothing is too tight. Hehe. It’s an adventure!!!

Miss F’s Dress: Skirts

Tags

19th century clothing, hand sewing, Miss F's Dress 1815, Regency, sewing projects

My fabric isn’t wide enough. I have the back skirt panel gathered and pleated and I pinned it to the bodice. I tried it on to see how it felt in terms of flowy-ness and what not. It felt okay. (Miss F and I are similar in stature). However, I think I’m going to add 5 – 7 inch-ish panels to either side so I can have a bit more pleating in the back. I like the fuller back skirt look.

 

 

Sleeves still need to be cut, sewn, attached. Belt/waist tie still needs to be cut, sewn, attached. Front big needs to be played around with: I can’t decide it it should be gathered, pleated, etc. I need to make these decisions now. Then that needs to be attached.

I’m enjoying making another dress of this style. I think it’s giving me another opportunity to refine my hand sewing skills and learn how to alter parts of the pattern for someone other than myself.

Progress on Miss F’s Dress

Tags

Miss F's Dress 1815, Regency, sewing projects

The HSM 2015 is really forcing me to kick it in to high gear. I realized I have less than 160 some days until Waterloo. Deadline fear?!! Perhaps. But not yet. I could have been working on this over Christmas break, but instead I did something else. And what that is, I can’t exactly recall.

Yesterday’s achievements:

– Cutting out both skirt panels

– Cutting angled gores for front skirt panel

– Stitching gores to front panel

This does not seem like a lot of work and probably more advanced seamstresses could accomplish this in a few hours. But I was washing clothes, cooking food, playing with the cat AND my sister is 5’11”. I think I’ve said this before, but sewing her side seams will be the longest part of most of my sewing time.

 

Kitty helping determine how to cut the pattern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the front panel, the top of the picture shows the gore lined up. The bottom of the picture, where you can barely see the pins, is the gore pinned in place and ready to be sewn. Under the pins, I did a medium sized basting stitch. Then I did a rolled hem and whipstitched it in place, making tiny pin pricks going through both layers of fabric. The result is kind of like a French seam. All the raw edges are encased.

P.S. Though the fabric looks blue-ish in the photo, there is a tad more green to it. I’m not sure this would fit in to the “blue challenge” though. Trying to figure out where it does fit….