elizabeth_mn

You guys remember this at all?



Right after I last posted I brought these to work and my coworkers unanimously liked the plummy purple wool/silk with the lighter brocade. I bought out the rest of the bolt: about 7.5 yds.

I have enough of the solid that I want to make it into a Nice Plain Wool Dress, bodice and skirt, maybe a few pleats but nothing fancy. With 7.5 yd of 60" fabric I can do that easily. I want a nice plain winter dress I can wear alone or add fichus and fun over-bodices to.

Then I will use my wool brocade to make an accent piece I can swap in to change things up as desired.

Here are the plates that are currently speaking to me for the brocade bodice.

Left one here with the solid vest detail.


Left one here.


Before I dive in to this I am going to finish my new undies and possibly a new corset.

As of right now I am setting aside all my own sewing for myself and completely focusing on making menswear for my HB. If you are stalking me on Pinterest (like I am stalking most of you) you have probably noticed my current mens clothing obsession. Here's what I am currently contemplating.

18th century summer - Linen coat, a light vest, breeches
Victorian summer - Linen single breasted frock coat, a light vest, light pants, a patterned shirt
Victorian separates - plaid pants, plaid pants, and plaid pants
Something for the renaissance festival - ???

Today I ordered the Laughing Moon men's pants pattern. I've been making him pants from that old simplicity pattern and I want something new and different. I have a bunch of patterns already for everything else on the list as well as a stack of possible fabrics.

I'm hoping with all the Victorian pieces he can have an effective mix and match wardrobe and pull something out for the Little House Party or any other event.

First up is summer Victorian. We don't have any events or anything but it's what I feel like working on so I should probably take advantage of that.

This week I've been thinking about my dead-of-winter wardrobe. Modern/everyday, not historic. There are two main points to consider here:

1.) Cold. It's f#cking cold.
2.) Static electricity. Very cold = dry, dry air, and dry air = static. Enough static cling to make all your clothes stick to you horribly.

I have only a few skirts that I consider suitable for this time of year. I need to add to my wardrobe, but winter sewing is starting to wind down for me now, so I want to write these notes down as reminders to myself for the fall.

- Wool gabardine, or any hard-finish wool, is autumn fabric. In winter, it's fine for warmth, with layers, but the static is absolutely maddening. Softer wools are better for deep winter.

- Flatline rather than bag line wool skirts. A loose lining = static and annoying.

- Wide wale corduroy is warm enough, and avoids the static issue by being cotton.

- I know you want a wool jersey dress. Don't do it. Just don't. Because of static. Use a heavier wool knit if you really want a dress, and save the jersey for tops and leggings.

- Keep skirts below the knee or longer. Your knees will get cold.

- Linen and cotton pencil skirts are fine only when at home or driving somewhere, not walking.

- Make petticoats. (I used to do this; I made cotton muslin slips for the baselayer and cotton flannel underskirts for warmth.) Another bonus is the petticoats keep the wind from wrapping the skirt around your legs so much.

- Fit skirts over leggings. Keeping snug over the waist and high hip minimizes shifting during wear.

- You need more legwarmers. And swants.

- Think about giving pants another chance. Make them roomy enough for long undies. Make sure you could wear them under snow pants.

- Start winter sewing in September.

This is seriously just me thinking out loud to myself.
( Sewing thoughts )

Last week I fitted a mockup for new modern everyday skirts. I let it languish a bit, then today made the changes and cut out four new skirts, all from the stash! It's pretty recent stash; I have only had these pieces for a couple years at most, but it still counts, right?

Then I asked The Girl to come in the sewing room and help me sort and choose fabrics for her school clothes. I don't make ALL her clothes - that would be crazy-making - but I like to make what I can. So I now have fabrics and patterns set aside for a couple dresses, four pairs of pants, a lightweight jacket, and a bunch more mixy-uppy T-shirts. I don't have a many old shirts to upcycle this time, but I do have lots of random odds and ends and leftovers in my knits bin!

I still have a lot of Stash to go, but I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have completely stopped buying fabric just to hoard, and I am working toward a point where I can fit it all in a single bin.

Makes me slightly anxious to think of a day when there might not be any Stash at all, and I just buy project fabric as I sew it. But I have to remind myself that even though stash fabric feels like it's free, I did pay good money for it. And anyway, there will always be changes of plans. And leftovers.

Ok, so I'm a little late to the party, but who cares!

I should mention I've only read this book recently. Everybody here was talking so much about it and I love a good novel with magic, so I got a cheap used copy last January and read it. I have to admit I had to persevere a bit to get into the story. The footnotes drove me crazy, and the text felt very small for my tired eyes at night. But after I few chapters I fell in deep, and loved it.

My vision for this costume is very earthy, like mold and moss and slightly rotted dead things in the dark undergrowth of the forest. That's how I pictured the fairies in the book. The Gentleman is also described as wearing green.

Anyone remember this annoyingly bright dress? Well I decided I could sacrifice it to the cause. I did really enjoy the brightness, but I'd already worn it twice for two different events, and I really doubted I'd wear it again. So I dyed it to make it more earthy and mossy. One pot of Procion bronze later, I had this:



To make the wings, I bought a big sheet of fancy mulberry paper from the art supply store and did some paint. First a mottled layer of brown watercolor, then a sponged layer of metallic bronze.

After this I coated the back in Mod Podge to stiffen, which was a total fail. It's actually softer now, instead of stiffened! It's heavy and soft and floppy and thick. Probably you real artist types are saying "duh," but usually when I Mod Podge things they get stiff, almost crispy stiff, like they stand up on their own.

I am really not much of an artist, so please know this is really the best I could do. It's not quite what I envisioned, but oh well. I will go with it anyway. I have a wing template, sort of a dragonfly's wing shape, that I will use to cut out wings from my painted paper. I plan for them to hang down, like they are folded, not stick out to the sides.



The twirly sticks are for my hair, which I plan to braid up and then cover with moss and twigs.

Finally the overbodice. This is still in progress, and it's a little ambitious for me, so we'll see how it goes. The plan is to glue a layer of moss to a tulle foundation to make a bodice made of moss. Here's the sample I made.



It worked pretty well, though I had to absolutely saturate it with glue (Fabric Fusion). I put freezer paper below and on top and weighted it with a book until it dried.

I have a bag each of brown and green and another bag that's more peat-y. I'll try mixing them a bit. I hope this ends up looking like what I am imagining.

So I have the bodice of my Little White Regency Dress sewn. I am doing it all by hand. I need to try it on before I keep going (because I am paranoid, and I screw up a lot) but I HATE having to lace my stays up constantly. It's not like an easy-on, easy-off Victorian corset. It takes ages.

So I figured I would make it count by fitting my spencer mockup at the same time. But that means I have to figure out what the spencer will look like...

I know I have a couple wools in my stash, a mustard yellow and at least one deep teal blue. Right around the turn of the century the look is kind of loose, unstructured, with flappy bits everywhere and so on. I am going for a little later look, 1810-15-ish, when things became a little more tidy.

Here are a few plates I am looking at.

Fitted, nice collar: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/229894755952894174/

These sleeves are too crazy but I like the front: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/490188740669191893/

I probably won't do this trim, but I like the shape: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/268456827762195310/

A little fussy but cute: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/131589620337526759/

Love the fitted-ness, the collar, the color: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/178032991493300959/

The shape, the yellow, the bow! https://www.pinterest.com/pin/431501208018223050/

Just being thinky.

Plans so far:

Thursday night: I really want to do a vintage swimsuit type thing, and maybe actually go swimming! I know nobody really swims at the pool party but why not?

Friday day: I might still do an Edward Gorey thing, otherwise maybe something old.

Friday pm social: Probably the orange silk anglaise I am starting now.

Saturday day: Little House printed cotton.

Gala: I suppose I will just default to the green and blue ruffle bustle dress. I will make an evening bodice for it.

I have to admit it bothers me to not be part of a group for the gala. Last year I thought I would do the court dress thing, then I thought I would do a fairytale thing, but neither of those ideas worked out; I just couldn't get the inspiration to make them work.

I really do love the green ruffle as a dress, for straight up Victorian stuff, but coco gala is an opportunity to do something different.

I suppose my other options are to make something new (not entirely feasible at this point) or to wear Glinda, which, as much as I like it, was made as a cheap Halloween costume and looks pretty terrible close up.

Sunday breakfast: LWD.

Sunday day: no idea.

If I end up with gaps I feel comfortable enough just tossing something old in there. Last time I attended coco I had this idea for some reason of only bringing new costumes. Silly of course because I had a full day of not being dressed up. Not gonna happen this time.

Ok, let's start with the fabric. I bought this on sale a couple years ago at work and since my plan for it was an 1880s dress anyway, I figured why not combine that plan with a Little House plan?



My primary inspiration photos are the printed cotton dresses from Fashion In Detail.



But I'm not making a direct copy, so a couple fashion plates from the Harper's book are helping to round out the missing elements.

( More images )
I am going for a c.1883 style; while not a direct reproduction of any of Laura's dresses described in her books, I do want to make something that she or someone in De Smet might have worn. Something nice but not too fancy. Even Laura's dresses for Sunday Best were still modest compared to some of the schmancy stuff that appeared in Harper's.

Undies: She describes her preference for a smaller bustle in one of the later books, set in the mid-80s when the bustle was at its peak, so I might wear my smaller lobster or possibly just a small pad.

So far I have the skirt just partway together. This project has stalled a little but I hope to kickstart it again this week.

Ok, I've decided. I'm going to make a new lobster bustle. Closer inspection has shown my old one to be sadly wearing out, and there are some lovely sloped examples in the Kyoto Fashion book dated to the early 1870s. I have the wire already, a pattern from the old one I can update/alter, and hopefully I can dig some fabric out of the stash.

I also need a new petticoat (a girl can never have too many!). I'll probably alter the TV pattern to make a demi-trained version with lots of flounces and things.

Both of these are fairly straightforward. I just need to be focused and do it.