HSM #3: Stashbusting

Challenge 3 worked out pleasingly well for me. I had 6m of silk from an abandoned project, and a Ball to go to at the end of March. Despite dreaming of sacques and earlier 18thC gowns, I went with what has definitely become my favourite 18thC look - the transitional styles of 1795-1799. I have a cotton open robe that I adore, and how better to improve it than by fashioning one from silk?!

I started off with Janet Arnold's open robe pattern from Patterns of Fashion I. I'd previously used this as the basis of my first open robe, and it needed quite a lot of  alteration at the sides. I also had too little fabric and was obliged to only have 2 stacked pleats at the CB. I was determined not to stint on fabric this time.

The first step was to construct the lining, which I made from some pale grey polished cotton, with 2 pieces of boning [cable ties] at the CB seam. I put it on my dress form and began to cut the silk out and mount it onto the lining. The back pieces were cut from my altered JA pattern, with the original 3 stacked peats at CB. The silk was actually a pleasure to work with at this point, as the taffeta-like stiffness gave the pleats the spring which I was so enamoured of in the extant garment. I used the selvedges at the long CB skirt seam, to avoid having to enclose or otherwise fell the seam and add bulk where I didn't want it.

I had used the original pleated front of the JA pattern in the cotton robe, but decided that I didn't have the time or the inclination to do that on this robe. I ended up draping the front and side-front directly onto the mannequin. This was my first time draping ANYTHING, and it worked out pretty well, I thought. I kept a revere/ turnback pleat at the front edge to avoid it looking too drab.

After fussing with the sides for probably longer than strictly necessary, I began to tack down the silk to the lining. I french seamed the long side seams to finish them quickly, having allowed extra material to incorporate even more pleats here. I had found out by this point that the silk was a nightmare for ravelling, although I left the hem until last and just hoped it wouldn't be too bad by then.
Next, I covered the front closure panels with some small pieces of silver habotai I had lying around. I bound the free edges in bias-cut purple silk for contrast, attached 2 pairs of hooks and eyes, and prick-stitched the main front panels down over the sides.

The side-back seams were attached to the lining and then the CB edges were turned under and prick-stitched over the top. I believe it was done the other way around in period, the side-back edges turned under and stitched over the CB panels, but it just suited me better to do it this way instead. I tacked the pleats together and tucked the raw top edges under the lining to protect them.

Here is where I began to run out of time. My friend joined me from Ireland and we went on to Bath the day before the Ball with a good bit of finishing left to do. We went out to watch Cinderella, and I started work on the sleeves when we got back to the guesthouse. The first sleeve was perfect, but the second... AAARGHH! Infuriating. What should have taken half an hour ended up being 2 hours as I struggled to get both sleeves to match. Eventually I was able to set and sew them in in the 18thC way, stitch the shoulder seams down over them, and hem them. Phew. And it only took me til 5am. I hemmed the robe the day of, while sitting around with my curlers in - I will add a facing to it at some point, as I meant for it to trail slightly and I want to ensure the silk is protected.

 I wore the robe with my figured cotton Tidens Tøj round gown, with elbow-length kid gloves and my 1790s pumps. I had been inspired by this fashion plate, and tried to replicate the hairstyle with my not-very-obliging hair. I am really very pleased with how the robe turned out, and with how the outfit looked as a whole. The Ball was fantastic, we had SO much fun and are definitely going back next year!

Unfortunately, the next day my shoes ended up coming off worst in a fight with some jam :/ at least they were cheap.

The Challenge: Stashbusting
What is it: Silk open robe
Fabric: Silk dupion [powerwoven], silk habotai, polished cotton lining, tiny bit of thick linen for support in the closure panels.
Stashed for how long: Admittedly not very - the silk was bought for another project a few months ago, but the rest was stuff I had around for a while.
Pattern: Based on Janet Arnold's open robe.
Year: 1795-1797
Notions: silk thread, cotton thread, authentic hooks and eyes
How historically accurate is it? 90%? I machine sewed the long seams, but the rest is hand sewn and put together as per the pattern.

HSM Challenge #2: Blue

Having missed out on Challenge #1, I wanted to make something I knew that I would finish, to help get me into the swing of things. I decided to make a muff base and cover. I had previously read other blog posts about the basic construction, so I gathered my shopping list and set to work.

I used Spoonflower to print some samples of 18thC mezzotints on satin, ordered half a metre of silk dupion in Wedgewood Blue from The Silk Route, and the rest of the stuff I needed was all to hand.

I used the cotton from an old hospital sheet as the base and made a square-ish tube from it, stitched together on 3 sides. I don't remember the specific measurements, but I was aiming for the smaller, neater muffs from the 1770s and 80s. I filled it with synthetic wadding as that was what I had, rolled it up, and stitched the last side up and joined it to the bottom edge at the same time.

Next was the muff cover. The silk was cut to size and I tacked the mezzotint down in the centre, going over the join with silver spangles. I pulled long threads from the frayed edges of the silk to use to sew it, as these were obviously going to be a perfect colour match. I sort-of did this bit with no real idea of how to construct it, other than knowing I needed to protect the cut edges, as the silk was fraying too easily. I stitched a channel down each side of the silk panel and ran some light blue silk floss through the channels, before joining the top and bottom and felling the seam. I would prefer to have had ribbon in the channels, but must needs; and I will eventually replace the floss.

To finish, I folded and pressed two long strips of silk and box-pleated them to the muff cover.

The mezzotint is of Theophila Palmer.

What the item is: Muff cover and base
The Challenge: Blue
Fabric: Wedgewood blue silk dupion, white cotton, poly satin [mezzotint]
Pattern: none; I made it up
Year: 1770s- 80s
Notions: cotton thread, spangles, silk twine for ties, silk thread unravelled from the fabric, wadding
How historically accurate is it? 85% [base is partially machine-sewn; wadding, mezzotint and spangles not HA materials; powerwoven dupion rather than taffeta]
Hours to complete: Approx. 12 [including dawdling]
First worn: Not worn yet! Hopefully at 18thC ball end of March
Total cost: Maybe £12 - £15, mainly the silk and the mezzotint. I had a lot of the other stuff already

A Quick Round-up

I am resolved to make more of an effort in the way of blog posts, but in the meantime here is a quick review of some of my more recent and more 'together' outfits.

The first is my middle-class Tudor clothing. For the past 6 years I have taken part in the Great Annual Recreation at Kentwell Hall, in Suffolk, UK. My first 4 were spent in the great kitchen, my 5th as a scrivener, and my 6th as housekeeper to the visiting gentry. Scrivening and housekeeping are a decided step up the social order from working in the kitchen, so I needed a suitable outfit. The year chosen last year was 1578.

The kirtle is khaki wool, with a stiffened bodice front, and it laces at the back. I used pelform as a substitute for buckram and it worked really well. It is worn over a linen smock and a linen petticoat. The gown is a soft, mid-grey wool. It fastens at the front with hooks and eyes. Lined with a fine linen, undyed. The sleeves are of high-quality black worsted wool. They are pinned to the short sleeves of the kirtle and the gown is worn over them.

Accessories: brown latchet shoes, linen hose, linen coif, linen ruff [pinned to gown neckline], black felt hat, belt. The ruff is not made entirely accurately - it's stacked box pleats rather than gathers. Mainly I did this because I find pleating far easier and quicker to do than gathering, but it has the added advantage of not needing to be starched to hold its shape. I also have some small wrist ruffs, but wasn't wearing them when this picture was taken.

The Doppelgänger, or Frankenboobs

Having, in 15 years of living history and sewing, not made anything beyond the 16th Century, I never had need of equipment beyond a mirror, flexible shoulders, and perhaps an extra pair of hands on occasion. It recently became very apparent that to advance myself further into this whole thing, I was going to need a dress form. As well as being on a very limited budget, I am an unorthodox shape - high-waisted, plump, with a relatively straight torso but extremely wide hips. My solution was to buy a cheap dress mannequin in a smaller size and butcher it.

I haven't christened her yet. She's a light polystyrene shell with a stretch cover. She was unceremoniously denuded and drawn all over with lines in preparation for the carnage.

Tools used: bread knife, markers, needle and thread, measuring tape, mirror, about 0.7 metres of thick wadding, and some PVA glue which turned out to be less useful than I hoped.

First, I took my [unflatteringly accurate] measurements. As the mannequin will be corseted up, I didn't want her to be too small.The squishier, the better. I lined my jugular notch up with where hers should be and made sure our shoulders at the widest point were level.

I measured my underbust, my "overbust", my natural waist, navel, and the widest point of my hips, before plotting out the drop between my neck/shoulders and my underbust, waist, and navel to make sure they were at the correct levels as my own body. To double-check, I stood with her in front of the mirror and eyeballed the markings against myself. The dummy's given measurements are 36-26-36. Mine are about 39-31-41. Only one of our measurements coincided, or as my housemate put it I'm a size 10 at my armpits :) I also marked out the difference in my shoulder angle and drop.

The first step is to take a knife, hacksaw, whatever is handy, and cut the boobs off from the underbust line up. They were roughly the right size, but are the wrong shape and cannot be lifted or moved around. I shaved down the shoulders to match the slope of my own.

Next, to replace the bust I filled some popsocks with lentils and barley. This is a tip I saw being used by Lauren from American Duchess, and it's genius. I used the very scientific method of filling the cup of one of my bras with lentils, and then pouring them into the socks. The socks were actually quite narrow, so I improvised and split the lentils up into two socks for each boob, knotted closed and hung from the dummy's neck.

I originally had a very simple plan involving wrapping the dummy in large rolls of wadding. Almost as soon as I started, that changed to more of a patchwork approach. It will be hard to describe it all exactly, as so much involves really knowing the shape of your own body and messing around with layers to achieve a close match. You will need to contour the wadding to mirror your lumps and bumps by cutting smaller and smaller sections and mounting them on top of each other before putting them on the dummy. The wadding can also be separated into thinner bits, like tissue paper. Just pull it apart, or cut it. I contoured a lot of the wadding this way. It's quicker than sewing graded sections together.

For me, the first bit was a single layer of wadding around the middle, with a narrower piece beneath it to fill out the concave bit of the dummy's waist. My waist is not very concave..! It started at the underbust line and dropped as far as the green line marked in the photo above, and wrapped all the way around til the edges met at the back. I had intended to use the PVA glue to stick the wadding to the styrofoam, but it didn't do a great job and I ended up taking a needle to it and stitching the edges together. Next I added a sort of skirt to the end of that initial layer, complete with slightly thicker area at front for my 'pouch'.



I made buttocks from 3 layers of wadding mounted on each other, and stitched those on over the flat mannequin bum. Periodically I would measure her, and would stand us both in front of the mirror and look for tweaks that needed to be made. Extra padding went up underneath the love-handles. The gaps between sections were filled in and rounded off. I wished I had a stapler handy, to tack down the butt-cheek cleft, the small of the back, and the navel.

When I was finished, I lined us up in front of the mirror again. Most things were a close match, but I went back and added more wadding at the sides as I had not made her hips flare out high enough. I also padded the upper back a little to try to copy the curve of my back, as hers is much straighter. She won’t be perfect, but if you have a good eye for detail you will get it close enough.

I finally finished nitpicking, and re-covered her in the same cover she came with. It has compressed her a little and smoothed her out, in much the same way as wearing a pair of Spanx would. It’s a bit too tight to cover her exactly the way I’d like – it skims across her bust rather than sinking into her cleavage, for example. I am not making a new cover though. I saved her poor hacked-up boobs and used them to round out the shoulders a bit. The lentil boobs are much more firm than my real ones, but the shape is good.

I spent somewhere between 6 and 8 hours working on the alterations. It was absolutely worth the effort, as now I have a near-replica of myself to drape and fit patterns on. Total cost [not including unused materials]: about £35.