The End Result

I’m not in love with this finished project as I have been with many of my others, but as always I have learned much- and I suppose there’s only so much I can expect from using scraps and the odd bits of spare time here and there. Here's the finished result:

The Overgown

After draping a pattern over the corset and panniers I cut the overgown in 2 front pieces and a pleated back piece, with sloped shoulder seams. I cut the pieces out of the gold fabric and cotton lining at the same time.

Before sewing anything I trimmed the front edge in the same manner as the stomacher, with lace, green "leaf" embroidery and pink french knots. Over this I appliqued lace flowers around a vertical serpentine of gold and pink braided trim.

For the inside I cut a fitted bodice that ends at the waistline, which laces up the center back to hold the gown tight to the body, while allowing the back double pleats to hang free.

The overgown is entirely lined with cotton right sides together, up to the waist seam where it was clipped and left raw, based together along the centerfront and neckline to avoid extra bulk when attatching the inner bodice. With the inner bodice stitched to reflect the outter gown they are pinned right sides together and the pleats are pinned *opposite* as they’ll end up when stitched and turned out. I understitched to hold the pleats as flat as possible and graded to reduce bulk.

The sleeves were my biggest challenge- they’re twice as finicky on the half scale and I didn’t manage to get them cut and put in as they should be- they’re round and un-gathered at the head, which I realized once I’d run out of time to fix it, is entirely wrong according to period… It’s all part of the experience though I suppose.

 

I hand stitched on some lace and trim around the neckline and front to accent the skirt embelishment. The stomacher is pinned to the corset and overgown when put on.

The Skirts

Both skirts are simply rectangles stitched up the center back with a dip cut in at the center to allow for a curved waist. The top seams are stitched from the edge of the waist hole to form a point at the outside edge. The point is then stitched into 2 small pleats facing in towards the waist.

The following picture shows the gown inside out, before and after being pleated.

The outer skirt is made of the same material as the overdress and has a 2 tier gathered lace trim above the hem with a green vine embroidery with pink french knot flowers.

I hemmed the skirt by hand using a small whipped prick stitch, pinning and pinching as I went along.

The Stomacher

Made of 3 layers the outside is of the same gold fabric as the gown, overlayed with lace and embroidered with green vines, lace flowers, and pink french knots. The 3 layers are stitched right sides in and then bound across the top with a fine flatlace then topped off with the same gathered lace and pink and gold trim as around the bodice edges and neckline.

The Pannier

I enlarged a pattern from Corsets and Crinolines page 46.
Having cut it out of a plain off white cotton I traced the horizontal lines for the boning casings and then bound the curved top edge. Next I stitched up and top stitched the side seams, and did a narrow 1/8th inch hem.

Having run out of my beige bias edging I had to tea dye some white 2” cotton I have on a roll. It turned out a bit more pink than I had hoped but I am pleased enough with the outcome. Having dried, I turned it in using a ½ inch bias tape maker. Note that I left it at 2’ wide so it was halved and then halved again when pressed into bias tape, which made it significatly more stable.

I began from the top, leaving the second row open to allow the arched bones to be inserted and then stitched down so as not to buckle at center front.

Being on a non-existent budget I resorted to finding an alternate type of boning. When a shipping company receives a palette of anything, it comes wrapped with a plastic “tie strapping” that’s free for the taking if you ask for it. I’ve used one type before but this time I was able to get my hands on a black type. It was ¾” wide, which I thought might cause a bit of a problem, but I soon found out that my rotary cutter works fantastically to split it to whatever width I needed. Then I simply cut it to the length I needed and melted the edges with a candle to round off the points. Below the shortened split and melted pieces used in the panniers.

After inserting the boning pieces with an 1½ ” overlap to prevent buckling I stitched closed the gap that had been left and then used a heavy weight cotton cording to stitch through in 8 places around the boning to pull in the panniers to create the oval shape. I simply pinned the top slashes closed when placed over the waist to secure.

The Corset

I began with a corset enlarged from Corsets and Crinolines from 1776.

I cut 2 layers out of a tight weave white cotton that I'd had left over from a previous corset project- it's not historically correct but it seems to make a nice sturdy corset without too much fussing with layers.After stitching the front, side, and back seams together I pressed them and then turned wrong sides in, stitching the boning chanels right through both layers.

I boned the corset in every second chanel- half scale didn't warrant spending the extra cost on full boning.I have yet to find eyelets small enough to work at this scale so for now the lacing is simply pulled through with a large needle.

I bound the top with a simple cotton tape, handstitching it down on the inside. I'm definitely not impressed with the way it turned out, my full scale bindings turn out much better- Definitely a learning curve.

Overall I thinks it's been a great little first effort though having done it now I know what I'll do differently for next time.

1770's Research

My research for this period was significantly less than it was for the 1880's as this just happens to be my all time favourite period. The majority of my work has been within a 50 year span prior to this time. I am most confident with the line, shape, colors and structures that are we used so it was a logical place for me to start. I poured over some of the 500 pictures I have of this time, and ended up turning to my Fashion Kyoto Institute book for my final concept. (By the way this book is well worth whatever you have to pay to get it- It's filled with stunning pictures of the most beautiful garments you will ever see- and it even has undergarments too!)

2 days before I found out about this project I stopped by the local thrift store, you never know what treasures you might find there, and at this visit I found a very pretty single window curtain panel. It was polyester (of course...) but had a very soft gold on gold floral pattern that appealed to me, and for a whole $1 I couldn't pass it up. How glad I was that I'd found it when I found this contest- all the other material I have for this period was too heavy or had too large a pattern to be of any use to me working on a half scale.

I loved the richness of the color in this gown and I have to say I seriously considered stamping or embroidering the fabric I had to make up for it's simplicity, but alas there just wasn't time... The second picture I had floating around my image folder and I think it's a good way of confirming that my material choice still suited the era even if it wasn't as rich as I wanted it to be.

I enlarged the corset pattern from Norah Waughs Corsets and Crinolines by scanning and printing on an 8"x11" piece of paper for the sake of time. I was quite please it worked so well for half scale actually. The panniers I did freehand and they didn't turn out as I'd hoped- I was about 2" too short at the top so they don't close up properly, and they gave a squarer shape to the skirt rather than the triangular one in the pictures, so I'm hoping I'll have time to remake it as a single hoop rather than two pocket panniers...

First Impressions

So I've been following YWU for a couple months now after a former classmate of mine sent me a link for it. I'd been learning what I could from the freebies section as I can't afford to pay for a yearly membership. I must say I was thrilled to find a site so dedicated to doing things well, it really does make a huge difference.

My history is this- I'm a 6th generation seamstress but for me it all started when I watched Pirates of the Caribbean for the first time. There was a dress that Elizabeth Swann wore that was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. So I went out and did something that most 14 year old girls wouldn't; After searching for weeks for just ther right fabric I spent $150 on 10mtrs of gold and cream Jaqcuard, bought a 17th century corset pattern and a knock off Simplicity pattern like the dress I wanted and set to work on my living room floor on using my moms sewing machine. For a first independent sewing experience it wasn't so horrible at all- but 6 years later there has been some significant improvements- helped largely by the 70 costumes that now sit in dressbags in a corner of my room and a year at university studying Costuming for Stage and Screen.

I've been sewing for clients for 4 years now. I started helping with brides that came in to my moms Bridal shop who wanted something special. I've had the pleaseure of making custom historical costumes for a small number of individuals. It's never been enough for me to support myself and set up in my own space, but it's one thing that I'm truly passionate about, and besides, one can hardly expect to find much demand for custom corsets of extravagant historical costumes in a rural oil town in Alberta, Canada.

I'm currently living in my moms unfinished basement with 400square feet of sewing space- cement floors, fluorescent lights and a table made of an old head and footboard laid over a pile of boxes. Primitive yes, but it certainly hasn't stopped me from challenging myself with new projects and techniques.

So when I came across the Double Period project I was thrilled. I dropped everything, which wasn't much, and threw myself into research, finding details in each period, breaking down the overall line into structure, finding appropriate color schemes and digging through my bin of fabric to find fabrics that though not silk would convey the images that were quickly building in my mind.

All this had to be done on a budget of $10 plus my one month subscription so I could enter. The other challenge in this for me was to work on the half scale- it has it's definite benefits- half the fabric, less time working on embroidery, but it also came with a challenge I hadn't forseen so clearly- small seams, tight corners, and far less room for error. It's been great so far- just what I was wanting right now.

I had the pleasure of being able to use my great grandmothers Pfaff Treadle machine that corssed the Atlantic with her after the war. what a feeling it was to open it up and see it in mint condition- bobbins, turning feet, extra needles and all sorts of extra still lovingly stored in the side compartment as they would have been the day it was bought so many years ago. It took some getting used to- I had to find my rhythm and had issues with the needle coming unthreaded and the thread breaking for the first couple hours, but I must say it is the most satisfying sewing experience I have ever had.

Okay enough backstory- on with the sewing!