Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Regency Ballgown - History and Planning

 Regency is a period most people are familiar with, if for no other reason than the insane popularity of Pride and Prejudice - or more specifically the Colin Firth one that made every history loving girl fall head over heals for Mr Darcy.  I mean why wouldn't you.

The fashion of the time was a nod back to the roman and Grecian styles.  The waistline moved right up to under the bust that also moved right up.  Skirts were narrow by comparison to earlier styles and the look altogether more sleek and less floofy.  The image of Regency is so engrained in our minds that we often don't realise the entire period lasted less than a decade (1811-1820 or the time in which the Prince of Wales ruled as Regent for an ill King George III).

Besides the cut of dresses the era is also known for its excess, whilst the Bennett's had their modest farm we must remember and picture the Netherfield Ball, or the sheer amount of food being brought into Netherfield on Bingley's return.  There was once an awesome show called Supersizers Go where they would live as in a specific era and the Regency episode is hilarious.  I recommend watching it. 

Regency is not a period I am unfamiliar with, I have made something like 10 dresses of this period all using the sense and sensibility series of patterns.  They tend to sew together very quickly and simply on modern sewing machines.  Though more so than any other era a regency stay of some description is required to get the silhouette correct - least you look more like a 70's hippy.  




So what has made this project jump the queue as it were, well Foundations revealed are running a competition.  The theme is Once Upon a Time and the idea being that you create a character.  I am happily using this as inspiration to get creative.  

So I selected my character, which in the end was harder than you would think - not only because there is so many characters to create but also because I still need to stick to the two rules - busting the stash and working on skills.  Regency was already on the cards and seemed to be the easiest to adapt to the theme set out.  By now you are probably thinking another Lizzie Bennet then but you would be wrong.  That would be far to easy (Plus I would do Mary she is way more interesting).  I decided I wanted to adapt the regency style to a character of folklore - The swan Maiden.  



The tale of the Swan Maiden exists across a number of cultures, however I was able to find published (at least online) tale and song for this which means (I hope) it will fit the boundaries set out by Foundations Revealed.  The basic premise of all stories is that a hunter sees swans land, shed their feathered clocks and transform into beautiful women who proceed to bathe then put back on the feathered cloak to transform back into swans and fly away.  Hunter steals cloak and blackmails swan maiden to marry him.  Eventually Swan Maiden finds clock and flies away.  Academically there is much discussion over the themes and tones in these folklores but really I just love the image of the transforming swan.

What I will need in terms of costume pieces

1. Feathered clock, of cause this would be the most important part though it is as yet only ideas in my head

2. White Regency Dress

3. Regency Petticoat

4. Regency Half Stays, which I already have done (thank the lords for small favours)


In order of priority though I will make the petticoat, followed by the dress and then the cloak.  I know this seems counter intuitive given the importance of the cloak but I can get the dress and petticoat done whilst mentally figuring out how I will do the cloak and what its design will be, and I can plan out the draping/pattern changes I would like to do to the dress while I work on the Petticoat.  Also as the petticoat is made up of mostly the same pieces as the dress its almost a wearable mock up to get my sizing right.

Skill wise I will need to draft some elements on the top of the dress which is quite new to me.  I have some ideas such as wanting slashed sleeves.  I also need a more mythical sort of look to the dress so design is obviously the biggest part of this project in general.  Again I will be concentrating on finishes (you will see this as an ongoing theme) with things like hand sewing and seam treatments and all those fun things.

Now to the important bit, the stash.  The bulk of this (the dress part) will be using not only stash fabric but entirely recycled fabric.  Early last year some friends and I were invited to inherit the sewing stash of a late dressmaker.  Within that stash was an unfinished wedding dress of white silk.  No one else wanted it because they would never finish the dress but I saw potential.  Specifically large panels of silk that could be repurposed to a new item - it was always earmarked for a regency dress.  obviously first step will be to get it out unpick the old dress and see what I have to cut from (I will try and get this done next week)

I may need to get some silk organza for some of the elements like the insides of the sleeves because I don't see the point of mixing polyester with silk, though the cape will likely be made from an polyester fabric that I also got from the same dressmaker because it seems like it would be financially problematic to buy a silk for the cloak and then in all likelihood glue feathers to it.  Though net may be a better option.  Again these are things I need to think about.  See why I am starting with a petticoat.

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

The Tram Outfit

 This outfit was actually made last year.  The Historical Picnic Society of Sydney was made aware that there was a celebration happening at the tram museum to celebrate 110 years (I think) of Sydney Trams.  This placed the opening to 1899 so we decided a suitable presentation should be attempted and on this day in 2019 we all assembled suitably attired.

Originally I had bought a 1898 Ageless Patterns option in the strawberry Linen suit, however as deadline loomed I knew I would not have the time to do it the justice I wanted to that outfit.  For those who have not worked with ageless patterns before they are a reproduction of patterns at the time.  They give you the basic pattern pieces in whatever size the original is in and the rest is up to you.  I knew I would need to do a lot of resizing and refitting to get the result I wanted let alone the trim plans I had.

So with limited time left I turned to my trusty Truly Victorian stash of patterns and moved a few years post the trams opening to make the 1903 Plain Blousewaist (TVE41) and the 1903 Trumpet Skirt (TVE21).  For those who have not used Truly Victorian they give you for the most part the basic structure and you are able to decorate to your hearts content to create a variety of options.  Depending on fabric choice, trim choices and accessories you can obtain a large variety of looks.  I was aiming for Edwardian Middle Class woman on a day out.

For fabric I turned to E&M Greenfields, a Sydney store that supplies wholesale and also direct to public both online an instore with a large range of basic fabrics in a rainbow of colours.  Having been in there the range online is a drop in the ocean of what you can get in store especially in the trim department.  Being wholesale primarily if you don't order in large enough quantities there is a cutting fee and prices are not advertised but given by quote.  Having said that whilst the system is one step longer it really isn't complicated and their response time is amazing.  So is the cost. I asked for a quote on a yellow Linen (skirt) and white preshrunk Voile (top and lining).  

I don't remember the exact price I paid but the Voile was so cheap I thought why the hell not and bought the 15m that was the limit before another fee kicked in - I mean who doesn't need 15m of voile, I can use it for lots of things, anything, I live for voile.  




The outfit turned out ok I guess.  The skirt I love though I think I should placket the back opening and to be fair Linen whilst time period appropriate is a wrinkling nightmare, the yellow colour however I love.  The shape is very flattering I think.

The top however, I am not sure on.  I think I need to remake in something with a bit more body than the voile to be honest.  It isn't bad just boring.  Also I could be being tainted by years of watching Pollyanna but I feel it is very "pidgeony".  I did lower the neck using only the undercollar.  Having made the Train outfit previously with the full heighted collar I knew I did not have a graceful swan like Edwardian neck and ended up looking like a floating head.  This height turned out perfect for me and is finished with a tiny little ruffle of eyelet lace.  The same lace is backed on itself to form a double sided run down the blouse Centre.  Problem is none of these details really show up in the photos.

I topped it all off with a bought boater, found in the post Melbourne Cup sales (the only time to buy hats).

So what do you think, should I try the bouse again? If so what fabric should I use?

Sunday, December 6, 2020

Chemise a'la Reine - History and Planning

 The Chemise a'la Reine, which translates to "underwear of the queen" is a very simple but beautiful dress that had a small role in changing history.

At the 1783 Marie Antoinette dared to be shown wearing the lightweight, "peasant" style garment in a painting by Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun. Whether it was because the queen was seen to be in underwear, or because the queen was appropriating or costuming outside her class is unsure but it caused a big stir within all classes of France. The disapproval was so complete that the artist repainted the queen using the same base in a more aristocratic garment and the painting was quickly swapped out.  




The damage however had been done.  While this garment is certainly not a deciding factor in the french revolution it was ammunition for those apposing the rule of Louis XVI against the already unpopular Austrian born queen.

Marie Antoinette is an historical figure whose existence is shrouded by her legend, her extravagant lifestyle, the infamous "let them eat cake", a far cry from the humble last words of "pardon me sir, I didn't mean to" (having accidentally stepped on someones foot on the way to the guillotine).  We as modern people are left to wonder what is true and what is propaganda.  What is fact without question however is that she was a very real human being, who's life and death was dictated by the whim of politics.  She died as a sacrifice to the revolution in 1799 less than a month shy of her 39th Birthday.

Despite the shock when it first emerged, and quite ironically the chemise a'la Reine was taken up by Josephine, wife of Napoleon first emperor of France and inspired the regency fashion that was to follow.

But I doubt you are here for a history lesson, its about the sewing right.  Well, this dress looks to be the first project I will kick off in 2021.  I have some very clear reasons for this.  Firstly having had a baby in October I am not in what one would call my perfect shape and the ease of sizing in this garment makes it perfect for both weight gain and weight loss.  Secondly the lightweight cotton fabric is great for Australian summers, and finally because I can wear this with or without underpinnings.  The true historical silhouette will have the stays but I would rather ease back into sewing with something a bit more simplistic than stays, that and I haven't yet found a pattern I would like to make stays for the 18th century.  I am open to suggestions on that.

Speaking of patterns, i will technically be drafting this one but it will be based on this pattern found online (so sorry but I can only find it on pintrest so if someone knows who should be credited I will be very grateful). 



As you can see, it is a very simple pattern to work with, the entire dress is just masses of lightweight cotton pulled together around 2 drawstrings in the mid section and a further neck drawstring front and back with a separate shoulder piece added. The sleeves similarly are also shaped by either full gathers at shoulder or the drawstrings at elbow and lower edge.  This is to be in line with the image of Marie Antoinette.  If you are interested in making your own different sleeve treatments not only exist but are period appropriate like this extant example.



We can not see in the Queens Portrait whether her dress had the bottom ruffles but as I will include the neck ruffle I think I will go with a more plain hem.


So what we are up to now is how this fits into the goals set in previous post.

1. Challenging.

Whilst the dress is deceptively simple in theory in practice it requires meters and meters of hand sewn tiny rolled hems to be useful.  In order to achieve this the fabric must be cut 100% on the straight grain.  There is no near enough is good enough that usually tempers my efforts.  I will need to draw threads and cut precisely for this to not turn into a hemming nightmare.

Therefore the skills I am working on are being more precise in set up and hand sewing.

2. Stash items

For reasons that will be made clear in a future post this week, I am the owner of between  10 and 15m of white cotton voile that will be perfect for this project.

Need to source is only twill tape and silk ribbon.  Plus the hat stuff if I want to get the right Marie look, though I may do headwear slightly less formal than the portrait above

2020 - Realisations/2021 - Goals

 As the hell year that was 2020 comes to a close I find myself very inspired to get a whole bunch of sewing done in the new year.  How much I get through is questionable as I will be on a year of maternity leave so finding a balance between parenting, housework and sewing may be hard.  

I also have 2 goals to work on sewing wise this year, they are

1. Increase skills by working on more elaborate and complete pieces

2. Work through stashed fabric and notions

The first goal is logical, we only get better if we challenge ourselves.  The second has a sad but kind of inspiring story attached.

At the beginning of 2020, my mother passed away.  She was young at 66 and it was an unexpected loss.  I won't go into large details but sufficed to say as she was also a sewist and as I am the only relative who is also a sewist, I inherited a large amount of sewing stuff.  It is also probably relevant to point out that we were also both kinda low key hoarders with a special interest in sewing stuff, so stash mountain has turned into stash Everest.

I did let a lot of the stash go, donating to The Sewing Basket or to family friends who were making large numbers of masks given the situation with Covid.  In truth there was no way I could ever consider being able to get through it all.  But there were many many fabrics I kept, so many of them purchased with plans to make things for her grandchildren - a task I will try and complete in this year coming and others fabric she had had for a long time.  Fabric she found and liked and would use one day but never got the chance.  Perhaps the right project never did come up or perhaps it did but what if she lost weight (she was always trying to lose weight) or what if she found something more perfect to use it on.

I think we all have a stash like this, we end up buying fabric specifically for projects rather than using what we have and a lot of what we have could have been used but its like deciding between having your cake and eating your cake.  What I realised in all of this was cake is no good if you don't eat it.  Eating it is its purpose, having it is a waste.  So 2021 needs to be the year I realise the perfect project is the one I have now not the one that may or may not exist in the future.  That silver and grey brocade I have been holding onto for nearly a decade, the vintage fabrics I found at fairs all of it is useless unless I use it.  I don't want to hold onto it and then miss my chance.   

With that all in mind I have started making lists of ideas on what projects I could conquer in 2021 - Assuredly I will not get through all of this but the priority is that each project must meet both goals.  I will list them here in short form so that I can refer back to it when I finish one and move onto another.  Some of these I will expand on in planing posts so that I also have an easy reference place for all my research.  (List is being done in chronological groups)

Please feel free to comment on what projects you think would be most fun or that you would like to see or hear about.

Medieval

  • Viking Apron Dress
  • Tudor Catherine Parr 
  • Italian Renaissance Gown

1700's

  • Robe a'la Francaise
  • Robe d'Anglaise
  • Slytherin Riding Habit
  • Chemise a'la Raine

1800's

  • Regency Silk Ballgown
  • Scarlett's Orange Mill Dress
  • Linen Walking Ensemble

1900's

  • WW1 Era dress
  • 1920's daywear
  • WW2 Military Suit
Non Costume Sewing

  • Vintage inspired work pieces
  • Mums Children's wear
  • Baby Bix Baby clothing
Fixes and Finishes on old projects

  • Elizabethan Cartridge pleating
  • Cursed Green Dress
  • Blanket Dress
  • Plaid Dress
  • Toph's Victorian Coat