At Her Leisure

I finished up the fichu for my c. 1790 cutaway dress this week. The wiggly, wiggly gauze and satin ribbon have been stitched into submission.

That finished off my list of things I really wanted to finish by the end of July. There were still a couple of things for 1918 that I wanted to do but wasn't committed to and didn't think I'd have time for, but last week I couldn't get excited about figuring out the 1918 dress so I worked on a couple of modern things instead. Now I've got the gray wool vest and a green wool half-circle skirt finished and maybe I'm ready to tackle something historic where you have to make it up as you go along and try to figure out what the original seamstresses did. If it gets finished in the next month, okay, if it doesn't, that's okay too. I really just want it finished by armistice day.

I've been working on my embroidered 1790's dress at something less than my usual rate because I've been doing a lot of reading lately. Now I've reached the point where I've realized that I don't have tons of time remaining before the end of July, and I thought I should actually make up a list of everything I want to have done by then.

1. Late 1790's embroidered voile dress: I've finished more than a third but less than half of the embroidery. The skirt seams are sewn, but that's it for construction. Based on the speed I've been embroidering, I estimate it will take another 40-45 days of embroidery. I should cut back on the nights of reading if I want it done as well as the other things on the list.
2. Petticoat for c. 1790 cutaway dress: The original one I made is too short for this dress so I need to make another one. Fortunately, 18th century petticoats are quick to make. I could make it in a day, if I actually had a day when I didn't need to do anything but sew.
3. Fichu for c. 1790 cutaway dress: It's hemmed, and I've sewn on almost half of the ribbon. Each ribbon takes about 45 minutes to sew on, and I have 6.25 left plus the corners that need to be woven together and sewn down. That should mean that I have fewer than ten hours of work left on this. (I couldn't do it all at once, though, because it's been a bit hard on the back due to the wiggliness of the gauze and ribbon.)
4. Mid-18th century stays: Replace front edge bones. One of them broke at the waist when I was buckling my shoes before the ball in March. I'm going to put plastic bones at the front edges to keep that from happening again.

I think that's everything I need to finish. I've also got a couple of things that I would like to make.

5. 1918 petticoat: I've got a 1918 dress I want for Armistice day this year as the centenary of the end of WWI, and I need a petticoat to go under it. I've got all the rest of the underwear. This should be a really quick project, again only a day if I could sew for the day.
6. 1918 percale dress: It would be nice to have this one for the end of July because I think it will be a reasonably cool dress that would be modern enough to wear in real life. I definitely want it by November, but I'd like to have it by July. Since I haven't done anything with it beyond identifying the look I want, it's highly questionable.

I am not one of the speedier seamstresses around so we'll see how it goes. I will admit that I tend to overestimate the time needed to complete something so maybe I'll get it all done. Or maybe I won't. Who knows?

I managed to fit all the pieces of my new stays on the leftover brocade from my 1690's stays!



My daughters have decided they want to learn to sew. This happened once before. They picked out a pattern and fabric and lost interest maybe halfway through. I finished the things, and they never wore them. This time it's an even easier project - pajama pants. Even if I end up finishing them, I'm pretty sure they'll wear them. They ought to be done by the end of the weekend.



Other than that, I finished my c. 1790 gown (no pictures yet) and am really close to finishing my 1919 slipover. I just need to do the belt and buttons, but the belt is not cooperating. I'm trying one last thing before I give up on the crochet attempts and just knit it. (Have I mentioned I don't crochet?) I finished the pinball I knit over the summer but am waiting to share pictures. I technically started a new cross-stitch piece, but since I've only done one thread on it, it will be a long time before it's done. My 17th century garter is progressing slowly now that it's not my primary project, but it is definitely more than half-finished.



In summary, the UFO pile is in good shape - one vest-thing, one pair garters, one pair stays, and one cross-stitched picture.

I've been looking at the portrait I'm trying to copy and trying to figure out what shape the kerchief/fichu is. Is it square? If not square, what is it?


You can zoom in quite a bit on the Met website here: http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436222

It looks like it's something very sheer with a lot of drape to it. My thought would be silk gauze (modern gauze,) but even that might be too heavy. It seems to have three stripes around the border, which I assume are silk ribbon, roughly 1/4" (6mm) wide and spaced only about 1/8" (3mm) apart. They could have been woven into it, but I'm never going to find that so I would think that applying china silk ribbons would be my best option.

It's long enough to come around from the back across the breast and tie in a bow at the back, but there doesn't seem to be all that much bunched up at the neck. There are definitely two layers at the neck. My experience with 45-45-90 triangular fichus is that there is always a lot of fabric bunched at the neck that needs to be pinned into submission. That's the same shape you get with a square folded on the diagonal so if it were square, it seems like there should be more material at the back of the neck than I see in the painting. On the other hand, the points hanging down from the neck look like right angles, and I can't see how to get two right angles opposite each other without being a square or being some wonky shape with a seam down the middle. I don't see a seam in the painting.

Any suggestions? Any thoughts? Anything I'm missing? Please help!

A couple of weeks ago, the Houston Area Regency Society was invited to a private Beethoven piano concert. There were about a dozen attendees at an excellent house party that included a light meal, an hour concert, and cards until we had to break up. About half of the attendees were regular HARS members, and half were other guests of our host and pianist. It was a lot of fun and felt like it fit with novel descriptions of house parties except that we were not served our dinner, it was buffet-style. Compromises are required for modern life, right? Still, it was an excellent afternoon and evening.



( More pictures behind the cut... )

I was really pleased with how my hair came out.



I followed the setting instructions for one of the hairstyles in 18th Century Hair and Wig Styling (the Plume, I think). I didn't tease it, though, just used a rat and sort of half-combed the curls before pinning them over the rat. I was thrilled that it came out so well, even if my husband wanted me to promise him never to do that to my hair again! Apparently, he doesn't go for the 1780's aesthetic.

The concert got me thinking about things to do at private evening parties since we've had two this year. I think we need more music. Kaycee had a keyboard out at her party in January and offered to let nuranar and me play, but we didn't have enough notice to work anything up. My repertoire is heavily centered on the 1930's through 1950's so I would have to work something up. Now I need to figure out a way to do something like this, preferably by incorporating Ginger's vocal talents so I don't have to perform alone!

I made quite a bit this year, including four knit pinballs.



The rest is behind the cut.

( Read more... )

Explain to me why I just made an ivory silk 18th century petticoat and cut a matching bodice when I have two 1780's dresses that have never been worn. I was excited about Victorian costuming opportunities upon moving to Texas, but here I am still stuck in the 18th century. I guess I've been making plans for that period for so long that I can't get it out of my system yet.

I think the next thing I want to do is 1610's, but I really need to do a lot more reading before I start that. I'm not even quite sure what layers I need. I see lots of Tudor information, but Stuart seems to be less prevalent. There's a painting of a girl in a shift and kirtle that's dated 1612/1620 that I like, and I'm hoping I can do something like that with a jacket over it. I really don't want to make stays for it. Any suggestions?

(ETA link to the picture I mentioned.)