Wishful Thinking

It's the middle of summer and roasting hot here in Virginia, but I'm already thinking about my lack of cold-weather 18th c. clothing, especially with the rumors circling at my house of a mid-December Williamsburg trip.

I patterned the cloak off the red wool one in Costume Close-Up, only mine is shorter. It's made out of wool with pinked cotton for the ties and the bow on the back of the hood!


I made this muff a few months ago and just never took pictures of it. It's made of thick blue wool and lined with cotton, with nice thick wool batting sandwiched between. I lined the edges with scraps of rabbit fur. The blue wool is actually the leftover scraps from a coat my great-grandmother made me when I was about two!

I'm still plugging away at the pet. I had a mid-1900's bathing suit to make and ship for a customer this month, so this project has kind of taken the back burner. I have attatched the sleeves and hemmed it, and pinned on the stomacher. It doesn't close here because my dress form is not remotely shaped like me when I am all stay-ed in. XD

Well, that's it for the time being! I hope to have pictures of that bathing suit up as soon as my customer gets it in the mail!

-Sarah

Blue and White/Help Me!

I can't help it- I love blue and white together! On our recent trip to Williamsburg, I couldn't resist this blue and white roller-print cotton, partially because it matches the dishes I bought at Target! (seriously, how cool is target!?)

I love it!

It just begs to be a pet-en-l'air! I even did a quick mock up of the back to see how much I liked it. The only problem is, I have two yards. Do you all think that will be enough, if I piece where necessary and make it short? Opinions please!

A Pinball and an Apron

The apron I made, based off the one in Costume-Close Up.

And my slightly lumpy pinball. :)

Blue!

So, being too lazy to post about any of the seemingly hundreds of projects I've been working on (anybody else feel that spring is awful for CADD?!), I decided to post some pictures of a few blue gowns I really love. The first two are from the KCI, I believe... I'm not good about keeping up with sources. Just for fun, I put links to fabric that looks similar to the gowns. Click the pictures! :)

The Flat-Crowned Hat Experiment and New Fabric

I have wanted to try out Madame Berg's flat-crowned hat tutorial for awhile now, so I made a few changes and stitched together my own version!

Measuring out the crown! After I stitched the crown to the brim! :) I didn't soak the crown to reshape it because my placemats were a synthetic. I made it so it would be slightly higher where the back of my head is and taper down towards the front of the hat.

The finished product! I made it to match my sack gown. :)

The ribbon rosette. :)

A closeup of the antique button.

And now, the fabrics I have for my two upcoming projects! The one above is for an 18th century-inspired dress for graduation. (48 days!)

I found this fabric (the one below) at Wal-Mart and it reminded me of a certain gown... anybody want to guess which one? :) It's going to be a round gown for a Williamsburg trip. :)

Ball pictures will come in the next post! :)

The Finished Francaise

1770's hair. :)

With the ball coming in 13 days, I decided to try out doing some good 1770s hair.

Black ostrich feathers, two tiny cardinals, and some flowers and ribbons. :)

Hairspray, 1 lb of bobby pins, and some really, really, ghetto hair product.

Just to give yall an idea of my normal hair. And, after much cursing, pinning, spraying, spraying, and then spraying some more, this was the result! :)

A Jacket from Costume Close-Up and the Beginnings of a Sack-Back Gown!

I have been sewing, really. I just completed my sixth (6th!!) project of the year so far and I am starting on the seventh! Anyway, number 6 was the cotton print jacket from Costume Close-Up. I had seen pictures of it online and was thrilled to see it in person and get some good pictures when I was in Williamsburg. I made a few alterations to the orginal pattern so that it would close over a stomacher and added the ribbons as you see in the last picture. I'm not sure I'm happy with them though- I may replace them with real silk ribbons or make eyelets for lacing. Also, the jacket is reversible to a blue cotton floral print that I bought at the ever-excellent Wal Mart! Overall, I am very happy with this project. It was a huge learning experience (my first time sizing up a period pattern from a book!) and I feel proud of sewing it all by hand using techniques that are new to me.

Here you can see my current project- a 1760-70ish cotton sack-back gown for the Spring Ball. The fabric is from Reproduction Fabrics. This was my first time ordering from them, and I am impressed with their selection and service! Anyway, the pattern is by me based on the Costume Close-Up francaise and it is going together surprisingly/worryingly well. I have wanted to make a sacque ever since I started making historical clothes so this is scary and exciting!

Anyway, I am sewing the whole thing by hand using period methods I've read about and seen in clothing at Williamsburg. It's going to have a matching petticoat and stomacher with gathered and puffed trim, as you can kind of see on one of the robings and the detail of the sleeve. There at the top you can see a pic of the lining, which I decided to make with ties instead of lacings. (After making my new stays, which will be in the next post, I don't feel like making any more eyelets!!)

Leave comments and feel free to give me advice and your opinions on the jacket! :)

A little bit of day three!

Clocked stockings!

Levi is a cutie. :D