The Saque....Or the gown I almost killed myself to make in a week!

So here are more photo's of the Robe a la Francais that I made for a wonderful lady in the Regiment. Mrs. L provided the fabric, a silk dupioni, and requested that it could be done by the celebration for Robbie Burns. 

I warn you...Its going to be SUPER heavy with pictures!  But I think you'll enjoy that. The only thing missing is the trimming.  She also wanted cuffs and decoration which were to be done later.  As it is LATER now, (LOL), I am almost finished on the trimmings and will post pictures soon. 

Enjoy!!

The stays were hers and the pockets I made for this gown.

Red Rover, Red Rover, Bring Your Stays over....

So I am ALMOST done the stays for Mrs. S.  They are made from 3 layers, 2 cotton canvas and 1 is a rough textured red silk.  The binding is a faux suede that I had  purchased at a fabric store in Vancouver BC many years ago.  I bought it because it was literally identical to real suede but much easier to sew through.  The channels are machine sewn as I don't have the patience or the ambition to do it by hand.  I'm not that hard core!  LOL.  I used German  Plastic Whalebone, cutting and sanding each end so that it had less of a chance to poke through the fabric.  I also used metal grommets which I'll cover in thread to make them look period.  I just have to finish up the binding and put in a lining. 

Now that is one gorgeous figure! 



The bowed shaped front of the 1780's



Raspberries Anyone?!?!

So I've also been working on two bridesmaids dresses for my sister in law Miss Maggie for her upcoming wedding in August.  They aren't completely finished yet, just needing the zipper, a hem, and the skirt part of the lining. 

The fabric is silk dupioni from http://www.silkbaron.com/  I absolutely love his silks.  They are such a nice quality and weight for a fabulous price.  He has great lead time in shipping and fanatastic customer service.   I probably sound like a walking billboard, but I just can't rave about his stuff enough.

Here is one of them....Stay tuned for dress # 2

The Poiret

I have Finally figured out what I am gonna do with some fabric I have been hanging onto for the past 9 years or so.  Its a beautiful soft heathered blue wool flannel.

I'm gonna make a coat based on Paul Poiret's cocoon coat.  I'm hoping it's also gonna be for a contest I would like to enter on Foundations Revealed.  The contest is their Double Period Project and this year its either 1812 or 1912.  I love the early teens fashion as it moves into the flappers of the 20's.  The fashion is so loose and free and has an opulence about it that you just don't see now a days.

I simply ADORE the yellow version!

Paul Poiret was a leader in the world of fashion and trendsetting back then.  He was one of the few who chucked the petticoats and corsets and opted to drape and form the fabric to natural form.  One of the designs he created was something called the cocoon coat.  He used one piece of fabric and draped it on the mannequin to create folds that hugged under the bum and the upper thigh and billowing out in the body of the coat.  This style had his famous Hobble skirt design.

I love this idea and have been busy researching online, trying to find as many photographs of this type of coat that I could find. Both his own work and the work of others as well as fashion illustrations of the the time.  Its definitely a challenge for me, creating the look you see in the illustrations, while using one piece of fabric.  I've gotten a pretty good shape so far on my draping experiments, but I'm still not altogether happy with the result.  I have questions....

And that was where I left off a few weeks ago...lol.  I did however order Poiret: The King of Fashion book and it arrived.  Its such a fabulous book.  It's hard but I was finally able to see the seaming on the coat he created for his wife.

I now just have to decide if I want to be faithful to Poiret's design or use it as a jumping off point and create something based on the silhouette but with my own style.   There are so many yummy fashion plates and Extant garments for wonderful inspiration!

Decisions, Decisions....

Good thing I have till next year to have it completed!

Busy Busy Busy....

Honestly I'm still here!  I've been super busy during the past few weeks.  First the hubby was home, and then he left and we all got sick.  I finally feel back to normal after 7 days and I have been busy.  I draped and draped and draped the Poiret coat, did a mock up of a new corset pattern, and have been working away at Sam's 1780's stays.  I almost have one half of them done.  I just finished binding around the tabs with some faux suede I found years ago.

This was a quick shot while I was back in the sewing room cutting out more binding.  I found a wonderful tutorial on binding the edges of stays Here done by Cathy Hay from Your Wardrobe Unlock'd.  Its gotta be the best tutorial I've seen.  I've also found that binding the tabs without the boning in the channels makes the job a little bit easier as you can bend the stays around and crumple them with your hands as you work.

The Steampunked Alice

So I've been wanting to create a bustlette for the Alice dress and was inspired by this one on the blue dress in the movie The Secret of Moonacre.

I Love how the hoops are exposed and you can see the cage.  I was looking for more inspiration pictures and happened across this extant bustle....

http://www.metmuseum.org/special/extreme_beauty/13.L.htm

Which I think was the inspiration for the MoonAcre movie costumes.  I can't wait to start on this! 

Men's Frock Coat De-Mistified.

I had a realization this morning!  It was like an atom bomb went off in my head in regards to patterning a Men's 18th century frock coat.  I've been looking at diagrams of patterns inline for weeks now, trying to figure out the easiest (and admittedly laziest) way of drafting a men's jacket.  I do have the background in pattern drafting and can do it from measurements and the formulas, but I have been stalling, hoping I could find something easier.

This morning I realized how easy it actually is.  This Diagram gives me everything I need to know to draft up a man's frock coat.  Its been staring me in the face for weeks now!  Sometimes I can be so dense!

If you understand the very first lessons in pattern drafting then you can pattern this in no time.  All the measurements needed are on the diagram. 

Basically you start with a vertical line which is the length of your garment.  Here the front of the coat is 116 cm long.  The measurements start at 0, and draw a perpendicular line out from there.  This is the top of the shoulder.  The next line down is 6 cm from the top, square out from there, this is the center front neck point.  You continue to square off your lines from the vertical line, measuring down using the numbers provided in  centimeters.  Use your french curve to draw your shaping.

At this point it is all just theory.  I could be completely way of base.  BUT....This is exactly the same way you start the draft on modern day tops pattern.  I think the only thing I need to work out is the measurements and translate them in to a size.  I am gonna do a copy of this pattern  and see if I have to do any changes in order for it to fit The MAN. 

Adventures in Breeches

After I finished my polonaise, and The MAN and I attended a soiree to celebrate Robbie Burns, I asked him if he wanted to join the world of re enactment.  He agreed and told me that before I was allowed to man any more girly clothes, I had to make him a proper set of clothes.

Super excited that The Man wants to play dress up with me, I started right away on a pair of breeches.  For inspiration I found these, which were originally made from buckskin.  I love the how the fall front comes from the side seam, the decorative stitching,  and overall esthetics of the front fall shaping.

I made up the pattern and had to wait 6 weeks for the hubby to be back home.   He agreed to let me take pictures of him, under the orders that I chopped him off at the waist. Mission accomplished!  The overall design in almost perfect.  I a few alterations to make.  Mainly they are too big, too long, and the seat needs more fabric to allow for more movement in the legs now that I have them pinned tighter.

I pinned one leg on the inseam and you can see that the one side is wrinkling on his upper thigh near the junk.  I like the hang of the leg that is not pinned. 

After they were pinned there wasn't much room in the seat, and although he has a cute bum, it's not period accurate.  I was hoping to make a compromise between the ubersaggy bottomed period version and the modern version of the pant.  I'll be reshaping the seat and adding more volume to get the right look.

Gonna have to shorten them

He was pretty concerned with what i was writing on his bum....Alteration notations of course!  Like I would do anything otherwise, (wink, wink)

Overall I think they worked out pretty good for the first muslin.  I have a few changes, but nothing major.  After I make a basic version for his first set of clothes, I plan to make a pair out of a nice soft chamois leather.  I'm so excited to be finally moving forward on his clothing, but not before I fix a few zippers, a grad dress and a bridesmaids dress, which are all due next week.


Cheers,

K

Evolution of the Casaquin

I have been pretty busy these past few days,  I have put together half of the main body pieces of the Casaquin.  Then as I was putting the one side of the comperes front together, I decided that I was gonna embroider a few flowers onto it. 

Silly girl.

I love how I CANT do anything simple...LOL

Here is a little preview of what I have done in since yesterday.

I used needlenthread.com. for reference and she has wonderfully easy how to videos for beginners.

Starting out.  I used the stem stitch on the vines and the french knot on the flower.

On the purple flower I used a loop and catch stitch, and on the rose buds I followed the instructions on her site and used a bullion stitch.

Almost done!

The back....not too messy!

Creating the Casaquin

Well I made the necessary adjustments to the pattern, created the lining pattern pieces and and currently cutting out the interlining from a cotton sheet.  I chose to interline the silk as it it very delicate and since there was the possibility of stress on the seams I wanted extra reinforcement for the silk.  I also wanted to give the silk more structure and body as the lining is going to be linen, which is normally has a soft drape

Hopefully next time I will have pictures of the jacket being constructed.

Cheers!