Forget this: http://the-aristocat.livejournal.com/33189.html
Or at least some of it. The riding habit and the silver and muslin ball gown are still on, as are both of the shoes. But the pink polonaise is being postponed, because, since deciding on the Georgian picnic, I've been going through this fabulous site http://damesalamode.tumblr.com/ and I think I want to make a more "me" dress sooner instead. And I really want a tall and pointy early 1790's hat. So a 1790's ensemble instead. And then I must finish the 1874 promenade dress. No matter what, it's going to get done this year. And, I think I have fallen in love with the Marie Antoinette redingote style dress, so I might have to make it in the fall. And because it's white, and most of my sewing for this year is white, I'm postponing the white Toulmouche dress and replacing it with the long overdue 1877 mourning dress. And I think that's about it for this year.

And now I'm off to sew the sleeve seams of the riding habit.

Most of the Finnish historical events are more or less lower class, and as I'm definitely not a lower class kind of seamstress, I usually don't have anything appropriate to wear and patiently wait for the next ball. Last Friday's entertainment was also strictly lower class, but for some reason I was tempted to go. Silk is usually forbidden, but, as my mourning round gown is simple and sombre, I got a permission to wear it to the event. The theme for the event was an evening in an 18th century stagecoach station where travelers could wait for their ride, eat and drink and get travel passes. Earlier in the afternoon there had been an actual horse outside the venue with a carriage that anyone from the street could get a ride after paying a small fee. Because of work I arrived so late that I just got to see the carriage leave for the last round, so I went straight in to get my travel pass and mix with other people.

Herr Waselius signing travel passes:



( If you are curious to see more... )

The silver and muslin dress is driving me crazy. One thing is certain, the embroidery is silver plate. This is the motif that will be scattered all over. Simple and effective:






And this is me trying out silver plate on the dress fabric. It's unfinished, but I didn't find it in me to finish it since it won't be used in the dress. Just a practice piece.



So the problem is that I can't decide between a traditional robe à l'Anglaise, edge to edge closure, just past the elbow -length sleeves, open in front, matching silver plate embroidered muslin petticoat OR a cut away front robe à l'Anglaise, short muslin sleeves, longer just past the elbow sleeves, the bodice zone and petticoat in white duchess satin. And if I'd choose the latter, should I just scatter the motifs all over the muslin and that's it, like in this dress:
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/131021.html?mulR=30282|73
or should I do some embroidery around the gown skirt fronts, cut away fronts, neckline and short muslin sleeve hems? And if I should do embroidery on the edges, should it be something very narrow, straight and simple made with silver purl or something elaborate with tiny sequins or is it historically inaccurate to combine silver plate embroidery with sequins and purl when done in cotton muslin? Because if it is indeed inaccurate, I would need to make the edge with silver plate too and I don't think I have the time to do it. And one important thing when making the decision. The silver embroidery is almost invisible on the white ground except when the light catches it.

If you know more about silver on muslin embroidery in the 18th century, please help me! And even if you don't, I'd love to hear what you would choose to make if it was going to be your ultimate trendy 18th century party dress.

My main inspiration for this dress is a quote:
"In the evening I went to the Ball. I had an English Night Gown of muslin with silver sprigs and all white." Extract from correspondence, Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire, 1784 (18th Century Embroidery Techniques, Gail Marsh)

The shift is done so today I got to try the stays properly on for the first time and for once I managed to leave enough bust room. And they feel sturdy and comfortable. And who would have thought such an ugly fabric could make a nice looking garment.

Now the facts:

The top layer is light brown cotton, the next two layers underneath are linen canvas and the lining is of fine white linen. They are completely hand stitched, mainly with pale blue linen thread, but I also used white linen occasionally and silk twist for the back lacing holes. The pattern is my own and, as I was drawing it, I tried to achieve a close resemblance to the original stays but also to achieve a better fit than in all my previous stays meaning more bust room and more curve in the lower back. I used cane for boning. I was planning on experimenting with high land cattle horn for durability, but as I haven't had problems with snapping in my previous stays and these were to become almost fully boned, I chose 1/4 inch wide flat caning that I narrowed down to an almost tooth pick width of 2-3 mm. The front and back bones are narrowed down from a sturdier 1/2 inch wide flat cane. The seams are covered with narrow silk ribbon and the stays are bound with straight cut self fabric strips as it looks like it was done that way in the original stays too. Armholes are bound with ivory chamois leather.



( And more. A lot more. )

I finished the stays. And now I have a lot of catching up to do. (All the amazing Titanic dresses I have yet to see.) To stay focused I had to stay away from the internet, especially costuming sites, as they can be very distracting and it's very easy to get lost and spent hours of looking at the pretties. And if I was going to make hand stitched stays with 176 pieces of boning in about a month (as was my goal), I didn't have the time, so no internet. I still need to finish the new shift and then I will give you the whole story and display them on me. But until I accomplish that I will leave you with these two pictures.



( And the other )

As I'm forced to wait a while for everything I need to finish the riding habit jacket, it is now the perfect time to make the new stays. Many of the late 18th century stays were made in brown, beige or natural, unbleached colors and the top fabric was often cotton or linen instead of silk. And I've seen a fair amount of them with blue stitching. So that's my plan too. I love that 1780's stays pattern that can be found in Corsets and Crinolines, but I've been using it for so long that I'm absolutely sick of it. It was time for a change and so I spent few nights looking at these stays http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O115752/stays/ from every possible angle and made up a pattern. Tomorrow I'll start stitching the boning channels. I hope they are going to fit. I should have made a machine sewn mock-up, but I was lazy an I didn't, so I'm taking little risk with them. But I have faith in my pattern. Fingers crossed.

But, the plans. The current plan, as I've already mentioned, is to finish the stays and the riding habit. Then it is time for the silver and muslin dress. But instead of making just the pink and black shoes I intended to wear with it, I'm also making lower heeled pale blue shoes without buckles to wear with it instead. And because I will need a dress to wear with the pink and black shoes, that dress is going to be a pink robe à la Polonaise. I can't imagine a dress that would be less me (loose fit, pink, fluffy, definitely not me), but that's what makes it fun, right? And then I really need to do something victorian. First a dress that I've been craving for a long, long time, a copy of the dress in Young woman in an interior by Toulmouche http://www.flickr.com/photos/37892495@N08/5029028993/ and then finish the 1874 dress that has been hanging in the closet for about 16 months now.

And that's about it. I can't plan any further, because that would make it impossible to stick to it.

And gloves. And a hat. I was able to finish the waistcoat and make a neck cloth. And I already started to pattern the jacket, but I haven't cut out any pieces yet. As I told previously, I pinned the silk satin fronts of the waistcoat to shape and sewed the bust darts and trimmed the edges accordingly. Then I cut small interlining pieces of horsehair fabric to stiffen the fronts a little.
( Visual proof. )

So this weekend hasn't been productive at all. I've been mostly devoting my time to jogging and movies, so the waistcoat isn't finished yet. But it's okay. I'm having a day off of work on Thursday, so I will make the final fitting and finish with the buttons and buttonholes then.

Back to the beginning. When I first got interested in 18th century riding habits in the beginning of 2006, I just assumed they wore a boy sized man's shirt under their waistcoats. Not long after Katherine made her fabulous turn of the century riding habit http://www.koshka-the-cat.com/riding_habit.html and a light bulb turned on on the top of my head. What a fabulous thing, the riding habit shirt for women. I googled the thing and found a few images of surviving examples (that I can't find anymore) and made a version of my own to be worn under my black riding habit. The habit and the habit shirt are lost in the turmoils of life, so for this project I had to start over. My riding habit shirt is a slimmed down and cropped version of man's shirt. I used the Costume Close-Up -shirt for construction reference, and since the few extant 18th century riding habit shirts I had seen seemed also to be made short, I left mine short too like Katherine's. A great way to reduce waist bulk, and, what's the point in the whole tie around the body -system, if the shirt is long enough to reach waist and could be tied in place with petticoat tapes.

Since constructing a shirt is such a basic thing that many are already familiar with, I didn't bother to take many pictures.
( But I took these few. )

I've made some steady progress with the riding habit. As I planned. Sticking to the plans. I'm quite proud of myself. I've failed the sticking to the plans thing too often. Anyway, the skirt is done and the riding habit shirt needs just the neck and sleeve ruffles. Pictures soon. Also the waiscoat has been started and I would really like to get it done by the end of this week.

In other news, as metal embroidery is a new thing for me, I ordered small amouts of different silver embroidery materials in the side as I ordered the silver buillion for the epaulettes of the riding habit. Last night I started experimenting with them and the end result is that I personally like just the flat stuff with lightweight cotton. Purl and such would be quick, but I didn't like the way it looked. This means that I plan on using just silver plate and sequins. And because of that, I also decided it would look very nice if I made small flower sprigs all over the gown instead of just the sequin dots. I want this riding habit to be over (and the stays) so I can start working on this muslin dress full time.

Me and my husband went to visit a local furniture museum today. The museum is located in a simple but beautiful mansion built in 1790 (or a few years earlier). The courtyard is very charming. I've often walked there as my parents live nearby and I've lived my whole childhood there, but it was my first visit to the museum. The museum visit was a good enough excuse for me to put on the mourning gown and see how it looks with the wig or the cap. This is my first wig and it was an agony to style, synthetic hair and curlers don't go together well, but it's nice to have one. I'm forever grateful to Jen (http://festiveattyre.blogspot.com) for sharing where she got her fabulous wigs so I could have the courage to buy one too. Dressing up takes so much less time.



( And more. )