green_martha | Entries tagged with regency aussi

Our trip to Vizille, with Heileen, Lady Darkstone (who was in a 100%-not-historical mood), and the kids was on Sunday. We were lucky to have reasonable weather (i.e. not too TOO hot). Despite a massive hair disaster, we managed to get there in time to say hi to our friend Antonia, have a picnic in the (gorgeous !) park, then went bakc home so that the kids could take their nap under the Home Geek's supervision (turns out they didn't want to nap that day, oh well...), went back to see the end of the battle and tour the museum some. It was fa-bu-lous. In fact, we had such a great time we didn't take that many pictures.

Only picture I have of Antonia's gorgeous Directoire gown...

The theme this year was 1792, so Heileen and I went with Directoire fashions. I re-wore the printed cotton I had made last year and focused on making new stuff for the kids. I just added a last minute cockade and changed the turban arrangement. I intended to add feathers but didn't have the energy in the morning, and decided I didn't want to brave the wind int he afternoon, so the feathers stayed in the car. Heileen wore her fabulous pleated back Ikea-sheets Directoire gown, that I had not seen in person yet.

Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, 32e.
Cahier de Costumes Français, 25e
Suite d'Habillemens à la mode en 1780 -
Museum of Fine Art, Boston

Heimlich has outgrown last year's skeleton suit, so he got a new one. I just changed the lapels' color form the original plate to make it more patriotic. I made him a new chemisette out of linen and cotton scraps, the jacket and trousers are of plain Ikea cotton with buttons I found on eBay ages ago (labelled as ex-DDR buttons); the scarf is a simple tube from a remnant of my han bok project. Yay for a 100% from stash project ! I didn't ahe the time to hunt down correct shoes nor make a new hat, so he wore the same non-period hat as last year (which he loves loves loves. When I dug it out on Saturday he had to wear it to breakfast !) and his usual shoes.

My fabrics for Toad being very fine and transparent, I made her an underdress to go under the "chemisete" sic), a simple green cotton chemise-style dress fitted with two drawstrings around the neckline and chest ( a few detail shots, including growth tucks, here). The white chemise dress is put together out of rectangles and triangular underarm gores, with just one drawstring at the neckline. The fabric is a fake eyelet lace (the "embroidered" parts are actually some kind of printed puff paint... yeah, I know, puff paint... *giggles*). The cap was a last minute addition, from cutting diagrams from the Kannik's Korner infant pattern. I only had to buy the ribbon for the ties, everything else came form the stash as well. In fact, except the white fabric, everything came from the scraps bin.
All of my pictures are on FlickR, Heileen's are there as well.

Now, I obviously need to print and start carrying business cards around, especially when I'm in costume. We had one lady come up to us with stars in her eyes "Did you make that ?" "Can I touch it !" "Oooooh the back is beaaaaautiful..." I gave her my mobile phone number, but I felt like such a fool for not having the cards ready.

Current Mood: accomplished

As in, costume parts ;)
First the finished chemisette for Heimlich. Linen remnant, poly-cotton batiste remnant, mother-of-pearl button, and well, elastic in the casing at the bottom for ease of dressing the wiggly child.
And on the right is a sneak peak of Toad's underdress. I'm using the source assembled on Pinterest by Heileen and Corsetra (THANK YOU ladies !). I ended up making a second, large hem at the bottom as the original narrow one wasn't exactly straight (the fabric stretches in weird directions) and it was a bit long for Toad.

No Heimlich dear, it's just the pitcher. Not every liquid is a variation of tea. ^^
Ah kids ! Keeping you up all day (and some nights as well), burping and barfing onto your favorite pair of jeans... and growing two inches in three months, making every thought of rewearing last year's skeleton suit absurd. maybe I can pretend Toad is a boy and stick her into the old suit ? Her own costume was already two small by its first outing, and she now needs something she can (attempt to) walk in...)
The plan for now is to make new outfits for both kids (machine-sewing everything and cutting some corners with authenticity) to make a 1790s visit to 1792 Vizille in July. I'd rewear my blue printed two-piece. If everything goes according to plan, Heimlich will have a new skeleton suit with cream pants, red jacket, possible cream cuffs, and a dickey that's almost done. And Toad should have white dress over a green slip. And a pudding cap if I manage to not sleep for one month straight. I suspect my plan will be a little TOO ambitious, I'll spend half of June on the beach and I'll have to scale down, but at least, I'll try.

Yeah, I've been bad at updating lately. I know, I know... The kids are keeping me kinda busy, particularly last week when the home geek was abroad (because people at his job can't plan work properly and had to send him to England to fix things he said would need to be fixed weeks before, gaaaaah !).

I'm still behind on the rococo event pictures, but I can alredy show you the finished Directoire outfit.

Yup, it's comfy. So comfy in fact that I have plans to duplicate the bodiced skirt as a woollen jumper dress for the winter. I ended up wearing it over my chemise and regular rococo petticoat. More pictures by clicking the images, here and at Heileen's.

I'm not inspired by the justaucorps. It's not playing along nicely, there are some semi-wrinkly places that I don't know how to fix so I'm just ignoring it right now.

I have finished a plain boring t-shirt for my Mom, nothing really fancy, but that means one commission out of the way - I know she wants some more stuff, we'll see to that when I visit my parents in two weeks, I hope I'll be able to fund some fabric with that.

I don't have any specific historical projects in mind yet - I do have some longterm goals but I give myself some time to think about it, plan them and all that jazz. Right now I'm focusing on modern sewing as 1) I need to make some sample stuff to put in my portfolio on my site and 2) I started the Great Winter Wardrobe Overhaul. Starting with remaking the green cape I made like ten years ago. You don't even want to know how I made that, eeeek !

Muuuuch better now. I hacked off the center font edges and the top part, put lots of darts at the top to make it fit over my shoulders, redid the hand slits (still need to resew those closed). I want to shorten and reham it, put in a new collar band and make the hood smaller. I'll probably quilt some of the front part as weel, just for fun.

Current Mood: zooming by
Crossposts: http://green-martha.livejournal.com/346108.html

So here's the inspiration for the outfit, it's on pp. 79-80 in Costume in Detail.

The skirt bodice - it got a little long and wide, as I have lost a little oer one cup size since I started working on it. I had to make the neckline deeper first, and then I just took a dart at the corner of it, because I was lazy and didn't want to redo the narrow hem *yet again*.

The jacket bodice and jacket bodice lining before I put them together at the shoulder seam. I used a method found somewhere to sew an 18th century sleeve closed with the lining in just one pass, I can't find the link to the page explaining it though.

And the back, because gathers are cute.

Current Mood: busy
Crossposts: http://green-martha.livejournal.com/345526.html

Sans pictures again. Too much fuss to install the daughter upstairs when she seems to be pretty okay about being in the cool downstairs.
So, tried on everything sans chemise and I mostly like it. My fabric is obviously springier than the original so that the hang is not exactly the same, but overall, I get this kinda "I'm a cupcake from my underbust down effect" effect from the period. the bodiced skirt is super-mega comfy and LIGHT ! After last Saturday, it's a blessing - one of my new resolution is to NOT go anywhere in costume when it's 39°C in the shade anymore. Or at least not in a costume involving more than two layers. I couldn't stand the caraco for more than three hours :(
back on topic : I need to take a dart on the skirt bodice, as I've lost half a cup since I started makign the outfit. Hem it, of course, and do the little finishing touches to the jacket, also listed as :
- hem the bottom
- make two buttons
- add buttons and buttonholes to the wirstbands
- sew on the belt
- add the ruffles
- add hooks and eyes to the bodice lining
Sounds doable, right ? I kinda gave up on makign a bodiced petticoat, mostly because I wouldn't have the courage to wear it unless it gets a LOT cooler. Errrr a hat and gloves would be awesome, but I'm really not sur eI can get those done as well

Crossposts: http://green-martha.livejournal.com/344985.html

It's official, I'm not trying to finish the Directoire outfit for Saturday. I could not possibly get it to a stage I'd be happy with it. So... I tried on what's in my closet. In short : I need to alter the stirped pierrot, the redingote-dress, the casaque. I probably need a new pair of stays as well, as my waist now sits a good two inches higher than pre-Toadette. But the plum caraco, which was jsut a tad shortwaisted, now seems to fit fine ! I just had to cut of the sleeve above the elbows as they were too tight, but that's pretty much it. Bonus point, I now wear them over underwear from the same period (aka the plum jumps). I feel pretty good, looking at my first serious attempt at historical costuming and thinking it's still totally serviceable and nothing I should be shamed of - in fact, the sleeves are some of the best sleeves I ever constructec, dammit.
I still have a few things to do before Saturday :
- make two tiny stitches to hold the pants legs of the skeleton suit folded up inside (they're a bit too long, as I feared, but the jacket fits fine)
- find white socks for Heimlich
- find white narrow tape and sew it on - to close Toadette's frock
- hem and add lace to her shirt's neckline
- change the bows on my hat
- bake a cake
- buy some othe rcakes
- wrap the birthday girl's present
- repair cartridge pleats on muslin skirt
- iron everything
- DO NOT forget period correct glasses !!!!
I do have pictures, pictures of the kids (OMG this girl truly IS growing like a mushroom, she's bigger and heaier now than her brother was one month older !), pictures of Toadette in her almost finished outfit (no time for a cap, yet, and OMG again, she barely fits into it now !), pictures of the state of the blue directoire two-piece... but !i got a new computer. And this nifty brand new mini-PC only sees the first picture on my DSLR. So, no pictures. Here's hoping that the HG will fix it soon enough...

Current Mood: accomplished
Crossposts: http://green-martha.livejournal.com/344720.html

Cause it's totally what I'm doing, blog-wise. I guess being away for a week and then taking care of the two kids accounts for some of my silence, but mostly, I'm just too lazy/busy to type, and I don't feel like I have that much to show. I suck at taking pictures lately, I hope I'll get some next week-end - yay, costume outing !
The skeleton suit is still untried, but I got the shoes and they fit. Not sure I'll try to put a hat on the little pirate.
The big pirate is all set - 18th century shirt, shorts, probably barefoot, a tricorn, a sextant and a parrot.
The little princess has an almost finished frock - I need ties but the ribbon and the like I have here is too wide for the scale, except satin ribbon, and I don't wan to ruin the look of the (handsewn !) frock with ugly satin ribbon. This does require me going shopping some and it's not something I really want to do with to kids in tow, hence the procrastinating.
As for myself, knowing I have a few outfits to fall back on isn't really helping me work on the regency. I'm making small progress though. The three bodices are done - skirt bodice, jacket lining, jacket outside, yeah, they're all different. Sleevil was conquered in just two mock-ups (o_O). I have one half of the jacket skirts patterned and cut out, so they're almost done. After that, the skirt itself, and small knicknack - small, but time-consuming. Like ruffles everywhere, hooks and eyes, a belt, hems, and wristbands... I'm not sur eI can get it done by the 20th. Well I *could* get it done, I'm just not sure I want to over-tire myself doing it. Making a bodiced or a strapped petticoat would be nice, too. And I will need some type of head covering for our september outing (Heileen when do you want to come ? The house is all open !).
And well... I guess that's it for the costume update. Not much going on here, really.

I just realized two things. first, I'm at 12-8, not 12-7. Second, the deadline for my regency outfit isn't the beginning of September, ut the beginning of August. I could wear something from the closet, though... providing I fit back into it. At any rate, the Home Geek and the little pirate have costumes. Buuuut... Toadette has nothing to wear !!!! I've bene looking around online, and everything seems to be a rather boring white. I have found one non-white example (let's hope the link will work), but it's from a later date than my own costume, and well, I'd like the family to match. It would be awesomely cool to get a picture of the three of us all in late 1790s outfits (plus a non-period pirate, but I don't think I'll manage to put him into anything else). I guess I have to rummage through my stash to see what I have in stark white.
Once again, many thanks to

corsetrasewing for posting her research online !

Crossposts: http://green-martha.livejournal.com/343752.html

... but the little pirate is with his grand-parents and I don't know how to teleport the costume for try-on purposes. So let us assume it will fit, right ? I used a somewhat limp cotton I had in stash - I had just enough ! -, metal rings from the hardware store to make the buttons, and a cotton/poly blend for the neck frill. As I said previously, I skipped the chemise the frill should be on - as well as the rest of the undergarments.
That brings me to 12-7 in terms of projects, right ? :) And now, back to draping my late 1790s gown. Or rather, ensemble, as I'm making two pieces. Only, I don't know what to do in terms of jacket. I just adore the two pieces on pages 79 and 80 of Costume in Detail, but there's another outfit in Les Belles de mai that's pretty too. It has drawstrings at the neckline and under the bust, closes at center front and the basque is cut away and rounded at center front. I'm still pondering... In the meantime, I started working on the bodice supporting the skirt. I have my 1790s jumps I can wear under this (and I draped the pattern on), but I'm wondering whether or not I could make the bodice tight enough to support the breasts on its own. It's worth a try - not that my jumps are uncomfortable or anything, they just dig a little bit into my armpits but not enough to really bother me. I'm just curious whether or not this would work.
And blah, this laptop's keyboard isn't reacting unless I type with a hammer or something. Very unpleasant laptop ! - but still, it's nice to have a computer downstairs as well.