(by ekohippi)

This project clearly fits into the "all dressed up and no place to go" column. I've always admired these elegant posing robes you see in a lot of 18th century portraits. I'd been saving a bunch of these images and had purchased supplies to make such a garment several years ago. As the saying goes--no time like the present. Now I realize that a plain wrapper would be more practical but I'm in the mood for glamour and silliness. I found some ads for silk wrappers in 1765 and 1778: Somehow, I imagine these wrappers to be more utilitarian in their style--an upper sort robe for around the house. Let's look at some images. First from John Singleton Copley: Mrs. Benjamin Hallowell Mrs. Jerathmael Bowers Now we have a bunch of MidAtlantic ladies as painted by Charles Wilson Peale--many of whom are Marylanders. It's hard to know for sure if these are simply posing garments or fantasy garments but they are intriguing nonetheless. They are clearly garments that one wouldn't wear out. The ladies have an informal look, many of them with their hair down and many not wearing jewelry and other ornaments you would expect to see with silk. Some seem to have the Turkish influence that was popular in that time--with turban styled wraps and the like. My friend Ruth and I had talked about making one of these for years and she finally did it to wear in the audience of the Theater Quarantino--a group of like minded friends giving a performance of Cato over Zoom. Ruth decked her little corner out and dressed up for the occasion! Doesn't she look beautiful? Her robe is made as a t-shaped garment with 56 inch wide taffeta. The sleeves are pleated at the cuff. This was more or less my plan until I realized that my silk was 45 inches wide. It also has a gold border that I would like on the sleeve edge and around the front opening. Here's the basic shape I had to work with: Here are my fabrics: the red for the wrapper, the figured gold taffeta for a petticoat, the organza for a turban and other ornaments and the plain gold for a sash. I thought I would make this shape and not use the facing piece. I would place the gold trim on the cuff edge and around the center front. If I have enough gold trim to be able to place it at the hem, I'll do that as well. I figured I'd need to take some measurements. First I measured the length from my shoulder to the floor which is 54 inches. That means the entire pattern will be 108 inches long since there are no shoulder seams. I used my measuring tape to measure from one wrist to the other which was also 54 inches. Sadly my silk is too narrow for that so the sleeves will need to be pieced. The object is to pleat them to make them shorter for my shift sleeve ruffles to show. I also looked at my B&T bedgown pattern which is a similar shape to see what the bust measurement was in my size. The width across the bust was 24 inches on the front and the back. I figured that would work for me. I adapted those measurements to the drawing above and drew a pattern on gridded pattern tracing cloth which is also 45 inches wide. I determined that I will need to piece the outer skirt corners due to the width of my fabric. I also measured the width (diameter) of my neck to determine how wide to do the front opening. Here's the pattern I ended up with--folded at the center front/back and the shoulder: I pinned the side seams and pinned pleats in one sleeve to check the length. The sleeves are shorter than I wanted, as I suspected they would be. The body fits the way I want which is good The sleeve will be too short. Each sleeve needs about 5 inches added to the length. So the plan is: Cut out, stitch the side seams, leaving open at the end of the sleeve in case I need to cut off the gold trim and add an extension Cut gold trim from excess fabric and use to face the front edge on the outside. If enough trim remains, face hem on the outside. Make petticoat Make sash I cut out the robe and had to piece the skirt extensions due to the 45 inch fabric and the gold border. which made my fabric narrower. The gold border was not used as part of the skirt. The skirt extensions were stitched on using a flat felled seam then the side seams were stitched--also using a flat felled seam. I tried it on to check the fit and it's as I expected. Checked the sleeve length. My original plan was to cut the gold trim off, add a sleeve extension, then stitch the gold back on. The sleeve needs to be longer to pleat it. I ended up deciding on a different plan. I've decided to turn under the excess red on the sleeve edge and use a sheer textile as an extension as in this detail from one of the images above. In this image, the sleeve appears to be a sheer fabric with gold embroidery. I have a variety of sheer fabrics and will decide on this later. To finish the front edge, I turned the edge to the outside 1/2 inch. I cut the gold trim off the rest of my fabric, turned under the cut edge and the wide selvedge edge and pressed. I left a tiny red edge which was placed along the opening where the edges were pinned together. I had two long pieces of trim so I started each side at the center back. I took 3 darts in the trim to make it fit the curve of the neckline. After pinning one side, I matched the motif on the gold trim at the center back and pinned the other side of trim on. Here is the front with the trim pinned in place. Here is the back. The darts/pleats will be stitched flat. I used a tiny running stitch to secure the front edge of the robe with the edge of the trim. Then I secured the other edge of the trim with an appliqué stitch. Here it is with the sleeve hems pressed up. It needs to be hemmed and have the pleated sheer sleeve extension added. For the sleeve extension, I cut silk organza 7 inches wide and the dimension of the sleeve. I seamed the short ends and made a narrow hem. It ended up not working. The organza is simply too crisp and the piece needed to be fuller in order to drape properly. I'll cut these down and make elbow ruffles out of them for another garment. Sleeve extension take 2: I went stash diving and found this linen gauze I bought several years ago. It had the kind of drape I was looking for. The sleeve measures 20 inches around. I cut a crosswise strip that was 15 inches wide. The fabric was 56 inches wide so I cut that strip in half to have 2 pieces 15 X 28 inches. I seamed the short edges then folded it in half without pressing the fold. I wanted it to be more of a tube. I turned over the raw edge and whip gathered this piece to fit the sleeve, stitching it inside the sleeve to the sleeve hem. I put the seam of the sleeve extension at the top of the sleeve since I knew it would be hidden there and I made gathering stitches through the seam around the entire tube. I pulled the gathers and tacked this above the sleeve edge on the outside. I then added a stitch on pear shaped crystal. IThe sultana is complete so I need to finish the other items that go with it! First I made a petticoat using the figured silk in the fabric pic above. Since this is a lounging outfit, the petticoat was made to be worn with no hip shaping. Then I needed a sash. I had played around with ribbon to determine how long to make the sash and found that 120 - 130 inches was ideal. My silk was 52 inches wide so I cut two crosswise strips 4 1/2 inches wide plus another strip 4 1/2 inches wide by 24 inches long. The strips were stitched together placing the short strip between the two long ones so that the seams would be against my body. Flat felled seams were used for the piecing. Then the entire piece was narrowly hemmed on all edges. I found this metallic stranded embroidery thread at Joanns which had the look I wanted. Each skein is 8 meters long so I figured I'd use 2 skeins per end of the sash for fringe. Working with 1 skein at a time, I cut the entire skein into 16 inch long pieces. I folded each piece in half and put the loop end through a doll needle --which has a large eye and sharp point. I poked the needle through the edge just above the hem and threaded the ends through the loop and pulled. I continued doing this all the way across the end using one skein for half the width. Here is the finished fringe which I did trim to event it up. I still felt it needed something else. I ended up just dividing the fringe in quarters and tying a single overhand knot. Voila! She is all finished. Now to style this outfit to wear! This outfit was worn over my earlier shift with the ruffled sleeves and my stays. I had to come up with some quick accessories to wear this for a virtual event. I needed something sheer for my neck--using the last portrait above as inspiration. I didn't have time to sew anything so I simply tore a crosswise strip of my linen gauze--about 20 inches wide (I didn't measure) and the full width of the 60 inch fabric. I also needed something for a turban type wrap and I had purchased some gold striped silk organza so I did the same with that--tore off about a 13 inch wide strip the full width of the fabric though I think I will do a wider strip next time. Since this outfit is loungewear, I kept my jewelry to a minimum and chose to only wear earrings and a ring, both by Dames a la Mode. Silk stockings and leather mules completed the accessories. My goal is to cover these mules with the black and gold silk brocade at some point. I fixed my usual "cap hair" but left some hair out in the back that I curled around some buckles. Then I lightly twisted the organza and wrapped it, using long pearl head pins to pin it to my hair. I made sure I had an end in front so I could wrap it in a little circle in front and pinned that in place. I wasn't sure what to do with the linen gauze so I just loosely draped it around my neck, concealing the raw edges and pinned it to my stays so it didn't hang down at the waist. After that, it was just petticoat, sultana (pinned at the waist at center front) and sash. The sash was wrapped around my waist twice and looped around in several places until was happy wth the way it looked. Here is the final result: I'm tickled with the way this project turned out. I'm glad I waited to make it as I had a different vision when I first bought the fabric 3 years ago. It's comfortable and will be great for online events --particularly since stays are not required. I think I may also make a more "ordinary" wrapper out of chintz sometime soon as well as I know I have some in my stash!

Photos réalisées par Noell S. Oszvald. www.flickr.com/photos/75445823@N02 © 2013 Worbz.com. Toute reproduction, même partielle, n'est pas permise sans l'accord préalable écrit de Worbz.

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Helllooooooo there and a very happy Bank Holiday Monday if you're here in the UK. I was really inspired to get inky after two crafty days away at Birds in the Barn and with an afternoon all to myself yesterday I got out my distress inks, crazy bird stamps and my ever increasing collection of JOFY stamps. After a lot of stamping and cutting out that seemed to go on for ever lol! I chose my colour palette and got inking. Here's how the project came together I used Antique Linen as my base colour, inked all the white card frames and stepped centre pieces, then highlighted the frame with brick wall detail in the same colour before sticking the pieces in place on the frame. I inked up all the images I'd chosen to go in the frame. Jo's stamps are great for inking......... and then started to build up the scene starting from the left of the frame. I use stacks of tiny chipboard squares on the back of the pieces to lift them up from the base of the the frame. I stamped the house out twice. cut the roof off one and cut out the windows and door from the other, inked everything and then stuck the windows and door back in place and raised up the roof on chipboard strips before sticking it into the frame. I used Ranger black and white enamel for the birds eyes and loads of chipboard squares to hold up all the pieces as I added them into the frame. To finish I added 'Birds in the Barn' lettering - the frame's for Janet and her Birds in the Barn shop Its amazing what you can fit into an A4 frame lol!!!!! Here's the supply list if you fancy making one yourself. A4 Shadow Box - My Creative Spirit Smooth White A4 Card - My Creative Spirit Black Paint Tacky Glue Chipboard offcuts Distress Inks Ranger Black & White Enamel Accents Glossy Accents White Gel Pen Stampers Anonymous Crazy Bird Stamp Set and the following JOFY stamp plates JOFY Mini 34, JOFY 11, JOFY 14, JOFY 21, JOFY 26, JOFY 29, JOFY 33 , JOFY 35 Paperartsy Squiglgly 16 Annie (my little sis) is arriving later, we're all out for a big family meal tonight and then after a quick catch up with Dad in the morning, it's off to Falmouth, Cornwall tomorrow to take Annie home, meet up with cousins and Uncle and then home in time for the Daisy's retreat at the weekend which I"m really looking forward to. No peace for the wicked ehhhh!!! lol. Have lovely rest of your day, thanks for calling by and look forward to catching up again soon www.mycreativespirit.co.uk

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Hello friends Like most people who have seen them and/or used them, I have been dying to try out the Crazy Things Stamps and also my Crazy Things dies that go beautifully with Tim's original Bird Crazy Stamps that I got some time ago. I decided to use them to create a trio of male birds ATCs as my Design Team piece for Inspiration Emporium. The ATCs could easily transferred later onto card fronts. I was playing around with a new stencil to make some backgrounds, I like to experiment on small surfaces first but liked them, so they were used here. Mr Cool reminds me of a Jazz player, with his pork pie hat and rather serious look. The hat is from Tim's Crazy Things stamp set. The wall was created using a Dinky stencil and Distress Inks. The colouring was done with Distress Inks in Cracked Pistachio, Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade and the fabulous new Ground Espresso. The word is cut from Tim's Alphanumeric Thinlits die set. I see this character as the Jazz singer in the club where Mr Cool plays... He reminds me of a rather colourful character who used to sing at Ronnie Scott's club in London, called George Melly (yes I did used to go and watch him in the days when many a famous British, American and European Jazz singer(s)/player(s) frequented the club - and many still do - sadly not me though!). Again he and the background have been coloured with Distress Inks, in Blueprint Sketch, Crackled Pistachio and Hickory Smoke. The background also uses the Mixed Media Thinlits. My third and favourite character is quite a dapper chap, with his formal hat and tie and his monocle, I think he must be a theatre-goer. The monocle was made from the glasses/spectacles from the Crazy Things set of stamps as is the hat and tie. He has been coloured largely with Ground Espresso, Squeezed Lemonade and Fossilized Amber Distress Ink. So many things have already been done with the Bird Crazy stamp set and Accessories but the new Crazy Things set of stamps open up a whole new world of possibilities. I hope to be back soon with some girls, made from the remaining three stamps in the Bird Crazy set. If you do not have any of the Bird Crazy gang yet and you choose to buy from Inspiration Emporium you can save 10% off your whole order if you quote Redanne. There are special bundles of the Bird Crazy gang for sale at Inspiration Emporium too which you can find on this page here. Postage rates in the USA are only $5 and only $10 to the UK and Europe. Take care and hope to see you again soon. Hugs, Anne xx Products Used from Inspiration Emporium: Tim Holtz Bird Crazy Stamp Set Tim Holtz Crazy Things Stamp Set Tim Holtz Bird Crazy die set Tim Holtz Distress Inks

Hello friends Like most people who have seen them and/or used them, I have been dying to try out the Crazy Things Stamps and also my Crazy Things dies that go beautifully with Tim's original Bird Craz

Good afternoon friends, just popping by to share more crafty makes again. First I have another card for the 'Less is More' challenge. It's a recipe this week and 'One or More Balloons'. I decided to use my crazy bird stamp as I just love these birds. My next photo after the card ones is a sneaky peek at my OH's next model house he has made. Not yet painted, but will be soon...I hope...he has already started on another house lol. The last photo is a pair of earrings I have finished after months in my jewellery tray half made. My SIL wanted a pair of earrings (darn I forgot to take a photo too). Had to get all my jewellery making stuff out. Anyway I have decided to make a few new jewellery bits to add to my website and also give it a bit of a make over this year too. I will be mostly using expensive hand made Lampwork beads and some more hand made/dyed silk ribbons again I think also. My tastes have become more discerning as time has gone on alas. I will show you what I am making as I do things. Link at the top to see my older stuff and website if you are nosey ;) That's all today I think, enjoy your day ;) White Linen card TH Crazy Bird stamp Computerised sentiment Copics Glamour dust Here is the sneaky Peek of the model house! Here are the earrings, they will be for sale and be added to my website soon!

by Tracy Scott