This 19th century day dress was designed for a house museum exhibit in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Inspired by an original gown in the Met, this cotton version is meant to celebrate the rural herit…
1894. Brown wool coat, three-quarter length, with large leg-of-mutton sleeves, full skirts, and large lapels, buttoning up the front, trimmed with scroll and leaf appliqué patterns cut from the same cloth and sewn in light brown thread. The coat is cut with eight pieces running the full length of the garment: two front panels with a 27.9 cm / 11 in. long dart from the bust to past the hip where it curves into the pockets, two side panels, two side-back panels, and two back panels with a center-back seam. The coat has a sewn-in collar, relatively small and coming to a point at just 10.2 cm / 4 in. The upper section is constructed of two pieces with a center-back seam, and the under collar has four pieces. Large lapels emerge from beneath the front edge of the collar, measuring 30.5 cm / 12 in. long from center to outermost point. These are cut in one piece with the coat front, and faced with the same thick wool fabric as the coat; the facings extend all the way to the hem. There are four 5.1 cm / 2 in. long machine-sewn keyhole buttonholes and four 3.8 cm / 1.5 in. wide buttons closing the front. These have a metal core covered with a faux tortoise shell laminate. The very top of the coat closes at the neck with a large heavy-duty hook and eye. The skirts hang straight at the front of the coat, with the front panels cut to fit in a slight curve over the hips. The fullness begins at the sides and comes from the pieces being cut with a flared shape. In back, the skirts hang in soft rolling folds. The center-back seam masks an inverted box pleat, and the back and side-back seams flanking this are overlapped. All the seams of the coat are pressed open except these back and side-back skirt seams; their finishing forms a sharp crease inside the coat that encourages the rest of the fabric to form a soft roll framing the center-back pleat. As is common for sleeves of this era, there is only one underarm seam. The coat’s sleeves are very wide, measuring approximately 124.5 cm / 49 in. before pleating. They are eased into the bottom curve of the scye for 19.7 cm / 7.75 in. before being pleated into place at the sleeve head. There are
I have finally made some actual garments out of the replica embroidered linen that I had made! Up till now, I've made coifs out of it but that doesn't really tell you much about how it will wear against the skin, or how it will drape. I was going to wait till I was all done with my new white satin corset to take these photos, but I'm waiting for the nice wooden busk to arrive in the mail, and that could take forever, and the corset is really mostly almost done and anyways I have the patience of a gnat. So - without decent lighting or further ado, I present: my new blackwork linen shift and partlet: Ta-Daa! Ok - don't look at the busk part - cause I've totally just stuck a paint stir stick down there. It's the wrong shape, and all bumpy edged and....just look at the pretty embroidered linen! I was going for this sortof neckline effect: pretty groovy, no? I think this also made me want black lace on the edges. The embroidered linen has a beautiful drape once it's all washed and ironed, and is very comfortable to wear! I was concerned that it might be too stiff or too scratchy. It's neither. :) I am also pleased with the way the pattern shapes ended up (after some ado with directional patterns and nap...) It is both comfortable under a corset and flattering to lounge about in. Sorry - no photos of the lounging about. Sadly, you can't see the pretty lace on the edge in the shot above since my dress form is covered in black fabric. Plus - that red silk in the background totally steals the show. I think it wants to be a dress that goes over this, don't you? Here's a better view of the lace: I'm pretty pleased with it. I think it was an eBay find. It started out white, so I used some ancient union Tintex dye that I've had for like, ten years. I had no idea if it would still work, but it did! Here is a closeup of just the lace, before and after I dyed it. And here's the lace I used on the partlet, which is less exciting, but got the job done. I dyed this one too. This is a nice angle that shows the way the partlet lies over the shift. It forms the ultimate in the peek-a-boo neckline, no? SUPER CLOSEUP! I'll work on adding my pattern layout to this post later, so you can try it out yourself. The shift is 48" long, and took exactly three yards of the embroidered linen. (And I'm a size 12/14) The partlet took exactly 1/2 yard, but that was really squeezing it on there and lining the collar with plain, white, non-embroidered linen. It worked though. I'll try to share that pattern too. Anyway - I'm pretty jazzed and could not wait to show it off! Love to hear what you think!
“Evening dress, 1850-1855. Philadelphia Museum of Art.”
We have all been in a situation that required some fancier fashion choices, right? A nicely tailored suit or little black dress would do the trick for most of us mortals but this guy from Brighton, UK, took it to a completely next level.
1860s. Blue, yellow, and black plaid silk dress with matching separate skirt and bodice; day bodice is front-opening with long full pagoda sleeves; evening bodice is back-opening with a wide neckline and short puff sleeves; and a floor-length skirt is pleated to a waistband. The day bodice is made of three pieces, two front panels with two darts each, and one back piece with curved tucks. The brown twill lining has the same construction without the back tucks. The bodice has a high neck and the waist is round and at the natural level. The dress closes with five small brass buttons. A 3.8 cm / 1.5 in. wide brown polished cotton waistband has been added, covering the piping edging the bodice, which closes with one hook and eye. The neckline has fold lines and needle holes showing a onetime alteration to the original high round shape. The shoulders are dropped. Pointed cap sleeves are sewn smoothly into the scye above very full pagoda sleeves, which are gathered to the scye. Where the cap sleeves cover the top of the pagoda sleeves, the silk beneath has been cut away, leaving only the brown lining. The over-sleeve and pagoda hem are decorated with a 5.1 cm / 2 in. wide black velvet ribbon. There is piping at the neck and hem. The evening bodice has a one-piece front panel shaped with two boned darts per side for the bust and one piece of boning at center front, and two back panels with no tucks or shaping. Its neckline is wide and scooped, falling far to the edge of the shoulders. The waistline is at the natural level, very slightly dipped in front with a shallow curve. The bodice is back-closing with seven removable buttons; buttonholes are sewn to the left side, and eyelets for button shanks are sewn to the right. It has a brown twill cotton lining. The shoulders are dropped. Short sleeves are fitted to the scye with a series of tucks at the seam, releasing the fabric over the arm into a puff. The sleeves are edged with black lace and jet beaded trim. There is piping finishing the neckline, scyes, and waist. Of note: the plaid fabric is used differently for the day bodice than for the matching evening bodice. The day bodice’s prominent stripes are placed to deliberately mimic the fashionable yoke-like bodice trim of this
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Dress: ca. mid 17th century, Italian/Hungarian, cambric, broad lace, metal work; embroidery, presumably from the wardrobe of Orsolya Esterházy. www.pinterest.com/pin/157837161916444214/
Our Teachers JENNY TIRAMANI – PRINCIPAL Jenny Tiramani has worked as a Costume and Stage Designer since 1977. She was Associate Designer at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East 1979-1997 and Director of Theatre Design at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London 1997-2005, receiving the Laurence Oliver Award for Best Costume Design 2003 …
A long overdue NorCal update! Back in early September I made my second ever trip to the Northern California Renaissance Faire. I really enjoyed my first visit --the location, with it's larger more northern trees, reminded me of Canadian Faires-- and I was really looking forward to going again. Hoping for a cooler event (compared to the SoCal Faire) I added a couple of layers to my waistcoat ensemble and drove the 5 hours north! Unfortunately, I keep forgetting that September is NOT fall in California and the day we went it was unseasonable warm at 113 degrees. We lasted about 2 hours. But the day was not a complete loss! I did get to meet and briefly chat with the lovely Scarlett Harris--my costuming double and fellow Late-Period enthusiast! She took the only photo from that day (which I have shamelessly stolen!). Apart from the heatstroke it was super fun and I really hope to make it out again next year. And now I've finally gotten around to photographing the ensemble! On the economic ladder this is somewhere between the two previous version of this outfit... more merchant class than the first, but not as fancy as the second. This one is all about the accessories! The hat is a Truly Original, which I'd been eyeing since I bought my first one (so at least 2011) and happily it was still available! Having snapped that up, the rest of the outfit was based around it. I liked the overall silhouette of the lady on the far right in this detail of "The Thames at Richmond, with the Old Royal Palace" (Fitzwilliam museum, early 17th century) and wanted to try for something similar. At some point I also decided to add the capelet. I don't really have any documentation for it...there are some in the Hollar prints, but they are longer and the overall aesthetic was different. Still, I had the vaguest memories of seeing something similar on a reenactor at the Plimoth Plantation and so decided to ape the style. At first I thought about lengthening the partlet in The Tudor Tailor, but in the end I just modified and old Butterick cape pattern (mostly just by shortening it significantly). The capelet is made of blue camel-hair wool, lined in grey linen and top stitched in grey silk thread around the edges. The leather accessories (belt & purse) were made by Karl Robinson. It was VERY difficult for me not to buy up all his belts in this style...and I still might! The necklace is a narrow strand of red coral beads. I'm also wearing a much larger bum pad/roll in my NorCal photo, but I switched to a smaller roll which I like much better and I think I'll stick with it from now on (the silhouette was starting to get a bit 1830s and --not surprisingly-- it made my butt look huge!). Overall I'm super pleased with how it turned out, and it might be my favourite iteration of the three! Too bad I'll only be able to wear it once a year, at the Nottingham Faire in November (which is actually Fall). And now --to make up for the lack of earlier documentation-- here are a bunch of photos!
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It’s the most fashionable of fairytales- the poor Lincolnshire lad who went out to work at 11, arrived in Paris with £5 in his pocket and eventually designed the first bespoke frocks for the newly re-established Parisian court within years of arriving in the city.
Ladies Seaside Toilette Sunday Herald (Supplement) July 28 1895 A different costume was published each week to fit two different dolls also published in the Sunday Herald
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Saw a video on Chinese fashion through the dynasties. To be frank, it was pretty inaccurate; one of the reasons was that of the choice of photographs was terrible. Those are modern clothings, and most...
Inspired by 1900s girls dresses I made a short Edwardian cotton dress with pintucks. But instead of using new fabric I used a bedsheet which I dyed mint.
Historical clothing enthusiasts have stumbled onto a path that encompasses much more than just their fondness for old-fashioned clothing.
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