· 1780s Chemise Dress ·

Well, this dress is a blast from the past!  I made it 5 years ago before a trip to England, where I intended to wear it in Greenwich.  Well, the dress was completed and packed but I never got around to wearing it there....  And it has had two whole outings since its completion.  Terribly embarrassing.

But, I had a good reason!  Or at least an effective one.  I couldn't come up with a good hair solution.  I am always so hair challenged- the thought of it paralyzes me like few other things can....  I eventually decided that a wig would make me happiest, since rag curling and then teasing my own hair would wreak more havoc upon it that I really was comfortable with (as well as taking a long time!) :-/

Aaaaand, then I had to work up the courage to actually purchase the wig....  I'm very good at procrastinating apparently!  I eventually did finally make the purchase, in conjunction with the "Accessories Challenge" and a Literary Ball we attended in March.  (speaking of the Accessories Challenge- did you forget that I was doing that?  Because judging by my lack of completed projects- apparently I did, too. :-P)

I ordered a Lioness wig in Chestnut and it ended up being a great color!  Whew.  It's darker than my natural hair color but matches my eyebrows perfectly, so it's probably better than getting my hair color would have been.

I wasn't exactly sure what to do with it once it arrived, but I ended up teasing it as tightly as I could (except for the very bottom portion), and trimming a bit off the ends that stuck out too far.  I'm still not sure I know what to do with it.  It's just so... BIG.  But I was judging by paintings, and I thought the proportion was just about right.  I think it might be getting a little bit of a trim before the next outing, but it's good enough for now. ;-)

And yes, I want to do something different with the back portion but ran out of time before the ball and, well, haven't gotten around to it since... ;-)

But on to the dress!  I desperately wanted a chemise gown, but I wanted the more fitted styles of the later years.  I used J.P. Ryan's basic dress pattern as my base, cutting it off straight around the waist and adding width at the front to gather up.  The sleeves were drafted from Jean Hunnisett's book "Period Costume for Stage and Screen".  The collar is drafted from Janet Arnold's "Patterns of Fashion".

The dress is a cotton voile and is worn over a short-sleeved shift, stays, an under petticoat, and my marseilles cloth petticoat.  There are no other skirt supports, but I was happy with the shape the marseilles cloth petticoat gave! :-)

The bodice is lined with cotton.  The front lining is free along the neck and waist edges and closes smoothly and pins shut; the voile has a drawstring at the neck and the waist for closure.  The sleeves and skirt are unlined and the sleeves are edged with narrow self-fabric ruffles.

I kept the accessories pretty simple- just a nosegay, neckerchief, sash, and ribbon choker.

My silk organza cap-thing was inspired by Vigee Le Brun paintings and is just a simple circle, edged and accented with a silk band and bow.

I LOVE this collar, and was so eager to use it on a project!  All the little pointy bits make me so happy! :-)

And nothing is just quite as crispy and shimmery as silk!

· Photos by Kathryn ·

Accessories Challenge · Feather Fan

The Accessories Challenge for November was fans, which happened to fit in quite nicely with my Reformation Day project!  The painting features the older sister holding a feather fan, so this was a perfect excuse to make a frivolous fan. ;-) 

 My first plan for the handle was to buy some wooden spindle pieces the approximate shape and glue those together.  Spindles the correct shape proved to be surprisingly difficult to obtain, so we wandered Hobby Lobby looking for a suitable alternative.  Inspiration struck in the Christmas isle- we could use a similarly shaped ornament!  

 Hobby Lobby and JoAnns didn't have anything quite right, but we found a great ornament at Jeffrey Alans; I was so thrilled that we found something so very similar and the right proportions!! 

Before- flat and sad.  After- fluffy!

I found very inexpensive ostrich feathers on eBay, which was a "must" since I ended up using 20!  They were rather flattened, so I lightly curled them with a curling iron to give them a little body.

 Cutting off the top of the glass ornament was rather nerve-wracking, but using a Dremel tool worked very well, and with no shattering. :-)  I taped all the feathers together with black tape.  I spray-painted it with a semi-gloss black, and then stuck the feathers in!

I'm super pleased with how well the project came together successfully!  Stay tuned for the reveal of the complete Reformation Day outfits next week! :-)

The Accessory: Feather Fan

Historical Period:  1550s

Outfit It Accessorizes:  My Sofonisba Anguissola dress for Reformation Day, 2013

Materials Used: Glass Christmas ornament, Dremel tool, Black spray paint, Black ostrich feathers, Curling iron, Hot glue

Techniques Used: Glass cutting, spray-painting

Accessories Challenge · Purses

The theme for October's Accessorizing Head-to-Toe Challenge was Bags and Purses.  Read about last month's entry here!

October was a very busy month, sewing wise, due to Reformation Day (posts about our outfits will be up later this month!) so I wanted to keep this month's "Accessories Challenge" small and quick.  It was just the impetus I needed to finally make a purse for this frame that I bought 5 years ago. :-)  A quick trip to Pinterest, and I had the inspiration I needed. ;-) ( I love that site so much!)  Since the design on the frame is fairly "Art Nouveau", I wanted a purse that fit into an early 1900s theme. 

I did have to put away my grand thoughts of a microbeaded purse after I remembered the "quick" part, though.... ;-)

See?  How can you not want this??  And surely I'd be able to acquire the requisite skills and proficiency to make this in 2 weeks, right? ;-)

I looked through our stash for fabrics to use, and came across scraps of this velvet, leftover from a different project.  I found several velvet purses from the early 1900s, so after deciding on a shape, it became clear that I needed some embroidery to spruce it up a bit. :-)  I was quite pleased to find that we also had enough pieces of various coordinating colors of silk ribbon for the embroidery, so that was an easy choice!

It has been awhile since I've done ribbon embroidery, and I'm not sure why I haven't found more excuses to use it!  I am always amazed by how good it looks with so little effort and time!  Very gratifying. :-)

The lining was left over from my silk 1950s dress and turned out to be a great match. :-)

The one aspect that paralyzed me with this project was attaching it to the frame!  I tried to find some tutorials online, but was unsuccessful in finding one for my style of frame.  It has a few small holes around the edge, so I just finished off the edges of the purse and then sewed it on through the holes.  The end result is passable, but I'm still not convinced it's as good as it could be.  So if anyone has any tips, I'd love to hear them! ;-)

All in all, I'm very pleased with the result and I'm sure it will get plenty of use! :-)

Historical Period:  Inspired by purses from the early 1900s

The Accessory:  Ribbon-Embroidered Velvet Purse

Outfit It Accessorizes:  None specifically

Materials Used:  Velvet, lining, silk ribbon for embroidery, and metal frame and chain- all from the stash, Hooray!

Techniques Used:  Ribbon Embroidery, Sewing

Accessories Challenge · Hats

The "Accessorizing Head to Toe Challenge" looked like a great motivator for me, so I've decided to jump on the bandwagon!  About two years ago I really realized the importance of accessories in making an authentic, realistic outfit, so I've been attempting to slowly improve myself in that regard. :-)  I don't have a specific outfit in mind for the project, just whatever era(s) need attention.  Since September's theme was hats, I had lots of grand plans!  After a last-minute, week-long trip out of state, I was a week short on my initial expected-time-frame for the project, but that's why it's a challenge, right?? ;-)

· 18th Century ·

 For our trip to Williamsburg this fall, I knew I needed to address my hat situation.  I tend to get distracted by new jackets, dresses, etc. when it's time to gear up for Williamsburg, but I only have one hat to wear.  As you can see, this situation was in dire need of rectification!  

We had 3 hats that didn't meet my sartorial standards for trimming, so my challenge was to trim them acceptably. :-)  I was rather overwhelmed by trimming these hats, because I didn't want to fall into the rut of making identically decorated hats.  A Fashionable Frolick was a great one-stop resource for some quick ideas- thanks Rebecca and Ashley! :-) I wired the edge of both of the straw hats with 16 gauge wire- maybe a bit overkill, but I unexpectedly discovered it a couple years ago, and I love how it gives the brim enough weight so that it is not as easily caught by the wind! :-)

I covered one of the straw hats with silk, since I wanted a dressier hat, and then trimmed it with 2 inch wide ivory ribbon.  Please don't look closely at this one.  It was *ahem* a learning project.  The next one will go better- right?? ;-)

(And, just in case you're thinking the same thing my family said.... I can assure you that all of the pleats are precisely even.  OK, maybe there's a margin of 1/8" for one or two of them.  The seams on the other hand....were not completely thought through first. :-P)

The felt hat was trimmed with 6 yards of coral ribbon.  I love the prolific fluff. ;-) 

 The last hat....well.  It's a glimpse into reality. ;-)  I was packing supplies to sew the hats on a car trip and my initial idea for the third hat ended up being changed once I got inspiration from making the other two.  The necessary silk organza and decorations were at home and unavailable before the deadline.  So, instead I just did all the "grunt work" of sewing on the tying ribbons and the ribbon covering the wired edge.  I'll do the fun, quicker decorations at a future date. :-)  

The jury is still out on whether or not these hats will ultimately be deemed acceptable- I am notoriously difficult to please, and colonial hats tend to be the bane of my existence.  I feel like I still don't know how to achieve the look I'm aiming for, but I hope I'll get there eventually and this challenge was a step in the right direction. :-)

The Accessory:  3 18th century Hats

Historical Period:  1770s and 1780s

Outfit It Accessorizes:  All of my 18th century outfits

Materials Used:  2 Straw Hat Blanks, 1 Felt Hat Blank, Wire for Edges of Straw Hats, Ribbon to Cover Wired Edge, Silk to Cover One Hat, Ribbon Trimmings for Each

Techniques Used:  Sewing

· 1930s ·

I really love 1930s fashions, but finding appropriate hats is so much more difficult than for the 1950s!  Add in the fact that I have a big head (literally, as well as figuratively. ;-) ), and finding affordable and available 30s hats to wear becomes frustratingly difficult.  My hope is that I'll be able to make my own hats, so this was my first venture into previously uncharted territory. :-)  I found this hat at an antique mall and after seeing all of Nabby's amazing re-makes, I thought it looked like the ideal candidate for reshaping!  I soaked it for a few hours, and then put it on my head and pulled it into the shape I wanted.  Super easy!  I used my Sears' Everyday Fashions book as my source for inspiration, and used wave clips to hold the ridge on the crown in place while it dried.  Those wave clips are just sooo handy!!  After a few hours, the hat had completely dried and I stitched a length of grosgrain ribbon inside as a hat band, to help it keep its shape.  I wired the edge and finished it off more cleanly than it was previously, and then attached the ribbon trimming to finish it off.  And yes, I used hot glue for the decoration.  I know- the horrors!  But it was finished so quickly!  Well, that is until I realized that I had made my hat band too small...  So much for finally having a hat that fit my head. :-/  Soooo, off came all that ribbon and hot glue (which, incidentally, takes about 500 times longer to get out of all the nooks and crannies of the hat than it takes to put on. :-P) and on went the correctly sized hat band and all of the trimmings.  The project was still done before 10:30 PM though, so I deem it a success. ;-)

The Accessory:  Straw 1930s Hat

Historical Period:  1930s

Outfit It Accessorizes:  In Particular, a 1930s dress I haven't shared here yet; but In General, I hope it will coordinate with future 30s outfits, too.

Materials Used:  Straw Hat, Grosgrain Ribbon for Hat Band, Wire for Edge, Ribbon for Decoration

Techniques Used:  Reshaping, Sewing, Hot-gluing

· 1950s ·

I've known that I needed a lemon-trimmed hat since I first bought some lemon fabric 2 1/2 years ago.  But, being the nit-picky and agonizing OCD person that I am, I never got around to it.  So, this challenge was just the incentive I needed. :-)  I had contemplated buying vintage millinery lemons on Etsy for over 2 years, but I never worked up the courage to hit "buy".  When I went antique shopping in July and came across some identical ones, it seemed to be a sign.  I wasn't sure what kind of hat I should put them on, as we didn't really have any that seemed to be quite right.  I must have overlooked this hat somehow, as it seems to be ideally suited to the current trimmings. :-)  The lemons didn't come with any leaves, so I commandeered some from a garland we had and then trimmed them to the appropriate shape. ;-)  A little bit of leftover ribbon became the perfect finishing touch.  I can't believe it took this long to get around to this- it's such a cute hat now!!

The Accessory:  Lemon-Trimmed Hat

Historical Period:  None in Particular, although I intend to wear it with 1950s styled outfits

Outfit It Accessorizes:  1950s Lemon-Print Dress I haven't shared here yet.

Materials Used:  Straw Hat, Lemons, Leaves, Ribbon

Techniques Used:  Sewing, Trimming Leaves