Fabric Find

About a week ago, I went to a local(ish) Walmart that wasn't the one I usually go to, and they happened to still sell fabric. I happened upon some lovely historical-looking cotton in the clearance section, marked down to $2/yard! It was about $3/yard at regular price, which is still a good find. After waiting a long while for someone to help me (the store was rather busy that day), I went home with almost 8 yards of fabulous fabric for less than $15. I asked for 7 yards at the counter, but there was about 7 yards and 29 inches on the bolt. The lady gave the 29 inches to me for free.

My fabric, with measuring tape for scale

I plan on making an 1830s dress with it. I fell in love with this dress and knew I wanted to make it. If I find a more similar fabric to the original, I may use the green for an 1820s dress, because it kind of reminds me of Fantine's green dress in Les Mis. But first, I want to make some accurate stays!

Hannibal Slavegirl Collar, Star Princess Stars, and Degas 2.0 Progress

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. Life gets in the way.
I have an incredible love for the costumes in Phantom of the Opera, so naturally I want to make replicas of all of them. My weight isn't stable right now because of wacky hormones, so I can't really make tons of costumes for myself right now, but I can make them for other people and embellishments for my future ones.

My Hannibal Slavegirl Collar, on top of my 1830s dress

European Hannibal Slavegirl (UK)

My collar was imspired by the European versions, especially the Hamburg ones. It was made of 20 flower appliques, from about a yard of a trim purchased from Etsy. The center of the appliques had a cluster of cheap-looking gold beads, and I didn't like them, so I cut them off. I replaced them with some red and green gems and gold seed and bugle beads. This will eventually be put on the Slavegirl bodice, made of red and green velvet with gold trims. This bodice is also worn under the Dressing Gown, which I will make someday soon (I even have a lovely silk and some laces for it).

Another of my favourite of Christine's costumes is the Star Princess.
Obviously, I'm not making the actual costume yet, but I've been stocking up on beads, gems, and metal stars. I've beaded 15 out of the 21 stars for the skirt so far. The plan is having 7 rows of 4 stars each (the bottom-most star isn't beaded. I could do 10 rows of 4 stars because I have 40 stars, but I need to save stars for the bodice, mask, and tiara. My best friend Abigail and my grandma both bought me some stars- totalling to 20, but I pried them apart to make 20 stars with a blue gem and 20 plain stars. I glued silver/clear star gems on the plain ones. The fourth star is just like the middle, but without the beads.

   

 One of my favourite non-Christine costumes is the Degas. It is worn by Meg Giry and the other balle girls. The costume is based on Degas' La Petit Danseuse De 14 Ans. I've made this costume before, but was never happy with it, so I'm trying again. So far, I've made the bodice pattern and cut out the cotton denim/twill (I don't remember which) lining.

Kara Klein, Broadway

Bodice lining (Guest appearance from Slavegirl Collar)

Brown Plaid 1830s Dress (Finished!)

I'm finally getting around to posting the dress. Sorry for the delay!

Sorry for the covered face; I didn't like what my face was doing

The classic mirror picture

The entire dress is hand sewn, along with most of my undergarments. The bodice is flat-lined with tan cotton, and the skirt has a 10-inch hem facing of the same cotton.

I was working with about 5.5 yards of silk, and the pattern called for 7.5, so I had to piece a bit. Both sleeves are pieced, one in 2 pieces and the other in 5 pieces. Two bodice pieces are pieced, one side and one back. It was tricky to match up the patterns, as I've never done with before, but I think I did a pretty good job. 

The skirt looks longer than it is, because of the angle the pictures were taken, but the skirt hits right above my ankle bone. This length seems to be pretty common of the period. I could probably even go a bit shorter because I'm still a teen. 

I ended up buying a different pair of shoes to wear. The shape of the shoe is rather close to period shoes, or at least as close as you can find in a department store. The ankle straps aren't quite right, but they're close-ish (very real word). I'll probably end up taking them off and adding some silk ribbon, but I wear the shoes with modern clothes and like them as-is. I think I'll be able to use them for other decades too.

"Precious" flat

American Duchess Pre-order and Giveaway

The Virginia

American Duchess has a new shoe! Pre-order for the Virginia is going on now. It's a lovely shoe, just like all of the other shoes American Duchess offers.

1830s Dress Progress

I'm very nearly finished with the dress. All I need to do is pipe the neckline and the waist, sew on the hooks and eyes, and attach the skirt to the bodice. I'd also like to sew up a belt/sash, but I will forego it if I don't have time.
I actually made all the progress so far in about 5 days. My grandmother helped with the fitting on a Saturday, and I sewed like mad from Sunday afternoon to Wednesday night. It is entirely hand-sewn.
I'll be wearing this dress on October 31. I'm wearing it in the morning/afternoon for a fall festival where I'll be reading The Princess and the Pea to some children, then I'll be going to a Halloween party at night.
I'll hopefully be finished with it soon, and I promise to post pictures as soon as I can!

Plaid in the 1830s

I am in love with all things plaid, so I wear it whenever I can. I'm using the plaid silk I mentioned in a previous post for my 1830s dress. I've found some beautiful examples of plaid in the 1830s, some original gowns and some paintings. I'm still not sure my fabric is 100% correct for the era, but I'm taking a chance with it. It's a similar type of plaid to the green and white silk, so I think its okay.

A linen dress

A silk dress

Worn by Queen Victoria

"Portrait of a Lady in Plaid"

"Portrait of Caroline Sophie Moller"

Green plaid silk My plaid is similar.

A cotton dressing gown Maybe my Christmas Eve pajamas?

Such an interesting fabric.

(Hand-sewn) Corded Petticoat

I thought I'd make a post about my pride and joy, my corded petticoat. Every stitch is hand-sewn. It's made of about 3-3.5 yards of white cotton (I bought 4) and probably about 130 yards of Peaches and Cream yarn. I used the giant 700-yard cone, and I haven't made a noticeable dent in it. I bought it all at my local Walmart, and it was a pretty inexpensive project in terms of materials, probably about $10-$15.

Isn't it lovely? I apologize for the wrinkled state of it and my comforter.

I worked on it from early June to (very) late July. It probably took upwards of 60 hours, which seems like an eternity, but I watched tons of period movies and miniseries on Netflix (I highly recommend Wives and Daughters, Bleak House, Jane Eyre, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood).

I'd originally planned on doing 100 rows with no spaces in between them, but I quickly decided against that. I ended up doing 55 rows in this configuration from the bottom up: 15 rows, a 2-inch space, 10 rows, a 2 inch space, 15 rows, a 2-inch space, 10 rows, a 2-inch space, 5 rows. Well, the spaces may not be exactly 2-inches; I used my spool of thread as a guide. Close enough, right?

My first row of cord. I felt so accomplished.

I started by ripping the cotton into 1 yard pieces. I then made two "tubes", using the selvages as the seam allowances. I sewed the two tubes together at the bottoms; this forms the nice clean hem. I started the cording at a seam, pinning the yarn in place and then sewing it. It's a bit fiddly to pin the cords between the two layers, but once I got into a good rhythm, I was good to go. To pin the rows, I'd turn the petticoat around to where the opening was facing me and felt my way around to pinning the yarn. This takes a bit of practice for it to not feel awkward. I'd then turn it back around and stitch the cords into place.

 After the first row, I ran into a dilemma. The seam allowance from the hem seam was getting in the way and bunching up, making the second row difficult to pin. It took me a few minutes to think of trimming the seam allowance. I trimmed it very close to the stitching of the first row, and the second row was infinitely easier to pin and sew.

A detail shot of the beginning/ending of section

At the end (and beginning) of each section, I made a small knot in the yarn, and stitched around it a few times before starting the actual row. (See photo). The photo isn't all that descriptive, because it is difficult to photograph white-on-white details. And it doesn't help that my only camera is my iPhone. My stitching along the seam-lines is less than great, I'm sad to say. It's rather difficult to sew through a million layers at one time. I promise the rest of my stitching is much better.

After I finished sewing in all the rows of cording, I trimmed back the inner layer with pinking shears, but I'll probably trim it down again, closer to the cords. This left me with about 0.5-1 yard of cotton, which has become a few petticoat waistbands and a pair of chemise sleeves. I finished it off by gathering the waist, adding a waistband, and sewing on a button. I haven't sewn a buttonhole yet. I will when I finish my corset and finalize my waist measurement.

Sewing in cording

Even a few rows added some body.

The petticoat falls to about my upper-mid calf, which is perhaps a tad short, but that's how it happened. It measures to be about 88 inches wide. I wanted it to be 90 because I like round numbers, but I could only find 44 inch wide cotton.  The cording comes up to my upper thigh/lower hip, which seems to be within the range of the period. I've seen some 1820s-30s corded petticoats with cords in just the lower 1/3 (like this), and I've also seen some later ones with cording all the way or almost all the way to the waist (like this). 

Overall, I'm very happy with it. It's less than perfect, but it was my first real historical piece of clothing, and I'm very proud of it.