Silk Mitts

A couple of weeks ago I finished off these C18th/Regency silk mitts.  I've been collecting pictures of late eighteenth century mitts on Pinterest for a while so I decided to make some up before this year's Jane Austen Festival in April.  They were mostly finished for the event so I wore them but I didn't get around to doing the embroidery until the end of May.

I love my mitts! They're much prettier and more practical than gloves - good for sewing workshops when you want to be able to use your fingers.  Most mitts in museums are dated late eighteenth century so they go with my Ikea dress but apparently they continued to be worn in the Regency period, so that suits me well! I think there will be more mitts in my future.

I used this pattern. I found it on Pinterest, I'm not sure where it's from but I just printed it out full size (cut in half on two A4 sheets). I was going to use the one in Costume Close Up but printing this one seemed easier than scanning, resizing, etc. I just made them the original size from the image. The calico one I did to test the pattern fit me really well but the silk I used for the real ones was stiffer so they're a little bit snug - the side seam on the right hand one is almost pulling through, so next time I need to use a bigger seam allowance.

I used some silk dupion from my stash. The main fabric is an odd blue/yellow-green shot mix that I've never known what to do with but the colour looks nice in this. I lined the points with gold silk dupion. I think I'll make a matching reticule at some point. Silk taffeta or satin would be more accurate but this was the first pair I tried and I wanted to use something I already had. I think I'll make another pair in satin or taffeta soon, with a bigger seam allowance so they don't break! A lot of extant mitts also seem to be lined (often with leather) so maybe I'll add a lining in the future. I thought I could add it to these ones at some point but not if they're already tight!


I stitched the side seam and the point by machine but everything else is done by hand. For the hems I used a tiny spaced backstitch and used threads pulled from the leftover fabric, which I'm quite proud of. I embroidered the lines on the back of the hand with blue silk thread, using herringbone stitch and chain stitch. Many mitts also have herringbone stitch around the thumb and point so I may do that at some point but I shouldn't be doing more embroidery than I have to at the moment, with my hands/arms still being sore. Sigh.

Craft Fair Goodies

This post was originally published on 9 September 2012

The craft fair was in Canberra a few weeks ago and, obviously, I went. It's good fun because there's so many different things so even though I could probably get most of the stuff online it's fun to browse. Much more variety than the few shops in Canberra.  So this year's goodies included:

Packet of various types of linen and evenweave to try out (don't know the shop name), novelty zips, sashiko printed panel, sashiko thread and lovely japanese fabrics to edge the panel with and turn it into a table runner (from bebebold.com) and a book! 18th Century Embroidery Techniques, which I thought would be handy for working out how to do my pockets - I ordered a pattern from Nehelenia Patterns, which is nice but doesn't have much explanation of stitches or anything like that.  The books looks really nice, I saw a review of it on American Duchess a while ago, and I agree with everything she said, if you're interested.

These are make-your-own plastic coasters.  I have a plan for making some super cute cross stitch coasters. I don't know how pretty these will look, but it's probably a better option than sitting a mug directly on the cross stitch.  Anyway, I'll see how it goes.

This is last year's craft fair purchase! I hadn't heard of sashiko before (Japanese embroidery) but I've always loved those geometric Japanese patterns (apparently originally derived from sashiko) so I decided to have a go.  It's even easier than cross stitch (the kits come with pre-printed fabric) so it's a nice relaxing thing to do.  My mum was pretty sceptical, Japanese isn't really her thing, but she came to the craft fair with me this year and now she's got her own sashiko project : )

Regency Plans

This post was originally published on 30 August 2012.

I've been really busy with uni so, as usual, I've been procrastinating by making costuming plans without actually doing anything constructive.  Since my 18th century plans are basically made and waiting on me finding time to carry them out, I've mainly been thinking about Regency.

I've got a couple of fabrics put away that I bought because I thought they might make good Regency things. The first is a printed quilting cotton in green and blue.  I think the print is technically Civil War era and I know quilting cotton's a bit heavy, but I think it'll be good for a more practical day dress. I've been thinking that a drop-front gown could be a fun thing to try and it'll make it more practical, so that's the plan.  I like this dress as a fairly plain drop-front with a gathered front and this one has really cool braided trim around the neckline, although it may not look as cool without stripes.

I also bought some white silk chiffon with little woven dots, which I think would make a fantastic evening dress but I'm having trouble coming up with something interesting to do with it.  I'm not really into the super-decorated flouncy things from the later period, but it want it to be more exciting than just a white dress. So I have to think about that, but at least I know that I need to make a petticoat to go under the chiffon (which I could use for some of my other dresses).

Then, I don't remember why, but I was looking through a book I bought in Denmark about Louise Auguste, published by Rosenborg palace, which happens to have some very lovely extant regency-era costumes in it.  In particular, it has two amazing silk velvet dresses. It also has a pattern diagram for one, though sadly it's for the one that I like less, but I'm thinking I could do something that uses the bodice and skirt of the one I like more and the sleeves of the one that has the pattern. It seems like the collection isn't online anywhere so I can't find any pictures except what's in the book... Anyway, I think it would be a really cool project, so we'll see how that goes.

And finally, since it looks like I'll be starting on a reasonable number of Regency projects, I think I might be weakening on the stays front.  I've always been a bit worried about the 'regency stays will make you look like you have no bust' thing, but I'm feeling better after looking at lots of pictures of European royalty looking for pictures of those dresses. And short stays should be reasonably quick to make. And they can't be as slow and painful as the 1780s stays.

Elizabethan Partlet

This post was originally published on 19 August 2012.

I took some time off from the stays this week to make myself an Elizabethan partlet.  My Elizabethan outfit was my first proper historical costume (I made it in 2008) and I'd never got around to to making a partlet to go with it.  I'd returned the one I'd borrowed so thought I'd better make my own in time for yesterday's Renaissance ball.

I wanted to use silk organza, but I've already started hemming the piece I have for an 18th century kerchief (not sure how that'll go, but that's a different story) so I didn't want to cut into that, and the shop that had some until recently seems to have run out.  Frustrating! So I spent a couple of days stressing about that, until I decided to use a piece of silk/linen blend that I was planning to use for lining 18th century things, but  I decided I can always get more when I finally get around to working on it.  I was happy with that, in the end - it's nice and smooth, with the look of linen but a bit of sheen as well. It also creases really nicely, which was good for doing the collar.

It also took me longer than expected to find a pattern - I thought for something as simple as a partlet there must be a free pattern somewhere online, or in one of my books.  Eventually I found this free pattern from Margo Anderson.

Once I found that, everything was pretty straightforward.  The only change I made was to box-pleat rather than gather the frill at the top, which meant I could fold the piece over rather than hem it, and made it look more like a proto-ruff.  I also chose to close the collar with hooks and thread loops rather than ribbon since my necklace is my favourite bit of my Elizabethan costume and I didn't want bits of ribbon getting in the way.

Box-pleating the frill

Side view of the pleats

The partlet

The completed collar

I also added some extra ribbon to the overskirt, which I shouldn't have done because I didn't really have time, but it turned out well.  Wearing the outfit on the night, I was very happy with my overskirt and partlet, but was reminded that the bodice/sleeve situation is a bit of a nightmare, and I think I need to make new sleeves. And an underskirt at some point. I guess I'll ignore that for now and worry about it at the last minute before the next Renaissance event. Hmm.

Wearing the partlet!

Looking tired and vague

And now I just have to clean up the debris of last-minute sewing and dressing. Yay.

Progress on the 1780s Stays

This post was originally published on 16 August 2012

After months of apathy (and a lot of non-sewing stuff going on), I'm finally getting on with my new set of 1780s stays.  Here's what I've done:

Fitting: a few months ago I asked a friend who was briefly in Canberra to check the fit of my prototype.  She suggested cutting the tab slits higher, bringing the front shoulder tabs in and altering the angle of the lacing at the back.  I made all these changes to the prototype (had to cut yet more pieces for the front, grumble) and I think it went well, although the lacing at the back met, so it's possible that the angle still isn't ideal. On the final version I'm taking an inch off each piece so there will be a gap, so I'll have to see how it goes.

Oh, and I added some curve to the side-front seam of the piece since I've read (for example, from American Duchess) that this is how you get the more rounded line of the later decades, which sounds more flattering and more comfortable to me.

Materials:  I've had a lot of trouble deciding on materials, but I've finally made some decisions.  Ideally, I wanted to make the stays soft blue with pink trimming. I have some blue silk, but it's actually quite yellow-y and odd, so it really doesn't go with pink.  Then I ordered some pink silk twill ribbon from etsy for binding, but when it arrived the colour turned out to be less rose pink and more salmon, so it needs a nice clear colour so that it doesn't just look brown. I was going through my silk collection and realised I have just enough ivory silk dupion left over from binding the last set of stays and it looks OK with the silk ribbon.  I also managed to find some pink silk thread that goes well enough, so it looks like the stays will be ivory with pink stitching and bound with ribbon.

For the interlining fabrics, I'm using a layer of beige-y cotton/linen and yellow cotton canvas. Finding pure linen fabrics without stretch was basically impossible, and I think the final effect will be the same.  Also, I'm hoping that only having one layer of canvas will make the stays more forgiving and curvy than the last set, which had 2.

If I put in a lining, I'll do it at the end. I have some reasonably soft pale blue linen that I can use.

Boning: I've still got German synthetic whalebone from the last stays so hopefully there will be enough.  In terms of arranging the boning, I think I'll look at these stays from the V&A, this pattern from JP Ryan, these amazing stays, and the Butterick pattern I've been using. I'm starting with bones along the seam lines.

Tracing around the prototype pieces

Cutting out: I've traced the outline (without seam allowance) of each piece onto the silk and then cut out them out of all layers, leaving plenty of spare fabric all around the lines.  Then I basted around the outline through all three layers.

Outline traced in water-soluble pen

Construction: I've started sewing the boning channels. I'm sewing by hand, using backstitch.  I'm not sure how that'll go, it's much slower than machine, but it does give me more control - doing channels by machine, I often had to undo them if it got wonky, or I realised that it was slightly too tight for the bone - by hand I can check these things as I'm going, instead of unpicking the whole thing and starting again! It also means that I can do a seam or two at a time, watching tv or while I'm at uni.

Then once I've done the channels, I'm planning on whipping the edges of the pieces together.

Anyway! Progress.  I think it's going well.

Making it Work: Fabric

I was taught to sew by my mother and grandmother, who, to varying degrees, belong to a generation for whom sewing your own clothes was cheaper than buying them.  That has certainly never been the case for me, though the two are becoming more comparable thanks to the advent of internet shopping.  Still, their thrifty habits taught me a couple of things:

1. You never need as much fabric as the pattern says
2. If you don't have quite as much fabric as you need, or it's not quite right, you can always make it work.

Working in a fabric shop, I always find it hilarious when people say "The patterns says I need 1.5m.  I'll get 2.5m just in case".  I guess it's good if you're not confident - I'm so paranoid cutting things out I rarely get it wrong.

This attitude has certainly saved me money, but it's also got me into some tricky situations. Usually I'd get 0.1 or 0.2m less than the pattern says.  But on one occasion a couple of years ago, I went a bit overboard with a Regency day dress. The pattern said something like 4.5m, I decided 4 was OK (having used the pattern before), then they unrolled the fabric I chose... and there was only 3m left.  So I said "we can make it work!".  And, eventually, we did, after a lot of fiddling.  Of course, I'd also managed to chose a fabric with stripes.

But the fabric was so pretty...

When I decided to try out Colette's Ceylon pattern, I couldn't find any fabric I was happy with in the shop and I couldn't quite believe I needed 3.5m.  Although, not having used Colette before, I didn't know how much leeway I had.  In the end, I dug out a piece of cotton poplin I'd got from work which had come out OK after a turn in the washing machine.  So it turned out I had 2.6m of 115cm wide fabric and it had some holes along one side where it had been stapled to a table, just to make things more interesting.

In the end, it worked.  I avoided the holes and the only pieces I had to put across- rather than length-wise were the front facings.  The moral of the story is: you can make a Ceylon from 2.6m of fabric, but only if you want to muck around for hours and cut it out piece by piece.  I think I'll be getting at least 3m for my next Ceylon!

1780s Ikea Gown

This is an amalgamation of earlier posts from 2011-2012, cutting out the musing and missteps...

The first C18th dress I chose to do was a chintz day dress.  I saw a few that I loved in this style in Europe, such as this one from the V&A.

I bought Ikea doona cover to use as the main fabric.  In fact I’ve got 2, because I liked it so much I decided I wanted one to use as a doona cover as well.  The advantages of this fabric are that it was cheap and the fabric is quite soft, unlike quilting fabrics.  For a modern fabric I think the pattern is reasonably authentic.  I quickly discovered that of course LOTS of people have bought exactly the same thing to make historic costumes, including two other Canberrans, but you can't have everything.  

I decided to make two petticoats, one from plain white voile and another from an embroidered muslin I bought from Clegs in Melbourne. 

I originally planned to use Sense & Sensibility’s Portrait Dress pattern.  However, I needed to add length to the bodice and there was no lengthening line at the waist, so I used the JP Ryan Robe à l'Anglaise pattern instead (much simpler than mucking around with curves and things).  I then adjusted that pattern by cutting the armscyes deeper and adjusting the angle of the shoulder straps (I had considerable help at this point, during a costuming weekend in September 2011)

Progress then took a considerable hiatus as on that weekend I discovered that I hated the C18th stays I'd just so lovingly finished.  They were painful, made me want to pass out, and didn't get the right shape anyway.  So I had to make a new set of stays before I could get on with the gown. Coincidentally, I swore never to make more C18th stays at that point, but I caved eventually. 

I loved the trimming on this dress, from the Kyoto Costume Institute and I may still use this as inspiration in the future, but I didn't get time to do anything like this and I don't think it needs it.

I also bought a couple of metres of very beautiful, wide lace to trim the cuffs with.  Many dresses and patterns have more shaped cuffs but I think just lace is acceptable for this later 1780-1795 date.

Queen Luise Dress

This post was first published 28 September 2011

For JAFA2011 I made the  Queen Luise dress from  Nehelenia Patterns (NP403).  It came together pretty quickly and I'm really happy with it.

I had to alter the pattern a bit by lowering the waistline by 1 inch - this might be because I wasn't wearing period undergarments, or because I'm tall.  Not sure.  I also had a bit of trouble with the sleeves as there wasn't much guidance on how to put them in.  I lined up the sleeve seam with the approximate point where the bodice 'side seam' would be if there was one and put the gathering between the shoulder seam and the top of the shoulder.

I made the dress from a lovely soft cotton voile (Swiss, I think) with cotton/linen for the bodice lining, and a strip of silk satin for the waistband.  I found some nice lace in the cupboard for the bodice insert which decorates it a bit and I made a sash from pink silk satin.  I've retained the short train so it's not a dance dress, but it's actually not as impractical as I thought it might be.  I added an underskirt from a more substantial polycotton (ugh, but I was in a hurry) because it seemed easier than making a proper petticoat (I really need to get around to making one eventually).

The only downside: I had a go of doing handsewn buttonholes and I think they look ugly : (

18th Century Plans

This post was first published 16 March2011

While in Europe in the second half of last year I made it to as many costume museums as I could (given the rarity of such places in Australia).  I saw lots of gorgeous things, but I found that the period that was appealing to me most was the late 18^th century.  Re-watching The Duchess and Marie Antoinette helped, too.  It's a bit odd, since I previously thought the period was mostly just weird and artificial looking, but now I think it's awesome.  I think it could have a lot to do with pretty fabrics, stripes and ruffles.  At this stage I'm definitely leaning towards the last couple of decades of the century as I haven't been feeling like too much frilliness and panniers, and the construction seems more straightforward.  Well, we'll see how we go, maybe I'll be able to ease myself into the more outlandish styles gradually.

Of the museums I went to, I think I enjoyed the Brede Vaerk Museum in Copenhagen the most - lots of gorgeous costumes, and well displayed.  We managed to fit in a trip to London for 5 days and I was really looking forward to going to the V&A (I'd been before, but before I was really into costuming) only to discover when we arrived that the fashion section was closed for renovation.  Serves me right, I'm sure I could've found that out before we went.  But there were still a couple of gorgeous chintz dresses out.  The Museum of London had a great exhibition on, which I think I'd even read about before we left, with 18th and 19th century garments displayed with modern millinery.  It was very cool, although the display was a bit frustrating since it was quite dark and you couldn't see back views or anything.  Anyway, some of the photos I took are on flickr but I should put more up, too.