Yellow

You may recall the ballgown that I wore to the Jane Austen Festival last year (link). At the time, I was not really happy with it. I liked it well enough, but to me, the gown did not feel finished. So, since I will be wearing it again this year, I thought that I would have a go at sprucing it up a bit. To go that final step to finish it off.

1. Ribbon.
I have added two thread carrier to the seams on each side of the bodice under the arm. This is to allow for a matching yellow taffeta ribbon. I am intending to tie the ribbon in front at the split in the overskirt.

2. Embroidery
I thought a little bit of ribbon embroidery would add some interest to the gown. I started with the hem. I matched it to where the overskirt raises in front. I went for a very pastel look, using a pale green for the leaves, white silk ribbon for the flowers and white embroidery thread for some knots and to attach some pale yellow beads. To continue it up the gown, I added the embroidery onto the bodice as well, in a very small patch on the left hand side. 

While I didn't really do a lot of work to the gown, I am pleased with how it has turned out. And it makes for another gown ready to go for this year's Jane Austen Festival.

A robe

What did I say, they are all finally coming together. And pretty good timing too. JAFA is now only two and a half weeks away. I try not to dwell on that fact, but I am at least getting things done. This time, it is my open robe that has come to completion.

This is to be worn over my long sleeve white regency gown. I had found a fashion plate that I adored, it was pretty sketchy, but in it, the woman is wearing a high-necked white gown (check) with a bright red short sleeved trained open robe and a turban. I just have to hem the edges of my turban fabric at this point, but otherwise we are ready to go. It's made out of linen. Again a 3.95/metre find. There were two options with my fabric choice. A plain cotton homespun in the exact colour that I wanted or the beautiful thin linen in an ugly red. I decided on the ugly red and some fabric dye.

I didn't think about it at the time, but it was most prudent because I ended up fitting the fabric onto the fabric very well because it was a wider fabric. As to the pattern itself, it did take quite a bit of tweaking. I wanted something similar to the open robe found in one of the Janet Arnold patterns of fashion books. Only I wasn't really in the mood to draft that up from the teeny grid and then have to resize to fit me. It just sounded like a hell of a lot of unnecessary work. Instead, I decided to draft it working from my Sense and Sensibility patterns. It only took me a couple drafts to get what I wanted. I was originally going to use the spencer pattern to draft it up, but it was a lot easier to go from the drawstring bodice pattern. 

Essentially, I have extended the pattern pieces to the length I wanted (yes, there is a train). I split the centre back panel down the centre and added in a heap of fabric so that it would have a very deep double pleat to add fullness, however this is only added from the upper back area - the last thing that I wanted was a lot of bulk in the centre back. I also added extra for pleating onto the side back seams of the back panel, to allow for pleating towards the back, again adding more fullness. The side seam was a bit trickier. I didn't want any pleats in place and having a straight seam meant that it was not full enough over the hip area. I ended up angling out the seam, basically adding in a long gore. This really added a good amount of fullness over the hip. Then there was the front. The Janet Arnold pattern has deep pleats from the shoulder - I tried it, but the amount of fabric that it added was negligible - it was a lot of extra work for something that I was not really liking, added bulk to the front and seemed rather pointless to me. So I scrapped that and just went for a very straight front.

I didn't take that long to put together, the main time-consuming pieces were the hem along the front and the bottom hem - and mostly because I had to hand-sew them. I was a little unsure of what I would be doing to close the bodice in front, but in the end, I just went with a couple of buttons. You could quite easily do hooks and eyes or buckles though. All in all though, it has come out rather like I wanted, and should go rather well with my white gown. I think this pattern is a bit of a winner, I may just have to make more of them. After all I know that I have a lovely printed floral in my stash.

It's a ball

I am slowly whittling down my list of JAFA items to make. It was a big and daunting task in the beginning, but I have been determined to get it done. And here we are, another one down. My ballgown.

It was the one gown that I was adamant had to be done. I felt so plain last year in my ballgown, so this year, I have put a heck of a lot more work into it and come up with something that I am supremely proud of. It has taken a lot of work and a heck of a lot more handsewing than I would have really liked. I have used four fabrics. The mauve satin is a synthetic that I picked up on sale (3.95/metre) at East Coast, however it has the same weight as silk satin and the texture is quite similar. Then there is the black flocked chiffon. Again synthetic, but on sale and it looks very similar to a lot of fabrics that I have spotted in extent gowns. The final two are the lining of black cotton voile and the quilting - a bamboo quilting which is a hell of a lot nicer to use than some of those awful synthetic ones on the market.

To start with, there were the sleeves. They were the first thing that I tackled. I did post a little about them previously, but they are basically made up of three components. The first being the mauve satin pointed arm band. The pieces are flat lined with cotton voile and some black satin piping is sewn to the upper edge and then tacked down on the underside to hold in place. (I'll be honest, I didn't make my piping). Then comes the chiffon overlay. The corresponding points are gathered up and sewn (by hand) to the points on the arm band with a back stitch. I then whipped it all down on the inside (again by hand) to make sure that it would hold in place securely and hopefully not fray apart. I then attached the sleeve lining (satin with cotton voile lining to the wrong side) with black sating piping on the bottom. I then stab stitched the points of the outer sleeve through all layer to the inside to make sure that they would not slip out of place. Then it was simply a matter of gathering the top of the satin piece and chiffon piece and inserting them into the armhole.

The next step was putting the bodice together. I back stitched the gathers in place on the shoulders where the chiffon gathers over the satin. The next step was to dart the satin fabric to fit me wearing says. The chiffon was then gathered into place loosely along the neck edge and the lining was stitched together. I then stab stitched through the layers to add a thin cord tie along the neck. This is where the sleeves were added to the bodice. The next step was to sew all the skirts together and join them onto the bodice. The chiffon layer of the bodice is gathered tightly in the centre while the back is gathered evenly. I stitched a cotton voile bias in the seam. The bias is then folded up towards the bodice to encase the seam and allow for another tie. Again, I stab stitched this down.  

Then came the hemming. My mother kindly lent herself to pinning up the length of the satin underskirt. I then sat down with a heap of pins and pinned in place a 10cm(ish) piece of the bamboo wadding in the hem. I doubled it up so that it would be a little fuller than just one single layer. It took a lot of pinning and re-pinning to get the wadding sitting smoothly. Next was to stitch it in place. A running stab stitch in two rows accomplished this. Then it was time to hem the chiffon. I was going to do it by hand, but it was really driving me insane with the slipping, so instead I decided to do a fine rolled zig-zag hem. 

And finally, I added a couple of hooks and eyes on the back of the bodice. I was only going to rely on the ties at the top and bottom but because the cord is rather slippery, this was not working. It was simply a matter of adding some black hooks and some thread eyes and it is much more securely held in place now. All I have left now for this ensemble is the reticule and the hair garniture. I have to say, after all the work I have put in, I am really looking forward to wearing this now. 

Imagine my shock...

Yesterday. Tuesday. Very eventful. I got off work early for an appointment, and on my way home, thought that I would stop at the local Toyworld in the hopes of finding an appropriate weapon for my stargate costume. Only, Toyworld is no longer there. Imagine my shock.

At any rate, I pulled the car up and thought that I would have a look in the shop next door that had a whole heap of cane furniture in the window and a 50% off sale. I am currently in the process of looking for a cane or wicker chest for re-enacting. No such luck on the chest. I did however, come home with a chair. A Roman chair. Perfect for my regency reenactment. And yes, it was 50% off as well. I am so pleased with my purchase. So, I thought that I would share. So happy. Now I actually have a seat of my very own for re-enacting.

If anyone in Brisbane is interested, they have 1 more single seater and 2 double seaters in the shop (well they did as of yesterday). How to find them. "The Decorator's Emporium" 825 Zillmere Road Aspley. It's in the Aspley homemaker centre across from the light shop. This is the complex that houses Lone Star and Red Rooster off Gympie Road.

Bluest of blue

It was a very productive weekend. I spent an inordinate amount of time with my needle and thread trying to get on track with my handsewing. Right to the point that I am almost complete on another of my projects, but more on that later. This is about my blue half robe. This project turned out to be one of those extra ones that I had not originally intended to do, but I got thinking about how JAFA is held in Canberra in April and it can get mightily cold. This turned my mind to the fact that I would be wearing my white muslin dress one of the days. And now while I love the dress, it was really made for wear in Brisbane come the height of spring and summer weather.

To push my thinking a little further, I was tracing off a few other patterns, and decided to flip through one of my fashion plate books. Low and behold is a picture of a woman with a lovely little half robe. My mind turned to the blue cashmere (fake cashmere) that I had sitting in my stash. I said to myself "self, that would make a fabulous half robe - both warm and quick to whip up. So, I drew up the pattern, mocked it up, tweaked it a bit more, cut it out and got set on the sewing. The pattern itself is very simple. I based it off the Sense and Sensibility spencer pattern. The main changes that I made was the length. I added a seam in the centre back of the jacket so that I could allow for a pleat which would add fullness enough to go over my body. The side seams are also flared out a bit to accommodate a bit more room and instead of extending the darts in the front (I did try it on the mock up), I decided to go for a couple of 1 inch deep pleats. The hem also differs a little - as in, it is shorter in the front, and curves slightly so that it is longer at the back. I hadn't originally intended to do this to the robe, but made a last minute decision when I was drafting. 

All I had left for the weekend gone, was sewing the lining in place, hemming the sleeves, stab stitching the front pleats and attaching the buckle. Please bear in mind that it is sitting a little oddly on my mannequin because of her modern (1940s) shape boobs, and not where my regency bodice will be holding everything. It went together very quickly which was nice. I also decided to add the collar at the last minute. I had it almost ready to go with the lining, but thought that it just needed a little extra at the neck. I'm very pleased at how it has come out and glad that I put the time in to draft the pattern and make it up. I definitely will not be getting cold wearing this one.