The Historical Sew Fortnightly – Page 7

Grass-green quilted petticoat

Published on June 2, 2013 by fashionthrougherstoryLeave a comment

For the 11th challenge on “The historical Sew Fortnightly” – Rectangels – I decided to make something quite simple. I’ve been so busy and stressed lately with my previous (over achieving) dresses, so I needed to take it a little easy this time.

So what will be more simple and fit the theme more then a quilted petticoat.

I bought some lovely green pre-quilted fabric from my nearest fabric store – I know it is kind of cheating to use pre-quilted fabric but I just didn’t have the time to hand-quilt (or even machine-quilt) a petticoat on my own this time.

I used “Costume Close-up” for directions on how to cut the fabric in a historic fashion. Staying true to the book I started with a rectangle, and sewed the back seam together almost to the top.

Then I hemed and faced the skirts inside with a plain green cotton weave. I took some basic measurments on the length and cut the excess off at the waist.

Then I did some math to calculate the depth of the pleating to fit the waistband. I pleated and sewed the waistband on to the skirt. Then I finished off with some hooks and eyes.

So simple and fast. It only took me one evening to make, and I immediately felt the need to make one for my sister.

I’m really proud of my time management this time since I made this petticoat the night before me and my sisters were supposed to have the photoshoot.

The petticoat is really comfortable to wear and works perfect both as a hidden petticoat under skirts for some extra fullnes, and as a skirt on its own. And I love that it matches both my new robe anglaise and a jacket I made a year ago. It makes me feel like I for once actually planned my historic wardrobe.

Here are some detail pictures of the skirt, and also a couple of pictures of the skirt in action paired both with the Anglaise of satin trouble and the flowery printed jacket I’ve told you about in previous posts.

Front and back of the pleating and waistband.

Petticoat paired with the flowery jacket Lady got back…

And paired with Anglaise of trouble

Shecking those shoes out

Just the facts:

Challenge 11. Rectangels

What: A quilted petticoat

Year: 1750-1780

Pattern: None, I looked at Baumgarters “Costume Close-up” Petticoat no 5

Fabric: 2 m of green pre-quilted polyester taffeta, I also used about 0,5 m of plain green cotton weave for the hem facing.

Notions: Thread, hook and eye.

How Historical Accurate: Not really – all machine-sewed in polyester fabric. The only right thing about it is the pattern, so maybe 20 %.

Time: 5 hours

Cost: 16 USD

First worn: On 9th of may for the photoshoot.

Francaise a la Merteuil – Finished

Published on May 22, 2013November 1, 2014 by fashionthrougherstoryLeave a comment

“The Historical Sew Fortnightly” challenge 10. Literature

For this challenge I decided to finally finish the robe a la Fraincaise my sister Maria has been promised for over a year.

Here are som pictures of the gown, based on the caracter Marquise Merteuil from ” Les Liasions Dangereuses”.

A la polonaise

Photos by: Elin Petersson

Francaise a la Merteuil – construction

Published on May 20, 2013 by fashionthrougherstory6 Comments

For “The Historical Sew Fortnightly’s” (link) 10th challenge – Literature – I had to think long and hard on what to make. I didn’t have the time to make a whole garment from scratch, so I decided to finish a dress I’ve been working on since january.

I have promised a Robe a la Francaise to my sister Maria for over a year and never really had the time to make it. But now it was finally going to happen.

I bought the fabric from an online auction site last may. It is a flower printed cotton made for quilting and home decoration. 120 cm x 7 m fabric for 200 SEK (about 30 USD). I think the fabric is lovely and the stripey pattern reminds me of some of the inspiration gowns I and my sister looked at when we tried to decide the final look of the gown.

I used three of my favourite pattern books for references when draping the bodice: Arnold, Waugh and Baumgarten.

This draft is from Baumgartens “Costume close-up”

After taking the measurements I needed on my sister, I put her corset on the dressform and started to drape. It went fast and easy and in no time I had a nice looking pattern. I then cut and sewed the mock up for the bodice.

Then it was time to travel the 3 hours by train to my sisters home town for the first try on. And the fit was terrible, the shoulders didn’t fit, the waist was way to long and the front just wouldn’t sit where it was supposed to.

I ended up draping a whole new mock-up directly on her body.

I went home confident I had a working pattern and started cutting the fabric the next day.

The sewing went quick and easy, starting with the bodice lining and putting some gromets and lacing in the back for a better fit. I draped and put the loose back on the lining, and sewed it down to the bodice side seams.

The skirt parts was pleated at the sides and sewed on and the sleeves was lined and sewed together but left lose until the next try on. I cut and sewed the petticoat to the waistband, sewed and boned the stomacher and started on the trimming.

2013-05-03 18.05.17

Then once again I met with my sister for a try on.

And this time it fitted almost perfectly.

All that needed to be done was to:

Hem the skirt and petticoat

Lower the neck in the back

Trim and put the sleeves in

Decorate the stomacher

Make and sew all the trimming on.

Some final polish

I was relieved that it wasn’t more to do or change since I just realised I only had 3 days (of wich I would be home for one evening) to do all this finishing, before we were supposed to have the final photoshoot.

After a lot of handsewing on my worktrip (on the train, bus, aeroplane, hotel etc.) I managed to get the dress done in time.

Here are some pictures of the finished dress on my dress form. Pictures from the photoshoot will be shown in a later post.

Front of the dress with the stomacher decorated with bows

The back with Wattaue-pleats

Trimming

Sleeve decoration with lace and bow

Just the facts:

Challenge 10. Literature

Novel: “Les Liasions Dangereuses” by Choderlos de Laclos

Caracter: Marquise Merteuil

Fabric: 6 m printed cotton, the bodice is lined and interlined with white cotton fabric.

Pattern: I draped my own pattern based on Baumgartens “Costume close-up” gown 2 – Robe a la Francaise with polonaise.

Year: ca 1770 – 1780

Notions: Thread, hooks and eyes, lace fabric, blue cotton fabric for bows and cotton string for the polonaise.

How historical accurate: Mostly machine sewn – I only had one chance to try the dress on my sister and had to sew it really fast. The pattern and over all look of the dress is fairly accurate. But probably not more than 40%.

Hours: I didn’t count but probably 40 something.

Cost: about 45 USD.

First worn: May 9th, for the photoshoot.

Floral anglaise of satin trouble – construction part 2

Published on May 17, 2013October 25, 2013 by fashionthrougherstoryLeave a comment

When I first realised I needed to cut away the beautiful part of the back, i refused to listen to that part of my brain. But after tedius atempts to fix the back of the bodice and to pleat and re-pleat the skirt in the right way, I grabbed the sissors.

Two cuts and it was done, and I was relieved to find that the pleating of the skirt went so much easier.

I pleated the skirt to the bodice and left two pocket slits at the sides when I sewed the skirt together. Once again things seemed to run on wheels, so I decided to cut out the petticoat after all. The sewing and pleating went so fast and easy that I finished it in no time.

Then it was time for another try-on.

I got help from my sister Elin to put the sleeves in the right position and to check the lenght of the skirt and petticoat.

This time the back looked pretty good – I just needed to rise the waist a little more (I will have to live with the remaning wrinkles).

We decided that the skirt needed to be lengthen in the back – this meant I would have to piece the hem with stripes of fabric to get some extra length. And this was when the problem started again…

Of course I was out of fabric – all I had left was some small pieces for decoration and trimming.

The only way to fix the 8 centimeters too short skirt was to take some fabric from the petticoat. I already had a 50 cm “patch” in the back, due to lack of fabric. So this time I had to cut away two 10 cm pieces on the horisontal of the skirt, and then re-pleat the petticoat to the waistband.

Then it was time to deal with the sleaves. To get the right 18th century look, and to save myself some trouble with getting the sleeve-cap in the sewing machine, I decided to handstitch the sleeves in place. When that was done all I needed to do was to put the shoulder piece over the sleeve-cap and hand stitch them down.

The only thing left to finish the dress was to put some trimming on it.

This proved more difficult and time consuming then I had anticipated. I cut stripes of the few pieces of fabric I had left and sewed them together in to one 4 m stripe. Then I had to hem the stripes both sides by hand (all 8 m), and then go on to pleat and baste it all down. Then at last I could attach the trim to the gown.

Well here it is – the finished dress. After all the trouble and setbacks I still really like this dress and feel pretty comfortable wearing it. I may even have to invent a reason to wear it.