Dress – Fashion Through Herstory

(24 hours) Burgundian Medieval Gown

Published on August 30, 2015 by fashionthrougherstory9 Comments

Last Saturday evening I came to chat with my sister about the upcoming Medieval fair, where I was to have a dance performance this weekend.
I asked if she wanted to come along, and since she doesn’t have any medieval clothes, if I should try to make her some…

Of course she wanted – So said and done.

I made a quick calculation of how much time I would have for this project – with deadline in 6 days wear of 5 was workdays and the only whole day was Sunday – where all the fabric stores are closed. And no I didn’t had anything suitable in my stash.
This was going to be a though one, but I knew that with some planing (and boyfriend away at work most of the nights) I could do this.

And this is how it went:

Saturday evening/night:
I sent her some picks of various medieval gowns that would be easy to make even without to much time and fittings.
She selected a model – The 15th century Burgundian dress, and sent me her measurements.
Picture from “The Medieval Tailor Assistant”

My quick sketch including calculations on time, fabric and money.

(Consultation = 1 hour)

Sunday morning:
I drafted the pattern for the dress based on “The Medieval Tailor Assistant” and her measurements.
Then I cut and made a mock-up.
I also drafted and made a pattern test for the typical Burgundian “flower pot” headwear. I tried the mock-up on myself to see if there was any obvious problems.

(Pattern (1) & Mock-up (1,5) = 2,5 hours)

Monday:
I meet with my sister after work to try the mock-up – which fitted her really good.
Just some minor alterations like shortening the sleeves, raising the under arm seam and ad more width to the skirt and it would be perfect.

Then we went to the store to pick out her fabric.
Due to lack of both time and funds we decided on some cheaper cotton twill in a lovely teal blue color, combined with purple for the stomacher and white fake fur collar – from my stash.
The dress should probably be made in lovely thin wool or heavy silk brocade to look it’s very best, but I’m convinced no one will notice our small budget, and if it men the dress is done in time and looks nice I think it’s the best choice to make.
the selected fabric

Once home again I immediately started to pin the pattern to the fabric for the cutting.
measuring the biggest possible size of the gores

Then I begun the daunting task of pinning all the (huge) pieces together.The back pieces pinned together.

And finished the night by hand sewing the base of the Burgundian Hening in front of the TV.

(Fitting (0,5) + Fabric shopping (1) + Cutting (1) + pinning/sewing (2) = 5 hours)

Tuesday:
When I got home from work on Thursday I immediately started to sew the dress together, pinning and pressing as I went.
The time flied and by the end of the night I had a pretty decent looking dress (thank good for sewing machines and sergers)
The basic dress stitched together

Once the night fell I once more seated myself in my favorite couch to put some more work into the hat.
Adding bias-tape round the edges and covering it with glued on batting.

(Sewing dress together (2) + Hat (2) = 4 hours)

Wednesday:
On Wednesday I focused on getting the collar done to get the dress as finished as possible for the final fitting on Thursday.
I sewed the collar to the neckline and carefully pinned the fur pieces on top, attaching the by hand.

Then I finished the cuffs and attached the sleeves.

I also started covering the hat with black fake silk.

(collar (2) + hat (1) = 3 hours)

Thursday:
I meet with my sister once more to try the almost finished dress, and to determent the length of the skirt.
I love the look of this whole outfit

Once my sister left, I got to work on cutting the hem.
I really wanted to make it by hand, but time was running out and I still had the head-dress to finish so I took the easy (fast) way out and machine stitched it.

(Fitting (0,5) + hemming (0,5) + hat (2) = 4 hours)

Friday:
With the dress finished I got to work on the hat, adding the front “loop” and the lining. I finished by attaching a sheer veil (my 18th century fichu) at the top.

The I steamed the whole outfit, and put it on my dress-form for some nice pictures “finished”.

(Finishing = 3 Hours)

Saturday:
I re-pressed and packed all her garments, dressed in my cotiehardie and traveled to the fair – leaving home 08.00 pm.

More Pics from the Event and photoshoot is in the works.

(pressing, packing and dressing = 0,5 hours)

(Summary: 1 + 2,5 + 5 + 4 + 4 + 3 + 0.5 = 24 hours)

The Finished Hat:

The Finished Dress:

The facts:

What: a 15th century Burgundian gown and hat.

Pattern: I drafted my own using “The Medieval Tailor Assistant” as a guide and my modern bodice templates as a base.
For the hat I refereed to lots of picture sources online this being the main one.

Fabric & Notions: 4 m of teal cotton twill, 0,3m purple cotton twill for the stomacher, 0,3m white fake fur, and thread.
For the hat I used 0,3m black fake silk, 0,3m buckram, pieces of batting, cotton scraps for lining, 0,5m polyester chiffon for the veil (I used my 18th century fichu), 1m of millinery wire and thread.

Time: 24 hours including fittings and millinery-work.

Cost: About 300Sek (48usd) although some of teh material came from my stash so we didn’t pay that much up front.

Final thoughts: I’m so happy with how it came out, And I think my sister also loves it – at least she looked quite happy and confident at the event yesterday…
The only thing that may need some fixing is to lengthen the sleeves about 1 cm, which I in my hurry to finish cut to short – ops.
But the worst thing is – Now I have to buy some nice wool (or brocade silk, oh my) to make myself one of these gowns….

1850s Summer dress (part 3 – Bodice/finished)

Published on June 21, 2015June 20, 2015 by fashionthrougherstory4 Comments

Before I could continue on my 1850s dress bodice, I needed to decide on weather or not to do the gathers (part 1 & 2).

To help decide I posted the question n my facebook wall, and in my historic sewing class, and the answer was unanimous – Do the gathers.

With no time to argue, I got to work, testing the draping on my dressform.

Using three gathering threads to test the draping on the dressform.

The shoulders being tamed and arranged by two treads of gathering stitches that later is to be hidden in the shoulder seam.

I was not totally happy with the first try at waist gathers (using three threads) so I decided to re-do it using threads every 1-1,5 cm or so.
Testing the gathers.

Once I was happy with the technique I pinned and basted the lose front piece to the bodice, carefully matching the tightness of the gathers to hide the darts.

Then I pulled all the treads through and secured them on the back side, before I stitched the whole piece down using hidden slip stitches. You can see the right side being finished while the left still have all the threads hanging lose.

And then I left it for a few a few weeks, fully occupied by working on my sisters 1860s outfit, training for my big running competition and preparing for vacation on work.

Once I finished all the other things and finally gotten my (well deserved) vacation I once more took on the task of finishing the bodice.

With only one day left to work on the dress before it was to be used, I need to hurry.

This is how I found the bodice once more the day before the event – When I decided to give it a try, and finish it.

With no time to lose, I pinned and sewed the sleeves together and added them to the bodice using gathering threads at the sleeve head, before turning under 1 cm and hemming them at the wristPattern matching the sleeves

Then I hand stitched the boning channels to the sides, back and darts, and inserted cable tie bones cut to the right length.

I added a placket to the front edge for the clouser, and pined bias-tape to the neck and bottom edge.

Turning the bias tape at the neck down and securing it at shoulder and back.

I stitched and turned over the bias-tape at the waist, and slip-stitched it to the inside lining to make a smooth and clean finish.

late at night I marked the placement for the hooks and eyes, but I never had the time to finish them before I needed to hurry to catch the buss to the event.(Instead I pinned it shut)

I also added bias binding to the sleeve edges

Outside and inside of the “finished” bodice:

I didn’t had time to ad the clouser to the front (Edit: Now it’s done).

The finished dress:

The Facts – Bodice & skirt:

What: A 1850s summer daydress

Pattern: I drafted my own using Janet Arnolds ” Pattern of Fashion” and Nora Waughs “Cut of Womens Clothes”.

Fabric & Notions: Thread, 5 m of light weight plaid cotton, 0,5 of regular white cotton, 1 m cotton tape for waistband, bias tape for boning channels & neck/sleeves/bottom edge binding, Boning, hooks and eyes.

Time: About 10-15 hours – I made most of the dress by machine.

Cost: 300 Sek – the fabric was on Sale and everything else came from stash.

Final Thought: I really love this dress!
I feel so pretty yet comfortable in it. I can move, dance and breath on it and even though it’s long sleeved it’s not hot at all, just perfect for summer.
And I did get lots of compliments at its first outing :-).

All that’s need to be fixed for next time is, adding hooks and eyes for clouser and attachment bodice to skirt.
I also really need to re-set the sleeves. Well nothing is ever perfect 😉
(I’ve now re- set the sleeves, added the hooks and eyes needed at the front and made the bodice and skirt sit firmly together)

Mickelsmäss

Published on October 3, 2013November 16, 2013 by fashionthrougherstoryLeave a comment

A month ago I got asked to be part of the dancing entertainment on a event the local historic museum were arranging.

So this weekend (29 sep) I got my regency clothing together and hurried to get to the “on spot” rehersal.

I curled my hair and tied a shawl as a turban, then I attached a brosch and some feathers to get the right regency look.

I hurried to lace my brand new corset, put on the petticoat, stockings and mylovely “Kensingtons” shoes from American Duchess.

Unfortanley I didn’t have the time to find some ribbons to replace the shoe buckles with. Although 20 years wrong in the time period they do look beautiful.

The dress I wore was the HSF Striped regency gown, matched with mittens, fichu and an shawl.

The dinner went well, and the dancing even better, with lots of on-lookers and applaudes.

And now for some pictures:

Ladies inside warming themselfe before the dancing.

Our gentlemen

Outside, listening to speeches after the dancing. (sorry for the poor quality photos – It was quite dark by this time.)

Talking after the dance.

Anna, looking lovely in the dress she made herself for a prevous event.

The whole group

Solveig, Anna and Sievert.

Me and Solveig. I made both our dresses this past year, from the same pattern (Reconstructing History nr 838).

I found it exiting to notice the differences between the dresses and the way they look being worn in two different ways.

A 1929s picture dress

Published on September 29, 2013 by fashionthrougherstory1 Comment

When looking at the pictures for my boyfriends exhibition I emedetly fell in love with the photo of the 4 women and the little girl.

3 generation of women who, probably dresses in their finery for the photograph, all look so severe and sad. It makes me wonder who they where and what there lives was like.

I decided to make one of their garnments, and really wanted to make the little girls jacket. But since the time was limited, I only had two late nights to do it, I decided to make the teenage girls dress instead.

After studying the picture, I drafted a pattern for a straight skirt, a straight bodice with button clouser and a sleeve with a long slim cuff.

And a big white collar…

Those of you who know some of my previous work will recognize the collar.

It is almost the exact same collar as in The 30s sailor dress and in the 1913 to late for Titanic dress!

Buggers.

And yet, I do have historical evidence for all of these dresses (well, I do if you count fashion plates).

I have no idea why, but apperently I’m drawn to dresses with big white collars…

Well, back to the construction. The fabric is a cheap brown cotton and the collar is the exact same fabric, just a lighter shade of colour. The buttons is cheep brown wooden buttos which works verry well with the brown of the fabric.

The whole dress took about 6 hours to make, and I manadged to have it ready and hung 10 minutes before the opening of the exhibition.