Winterthur extent clothes and things!

Winterthur also had some lovely extent clothes and other embroidered pieces on display.

This was a set of 18th century pockets which were *huge*. My hand is in one of the pics for scale.

















These are pieces that were once the border of an embroidered petticoat - I want one!

Downton Abbey Exhibit - our costumes plus Winterthur grounds

So ages ago - was it May? (I am so behind) we had a group outing to see the Downton Abbey exhibit at Winterthur in Delaware. Everyone dressed in teens or 20s and we saw the exhibit, had a picnic, and then spent a bunch of time tromping around the gorgeous grounds in smaller groups. It was so much fun, the weather could not have been more perfect, and the company was also great.

For my dress, I had bought a couple of the 1-hour dress books to study since I know little about the 20s styles other than that 1) I like them and 2) I'm not convinced I have the right figure for them.

The fabrics mentioned in the 1 hour dress books included "flannel" - not being a 20s expert, I don't know (and even doubt?) that means the same thing as today's flannel... but hey, flannel can be soft and lightweight and I found some pretty pale pink striped stuff for cheap, so I decided to give it a try. I ended up using the wrong side of the fabric because it was not as strongly colored.

After following the 1 hour dress measurement system, I realized that the body of the dress was about 3 inches wide. So I threw out those directions and just used Jen Thompson's 1 hour dress blog as a guide and it worked perfectly. So consult the 1 hour book so you have an idea what they are doing and then use her more realistically scaled measurements. OR have SUPER wide fabric - then you'll be fine with the 1 hour measurements. http://www.festiveattyre.com/2014/01/downton-esque-1-hour-dress.html

You can see the results below, worn with a vintage cloche I got on ebay ages ago and that added a new lining to (to protect the original shattered one which is safely inside), my vintage Victorian jet necklace (probably glass?), and since they were good for early 20s as well as Edwardian, American Duchess shoes. I wore white stockings after googling 20s stocking colors and finding white represented there. I also used my Titanic "flying" replica bag I got ages ago from a seller that is no longer in business. And I also used a Chinese parasol I bought online a while ago.







Picture by and vintaged up by Isabella, taken in front of the backdrop provided by the museum


Amanda, doing a Lady Mary face










Picnicking!


Doug and Mike, Gloria's husband also came along in Muggle clothes to be sherpas and enjoy the weather.






Now that the picnicking is done, let's stroll the grounds, shall we?

Cherry Red Spencer Jacket

I was invited to a Christmas party not long after my Mom gave me this beautiful cherry red dotted velvet.  I don't know if it's cotton velvet or poly, but I don't really care what it is, it's really pretty!

Since time was short and I already knew it fit, I used the Past Patterns 1809 spencer jacket pattern.  The lining is navy blue thai silk that came from the stash. The buttons and buckle are vintage and also came from the stash.

The Christmas party was unfortunately postponed due to weather, but I'll wear the spencer tomorrow for a holiday tea in Annapolis.

The necklace is a collet necklace from Dames a la Mode: https://www.etsy.com/shop/damesalamode

Here are a few pics of the jacket on the form.

Blue regency drawstring gown

My friend Amber has been wanting a regency dress - we started to making one together, but then the Pumpkin tea popped up and we ran low on time, so to surprise her I finished it for her this week. The fabric came, I believe, from Loren's stash.  I think it turned out pretty!

Regency Drop-front gown

I always do drawstring regency gowns so I decided it was time to try something else.  This time I did a drop front gown, also known as an apron front gown. I used a striped cotton (which actually had some stretch to it, which didn't turn out to be a bad thing) from the stash that I either bought in Dallas or LA. And it took me a weekend. (Mostly because I didn't make a muslin of anything since I was working from a pattern I knew fit me.)

I used the back pieces of my standard regency pattern, and the front cross over pieces (the ones that get pinned in front to keep the structure of the drawstring gown), and my standard regency long sleeve, and just winged the bid.  The skirt is just two rectangles of fabric.

I ended up having to put a tuck in the front apron skirt panel to avoid gapping.  I also should have made this skirt panel wider. Oh well, next time.  And in the back, I did box pleats as a change from gathers. It actually looks nice on, not sure it looks as good on the dress form. 

For reference I used these pages, plus some in progress pics from my friend Gloria's dresses.

http://www.koshka-the-cat.com/drop_front.html

http://hungarican.blogspot.com/2010/04/benefits-of-bib-front-and-happy-friday.html

Over all this dress was more fiddly than the drawstring and I'm not sure I like it as much? But it was fun to try!

Bad mirror shot of gown being worn with chemisette.

My Curtain-along outfit at Dress U

I wore my "curtain-along" gown Sunday at Dress U for the Mad Hatters tea, along with the hat I bought from Linda last year at Dress U.

I loved seeing everyone's curtain fabric outfits - they were all really different.  Mine is a jacket with a ruffled peplum, with a ruffled petticoat.

Here are a bunch of pics!

I liked these four that Isabella got:

My Princess Caroline sacque at Dress U

I got a bunch of new pics of my Princess Caroline sacque at Dress U - I think I should have pinned it tighter since it's wrinkling in the front, but that's ok. ;-) (I swear, someday I will stop noticing everything wrong with my costumes!) Sacques are always fun to wear, especially when they're really fluffy!

I wore this to the court dinner at Dress U on Saturday night. Everyone looked SO amazing. I'll have pics of Saturday Night at Dress U up next.

 

Isabella's photo:

Marie Antoinette Strawberry gown

Here is my "secret" project that I've been plotting for a while. Every since Melly posted her version of the Strawberry fabric from MA, I've wanted to make this gown! (http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1354899)  I splurged on cotton silk.  The blue trim and the blue velvet ribbon for the neck aren't the exact right shades of blue, but they were best I could come up with. The sleeve flounce net is vintage.

I tried a new sleeve pattern which was ok, but they kept riding up so my sleeves look weird in a bunch of the photos. But overall, I'm happy with how it turned out!  I also had to guess on the back since there are no pics of it - it's impossible to tell if it's quarter back or en fourreau.  In the end I went with quarter back because I thought it would take less fabric.

I went with MA's lunch look, with flowers in the hair, but I'd love to make the hat.  And those gloves she wears to church are amazing too.  My research page for this gown is here: http://costumersguide.com/ma12.shtml

Here are a million pics of me in the gown, and some of it on the dress form. :-)

 

Princess Caroline sacque - new pics!

I actually tried my sacque on and tried to approximate the portrait. Granted my hair is much darker and I don't have a sister. But I did have a fluffy white cat, and at my friend Gen's suggestion, I put a pink bow on her and got a few pictures with her. The lighting isn't great, but here are the pics (also, afterwards, I moved my sleeve flounces up and over slightly so the sleeve bows line up better.):

My pink silk American Duchess shoes and buckles:

Curtain Along Gown

I hadn't actually really tried on this costume yet (I used my standard 18th century block, which, though it needs a little tweaking, generally fits.)

Since I spent time with my hair (and a hairpiece), and I had stays on from taking pics of my new sacque, I thought I'd put this gown on to make sure it was good to go for Dress U!

Here are a few pics:

Princess Caroline cream and pink sacque

I've always loved this portrait of Princesses Louisa and Caroline, two of George III's younger sisters.  And I've always thought it would be fun to make Caroline's cream and pink sacque.

I was able to find cream silk taffeta for a good price on ebay, I had pink silk taffeta which is possibly a little darker than the portrait, but was a decent match.  I got the double strand of pearls on ebay and added a ribbon.  I used lace/net that was in my stash for the sleeve flounces. Again, not a perfect match, but it was the best I had. And I liked the aged feel of the trims, some of which are vintage.

I have dyed American Duchess silk shoes that go with this gown perfectly, too, so I'm excited to wear them with the gown at Dress U!

A note on construction. Since this is my 3rd sacque I pretty much just made this one like I did the others.  Kendra's page  has been invaluable every time I've done one of these, especially for a refresher on how to do the side pleats and skirt panels.  It's a really detailed reference and if you haven't done a sacque, I recommend checking it out:
http://demodecouture.com/projects/mourning/

I again used my adaptation of Simplicity 3637 as a bodice base. And I referred to my first making-of sacque page as a reminder to myself too!  http://costumersguide.com/maggie_costumes/goldsacque.html