Ooops, I did it again!

Got some money for christmas too so I went on a shopping spree… I usually buy loads of uneccessary stuff, clothes and jewellry I crave but never use, but today I only baught two pairs of earrings – and a bunch of stuff for my little project! ;P
   I had checked out a very nice locket in an accessoirs shop (where most of the stuff is fake, but the locket looked really good!). It’s like 2″ in diameter and I had in mind to use it hanging from a bow on the chest. At the time I first saw it I couldn’t afford it so I hoped and hoped it’d still be there when I got money – and today I got it! YAAAY! (Photo coming)
   One thing that has been bothering me since I started this project is the size of the fabric for the pet-en-l’air. Is it too little, will it be too short to look good? So I went to the second hand store where I baught it to see if they maybe had some more (you never know!). I went through the fabrics hung on hangers in a row and just at the end of the line I found this fabulous thick bundle of fabric similar to what I had at home! It’s far from exactly the same, it’s paler and has broader lines – but it’s absolutely gorgeous! And it’s a lot more than what I had already – it might be enough for a whole robe! I don’t think I’ll combine the two fabrics – rather make another robe from the new fabric. ;D
   When I was on a roll I had a look at the laces and stuff too, they never have pices long enough – but today they did! Yaay again! I found several meters of a creamish colored lace and a ball of like millions of meters of a peach colored fringy-lacy-thing – I don’t know what it’s called but there will be pictures! ;D

Parenthesis

Talking about the 18th century…
   For christmas I got this book about Madame de Pompadour! It’s written by a Swedish journalist and historian called Herman Lindqvist, famous for writing about history in a style that apeals to the big masses. It’s great! ^^
   I love that scene in Doctor Who when the Doctor visits the Madame! ;D

The under title says: Intelligence, Beauty, Power…

Tea dyed bias tape

I’ve had a hard time finding bias tape in the size I want at the bigger sewing material stores in town, they only have like one size and it’s too wide for the stays I’m making. I was going to have a look at the net when my mother-in-law (well, not in-law, but my bf’s mother, hehe ^^) and I went through her drawers of sewing stuff and old projects just for fun. And there we found two packs of white bias tape of the size I wanted. She said that she probably never was going to use it so I could have them! Yaay! <D
   The thing is – it was like glowing snow white and that definetley would not look good to my stays, hehe ;P So I went on trying something I’ve never tried before – dying with tea! I had heard of it before, so I looked it up on the net. I found this site (which doesn’t seem to work right now *grrrr*) Dawn’s Pages – Tea Dying. So that is the “recipe” I used and the picture below is the result (with the stays underneath). =D I’m very pleased with the result!

Knotting – how-to

Some of you might have noticed the links under my blogroll. Among my favourte links there’s a site called Fancy Girl – A Modern Day Ladies Book. It’s a small site right now, but it has potential! ;D It’s “A practical website about all things whimsical and fun!” I discovered it while browsing the deviantART gallery of Vivcore. I can’t find much info about the girl behind the site though. =/
   On this site you can find a very useful tutorial for knotting, Vivcore describes it as:

… an old craft popular in the 17th and 18th Centuries that is believed to be the grandmother of modern tatting. / Ladies of leisure used to work knotted threads with their shuttles to create a “pleasant kind of braid”* that was then couched onto embroidery pieces, and resembles a row of closely embroidered french knots. / It was something to do at small gatherings, on long coach rides or just when the light was too poor for any delicate embroidery work.

I love that this was an actual technique used in the 18th century and I’m definetley going to use it for my stomacher! =)

Pet-en-l’air

So, a very friendly girl with similar interests in 18th century clothing as me; Johanna (her blog), commented on my last blog entry and notified me that the “caraco”-type dress I was going for was called pet-en-l’air.
   That I can tell you was some very helpful information – so thank you again Johanna! =D

Thoughts about the dress/jacket

So, the petticoat will be made out of the goldish fabric and making a skirt is simple enough. But the design and pattern of the “robe” is something I really hade to think hard and long about. I only have that bit of fabric, I bought it second hand and I don’t know if I can find more with the exact pattern and colors. =/
   I think I’ll have to make a caraco jacket, which kinda (after my research) is like an ordinary robe à la française or anglaise but shorter. If I start with the top (the bodice part) I can just make the skirt part as long as the fabric allows. I would very much like to have the trail draping (watteau folds?) of a robe a la francaise, but I don’t know if the amount of fabric would allow that. =/

This closely resembles what I had in mind:

Most vintage caraco jackets I’ve found pictures of around the net go together fully in the front, without stomacher But it looks like this one has a stomacher. It also has that draping (watteau folds?) in the back! So I think I can justify my combining the stomacher with a caraco jacket as pretty time-typical by refering to this image, hehe ^^;
   This looks to be of the time of the later half of the century where women started to cover up their bosoms, sleeves grew longer, the hip width shrinked and the bum grew. So I’m faced with a dilemma; I want the deep décolletage and the wide hips with the pocket hoops! =/
   Oh well, I’ll do a litte more detailed research, hehe. <D

Stomacher design

I’ve been working on a stomacher deign and this is what I’ve done so far:

I might change it as time passes, but I very much like it like this.
   What I’ve done is to take a few photoshop brushes from users on deviantART and just combine them into this pattern. Most of the brushes actually are based on Japanese art, which I like very much. 😉
   I might fill in some fields on the flowers and stuff while I do the actual embroidey and fill the empty spaces with french knots or something. I’m also considering putting in some glass beads if I feel it fits the dress – as for now I think the rest of the dress will be too simple for much glitter, hehe.

Talking about hats…

Found this amazing hat maker:
Topsy Turvy Design

Marie Antoinette Tricorn Hat from Topsy Turvy Design

Hat!

I didn’t actually have in mind to make a hat for this dress. But I had a round straw hat lying aroung at home that I used for a photo shoot that I would never have used otherwise. Last night I felt I could try pinning the sides up to make a tricorne hat.

This is what the hat looked like before:

 

 

 

This is the hat with the sides pinned up. My cat Sol is always keen to give her opinion. ;D

It looked pretty good! But let’s face it – this doesn’t look very fancy at all and I’m not making a peasants dress ;P So I looked around for stuff to decorate it with. And I found something great! I had in mind to use it for jewellry, but this is even better!

A bunch of fake flowers! Actually this is a ring of flowers intended to be used for candlesticks (don’t know the English word)! ;D
   So I fastened the sides and the ring of flowers on the side with a few stitches (I just leaned it against the hat for the photo above). But it seemed to lack that something. While I was trying the hat on in front of the bathroom mirror I saw something pink in the corner of my eye, a pink ribbon! Ahaaaa! A little pink – that’s exactly what this hat is missing! So I pulled the ribbon behind the ring of flowers and voilà!

Excuse the wierd expression! It’s hard photographing a big hat on your own head! XD And yeah – that’s not my real hair… It’s a fake pony tail, hehe. I’ve got a bob with bangs and that’s not very 18th century is it? Yeah yeah I know – a black pony tail isn’t really either, but it’s got lovely big curls! <)
   Another thing that’s great with the colors of the decoration is that it matches the fabrict perfectly!!! =D

Fabrics

This is the fabrics I’m gonna use! They’re both woven cotton (I think) and not printed.

The goldish fabric is going to be used for the petticoat and the other one for a caraco jacket (I don’t think it’s big enough to make a robe a la francaise or a la polonaise).