Today I’ve finished and fitted the mock-up for the pet-en-l’air! And if I didn’t say so earlier, I’m using the pattern for a Robe à la Francaise La Couturière Parisienne provides on their site – the measurements fits me perfectly, how lucky is that!?
Actually I basicly could start cutting the actual pieces right now – but my back and knees are hurting like hell from kneeling on the floor half the day… XD Some one please buy me a mansion with an atelier and a cutting table!!!
Some new stuff I have “inherited” from Robbie’s grandmother:
Some lace that will be perfect for shifts! I found a bunch of those little lace flowers – they’ll be perfect for decoration! =D
Some buckles and buttons in metal – perfect! =D The buckles will be perfect for late 18th century style waist bands!
Three smaller pieces of striped fabrics – perfect for future projects!
Tools in BONE – perfect for any kind of historical reenactment! ;D
Two sets of sheets with a super cute pattern in peach and blue.
Actually it’s flanell, but I’ thought it was too darn cute to pass up on – it’ll do good for a project that’s not very accurate, hehe. ^^
Yup, at least one‘s finished! And not ONCE did I restort to my fancy sewing machine! ;P
Hehe, yeah – right now I’m kinda trying to work up energy to post pictures of my progress and stuff.
I’ve been trying to figure out how to make nice fabric flowers and it just hit me that I could just google tutorials, hehe ;P Yeah, I am that slow sometimes! XD
So I found at least two super great tutorials on making two different kinds of ribbon roses. The first one looks like the easiest to me:
The second one is great too though:
And the best thing with this second one is that I found tons of more tutorials from the same user – Di van Niekerk, on making ribbon embroidery and stuff! =D
Now all I have to do is find some hand painted silk ribbon, or make it myself… *SIGH*
Think these will do? Hmmm…
The heel is ok I guess, but I think I’ll have to re-dress them or something – if I get them that is…
Now these pics are a bit old since I have gotten much further in the progress, but since you allways seem so photo hungry…:
This is the fabric before I did anything to it. My constant little helper Sol the Cat helped me keep an eye on the fabric until I was going to use it… Yes – indeed that grey fluffy stuff is cat hair!
This is the boning, aka spring steel tape used for clearing drains and sewers. Here all cut up, ends filed round and taped with electrical tape to minimize tear on fabric.
It seems that almost everything they made in the 18th century had small curious details of decoration and finesse. So when I hemmed the small opening for the pocket I amused myself by making a little flower at the end, hehe. ^^;
A heap of unfinished pocket hoops…
I am glad to announce that I have not yet fallen for the evil temptations of my new fancy sewing machine and I have soon finished one whole pocket hoop all by hand (and a little on the other one too)! When one is finished I’ll start making the pattern for the pet-en-l’air, I hope to finish it today; there’s not really much left actually! =D
I don’t know if I ever mentioned that I’m planning on using a box pleated trim for the pet-en-l’air… Well I am, and when I bought the pinking scissors I also bought a light beige fabric to use for that. It’s a cotton satin mix, but I couldn’t find anything that looked more natural – it actually matches the very slight shine of the main fabric perfectly, it will look sooo great! I’m thinking I might use the box pleating for the stomacher aswell. =D
I have stumbled upon a dilemma though. You might know that Robbie’s grandmother passed away some time ago and that I have had the honour of “inherit” some of her old curtains, laces and other sewing material. Since the last time I reported about some stuff I got I have gotten even more great material (I’ll blog everything later). Among other things I found a wonderful light beige and gold trim, it seems like the gold part actually is made of some kind of metal too, it’s really heavy:
So this is my dilemma: it would look fabulous with the box pleating on the pet-en-l’air, but I already had in mind to make a fly fringe… I want to run the trim straight over the middle of the box pleating. But I had a look through my folders of 18th century dresses to see if it was at all common to do it that way and I only found examples of this kind of trim used to trim the edges of a box pleating =/ :
I want to be picky about this, but maybe I’m too picky? I don’t have enough of the trim to use it in this way… =/
You know what? Deep down I feel I already made up my mind, hehe ^^; It will take sooooo much time to make a fly fringe – I’ll make it for the robe á la francaise instead! ^^
Maria
Fuchsia's 18th century dress 