Frock Chick

Finally have my studio feeling spacious. There has been a lot of digging through stash to divest the burden, still lots more to go and we have so much old furniture to get rid of too.

Anyway. Today I cut and pressed all the gold trim of the saree. Well now gold. I used RIT color remover to turn the base fabric yolk yellow and the metal tarnished to gold.

These are photos from the auction. As soon as the seller added these I clicked by it now 🙂 That double border does go from one end to the other, or did, and there was a 2 yard length on the other side (one width). Real metal, cold to the touch.

The space between the double border has also been turned into narrow trim for the chemise.

The main body? Well I’ll have to cut to shape then use that for the kirtle bodice. That is mostly not metal, but a double satin. It’s pretty darn amazing as a piece that has been totally able to be used with minimal waste.

Today I cut the sleeves and lined the bodice and refitted it (based on the Mary of Hungary bodice which really relies on the bias at the waist to fit!) So on the whole really stepped up to get this ready.

I have plans to go to Hamilton Gardens with a good friend and get photos. Honestly, I just want to get all my gear out there and photographed. All of it. No, no exceptions. All  of it.

I woke early and put Pride and Prejudice on and sewed. And sewed.

Backtracking a few days: My support bodice has been theorised and made. Basically I went this area has both Dutch and German influences and I really don’t want another sidelacing support so what if…?”

The shoulder is cut separately like in Alcega and other tailors. Because like me those tailors said “man this wastes fabric also I want a stable neckline all on the grain thankyouverymuch.”

I have done this since.. well the Kampfrau at least, but  in all the site moves this has been lost. So, that’s the two-fold benefit of cutting shoulders separately. Oh, but the shoulders are a single layer like the Effigy stays because it really is super comfy!

Then I wanted to try to use the overhanded body seams. This was nervewracking! I know the curvy S front seam means that’s where fitting happens, but it is very apparent from extant items that the side back was where the final fitting happens. This is clear when you look at the even seam allowances at the front but uneven allowances at the side back. That can only happen if the fronts were fitted and made up and the side backs done last.

I have managed that through very bad initial fitting stages though…

So here is my cunning method of transferring a seam and also my curvy S front seam. The entire bodice (aside from sloping neckline) is straight from a tailor’s book seen in Kohler’s History of Costume that looked like it was made up but is definitely from an extant manual.

I thought it was in Drei Schnittbucher (which really I hope everyone has) but I think was in another article. I will find it. Meanwhile the Kohler diagrams:

So finally I used twill tape to stabilise where I’ll be poking lacing holes, and bound the entire piece by hand.

Lots of falling in love with all the characters from P&P here and also lots of life lessons between my first viewing and latest!

So that wasn’t enough. I also removed the dye from the brocade for the hem of the gown proper and started putting the stickelchen together properly.

I like making hats, I love millinery. So of course am doing this as complicated as possible. But it’s at least plausible and mimics the structure I know was used for rigid headgear at this time. Oh trust me that documentation is coming but it’s been a slog to reverse image search as my bookmarks are out of control! And because it’s been over a decade since this project started there are broken links to hunt for archival forms 😉

The twill tape is to stabilise the edges.And the front shell is in place and the jeweled band is in progress. Just second guessing a few decisions for that one. I just don’t have the finding I know I want to use. The pretty ones clearly have glued stones and the “aged” gold is just not what you want for period items (you didn’t pretend the bling was dirty or not real, you wanted the bling!.)

I started with taking a copy of my Braunchweig gown and a transfer of my “german” kirtle to make my two bodices.

This is the Braunchweig copy as it is regionally close but also able to swing into the more dutch bodice shape.

I did also keep the Mary of Hungary bodice in mind.

How this works is the edge is on the grain so you have to smooth and stretch the fabric from there  under the arm and to the waist. So yes the waist is off the grain. This is how the Mary of Hungary gown works too- if the edge was taken off the grain you get stretch going around the neckline that needs to be stabilised.

The down side to this is it makes fitting the armscye a nightmade.

But I kept going.

Ugh, look at how that now sits. Oh the back fits beautifully but where the excess fabric is moved to shows I needed a longer narrower back to be able to support this open neckline.

So my options were to remake the back panel or put in a seam. I dislike putting seams in the CB of my German gear but I am also running out of this fabric!

But it worked.

Then of course I had to copy the seam placement from one side to the other.

Side back matching, and shoulder matching.

SIde front matching.

The silk has almost no give! So I also also had to do a few tweaks on the form. I smoothed the left shoulder up and pushed the excess to fold over the shoulder seam.

As can be seen the armscye is very tight in the front of the arm, this will be clipped but only after I have properly assembled the kirtle layer and have the support this gown needs.

So I may see if I can get the kirtle underneath already to fit the way I need it!

I am insanely happy with how the braid looks. Yep, it is laid over pearls rather than all being flat as that is the dimensionality that is seen in all forms of pearl work from this region. The tapering is right as well, I just used pearls that were oversized originally and while I know this I want to keep a lot of my original work as possible.

But look! There may even be enough leaves to really pill in the back, but that may be part of the work that will go into joining the sides together 🙂

Today also saw the skirt linings cut for two gowns. Yep. Pink. Pink is returning to the wardrobe 🙂

Oh hey, also went on a saree buying spree! This one was a spur of the moment buy when I picked up the ones intended for the cleves hem 🙂

The gold tone trim it what I grabbed these for and totally didn’t realise there was potential for the coloured embroidery….. now there are Thoughts(tm).

This one was riskier. not sure if it’s easy to spot but those repeats can be cut in half to mimic the trim of the Moulin Rouge wedding gown. It’s a start. Also once in hand it does look like thr ground of the repeats is cotton so it should decolour really nicely!

I hope!

But there is a lot of unpicking over the next few days!

Progress from 2006:

Progress 2016 after stripping all the fire damaged bezants and sequins:

New pearls on the upper right, the same pattern was repeated on the upper left and a matching overlapping design added to the lower part.

Yes, it looks very wobbly. This is part of how the fabric was eased over the original support. I’ll be clipping the cotton tulle to let it ease as well.

Stash of pearls used for the update. There are a good number left to be able to use over the seam once assembled.

I am about to add the leaves again, these are different, they are what I used on my Krantz for my laurelling, so these are very apt 🙂

Again the pearls look wibbly, I don’t want to stretch the stitches once I put this back on the support so am having to live with it until then. Once on the support these will have heavier thread passed through to support the curves.

So happy to get this progress. I am doing eat therapy on my hands every couple of hours, 10mins at a time.

So happy to hear there were people interested in the dressing a lady part 🙂 The worry is that after a full display of gothic plate makes everything else pale in comparison! So it was a relief- I really wanted the Spanish ensemble because I could have talked about the differences between male and female dress and how very similar they are in places.

But I do now have all the patterns to go through and work out a generic layer of paddings and facings.

So, I need to keep hunting for sliver lace for my Marie Antoinette- I am seriously going to look at sarees, it’s rare to find two the same but I need about 20m of lace and close to that in scrolling appliques.