HSF#12: Shape and Support

This week's Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge was all about changing the shape of the human body.

I decided to make a 16th century bodied petticoat to wear in lieu of a corset. I do have a nice wool one but sometimes it's just to hot for wool!

The Challenge: Shape and Support
Fabric: Cotton duck for the inner layer, linen rayon blend for the bodice outside and skirt, cotton for the bodice lining, poly felt for the skirt hem support
Pattern: self drafted
Year: mid/late 16th century
Notions: ribbon for lacing, 6 steel bones
How historically accurate is it? well, the materials are iffy but it gives a nice shape
Hours to complete: eep, did not keep track
First worn: not yet
Total cost: ~$20 (I reused an old petticoat for the skirt and the lining and felt were left overs from other projects)

 One thing I wanted to try with this project was hem stiffening. I was inspired by these two articles on stiffened hems (1) (2). Now, I didn't get quite as amazing results as these ladies did but I can tell it makes a difference!

 The skirt I used was too long so I sandwiched 3" of felt between the hem allowance and the skirt. It actually gives a nice shape for a lower/middle class. I have high hopes for trying it in a less drapey material such as taffeta!

As far as the bodice shaping, I did the same 6 bone layout as in my grey wool kirtle. There is some slight curvature in the bust but it still does a great job and you won't be able to tell under another layer. Plus it's so much more comfortable with out all the extra boning I'd need to get a perfectly flat bust.

This piece was designed to be an undergarment, but now that I see it with my chemise from challenge #9, it looks very cute and generic peasant-y. The skirt does gape in the front so I'll need an apron or something but I'm getting excited!

HSF #9: Black and White

This Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge was to sew something black and white or black or white. Originally, I wanted to do a blackwork partlet for this challenge but then I decided that I hated blackwork. Then I had almost 5 yds of white cotton voile leftover from my secret vacation project so I decided to make a new Elizabethan shift/smock/chemise/whatever you want to call it. (This type of undergarment has so many names! I can never remember which goes with which period!)

The Challenge: Black and White
Fabric: cotton voile (just over 3 yds)
Pattern: Period Patterns #90 view vi
Year: 1580s (English)
Notions: 4 snaps
How historically accurate is it? Well, linen was the fabric for undergarments during this period but I had the cotton already and I figured it'd be a huge step up from my other chemise which is made from an old sheet. I did some machine and some hand sewing because if I'm going to do an entirely hand sewn garment, I'll be doing it in 100% period fabrics!
Hours to complete: 4ish
First worn: Not yet! Just another project for the up coming faire season!
Total cost: about $15

It features a gathered neckline which I figure I can always add a ruff to later if I feel like being brave and making a ruff.

The sleeves are also gathered to a cuff.

Not my most exciting project, I know, but the exciting part comes later when I get to wear all my gussied up Ren Faire costumes!

HSF#8: UFO

This challenge for HSF is a UFO or unfinished object. I didn't have a whole lot of UFOs to choose from but I did pick one to finish. I finished the beading on my Renaissance court dress forepart.

(Please pardon the messy sewing table)

The Challenge: UFO
Fabric: none
Pattern: none
Year: Late 1500s
Notions: glass pearls ($9)
How historically accurate is it? oh, probably not very. I do know that foreparts could be pearled (with actual pearls of course) but I did no research as to patterns or designs. I just made one up that looked nice to me.
Hours to complete: 4 or 5
First worn: not yet
Total cost: $9

 I started pearling this way back in January as part of the Make Do and Mend Challenge since I was doing a major over haul on my court dress but then I ran out of pearls and it sat in the UFO pile for a while. It is now done and ready to wear! I still have more trimming to do on the dress as a whole but faire season is still months away.

I did have one 40s UFO that I started working on but then I didn't have a zipper in my stash that matched and with vacation just around the corner, a trip to Jo-Ann's is out of the question this week. Oh, well. I did get some non-historical UFOs finished too so this challenge was quite inspiring! :D

HSF#5 Bodice

This is yet another Renaissance Fair costume fix, but this time on the bodice of my red peasant dress.

This is the original dress which closes with lacing rings. I opted for lacing rings since I still had yet conquered my mind numbing dread of hand sewn eyelets. Now that I'm an eyelet pro (or at least not a raw beginner!) I wanted to remove the lacing rings and do eyelets instead.

Also, after making my gray kirtle and tweeking the pattern a bit, I wanted to have more of a straight edge to the front rather than such a pronounced curve.

You can really see here exactly how curved that center front seam is!

Tada! New Bodice! It's still slightly curve but follows the bodice pattern 2.0 much better.

You probably also noticed that I still chickened out on the lacing rings. I opted for strips of ribbon with loops. I saw this done by Jen of Festive Attyre (alas, the page has gone missing....) and I thought I'd give it a try since I still didn't want to do eyelets....

It's still not perfect but one thing I've learned from historical costuming it's that the second one is always so much better. This one is improved and good enough.

The Challenge: #5 Bodice

Fabric: Red linen rayon (for the original kirtle no new fabric used)
Pattern: Self-drafted
Year: late 1500s
Notions: grosgrain ribbon (stash)
How historically accurate is it? fabric content is meh (no rayon this period) and eyelets would have been more period but I'm going with it looks more period on the outside than it did before so that's an improvement.
Hours to complete: 4 or so (this is why I hate adjusting things! Takes twice as long as making from scratch plus all of that seam ripping!)
First worn: not yet, I'll come back and add some photos of it on me during faire season
Total cost: $0

HSF #3: Pink

This Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge was to make something pink. I like pink and I had a few yards of dusty rose pink rayon in my stash. I paired it with a great early 40s pattern for a sharp look.

(I am susceptible to the colors on the pattern cover......)

This challenge coincided nicely with Valentine's Day so I had something pink to wear out on Feb. 14.

The Challenge: Pink (ie make something pink!!)
Fabric: dusty rose rayon ($4/yd)
Pattern: Simplicity 3583
Year: 1940s war era
Notions: zipper ($2), vintage buttons ($3)
How historically accurate is it? Very. I used period construction techniques, period appropriate fabric and a period pattern. Not sure how old the buttons are but they are plastic and metal which is period appropriate
Hours to complete: 8ish- this was the dress that didn't want to get made....
First worn: Feb. 14th 2014
Total cost: $15

My hubby bought me some pretty blue diamond earrings as an early Vday present so I wanted to incorporate blue into the outfit. Enter pretty blue vintage buttons. And they matched my blue knitted bolero so well.

 I also accessorized with a great vintage fur hat that was a gift from my high school drama teacher.

 This dress fought me all the way. First, this fabric was the end of the roll and it had a few sticky bits from leftover tape. So there was a bit on the bodice back but I was just going to put it on the inside. Then when I ironed it and the goo seeped over to the right side. So I had to cut a new back piece.

Then I messed up grading the skirt and the waist ended up 6 inches too big. I hardly had to add any width at the hip and that should have been a tip off that something was wrong. So out with the seam ripper and scissors.

Lastly, I also cut out the cute little belt loops from version 2. But I top stitched them from the wrong side..... then I made the button hole from the wrong side. This was about 4pm on Friday so I just left them off. I may go back and add them in later but who knows.

Pardon the wrinkles. This was after a long (snowy) drive out to our church for dinner and a movie date night and then dinner and a movie.

But I really love how the final dress turned out so I'm glad I pushed through the problems.

HSF #2: Innovations

Yup, that's another Historical Sew Fortnightly project up already! The inclusion of 1939-1945 is going to help my challenge count out a lot, I think. Anyways, here it is!

For my innovation, I choose my favorite fabric ever-rayon! While rayon wasn't brand spanking new in the 1940s, there had been some improvements in the manufacture of the fabric that made it grow in popularity even before war rationing limited seamstresses' access to other fabrics. For more info on the history of rayon, check out The Dreamstres' post here.

The Challenge: Innovations
Fabric: 2 yds red polka dot rayon ($7/yd) I also got some of this fabric in the green color way for a dress later in the year
Pattern: Wearing History's Dahlia 1940s Gathered Blouse pattern
Year:1940
Notions: 4 snaps (stash)
How historically accurate is it? Very! But that's pretty easy when you have access to period patterns, period type fabric and you are doing a period when the sewing machine was popular.
Hours to complete: Oh, I never keep track of these things.
First worn: January 2014
Total cost: $14

 I'm super happy how this blouse turned out but I did have some trouble with it. Part of the issue was that the rayon I was using was very slippery and I was too lazy to cut it one layer at a time. This pattern is one of the Resto-Vival patterns from Wearing History which means that while it has been multi-sized and translated from unprinted to printed form, it does come with the original period directions. I have found that there can be a lot of difference between late 30s/early 40s patterns and war era 40s patterns in terms of amount and quality of directions (and fit too but that's a whole different issue). So be warned that from a direction stand point, this may be a more challenging project.

I was able to get the fit very well. I'll be doing another post later on how I did an FBA-type adjustment to this pattern because that took a bit of brain power since it's a wrap style with no darts. The worst fitting part for me had to be the sleeves. I know from previous work with early 40s patterns that 40s sleeves and I do not get along well. I almost made it short sleeved from the start but I really did want this to be a winter top so I went ahead with the 3/4 length sleeves.

Alas, I over estimated how much ease to add and the wider sleeves just looked silly with the rest of the blouse. I really do feel like this style needs more fitted sleeves to balance out the draping on the blouse. Since I'd already set in the sleeves by the time I figured this out, I just chopped them off to short sleeves. I may go back and add pleats to the sleeves like in one of the other views, but as I didn't get to the sleeves till the night before I wanted to wear it, that didn't happen yet.

 The draping turned out beautifully! I was a bit nervous during the construction process since it didn't look as drape-y as the illustrations but the true beauty of the draping on this blouse doesn't really shine till it's on a person. The neckline is lovely. It's high with out being constricting and awkward. I also loved that the edge of the wrap part is cut on grain, rather than on the bias so you don't have to worry about crazy bias stretch!

The directions and yardage for view c are designed for it to be unlined and pieced so if you have a fabric like mine that has an obvious wrong side or you don't want to piece your tie, plan on some extra yardage. 

Overall, I'm very happy with this pattern and will probably sew it up again! It's definitely not a beginner pattern, but it's worth conquering for a more practiced seamstress.

The skirt is also a new piece that I made to go with this blouse. It's Simplicity 3457 which is a late 30s/early 40s 12 gore skirt pattern that I made up in a black fine whale corduroy. It was really fun to sew up and I'm glad to have a basic black skirt in my closet finally!

HSF 1: Make Do and Mend

Originally, I wanted to do something 40s for this challenge but I decided to focus my energy (and free time over Christmas break) on making do with a bigger project.

Oh, my Elizabethan court dress..... It started out as a Tudor dress (right) back in 2011 when I'd only been sewing for about a year. The construction was fine (although it took forever) but the fit was not so great especially since my corset was too big. The right is the Elizabthan-ified version of 2012 after I'd lost 30lbs, made interchangeable sleeves and got a new corset. But it still really didn't fit well. I only wore it once last year to a ball and I knew that it needed some serious work before it could be worn again.

I decided to completely scrap the bodice and use my gray wool kirtle as the supportive undergarment rather than the second corset.

Tada! New bodice!

The Challenge: #1 Make Do and Mend

 I had to piece a lot of the lining but waste not!

Fabric: Leftover fabric from making the dress the first time, cotton scraps from another project for lining and leftover cotton twill for interlining

Pattern: I drafted it from a combination of the original bodice pattern (Simplicity 2589) and my gray kirtle pattern.

Year:  Tudor/Elizabethan (ie second half of the 16th century) depending on what sleeves and headgear I use

Notions: red thread from stash, plus I reused the bones from the original bodice

How historically accurate is it? Well, the outer fabric is polyester and the lining and support layer are cotton so not so good on the fabric. Red and gold were popular colors during the period so that's good. The shape is much better with the new underpinnings and newly drafted bodice.

Love the new shape on this dress! 

There's still a bit of curve near the bust, but that's perfectly period.

I also did much more period construction on the new bodice. I made it the same way I made the kirtle bodice. The biggest thing I wanted to improve (after the fit) was to do hand eyelets instead of using huge ugly grommets. So much nicer looking now!

 I did dig out the old modesty panel from the original bodice and added it in after the photo shoot. And I'm going to have my husband practice his lacing skills before faire season. It does, in fact, lace all the way closed except for right above the waist seam.

 No more gaposis!

My original idea for interchangeable sleeves were to attach lacing rings to the armscye and the sleeve head and tie them together. It was a major fail! They were super fiddly and the sleeve facing kept poking out. This go around I decided to lightly whip the sleeves in. It's a bit more work when it's time to interchange them but they function much better when in.

You can see the whip stitches but I'll follow the old costumer's adage-If they're looking that close, kick them!

The original skirt I kept the same except adjusted the pleats to fit the smaller bodice waist. It was partially hand sewn and partial machine sewn to the original bodice and I hand sewed the entire thing to the new bodice. The rest of it is the original machine stitching from when I first made the gown.

Hours to complete: I lost count. It was a lot of hand stitching but it went a lot speedier than my first go at a mostly hand stitched piece.

First worn: January 2014 just for pictures

Total cost: $0 everything was leftovers from other projects.

 I'm so happy that this dress is wearable again but it still needs some major trimming! I don't have enough of the trim from the old bodice to trim the new bodice so I'm going to have to start from scratch. Shucks! I have to buy yards and yards of trim.

 Not to mention, I was never very happy with the particular shade of gold I used when trimming this gown. It reads a bit tacky halloween costume.

Speaking of trim, as part of the make do challenge, I also removed all of the scratchy gold trim off one of my shifts. You couldn't see it anyways.

 I'm thinking something gold that more matches the gold in the dress fabric plus pearls! I loved beading my 19-teens does Elizabethan fancy dress.

You may have noticed an Eizabethan explosion on my pinterest this week. I may or may not have spend most of my free time this week "researching".

 Yay for having the hard part of this dress done and just the fun part left!