Back in the sewing room: new year, old projects.

I'm back home after my trip, and while I looooooooovvvvveeee vacation, I love coming home, too. And, yipee! Now that the holidays are over, I have lovely me time again. Yay!

I've been itching to start a new project, but in the spirit of the new year and resolutions and all that, I have decided to challenge myself: I'm going to try really hard not to buy new fabric (I have soooooo much at home) and I'm going to try to finish up some of those pesky UFO's that are cluttering up my sewing room. 

Oh, and mending. I hate mending and altering, but those are piling up, too...

So, pat on the back today. I started by finally repaired the wool braid on the bottom of my brown wool dress. Then I gave some thought to the next challenge in the Sew Fortnightly challenge, since now that I'm back, I can participate. Fun!

1913? 1813? 1713?... I batted around some ideas and settled on 1813. I was just starting to trace out a new pattern when I came across the Patterson gown pieces, tucked away, half embroidered, half cut out. Half way there! Yay!

I managed to stitch up most of the bodice this afternoon, taking a break half way through gathering up the front bust. I pinned it all on the mannequin for a look. So far I'm pretty pleased. I'll probably sew up the dress and then go back and finish the skirt embroidery. That will take a minute or two...

Detail of embroidery on the Patterson dress.
Metropolitan Museum, 1983.6.1

It's not strictly 1813. It's actually almost ten years earlier, but the fortnight challenge was the incentive I needed to get it out of the pile. Maybe it was given to a poorer relation or maid and lived on after it's more fashionable owner discarded it.... Haha excuses...

Some very pretty fabric, an inkwell and a snuff box.

Last time I was in Williamsburg I bought a ton of reproduction printed cotton. I got enough for two simple dresses. I am absolutely in love with this "bat wing" fabric (above), but I don't know what to do with it. Part of me thinks the answer is pretty straight forward: simple anglaise, but another part of me loves the print so much (and it's surprisingly modern), I almost want to make something I can wear out of the house. Or something for my house, like some great throw pillows. I'm saving it till the lightbulb clicks.

Below is more reproduction cotton from Williamsburg. This is much more "18th century", and I'm sure I will be whipping it up into a dress soon enough. Though it would make very pretty bedding...

But in the mean time, while I wait to get inspired, I will still be working on my 1804 dress embroidery. I've been picking it up as I can, fitting it in while I watch TV. I haven't been super diligent about finishing it, but since I have no deadline I'm trying to relax and appreciate having something fun to work on. I really enjoy embroidery.

In other news, I have been doing a lot of antique shopping. A couple especially cool finds: I found a beautiful silver, late 18th century ink well and my husband found the most awesome silver snuff box. It's 1780's and is in AMAZING condition. It looks like it was never used. The hinge is very strong and smooth. He uses it for vitamins :)

The little box in the middle is fixed to the tray.
I wonder what to put inside... Maybe my seal and some sealing wax?

The ink pot.

The pounce pot, or sander.

The ink pot and sander still have their original crystal pots.
They have a lovely etched circle design down the sides,
echoing the beading along the edge of the silver.

Isn't the filigree work on the sander superb!?

The charming little snuff box.

No doubt the design is hand tooled.

The inside is gold washed.

The Anchor is for Birmingham, the "ML" stands for the maker,
Matthew Linwood, and the "P" in the shield denotes the year, 1787.

To give a perspective of size. It's very cute and small!
Just a little teeny bit of scratches.

A bit of whitework between the red and green.

The past couple months have been a barrage of busy. All my bigger projects were put on hold, devoting my time more to Christmas and shopping and wrapping and parties and all things red and green and sparkly. But in between all the holiday festivities I was able to fit in some some less time consuming projects. I find that white work embroidery is very easy to work on in short spurts, leaving off for a while, and never having trouble remembering your place. No worrying about colors!

I started working on the embroidery panels of an 1804 dress from the Met that I absolutely love. It's quite simple embroidery, only using french knots and satin stitch. I sketched out a pattern on paper and then, as I had time, I traced the design onto the fabric, worked a bit, left off and came back as I pleased. So far I have the waist band completed and a few repeats of the front motif. I used a little heavier thread than I would have liked, but the embroidery on the original dress looks a bit heavy, too. The fabric is a thin, plain weave cotton I had on hand. Maybe a voile.

Detail of an unfinished repeat.

A completed repeat. Please excuse the hoop,
which gives a funny perspective,
making the work appear distorted in size.

The waistband, pinned onto the dressform.
She is wearing a regency era corset from Period Corsets.

The original dress. White cotton evening gown.
1804-5, French.  At the Met (1983.6.1).

This image shows good detail of the original embroidery.

I also have a bit of the bodice done. I can't wait to take the tree down and get back to having free time. Hurray for January. And happy new year to all!