Pasadena's Jane Austen Evening

Admiring the general splendor ;)

What a fun weekend! I attended the Jane Austen Evening, Saturday night. We made a weekend of it and enjoyed my old neighborhood of Pasadena. I went down with my husband and my mom, who I've been taking dance classes with. We met up with our group from vegas for the ball and had a blast. 

We were going to attend the tea, too, but ended up making other plans. I had brought a second outfit for it, but I will have to find another opportunity to wear it for pictures. For the ball, I made a new dress. It was highly inspired by a dress at the Museo del Traje. I love the dippy neckline! 

Yikes. My hair is notoriously fly-away. Especially after running around the dance floor.

The ball was very fun. The dancing was great. We ended the evening with an especially fun Sir Roger. Special thanks to the girls that pulled us in to it. We were about to head out because of tired feet. Good thing we stayed! 

The ball was the perfect opportunity to polish up the jewels. I wore a necklace, earrings and a sparkly comb in my hair.

I also made up some shoes. Well, adorned some shoes. I embroidered little silver stars on a pair of white leather ballet slippers, and embellished with some silk pleating little bows. You can see some of the embroidery on the bottom of the dress, below. The embroidered panels are of sheerer fabric than the lawn used for the dress.

I accessorized with a purse, gloves, a fan and my handy shawl, in case it got chilly, but the weather was beautiful! I can't believe we have weather in the 80's in January! The pink bag was also made by me, but loaned to my mom for the evening. I brought it for the tea, but since we didn't go, I was glad it got to come out and play.

And a couple pictures from the construction phase...

All in all, the dress went together very quickly. The embroidery was done much faster than I would have thought. Like, in a couple evenings. The whole dress was finished in less than two weeks. I saved time by serging the long inside seams. Everything else had to be done by hand. The embroidery was so fast because I basically used an uneven running stitch, almost like a darning stitch, and zip zip zipped along. The body of the dress is cotton lawn. The embroidered panels, and pleating at the bust, are cotton voile. The pattern was draped by me, referencing the dress at the Museo del Traje and similar dresses of the era.

I made the back pieces wider than necessary, so I could gather them in with ties. It made for a nice effect when worn.

All in all, I really love this dress. Aside from the petticoat, which could have been a smidge longer, to compliment the sheer hem better, I really can't think of anything I would change about it. Whew, isn't it nice to make something you feel is really finished? And fits. And is comfortable. Such a good feeling! 

I hope everyone else had a lovely weekend. Cheers to a great week ahead!

The first project of 2014!

My first project of the new year is an embroidered reticule, very much based on this one from the Met. 

The bag is made from leftover bits of silk, lined with cotton. The embroidery is metallic floss and the ties are done up with pearl cotton, made into little ropes. The tassels are of the same pearl cotton.

It is made up of four identical pieces, lined and whipstitched to each other. The ties run through a channel at the top. 

The embroidery was actually really quick. I often get a little ehhh... before starting something with embroidery, because I think it will take forever. These two little motifs were very doable, though. Like, a few hours. Just satin stitches, back stitches and some french knots.

Makes me want to do more!

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 lovely whitework trim, circa 19th century.

I came across this great trim on eBay. I bought it thinking it might be nice at the top of my 1903 Edwardian corset. I thought it looked similar to the trim on this Edwardian corset, owned by Shelley Peters.

C. 1912 Edwardian corset.
Click here for loads more pics and info!

The seller said it was "Victorian", but I can't tell for certain how early or late. It may be early 1800's. Now that I have it, I don't think I'll use it for the corset after all. I don't want to cut into it, it's so pretty!

It is hand embroidered and the thread and fabric are cotton. The fabric is a very soft, fine plain weave, like the softest lawn you could ever find, or a true muslin. Very gauzy. The design looks to be grapes with flowers and leaves. It's done in satin stitch, which has been padded, with buttonhole around the openwork and at the scalloped hem. The heart shaped petals on the flowers are outlined in satin and filled with a closely spaced seed stitch. The thread used for the embroidery is a non-divisible two ply, very thin, much like one strand taken from a skein of 6 strand DMC floss. I think each of said strands is a size 25. The picture at the very top shows the embroidery and sheerness of the fabric very well.

Most of the piece, which measures 50" by 3", is in excellent condition, with only a small portion damaged with small holes.

In the following photo, you can see how the ends are treated. This 50" by 3" piece is complete and not a cut off portion of the original trim. The scalloped hem ends about 1/4" from the end, on both ends. The ends and the top are cut straight, with the top showing some evidence of having been hemmed.

In the next two photos, you can see some interesting evidence of the piece's former use left behind. Along the top, there are a few bits of thread left stitched. They show that the top once was finished with a rolled hem. I pulled on the threads to see if the edge would gather up, like a whipped gather, but it does not. The stitches are loosely spaced. It looks to me like that edge wasn't meant to be seen, so perhaps it was just quickly finished to keep it from unraveling. Why it is unpicked now, I have no idea. Any guesses?

There is also a little stitch, done with double thread, about 16" from the left end, and in the center width-wise (below). It is cut through on the back side, and is now only tacked through the fabric. While the thread along the top is fine sewing thread, this little stitch is done in the same thicker perle that is embroidery is done with. I wonder what it's doing there...

This last photo shows the back side of the work. The embroidery is mostly finished neatly, though some thread ends stick out. I would love to know what this was originally used for. I'm guessing some kind of exterior trim. The whitework is reminiscent of some mid to late 19th century under things I have, but the fabric is much, much finer. Maybe a gauzy collar or cuffs? Maybe it's much more recent, but something about it says like 1820's, 1830's to me. Any ideas?

The Darning Stitch

When you look at the two extant sleeve ruffles below, the bows (top ruffle) and the leaves (bottom) are good examples of the darning stitch and the effect you get when you employ it on sheer fabric. It's a pretty basic stitch, almost like a running stitch, that adds density to an area, making the design pop, so it's not an endless parade of chain stitch.

LACMA (M.84.63.1a-b)
Linen embroidery (chainstitch) and pulled threadwork
on muslin with linen bobbin lace edging,
2 1/4 x 7 1/2 x 35 in.

LACMA, c.1760 (M.82.26.2a-b)
Linen embroidery (darning stitch and pulled fabric work)
on cotton, 3 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 38 in.

Most often you see this stitch used to darn socks, or other mending where a seam would be uncomfortable. It also reinforces the fabric since you are adding extra warp or weft to the area.

But my my, it's not easy. Especially on such fine work. The stitches are sooo small! I actually borrowed (stole really, because I'm not giving it back) my husband's lighted magnifying glass lamp thing that screws onto the table. It's amazing! It helps so much. Not only is everything big enough to see, but it's also nice and bright. Really bright.

Left, skipping two threads, catching one.
Right, catching every thread.
This is macro, btw... It's soooo small in person!
Each of those darned patches are actually 1/8 of an inch square.  

The bow before being filled in.

Halfway there! Left side is done.

The bow is now fully filled in. See the difference?

Engageantes!

For quite a while now I have wanted some ruffly engageantes to spice up my gowns. I was going to just whip up some plain ones and knock them off my sewing to-do list but then the embroidery fairy got the best of me. I was inspired :)

Scroll down a bit and you will see some great extant examples of ruffles from the LACMA. I took a bit of inspiration from all of these and sketched out a design. I traced the outline onto my cotton background and loosely hemmed the edges to keep the fabric nice and neat for my frame. I mark the embroidery pattern as I go, not before. It just seems to disappear!

The frame I rigged up a bit. It was a cheapie one that had velcro your fabric was supposed to stick to. Not a chance. So I took some wide twill, finished the edges and hammered it to the wood dowel with thumb tacks. I used tacks instead of nails because the heads are smooth and wont catch on the delicate fabric. You baste your fabric to the twill and then turn the dowels to advance the fabric.

Hemming the edges before framing up the fabric with help
it from unraveling and keep it neat.

Thumb tacks, hammered into the dowel, keep the
twill secure and won't snag.

Baste the fabric to the twill to keep it taught as you
turn the dowels.

Ta dah!

I took cues from the extant examples and used a cotton ground (I think it was a voile I had on hand) and fine linen thread (90/2 white from William Booth Draper). The thread I cut in shorter lengths (about 20 in) and waxed it well. I used refined white beeswax for this. Some waxes I have tried turned yellow after a while so I bought cosmetic grade refined beeswax and made my own molds. It works awesome for whitework. I will put some up for sale soon to share.

I love my cute little beeswaxies!

On it's way! Linen thread (90/2) on cotton.

The embroidery style I am going for is reminiscent of Schwalm, which is similar to Dresden, but not quite as fine. It is a lot of chain stitch, with some shapes outlined in coral stitch, too, and with pulled thread work. I've never done embroidery this fine, but as long as the light is good, I have noticed it goes pretty fast, and the more I do, the more even the stitches get. Yay pretty!

I'm so excited for them!

LACMA (M.84.63.1a-b)
Linen embroidery (chainstitch) and pulled threadwork
on muslin with linen bobbin lace edging,
2 1/4 x 7 1/2 x 35 in.

LACMA (M.81.143.4a-b)
Linen embroidery (satin and darning stitches)
on cotton ground, 13 3/4 x 7 3/8 in

LACMA, c.1760 (M.82.26.2a-b)
Linen embroidery (darning stitch and pulled fabric work)
on cotton, 3 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 38 in.

LACMA (M.81.97.2a-b)
Silk embroidery (running, darning stitches) and
pulled threadwork on cotton, 5 x 9 1/2 x 44 in.