Inside the Navy Wool Habit

As I mentioned in my last post, the habit jacket and waistcoat are patterned from J.P. Ryan's riding habit pattern. Fitting this habit was one of the classes I took at Costume College this year. The jacket is barely changed, with only some modification to the lapels. The waistcoats use the pattern as a base, and are modified from there, for style.

Vogue 7464 Goes to Kentucky

When I'm not sewing, my other passion is horses. 

This year we were lucky enough to attend the Kentucky Derby, which has been on my list since, well, forever. The tickets we got were actually for two days, the Oaks day and the Derby day. I bought a hat for the Derby (I found a totally rad one and couldn't pass it up), but for the Oaks day I decided to make my hat.

Pink is the color of the day for the Oaks; it's the Race for the Lilies. So, pink it was!

The Polonaise and Some New Accessories

On Friday I had the good fortune of finding out my local group was doing a timeline event this weekend. Super short notice, but as I have been out of town for everything since last October, I was thrilled to have an excuse to get dressed up. And the timeline events are especially fun because you can represent any era you wish to talk about. Those are WWII tents behind me!

I haven't sewn anything new in months, but I did have quite a few things that have never been worn out, so I thought this was the perfect excuse. I wore my new polonaise jacket/petticoat outfit, my Christmas-present-to-myself Sarah Juniper shoes, a black silk bonnet made from the Larkin & Smith pattern, and I also brought out my linen/chintz mitts to protect from the sun. It was hot!

I mostly finished this Polonaise last year. I still want to trim it. That'll happen someday! It's very lightweight cotton with a woven stripe. The bodice is cut so the lining and front section are fitted to the body, but the fashion fabric layer comes away from the body, in the polonaise style, where the back seams let out into pleats.  

I also accessorized with a voile apron, a breast knot, my trusty sun-battling umbrella and a kerchief and cap I bought on my last trip to Virginia.

I always think the pile left from undressing is so pretty! 

And the shoes!! I have wanted to order a pair of Sarah Juniper shoes for years. I always thought it would be so complex and tedious, since Ms. Juniper is in England, but actually it was very easy. I just traced my feet, filled out her paperwork and sent the paper and fabric to her.

In no time at all, they came in the mail and they are beautiful! These are dark green glazed wool. Super comfy! And they look great with my American Duchess buckles.

A black silk bonnet, a cotton polonaise and redoing my chintz gown.

I've been spending the last week getting old, half-finished projects out of the bags and boxes they invariably end up in, and finaly finishing them up. Yay me!

Last night was a good one.

I had purchased Hallie Larkin's 18th century bonnet kit a while back, started it, and somewhere along the line, got frustrated attaching the brim to the caul, so I chucked it aside. Last night I pulled it out and had it finished in about an hour and a half. I really don't remember what had been frustrating me so much...

I think I put it together correctly. I'm not really the poster child for following pattern directions, but it looks pretty good. I think I might add a nice big bow to the front. I just have to round up some more black taffeta for that.

Another project that is almost finished is a summery, cotton polonaise I started last year. The jacket and petticoat are basically finished now. All I have left is to add trim. But at least now it's pretty much wearable, if a little boring.

It looks very sad and limp on the dress form :( I'll have to take better pictures of it when it's all trimmed up.

And lastly for today, I made a cotton chintz gown a few years ago. I love the fabric, but my knowledge of historical sewing has advanced since then, and I could never see myself wearing it again and being happy in it. So... I took it apart!

The pattern was J.P. Ryan's anglaise. The pieces still work (and the fabric was too valuable to toss), so I will be resewing them and refitting where necessary, to make it both a better fitting garment and a more historically accurate one. Yay! 

Reusing fabric and updating style... Quite in the 18th century spirit, I'd say :)

Has anyone else ever redone a garment like this?

Veteran's Day Parade

Ah, sunnier, warmer times... 

Last month (and forgive me for the major delay in posting) it was surprisingly warm for the Veterans' Day Parade. The Southern Nevada Living History Association walked in the parade. The men were soldiers from different eras and the ladies spanned a good 80 years.

I was the earliest, in my natural form dress (that still isn't finished). I've worn it twice now and it still has basting stitches. Haha oh well.

For the parade, I left my snazzy trained skirt at home, and instead wore an old black costumey skirt I bought ages ago. But only about a foot showed, so it worked out great. And I didn't bring a ton of asphalt and grease home with me :)

So why wear an unfinished dress with the wrong skirt, you ask? Well, an excuse to wear the bonnet of course!

I got a new bonnet recently, from Mrs. Parker's Mercantile, and I was super stoked to have an excuse to wear it :) Yay!

In other news, I did a lot of sewing in October and November. Unfortunately I didn't get great photos of any of it, so I haven't posted about it. I made up an 1860's paletot and hood, an "ermine" muff and a early 1900's petticoat. Oh! And I knit a sontag, which I love. So, hopefully soon I will have an excuse to wear them and I can get some good photos to share.

Next up... more regency bits for the Jane Austen Evening in Pasadena next month. Anyone else going?

My jacket, a new cap, a new pair of stays and a ball on the horizon.

Since it was a holiday today, I didn't have anything legit to do, so I had no excuse not to take the time to get dressed and take some photos of my new little jacket. I accessorized with, among other things, a linen cap I made in Janea Whitacre's thimble class at Costume College. It was pretty cool. She sketched me out a pattern for the cap in like two seconds, holding newsprint up to my head a little this way and that.  

In other news, I just finished a new pair of stays. The fastest I have ever made them. I started out all careful, hand stitching, with big plans. I was going to do them up properly for the HSF: Wood, Metal, Something challenge. Then I heard about the Road to Regency symposium and ball (eeek! yay!) at Gadsby's Tavern at the end of September. My husband and I love Alexandria so there's no excuse not to go. So I gave in and zipped the rest of the boning channels through the sewing machine. Everything else I hand sewed. You kind of have to. There's really no way to do anything but the channels on the machine. I figure when I'm not on a deadline I can do some fully boned stays up properly (and with an extra half inch of length... but that's a whole other issue).

I wore them all day today, fitting linings and petticoats and such (for the ball yay!). They are very comfortable, but ideally I would like to do the next pair with a little more length... for ahem, spillage issues. But that's kind of what I get for speeding through and not taking care in fitting. P.s. the pattern is J.P Ryan, which went together nicely.

Another way I saved time on the stays was to bind them with half inch linen tape instead of leather. The seams are also covered with quarter inch linen tape instead of leather. Fabric wise, the stays are made of yellow linen over two layers of white linen and a white linen lining. I used 16/2 linen for the eyelets. The boning is quarter inch reed.

Next up will be a new gown for the ball. I've always wanted to go to a ball at Gadsby's, since I was like twelve probably. I'm kind of stoked :) Eek!

An 1880's Outing

1880's Wool Dress, photos by Lisa Coffey.

Pouf! A new dress!

I haven't posted anything about the progress of this new dress because I had to make it so darn fast. Last month we (as in the civilian ladies of the Southern Nevada Living History Association) decided to do a bustle era outing, which coincided with an SNLHA "timeline" event at the Old Mormon Fort, which is an event where one can portray any era they wish. Very fun.

At Day at Spring Mountain Ranch

At Spring Mountain Ranch
Photo by Lisa Coffey

This morning I put on my 1860's layers and headed out to Spring Mountain Ranch, which is here in Vegas, and right next to Red Rock Canyon. Today is Nevada Day (Nevada was admitted to the Union October 31st, 1864 - "Battle Born") and this weekend is the Civil War reenactment put on by the Southern Nevada Living History Association.

A view from Spring Mountain Ranch

Today was kind of a prelude to the weekend, which was awesome for me because I have never been to a reenactment before. Kind of an introduction for me. Today, lots of school kids and homeschoolers came out and there were presentations with cavalry horses, cannons, artillery and we civilians. It was such a blast. I especially love all the little girls who have endless questions about our outfits. I totally relate!

Stables across the pasture - ahem -  I mean, battlefield.
There was a cow mooing away!

I chose to wear my yellow cotton 1860's dress. Under it I had all the bits: stockings, knit garters, boots (Robert Land), original pantalettes and chemise, corset, three petticoats, a 108" hoop (Originals by Kay) and organdy undersleeves (remade from these originals). I also wore a pocket, which I reached through a convenient slit in my skirt (perfect for iphone!). One thing I was missing was a corset cover, which I just didn't get around to making yet. Next on my list!

To accessorize, I wore an antique brooch, belt buckle pin and watch chain. I found a nice little pocket watch for it on Amazon. The baste in collar is a beautiful white work piece I found for only $5 at an antique store! What luck!! The belt is brown silk over buckram lined with cotton. There are great directions for making a belt in Elizabeth Stewart Clark's Dressmaker's Guide. I also switched out my modern wedding rings for a plain "gold" one I found on Amazon. It looked great for being so cheap! I had taupe leather gloves, too, but they're in my pocket for the picture. 

Accessories! Undersleeves, hankie, belt, buckle pin, brooch, ring,
watch and chain, straw hat and hat pin.

All the jewelry is antique except for the watch. I think it
 is more common to wear the buckle vertically, though I
have seen a few CDV's with it worn horizontally.

Antique store steal! A whitework collar, basted in.

Robert Land side-lacing boots.

The batiste handkerchief I made has a wavy hem, much like the ones mentioned in Juanita Leisch's book, Who Wore What?: Women's Wear, 1861 - 1865. Apparently a fancy shaped hem gave ladies the opportunity to show off their fabulous narrow hemming skills.

I chose to wear a sun hat (it's bright here!), which I bought from Abraham's Lady. I took off the black cloth ribbon that came with it and replaced it with a brown silk satin one from MJ Trimming.

Shady face! The hat works just as
good as sun glasses!

And a sneaky modern cheater tip...

I always wear Shellac for my manicure. It's a gel that goes on like a nail polish, but it cures under a light. It lasts for like two weeks, which is great, but it's very time consuming to remove, just to dress up.  So I discovered this great polish: Essie's "Matte About You." It's a matte nail polish, so I put a coat over the gel and the shine is gone. At a casual glance, it looks like you have natural, costume friendly nails. Then just a quick wipe of non-acetone takes it off and I'm back to the 21st century!

Essie's "Matte About You" nail polish

How to make an 18th century hat. A tutorial in pictures.

So after making the little striped pierrot and the embroidered petticoat, I thought it was time to make a foray into millinery and try out the hat, too. See above. I have never made a hat before, so with a little common sense, and a peek at this and this, I took a shot at it. So here we go:

I started out by studying the picture above. From what I can tell, the main hat seems to be made of black silk. It is a fairly basic shape, with no fancy curving. Easy enough for a first attempt. It is also worn atop the hair, not the head, so it doesn't have to fit a certain size. All one needs is a couple of hat pins to keep it on.

To start, I made up a pattern. Three pieces: the crown, the vertical part and the brim. For the crown I started with a piece that was 5 3/4 inches. I used a compass to make the circle. I added a 1/2 inch selvage to the pattern. From that, I went back to math class - okay, I googled it, but here it is - and took the formula c=πd (circumference = 3.14 x diameter). In this case: c=3.14x6. I rounded up. It's 18, so the next piece, the vertical part, needs to be 18 inches long. It also needs a selvage, but only on one side, since you overlap it. For the brim, I measured out five inches from the crown, and made a circle. On the inside of the brim, I made a second circle that was the same circumference as the crown, then I added a selvage inside, too.

Love it! Some fab 18th century hats...

Oh gosh! I want to make one! I'm doing my research first, but hopefully soon I will have one in my closet. Or two...

Check them out!