Impulses

After work one day last week I decided to peruse the Garment District to see if any fabric caught my attention.  After an hour or so of fruitless searching- on a whim I asked about the price of this silk taffeta.

There is something  elegant about this

  After some haggling- I was able to buy everything left on the bolt (6 yards give or take) for what I felt was a reasonable price.  The entire way home- and I walked!-    I questioned my impulsive buy!  This fabric is not close to the colors or style I thought I would be buying.  Additionally 6 yards is far too much for a Pet en l'air but not enough for a gown. I also wish it was wider- It is about 49" wide  

Did  I make a huge mistake?  Final decisions cause me so much anxiety.  I need to work on that. 

Close up in better lighting makes all the difference.

Ring around

Since my stays are complete- I have begun work on my Pannier.  It is proving to be much more difficult that I expected to achieve all of my wants with this project

The pannier is made of buckram covered hooping wire sewn into natural colored twill tape channels.  Each of the bones are trimmed and taped to prevent them from poking through.  I use the natural bend of the wire to achieve the shape. 

• Wants:
• For it to be supportive!!!
• For the pannier to fit under my corset (this is the first thing I Will abandon if necessary)
• For it to be a skeletal frame only (rather than pocket hoops which I find to be ugly)

I'm finding that I can achieve the look I want but it does not have the strength I desire. The cage skirts I already make are more modern but are intended as outwear.  I am trying to achieve the same look but with enough strength to hold up 2 or 3 (or 4) skirts.  I am also trying to keep the proportions grand enough for a costume as opposed to clothing. I find that I tend to err on the subtle or simple side.  That will NOT work for this event.

Slow uneven progress

Stays

Last week I finished the first piece of the costumes- My Stays!!  (As it is 4 months into the process... this does not bode well...but anyway...)

Being that I started this blog long after I started sewing- I don't have as many pictures of the process as I would like.  There are many many blogs devoted to 18th century stay-making.  [thanks both for the inspiration and overwhelming feeling of insecurity!] and so in the effort to not repeat what can be found elsewhere in better detail- I will simply give an overview of my process. 

An atypical effort went into achieving the proper fit of the stays as the fit of the garments over them will be determined by this one item.  If your stays don't fit- your gown never will.  Hopefully proper fitting stays prevent my gowns from looking like a rental!


The Pattern: 
 
I used a slightly altered JP Ryan's Half boned stays  Found here.  The major change that I made to the stays was that I eliminated the center front seam and made them wider.  The elimination of the center front seam was intentional-  making them wider was not.  Fortunately it worked out. Also I found that the directions for the pattern aren't great and are riddled with errors. I would still recommend it, however, as a starting point if you are a pretty confidant sew-er

Mock up 1:

I started by cutting out the pattern and making a simple un-boned mock up out of whatever canvas fabric I Had laying around.  I did this to give me a general idea of fit and if there was anything drastic that needed to be changed.  I found that overall this pattern was a close fit to my body measurements and that even with canvas I could see how the garment would reshape my figure. (I am just holding it shut here)

Cardboard Mock up:

Following some advise I found on different blogs I decided to make a cardboard mock up.  This was actually quite fun albeit more costly than I had expected. Duck tape is ridiculously expensive in the [easy to reach] places in the city and I was too impatient to wait.  Much to my annoyance- I ran out of tape midway and had to buy a second roll. I sat around for the cardboard stays for about an hour to let it fit better to my body and see how it felt. Actually I tried cleaning the apartment [do not do this].   It's amazing that I have a boyfriend really. [luckily he was out of town and didn't witness this level of crazy]  I could tell from the mock up that I was going to have problems with my bust/waist ratio. I always do with clothes as my waist is proportionately too large for my bust.

Trashion

Mock up 2: 
 
The cardboard mock up gave me a much better idea of where the garment [or I] had its shortcomings and where I needed to make adjustments but I still needed more accuracy.  So... I made mock up number 2. 

Mock up #2 is cut from the same canvas I planned on using as lining for the final garment.  I included a few bone channels to see what a stiffened effect would look like and punched eyelets in center back so I could lace it up on my own.  It was here that I eliminated the center front seam- and accidentally forgot to eliminate the seam allowance.

From this pattern I confirmed that the garment was too big in the bust [not helped by the additional 1" I added]  I went back to the pattern and removed 1.25 inches from the bust.

Final Garment:

Luckily I realized before I cut my fabric the error that I made above.  And so- I had a decision to make-  Should I cut the center front correctly and eliminate the seam allowance or should I leave it in and cut as I had already altered the pattern to fit?  At this point I did NOT want to make a third mock up [but briefly considered it]

I decided to cut the garment as per my second mock up because I really liked the additional width that the seam allowance gave me in the neckline. I want to be able to make the neckline of my gown really wide without having my stays show. 

I do not have any process photos here but as you would expect the garment goes together as per usual.  

The stays are boned with 3/16" oval cane that I bought from WM booth draper. I used 2 pieces in each channel (flat sides together) as suggested by the site.  This seems pretty strong and I like the narrow width of the cane.  The ends of the cane are cut, rounded and smoothed with sand paper. (you can still see them poking out in these photos)

Hey it looks like I have a bust.  (I really don't)

 

Striped lining

Back with offset eyelets. 

Hand Sewn Finishing:

• Eyelets:  



Love this.




• For my stays I learned how to make hand bound eyelets!  I am very excited about this as I debated it quite a while.  I used a metal awl I had fron scrapbooking to make the initial hole and then a bone awl I bought on a whim while getting my cane [so happy for that 3$ impulse buy]  I didnt have any button twist and instead used some natural colored hy-mark.
•  By far this is the best thing to come out of this project. I highly recommend learning how to do this- its very easy once you've done a few.

• Binding:



Bias tape and tab detail

• I knew Sewing the binding would be a huge pain. I ignored the instructions and made bias tape instead of cutting on the straight of grain.  This made the process much easier however I am still not 100% thrilled with the look of the binding.  While it took me a long time to do- perhaps I needed to spend even more time perfecting the look.  It is entirely done by hand    
• The binding alone makes me question the idea of ever making another one of these. Ugh

  

  Didn't know I had those.

What I like about them:

• I'm pretty pleased with the overall fit (except as per below). I find these to be quite flattering on the bust line and they do a great job of reshaping my figure.  Unfortunately they do not downsize my figure at all and if anything the width of the stays and cane might make it slightly larger.
• I like the effect of boning with cane.  It is light and seems stable.  I will be interested to see how they wear. I plan on bringing extra pieces of with me in case some snap during wearing
• I know the color is plain but I actually like the idea of having neutral palette undergarments.  Initially I looked for a variety of printed/woven options but fear of having the pattern not fit let me start with less expensive unbleached denim. I think it is a nice contrast to the [likely] very colorful gowns that will go over them.

What I would change for "next time":

• I would make my next pair slightly smaller.  The back of my stays matches up perfectly. I would prefer there was a slight gap to lace tighter if needed.  I am concerned that when they break in or if i lose weight (haha) that I will have to make a new pair. 
• I would use stronger than regular thread to sew the pieces together.  I really really hope the thread does not pop as there is immense pressure on them.  So far it seems ok.
• The pattern is a huge pain in behind when it comes to directions. Specifically in explaining boning the tabs. I am still not sure that i did this right. It really takes working through the process to understand what is being described
• I would like to use a contrast thread on the boning channels. I briefly considered this this time- but to save time decided not to.

And it begins

This Blog is intended to chronicle the building of my (and Luca's) 18th century Venetian carnevale costumes!  

The planning for this process actually began back in January when Luca surprised me with a new years trip to Venice. Of course as someone in love with historical costuming- Venetian Carnevale has always been on my "bucket list"  Finally I have the opportunity to attend and participate in this event-.  


 While there are many many wonderful and talented historical clothing reproducers- my costumes are not intended to be that.  I plan to make them an amalgamation of period influenced shapes with modern details and construction techniques. Carnevale costumes are by definition over the top, fantasy masquerade wear- I am hoping what I make is no different.  

I plan on constructing a majority of the pieces-from the undergarments out- and filling in with store bought/altered pieces as necessary.  

Please join me on my journey and hopefully accomplishment of this overwhelming-but exciting- project.