short gown finished, only minor updates needed

eed to make a couple of tweaks to it, but yay finished and from stash.

The sleeves are too tight as my alteration wasn't too scientific. Thankfully the wool has enough inherent ease in the weave to get them on. I've also got enough fabric scraps to add a gusset, and I suspect it will be approx the same amount as the bodice needed.  So not too awful, just annoying.  Also I couldn't find my quarter inch tape to use as the under bust drawstring so I used knitting cotton which doesn't have enough guts to risk tying tightly.  So I'll unpick the basting stitches for the cord, and replace it with cotton tape.  I'll then whipstitch the seam allowance to the upper bodice so it sits properly


I'm also thinking of being naughty and order 2.5 yards of lightweight wool in yellow from FFC. It's away from my face and a fashionable colour for the time.

the shortgown glitches overcome

Very late last night I realised that I had cut the bodice lining wrong (ie too narrow) and not the wool outer layer wrong (I sewed a tuck it it to make it fit the lining).

This is what happens when you fold up and don't pin or tape in place adjustments to the pattern pieces.  Tonight I'm going to unpick the waist seam and the underarm tuck to let that out, and whipstitch a piece of lining fabric into place. Moar hand sewing {shudder}.  There's a couple of pleats at the side of the skirt section, one of which can be let out so the skirt to fit the correct bodice width.


If I don't do it, the front will cut into my arms pretty badly

Trying to be too quick and not taking necessary steps then is result in needing more time to fix it than doing it right in the first place.  I ignored my inner voice and am re-learning the lesson.

I'm so not getting my green skirt done this time so am being lent a skirt - it helps to be short!  A taller person's waist skirt will be long enough if I put it at underbust level.  I'm taking the square of cotton plaid to hem if I need anything to do tomorrow.


The first thing I did sewing related when I got home was slash the lining and unpick the bodice tuck and the pleated skirt for an inch or so.


And then I whip stitched a strip over the top of the gap. The wool is lightly caught in most of the stitches, but that's ok, this is working close and piecing is period.  This is what it looked like before I trimmed the strip to length


I got the sleeves inserted neatly and tidily ... which was a warning sign. Sleevil lurks everywhere. They're a bit snug - proof that I should have mocked up my alterations, but meh. Working class, sleeves can be a bit tight so long as they go on. The wool is very malleable so it's ok.

I've got under half the hem to whip stitch down, and a tiny corner of the sleeve (where it's almost a corner).

Tonight I made regency lemonade, and some pork and leek pasties for my lunch tomorrow. I used 4 sheets of rice paper roll wrappers as my gluten free pastry wasn't good after more than a year in my freezer.  Yikes, that's $20 of pastry I couldn't even try to use for half that year (dang gall bladder).  Oh well I'll get less next time!

2 stoneware jugs ... a collection?

A second stoneware jug for my bumboater character, a little more modern looking, but so are some of the jugs/jars etc in paintings of the time.



They're dang heavy so I only want a couple. And none with company names on them, as that's far more datable.

It cost less than the last one which is good with me

bitching about hand stitching

I may hate hand sewing but I'll do my best if I have to do it.  Here's the bodice neck edges, the front of one side and the reverse of the other. One sleeve is hemmed too, so that leaves 1 sleeve hem and the skirt hem. I'm trying to have less of that to hem than 3m, but 2m is still more than I want to do.

seating for working class regency events

Just ordered on eBay (waiting to hear when I can pay & collect it) a folding stool, that's suitable for regency events.  I really want a chair, but this will be lighter as I'm schlepping myself around on by public transport - both bus and train.  Seeing as Winterfest is at the end of this month I'm really looking forward to having my own seat. Though maybe like last year I'll spend my time napping on the ground.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/220865180681

and yes it may be slightly posher than working class, but it's transportable by design.

in the mail: a book on everyday clothing in the 18th century

I can't resist a costume related book. Well, technically not quite true. There are some I can cos they are so spendy that I just can't justify it to myself. (Barbara Johnson's swatch book. Wants so badly but I won't pay crazymoney)

So today I was reading a blogpost about the Foundling Hospital exhibition Threads of Feeling (it has a FB page), and it mentioned that one of the pages is reproduced in the book "The Dress of the People: Everyday Fashion in 18th Century Europe" by John Styles.  So I went to bookdepository and realised they needed my money right there and then.

Especially as my re-enactment group are working class english (or english navy).  So an easy self justification, and can't wait for it to arrive.  I did wince at the price, but it includes airmail so that's OK.

photo catchup - have them at last

ugh, the interwebs just ate my post as I went to post. Lets see what I can remember ...

Here's the blue fabric I'm going to make into a short gown for my 1806 female working class persona.  It's lightweight and the warp stripes are (by thread numbers): *2 white, 2 light blue, 1 dark blue, 2 light blue* repeat at about 8 per inch/2.5cm.  It's a greyer blue than this photo would suggest.


The hobbit bodice - it fitted reasonably well in the back, apart from the shoulder straps being 3.5-4cm too long (overall not just in the back shoulder strap). My torso is short between underarm and shoulder so I'm not all surprised by this. I was thinking of moving the shoulder seam towards the back as in historical clothing so marked a line on the toile, but decided against it as the screencaps of women's clothing don't have that.


With the front, the central panel seamline is drawn on the reverse so you can't see it in the mockup.  I'm going to see if taking half the underbust dart from that seamline and the other half from the side seam sits ok, but first I'm going to rotate the underarm dart to the underbust.



As I anticipate wearing this to the next couple of movies as well as this June's Supanova I want to do a reasonably good job of it.  I'll do a 2nd mockup to see if my changes work effectively, and I'll cut the back & side front pieces on the bias just to see how that works.

Oh and I nearly forgot that I got the dye for Catelyn tonight.  I guestimate that I'd need 2 bottles or 4 packets of RIT.  I'd checked my dye-stash on Sunday night and amongst them is a dark green and a grey but there wasn't a teal which I thought was in there.  So once I discovered the bottles would cost $38 for 2, well I balked at that.  So instead I got 1 bottle and a packet of dark blue - on the theory that dark blue+dark green+teal+grey would hopefully get me a dark teal

reverse stashbusting

Last night I  popped down to the laundry to grap a top for work today, & thought I'd have a quick squizz in the tub o' regency goodness for the piece of grey linen. It's not enough to make a short gown, as it's only 135cm wide (pesky beefy arms of mine).  Anyhoo, I thought it'd be good for a working class regency apron - trying to use stash this year as much as inhumanly possible.

Instead of finding the grey linen in there, I found the lightweight blue stripey crepe-ish wool that I thought had been carted to the charity shop last year. So freud was looking out for me. It's not scritchy and that extra width at 150cm makes it enough to squeak out a short gown.  I may even need to piece a sleeve, but I'll get it.  I'm thinking lightweight wool's a good enough idea as Winterfest and Redcoats & Convicts both happen in winter.

Concession needs to be made for the fact I'm a bit of a freak though.  Last Thursday I noticed that I was the only person at the bus stop (or indeed on the bus) who had bare legs, short sleeves, no scarf, cardigan, jacket or coat. And I wasn't cold. Not even crispy on the outside and toasty inside.  I was pleasantly comfortable. I still am this week and it's not warming up.

looking at fabric sends me to a happy place

ooh, I'd love to buy some of this to make my working class regency short gown.  It's a light weight wool from FFC, and not on sale.  Plus international fee and postage and yes, I'll be smarter to avoid getting it.  Though if it's still around next time they have a sale and I have cashy money then all bets are off.


I intentionally wouldn't pick a pinstripe, but I'd like a stripe. and I also like this one, also not on sale, #17998


KK918 confusingly is listed as a grey/black worsed wool, but the description says 100% cotton.

fending off donation-remorse

About 13 years ago I got a couple of pieces of fabric from a charity shop near my workplace at North Sydney.   Last year I decided I couldn't justify keeping one of them as I didn't think I'd ever have a use for it.  So I think it went to the Fabric Cave in a huge bag of other stuff.

Today I thought, hmmm if I can't find the pink/green print, what else in my stash can be sacrificed to the working class regency. Oooh, goes my brain. That blue with white stripe lightweight wool. Winter is coming and both events are outdoors, so I'd be cosy if there's a cold wind.

Only to discover that in my spreadsheet it's tagged for donation. Huh, wonder if it really and truly did get sent.  My have to fossick for it.

If it did, I'm refusing to regret it. It's only blind chance that let me think of a use for it well over 6 months afterwards.

thinking about sewing - working class regency short gown

This morning I preshrank the hobbit blouse fabric, so I've done something today sewing related.  I got extra of this fabric so I could make a regency era fichu from it. There will be serious complaining about hand rolled hems.  I begrudgingly hand sew only when it cannot possibly be avoided.

Tonight I also put some thought into my regency short gown /jacket which I'll need in late June. The style I'm aiming for is similar to a bodice sold by Meg Andrews http://www.meg-andrews.com/item-details/Hand-Block-Bodice/7384. I could use the Lewis & Clarke era dress pattern & substantially shorten it, with less fabric in the back.

However I also thought of the Northern Society of Costumes & Textiles pattern of the 1793 Dress of the Revolution (French).

I could raise the waist, & add a "skirt" to the back.  It's similar to what was worn by working class at the time I'm looking at, a decade later than this pattern. I do want to use this pattern at some point in the nearish future but in the interests of expediency I may simply go with the Past Patterns that I know fits.  The NSCT jacket needs to be scaled to size, graded to fit, mocked up, etc.  

pics of the problematic fabrics

So the 2 blue linens look like this, and if I can't use them for this costume I'm thinking of giving them away. Unless I have another costume I can use them in soonish.

It's not the colour that bothers me so much as how the feel & look & their density.  Ooh, maybe dye the pale one and use it for a bodiced skirt for my working class regency.   Yeah! that works for me.

The hobbit apron fabric is textured and appears differently on each side.

So I could over dye it with pale blue for the duckeggy colours Catelyn wears. Though it's only 112cm wide so I'd need more than if it were a wider fabric.  From memory it was only $10m which is pretty good here. So possibly 6m would sort this for me.

Started sewing the hobbit skirts today, and these are the fabrics I'm using. the checky one will be the sides & back of the bodice, with the floral as the centre front. I want to find a green trim as the decoration.

ebay helps out with accessories for re-enacting

whee, I got a pottery wine jug, about 18cm high (7"?) and a great shape for my bum-boater basket.

It' got a name, Sydney Town & date of 1795 on it but the seller think's it was made at "Old Sydney Town". That was a small open air museum recreating our early colonial settlement, and it closed back in 2003.  Lacking a car & having the worst of CFS/ME back then I never made it up there.  There's talk of it re-opening, and a campaign working on it. This would be fabulous, but I won't hold my breath just in case.

So I need to look out for a couple more grog bottles, and possibly a larger basket.

I'm thinking of using the paisley-ish fabric I got in Brissie last November to make a short gown & petticoat. I'm hoping it's enough fabric for both or another fabric will be needed instead. For this character, I'll make a plain linen bodiced skirt to go underneath. ie thin linen or cotton on the bodice.

 I think this would fit in nicely, as I've looked at all the (few) half-robe aka short gowns of the period. If I get a short gown & petticoat from my yardage I can wear this to other regency events as a morning ensemble.

street hawkers - georgian or regency style

I've been looking for sketches etc of street hawkers and working class - or lower order - people so that I can have a better idea of what to make as a bum boater.

Here's a couple of blog links

Spitalfieldslife posts
-  Thomas Rowlandson's Lower Orders  and more Rowlandson's lower orders - these are quite fascinating
-  Pictures of Real Life for Children 1819 in which the milk maid seems to be wearing a regency short gown.
- William Marshall Craig's Itinerant Traders 1804 part 1  b&w
-  William Marshall Craig's Itinerant Traders 1804 part 2 ...mackerel and potato sellers plus other women..

I'm going to look at short gowns, and maybe a slightly shorter skirt on the bodiced underdress, seemingly the lower orders had ankles to show.  Thinking that the streets weren't like today and hems muddy quickly and some mud stains are hard to remove, it makes sense to be slightly shorter for working women.  Also not as full as some of my other dresses which at 3m (approx 3yds 1 foot) may be an extravagance I couldn't afford ... unless I sold lots profitable veg & booze.

I'm also searching for suitable bottles/jugs for my wares.

pragmatically not starting any new projects

I've another 2 months to wait until my gallbladder surgery, and I'm trying to accept my limitations as it has severely impacted my life.

I'm being a bit fatalistic about not expecting to get anything finished, nor much progress on anything until afterwards.  {shrugs} it is what it is.  And I've got enough part started projects that I don't want to start any more.

What I can do is plot & scheme for when I bounce back.   Sydney Supanova is 21-23 June, which I'm anticipating to be a month after surgery, hopefully time to make a costume out of stash.  I've a hankering for a Catelyn Stark (Game of Thrones) so I have started trawling for pics ... hard to find any of the skirt section of her dress ... not her dark green coat but the V-neck, panelled dress underneath.  The bodice front has 4 panels on each side, and I'm guessing the back is the same, ie 16 panels on the dress.  I may simply dye the 2 pieces of pale blue linen I have in my stash. 

Winterfest is the following weekend, and I'll wear my regency kit as I'll be with my napoleonic re-enactment group.

Mid July is the Redcoats & Convicts day at Hyde Park Barracks, so I may finish my open robe for that.  Or a more downmarket ensemble as I'm with sailors.   As I'm not actually portraying a sailor I need a role that allows me to be hanging around with Nelson's sailors.  So after perusing the 1811 Dictionary of Vulgar Tongue I'm going to be a bum boater.  Which sounds hideous, but in fact is:

  "BUM BOAT. A boat attending ships to retail greens,
     drams, &c. commonly rowed by a woman; a kind of
     floating chandler's shop"

I love my greens, and a dram or two so it's a great match personally.

Further away, end of September is a subscription ball to celebrate the 1813 crossing of the Blue Mountains ...  it really was a trip to the unknown for them. They thought there was a huge inland sea ... unlike the reality of huge amounts of desert in the middle of the continent.  So I'm going to look for 1813 ball gowns for some inspiration for a new ballgown.