Journey to the 1920s

Later in January, Mike and I are attending a Jazz Age ball. It's my first official foray into the 1920s and I'm really excited! I've always loved robes de style with their fun silhouettes, so that was unquestionably the dress I was going to make. Simply searching for "robe de style" on Pinterest provided me with a ton of visual inspiration. Instead of recreating a particular dress, I came up with my own design based on what I was seeing in originals. 

The silk taffeta is a tiny portion of what Katie and I bought on super sale ($3.99/yd) from Fabric Guru. We got so much that I can use it not only for what we've got planned, but also these little side projects! All I needed was silk tulle for the trim and a bunch of beads (Swarovski crystal rhinestones too).

Here's where I am on the skirt. The flowers will have rhinestones on them as well, once I get the stuff for setting them. I'm having a lot of fun! Maybe the 20s are my new thing... We'll see!

I've also got a hair tutorial planned, since I think other ladies would be interested in how to turn long hair into a cute 20s style.

Merry Christmas!

I STILL haven't gotten to take pictures of my new print gowns! Soon, I promise...

But in the meantime, here is a gown I made as a commission for a friend. It was lovely to work with such pretty fabric, and very easy to fit and make since we are the same size. I just made the gown to fit me, and it fit her perfectly as well! Her mother contacted me about having the gown made up for Christmas, completely without her knowledge. Needless to say, she was very surprised. ;-)

I have a lot coming up in the new year, including the Felicity Christmas gown and a robe de style! Maybe even a polonaise-in-two-weeks for a 12th night party. Not to mention working on my paper for the Colonial Williamsburg millinery conference in March!

I really am sewing! Gowns for work...

Here's a sneak peak of what's been keeping me busy, other than working full time on George Washington's marquee tent.

There's a discussion about period 18th century prints coming...

Fashion Copy Cat!

I've been swooning over this coat from Modcloth for a while...

http://www.modcloth.com/shop/coats/luxe-y-in-love-coat



Turns out it's a copy of an original 1930s coat in the collections of LACMA! Crazy!!!!!!!!!! No wonder I liked it so much! ;-) 

http://collections.lacma.org/node/249923

An Historical Weekend

  

My best beloved Maggie came out from California to visit. Usually we go to Gettysburg Remembrance Day, but since this was the 150th, everything was insanely expensive... So we decided to still have an awesome historical weekend palling around the equally historical towns of Winchester and Harper's Ferry. We stayed the night in the fabulous (and affordable!) Nancy Shepherd House Inn in Winchester. The owner had many family heirlooms, including a c. 1864 dress which we got to study. Northern Virginia was stunning in its late fall colors, especially along the cliffs at Harper's Ferry.

I wore my blue plaid wool dress with some new trim added. The poor thing needs a new bodice and the skirt repleated, but I'm not sure when I will be wearing it again, so that won't happen for a while... I also threw together a new paletot. I love the color and hope to put more black velvet trim on it. But again, I'm not doing much 1860s stuff anymore...



 










  

Steampunk Outfits for Teslacon

I have written up an extensive post over at my Livejournal about all the steampunk outfits I created for Teslacon. Here's a few teaser pics. Please visit the following link to see and read more!

http://reine-de-coudre.livejournal.com/197761.html

A Short Pelisse, 1813

This pelisse was made to wear to my dear friend Maggie's wedding. The fabric was a gift from my friend Tyler, and there was just enough to get a short pelisse out of. You see "short" (what I consider anything shorter than the hem of the gown) pelisses throughout the 1800-1820 period like this one and this one from the collection of the Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs
www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/francais/bibliotheque/ via Ginger's fabulous Flickr account. I was inspired by the trim on this pelisse from 1813.

The veil was a very lucky find on Ebay. Although as pretty as it is, the glare on it in sunlight is not so helpful!

My friend Emma was gracious enough to play photographer for me, and got some excellent shots. :)

     

    

Moar Wedding Pics!

We received our edited, official pictures (all 841 of them!) and I LOVE them! Here are just a few  of my favorites (really, a very, very tiny amount! It was so hard to narrow it down to make this blog post manageable!).


        


    

A New Gown in My Future

So excited about the fabric I got today, I had to share! It will make a lovely gown and matching petticoat.

A Plain Jane Gown

Nothing fancy, but very practical, and easily made "nice" and "respectable" with a few choice accessories. The gown is made from brown worsted wool and lined with linen, and is entirely hand sewn using period construction. The weather is quite cool this week, so I am happy to have a nice warm gown to wear while working in the tent shop! Some mitts are definitely in order, as well as a short cloak...

It was windy today and my cap was not cooperating. I also apparently had my cap too far forward on my head. But it was a long day!

    

Picture Posts are Coming!

I feel so bad for not being able to post pretty pictures for you all... Life is still pretty crazy, and to top it all off, my camera finally bit the dust! But I thought I could tease you with a couple of pictures I didn't take so you know that I actually am still sewing and making things!

I've been hired to help finish up work on the recreation of George Washington's tent. You can read more about this important project at its Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/FirstOvalOffice) and follow our progress via webcam (http://www.history.org/webcams/tentmaker.cfm).

Accordingly, I made up a simple wool gown to work in. Nothing fancy, just a fitted (en fourreau) back gown with matching petticoat. More later!

In the realm of pretty things, I made a new outfit to wear to a Regency wedding of some dear friends this past weekend. No pictures of that yet, but I did score a beautiful antique bonnet veil to wear with it!