Making a Regency ensemble: Foundation layers

Over the past few months I’ve been working to research and create a foundation layer for the 1810’s. To be honest, this strikes me as a really difficult era to do well, given the very... extreme silhouette. Having recently become an official member of the Regency dance group at Fort York though, I now have an official sewing goal to which I can work!

Out of the garments, on my list right now, I have a chemise stays, and a bustle pad (so little!). My old chemise didn't work for this, as the neck was too high and the body too narrow, so I had to create a new one. I also recently completed a petticoat/slip, because the most appropriate gown fabric I have is quite sheer, and definitely needs the extra layer underneath!
Now for pictures:

 

Stays. These took a lot of drafting to figure out- this will be the subject of an upcoming post.[update: the post is here] Not a lot of cording, but they work well and I'm glad to have finished them! I think I learned a lot making them.

The bustle pad. In real life it is so tiny it's comical. I made it completely out of leftover scraps from other projects (except for the tape ties)- it's even stuffed with scraps!

Chemisette, made of some great super cheap cotton gauze I found on Queen St. In this photo I still hadn't gathered together the frill. I put it onto a separate band in the end, with whipped gathers (but I hemmed it beforehand for no apparent reason). That frill took way too much hemming. What's more, I have a second layer of frill sitting around half finished. Maybe it will become part of this at some point... maybe.

Stay tuned for more info and updates on newer parts of the ensemble soon! (for real this time).

Updates from the sewing room: Summer clothing

So there we go. I didn't end up completing the blog challenge after all, but that's ok. I think I was just extremely daunted by the idea of writing a post a day for 30 days! Either way, I may not have been writing, but I haven't been lazing about doing nothing by any means!
With that being said, here is some clothing I completed over the summer:
The shirt is cotton voile I picked up earlier this year at the old Honest Ed's fabricland (I miss it so much now! :'(...). The pattern I adapted from the "Portrait Blouse" pattern in Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing. The different sizing system was a bit confusing at first (different from the paper pattern sizing/adjustments I'm accustomed to), but having made it up now, I like how high the armscye is in this pattern, and the fit is decently good. Among the adjustments I did, I decided not to go to all the work of putting in a size zipper for what amounted to a t-shirt (what's the point of tee's if they're difficult to make, am I right?) so I took out the tucks in the front and back and left it as a pullover. This changed the fit a bit, but it still works decently for my purposes. I also changed the neckline facing to a bias self-fabric strip, because the material was a bit too light for a thicker interfaced finish.



For this skirt I didn't use a pattern at all- just a tube pleated onto a waistband. I made the length so that I hope it will work for cycling; this seems to be about the length to keep a skirt out of the gears, and at the same time keep you nicely covered while riding. I actually pleated it last winter, but recently finished all the fastenings at the top so that it is actually functional! I really like the dotted print on the fabric... I find it to be a pleasantly busy pattern.


Now back to school for me. Hope summer has been good for you too, dear readers!

Some yardsale fun...

One of the things I find really fun in the summer is yardsales. I ended up at a couple this summer and scored some amazing things!

Candlestick, wind-up travel clock, mini teapot and pepper grind, from the sale in my laneway.

I really loved the painting on this candlestick, and I've got a beeswax candle that will look very nice on it in the wintertime. The clock too will come in very useful, I think. I like that it's small and folds up, and I've been looking for a windup clock for my room for a while. Yes, they're noisy and have to be wound every day, but it somehow seems easier than having to go out and buy replacement batteries after a year! As for the mini teapot and pepper grind, I thought they were really pretty! The kid gloves (in the picture below) I also picked up here. They seem to just fit, and although the embroidered pair is a little stained, they're both so beautiful.

Coral necklace, some really groovy clip-on earrings, an antique crochet hook, hair curler and glove stretcher,  from the Kensington Market street sale, and two sets of kid gloves from the laneway.

I also ended up going to the very first Kensington Market Pedestrian Sunday of the season. For anyone who doesn't know, this is where they close off the streets of the Kensington Market neighbourhood one Sunday of each month through the summer and fall, and there are often different things going on in the street, like buskers playing. On this particular Sunday, because it was the first, the residents had a whole bunch of yardsales on the street. From this sale I got jewellry (coral necklace and gold clip-on's in the photo above) and some really neat vintage textile/clothing-related bits!

A looming project

I'm sorry, I simply couldn't resist the pun. There is a new (ok, within the past six months kind of new) arrival in my room... a loom! Today I finally got around to warping it and beginning to weave for the first time! It's kind of exciting to see actual textile forming before your very eyes. Here it is.

Socks and Sandals, Roman Egypt-style

Some of my favourite extant historical garments are the kind that make you do a double take; the kind of garments that don't normally come to mind when thinking of clothing in a given historical era. These were, for me, one of those pieces. These, ladies and gentlemen, are the Egyptian toe socks of Oxyrynchus. (drumroll).

Red woolen toe socks: 250-420 AD, Egypt; V&A Museum

These red woolen socks date from the 4th to 5th century A.D., and were found in Egypt, near the ruins of the Hellenistic town of Oxyrynchus (yes, the same place as the Oxyrynchus Papyri came from, if anyone was wondering). I love to imagine who might have worn these fabulous socks over 1500 years ago. The split toe is made so they can be worn under a pair of sandals.*
They were constructed with a technique we now refer to as nalbinding- a precursor to knitting which involves a single large sewing needle.

*In fact, in Japan today split toe socks are very popular, and are made to be worn with traditional geta sandals.

Source: The V&A website's write-up on these socks and their construction, available here.

Costume Blog Writing Month 1- Introduction

So for anyone not already in the know, August is the Costume Blog Writing Month! This means that there are going to be daily blog writing prompts during the month of August. Knowing me (and the fact that I am currently out of town, and will be for another week) I probably won't get all of the posts done, let alone in a timely fashion. With that said, I'm going to do my very best, and I look forward to meeting everyone else who is participating! Posts done in the context of this writing challenge will be tagged for it at the bottom of the post.




I realize that I have not really told any of the few lucky readers who have followed my blog this far much about myself at all, even on the "About" page. My name is Morag, and I live in Toronto, Canada. I'm currently doing a double major undergrad degree in History and Classical Studies, and I hope to go into Museum Studies in the future. As for my creations, I have always loved crafting. I began to dabble in historical sewing in middle school- the first ensemble I sewed was inspired by the paintings of Brueghel and the like (that's 16th century Dutch, for anyone not up on their art history). My historical sewing specifically took off though when I began volunteering at a local history museum centred around a log cabin that had been restored to the 1860's and which was the home (and workspace) of the Bathurst Rd. tollkeeper and his family in what was once Toronto's suburbs.* Part of my job was as a costumed interpreter in the log cabin, and so I eagerly went on my way to try to research/sew something appropriate (you can see the HSM post for the gown I made for this here).**

An interior of the Tolkeeper's Cottage Museum where I volunteered. Source: http://www.blogto.com/city/2011/05/inside_the_tollkeepers_cottage_at_bathurst_and_davenport/

Although I no longer volunteer at the museum, I continue to do historical sewing, but my preferred time period now is late 18th century. However, given that I'm involved in a Regency dance group, and a friend has recently started an official Regency reenactment group, I am beginning to delve into this era as well- in fact, stay tuned for a post on fitting gussets on 1810's stays! (oh, puns!)

Anyway, that's all for now- hope you enjoyed the post, and look forward to seeing those of others who are participating!


* For anyone curious, the museum is called Tollkeeper's Cottage Museum. Their website is here.


**More difficult than it seems...One does not simply google "what did people living in rural areas but within an hour's walk of the city of Toronto in the 1860's wear?" It just doesn't work that way.

Pineapple reticule is done! Fun with beaded tassels and HSM #6

  
So I have finally completed for real my pineapple purse! It now closes and has straps! For information on the construction of the purse itself, see here

I based the look off of this example in the Kyoto Cosutme Institute's collection. The result is my own interpretation of it though. To make the straps, I wound two lengths of the green thread and doubled each one so that the two ends of thread spun in on each other- much like what is required to make a yoyo string... if you've ever had any experience with that. I then brought the cord through the stitching between the top leaves and the fruit with a darning needle. Finally I knotted several loops of beads together, and added some fun metal tassel heads.

Although it is ridiculously tiny, and I'm not sure how much fits in it, I'm excited to try it out... paired with some modern outfits as well as historical ones! :)

Now for the HSM stats:

What the item is: a knit and beaded pineapple reticule

The challenge: Metallics. The original pattern calls for gilt metal beads. Although I have used glass ones for the body instead, I did include some metal on the tassel heads. I think the glass has a metal lining inside, and gives a little more subtle look. On the whole though, I still consider it a celebration of shiny bling materials!

Materials: cotton crochet/knitting thread.

Pattern: an adaptation of Franklin Habit's modern translation of Jane Gaugain's 19th century pattern (modernized version available here) with inspiration from the Kyoto pineapple reticule as well.

Period: probably most accurate to the third quarter of the 19th century, although I will mostly be using it with early 19th century ensembles.

Notions: five 1.5 mm double pointed needles, metal tassel heads, glass beads.

How accurate is it? It is made of mercerised cotton thread, so not really accurate until the late 1840's or so (but plausible after that). However, given my budget, I thought it more closely resembled the sheen of silk than wool or some sort of less processed cotton might. Glass seed beads had been used in purses for centuries already (although until mid 19th century they appear to be mostly in completely beaded purses, as far as I can tell), although I don't know enough about the manufacture of my beads  to say whether or not these resemble 19th century glass seed beads.

Hours to complete: As usual, I completely lost track. A lot of hours... as always with fine gauge knitting!

First worn: not yet.

Total cost: about $7 cad. I didn't finish either ball of yarn, and probably even have enough for one or two more of these!