Outlander 1740s Stays

I am slowly working along with Lauren, The American Duchess, to create my own Outlander Ensemble. I am about halfway through reading the Outlander book. I have not seen the show yet but I am hooked on the first book.  And on Terry Dresbach's blog. She is the costume designer.

This is the pattern designed by American Duchess in coordination with Simplicity Patterns.

Here is one side of the stays with the top binding pinned on, but not the bottom binding.

Here I am in the stays.  I am long-waisted so these stays are actually too short on me.  I will have to do some  fiddling with the pattern and lengthen the waist about an inch and a half. Meanwhile I am moving on with the other pieces.  I have made the bum pad. next I will make the Chemise.  I wasn't going to make a new chemise as this one is perfectly acceptable.

But the Outlander pattern has longer sleeves with ruffles plus the neck ruffles. So Ruffles there will be!

Here is both sides, bound.  This is the inside.  I have not put a lining in yet. I'm thinking that may never happen.

Look how good my waist looks here! Oh wait, not me.

I hope you enjoyed my progress on the Outlander Ensemble.  Lots to do before I will be done with the next pieces.  School starts August 1 and I will be busy getting my classroom in order.  I will be teaching Family and Consumer Sciences as a full time regular teacher. I am excited to finally be a full time teacher.  But I am taking a bunch of classes as well.  less time for sewing my own things.

Blessings,

Jeannine

Regency Shawl Dress

For the month of June the Historical Sew Monthly Challenge was set  for "travel".  I live in California.  It is 100 degrees F. here.  It is really hard to think of making a coat or anything to wear over clothing for travel purposes.  So I went a different route. I decided to go with the angle that my fabric has traveled.  When The Dreamstress posted about her  Regency Gown made from shawls I got to thinking.  

Why not have my husband bring me a pair of matching shawls while he is on his travel.  He travels to the Middle East on business every few months. So he brought back four of these light purple, mauve colored shawls.  They are not paisley like the ones that were so wildly popular in the Regency era. 

These scarves were purchased in Turkey.  They are cotton and had a set of stripes across each end.

This is my inspiration photo. I wanted to use the stripes around the hem and then use the stripes again at the sleeves.

Painting 2: Yelizaveta Demidova (1779-1818) , previously Baroness Elisabeth Alexandrovna Stroganoff, wife of Nikolai Demidov, the exceeding wealthy owner of mines and foundries in the Urals, Russia; c.1805 (oil on canvas) by Lefevre, Robert (1755-1830) – Wearing Kashmir Shawl and a dress with Kashmiri Paisley motif embroidery.

I used the Simplicity pattern found here as my basis.

I decided to use white muslin for the actual sleeves and then split the pattern in half and cut the sleeves out again in two pieces. I have not draped them properly yet.

Unfortunately the pattern came out larger than I planned on. It is probably a size too large. I will need to unsew the skirt from the bodice and gather the front more and fix the size issue.  I will also make a fake bodice insert for the front and sew it in, a "dickey" of sorts.

I did try the dress on with the proper short stays and chemise.  However, the short stays do not give me the proper figure.  I will be making a set of long Regency stays soon to aid in achieving the proper figure.

Thanks for taking a look.

Blessings,

Jeannine

Rockabilly Retro Dress

I finished my daughter's birthday present of a Rockabilly style dress!  She wore it today and we took photos out by the pool. Of course she is an awesome model, but she is also the better photographer.  But she can't do both at the same time, so I took these.

Of course, this is where I started, with fabric and the pattern and the obligatory cat hair.  This is Posey.

I used Simplicity 8127. The fabric is 100% cotton. I used two piece eyelets I purchased from Richard the Thread for my corsets and basic spool ribbon.

I had no problems with the instructions.  However, I will have to make some adjustments in the bust as it came out larger then she needs.

I hope you enjoyed this short pictorial review. 

Blessings,

Jeannine

Regency Travel Challenge Update

I know I have not posted everyday on this blog as per the CoBloWriMo challenge was designed to do.  I have two reasons for this: I don't have any thing to post on some challenge topics, and life seems to have gotten even busier as the summer started. So I will post as I can.

Today the topic is to give a progress report on something we are working on. In my first post I said I wanted to work on  the Travel challenge for the Historical Sew Monthly group. 

I have made some progress.  I cut out and sewed my daughter's dress.

I will post pictures of the finished dress later when we do a photo shoot.

For my Regency Travel dress I am using Simplicity 4055 and adjusting the front of the bodice to criss cross.  I am also going to eliminate the tie at the neck and the waist in favor of a button or hook and eye closing in the back.

I have thought about using a trim around the neckline  as in this inspiration painting.  I have not gotten out to look for any yet.  So onward I go.

Keep checking back.  I will get this one done!

Blessings,

Jeannine

My Favorite Accessory

I really like this parasol I made from an old umbrella I inherited from my mother. I have not had the chance to use it yet as I have no events to go to nor have I had the chance to do a photo shoot.  Maybe soon.

I did a full write up on the parasol here.

I hope to have a photo shoot with my Daughter soon.  She is learning to do costume photo shoots.

Blessings 

Jeannine

My Favorite Project

Day five of the CoBloWriMo (Costume Bloggers Writing Month) and I have missed days two through four.  My husband and I and our daughter and her husband got busy building a fence in our back yard and tearing down an old useless fence so we could expand the area around the pool. I will blog about that soon on my other blog, dedicated to all things house and home, Daze of Grace.

For now, my favorite project. My 1880s Walking Dress.  It is a Natural Bustle era ensemble.  I blogged about it fully here. I still have not worn it for photos.  Maybe soon.  But it is 102 Degrees out, soooo.

Enjoy for now.

Thanks for stopping by.

Blessings

Jeannine

Costume Goals

I am trying to improve my blogging by joining in the CoBloWriMo, Costume Bloggers Writing Month.  It is a small Facebook group of costume sewing and wearing enthusiasts who are challenging themselves to begin/get back to/ improve their blogging about things costume. They are all bloggers who specialize in some form of historically accurate costuming.

So June 1: What are some sewing goals?

In order to satisfy the Historical Sew Monthly June challenge of Travel, I have decided to go a little bit of a different direction.  The idea is to make a piece specifically for travel.  Well, it is 102 degrees F. here in the Big Valley, California.  I had wanted to make a 1930s wool coat.  Not happening!

So I am going with an 1820s dress made from Pashmina shawls that have traveled with my Husband from The Middle East to our home in his suitcase.

http://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/ci/web-large/83.50.4_CP2.jpg

First I will need to make a bodiced petticoat, hopefully from purple silk, if I can find it.

Painting 2: Yelizaveta Demidova (1779-1818) , previously Baroness Elisabeth Alexandrovna Stroganoff, wife of Nikolai Demidov, the exceeding wealthy owner of mines and foundries in the Urals, Russia; c.1805 (oil on canvas) by Lefevre, Robert (1755-1830) – Wearing Kashmir Shawl and a dress with Kashmiri Paisley motif embroidery.

This lovely yellow dress in the painting is going to serve as inspiration. So will the Dreamstress, Leimomi.

The Dreamstress

She wrote several blog posts about her using Kashmiri shawls to recreate such a dress.

I am also working along with Lauren at The American Duchess. She has a pair of patterns that she designed with Simplicity patterns to approximate the costumes from The Outlander series.  I have not seen the series (shame) but have been wanting to make an ensemble from this time period for a while. I will be following along with her Pattern Hacks series.

http://www.terrydresbach.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Photo-Nov-25-10-22-10.jpg

Claire's Dress

Proper undergarments.

Pattern Hacks

And that is what I have in mind in the immediate future.

However, I was just hired as a high school Home Economics teacher and will be both taking classes and preparing for teaching classes beginning August 4!

I don't know how much will get done.  And there are the 1950s style dresses for my daughter that I need to complete.

So much to do!

Blessings,

Jeannine

Elvis Style Linen Summer Shirt

Husband and I will be going on a Disney Cruise in a few months.  I have started to make some items for us to wear.  This first one I finished is a linen shirt inspired by the dance scene "Slicin' Sand" in the Elvis Presley movie Girl Happy.

This is the final shirt.

And here is the picture of Elvis in his shirt. (Of course I am working on my own pattern for a version of those red shorts with the button sides!)

I used this McCalls pattern. We did  not find it in the right size so we got extra large and I scaled it down and shortened it.  He tried it on and thought it would be too long and was too wide.  So I shortened it and took both sides in two inches. 

Here it is half finished.

Of course his cat Posey had to help.

Finished shirt.

Searched my button box a long time to find six buttons the right size that matched.

So what do you think? He likes it so I am happy.

Jeannine