Saturday 23 March 2013

1780 Caraco dress






I have decided to skip the 1820 work dress for the moment.

I will be doing the stripe challenge and my chosen garment is a Norwegian  'Caraco Dress' this is a very popular style during the later part of the 18th century as working people could wear it.


I have now sewn most of the skirt unfortunately I have to make a bum pad and an underpetticoat before I can attach the Ruffle to get the correct legnth this puts me back so I cannot post it yet.

The bustle is finished and the underpetticoat has only to be hemmed  and the ruffle is pinned on so I hope to have it all sewn by this evening after I have pressed it I will post it.
I unable to make the jacket as I have to make a 18th century corset first.

This venture into the 18th century has given me the desire to make another one perhaps with small panniers, but not until I have finished my 1820's peasant dress.
I used a number of pictures the main one which gave me some idea of the shape and the petticoats was

Late 18th Century Skirt Supports: Bums, Rumps, & Culs. By Kendra Van Cleav


 I could not find an original 18th century bustle I just had to make one up which would give me the desired shape. I was not keen on the ones giving as examples on the abopve site the last one  I felt was too much like a Victorian bustle
 The under petticoat I made is very similar to the skirt itself the only difference is the pleats back and front are the same. I just had to guess at this as I could not find an original to copy. .
 As you can see my bustle gave me the shape I wanted nice and rounded with just a little bit on the sides.

The front of the skirt  which has flat pleating with a box pleat in the centre
The skirt was three lengths at 112cm  and the ruffle five widths of the 112cm by 40cm.
I was a bit short on materials so I had to make the pleats a bit larger than I would have done narmally but I felt that the as original was probably silk and mine would be a cotton of sorts it would do for my first venture into the 18th Century. 

  Close up of the front pleating
Close up of the back pleating.



The Challenge: 6

Fabric: Cotton/synthetic

Pattern: none

Year: 1780-90

Notions: Cotton Tape

How historically accurate is it? Copy of an original but machine sewn

Hours to complete: 15

First worn: only when being fitted

Total co; Unknown material from my stash





Friday 15 March 2013

Challenge 5 Work dress

his is the bodice before attaching it to the skirt. The seams are all piped  and the bodice is lined I always put the sleeves in at this time than for no other reason than to beable to say "thats the bodice finished.
 

This is my Chalenge 5 - Work dress 

'The Mantua Maker 1825-1830 Day dress'

 I know I am late in starting it but better late than never. The  pattern I am using is from 'The Mantua Maker 1825-1830 Day dress'.
I have the tiole of the bodice finished and fitting all done.
 It will be made it in white cotton lining with gray cotton that has a tiny little flower with a bit of charcoal and yellow coloured pattern around it.
Well I have not got as much done as I would have liked  I hope that I will get the main fabric cut tomorrow  I think I may be struggling to get it all out of the material the patterns says 7 and a half and I think I only have 6 mts I may have to put a contrasting colour on the bottom. 
I stopped doing this gown as I felt I had to try and catch up and then perhaps get back to it.
Today 4th April I finally got back to the dress  I have now got the back and front done I will be putting in the sleeves tomorrow (I hope) and strt to get the skirt attached. No luck I read the instructions and I have to have the bodice done then put the belt on then on goes the skirt.  The piping and the sleeves are all done and it is all beginning to look good.
I have sewn the skirt and  I was right I did not have enough material but as I was doing a working class dress so I thought that folks would not have all that much money so they would have had three drops instead of four.  I cut the sleeves out which were masive and found that I would have to patch a peice of the material into the third length.  I know this is period correct as I have seen originals that have had pieces put in when material was short and they were middle class so how much more would the working people have done.  I did not think it was going to be so hard to get the dress out of the material I had but It is made and thank goodnes.  I have never had to make bias for the piping out of such small pieces some pieces were as small as 4 inches long but it is all finished and all I have left is a piece approximately 2x3inches.
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I have opened the front so it can be seen how I lined but mostly to show the construction of it.

 The finished item puffs in sleeves you will just have to imagine what it would look like once my arm is in as well  they will be a bit larger.
 close up of the bodice and waist band which is a little lowere that gowns were in 1810's
 Side view
 Full view
The Challenge: 5

Fabric: Cotton

Pattern: Mantua maker 1825 dress

Year: 1825

Notions: piping cord, brass pins

How historically accurate is it? Machine sewn so I would say it is 90%

Hours to complete: This is a bit hard to say as I stoped and re started the dress a guess would be 40 hours

First worn: only when being fitted

Total co; Material bought on special about one year ago for $5 a Mtr I had six mtrs so $30.



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Wednesday 13 March 2013

1873 Challenge 4 Embelishment

  Please excuse my dummy  I had to make it  bigger and as you can see it is not quite right but it had to do or I would never get the costume finished.
I know I am late in getting it on my blog but I have been ill for almost three weeks the result of that is I will be three weeks late with every thing.



 Challenge 4 Embelishment

Trim the costume started in 2008  
I did not have a pattern for the bodice so I searched my library and the web to get some ideas of how I could trim it using only what I had in the house. I dont think there will be another costume like this but I did my best with what I had.
There are three parts to the costume 

Bodice, Apron and Skirt
The  lace I had was quite old (I dont know how old) it was the only one that I had plenty of and you need a lot for the 1870's .The lace was a tan colour  which was no good for my costume so I decided to bleach it and see what colour it came out, to my relief it did not fall to pieces and it came out a nice creamy colour
which went very nice with the shot green.

Although I was running late I decided I would still hand sew the trim  as I dont think the sewing machine does as nice a job

I tried various ways to trim which took some time as I sewed then unpicked about three times and finally ended up with using the lace double sewn together around the neck and sleeves then added braid to hide the seam in the centre where it was joined.  

On the apron I used the trim single and put braid  on the top side to hide my stitching
I decided to make a few bows and rosettes as both were popular in the 1870's 

The skirt only has the hem tape and a six inch facing this has still to be done but as I wanted to start the next challege I decided to finish it another time.

 As I had no pattern for the bodice I researched my library and the web to get some ideas on what to do

The bodice has nine hooks and nine thread loops

The eight buttons are hand made  I do not know what you would call them except they are material circles which get a gathering stitch round to form a bowl and then stuff the edges into the bowl draw up the gathers and stitch the gap which then if you wish you can make a stem to either put through an eyelet or as I had done use them for decoration only.

The vertical trim down the bodice is there to hide the piece I had to put in as I had grown a bit since 2008.

The back of the bodice has a large bow with tails and a Rosette on the centre of the bow and the tips of the tails and the waist strap is in place.
 

 The Apron has single trim with braid on one edge I made the bows and attached them on the side


 The back with the Rosette's, I cant help feeling that they could be mistaken for the wings of a butterfly.  I started making the rosette's with a gathered piece of the main material then added two rows of the lace then the braid went on to make a nice neat edge. The buttons are trimmed with a bit of tatting I had.and the edges of the tails are trimmed with some antique lace


The rosette on the bow is slightly different as I run out of the lace but I think it still looks okay

The Challenge: 4 Embelishment

Fabric: Silk and Cotton

Pattern:  none


Year: 1873

Notions: Lace,  and very old trim

How historically accurate is it? 90%

Hours to complete: hand sewing of trim 12 hours

First worn: never
 
Total co: unknown as I had all in the house bought many years ago