blogroll

So I updated my blogroll, go check all the awesome people I “stalk” on the internet out.

 

honeycomb smocking tutorial

I thought that I would show how I make honeycomb smocking, the technique I used while smocking the leather belt thing.

 

busy and a 1790 jacket

Sorry for not posting in a while again, there are just so much things to do! I have been sewing a lot by hand, watching a ton of Jane Austen movies (wrong era but lovely anyway) . I have finished a chemise, a petticoat and almost a bumroll. I have the binding left on the bumroll but I wont do that until I get some proper stuffing, the polyester stuffing is just there for now. Polyester stuffing seems really off to use even it is is not seen, but after bothering with hand sewing and all I find it a bit of so I am stuffing it with wool in stead.

Silly thing I don’t have pictures on them, but I will take some.

So this month I had to pay the school fee for this semester so there is no way I can afford silk at the moment. So I am making a addition to my 18th century wardrobe, A caraco made out of a red cotton damask my sisters hubby gave me for Christmas, and a matching skirt for it of course, but that might have to wait a bit.

The pattern is made using a diagram from A History of Costume of Carl Kohler and it went together beautifully, when made up it comes out fitting a bust at about 84 cm (33 inches) but that is much to small for me but it was just to enlarge it.

Is this a caraco? I am not sure, I am afraid that I am not entirely sure about what is what in the jacket department yet.

I changed the tail part a bit, it did not turn out as full in the back as pictured on the diagram so I added some pleats to it.



I am not really sure about the look of the tails, they seem a bit off, a bit to long or a bit to short, in a weird middle. I an not entirely convinced I want the pleats either, I might change it and make more of a full skirt kind of appearance and no pleats.

 

The Xena skirt

Here comes an in depth post about my Xena skirt.

The skirt is made up with both long pieces that are rounded in the bottom, and small pieces that also have a rounded bottom, the small pieces are riveted together by hand and overlap the long stips.
They are all hand cut from a vegetable tanned cowhide and then coloured with leather colour.

The fact that they are riveted makes them able to move a bit, not really sure that it is a good thing ;)

The pieces are riveted to a underskirt in the top, the do not go up entirely to the top since I am wearing a corset over it so I don’t want unnecessary bulk added on my hips.

In the front I have a loop to put my whip in, and a hook to put mychakram on, I have a leather sting to secure it to the hook, since I am not using it and I don’t want it to fall of while wearing the costume. The holders are also both riveted to the skirt, the loop for the whip have a snap closure, so it is easy to just secure the whip, and also easy to just pull it of.

The underskirt is made out of a scrap hide, I got if for no money at all and it was an ugly grey green colour. It have been cut in two and have been coloured and then I sewed darts in the waist, just like I would do on a regular skirt front and back.

It also have a waistband made out of Petersham ribbon. Since it is leather the waist would naturally have stretched, a non stretchy waistband prevents this. It is also the waistband that holds the back and front piece together.

It closes at one side with press buttons, the leather overlaps a bit.

 

I took a deep breath and dived down once again

Into the 18th century!

So I have been quiet for some time, school starting again and a new year to, this new years resolution, sew and wear more dresses the same as last years.

So what is all this about 18th century, well but yes, I had that grand plan about the green Madame Pompadour dress last winter, but it was to much money for the silk, not the right colour was anywhere to be found and it all ran out in the sand.
But an internet friend showed of her new pink robe a la francaise and I totally fell down into the deep sea of 18th century clothing. Last plan was a robe a la francaise, this time I’m going with a robe à l’anglaise with zone front and different coloured skirt (and zone front to) this way I don’t need to buy all the silk at the same time, smart thing right :P

So first I needed to finish my pair of stays I started February last year but never finished. The only thing left was to deal with the shoulder straps and bind the top. The shoulder straps did not work with my body and the issue seemed hard to deal with at that time, I was just to lazy. So yesterday I researched the internet for a while looking for sources for pair of stays without the straps, since I have seen people do them before so I hoped that there were some historical sources to support that. I found a bunch of drawings and over at http://www.laracorsets.com I found that her two oldest corsets both had no straps.

So I just chopped my of to! It took about 1 hour to take out the steel boning and trim them to new lengths, cut of the straps and some of the back and then bind it.

And then I needed a pattern for the dress.
I had gotten a new book this Christmas it was “A History of Costume” by Carl Köhler and it actually had a diagram over exactly what I needed, the diagram was easy to follow and it was easy to draw a pattern from, I just needed to fix it to my size but that was easy to. After one mock up I had a nice bodice to work from.

Then I made a makeshift bum roll out of scrap fabric and pleated some fabric to see how much I might need for the “over dress” part.

I am making the dress “en fourreau” so ignore the incorrect shape of the “tail”, It will also have more seams in the back but since they are not shaping anything I ignored them in the mock up.

 

2009

So one is supposed to summon up the year that have passed and here comes my 2009

January

I came up with a new version of my burned books necklace, did some embroidery. I started on a pair of stays and pocket hoops but it took me quite some time to finish them up.

February

I made a steampunk inspired shirt, finished my striped jacket, became 21 and therefore made a cake, posted my panties tutorial, printed on fabric, made a gray wool dress and thought that I would finish the pair of stays soon. (it is not done yet ;))

March

I started march out with making a summer dress, then I made another dress to, I had a mini photo shoot all by myself on my balcony, I covered a corset in vintage buttons, I posted my “Victorian skirt” tutorial, I made more pretty necklaces, I wrote about the school I studied at and I also made some bows and purses.

April

I made a rag rug, my sister turned 13 so I made her a cake, I was busy working with a final collection in school, I entered a competition and won my own sewing machine and I started to weave damask a technique that I totally loved.

May

May was a bad month for me, my father passed away and that made me tired and I had no energy, to be able to keep the school work up I did not tell my teachers or classmates about it either, I had no time for being sad or being treated different since we were at the end of the term. I did some some things this month, I posted a tutorial on how I sew my corsets which is the thing that is most visited post in my entire blog and I covered a second corset with buttons.

June

This month was mostly about dresses! I made a swim dress, we had a fashion show in school, I made a organic cotton jersey dress, I started on a new damask fabric, I made a dress for my fathers funeral, I made a dress out of the damask fabric I made, I made a dress with cherries on it, I made a carpet bag and I finally got around to taking pictures of the finished panniers.

July

I worked all of July so there was not really a creative month for me but I managed to make a tutorial on how to make a balloon skirt, drafted my first corset pattern for someone else then me and I also made steampunk hearts.

August
I did not make anything this month, but I moved and started a new school.

September

This month I did not make anything either, I felt bad about it and made a tutorial on how to make a pencil skirt and a tutorial for a really simple skirt.

October

My new school started in the end of august but I ha no time blogging about stuff until October, crazy crazy but fun fun! I tried out hands on new machines, made a leather rose, I made a green dress, I started on and almost finished a striped corset, I learned leather working techniques and how to colour leather, I made a wool balloon dress that became my definite favourite this year, I made a apron out of moose leather, I started some projects I never finished as this ruffle petticoat and this wool dress and I tried my hands on book binding.

November

Busy in school making stuff I had no time for blogging but I managed to post about how to turn leather scraps into useful things, I also translated my corset sewing tutorial to Swedish and made a peter pan collar drafting tutorial.

December

In December I made a lot of stuff but I have not posted about all I made yet. I did make a Xena outfit for a costume party at school, I did a lot of Christmas related stuff, chocolate, gift wrapping and “knäck”. I also made a gray dupion corset. built stuff out of cardboard, a Christmas dress, I finished the striped corset, I smocked a lot of fabric, and some leather to and then I also bought a kick ass pitcher that costed so much more then I could actually afford as a poor student.

 

Cordula B.-Morich

I just wanted to show you all this fantastic ceramic pitcher I bought myself as a early Christmas present. It was a lot of money for me, being a poor student and all but it was totally worth it.

It was love at first sight.

 

smocking leather

After the week with the guest teacher we were supposed to translate the techniques we learned into our own materials, leather.
I chose to work with a nappa leather, the colour is called “petrol” and was quite hard to catch on photo.

As the smocking was my favourite technique I decided to work with that, I worked with 2*2 cm (0,8*0,8 inches) squares.
I wanted to make a product in stead of just a test square so I decided to make a belt thing.

In progress

I have a waistband in it so that you can wear it without it dropping down due to the stretch of the smocking.

Close up

I really like how it turned out.

 

manipulation fabric

We had a guest teacher week some weeks ago, she thought us some fabric manipulation techniques. My favourite was learning how to smock fabrics, since that is a technique I have been curious about before.

 

striped corset finished

This is a corset I have wanting to make FOREVER, what girl does not need a striped corset in her closet? And I have had it going for ages, waiting for the new grommet press in school. But it never came and I needed the corset for a event so I put the grommets in by hand in stead, as I have done for all the other of my corsets. ;)

Construction info:
Two layers of coutil
One layer of cotton with printed stripes
Black faux external boning channels (the boning is in between the layers of coutil)
Extra wide busk
7,5mm steel bones
Two piece grommets

I also made my first modesty panel, the design of it is taken from how electradesign makes her and it works really well, looks nice and makes it easy to lace yourself in without the modesty panel wrinkling.

A not so very good picture of me in the corset, the corset is not really that visible in this picture.