Doin' Up the Pemberleys

After owning these shoes for, what, 18 months?  I have finally gotten around to painting them.  Oh, Costume College, where would I be if I didn't have your deadlines?

My inspiration was this pair from the Met:

Slippers

Date: 1790–1810

Culture: European

Medium: leather, silk, metal

Dimensions: 3 x 10 1/2 in. (7.6 x 26.7 cm)

Credit Line: Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Herman Delman, 1954

Accession Number:

2009.300.1474a, b

But in teal, of course

First coat.  I was a bit nervous at how streaky it came out, but all blended together nicely.

Second coat

Third coat and finishing coat

 Now to make the tassels.  I couldn't figure out was what holding the tassels on the Met pair together, so I had to get creative:

Scissors, embroidery floss, and a metal D-ring

 My toes were about the right diameter for wrapping the floss.  I had to trim it down later, but it was much easier to manage when it was long.

Tie it up; cut it apart.

Then I needed something to secure it to the D-ring.  So I tied on some floss, and made a monkey chain to the other side.

I caught up the short side of the floss in the chain, so that it the knot wouldn't untie.

Then, I slipped the tassel under one side of the D-ring, over the floss chain, and under the other side of the D-ring.

Et voila!

1790's Undergarments: Take Two

Hey, remember this?  My first go at a set of underthings for the 1790's morning outfit.  I decided that it just wasn't working.  The boning in the center was poking out too much at the top, and the lacing wasn't very adjustable, which became a problem when I lost some weight.  I probably should have taken the hint when I had to more than double the size of the cups: these stays were not meant for my body.

So, I was all ready to mock-up the "late 1790's" stays from Corsets & Crinolines, when I had a think.  This is a morning outfit, I don't need to be fully laced up - let's experiment with bodiced petticoats...

It actually worked quite well.  I shorted the lining from the half-robe pattern in Janet Arnold, attached and skirt and bustle pad, and inserted 4 pieces of cable ties (which had rather pointy end when I cut them, so I filed the edges down with a nail file.)

The Challenge: #15: White

Fabric: Bodice: 100% cotton, Skirt: 50/50 cotton/linen blend

Pattern: Bodice: Adapted from Janet Arnold's 1790's half-robe, Skirt: Rectangles!

Year: 1796-1801

Notions: Kitchen twine for lacing, cable ties for boning, polyester padding in the bustle pad

How historically accurate is it? Well, you just saw the word "polyester," right?  Bad me!  It also has criss-cross lacing, instead of spiral lacing, which is a bit innovative, but not unheard of for this era.  And the seams are in completely the wrong place because I had to Frankenstein the panels to get the most out of my fabric.

Hours to complete: Far too many.  I started the petticoat over 18 months ago, and it has gone through quite a transformation since then

First worn: Well, the photoshoot, but in front of other humans on Sunday at Costume College!

Total cost: All stash!  Well, the polyester was filched from an old pillow, so, nothing.

My Papillote Curls

After posting Janet Stephen's video yesterday, I thought I'd try my hand at papillote curls.

I used 15 pieces of tissue paper, all about 12x9x9.  They seemed quite big, but you shouldn't go any smaller for large curls - mine were about 1 inch in diameter and 1/8 to 1/6 of an inch thick.

This is my hair before curling.  It's already wavy and moderately thick, so it holds a curl pretty well.  I didn't wash it for a few days before to build up some of that historical grime.  If you have thin, straight hair, you might want to use smaller curls and heat each one twice.

For this technique, it is essential to start at the bottom of your scalp because the curls hang down.  I did four curls at the base of my neck and two layers going all the way around my head.  I heated each curl for 15-20 seconds.

 Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of my head completely covered in paper because I started pulling out some of the bottom curls while waiting for the top ones to finish cooling.  But here's what they look like pulled out and unbrushed.  The whole process took about 30 minutes (so have an iPod handy.)

Now for the fun part: hairstyles to do with these curls (created very sloppily by me with 5 bobby pins.)

Loop up the curls on the side to create those silly patches of curls popular in the 1830's:

Wrap a turban around them for a 1790's look: 

Brush them out to get a big, fluffy base for a 1940's style:

Pin the sides back to get cascading curls for an 1870's evening look:

Finished Project: 1790's undergarments

Hooray!  I'm finally finished with the shift, stays, and petticoat for the 1790's morning outfit - this was my first entirely hand-sewn project, so I'm trying to bask in the glow of accomplishment and not think about how many more things I could have done if I had used the machine.  And I'm not completely done: the bottom edge of the stays need to be finished and I need to short the straps a bit, but that straightforward work can be done when I get back to college.

The chemise and petticoat are a cotton/linen blend and the stays are cotton sateen with the cotton/linen for the waist stay and binding.

It's hard to see, but there is a small bustle pad attached to the petticoat

Yeah, those straps need to be shorter

I used Past Patterns 038 for the stays and I have some advice for anyone interested in making it.  First, the "busk area" (there isn't actually a busk, just four boning channels in the center) was too wide.  This made it stick out away from me - this can probably be concealed by a sturdy bodiced petticoat, but it's a bit of a pain.  The extant stays I've seen have this wide busk:

So if you make this pattern, I would suggest that you only use the two center-most boning channels and ignore the outer ones.

This is probably just my high waist, but the side bones dig into my hips the tiniest bit.  Otherwise these stays are very comfortable.

Les Poupees des Modes

Here's an interesting tidbit of information from Caroline Weber's "Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution":

"To showcase their wares, the fashion purveyors often relied on jointed wooden or plaster poupees des modes, or "fashion dolls" - precursors to both the store mannequin and the runway model - outfitted in doll-sized versions of the latest Parisian styles. Commonly known as Pandoras ("little Pandora" modeled morning and informal garb, while "big Pandora" was draped in ceremonial and evening wear).... According to historian Daniel Roache, 'in times of war, the poupees enjoyed diplomatic immunity and were even given cavalry escorts to ensure their safe arrival.'"

NB: There is an acute accent on the first "e" in "poupee" (I lack the techincal know-how to get blogger to do this for me.)