18th Century Curls

Check out Janet Stephens' video on papillote curls which appear to be an 18th - early 19th century curling technique.

Vintage Shopping in Washington DC

As implied in my last post, here is my review of a few of the vintage clothing shops in DC (of course, with some show-and-tell of my finds!)

Meeps Vintage Fashionette

Selection: Moderate-Varied.  The picture on the website will give you a pretty good idea of how big it is.  Mostly spans the 40's to the 70's, and about a third of the items have dates.  LOTS of accessories and jewelry, and also quite a good collection of mid-century slips.  Clothes are sorted into small/medium/large size groups. 

Service: The woman who was working when I went was laid back, but still helpful enough that I didn't feel neglected (I was there with my mom, so I didn't need too much advice).  

Price:  Moderate. Willing to negotiate a price on items that haven't been marked yet, and I got a 10% discount on a skirt that had lost some buttons. (They don't take American Express)
What I found:  A navy hounds-tooth skirt that I'm 95% sure was home made in the 30's (metal zipper, no maker's tag, poorly hemmed) 

Please excuse the non-matching shoes, I seem to have left most of shoes at school. 

Close-up of the buttons and pleats

A white skirt, probably 70's.  Originally it had white buttons, but some of them has fallen off, so I replaced them with navy ones.

Mercedes Bien Vintage Clothing and Decor


Selection: Varied.  Plenty of 70's dresses, but also lots of things from the 30's to the 80's (I even saw a pair of late Victorian open drawers!).  This place also has a couple of great 50's crinolines.
Service: The owner was VERY friendly and eager to help you; it was a bit intimidating for an introvert like me.  She clearly knows a lot about textiles.  This would be a great place to have a big shopping spree.
Price: Moderate-High.
What I found: How awesome is this: I found an 60's stewardess' tweed skirt that was manufactured by Airways Industries (possible Airway Industries, I'd check, but I'm wearing it right now!)

junction


Selection: Limited-Moderate.  Not as many things and mostly 70's with some 40'-60's. Really great scarves though.
Service: In between Meeps and Mercedes Bien. She gave good advice on things I tried on, but didn't run around finding things I might like. (This was perfect for me)
Price: Moderate
What I found: 70's polyester dress

Old Costume: 1880's corset

I made this corset last summer to replace a boring white one.  It's from the Truly Victorian 1880's corset pattern and is one layer of satin and two layers of cotton batiste.  If you ever want to make a corset out of satin, DON'T - SPARE YOURSELF.  I was terrified the whole time of making a mistake because picking out the stitches was practically impossible without ruining the fabric.  I ended up sewing the channels by hand so that they were the exact fit for the steel spirals.

Also, I swear I made a set of combination underwear, but I cannot find them anywhere.  They probably ended up on some closet floor during the many costume shifts.  Hopefully this will force me to make a new set without hideous sweat stains.  So, here I am with an 18th century shift and an 1880's corset.

Note: Do not try to adjust your shift after you're completely laced.  It will make you lopsided.

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.

Old Costume: Labyrinth Ballgown

First off, if you haven't seen the movie Labyrinth, go watch it.  It's awesome: like David Bowie, little Jennifer Connelly, and Jim Henson puppets awesome.  Also, it is hilariously bad.

One of the most memorable scenes is a ball/dream sequence/drug-induced hallucination.  It's got some very fun fantasy ballgowns, here's some screenshots I took of the dress I semi-recreated:

I made this dress for Costume College's Gala, but I've been delaying photographing (code for: making my boyfriend photograph) this costume because I couldn't find a hairstyle that worked with it.  Today I had a Brigitte Bardot-inspire hairdo, and that actually seemed to work; so I here present the Green Labyrinth Ballgown.

The dress is made entirely of silk taffeta and is based on the Truly Victorian Romantic Era Dress pattern with some bodice alterations and the evening 'beret' sleeves - except I didn't add the tulle to keep them floppy.  I also ignored the the lower sleeves because I already couldn't really move my arms and the actress looks very inconvenienced by her sleeves.  I also shorted the neckline ruffle so it would look better with my curvier figure.

The Seductive Shoe

First off, yesterday was my 20th birthday.  Now I have to be a real person and not a crazy teenager (in my mind).  And I wanted to share one of the books that I got, The Seductive Shoe: Four Centuries of Fashion Footwear, which is completely awesome.

I had never heard of this before (but maybe I'm just not reading enough costuming blogs - you can never read too many!)  I haven't had the chance to read much of the text yet, but the pictures are completely drool-worthy.  I've been using this book to get inspiration for the Pemberlies!

English olive leather shoes with gold-stamped design and yellow silk tassels, c. 1800-1810

English brown and yellow kid shoes, c. 1792

A Corset Rant

I feel like corsets are given a really bad rap by a lot of people today. They are portrayed as painful devices inspired by sexism that crushed women's organs and caused them to faint. I'm getting really sick of this.

This drawing - which is really more of a caricature - is not helping.

Dangerous tight-lacing definitely did occur, especially after corset-makers started using steel grommets for the eyelets in the 1820's, but I cannot believe that half of society would put themselves through daily pain for centuries.

Think about it: nowadays, some people are very fashion conscious and body conscious; they make their thighs and belly smaller through plastic surgery; they buy expensive designer bras to push their breasts into unnatural positions - but this is not the norm. Most people just want to look nice and feel comfortable.

 

Scarlett O'Hara may have been upset that she couldn't get her waist back down to 18 1/2 inches, but I don't think Melanie would have been bothered by that!



It seems that in all this anti-corsetism, people have forgotten that the bra has only been around for about 100 years.  Before the bra, the corset was pretty much the only support garment available (unless you go all the way back to the Gothic Fitted Dress).  For women with larger cup sizes it can be uncomfortable to go with any support, especially during menstruation, pregnancy, and nursing, and wearing a corset is preferable to wearing no support garment at all.

Of course a corset is uncomfortable at first, so is wearing a bra for the first time or walking around in a new pair of shoes.  I wore my 1880's corset all day at Costume College and felt fine, and the historical interpreters in Colonial Williamsburg that I have talked to - who lace themselves up everyday - are able to work a loom and sheer sheep without a hitch (in fact, the sheep-shearing lady said that she needed a corset to protect her torso from errant ovine kicks!)

Women have fought for their right to vote and run countries, without constantly fainting and calling for their smelling salts, all while wearing corsets.