Introducing: The Blue Silk 1960's Dress

Hello world!

After six months of designing, teaching, millinery and art modeling,  I am back in the swing and ready to tackle my next historical sewing project: let's kick this time machine into high gear and power through from the 14th century all the way to 1962!

I'm skipping a few centuries on this journey through historical costume (DON'T PANIC, I'll be back) because this piece was too cute to pass up.  It started off as an unused design idea for Noel Coward's "A Song At Twilight" at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, directed by Paul Mullins and designed by the extremely talented Nikki Delhomme who is always a joy and a pleasure to work with.   Although this particular version of the dress did not appear onstage, I fell in love with the mockup and knew that I had to make it for myself.

The sweetheart neckline, the wide shoulders, the angular darts!  I love the simple design (thanks, Nikki!) and the ladylike, sophisticated feeling of this crisp dress.  Here I'm wearing the original mockup before any alterations, which was draped by Tiffany Lent and put together my Sue Hawley, both of STNJ.  Although the dress was (miraculously) very close to my size, I did alter the pattern to suit my specific proportions, including lowering the waistline, shortening the sleeves and re-shaping the back neckline. 

My shopping list and sketch of the dress

HELL YES, now we get to the fun part! 

 Three yards of crisp, dreamy, ocean-blue silk shantung.  I can't get enough of this color- every time I look at it feels like plunging into a deep, cool Mediterranean lagoon on a hot day.  Or at least what I think that would probably feel like.  I wanted to step out of my usual zone and do something uncharacteristically bold-  although I was severely temped by some gorgeous mossy green silk faille, I thought that this ultra-saturated primary blue would be a bolder look and better fit for the dress, which is simple and understated and deserves a strong color choice. 

Now that my fabric and lining are marked, it's time to cut... Stay tuned for more updates!

New Year, Old Projects

Whew, life got busy once I was working as a stitcher full-time for a local regional theatre, and I didn't post anything about my most recent project!  Let's take a looksey:

For a trip to the Texas Renaissance Faire in November, I decided to quickly draft and put together a simple cotehardie in the style of the French 1350's.  Nothing says fashionable like the Plague Years:  while the Bubonic was sweeping Europe, fashions temporarily took a turn for the risque and extremely fitted, wide-necked dresses briefly became popular- some were even worn off-the-shoulder.

This fabulous lady is wearing her tight-fitting cotehardie under a fur-trimmed surcoat- note the row of buttons at center front

More inspiration

This classy dame is wearing a wide belt low on her hips, and representing her heraldic colours with her parti-coloured gown.

My sketch, showing the basic shape and button placement

The fabric on the left is the 100% linen that I found on sale at JoAnn's, and the red is was an inspiration for the colour.  I bought the sandy beige fabric, a few bottles of RIT dye, and went to work

Laying out the yardage to press and roll- it turned out very close to what I was picturing, a warm rusty red-brown.  

The sleeves were cut from one piece on the bias, so they fit nice and snug.  They have gussets drafted into the design, which were inspired by an extant dress from the 14th century found preserved in a bog in Greenland

This is what my pattern pieces looked like- long and curvy!  I drafted the body in four pieces, with the center front being mostly on-grain with just a few minor curves.  

My mannequin usually fits on a box, but I had temporarily misplaced it so here she is swimming in hem allowance.  For the picture the front opening is pinned shut and the triangular godet is pinned at the hip

Sleeves basted in, checking on how I liked the button spacing.  Here you can see just how wide the neckline is- the sleeves perch right on the shoulder points.

Historical research for round buttons in the medieval period

Almost done!  The dress is hemmed, the godets are sewn (that had to be done twice, as originally I had placed them a little too high and there was more bulk around my hips than I wanted). 

The neckline and sleeves are finished with piping, which there is Almost Certainly historical research for (though it's a little hard to tell in paintings whether it's piping or trim in the paintings)

My fabric buttons!  They are made out of small squares of fabric folded in on themselves over and over until they become tight little balls. 

That's it for the progress photos!  This dress came together, start to finish, from dyeing to pattern drafting to sewing to detail work, in a total of three weeks.  I was working full-time during the day during that period, so my fingers were awfully sore from sewing for 8 hours, then coming home to sew some more!  The last three days days before our trip I stayed up sewing until 3 am, and on the last day I pulled and all-nighter, just barely finishing the buttons before it was time to head to the airport.  

Tomorrow I'm enlisting my sister to take photos, so those will be up hopefully before too long. Now I'm in the design stages for my next historical project, a Venetian gown in the style of the 1560s.

The Blue Elizabethan Dress- Introduction

I began daydreaming about this project back in January, and knew that I wanted to do a 'French Gown' in they style of the later 1500s, in either light blue or blue-green (which was called "watchet" by Elizabethans).  The full ensemble is going to consist of the gown as well as a shift, pair of bodies (corset), bum roll, fathingale, petticoat, forepart, partlet, removable sleeves and a miniature hat.  This will be my second large scale, independent historical design and production project- I completed an ensemble in the Florentine style of the 1490's back in September,  2014.    

Photo of my design rendering

 Planning stage is done, including purchasing fabric, and I began drafting a corset pattern yesterday.  I've decided to create a version of the famous "Effigy Stays," made of corset coutil and silk taffeta, with additional back lacing so that the stays will fit despite potential future weight change.   Here is my schematic sketch, which may or not prove to be incredibly wrong (it's my first time drafting from scratch!)

And a sketch in my notebook of how I'd like the corset to look.  I am going to make my shift with wide sleeves so that the gown can be worn without over-sleeves on the hottest summer days.  I'd still like a square, low neckline so that the gown can be worn with a partlet (for everyday wear) and without (for fancy occasions, evening, etc.)