Almost there!

Today, I'm putting in the hemstitches on the half-robe/shortgown (I really need to figure out which is which. Or if they are the same). Then, all I have left is the linen lining! That has a little piecing to be done so that the front overlaps properly, and then it is set. I might add a little skirt to the bodice lining, too, but that is optional and might not make it on before the deadline.

The past few days, I've worked on sleeves. I hate sleeves (insomuch as one can hate an element of design.) I mostly hate drafting patterns for them; I have no aversion to wearing them. I cut out and basted on three muslin sleeves before cutting my final fabric. I don't have much of this fabric left (only the lower half of the skirt, and a few scraps here and there), so I couldn't afford to fly by the seat of my pants like I usually do.

I had originally intended to add a 2-piece sleeve to this garment (as per 1790s), but I found more research than not which indicated that the sleeves for this type of garment should be cut as one piece. I found this (below) example in my Costume in Detail book:

Bradfield, Nancy. Costume in Detail: 1730-1930
Costume & Fashion Press/Quite Specific Media; 2nd edition, 1997

My pattern ended up looking like this:

Which mocked up like this (pardon the splatters all over my bathroom mirror. I had no idea it needed a cleaning so badly! I guess bathroom mirrors are like glasses - it takes a startlingly long time to notice that they are actually dirty, but then it is fairly appalling...):

Must say... this short gown does not exactly emphasize a slender figure.
And I don't have a terribly slender figure to begin with, so I look just
rather broad. Oh well. I still quite like it.

It was a LITTLE snug over the chubby part of my bicep, but I just fudged a little into the pattern when I cut it out of final fabric. I had to piece together my sleeves, and I added a linen lining with the lower part pieced in as fashion fabric (as per the Costume in Detail half robe). If you look closely at the picture below, you can see that the outer sleeve is pieced just above the wrist, and there is a little triangle under the arm. I'm actually pretty pleased that this garment will be so pieced, as I feel like this sort of thing would have been scrapped together back in the day.

LEFT: right sleeve and lining turned right-side-out.
RIGHT: left sleeve and lining turned wrong-side-out.

Penelope, my 100lb Lab/Pit Bull mix faithfully lay next to me as I cut and basted and cut again. When I say "next to me," I mean directly in-between myself and anywhere I needed to go. That is her habit. But I love her too much to make her move out of the way (it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to know that she always wants to be nearby, so I leave her be).

HSF 2014 Challenge #1: Make Do and Mend - Part 1

What do you know, I think I am actually on track to finish the first HSF challenge of 2014, on time! I am so excited! I still have to keep up the momentum through the week and finish up the sleeves, but hopefully that won't be a problem. My darling boy volunteered to cook almost every night, so that will free me up in the evenings. I've just got to bang out that sleeve pattern tomorrow night!

I tried on the dress one last time, and almost couldn't chop it up. Too many good times in this dress! However, I had already pulled off the sleeves to (unsuccessfully) re-vamp them, and I've been bothered by the various period-incorrect bits of this for a while now. So... after taking these pictures, I sat down and picked apart all the seams.

Bodice off, 2/3 length cut off of the skirt, and trimmed a bit off the lower
skirt to even out the skirt-front into a nice, tidy rectangle. 

I don't have a lot of in-progress pictures (oops), but today I got almost everything thing together but the sleeves. I popped it on the form and noticed... a couple problems.

The front is pretty cute. The top-front is gathered separately from the bottom-front (as observed in extant short gowns and jackets). There is a bit of awkwardness going on at the side-front bodice - I think my drawstring might be going back about 5"-6" too far, allowing some awkward gathering of the bodice shell. Hopefully tacking the drawstring down at side-front will even that out.

The shape at the side skirt dips in a bit, probably because it is a straight-up rectangle. And the pleats hang kind of "chunkily." However, I am pretty sure my skirt shape is correct, so I won't be correcting that.

All that remains is to trim the armscyes to form a more period-correct back shape, and pop on the sleeves. Then there are a few finishing bits like the hem and under-bodice, but that shouldn't take more than an evening.

I am so ready to have a completed project!

Construction Confusion

Now that the next Jane Austen Festival has been announced, I am scheming about NEW costumes! They may not be realized, because I have to finish last year's pieces first, but one can always scheme.

I would love to put together for myself a slightly more "working woman" impression, with a simple cotton dress and a cotton/linen spencer. It would be a fun exercise in print-mixing. With that in mind, I have been researching cotton print spencers, and I came across one that I really love, but the construction baffles me. I am trying to puzzle out how, exactly, it opens to be put on.

From the front view, I can decipher:
- The top of the bodice and the "skirt" (below the bust line) appear to be separate pieces of fabric. I can't tell, however, if they are gathered separately before being assembled, or if all the gathers at the front are caused by a little hidden drawstring. When I compare the shirring ratio on the upper bodice to the shirring ratio on the "skirt," they appear to have been gathered separately before being stitched together.
- The sleeves are cut in one piece on the fold/straight grain, but they are shaped to narrow at the wrist before flaring out over the knuckles.
- There are two little ties hanging down at the sides of the garment. From the front, I have no idea what purpose these serve, but you can see them a little better on the back.
- There is green trim around the neckline and sleeve hems.
- The bodice appears to be lined at the back, and it looks flat (as though the center-back gathers we see on the back view are only in the fashion fabric, mounted on a fitted lining.)

Jak, Blaricum via the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum

The back of the spencer provides a little more construction information:
- The back bodice is cut extremely narrow, and is tightly gathered. I wouldn't call the gathers "full," though, as there is no body to them (they're very flat - which would support my conjecture that this piece is mounted on a fitted lining).
- There are small (1.25"?) rectangles of fabric covering the shoulder seams, which are placed very far back.
- There is a seam (which appears to have a narrow self-fabric piping) between the upper bodice and lower bodice/skirt. This piece is flat, with no gathers in the upper or lower edges.
- There is another seam bisecting the lower half of the bodice. This piece is definitely gathered at center back, and has a little bit of green trim at the bottom edge, which cuts off before reaching the sides of the bodice.
- There are three brass (pewter? some kind of metal) buttons mounted on the lower seam. These buttons appear to be non-functional, entirely decorative.
- The green trim extends all the away around the back neckline (the entire neckline is trimmed).
- The bodice appears to be unlined on the front (the front skirt, at least).
- There appears to be an opening at the side seams, from which the striped (linen?) tapes hang! This part puzzles me the most. I have never seen a side opening like this that doesn't have some kind of apron-front piece on the front, allowing for more flexibility. Do the openings extend from hem to sleeve? Is there any kind of slit in the sleeve for flexibility? Why are the openings there instead of CF or CB? Was this common and I just never realized it? How do the ties get tucked away when the jacket is worn? Where is the front set of ties disappearing under the bodice in this picture? So many questions.

Jak, Blaricum via the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum

Also, what is that green trim made of? It almost looks like cotton fabric with trapunto stuffed rows. Or maybe they are just corded! But the trim doesn't appear to be stiff (if you look at the gathered back skirt, it folds pretty easily).

This jacket is what I am puzzling over today. I think I might have to reproduce it; it is too interesting to not investigate with a reproduction.