Viking apron dress

A setting I haven't played in so far, but that's no hindrance, there had to be a new dress for the upcoming yule gathering! The underdress is dark green linen, the apron dress light green linen. And it was a nice coincidence that a) they did wear shaped dresses with gores, and b) I was really short on fabric, using up scraps, so I could piece together what I had! Another good thing was that for the characteristic decoration at the front I could use those glass beads I had made ages ago, colourful but not really matching. The downside is that, being a perfectionist, I will have to tablet weave matching trim to be proper and authentic. Maybe for the next yule, if I keep playing in this setting.

For the glass bead decoration typical for this kind of dress I used beads I made in my first attempt at making glass beads - they came out quite nice but not good enough yet to be used for jewellery, so this was the perfect project. The end pieces are two large metal buttons that are pinned to the front of the dress.

Black 1660s gown

Death being a big part of life in those days, and my character already being widowed once, chances are high she has one or two mourning dresses in her wardrobe (well, in her case more like ten or so). Again I followed the 1660s pattern but I think I'm tiring of it, and there are enough mid-1600s dresses in my collection now. Off to new horizons! Anyhow, this dress is made of black satin of unknown material, most likely some mixture of natural and artificial fibres. Drapes very nicely. Actually there's a black chemise to be worn beneath it, but I was in such a hurry before the event where the picture was taken that I forgot to pack it, so it looks a bit bare (as far as five metres of fabric can look bare).

And after four attempts with the pattern I've finally figured out the perfect way of sewing in the hooks and eyes :P The trick - at least with my sewing machine - is to take off the presser foot, put the stitch to buttonhole end-stitch and place the presser manually along the halves of the ready-made hook and eye closure where you want the needle to sew. And in the case of this particular dress pattern: work the stiffened interlining, sew upper fabric and lining (NOT the interlining!) together at the front only, place it over the interlining and zig-zag the lining in place along the front, leaving the upper fabric loose.

Upper and lining sewn, just lining zig-zagged to interlining.

Pin the hook and eye stuff to the lining + interlining very neatly so the closures are even with the edge. Sew on leaving the upper fabric untouched - you don't want all those stitches showing on your top layer. 

Top layer folded back, closure exactly along the edge

Eyes pinned, upper fabric untouched

Hooks sewn (left and right of the hook and once in between)

Then, only when the closure is sewn onto lining and interlining, you can either sew the neckline of lining and top layer from the back and turn over, or pin it from the right side, fold the upper fabric over the neckline and sew it by hand. I do the latter with the bottom front that goes over the skirt to smooth out all creases.

Ok, maybe I'll have to do yet another 1660s and take pictures of this process, using a fabric that's not black on black...

Proper pictures at last, this time WITH chemise (and himation, as the second ball's motto was "Olymp" and my charakter Eurydike). The himation is just a rectangle of fabric 2 x 1,50, black ribbon sewn two-faced all around the edges, pinned to shoulder and hip, pins hidden under lavishly layered bows (to use up the godforsaken ribbon that I really came to hate while trying to get straight seams with this stuff).

Baroque stage dress "la France"

I've long had in mind making a dress based on the king's outfit in the 1993 Three Musketeers closing scene, meaning a combination of blue and gold, just never found a reason why my character should be wearing the royal colours. Well, I was dancing "la France" at the the last baroque ball, which was just as good a reason as you can get! Of course I've already had the intended fabric at home for some years, just no precise idea about the exact design. Well, I had to make up the decision pretty quickly, the main ballgown was finished three days before the ball, so I had three days for this dress. I whipped up a design based on my renaissance bodice with split, lined sleeves that took me one and a half hours each, aided by some gin tonic. Here's a teaser pic of the beta-version which was good enough for the dance and stage fight of la France against l'Espagne. Still lots of details missing, but surprisingly people loved it. Looking forward to the finished version though ;)

Black early baroque jacket

This is yet another original pattern I wanted to try and fit to my measurements to have it in store for quick projects. It's black for the simple reason that I had some black leftover fabric at home, the rest in my external storage was out of reach when motivation hit me. The pattern is the embroidered jacket from Nora Waugh's "The Cut of Women's Clothes". I re-scaled it and modelled it to my measurements by adding another seam to the front, as I intend it to be worn without corset.

The pattern is pretty simple to make, just the gussets were a fuss to sew in, ten of them including the lining. And the sleeves need more fullness than the measurements given in the diagram if you don't intend to embroider them. I stuck to the pattern with completely unshaped sleeves and they do look fine despite my doubts at the beginning. Weren't it for the gussets, this would become my staple three-hours-and-done-jacket. Guess I'll merge this pattern with the one from Holkeboer's "Theatrical Costumes" for another project.

Purple baroque dress

Found nice fabric, needed a gown for my third baroque character, a huguenot noblewoman - perfect coincidence. The fabric is a medium light cotton weave, warp in black, weft in purple, which makes a nice but not too bright colour, perfect for a young huguenot woman who might dare to risk a bit more colour but not stray too far from the usual dark colours.

The skirt has a circumfence of four metres, and as the fabric was just half width I had to add a good measure at the bottom. The decoration of three rows of velvet ribbon makes this hardly noticable.

The bodice is based on a crossover between an original 1630s pattern from "The cut of women's clothes" by Norah Waugh and the early baroque pattern from Holkeboer's "Patterns for theatrical costumes": instead of the tedious but authentic method of inserting darts along the hip section to gain width, I used the Holkeboer version of curved lines instead of straight, but without the stomacher, closing like the original with a high neckline. Also decorated with velvet ribbon and closing with matching bows. In this version I went for very full sleeves. And the tedious gores avoided, this can indeed become the staple two-hours-and-done-bodice.

Rococo "Bergère" hats - the basics

Ikea currently providing an ample support of round place mats made from natural fibres, I have also taken up rococo hatting again. Getting the right shape for one of those flat Bergère-style hats out of a round place mat is easy, you treat the piece with steam or hot water at the centre and the part that's going to be the back, and shape it over or between whatever is at hand and gets you the desired shape.


The basic shape

Moisten the centre of the place mat thoroughly either with steam or with a spray bottle (spray both sides thoroughly) and press it between a round lid and a jar - at least that's what I'm using and it works perfectly. I used to shape the centre over a little glass bowl but the result was nice but not completely satisfactory. The lid of a round metal noodle jar (diametre 10.5 cm, depth 2.5 cm) and a matching honey glass gives perfect results. Put the moistened part over the lid and gently press it in with the jar to get an even crown with relatively straight sides. Let set for an hour or so and gently remove to dry thoroughly (I put mine on the heating). This works for the Ikea straw placemats. Paper placemats are a bit different to shape, as the material won't stretch that much. The brim will inevitably turn wavy due to excess material which you put to one side and use for the turned-up back of the hat.

Dome-shaped crown with a glass bowl as model.

 The procedure works well with any kind of natural fibres, be it paper, straw, reed, or other grassy stuff. The hat will keep its shape pretty well, provided it doesn't get too wet.

I used to shape the turned-up back of the brim also with water, but as it needs wire framing anyway I left this away and just shape it after the wire has been put in along the brim.


Wiring the brim

How to put wire along the edge of your hat depends on which material the place mat consists of. If you have a woven paper mat you will have to line the hat, sew the wire into the edge of the lining, and add the wired lining to the hat. That's because the paper mats have nowhere to hide the wire, whereas you can conveniently put it between the woven layers of Ikea's normal straw place mat. To facilitate this, bend a little o into the end of the wire (.6 mm steel works nicely), thread a very thick, blunt needle with sturdy thread and attach the thread to the steel. You can now work your way around the brim from straw pleat to straw pleat without damaging anything, gently pulling on the string regularly to ease the wire in. It gets a little fiddly towards the end because pulling wire 360° around the hat doesn't work without some gentle pushing and you'd need three hands, but it's by far the most convenient method I've found.

Lining and hat

Wired lining, ready to be sewn into the hat.

The decoration

When you decorate the hats I strongly advise NOT using hot glue. Everything once glued on can't be taken off without damage to the hat or the decoration. Sew stuff on or, in very exceptional cases, use normal household glue to keep stuff in place. I usually glue on the lace around the brim as I want absolutely no stitches to be seen on the reverse side and it makes no difference to how the lace behaves afterwards. I sew all the ruches on by hand with invisible stitches. If you have to line the hat, you can forget about the invisible stitches, they won't be seen through the lining. But otherwise you don't want stitches to show on the reverse side. Push the needle down through trim and straw at an angle, aiming to slide it a few millimetres or so between the two layers of pleated straw to the reverse. Going up from the reverse, use the same hole where your needle just came out to push it in again, at an angle, back up. Thus you'll be sewing the trim to one layer of straw while the visible layer remains more or less intact. It's fiddly, but worth it!

Invisible stitching, nothing visible from the hat band on the upper side.

I usually put lace around the brim, then ruching on the upper side and some coverage on the reverse, like simpler ruches or braid or something. It covers all mistakes you may have made when inserting the wire and is just so much nicer to look at. The turned-up brim at the back of most of my models requires the "below" to be just as nice and neat as the "above", even without lining.

Pomander

As I found some nice ball pendants that can be used for making pomanders, I decided I needed one. Or more. The first one sold quickly at the historic market, so quickly that only a blurry picture could be found because I forgot to take a decent one. It's artificial pearls, four joined on a wire, and a dark red one with silver ornaments between the white pieces. They should be long enough to go round the waist, the scented ball being slightly below your knees. The top end finishes with a hook to close around the waist with one of the joints between the pearl segments so it can easily be adjusted.

The second pomander in blue and gold, commissioned work.

A third one is made with black and silver filigree pearls between the white segments, ending in a cross-shaped pomander pendant.

The fourth one (yes, it becomes slightly addictive...) is with red pearls again, this time with golden ornaments and a golden scent ball, a similar one in blue and gold, and no end in sight, just diversification, growing more and more elaborate with experience and better sources for pearls and ornaments! One needs a matching pomander for each renaissance gown, after all.

How to make one yourself: You'll need white pearls as basis, .8 mm wire (brass or silver-plated; don't use iron wire, it's going to put on rust eventually), a ball pendant for the lower end and a matching hook (can also be self-made from stronger wire) for the closure. String three or four white pearls for the segments and coloured individual pearls with ornaments for the decorative sections, and join them in a nice, regular pattern.

The latest one with bigger pink beads and rhinestone-bling on the pomander - the lighting was bad, the hour was late, new pic to come... I love the filigree closing hook of this one!

If you're not that much into DIY or patience: I'm selling some of these girdles on Etsy ;)