Regency Curls Tutorial

A turban with some curly fringe is my go to regency era hairstyle. It's pretty easy, and doesn't take much work because all you really do is sleep with curlers, take them out and then bam! ready to go! The first two pictures is what my tutorial would have looked like if I had let the curls dry all the way before I took them out. The photos from the actual tutorial are at the bottom, and because several of the curls were damp, they got tucked up into the turban. :P I typically do a center part, because that seems to be what most fashion plates and paintings depict. I've done a side part before though, because I'm lazy, and partly because my hair just, like does NOT want to center part. :) 

So to start, part the front of my hair, from right behind me ears all the way across. 

Then I dampen it (don't soak! Or you will have damp curls by morning! lol) and add some gel and or mousse. I buy most all of my hair products at Walmart. 

my bathroom has horrible lighting. I'm sorry! 

water

Then I sectioned my hair into somewhat small sections to be rolled.

The foam rollers are from Dollar General, size "medium". They looked like size small to me, which was good. I'm not really sure there's a certain way I roll them...typically any which way, but I try to make them vertical so it will make ringlets. 

 Then I go to bed. When I wake up, I spritz the rolls with hairspray. Then I unwind them all and coat them with hairspray. I have like regular hairspray, and then the arisol kind. I don't favor one over the other and will use which ever one is closest.

 And then I wrap my wool scarf (it's a lovely soft lightweight scarf, I've got a red one, and then mama has an olive coloured one) around my head like a turban, and keep the curls out!

~Theresa

Making Pantalets from the 1820's

I hope you are liking the 1820's right now, because I am. :)  I've just finished up a pair of pantalets from that era, and yup, that's what this blog post is about :).  I love them, even if I did have to restrain from making tucks.  (random facts about me, I love making tucks and flat felled seams.)

I used a CW drawers pattern (Simplicity 2890), but adjusted it so that the legs were not as full, and took out the tucks.  They legs are attached to a waistband, like the ones below, instead of tying on separate.  I am not sure yet, but I think I will wear these as CW drawers as well.

My original plan for these pantalets was to put some Broderie Anglaise around the bottom like the two pairs feature below.  I did a lot of reading but I wasn't feeling very confident about doing the Broderie Anglaise...so I didn't.  I'm still not exactly sure how it's done...but I did learn a little bit.  At first I thought you just punched holes in the fabric and sealed it off with like nail polish or fray-check, or I'm not sure what.  *wince*.  I now know that it's similar to eyelet...but different.  And that's the part where I was getting confused.  And so we move along.

When I saw this picture of some 1820's pantalets that had lace insertion I thought I'd try that.  I do understand how that is done and had been wanting to try it for several months.  

original pantalets

After that I'm not really sure what happened...I think I just wanted a little bit of colour at the waistband.  I had some early 19th century embroidery patterns printed out from a previous project, and so I just did a little embroidery there.  And then I think I wanted the colour at the hem too so I just went ahead and did embroidery there as well.  At first I thought I wouldn't like it, since I prefer a more simplistic look, but it's just enough to add detail without being over the top.  

french knots!! :)

china buttons

yes...the do split.  It's slightly disturbing to me still...

forgive the skinnies and the sweater :P I didn't feel like getting all garbed up for a picture.  :O I'm currently sick. blah.

I would have done more of a tutorial for you, but it was literally just attaching two legs to a waistband.  And my embroidery skills are not even close to being good enough for a tutorial on that.  I will do a lace insertion tutorial one day, but until then, here is a good site to check out. :) 

I'm happy with my new pantalets. A very time consuming project, but rewarding :). 

~Theresa

Making Some Fluff

With a new, late Regency (1820's) dress on the horizon, and 2 outgrown bodiced petticoats in storage, it was time to make a new one.

My first bodiced petticoat was a real shame.   I have to whisper that because Caroline wears it now :P.  It's cute, but it has waaaaaay too many hooks and eyes on the back (all upside down, in case you were wondering), ribbon flowers down the bodice front, and plenty of showing serge.  Not to mention the fact that the only thing I thought to use for a pattern was a size small nursing dress bodice.  What was I thinking.

ah yes...add as many gaudy ribbon flowers and beads as ya like.  I didn't even wear a shift under it...what was I thinking!!!???? Can't post the full pic of it on my blog...a little too much skin and cleavage than I'm comfortable sharing :P

Second bodiced petticoat was fairly accurate.  It had 2 rows of cording at the bottom, and a nice ruffle.  I draped the bodice myself, and it had 3 little buttons on the back.  The only major problem was that the skirt was like 6 inches too long in the back...Bascha had to pin it up every time I wore it :P.  (Love you Bascha! :D)  I liked that petticoat though, and it served me well...until I grew way out of it :(.

showing where the under-bust line is (top of my finger)

I've just now completed my third petticoat :). It's not a bodiced petti, but an un-bodiced one (lol).  I had seen a few examples online, of petticoats without a bodice.  I figured this might be a better idea for me, since my bust is obviously not done growing yet. Instead of having to either rip apart my petti and sew a new bodice, or sew another one, I could just do nothing! :D

                                                       

So that is what I've done.  Stats are: cotton, machine sewn, no patterns, 7 tucks.

I am still thinking of adding those narrow straps.  My waist is the same size as my ribcage (28") and so I've got a feeling it'll slide down lower on my body than it needs too.  The straps would help keep it up.

Also...I'm taller than Madame.  This petticoat hits just lower than mid shin.

It ties completely shut on me, I think I actually need to add another dart to make that band tighter.  If I were to grow in width, I can always just tie it with a gap or let all my waistband tucks out.

Now I've made some fluff for under my dress, and can run off to sew some pantalets.

~Theresa

I Love Half Boots (my first attempt at shoe making! :D)

I know it seems like I've only got small things going on, but they are still a sewing/reenacting necessity.  My last project (just finished today!) was a pair of Regency half boots. They were made of silk, leather, and even linen during the 1800's, but mine are made from faux suede.  I got it for free from a friend of Bascha's, and it seemed pretty durable.  I'll be wearing them in the Latta house and cabins.  

This was one time I didn't make a tutorial of how I made something.....and then last night I had a friend tell me she couldn't wait to see how I made these so she could make them herself.  Bummer.  If you want to know the details just send me an email and I'll do my best to explain :).

I've put green laces for now, though I'm going to put brown ones just as soon as I get out to the store :)

these were my favorite boots, thus my wanting that color brown laces.  They were also the only ones I found that did not lace completely shut, and mine don't lace shut either.

I thought the bows would be a little corny, but they turned out ok :) They are silk.

the inspiration for my silk bows

inside of the boot

toe and tongue of the boot before the bows were attached

for the eyelets I just punched out holes and sealed it off with nail-polish.  I finished off some other fraying parts with nail polish as well....:)

There's my bootsies, and now I'm off to eat a Thanksgiving dinner :) Happy Thanksgiving!!
~Theresa

1780's Style Garters

I've always wanted to make garters.  I never wanted to just use a piece of ribbon or string for fear of red welts and lack of circulation.  And elastic in the 1860's, though period, never had too much of an appeal to me.  Merji made a lovely pair of silk garters which I was looking at the other day, and when reading one of the comments (in Finnish....I couldn't understand it) there was a link, so I pasted it in my search bar and boom!  Hey, look what I found! Aren't they so pretty?

embroidered silk with silver thread and silk ribbons

1780's ladies garters

These garters combined the tie method with something pretty and a little less painful looking.  They are silk, with embroidery, silk ribbons, and pleated silk trim.  They were made in the 1780's, but I figure 10 years difference to 1770's won't be too bad, and neither would wearing them for regency.  Bascha and I both have the period correct knitted stockings that come way up your legs, and Bascha's stockings give her a headache by being rebellious and not staying there.  Mine are getting pretty annoying as well, I am going to make me some knitted ones here in a sec.  Caroline's are a mess, and she uses rubber bands (owwie) as garters.  But back to the point, we needed garters.

Bascha just turned 18 this month, and so I decided to make these for her birthday :).  Happy Birthday Bascha!!!

If you remember the silk trimmings on my Straw Bonnet, I had just enough left over from that project to make up a pair of garters. I don't know how these artifact garters were made.  But here is how I made mine.  And I tried to make them as similar as I could.

I wasn't sure about exact measurements, but I guessed that the decoration part probably went halfway around the leg...that part being the front.  So I held the paper around my leg, a little above my knee. Yup, that worked.

I was also guessing how wide the garter should be.  I went with around 1.5".  Using these measurements, I drew out a shape like the original pair onto a scrap of fabric.  I added seam allowances, and cut out 4 of these (two per garter).

my paper pattern/guide and the silk

I printed out the picture of the artifact garters and traced the design over onto a piece of paper. This was to get the hang of drawing it.

I drew over my pencil markings with sharpie so I could literally "trace" the design to my silk.  I wanted to be able to see it through the fabric.

Then I ever so carefully transferred this onto my silk.

I took the embroidery floss and separated it so I was only using two strands.  When I looked at the original embroidery it looked "thin".  So that's what I tried to do.

squeals!! look at all that embroidery! I just love how embroidery looks, but man I hate doing it :P (also, if you are wondering why it's on a plate, I love eating garters of dinner...(I couldn't get the focus/light right))

I tried to analyze how the garters were sewn together.  I couldn't really tell, but this was how I did it.  I put the fabric right sides together and stitched around the edge leaving a small gap on one end. Then I in-sided them out.  About the little hole on the end...it was where the ribbon ties were attaching anyway, so I just tucked the seam allowance in and sewed it down when attaching the ties.

For the ties-I did not have silk ribbon.  I wanted silk ribbon, but I was scared that if I ordered it it wouldn't come in the same color as my silk.  So I...used *whisper* polyester ribbons (which was also a lot easier), that matched.  I pinked the edges how they did though, and then sealed it off with clear nail polish.

I sewed them down to the garters, re-enforcing where they attached with lots of back stitches.  I did gather them slightly before attaching.

Tie attachment

Moving on to the trim.  I cut out several little strips of silk on the bias so they wouldn't fray.  Then I box pleated them to make the trim like pictured in the original.  But-I just really didn't like the way it looked on the garters.  It seemed to take away from the embroidery, add bulk, and just not flow prettily.  So I opted out on that step :(.  I guess now I can't really say I replicated the original garters can I? But at least I tried.

I'm done!

mama modeling for me :D Bascha's legs aren't available at the moment :P

the ribbons are very long right now, I wasn't sure how long to make them

I had meant to use navy instead of that vibrant blue for the ribbon embroidery...but it didn't work out.  I can't remember why though

One of them says "UNIS A JAMAIS" which is supposed to mean "United forever" The other one says "JE MEURS OU JE M'ATTACHE" which the site says means "I die where I cling" or "I must love or I die".  If I had thought about it, I would have put something lovely and poetic, about love and friendship....but I didn't think about it until it was too late.  Sorry Bascha!!!!

 Wee!  Aren't they so cute?  What do you think of these?  Do you wear garters?  Have you ever made some?

~Theresa