Bascha & I Lost Our Minds Somewhere In the 18th Century

My dears, I'm afraid Bascha and I have lost our sanity, never to have it returned. And as you might have guessed by the title, we've lost it in the 18th Century. Particularly that period between the late 1760's and the 1780's. I lost it first, in the 1760's and Bascha lost it in the 1780's :P. And you wanna know something? We really aren't bothered that much about it!

Here's what happened. Every year, Jessica (our friend that teaches ECD on Thursday nights) throws what is called the Homeschool Historical Ball. Now last year you may remember that the theme was the 40's and 50's (blogged) , and the year before was Regency (un-blogged). Well this years theme was "George Washington" and it was set in the 18th century. And Bascha and I had said this was the year we were going all out, and so we did. And we went all out and it was insane.  :D So there you have it! And 18th century ball we got to costume ourselves up for! And yes, I do have a ship in my hair, all the details will be in upcoming blog posts. :)

If you want to read the post full of exclamation points, it's on my personal blog, Tmarie. It has all the same pictures as in this post, and I think this blog will end up with waaaay more pictures but still ya know, there's the link if you want it :).

I'm still soooo tickled that we did this :D. And so tickled that I can FINALLY share pictures with ya'll, I know there has been a long silence on the blog but now you know why :D And now that we all have evening clothes I think it's about time we plan a 3rd trip to Williamsburg and meet Miss F and Samantha.........:D

And one more thing before I get on the the photos, I've got to link to Ruth. :D She's quite a seamstress and did a fantastic job on her dress and on her younger brother's costume. They both looked soooo good and it was fantastic to see them again :D. Thank you so much Ruthie for coming down to see us!!!!!! You are amazing!

L to R: Ann Marie, Caroline, myself, BASCHA, and Ruth

L to R: Grandma, mama, AM, Care, myself, Bascha :D, Ruth, and Mrs. Jacques

The "squad" L to R: Ben, Grandma, Dad, Mama, Caroline, Ann Marie, Joshua, myself, Joel, Bascha :D, Stephen, Ruth, Mrs. Jacques, Abe. Is it just me or does this photo remind you of a painting? Not any particular painting, just a painting in general.

my fam :) So blessed to have parents and siblings who will be crazy enough to do this with me :D 

Bascha, the blushing beauty that fell out of a portrait from the late 18th century, her dashing brother and her Mum :) 

Ruth and Ben looking all snazzed up :D

My mama looking gorgeous as ever :D She did the hair and wig styling for all of us :) Hair is her forte

my darling Ann Marie and her brother Joel. She looked so beautiful and I love her so much! :D

besties

Again, biggest thanks to my parents who allowed us to be crazy and went crazy with us :D :D :D 

All the young gentlemen. 

Now there will be more photos to come. A blog on my new stays, a blog on our dresses probably individually, and the originals they were copied from, pictures from the ball photographer and of us getting ready, etc. But I hope this is enough to tide ya'll over with :D 

And in closing all I can say is Bascha, Bascha, Bascha.  She is probably the most talented individual I could name for you that I know. I could NEVER have done any my part of the costuming had it not been for her, and did you see her costumes?????!!!! Out of this world! Or rather century :P I love you Bascha! You're absolutely amazing and I still can't get over how good ya'll looked! :D

HIP HIP HOORAY for the #HHB2015 !!!!!!! :D :D :D 

~Theresa, a most excited seamstress

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

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

A Civil War Corset for Caroline

So I made my little sister a pretty dress.  There was a problem.  It wouldn't meet in the waist. (arg...the problems of sewing without a pattern....)  So I had one option, and that was to make her a corset (she had been bugging me about one anyways), and so I did.  And I'm sure this is like totally not period for a 13 year old, but it's boned with steel.  I figured if I was gonna cinch, I'd better cinch, and she didn't want a corded corset and hey, the boning kit was only $28 with shipping.

I am  not an advocate for tight-lacing.  I think it's bad for you, and vain.  But, Caroline is only going to wear this dress one time, and just for one day, and if she stays inside in the air conditioning I think she'll be alright.  I am going to pack her other dress just in case I change my mind and decide that the corset should be laced looser.  She does have a little bit of a squishy middle, and with 3 inches off her waist in the mock-up she felt fine, and she could breathe easily.  I have 3 inches off my waist when I wear my corset, and it's just *slightly* uncomfortable, but it's not at all tight-laced. And I don't have a squishy middle at all.   Her waist only needs to shrink about 1 1/2" past the mock-up waist.

Bascha is making a civil war corset off of the same pattern (Simplicity 2890) and she's also making a blog post out of it. (hers really is lovely, I haven't seen the flossing yet but everything Bascha makes is really nice-not just nice looking but well constructed too.  She likes to pay attention to the details, like the lining, and the flossing, and the little things that make something truly wonderful.  You'll like her things, I promise! She really is a seamstress...I'm just a seamstress in training :P )  So I'm not going to give any details so much as to how I made this corset...just some pictures of the finished thing.

I bound the corset with white cotton bias tape, which worked better than the twill tape I bound (parts) of mine with.  (Now that I've made hers I want to go and re-do parts of mine....) The corset itself is two layers of cotton twill (very sturdy cotton twill), and the flossing is done with cotton embroidery floss.

whole corset

I did decide to add some lace at the top, it's very
feathery and feminine and she likes it

 All the bones are flossed at the top as well, but the flossing is white.  I only did colored flossing and designs at the bottom of the corset.

triangular flossing on the angled back
bones

flossing on the bottom of the back bones (by the eyelets)

 There are no grommets yet--I don't have any grommets, much less the grommet making machiny thingy.  Bascha does though, and she lets me use hers :D  So next time I go over to her house, voila, the grommets will be there!

the bottom of the corset

the front and busk

Now I'm done with corset making for a while...on to more drab things like fixing shoes, hemming pants, making boys shirts, painting bonnets and sewing button holes. :D

***UPDATE***
Her corset has grommets now, and her corseted waist is 23 1/2 inches, so it only took 4 inches off, which isn't too bad.  Mine, I found out, only takes off two. :P  For laces, we are using the kind of ribbon that has horizontal lines on it...maybe it's called grosgrain...I"m not sure. You can't pull hard enough with the twill tape we have-it just tears into pieces.  This ribbon is very sturdy and is working quite nicely though!

I'm so happy....the gap is even all the way down! Yay! :D

~Theresa