1918 Ensemble, Dressing for Downton

November 26, 2017March 4, 201817 Comments

Today I’m dipping my toes into 1918, and the wonderful fashions it has to offer.

I actually researched this period quite heavily earlier in the year when I was pursuing a design job for something set in the early 20’s. The job didn’t work out, and it left me a little bitter towards the era. But this weekend my mom and I booked tickets to the Downton Abbey Exhibition and I thought it would be fun to wear an understated period costume to the event.

The late nineteens are a perfect period for casual historical dress since the silhouette (though more modest than what is fashionable now) wasn’t dramatic like the early 1910’s, or the later 1920’s. Though corsets would have still been worn during this period, waistlines were starting to widen and you can get away without one. Perfect since I would have to wear this for four hours of public transit!

(it was also 2 days after Thanksgiving so a corset would not have been welcome regardless of the wear time…)

I based this ensemble mostly off of two ads: This one for the blouse, and this one for the skirt. I also made a coat to wear over it, which was based on ones from a winter Sears catalogue.

I had all the materials for this on hand, and made it over a 4 day period (some of those were half days with Thanksgiving and all). I’m really pleased with the end result and this may motivate me to make more vintage themed clothing to wear on a regular basis!

…

I started with the first piece: the camisole.

I draped this on my dress form. Getting the right amount of flounce at the hem to create the proper silhouette was probably the most difficult part.

This is it transferred to paper.

The body of the camisole is made from silk charmeuse. This particular cut was *very* off color, so one side is more yellow than the other, but it’s only really noticeable at the back.

I sewed a strip of wide cotton lace into the center (backed with more charmeuse) to serve as the statement of this blouse.

I’m not sure when this lace is from, but it came from a collection that included pieces from 1910. Based on the design and weight I would not be surprised if this lace was also from that period. I outlined it with some zig-zag edging to add a bit more texture.

The collar of the camisole is also charmeuse, but I backed it with fusible interfacing. Then I stitched a half inch away from each edge, and used that as a guide when turning the edges inward.

It was pinned to the top edge of the camisole, with the right side facing the wrong side. Once turned the right way out all the raw edges will be hidden!

Then I topstitched the bottom edge down.

The bottom edge was gathered slightly at the front and sewn to an interfaced waistband.

The final addition were straps, made from bias cut strips sewn into tubes.

The back closes with three glass buttons. This is the first time I’ve done functional button holes in…3 years? Maybe longer?

I finally bought a home sewing machine, which though slower than my industrial, has some stitches and features that I’ve missed! The automatic buttonhole is one of those things.

It is a SINGER 4423 Heavy Duty *, if you were wondering. I go more in depth about it (and all my sewing machines) in this video.

I used the camisole as a base for draping my next pattern: the blouse. I believe these pieces would have been combined in the 20’s, with a closure hidden on one side. But I thought making them separate would make the pieces more versatile. And the camisole also provides enough coverage that I didn’t need to wear a slip over my bra.

Here is the pattern I ended up with. It’s shaped by pleats below the shoulder with a drawstring waistband.

I cut all the pieces out from a thin, crisp, silk shirting. This fabric was a dream to work with – I’ve never had something make french seams easier!

I didn’t take a lot of progress pictures for this, since it came together in a single evening. But here you can see the main pieces assembled. All the edges were finished by machine with rolled 1/4″ hems. Seams were flat felled, or finished with lace binding. And the bottom edge was turned inward to create a channel for ribbon.

I tried to draft the sleeve pattern for this the historical way, but I got confused and made it up instead. This worked surprisingly well! Fit the armscye perfectly on my first try. I just had to adjust the length and width a little.

The cuffs were gathered by machine.

Then sewn onto the cuffs. The raw edges were bound with lace binding. I wanted to add button closures but didn’t get the buttons (or know what size they would be) until the day before wearing this piece, so I used hooks instead.

The sleeves were sewn on by machine, then the raw edge was bound.

I also made the collar. This was assembled from a layer of the checked silk, which was backed with interfacing, and a layer of silk charmeuse, which was supposed to be lining. I sewed the layers together with the wrong sides facing each other, then topstitched around the edge.

It looked great! Until my iron smeared burned goop all over the corners of the checked side. I couldn’t get it off, and I didn’t have a lot of fabric left…so I made the charmeuse side face out instead. I actually really like the contrast of this, so it was a happy accident. But it means the topstitching looks a little sloppy since it was originally done on the other side.

I sewed the collar on by machine, then tacked it down a half inch away from the edge to keep it in place. The final touch were silk covered 3/4″ buttons. Three on either side of the bodice, and two on each cuff.

I also added a snap just above the top button to secure it to the camisole.

And the back! I didn’t expect to love this as much as I do, but I’m really happy with it. It’s delicate yet structured and so different from anything I’ve done before.

I usually shy away from thin or slippery fabrics, unless I’m using them as an overlay. But making a tailored piece out of them was surprisingly easy and fun – I think this will motivate me to branch out more with my fabric choices.

…

Unfortunately the skirt didn’t go as well. At all. My first attempt was made from a beautiful wool, but the finished skirt looked awful. It had a wide, rounded waistband that made me look so heavy.

There was also way too much fabric, and it drooped at the seams. It was supposed to have pockets, which I tried making out of a contrasting wool, but then there was way too much contrast. So I remade them from matching fabric and it looked even worse! The whole thing was an unsalvageable mess.

Attempt number two was made in three hours from a purple chevron fabric I got from the plaiditudes collection at Jo-anns. I draped the skirt design on my dress form, then used the muslin as a pattern, adding seam allowances by eye. It was SO messy, but the end result turned out a million times better than my first attempt.

This skirt has way less volume, and has pleats in the back instead of gathers. The waistband is still wide, but it’s straight which is a lot more flattering. And there is decorative seaming down the front instead of pockets.

It’s not my best work, but it fit, and it looked pretty good!

I think the same can be said about the jacket. This piece was actually drafted, partially assembled, and completely cut out over a year ago – I even made a video about it. I planned on this being my winter coat for 2016, but after buying a glorious winter coat from J-Crew I lost interest.

The jacket also had some issues I wasn’t happy with. I ran low on material so I couldn’t make the skirt as wide or long as I wanted (it actually has plenty of volume, so I’m sort of glad for that now). I also had to ignore the grain line on some pieces, and didn’t have enough left for a matching hat which I was originally really excited about.

Plus the topstitching on this jacket was plagued with problems. It kept skipping stitches, which meant I had to sew over them again, leaving backstitch marks. This was made worse by my plan to use contrasting stitching during construction.

Even though this was only a year ago, I’ve learned a lot about my machine since then and working with heavier fabrics in general. Unfortunately that helps me moving forward, not with the issues this jacket already had. To fix the topstitching I would have had to completely disassemble the bodice and remove it all by hand. And that still wouldn’t resolve the grain line or length issues.

But I already had a lot done. So I decided to take a half day and get it finished, fully knowing that it was impossible to make it perfect given its other issues.

Finishing it included:

Figuring out which pieces went together

Figuring out wtf I was thinking with the pocket design (the required topstitching would have sewn them shut..)

Sewing the entire bottom half together

Hemming it

Sewing the cuffs on

Attaching / lining sleeves

Attaching bottom half

Lining the waistband

Sewing in closures

Tacking the collar

Sewing on buttons

…in less than a day.

Surprisingly, it turned out okay! I’m not going to share close ups since the finishing isn’t great at all. The interior skirt seams were left raw, and the topstitching got a little messy at points. But it’s finished, and I love the shape and design of it. Hopefully I can reuse the pattern for a similar jacket, made to my current standards.

It’s a little wrinkly from yesterday.

And that is it! Four pieces in four days. All together I think they looked lovely. And it was surprisingly comfy and weather appropriate!

I accessorized the ensemble with a pair of Katie & Kelly shoes (these were like $12 on clearance at DSW last year) and the Authentically Academic bag from Modcloth. I had gloves from the 40’s with me too, along with a 50’s themed pair of Quay sunglasses…so it was a little all over the place, but very retro.

For my hair I slept with a mixture of 3/4″ and 1″ curlers in, all wound inward towards my face. In the morning I brushed them out, then tucked the ends under and pinned them to the base of my scalp.

Sort of how you would do a faux bob, but the volume from the curls makes it look more like a fancy up do. I teased my bangs a bit and pinned them to the side. Then sprayed my hands with hairspray and used them to smooth and flatten the top before setting it with a heavy misting. It’s probably more of a 40’s style than 1918, but I felt it looked passable.

Any loose bits are probably from me trying to adjust bobby pins after putting the blouse on and getting the buttons caught in it. That happened several times.

That is it for today! Thanks for reading!

My next post will be about the exhibit itself!

Making an 18th Century “Undress” Costume – The Jacket

January 13, 2017January 13, 20177 Comments

It’s been a few weeks since I last posted. I was busy enjoying a break from social media obligations, but I’m back now and happy to be writing again! I have a ton of projects to talk about – both ones in progress, and ones I completed last year and never wrote about.

But I’m going to start the year off by talking about the first project I’ve completed in 2017: An 18th Century “Undress” Ensemble. It sounds a bit scandalous, but in this case “Undress” is used to refer to informal garments from the 1700’s, rather than anything that goes underneath them.

I decided to start on this after flipping through reference books in search of inspiration. The patterns for “undress” appropriate jackets in Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion 1: Englishwomen’s Dresses* caught my eye – and a quick search through my stash showed that I had almost everything I needed to make one…plus a matching skirt and some knitwear accessories inspired by Outlander.

I’m really happy with material selection for this – I used 6 yards of a checked brown and black fabric from the Plaiditudes collection (my favorite), 2 yards of loosely woven polyester, and a yard of purple sweater knit. I don’t think any of these are historically accurate, but I love the textures they have.

I did have to buy two buttons, two yards of interfacing, a yard of muslin, and two packages of embroidery floss (which came to a grand total of $8) but everything else was from my stash.

To get started I scanned, then resized the jacket pattern from Janet Arnold’s book and copied it to paper. When doing this I changed the scale from 1″ to 1 1/4″ – which meant my pattern ended up being considerably larger than the original one. This was intentional, since I knew it would be easier to size it down than size it up while trying to preserve the pleats in the skirt.

The end result was way too long waisted for me, but the width was almost perfect. I raised the waistline by an inch, changed the back curve, and added a dart to the bust, but otherwise it was good!

Here is the mock up I made. This jacket is meant to be worn with a stomacher, but a pattern for that wasn’t included. So I pinned a piece of cotton to the front of my stays, then drew the shape I thought the stomacher should have onto the cotton.

The stomacher was actually the first part of this costume I began work on, and one of the things that attracted me to this project. I was going through hand sewing withdrawal and wanted something I could work on in front of the TV – hand embroidery seemed perfect for that!

I browsed through a lot of stomacher patterns but most were more eleborate than I wanted (and could manage with my meager embroidery skills). So I freehanded my own design that was simpler.

I drew the design right onto my pattern, then scanned it and made a few changes in photoshop. The design was mirrored, then printed out and taped together.

I wanted to traced the design onto my fabric, which would have made embroidering it way easier. But the weave of the fabric I chose was too loose – pencils didn’t mark it, and ink would spread down the fibers and be visible in the end.

So I used the method I usually use for sequins: Trace the design onto interfacing, then ironing the interfacing onto the back of fabric. I used basting stitches to bring the design to the front, then got to work!

I didn’t take any progress shots with my “blogging” camera, but I did post a couple on instagram. I used a split stitch to outline everything, then filled sections in using a satin stitch. I tried to pick colors for this design that had the same level of depth as the purple and brown fabrics I’m using for the rest of the costume.

Here it is finished, right out of the hoop.

And after being ironed! I’ve attempted a few embroidery projects before but this is the first one I’ve finished. Considering that, I’m really happy with it. It isn’t as symmetrical as I would like, but the inconsistencies aren’t too major either.

I cut the embroidered piece to the right size, then sewed it to canvas and cotton with the right sides facing each other. After turning it the right way out the edges were neatly finished. Plastic boning was inserted between the cotton and canvas to help it sit nicely, then I tacked the layers together by hand.

I added a ruffle to the top edge for a bit of interest, and tabs of ribbon so I can pin it to my stays. And that was it!

The rest of the jacket pieces (except for the sleeves…more on those later) were cut from the brown checked fabric. The bodice of the jacket was assembled by machine with half inch seam allowances.

The “skirt” of the jacket was hemmed by hand. Looking back I wish I had bag lined with instead – doing those points was fiddly, and this fabric frayed so much that I had to do a double hem. The end result is really bulky and the pleats didn’t set as much as I would have liked.

But in the past I’ve bag lined the bottom of jackets and the lining was visible and looks awful. I guess the answer would be facing the hem with fashion fabric, then sewing lining in…but I didn’t have enough fabric to do that. Sometimes it feels like you can’t win!

I ironed the pleats in place and marked the pocket placement with basting stitches.

The waist seam was sewn – this should have been easy, but getting the point at the center back symmetrical was a huge chore and still isn’t perfect. After redoing it four times I gave up.

With the skirt on, I turned the front edge and neckline inward and sewed it down by hand.

Then the lining was sewn in. The lining is made using the same pattern and made from lightweight cotton. It has two bones at the side seams and center back, along with a bone from the dart at the front down to the waistline. These help support the points at the front and back of the jacket as well as the eyelets.

Here it is after all those steps.

Next up – the eyelets. Annoyingly I couldn’t find brown thread that matched, so I used black instead. These were sewn by hand.

And on to pocket flaps! I traced the pattern onto cotton, then pinned the cotton to my fashion fabric and sewed around the line I traced.

I cut a generous slash in the back so I could turn them the right way out, then topstitched around the edges by hand.

Messy on the inside, but the front is what matters, right?

I sewed them on over the basting stitches with tiny whip stitches.

I really splashed on the buttons for these. They were a whole 60c.

(I bought and sewed these on after finishing the rest of the jacket so you won’t see them in the next few photos)

Now it was time for sleeves. I was not excited about these. My instant success with the fit of the jacket did not extend to these – I found the original pattern for them way too wide in the cap of the sleeve, too curved at the elbow, not curved enough at the armscye. They didn’t sit nicely or fit at all.

After a ton of alterations I got something I was happier with. And I freehanded a cuff pattern to go with it.

Originally I was going to make the cuff a different style, but I didn’t have enough fabric for my first choice. And by that point I was too lazy to size the pattern up again just to trace the cuff out so I made something up.

Everything was cut out. Then I marked the pintucks onto the top of the sleeves.

These were pretty fiddly to do…

But offer a smoother alternative to pleats or gathers, which I like.

Then the side seams were done up.

And I repeated the process with a silky lining. Not accurate, but makes getting a costume on way easier.

I sewed these together at the cuff, then turned them the right way out and basted along the top edge.

The cuffs were backed with interfacing, then sewn together. I used stitching to make guidelines a half inch away from each edge, then turned these edges inward by hand.

I lined the cuffs with a heavyweight twill to help support them.

Then I made a ruffle from the same fabric I used for the stomacher. Originally the tops of these were supposed to be visible over the cuffs…but that looked bad.

After some trial and error I decided they looked best pinned to the interior of the sleeves. I neglected to finish the top edge before sewing these in place. The end result is hilariously messy. I’m kind of ashamed.

BUT I was an hour away from finishing this costume and really impatient, so I pressed on. I do plan on fixing this later, but it would have been a lot faster to finish them in the moment. I don’t know how my brain gets so excited to spent 15 hours embroidering something but can’t take an extra 10 minutes to neatly finish a raw edge.

Luckily it looks nice from the outside.

I sewed the sleeves onto the bodice, and that was it!

Aside from a few details in the finishing (the point at the back, the hem, the interior of the cuffs…) I’m really happy with this. The fit is pretty great, I can get into it on my own, I love the fabrics, and it’s a bit different from what I usually do.

Here is a crappy picture of it worn.

In case the dirty mirror makes that photo too horrifying to look at – here is a photo of it worn with the skirt!

And that’s it for today! Part two should be up soon, but I have a fabric haul to share first.

Thanks for reading, and I hope your year is off to a good start!

Making a 1920’s Inspired Coat, Part One

October 28, 2016October 28, 201614 Comments

It’s been a few weeks, but I think I’m back to my normal blogging schedule! I took on a commission that ate up two weeks of time, and have spent the last week trying to prepare videos for the next two months. Which hasn’t left me with a lot of time or enthusiasm for writing. But I do want to get back on track, and I’m starting by talking about my plan for a winter coat!

I really like making jackets and coats, so it seemed appropriate to make myself one that I could wear on a regular basis. But to make it more interesting I decided to base it off of designs from a period I haven’t explored much before – the 1920’s. A while back I came across this post, and fell in love with some of the designs in the Bellas Hess catalogue. I used those as inspiration and will be incorporating a lot of the detailing into my jacket, I just slimmed the silhouette by a lot to make it more flattering.

For this project I’m using a faux wool flannel from Joanns, I like the texture and weight of this a lot.

I also bought a fun flannel for the lining, and a polyester silky lining for the sleeves and front panels (to make the jacket easier to get on, and to avoid bulk).

Then on etsy I found these beautiful vintage buttons – they are a bit smaller than I wanted, but I love the design too much to care. They are a rich orange color, with copper stars on the front. I paid seven dollars for sixteen. The seller doesn’t have any more listed, but they have some other neat ones and they are way cheaper than buying carded buttons in store!

I draped the pattern the way I usually do. This was my first time (successfully) draping an asymmetrical pattern, so that was interesting! The only things I knew about drafting asymmetrical jackets were from this book*…but they involve a lot of darts, and are very fitted, so it didn’t prove to be very helpful. But I eventually figured it out!

After draping I transferred the pieces to paper to create a pattern.

I worked on the collar first since it’s the most striking part of this design. The collar is made from four pieces (two on each side) with an additional four pieces cut out for lining. Both the top layer of the collar, and the lining were cut from the faux wool.

Then I backed the pieces with interfacing, which was cut to sit half an inch away from each edge.

All the pieces were sewn together. In this state it has the shape of a giant dead moth. Glamorous.

Then I pinned the top layer and lining together, making sure all the points lined up.

I sewed the pieces together with a quarter inch seam allowance, then turned it the right way out.

It’s such a crazy shape, I love it. Here you can see the back of it on my dress form.

Now onto the bodice portion! I started by cutting everything out, and adding interfacing to the panel that will overlap the other.

Then I sewed all the pieces together.

And the same process with the lining. As you can see the back portion of the lining is cut from printed flannel, and the front portions from silky lining to avoid excess bulk. I cut the very front of one side of the lining from the faux wool, just in case a bit of the lining is visible after it’s all put together.

Then I pinned those layers together across the neckline, arm openings, and front edge. I sewed around those edges as well.

I pinned around the arm openings.

Then topstitched across those edges with brown thread.

Around this point my buttons arrived, and I loved them soo much that I decided to topstitch the jacket with thread that matched them. This was a great idea in theory, but I have a machine made for lightweight fabric. And when I work with many layers of heavy fabric, it has the tendency of skipping stitches (even after changing the needle and making new bobbins).

By the time I remembered this I was already too invested in the process. But the skipped stitches look really bad. I’ll either have to fix them by hand or come to terms with how it looks 😦

The topstitching runs across the front edges of the jacket and the edges of the collar.

With that done I gathered the front panels of the jacket.

Then sewed on the waistband. I topstitched it on with one row of stitching, but I think I’ll add another row later so it matches the topstitching on the rest of the jacket.

And I sewed the shoulder seam up with a french seam.

Here it is pinned on my dress form with the buttons (roughly) in place. I want to move them closer together, but my inspiration coats don’t have many buttons. Then again, they have much larger buttons so the proportion is different. I’m going to wait until the rest of the coat is done before deciding for sure.

Then the collar was sewn on by hand, with heavy duty thread and a whip stitch. It still needs closures and sleeves, but the top of this coat is done! I reached this stage a couple weeks ago but have been too busy to make more progress since then. I’m hoping I’ll have time to finish it this week since I want to start wearing it already!

And the back. I love the collar soo much.

(aside from that damn topstitching)

If you’re interested I also have a video showing this process, it can be watched here, or down below depending on your browser/email settings!

And that’s it! Thanks for reading!

Making an 1890’s Cycling Costume, Part Two

May 27, 2016May 30, 20168 Comments

The sporting jacket continues! This post will cover the process of making some big leg-of-mutton sleeves and completing the jacket. If you missed it, part one can be read here, and I have videos about making this project, which can be watched here and here if you’re interested!

…

At this point I was happy with the fit and shape of the jacket, but I thought it was a little bland. As much as I like the wool herringbone, I felt the jacket needed another textile to break it up and make it a bit more interesting. So I decided to line the lapel with a contrasting fabric.

I was originally going to use a black cotton sateen, but it looked very stark against the grey. So instead I choose to use some plaid flannel instead (which will also be used to make the bloomers that go with this jacket).

I traced the lapel and collar onto the flannel, then cut out two pieces. I folded the edges inward by a half inch so the flannel sits a half inch away from the edge of the lapel. Then I redid it a bunch of times to get the plaid pattern symmetrical!

Then it was sewn in place with slip stitches.

With the lapel and collar finished I was finally able to sew up the shoulder and side seams.

I finished the armholes with strips of bias tape that were sewn on with the right sides of the material facing each other, then turned inward and sewn down. This was my lazy way of doing a facing since I didn’t want to draft a new pattern.

I turned the bottom edge of the jacket inward by a half inch and hemmed it with small running stitches.

Then I put the jacket on my dress form to see how it was looking – and I was really happy with what I saw! The side seams and hem added some shape to it, and I think the plaid lining made a huge difference. It really highlights the lapel and makes the design come to life!

Now I could move onto the sleeves! These were the part I was most excited about, but also the part I expected to go wrong. I’ve never made proper leg-of-mutton sleeves before and I figured getting the fit and shape right would be a challenge. Because of that I decided to use a pattern from the book 59 Authentic Turn-of-the-Century Fashion Patterns by Kristina Harris*.

I took a photo of the pattern I wanted, then resized it on my computer, used the screen as a lightbox, and traced the pattern onto newsprint.

This pattern is huge – almost thirty three inches long. But believe it or not I probably would have added more volume to the top if i’d had enough material leftover. The finished sleeves don’t look nearly as massive as you’d expect based on the pattern.

But for the most part i’m really happy with this pattern. I had to take it in by an inch around the lower arm and that was it! Sort of loving this whole not drafting my own sleeves thing, it makes the process way easier.

I ended up adding a half inch to the seam allowances to allow for french seams.

Then I attempted to stiffen the tops of the sleeves with netting, interfacing, fusible web, and some other stuff. I figured this would give me lots of effortless volume without the annoyance of sleeve supports. But it made the sleeves look horrible and didn’t really add to the shape of them since it weighed down the fabric. So I ripped all of that out, which luckily didn’t damage the material. But it did leave behind some glue residue on the interior which you can see below.

Once that failed attempt was taken care of I went ahead and sewed the french seams.

And I had two very odd looking sleeves!

Then I gathered the tops of the sleeves down to fit the arm holes in my jacket. This was done by hand with running stitches, as per usual.

Then I pinned the sleeves onto my dress form to see what the shape was like. I think I stuffed them with a bit of quilt batting for these photos but I can’t remember. They hold their shape much better when they are worn (my arms bulk them up a bit, and the undershirt makes them less prone to collapsing) but the batting definitely helps exaggerate the leg-of-mutton effect!

Either way I was pretty thrilled with how they were coming along!

I finished the cuffs with strips of bias tape that were turned inward to hide the raw edge. These were sewn in place with hidden whip stitches.

And the top edge will be covered by the jackets lining, so I didn’t have to cover it.

Here are my finished sleeves~

They got pinned onto the jacket..

And sewn in place with two strands of thread and lots of tiny whip stitches.

Then I pinned the lining in place. This was a huge pain, it took me hours which is ridiculous. I think if I made another jacket similar to this I would try flat lining the pieces and finishing the edges separately (which was often done during this period). It’s just too difficult to get the lining to match up with the jacket, and i’m always worried it will effect the fit.

I sewed it in with whip stitches – except for around the hem, I used running stitches for that.

And then the final step was sewing on buttons! I used La Mode buttons in the style 219. They are stitched one and a half inches apart and half an inch away from the seam line.

Here they are after being sewn on – part of me wishes I’d used larger buttons that don’t have a pattern, since these kind of get lost in the herringbone print. But I still really like them!

And that’s it! I’m so pleased with how this turned out. It fits really nicely, even without a closure method. And the sleeves look so good. I was really worried they would look silly or end up being too big, but they are actually quite fitted while still having lots of volume.

I love the plaid material at the lapel. I debated about whether to add that or not, and i’m so glad I did. In addition to making the jacket look better I think it will really tie the look together when it’s paired with matching bloomers.

I’m also happy with the back seaming on this jacket. When I ordered the wool for this I was a bit concerned it would be too heavy to pull off the seaming, but it worked perfectly!

And the thing i’m most happy with is that I learned from the mistakes I made on my last fitted jacket and managed to properly execute the collar and lapel.

The only things I wish I could change are related to fabric quantity – which is my own fault. If i’d ordered another yard I could have made the jacket longer, and the sleeves a bit bigger which would have made the silhouette more dramatic. But even without those changes I really like the end result. And I can’t wait to show you guys how it looks with the shirtwaist I made to go underneath it – but that will have to wait for another day!

And I wanted to mention that from now on a “*” after a link will indicate that it’s an affiliate link. I thought this would be a nice non-intrusive way of (potentially) making a bit of money off what I post here. I promise affiliate links will always be relevant to what i’m talking about and marked with an asterisk. As a reader I don’t think you will notice any difference, but I wanted to make sure you were aware!

That’s it for this post! Thanks for reading!

Making an 1890’s Plaid Walking Ensemble, Part Two

March 11, 2016March 11, 201614 Comments

A couple weeks ago I posted about the plaid skirt I have in progress. That skirt is part of an ensemble which will also include a blouse, jacket, and hat. The skirt design came really easily to me but figuring out the upper half proved to be more of a challenge!

I had a very rough idea of what I wanted this jacket to look like but couldn’t seem to find anything that matched my “vision”. The traditional eton jackets were a bit simpler than what I wanted and everything else seemed too big and poofy.

I ended up purchasing the book “Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper’s Bazar, 1867-1898″ which was a big help. I didn’t see anything in it that I wanted to replicate but it gave me a better idea of the silhouettes and closures used on jackets from the 1890s, which made me feel more comfortable in making up a design of my own.

Here is a rough sketch of what I had in mind.

Then it was time to make the pattern. I had planned on flat drafting this but after reading about the process I felt too intimidated and chose to drape it instead. Even though I didn’t flat draft it, I used the patterns in “The Keystone Jacket and Dress Cutter” as a guide for the shapes of the pieces, which was helpful.

Once copied to paper my pattern looked like this!

I used that pattern to make a mock up which looked like this! I wasn’t expecting it to look anywhere near this good on the first try, so this was a very pleasant surprise.

There were a a bunch of changes that had to be made – like lowering the hem and waistline by a half inch, taking the front dart in by a 1/4″ at the waist, and adding a half inch to the arm openings. But all of those are pretty simple to do.

I also decided to add an inch to the front of each panel so the jacket could close with buttons. That wasn’t part of my original plan (or sketch) but I thought it would look more flattering in the end.

Once the pattern was altered I drew diagonal lines onto each piece. These lines are a guide for which direction the plaid should face, and line up with certain points on the plaid material.

Each pattern piece is pinned onto the material, with the guidelines carefully matched to points on the plaid.

Once one piece is cut out it’s used as a guide for cutting out the next piece so I can guarantee everything is symmetrical.

By some miracle I managed to cut out seven of the nine jacket pieces from the weirdly shapes scraps I had leftover after cutting out the skirt. This was fantastic news since I only had a yard and a half of material leftover aside from the scraps, and I needed ALL of that yardage to cut out the sleeves and front panels of the jacket.

Speaking of the front panels, these had me stumped. I drew the guidelines onto the pattern, just like I did with all the other pieces. But after doing that I realized a major problem.

Once the dart is sewn the plaid would not match. Here you can see how far the guidelines are from lining up.

If this was at the back of the bodice I might be more lenient, but this is the front, it can’t be that far off!

So I chopped my pattern into two pieces, added seam allowances, and cut them out on separate grain lines.

Then I sewed the pieces together – I realize it doesn’t look like much here, just wait!

Before sewing the dart I interfaced the lapels and collar. I’d planned on pad stitching this but I didn’t have the right materials around so interfacing seemed like the best option.

Now I could finally do the dart up and see if it worked, which it totally did! I’m pretty sure I made an squealing noise when I ironed this and pinned it to my dress form. I knew it should work, but I was not expecting it to look this good and match up this nicely.

It isn’t perfect but it’s way closer than I had expected it to be!

With the front panels done I moved on to assembling the rest of the pieces. Each piece was basted together by hand, then sewn.

The basting stitches are more secure than pins, so the fabric doesn’t move when I sew it and I can make sure everything lines up just the way I want it to!

Once the back panels were assembled I decided to try something new. It’s a technique called Soutache, which involves creating patterns out of braided cord. I bought sixteen yards of green soutache braid back in December, which I planned on pairing with this fabric before I even had a design in mind.

I was mostly inspired by this jacket, though I used some references from the Victorian fashion book as well. I spent hours trying to figure out the name of this type of design since I hoped to copy an existing pattern but I couldn’t find anything similar so I had to draw it out myself.

Then I loaded it into photoshop and mirrored the image. I also made the top loops a little bit bigger and stretched the image to make it longer. After printing it out I used white out and a sharpie to rearrange a few things I wasn’t happy with.

Then I traced the design onto interfacing, which got fused onto the back of the jacket panels.

Then I sewed through the design with pale thread so the design was visible on the front of the fabric.

And lastly I sewed the braid on. It is SO far from being symmetrical, which bothers me, but aside from that i’m pretty happy with how it looks. I was worried it would look too busy, or barely be visible on the plaid, but neither of those things were an issue in the end.

Also I’m pretty sure the goal of these designs is to have them be made from one continuous piece of braid, which definitely isn’t the case for the design I came up with. So that’s something to keep in mind for the future.

Despite the lack of symmetry, I really do like how it looks when the jacket is worn or on my dress form.

When the back detailing was done I sewed the shoulder seem of the jacket, then cut out the facing/lapels from silk. This is the same material I used for the pleated portions of the skirt panels and was also used to make the hat.

The lapels were stiffened with fusible interfacing, then I sewed them into the jacket with the right sides facing each other, trimmed the corners, then turned things the right way out and pinned around the edges.

I used small whip stitches to secure the layers of fabric together, then ironed the lapel so it was smooth.

I didn’t figure out a soutache design for the lapels until after they were sewn to the jacket. And at this point I couldn’t use interfacing on the underside of the fabric to transfer the design. So I traced the design onto the tissue paper that comes with interfacing.

Then pinned that onto the lapels and sewed through it. Once I was done I very carefully ripped the tissue paper away, making sure that I didn’t tear out my stitches.

And now I had a pattern to follow!

Here is the jacket after the braid was sewn on. I changed the design up a bit, but it is still very similar to the pattern shown above. I really like the way the green braid pops against the silk, and how it nicely ties in with the detailing on the back of the jacket.

That is it for this post, but I should have another one up soon showing the finished jacket!

Thanks for reading!

★ The making of Napoleon (Eiyuu*Senki) ★ Part 2

April 25, 2012March 4, 20185 Comments

The adventures of making a fluffy skirt ★ The making of Napoleon (Eiyuu Senki) ★ Part 1

Finally, a progress post. I’m sorry to say that recently I’ve been a bit lazy when it comes to the photo taking aspect of documenting my work, so there shall be more text then photos.

My first thing to fix was on the skirt, though I was pretty happy with the ruffly-ness, it had deflated a bit. Luckily the solution for this was really simple: Get a petticoat. And to make it even better, I already had a petticoat that would work perfectly. This particular one is from leg avenue, and cost around $9 on ebay auction, it’s really fluffy and short which makes it ideal for supporting the ruffly mass of bridal satin that is my skirt.

Here is an example of the effect it gives.

I still need to add a zipper and tack bits down, but I’m pretty happy with it so far!

Next up was remaking a part of the costume I wasn’t happy with, the shirt. The one I made originally was quite scratchy and just didn’t fit right. Plus the sleeves were a little too poofy for my tastes. So when I was in the city this past weekend I picked up some lightweight cotton jersey and whipped this together.

I referenced one of my regular sleep wear shirts to get a basic idea, but I made sure to leave 4” on each lapel so I could add interfacing and support for the buttons. This all went together really quickly and easily, within 2 hours I had myself a comfy shirt.

Then it came time for buttons, I quickly learned buttons are far more fun to play with then to actually sew on…. “RAWR!”

In total I purchased 138 buttons- all of which will be used on this costume.

And here they are sewn on! I think it looks pretty snazzy at this point, It still lacks a collar and the bottom edge is unfinished, but I think it looks good. I’ll draft up the collar later tonight or tomorrow and get that finished up. I don’t think it will be too difficult. *crosses fingers*

The jacket is easily the most difficult part of the entire costume, and it’s also a part I messed up on several times. My first attempt wasn’t *too* bad, but it had so many issues that were impossible to fix. I decided remaking it would probably be faster and look much better.

Here is the first attempt, as you can see, it never even got finished.

I’m much happier with my second jacket attempt, the fabric is a bit thicker and lighter in color. Which makes it nicer to work with and more pleasing in texture. A lot of it is still pinned, which is why it looks a bit lumpy, but that should go away soon enough.

Sorry for the mess D:

Then it came time to make the jacket collar and abuse it with 50 someodd buttons.

My wig also arrived, but unfortunately i’m quite unhappy with it. I’m going to try and get a new one as soon as I have enough money to do so.

And my mirror needs cleaning ^^;

And here are how my boots are coming along! I got the base shoe for $20 at famous footwear, but unfortunately they lacked a cuff and the signature buttons. But with a bit of creativity this issue was resolved.

They aren’t 100% done yet, the cuffs are just pinned at the moment. But i’m pretty happy with how it’s going!

And I guess that’s it! I’ve kinda been juggling three projects, so progress hasn’t been very speedy. Hopefully i’ll have more to post soon.

As always, thanks for reading!

Angela Clayton's Costumery & Creations

Tag: jacket