New old dress

[mala_14]

Went to an event today with living history folks. It was a fundraiser for the Manitoba Museum/trade show for local businesses. We were dressed c.1800-1860. I finished up my sleeves yesterday afternoon, so for once in a long time I wasn't up late sewing! I took some pictures when I got back. I wanted to take outdoor ones, but it started raining when I was out, so you get more hallway pics.

This outfit was pretty comfortable to wear. I can raise my arms all the way up and touch my head and stretch them across too. It's great! I can totally get actual wear out of this now. :) I love the way the back looks now. Look at those underarm wrinkles; exactly what I wanted. Although maybe I need a new shift that fits better in the shoulders. This one drops a bit too much and you can see the sleeve poking out there.

You can sort of see a comparison of the new sleeve and the old one. Took these pics while doing a try-on. I made a couple of small adjustments after this, taking a bit out from the front of the sleevecap at the shoulder and making the sleeve narrower. In the old sleeve, that is about as high as I can life my arm.

In this pic you can see how there are no wrinkles under the arm from the old sleeve. Interestingly the old sleeve needed pleats at the top but the new sleeve is set in smoothly.

A comparison pic of the two sleeve patterns. Yellow fabric was the old sleeve, newspaper is the new sleeve. I also completely rotated the sleeve so that the seam is at the side/back of the arm instead of at the front of the arm. I saw examples of both in my research.

This outfit needs a white petticoat with pocket slits. I wore my Edwardian petticoat underneath because it's narrow, plain, and white, but had to wear my pockets over it and they short of shadowed through. But I'm not working on that now. Up next is some work on baby quilts for friends' babies that were born last year. I figure if I can give them quilts before they are 1 year old, I am doing pretty well. Next costume is my new Victorian corset and various other 1867 things.

Comments

[tayloropolis.livejournal.com]

This is fantastic! What a beautiful style on you and I love the shape and fit of the bodice!

[mala-14.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :) I felt like such a pretty princess in my floofy white dress.

[koshka-the-cat.livejournal.com]

It looks so good! I love the new sleeve!

And wait until you see the underarm wrinkle on my spencer. It's huge :)

[koshka-the-cat.livejournal.com]

And I actually think those wrinkles help set historic clothing apart from historic costume. Their armscyes were so much deeper.

I really noticed this on a behind the scenes GoT thing. Cersei was demonstrating just how high she could reach over her head, which wasn't very. It was one of the mourning gowns and I think it was the scene with the High Sparrow.

I had noticed earlier that my GoT sleeves had the wrinkles and they were smoother on the show. Then I noticed their armscyes were at the shoulder point.  Noticing was a total aha moment.

And I have full range of motion in my GoT dresses. I love historic sleeves :)

[mala-14.livejournal.com]

Thanks Katherine! It's weird that some wrinkles are good and some are bad.

Thinking about your comments about mobility and historic clothing: I wonder if the reason that later Regency dresses have sleeves that are gathered into the armscye to deal with the wider backs and shallower armscyes. Also, patterns from extant garments also tend to show a very shallow sleeve cap, which also helps with range of motion, but increases sleeve wrinkles.

I love historic sleeves too! (When I get them right. ;p)

[theladyrebecca.livejournal.com]

That dress is so lovely! The shape just looks perfect, and I love that sheer stripe. That was a big change you had to make in the sleeve pattern, but it looks like it was well worth it!

[mala-14.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I don't like to redo things, but I loved this dress otherwise and wanted it wearable. Stripes!

[jenthompson.livejournal.com]

What a gorgeous dress! I want one!!! *grabby hands!*

[mala-14.livejournal.com]

Thanks Jen! It's really similar to your chemise gowns, just with a higher waist. When I first made it I was totally inspired by your black chemise gown.

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

Ooh, lovely! Such a good fit, and it really suits you.

Re: the old sleeve needing pleats - I've noticed in patterning that most of us tend to fit later 18th century sleeves so they need more/bigger pleats at the top, where the originals have much smaller ones. They fit their sleeves with the arm raised somewhat, rather than down.

[mala-14.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's very adjustable with the drawstring front and pinned flaps in the lining. I originally made it to fit over 1790s stays, but it works fine over these Regency ones that I patterned from those ones (mostly I just added bust gussets).

That's really interesting! Thanks for the info. I will keep that in mind when I eventually get to making 18th century stuff, which I am hoping to do next year.

[vanessa-lynne.livejournal.com]

Looks great! And very flattering.

[mala-14.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :) It made me feel nicely froofy.

[girliegirl32786.livejournal.com]

Fantastic job on the sleeves! And thank you so much for posting the photo of the flat pattern. I find that so helpful when trying to visualize how something fits.

[mala-14.livejournal.com]

Thanks Aubry! And you're very welcome. I always like seeing the flat pattern too. Sometimes they can be really weird.