mala_14 | Entries tagged with 1882 print polonaise

I started sewing up the skirt for my Little House print polonaise outfit. I got the darts sewn and the front panel sewn to the 2 side gores. Not much progress really, but better than nothing.

I've been thinking about whether I should pleat or gather the back and how I'm going to do the collar on the polonaise and having massive indecision when suddenly today I realized all the answers were waiting for me on the internet! Right here: http://koshka-the-cat-antiques.blogspot.ca/2014/03/an-1880s-cotton-print-bustle-dress.html. Thanks

koshka_the_cat! So I'll be gathering the back panel of the skirt. Katherine's awesome detailed post also brought to my attention that I didn't put in any pockets in my skirt. Silly me! I'll have to rip out some of the seam I sewed and add one, because one of the best bonuses of sewing ones own clothes is being able to put pockets into everything!

Still trucking along with school stuff. Trying to apply for conference travel awards. Trying to get started on fixing thesis typos so I can submit it and get that out of my hair. Got a short paper written and its accompanying PowerPoint presentation done. Not very exciting really.

Sewing is also less than thrilling. The machine breaking sort of put a damper on things, but I drafted up a skirt pattern to use for my print polonaise skirt. These natural form skirts are way more narrow than I expected; hems are around 95 inches in circumference. According to my calculations, I can easily get a skirt from 2.5 yards of 45" wide fabric. The joys of being short. ;p Anyways, that should leave me with enough to make skirt ruffles, which I was worried about.

In the good news pile is that our weather has turned warm! Even though it's hovering at just about freezing today, overall the weather is significantly warmer than a few weeks ago. Most of the snow is even gone. So spring is definitely here! And other good stuff is that I'm going to see Cinderella tonight. So excited!

I attended my first meeting for my local living history group. It was a lot of fun. The people are super nice, welcoming, friendly, and fun. There was an annual general meeting and then a sewing session. I got a welcome gift as a new member of a period appropriate sewing kit with flat wooden spools for thread, needles in red flannel, little metal snips, a brass thimble, bone buttons, and an awl. (I'm extra happy about the awl. I've been needing one of those.)

The only downer is that because of the local history they do not tend to recreate many eras or much fancy clothing. The focus is on early 19th century. And the people in this area at that time were very early settlers so lots of work clothes. Some ladies had some very nice caps though. They put out the Country Wives patterns. So I need to make some stuff that is appropriate. Luckily I have some repro cotton print dated to 1822 that I can use to make something plainer. I'm thinking something like this. My stays are about half done. Need to get those finished up.

I'm thinking that February is going to be the month of undergarments. I have my stays, my 1880s corset, and my 1880s petticoat to finish. I would also like to make my 1820 dress, but we'll see. March will be my 1882 print skirt and polonaise. Then April will be my Little Mermaid ballgown. Hopefully I will get all these things done by May. Then it will be on to Lost Hope Fairy. I just need to focus!

And yeah, looks like HSM 2015 is not in the cards for me. My sewing schedule just doesn't fit in with the challenges enough. Oh well, one of these days.

Everyone else seems to be doing it lately and I think I finally almost sort-of have my plans figured out. So here goes:

Thursday night/Pool Party: 1960s confetti cotton dress

Friday classes: 1920s/Gatsby or Little House dress group

Friday night/Ice Cream Social: sounds like this might be the Game of Thrones group time

Saturday classes: 1920s/Gatsby or Little House dress group

Saturday night/Gala: Little Mermaid bustle gown (link to Pinterest board)

(Sunday breakfast: Regency cotton dress or spencer and petticoat)

Sunday classes: Regency Lost Hope Fairy

The 1960s and GoT dresses are already done so I don't need to worry about those. My essential costumes that I NEED to make are my 2 bustle dresses (Little House and Little Mermaid). Then, if I have time I want to make a 1920s and Lost Hope Fairy. If I don't have time, then my 1790s striped chemise gown is my back-up for Sunday and my 1942 green linen dress for day on Fri. or Sat. The second Regency is absolutely bottom of the list, but I got some pretty blush spotted voile that would make a lovely Regency dress and lots of fabrics around that would make good spencers since I have to make a strapped petticoat anyways.

For the 1920s I have 1.5m of black linen-rayon blend that I can trim with white sateen. I thought the black and white combo would be nice for Art Deco styling. Maybe I could also figure out a fun hat. Mostly, I thought 1920s would be less labour-intensive and something I could get done quickly.

For the Lost Hope Fairy, I kept thinking about what I had in the stash and would make sense for the theme. I remembered some shot black and purply-blue synthetic shantung I had sitting around. I also have some black synthetic chiffon. So I decided on a dress the colour of night, with a dress of the shantung and a tunic of the chiffon, dotted with little gold spots I could paint on for stars and maybe some silly tassels. Maybe also a turban with a crescent moon decorating it? My Pinterest board for this one.

Disclaimer: All plans subject to change! ;)

12 Challenges? I think I can manage that this year. So I'm going to join the Historical Sew Monthly.

Yeah, I tried to do a monthly/half-marathon of the Fortnightly this year and failed near the end. But that was because the thesis took over my life. Prior to that, I was doing alright. Since I won't have to work on the thesis soon I should have more time to sew. Plus, all the sewing necessary for CoCo will help me out. So, without further ado, the first three challenges:

January - Foundations: This one was easy. I wanted to make my 1880 corset and petticoat this month anyways. They're the foundation garments for at least 2 of my CoCo outfits.

February - Colour Challenge Blue: Not sure. Blue isn't a colour I'm very fond of wearing and none of my CoCo stuff even goes with blue really, except for my GoT Tyrell gown. At the moment I am considering making some blue slippers to go with that, but I don't really want to spend time on something that isn't really necesary when I have so many other things to make. My other thought is throwing some blue ribbon in the petticoat, but that seems like a cop-out. Hm...

March - Stashbusting: Definitely my Little House bustle dress, or at least the skirt for it. I have all the fabrics for it in the stash and the pattern will be coming from Fashions of the Gilded Age. Pretty excited for this outfit!

Because the theme is literary characters and I already wanted to do a bustle dress for the Gala, I decided I'd do a cotton print bustle dress a la Little House since I already had the fabric. I think I've finally settled on a design, a polonaise like this, but with a falling collar and cuffs trimmed with a small cotton lace:

And the fabric:
P1010775

I'm not sure when I'll wear it, but thinking Friday or Saturday during the day. Anybody else want to join in and do a Little House dress group? The time period is pretty open: anything from 1865-1890 would work, since that is pretty much when the books are set (if you count Farmer Boy and The First Four Years). And there's a wide range of fabrics, from silk to calico to wool to cashmere to lawn, so you don't have to break the bank on this one if you don't want to. Let me know if you're interested! I know there are a lot of Little House fans out there besides me! :)

I bought my Costume College ticket the other day! And a ticket for the Gala! Yay! I can't believe that it's really happening. All I need to do is make a bunch of things to wear now... It looks to me like there are about 4-5 opportunities for costume wearing (not including vintage stuff that can be worn whenever, like it in classes). So here's what I have on the docket, but very little idea on which days to wear what:

1880s Little House on the Prairie cotton print bustle dress

GoT Tyrell costume

1882 Little Mermaid gown for the Gala (Hm... just noticed that both of my bustle dresses have "Little" as the theme)

Regency, either something new if I finish my stays or my 1790s white striped dress for the Breakfast with the Bennets (which needs a sash and petticoat, also need to figure out some sort of hair)

Also, hair stuff! I've got to figure this one out. I'm thinking a braided bun of some sort will be nicely versatile for lots of the above.

Other things that I am thinking of bringing, mostly vintage-y stuff for day wear

1960s pink cotton confetti print dress, has super handy pockets and is very comfy

1942 green linen dress, need to repair a seam, concerned with the fact that it's linen and wrinkles like a MoFo

Other things that I am thinking of making, but won't really care if I don't get around to it

1920s 1-hour dress, Gatsby theme

Some other random vintage dress so I can make some use of my fabric stash and patterns that I have

1890s something, totally a pipe dream, I think 1890s might be my post-CoCo era

Whew! So many plans and thoughts! Anyone else bought their ticket yet? What do you think you're bringing or wearing to what (even though it's still months and months away and all plans are subject to lots and lots of change)?

As I said before, it looks like I will be able to go to Costume College next year (barring any wrenches in the works, like not being able to get a membership). This is influencing my sewing plans for the coming year. The theme for next year's CoCo is literary characters and I have several ideas for things I'd like to make or will be making. So here they are:

1. Game of Thrones costume. While I'd love to jump on the wonderful bandwagon that is King's Landing style dresses, unless I'm able to find the right fabric at the right price, such a project will have to remain a pipe dream for the foreseeable future. However, my Margaery Tyrell gown also fits the bill and it will be fun to get even more wear out of it, especially considering the amount of time I've invested in it.

2. Jane Austen themed outfit. Once I finish my stays (which I plan to get done this month) I'll be free to make up a Regency gown. At the moment I am leaning toward a striped pelisse/morning gown c.1815 like these examples from the Kyoto Costume Institute and the Met. I have some sateen with white and yellow stripes that I think would work well for this.

3. Little House on the Prairie dress, c.1883. This is something I would need to pretty much start from the foundations up. I'll need a corset, chemise, a couple of petticoats, and a dress. Conveniently, I already made a suitable bustle pad this year. I have the supplies to make the corset, but I think I want to dye my coutil salmon having seen this corset on Pinterest:

I still need a bunch of plain white cotton for the chemise and petticoats, but my recent excursion to the fabric store resulted in some narrow beading lace to use on the chemise. I also have several metres of a floral cotton print, it's an orange and olive print on ivory. I'm not entirely sure on what the dress will look like, but maybe a 3-piece outfit with plain bodice, underskirt (with a flounce or several), and a bustled overskirt.

4. 1882 Snow Queen dress. This one would be for the Gala. I'm following

jenthompson's lead with the historical fairy tale theme. I want something like this Worth gown in the Met and this other picture I found online.

For this I have the pale silk I bought in London that I want to dye a pale ice blue. I also want to get a ton of white silk gauze to drape over it. (Looking at the Met website, there actually seem to have been a lot of dresses in the white and aqua combo.) Instead of just flowers, I'll do snowflakes and icicles and maybe some white flowers and frosty looking ribbon bows, depending on what I'm able to find.

5. An Edwardian something, c.1909. No real thoughts on the literariness of this one, but I already have the corset and a chemise. I'd just need a petticoat. I want to make a cotton net blouse and then use my green silk-cotton to make a sort of jumper dress that would go over it. That way I could use the blouse for multiple gowns. Something like this, with pintucked sleeves and the slightly raised waist of the transitional styles of 1908-1910, which I love.

This outfit may also demand a ridiculously large hat. Maybe I can throw some flowers on the hat and call it a Secret Garden outfit?

Other thoughts include a 1790s riding habit (for which I have all the fabrics, but none of the notions, which could be expensive to acquire), an 1877 pink and white striped polonaise, and a 1950s playsuit. None of these are really literary themed either, but things that I want. Any other sewing I do will probably be more every day clothing, like pants and jackets and dresses.

What do you think? What are your dream sewing plans for the coming year?