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1812

DPP 2012 Costume Contest Entry

I just sent in my entry for the 2012 Your Wardrobe Unlock’d and Foundations Revealed Double Period Project Competition. This year’s periods were 1812 & 1912, and since I created a new ensemble for the Jane Austen Evening I decided to enter it. I didn’t get quite enough photos of the gown at the event, and I didn’t have any good photos of my stays, so last weekend Chris & I went out and snapped a few more. I *really* wish that we could have gone to the Huntington Library & Gardens in Pasadena for the photoshoot because the buildings and gardens are just perfect, but we didn’t have time so we explored a regional park close to home.
Here are the photos I submitted to the contest plus a couple extras, enjoy!





Regency Evening Gown 2012

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have some process shots of creating my dress for this year’s Jane Austen Evening. My dress was inspired by this one from the exhibit Napoleon: The Empire of Fashion – I’ve drooled over the dress ever since I bought the catalog, and when I found some sheer striped fabric in the LA garment district I decided to give it a shot.
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Inspiration
The below 3 images are found via Thomason Photography. I was happy to find this website, because the exhibit catalog doesn’t show the sleeve clearly. I never found a photo of the back, so I just made it up based on my previous Regency dresses.

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Draping

Earlier this year I bought my very first dress form, Beatrice, and she was a life saver for this project. I took all my measurements with my stays on, then put them on her, laced and padded her out to match. I draped the bodice directly on top and only had 2 fittings from start to finish, and honestly the bodice of this dress fits me better than anything else in my closet. 
I had 2 fabrics to work with, my base satin and the sheer striped fabric. First step was draping the satin underlayer – I wasn’t sure exactly where I wanted the neckline, so I marked a couple options and picked one in my first fitting. I think(?) I picked the lower one.

I like to make notes on my muslins during draping or fitting, so that I remember what to do to the pattern. I decided to have drawstring closures at the neck and waistline, and because I wanted a slight gathered effect, I added a little extra to the CB of the pattern when I traced off my muslin.
I don’t have a shot of the side view, but I kept the armhole really high, right under the armpit. High armholes are not the standard in today’s clothing but they are crucial for good movement (especially in non-stretch fabrics!), and since I would be dancing in this dress I wanted to be able to lift my arms!

Next I draped my sheer striped fabric on top of my muslin. Luckily this fabric was not expensive, so I bought extra and decided to drape directly in the real fabric, and knew I could start over if I had too. As you can see, the bodice is bias like the original. Love directional stripes! (OK, all stripes are directional, but you know what I mean.)
 I don’t even want to remember how long it took me to drape this darn bodice! Hours, literally. Getting all the tucks and poufiness placed correctly and flatteringly was really hard. I draped half, marked all the tucks, and then transfered it to the other side on the flat. The over layers of the bodice are flatlined to the satin.
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Construction

The rest was fairly easy! So of course I didn’t take process shots of it, grr. The neckline is finished with bias binding casing and trimmed with lace and a beaded trim, and I slipstitched the waistline seam allowance closed to create a casing. Here’s the inside view of the front – yes, I overlocked the inside seam allowances!
For the skirt and sleeves, I used my modified Sense & Sensibility pattern from last year and just added the striped overskirt, which was a couple of rectangles with a bunch of box pleats. I did the CB placket wrong because the edges are supposed to butt up to each other, but my placket is for edges that overlap. Oh well, that’s nothing a little hook and eye can’t fix!
The Finished Dress!!
Whew! Thanks for indulging me that post, and congrats if you made it to the end! 😉

Jane Austen Evening 2012

This past Saturday Chris and I attended the 14th Annual Jane Austen Evening in Pasadena, CA. This is our 3rd time attending, and I think we have a better time every year! It’s such a fun event – we see a few people regularly at other events, but lot of attendees we only see at the dance practices and the event, and then we all disappear for 11 months until the following January.
I got a fancy-pants camera for Christmas, and I’m still just learning how to use it (where’s the zoom again?), and this was it’s first official outing. Hopefully this means I’ll have lots of fab pictures for you in the future!
This year we were greeted by the rabble protesting us 1% who are high-falutin’ enough to attend a sumputous tea and ball…

Chris and I shared tea with Post-Captain Paul and his lovely partner, Kendra. 
(hope I got the rank correct! I’m hopeless about military things.)

Chris wore the same ensemble I made for him last year – I was hoping to make a pair of trousers for him this year, but didn’t have enough time. That’s why the photo is from the waist up. 😉

My dress was inspired by a gown from the exhibit Napoleon: The Empire of Fashion. I fell in love with this gown when I bought the exhibit catalog, and when I found the sheer striped fabric I knew I had to give it a try. It’s not intended as an exact copy, but I guess it turned out pretty darn close – several people recognized it from the original, which was a pleasant and unexpected surprise!

I did take some process shots of creating my dress – I guess I should post those soon, right?
The hall filled with dancing.

Lauren looked amazing as always, and had a new turban and accessories to go with a dress from last year. I’m so glad she wore this dress for another outing, it’s just stunning!

Beautiful lineup of costumers and their creations, including Katherine of The Fashionable Past, Loren of The Costumer’s Closet, and Lauren of Wearing History. Chris saw our group of ladies lined up for a photo op and spied all the cameras sitting on a table, quickly grabbed all of them and started shooting. And who says that chivalry is dead? 😉
All in all, the Jane Austen Evening was a huge success, like always. It’s growing more and more popular every year, and tickets sold out this year in less than a week! The date for next year is already set for January 26, 2013, and if you are interested in attending I recommend joining the email list and buying tickets as soon as they go on sale!

Regency Stays Part 2

My Mantua Maker stays are nearly done (finally! I did most of the work last spring, then left them unfinished for months!), and they’re good enough to post about now.
Overall, I like this pattern – I recommend it with only slight reservations. It fits well and goes together easily, and has thorough instructions. My version is a new printing, so it’s even been updated to increase the size of the back (a common complaint on internet reviews). Originally I was going to leave the length, but I did end up reducing it 1″ because I’m shortwaisted.
But – the shoulder strap placement drove me NUTS. It’s so wide in the back that they dug into the back of my arms, and constantly fell off. I scoured the internet for pics of these stays made up, and every picture I saw has the same issue, so I decided to just go with it – no one else seems to complain, so maybe I should just shut up and deal.
Then I went to see the Fabulous! exhibit at FIDM, and they had a pair of regency stays on display. The straps on these stays were much closer together in the back, but still sat wide at the shoulder and at the front. The shape reminded me of a racer-back tank, though less severe.
I did more internet research of extant stays, and over and over I kept seeing the same thing –
the way these stays from the MFA are displayed show this concept – see how they’re narrow in the back and wrap around the shoulder to be wide in the front? Seemed like it would solve the strap-falling-off problem.
So even though my stays were all but finished, I just wouldn’t be happy if I didn’t try to fix them.
Here’s how I tried my new racer-back concept – remember, my stays were basically finished, so I had to get a little creative to attach the new straps. I had even done the binding at the top and had to remove that. ARGHH!!! 🙂
I put the stays on Beatrice, and tossed last year’s Jane Austen Evening dress on top and marked the neckline with pins to use as a guide for how wide to set the straps. 
I kept the shoulder strap on grain, and wrapped it from back to front. It’s basically just a rectangle with a little flare at the back seam. The angle of the strap at the seam is the important part to get right.
Shoulder strap trimmed down.
This side view shows how the original strap placement in the Mantua Maker pattern is under my armpit. No wonder they’re so uncomfortable!
New strap placement.
Here’s the finished version, on my properly padded form – they are much more comfortable, don’t fall off as easily, and hopefully are still wide enough for a nice evening neckline! My new straps are slightly too long now because the stays were sitting too low on Beatrice when I “draped” the strap, but oh well. Adding another hole won’t make a big difference to these frankensteined straps!
(As previously mentioned, I did choose to do cross-lacing instead of the period-correct spiral lacing at the back. Without a maid, it’s just too hard to lace up a spiral-back-lacing corset!)

Regency Stays Part 1

I’ve been making progress on my Regency stays and Edwardian corset, very very slowly, but there it is. In case you hadn’t noticed, I jump around a lot with projects and hobbies – I try to do a good job on all of it, but if I have 3 dance rehearsals in a week, the sewing slows down. And vice versa. Ahh well, it keeps me interested, and hopefully doesn’t make you crazy with all the jumping around!

I’m working on the final version of my Regency stays now – I did a mockup, and didn’t really make any changes to the pattern. I considered playing with different bust gusset sizes and shortening the length because I’m short-waisted, but in in the end I left the pattern alone. The only adjustment I made from the original pattern was cutting straight across the top of side piece, instead of dipping down at the armhole. It looked awkward, was already plenty low for comfort, and keeping it straight will make binding easier.
Mantua Maker pattern copyright 2010 (updated version with the wider back)
 Busk at CF, no bones or cording yet
The brown part is my lacing strips at CB, not part of the finished project. I don’t love that it comes up at CB, but I didn’t see that until right now, so I won’t change it for these stays. The back panel is on the bias, so the pattern piece is cut straight but then stretches slightly, causing it to veer upward.
Here you can see the “lift” that the Regency period is known for. The stays do the upward pushing, and the chemise (or in my case, the tank top) holds in the top to prevent spillage.
I was a little surprised at how this fits – people keep saying that Regency corsets are just like a really good miracle bra and Spanx, but I also felt a huge difference in my posture – the wide straps force my shoulders back and chest out, which explains why the clothing of the period has such small backs. Or else I just have rotten posture.
When I fit this the other night, I was kind of unhappy with it – the buck wasn’t staying put (maybe it’s too wide?), I had trouble keeping the shoulder straps on, etc. And then I tossed on my most recent Regency dress and it looked TERRIBLE . *sigh* They just weren’t fit to go together. But these pictures look pretty good, so here’s hoping a little cording and boning help everything settle in better. Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated!

Great Stays Project of ’12

Things have been very scattered around here on the sewing front lately. I’ve got so many project and ideas swimming around in my head and I’ve had trouble focusing on anything. 30’s blouse? Hats? Regency stays? A shiny shirt for Chris? I’m also thinking about outfits for Camp Hollywood and Costume College. (–My first time attending, because it doesn’t conflict with CH for once! Whee!) All these were on the list, and then suddenly I was bit by the Edwardian bug.
More specifically, by this jacket in Downton Abbey:
I’ve never been a big fan of Edwardian fashion, but I’m starting to get it. I usually like tailored fashions more than fluff, but I’ve been branching out and finding a lot to like lately in the Edwardian world. And there are Edwardian events nearby (and as huge and crowded and frustrating as Los Angeles is, there are so many great events and fun things to do that I can’t imagine ever leaving…) So I’m going to branch out and sew an Edwardian.
I spent a lot of last week surfing around, looking for project inspiration (instead of actually sewing!). If I were more fun and less precise, I would just grab a Simplicity costume pattern and make a dress. But that’s not how I work. I try to be accurate and efficient, even in my “relaxing” hobbies. (I know, I bore myself even.) And everyone knows that undies make or break a period outfit.
So I’m going to take on the Great Stays Project of ’12. I’m going to sew Regency stays (1812) and an Edwardian corset (1912) simultaneously. Using my hands and feet at the same time? Something like that. But I think I can get these projects done a little faster and quicker if I do them both at once.  This also fits in with the Double Period Project on Your Wardrobe Unlock’d, so if I keep my membership I suppose I’ll enter.
Unfortunately, if I work from the inside out, I’ll have about 37 garments to sew before I can make that coat. Edwardian undies are seriously complicated. Someone talk me out of this, quick!