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The reason why last weeks blog post was pretty late because I was on vacation in Mexico over the spring break. I loved travelling much more than I thought that I would (I have never really been out of the country, so I was a bit nervous), and I got a ton of inspiration while walking through the markets and sitting on the beach. My family history is actually from South America, so it wasn't as big of a culture shock as I thought it might be. A lot of the language and humor, etc, that we encountered there were pretty reminiscent of my grandparents, and it was really great to connect more with my roots. I loved all of the colour that we saw on the buildings and in the clothes, and I think that I will be bringing some of that into my work more than I have in the past. I normally gravitate toward more darker, muted colours, and I am very excited to start trying to use more colour. I was also inspired by some of the costumes that the dancers wore when we saw some of them at the resort. Since I have been planning and drawing out my ideas that I will be submitting to MakeFashion next year, I have been using some of these new ideas for it. I really loved the experience, and I am hoping that I will get lots more opportunities to travel in the future. I can't wait to use some of the colours and shapes from Mexico in my future designs!
~K
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I was recently gifted a bunch of patterns for historical dresses so that I can copy them. I am so excited about these, especially the regency and civil war era styles. They have inspired me to get sewing again, after a brief break for exams. Since I got all of these, I decided to talk about some of my plans and goals for sewing this year. I would like to build up my portfolio before I apply for universities. Most of these patterns depend on fabric, since we do not have a fabric store in my town and it can be difficult to go out and get fabric. My first plans are for regency era gowns, which I will talk about in my next post. I have loved the regency era since I first watched Pride and Prejudice, which was at a very young age because my mom has always loved Jane Austen. I am very excited to get going on this project. After regency, I would like to sew a 1940s dress and matching blazer. I have had this pattern since last year, and I have been itching to start, but I have to wait to get a nice wool suiting fabric before I can start. Another era that has been catching my attention lately is the civil war era. I used to think the dresses were oddly shaped at this time, with the dropped shoulders and large skirts, but I have come to love the gowns. I am thrilled because quite a few of the patterns that I got are for the era. I have a pattern for everything except for a corset, so I have decided to have a hand at patterning one for myself. Those are the three top projects that I have been wanting to complete for a while now, but there are many other ideas floating around in my head. I would love to research and create gowns from the Tudor era (the era that really got me interested in history when I was young), the 1200s, the late 1800s, and World War One. All of these depend on if I were able to get suitable fabric for them, so we will see what comes to fruition and what will have to wait another year. ~K
One era that has fascinated me for years is the early 1800s. I have always loved Jane Austen, so when the opportunity arose to go to a Jane Austen ball, I was thrilled. It will be in May at the Palliser. You can rent costumes, but I thought that this would be a great excuse to make my first ever regency era costumes. If everything goes to plan, I will be making two dresses for the event- one for me, and one for my mom. I was recently lent about 12 historical patterns to copy, and there are two regency ones. I have already started on making myself a pair of regency stays, which are very similar to modern day bras. I was hoping to be able to use the chemise that I made for my 18th century costume, however if I make short sleeves, then I will have to make a new one. Other things that I am planning to make is a few petticoats and the two dresses. Here is some of my inspiration for them. ~K
Before I show you the finished project, I must talk about what was going on in the world at the time. The 18th century is a fascinating era to look at. I love researching history, and seeing how fashion is influenced by current events. For example, during World War One, the skirts became shorter and slimmer since there was less fabric. The same thing happened in World War Two, and we can see the celebration of the end of the second world war in the 1950’s, when the New Look became popular, with the wider, longer skirts. The same things happened during the 18th century. First, let's talk about some of the major events of this time. The French court became a huge power in the 17th century, and it thrived under the rule of Louis XIV, The Sun King. He made France the dominant country on fashion and the arts. This power continued on into the 18th century with Louis XV, who came into power in 1715 after the death of the Sun King. With the new king, Baroque left fashion and Rococo became the style. It's delicate, feminine style is still popular to this day. The Classical style took over in the last half of the century because of international trade. Asian influences are easily seen in dress and design in the late 1700s, when the best silk made it's way from China to Europe and the new world. The boom in textile trade and the creation of new technologies in the latter part of the 18th century was the start to the Industrial Revolution. Back to the beginning of the new century- although Louis XV continued on with France's art and fashion industries, he was not successful in actually leading the country. He was passionate about hunting and women, and he didn't even try to govern France. He racked up debts by continually engaging in wars, and his efforts in lessening the people's depression were never successful. When he died in 1774, he was one of France's most hated kings. Louis XV’s grandson, Louis XVI became the next king, along with one of France's most infamous royals- Marie Antoinette. The pair were not fit for ruling a country: he was apathetic in unfit for his role, and she was frivolous and immature. They were also very young. King Louis XVI was only 20 years old when he got the throne. He was also handed a very difficult job, since the last king left debts and a country full of people who were learning to hate the monarchy. In the late 1700s, France agreed to help America revolt against Britain. This was a way for France snub Britain, but it ended up being far more costly than they thought. This pushed France down the rabbit hole and their debts grew. The American revolution also put ideas into the French soldiers heads about rebelling against the throne. The soldiers came back with these dangerous ideas in their heads and that, along with the increasingly high prices of necessities such as bread, were the beginning of the brutal and bloody French Revolution. The people of France succeeded in dethroning their King and Queen, as well as beheading them. France's turmoils did not end with the century, but instead continued on until the rise of Napoleon in 1804. France wasn’t the only country with issues during the 18th century. In fact, the UK might have actually been worse off at this point in time. Britain had many issues with power, starting with Bonnie Prince Charlie. If you read or have been watching Outlander, you would be pretty well informed of the issues that went on in Scotland during this time. During the 1740s, Scotland tried to get the ‘true king’, Charles Edward Stuart, on to the British throne. He was part of the second Jacobite rebellion. Both of the rebellions failed, and Scotland went through a horrible time of drought and brutalities. The English soldiers stormed through the country stealing and raping, and thousands of men who were suspected of being a part of the Jacobite rebellion were either imprisoned, sent to the Americas, or hanged. Many Scotts went to the Americas, and were a part of the American Revolution 40 years later. After losing the Americas after the revolution, Britain was in a pretty bad way. They suffered through debt and droughts, and taxes went sky high until the end of the century, when a war with France brought up the price of tin, copper, and many other things. This turbulent time made people become more creative when it came to what they wore, so we have some very interesting clothes that came out of this. I will talk about how all of this affected fashion in the next post.
~K I have finished the under garments of my project, and am well on my way to being finished the bodice of the dress. Before I show you the final products that will be worn underneath the gown, here's the petticoat in progress. And here is a sneak peak of all the undergarments on. This was taken before the skirt was hemmed. I am also wearing the mock-up of the bodice in this photo.
A friend of my sisters recently gave me the book 'Survey of Historic Costume', and I am so thrilled to get to look through it! It has been a huge help in the research for my project since there is a large Rococo section in the book. The book has a chapter that covers from 1700-1790. It explains not only the clothing worn in the era, but also other details about what was going on at that time and how people lived their everyday life. It goes into the clothing of the age in great detail, starting with what the cloth looked like and how it was made, then goes into the styles of clothing from working-class to gentility. The book also talks about how styles changed throughout the century and why. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of clothing. And now for the promised Progress Report: I have been slowly but surely working on the stays of the costume. This is the most difficult part of the costume, so I cannot wait until I am finished and can finally move on the the dress and over petticoat. I will post photos of all the undergarments working together once I am finished this stage.
~K I am so excited to work on the 18th century dress, but unfortunately, I have to make all of the undergarments first. All of the things that go under a period dress are just as important as the actual dress. Without the stays, bumpad, and petticoat(s), the dress would look very flat, and without the chemise, it would be very uncomfortable. Since this is the first time I have ever created a project like this, it has been a bit slow going, since I don't have anything already made. So far, I have finished the bumpad and chemise, and I am slowly but surely working on the stays. This has been a bit of a nerve-racking process, but my American Duchess* pattern has made it much easier. I was apprehensive to start on the stays since they are so different from anything I have ever made before. I decided to go with a different technique when it came to putting them together than what you would see in period garments, purely to make things a bit easier on myself. The biggest change being: I used cording rather than any type of boning. This is not accurate at all, as far as I have seen. Cording did not start in corsets or stays until the regency era. After that, it was quite popular throughout the 19th century, but before the early 1800s, I have not seen any examples of stays with cording in them in my research. I went with cording for a few reasons. One, I have made corded garments before, so there was less chance of failing and having to start over. Also, I already had cording in the house, and I did not have to search or buy anything else. Lastly, I have never worn a corset or any heavily boned piece of clothing before, so I thought that this would be a better way of easing myself into that. Another thing that will be different and not at all period correct is that I will not be bias binding the stays. Once the stays are finished, I just have a petticoat to make, then I'm on to the fun stuff!
~K *I am not an ambassador for American Duchess, any opinion I have about the company and their patterns are my own:) As I mentioned in my last post, not all fabrics are suited for historical gowns. For example, polyester was not around in the 18th century, so if you are trying to be as historically correct as possible, a lot of thought has to be put into the fabric used. I am going to be using cotton for my entire project. This isn't the most historically accurate thing to use for the gown, however the cotton is kinder on my budget than wool or linen would be. The reason that cotton isn't always the most historically accurate is because of the fact that it was actually illegal through much of the 18th century in Prussia, France, and England. This seems like a weird thing to be illegal, but the governments did have a reason. Before cotton got so popular, it was very expensive and not super common, but in the 1600s, it's popularity started to grow. Linen was originally the fabric used for undergarments, etc, because it breathed easily, was tough enough to be washed often, and could be bleached to be quite white, which was a symbol of wealth. However, linen could get clammy during winter as it holds moisture very well, plus it could not hold colours very easily. To dye it something other than white took a long time, which meant that it was pretty expensive to do. This is where cotton came in- cotton holds colour much more easily, and the colour stays through washing better. Chintz became very popular. Chintz was from India, and it was a flower pattern in blues, reds, yellows, and sometimes green. England, Prussia, and France did not like the popularity of cotton, because the money from the cotton did not go to them, but to India and America. At first, the governments just added taxes to the fabrics, but by 1701, the parliament of England banned the import of imported calicoes and Chintzes. In 1721 in England, they made it illegal to wear printed cottons from India, America, and basically any place that was not Britain. People took this law very seriously, and there are accounts of people wearing cotton being molested on the street and having the clothing torn off of their body's, or in an extreme case, having acid thrown on their clothing. In America, it was a different story. Cotton was very popular for it's ability to breath well, how easily it is dyed and also the fact that it grew so well there. Near the end of the 18th century, England finally decided to get rid of the law making it illegal to buy and wear cotton. By the early 19th century, cotton was widely popular everywhere. Muslin is very commonly seen in gowns from the early 1800s. Because of its hardy nature and easily dyeable fibers, cotton was a popular choice, and still is. I recently picked up my fabric from Ikea, of all places. Out of all of the fabric stores that I had access to, Ikea had the nicest prints that looked like they could have been block printed. In the 18th century, the colours that were normally used on Chintzes were red, blue, and yellow. The yellow was not often seen, but it would be added to the blue to create a green colour. This green would not be the same as the greens that we see today, since artificial dyes did not come into the fashion industry until the mid 1800s. Chintzes were expensive to make, since it was a lengthy process, involving many steps to create the final look. If you are interested in the process of woodblock printing and learning more about Chintz, the Met has some great videos and essays about it here and here. The second link is a great video that describes the dyeing process through the 17th and 18th centuries. Next week I will talk about events that occurred in the mid 18th century, and talk about creating the correct silhouette for the time period through proper undergarments.
~K Hello all! The start to anything is always a bit daunting, isn't it? After a lot of thought, I have decided to start with a plan, and some research. The late 18th century has always interested me, so I have been researching it for years. However, it wasn't until a few years ago that costuming and historical clothing started to appeal to me. An average woman in the late 1700s would wear many layers, starting with a chemise. A chemise is the main undergarment for any clothing from the 1500s until the early 1800s, and were a basic shift that went underneath the stays (corset). Mainly made from linen because of how white it could be bleached and how easily it breathed, chemises could also be made out of cotton. Cotton is not something that would be seen in clothing from Prussia, France, and England from the mid 18th century because it was illegal (more about that in later posts...). Over the chemise, a woman would wear stays, a stiff garment with boning in it to shape the body as well as support it. Stays often get a bit of a bad rap now because of the false information that is commonly believed. The amount of layers and weight of each made it so that it was more painful to not wear the stays than to wear them. After the stays come the petticoats. You can wear however many you want underneath an 18th century dress, but the more that were worn, the nicer shape one would get. On an everyday basis, a woman would wear at least two. Petticoats were just a simple linen or cotton skirt that was tied around the waist. They can be corded or quilted as well to add more fluff to the whole outfit. Next comes the main dress or skirt and jacket. The skirt would be made in the same way as a petticoat, just in the fabric chosen for the ensemble. A dress or jacket would normally be worn with a stomacher, a triangularly shaped piece of decorated fabric that was pinned to the front. All of the clothing worn during this time was made so that it could be worn for a very long time, meaning that it could change with your body. Stomachers allowed one to change the size of the bodice with a small amount of fabric. Skirts were tied around the waist so that they could change size easily. The outfit doesn't stop at these pieces- you need all of the accessories! This includes stockings, shoes, a carefully styled wig, a hat, gloves, fichu (a piece of fabric/lace to go around the neck), jewelry, etc. When it comes to the 18th century, the more the better. After all of that information, here are my plans for this project- I will need to make: One (1) chemise One (1) pair of half-boned stays Two (2) petticoats One (1) overskirt to go with a bodice One (1) bodice with stomacher I have decided to use the American Duchess patterns from simplicity. I am thrilled to be working with these patterns, being a long time follower of the American Duchess blog. I can't wait to get started! ~K |
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