One of my big projects this year will be a 1720s robe de cour for Demode’s 18th century Court Gowns project based on Alexis Simon Belle’s portrait-within-a-portrait of Mariana Victoria of Spain (and of course the various bits of it will also qualify for Historical Sew Fortnightly challenges).

Alexis Simon Belle (1674–1734) , Portrait of Louis XV as a child pointing to a portrait of his fiancée the Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain, circa 1723

The first thing to do was to dye my fabric.

When I signed up for the project the deal I made with myself was that I could only do it if I could do it from my stash.  Because of this, I’m going to have to compromise a tiny bit on historical accuracy.  For my fabric I’m using two 2.7m lengths of vintage mercerised cotton damask curtains (yes, I really am trying to do a court dress out of 5.4m of fabric!) in dull beige-gold, and one smaller scrap:

Sadly, not silk, but the pattern isn’t too bad of a match for what you can see of MV’s dress, and the colour can be improved on.

So, to dye the curtains.  First I washed them thoroughly, to get rid of any soiling or accretions that may have accumulated over time and which would keep my fabric from dyeing a nice even colour.  Once it was clean I got the fabric soaking wet:

I prefer stovetop dyeing, because, while it is more work than dyeing in the washing machine, you  have more control over what colour you achieve on the stovetop.  Washing machine dyeing also works if you don’t have room in your kitchen, or don’t have a dedicated dye-pot.

To dye on the stove I got my pot filled with water, brought the water to a boil, and added salt to help the colour affix to the cotton (following the instruction on the packet for water/salt to fabric ratio).  Then I got out my selection of yellow dyes (bless Made on Marion for carrying such an extensive range of dyes!). I prefer iDye for dyeing, but there are other brands that also work beautifully.

I trialled a mix of Bright Yellow (bottom) and Aztec Gold (middle) on a teeny scrap of fabric, dipping it in the dye and then drying it to see what it would really look like, but the result was too pumpkin-orange:

So I went for unadulterated Golden Ochre, which had the right mix of deep golden yellow to match MV’s dress.

iDye comes in little dissolvable packets: you just tip the entire packet into your dye pot, and don’t have to handle any messy dye powder.  Here you can see my little packet dissolving amidst the steam:

Once my packet had dissolved I stirred my pot like mad to make sure that the dye was evenly dispersed in the water.

Then I added my soaking wet fabric, and stirred even more vigorously.

It’s very important at this point that I agitate the fabric thoroughly, so that every bit of it gets evenly exposed to the dye: otherwise my fabric will come out blotchy and uneven.

So I stirred like mad, while timing the dye job to be sure to get the right depth of colour.  Too short, and the colour would be too weak and pale.  Too long, and the colour will be too dark and orange-y.

When I’d reached the right time I dumped the fabric (but not the dye) out into the sink, and rinsed it with cold water until the water running out from it ran clear, and there was no residual dye.

Then I hung it out on the line to dry, and dyed my other 2.7m length and the smaller scrap in the same way.

And here is what it came out as:

The fabric nearer Felicity is perfect, but the other length is a bit too pale.  Not a problem though: I could re-dye it.  So I re-heated my leftover dye, got the second length of fabric soaking wet again, popped it in the dye pot for a wee bit longer, stirred like mad, and dried it again.

Ooooh…glorious!

In the sunshine it looks much brighter than Mariana Victoria’s dress, but in a candlelit room it would be perfect (and, of course, Belle’s painting has probably darkened with time).

So now that I’ve got my fabric right, it’s time to cut out the skirt petticoat and the bodice, and to sew up the bodice for the HSF Bodice Challenge, which is due in oh, 9 days…

And I’m still working on The Project, thought the biggest part of it is over!

Last week you weren’t much impressed with Prince Henry’s early 17th century garments as clothes in an of themselves, especially not when it came to the breeches.  But you were very impressed with Prince Henry himself, and his ability to pull off his ridiculous outfit, and look like a kid having fun in it.  So Henry’s swashbuckling attitude bucked his outfit up to a 6.9 out of 10, which isn’t fabulous but is more than I thought it would get!

Dress can be all about attitude, and I think this week’s selection might take a bit of attitude to pull off.  It’s quite bold and crazy, and rather reminds me of the striped Elizabeth Hawes dress which we rated last year, and the Worth zig-zag dress that we rated two years ago.  It’s interesting to compare it to those two, as it is so similar in cut and aesthetic, but yet Gres’ dress also manages to evoke the 1840s, and is a full 20 years later in date than the Hawes and Worth frocks, but still looks fashion-forward for the early 1950s.

A Madame Grès boldy striped slubbed silk ball gown, 1953, sold by Kerry Taylor Auctions

A Madame Grès boldy striped slubbed silk ball gown, 1953, sold by Kerry Taylor Auctions

You’re really going to have to forgive the back view: the dress has a 34″ bust and a 20″ waist, and the auction house clearly couldn’t find a mannequin in those dimensions, so were unable to fasten the back of the dress properly.

A Madame Grès boldy striped slubbed silk ball gown, 1953, sold by Kerry Taylor Auctions

A Madame Grès boldy striped slubbed silk ball gown, 1953, sold by Kerry Taylor Auctions

What do you think?  Better or worse than the other striped frocks?  Striking or eye-searing?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

*and yes, I know I usually skip the usual Rate-the-Dress and do an Oscars dress rating this time of year, but I’m so snowed under with The Project, and was away for a weekend of awesomeness (soooo AWESOME!), and, to be perfectly honest this year’s Oscar’s dresses are so boring that they wouldn’t even be fun to make fun of.

The 10th Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge of 2014, due Sunday the 1st of June, is Art.  Art is simple: make something inspired by a work of art.

With the Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenges I generally just post the theme, some inspiration, and hope that people will figure the rest out on their own, and if they want to be a bit creative with interpreting the theme, that’s fine, as long as they can explain why their item fits.  But I’ve received a lot of questions about art, and what does and doesn’t qualify, so I’ll elucidate a bit more.

Your artistic inspiration can be a painting:

Jan Frans van Douven, Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici dancing with her husband Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine (1695)

Or a sculpture:

Or a sketch:

Sketch by Watteau

Or an etching:

Or a fresco:

Pompeii fresco – Portrait of a Young Woman

But not fashion plates (because they are commerce, rather than art) or photographs (because early photographs were not considered art within their time, unless you can prove that the photograph you are working off of was considered art within its own time), or advertising (because, again, commerce).

In addition, your inspiration garment can be a historical (pre 1945) depiction of a fantasy outfit:

Sophia of Hanover as an Indienne, 1644. Painted by her sister, Elisabeth of Bohemia, Princess Palatine

Or a historical (pre 1945) depiction of a different historical period:

Frederico Andreotti, An Afternoon Tea (detail) 1880s

But it may not be a modern (post 1945) depiction of a historical garment.

Hope that clears things up!

Have fun!  Create!  Make something beautiful!