Year: 2011

Achieving Emily pink

I know that last week, when I blogged about the evilness of pintucking, before life and a lack of internet derailed the blog, I promised to tell you what the pintucks had taught me. But that’s the wrong way to tell the story of Emily’s dress, because before you can pintuck fabric you have to have the right fabric. I already told you about the quest to figure out the correct term for the fabric type, and then to find a modern replacement, and that I ended up buying white silk taffeta. Obviously Emily’s dress is extremely pink, not white. So, how to get extremely pink fabric? Dye it! When I went to dye Emily’s fabric, I was a little scared. It was a very precise colour, and a LOT of fabric to dye at once. I kept trying to put it off, but when I looked out the window I noticed that our camellia bush had put out its first bloom of the year, and it was exactly the right shade of pink. Obviously …

Rate the dress: a 1680s fashion plate

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week’s 1850s rate the dress met with general mild approval, with the level of enthusiasm dependent on whether or not you like 1850s silhouettes. The bronze-brown confection came in at a 6.9 out of 10. However, even the people who love midcentury styles and gave the highest scores felt that the dress needed accessories. Showing a dress fully accessorized is what fashion plates are for: they demonstrate for us, and for the ladies of the era, everything that the elegant dresser of the time should wear with their outfit. So this week’s rate the dress is all about accessories, and what to wear with your historic frock. Our 17th century fashion model is shown in a striped red, white and blue frock, with gold fringing and a whole plethora of accessories: bows on her headdress, a scarf to protect the hair, lace sabot cuffs with red bows, a folded fan, creamy yellow gloves, and what appears to be a fob-watch dangling from the waist. What do you think of our lady and her accessories? …

Finished projects: Judith’s basket panniers

Published by The Dreamstress

As well as last weeks hoop panniers, Judith also wanted a pair of basket panniers. I based these ones off the basket panniers at Tidens Toej and Norah Waugh’s pattern in Corsets and Crinolines. For the fabric, we selected a blue damask with a subtle baroque-inspired pattern woven into it. I symmetrical widths allowed me to centre the pattern on each basket. As it is for a show, I didn’t put the slits in the top of each basket. It’s much less problematic, and leaves the elegant lines of the pleating undisturbed. To provide a little contrast to the jutting silhouette of the hoop panniers, I dropped the first hoop of the baskets fairly low on the hips, giving a much more informal silhouette. Once again, I used Lacis hooping wire for the hooping. Now I just need to stop selling or giving away my basket panniers as soon as I make one and keep a pair for myself!