Year: 2011

Carolyn’s dress: the bodice

Rather than showing you a finished project today (even though I do have quite a few to share), I thought I’d keep you updated with the project that is currently consuming all my time: Carolyn’s wedding dress. I’ve got the bodice all done (well, except for thousands of beads and piping trim and a corset back), and now I’m working on the skirt. I’m extremely pleased with how the bodice has come out, and I am totally in love with the fabric. It is the most indescribably gorgeous colour. It’s white, but it has depth and dimensionality and a subtle, luminous glow. And the colour name is ‘vintage’. Swoon! It also shows the seaming beautifully, which makes it perfect for this dress, but does mean that I have to be extremely precise with my sewing. I want to buy every bit of the fabric that is left in my stash just to have it. The skirt is time consuming, but pretty easy, and very meditative. It’s just one strip after the other all the way …

Friday Review: Jill Salen’s 1900 Ribbon Corset

Published by The Dreamstress

This is a review of the fit, comfort, and wearability of the 1900 ribbon corset pattern from Jill Salen’s Corsets: Historical Patterns and Techniques, and of the pattern itself. First, the pattern: The pattern, when you first confront it, looks ridiculously hard and completely incomprehensible. This is true of all ribbon corset patterns in my experience. As soon as you put a prototype together and figure out how it works, the logic of it all comes together in your mind (or at least it did in my mind!) and the whole thing makes perfect sense. There are some very interesting things about this pattern. Because the side, back, and front pieces are perfectly straight, the seams that meet them are very curved, to give the corset its curving and shape. The front and back seams are particularly curved. I’m not used to sewing two very curved seams at the centre front and back, modern seamstresses are generally taught to keep both of these seams perfectly straight, so it did take a little mind-readjustment. Flaws/problems in …

Earthquake fashions of the 18th century

Published by The Dreamstress

Responding to Emily’s suggestion, today’s post is about Earthquake fashion. Like everything else, fashion and textiles are affected by natural disasters. Trade routes are interrupted, industries are destroyed, or moved. Fashions change and developed in response to earthquakes. This post is also meant to celebrate the resilience and fortitude of countless unnamed people across the centuries who have picked up, sought to “bury the dead and heal the living”, and rebuilt their lives and their cities, through an exploration of how the things closest to them, their clothes and textiles, changed in response to the changes in their life. For an interesting look at earthquake fashion let’s look at the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake. In terms of human life, this was the most devastating earthquake ever recorded, and it probably had the most profound effect on society. The massive chaos of the earthquake, and the resulting tsunami and fires, sparked the transition from the baroque to the rococo styles in Spain and Portugal, and prompted the philosophical writings that led to the Enlightenment. Hundreds of …