Month: May 2013

Dressing Polly / Oliver. Inspiration, and a teeny bit of progress

This week is Polly / Oliver week (also Tax week, T-Shirt week, get-that-darn-car-sorted week, and plan-next-semester’s-schedule-week), and I’m working on it like mad. As a bit of a Hudson-Bay start after my little meltdown/epiphany over the weekend, (or really, a Hudson-Bay Start after a 5 year delay in getting this enterprise off the ground), I took stock of what I had, re-looked for inspiration, and have finally sorted out what I’m actually going to do, and what is actually going to work. I started with late 18th century female dress borrowed from male hunting attire and military uniforms, some real, some rather satirical: This print shows an outfit almost identical to the one on the cover of Monstrous Regiment, but for women: I’ve already shown you this image: And, of course, the MA portrait in hunting attire: Finally, the ubiquitous Reynold’s portrait of Lady Worsley: From these, I really love the white single-breasted waistcoat on Lady Worsley and the “Officer in the Light Infantry”, and their black feathered hats.  I’m also borrowing the gold binding/ …

Rate the Dress: 18th century Polly / Oliver inspiration

There were an interesting mix of feelings about last week’s tan and red 1870s frock.  Some of you were swept away by the silhouette, and the parasol pocket, others felt that while the period is attractive, this wasn’t the most inspired example of an 1870s frock, and some of you found the colour combination too reminiscent of bleeding flesh for comfort.  Despite a few very low ratings, the frock managed 7 out of 10.  You’ve all been so nice and generous with your ratings lately! This week you’re going to rate one of the images that I’m using as inspiration for my Polly / Oliver outfit.  Here is Marie Antoinette in hunting attire, one year after her marriage to the Dauphin of France: I’m using this image as inspiration for Polly / Oliver, so you might assume that I think the ensemble perfection indeed, and  Marie Antoinette is famous for her fashion innovations.  However, I may only be using bits of this portrait for inspiration, and many of ill-fated Queen’s fashion choices were perhaps more …

Polly / Oliver – learning to let go

I’ve been working on Polly / Oliver, trying to get it done, in to the Literature challenge, and off my UFO pile. I’ve also been working myself into a bit of a state over it. I want it to be based on Terry Pratchett’s description of Polly / Oliver Perks feminine dress uniform at the end of Monstrous Regiment. And I want it to be 1880s, with overtones of late 18th century inspired historicism. And obviously it needs to use all the bits of the costume that I already cut and worked on back in whatever year it was when I actually started this (2007 maybe?) otherwise it would defeat the purpose of finishing a UFO. And I want it to be historically accurate, which means accurate fabrics to the 1880s and military uniforms, and an overall design that is supported by extent garments and fashion plates. And all the fabric needs to come from my stash. And you know what?  I realised last night, trying to pick skirt fabrics, that sometimes everything I want …