All posts filed under: 18th Century

Cherries & Cherish: brooches in metal and wood

I’m feeling a little panicked about the HSF, because I’m still behind on my #17 Robes & Robing challenge, and I have a big entry to the #18 Re-Make challenge still to enter (though I did enter two little items), and I’m behind on the 1860s elliptical hoopskirt I’m making for the #19 Wood, Metal, Bone challenge. So, to mollify myself I whipped up two super simple little items that qualify for ‘Wood, Metal, Bone’: The first, in metal, is a portrait brooch inspired by 18th century portrait brooches and bracelets. I printed out Ramsay’s Portrait of a Lady on parchment paper and cropped the face to the right dimensions. I really liked that she was an un-named woman, so that her face didn’t have any connotations other than sweet and appealing. Then I lacquered the paper to finish and preserve it, and when it was dry, inserted it into an old brooch back with extra layers of cardstock to further protect it. The brooch looked to plain as it was, so I …

Frou-frou francaise progress (and Fissy)

Published by The Dreamstress

I’m stitching away at the ca. 1760 robe Ã la franÃ§aise, in between teaching classes and giving lectures and marking papers and re-fashioning shoes and drafting patterns and being a human being. I started with drafting a pattern: Then I sewed up a linen support bodice, and worked eyelets down the back, so that I could tighten it with laces: Then there was a great deal of sewing huge lengths of fabric together with teeny-tiny hand stitches. Time consuming, but not very interesting! Then I pleated the back pleating, and hand-stitched it down with silk thread. Then I basted at the shoulder seams, and down the side seams, and cut the fabric down to the waist, and out for the front skirts: I’ve figured out the side pleating, and marked the lines to cut down for pocket slits, and finishing those is my next task. Then on to side pleating, front bodice attaching, hemming, sleeve construction, sleeve insertion, finishing, and trimming. Makes it sound so simple! I’ve dubbed it the frou-frou franÃ§aise, because the fabric …

1780s shoe re-make

Published by The Dreamstress

On Friday I posted a tutorial on how to dye leather shoes. The observant among you may have noticed that I used a pair of ca. 1790 shoes as my inspiration, and wondered if the dyed shoes were going to get a bit more historical. Of course they were! Well, sort of. They ended up looking more 1900s does 18th century than 18th century proper, at least when you just photograph them, but they are extremely fetching and quite 18th century on, which is what counts. Also extremely comfortable and all-day wearable, which is another major bonus! To finish them off, once I’d dyed them, I pleated and sewed a piece of rayon velvet to a piece of elastic (I know, I know – in my defense, I did try to use leather, but couldn’t get a needle through it and the shoe leather to hold them together). Then I hand-stitched the elastic to the leather, using the stitching holes that were already in the leather as a guide. Finally, I hand stitched two final …