All posts filed under: 18th Century

A petticoat fit for a Queen

It’s done! Some 22+ metres of hand sewing later (3x 110cm side seams, sewn twice; 350cm hem, sewn twice; 280cm ruffle, sewn, gathered to 170cm, sewn again; 250cm of piecing additions; 100cm of pleating whipped to waist; 100cm of pocket slits; 30cm of ruffle join), I have finished my Queen Charlotte inspired 1760s petticoat. I am extremely pleased! Especially with the ruffle: It’s not exact, but the effect is close. To finish the petticoat, after creating my punched lace pattern, I sewed a single line of even gathering stitches 2″ down from the uppermost point of my small upper scallops. It’s clear in Ramsay’s portrait that Charlotte’s ruffle is held on with a single line of stitching. I gathered down my single line of stitching to half the width of the petticoat, and then stitched it on to the skirt using a running-backstitch. I’m extremely pleased with how close it is to the effect shown on Charlotte’s petticoat – down to the upper portion wanting to stand away from the skirt, and looking fuller and …

Queen Charlotte petticoat progress (and punched lace!)

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve been working on the Queen Charlotte petticoat steadily, while tackling Lace & Lacing projects, and modern sewing, and client sewing. There is a limit to how much QC sewing I can do a day, as the taffeta is so stiff that after a few hours my hands start cramping. The last I left you, I was rescuing my “Ooop! Cut it too short” disaster. I sewed the extensions on to the top of the petticoat, and was ready to pleat: I pleated each side of each half down with 6 pleats, each 2″ deep, and spaced 1″ apart, taking the full 175cm width of each half of the skirt down to 17.5″ – enough to wrap a little on each side over stays and paniers (I know, I used both cm and inches as I sew, sorry if it is confusing). Once I was happy with the pleating, I folded the top of the petticoat down slightly, checked the hem length, and then whipstitched the top of the skirt to cotton tape (I can’t …

Pretty, pretty, princess pearl bracelets

Published by The Dreamstress

I’m not sure if I have mentioned this before, but my name, Leimomi, means (at its most basic, Hawaiian being a language with many layers of meaning to every phrase) a necklace (lei) of pearls. Because of this, I feel a particular affinity for pearls. I also just plain like their subtle elegance, their luminous sheen, and their purity: a pearl in the fanciest setting looks much like a pearl straight out of an oyster shell. Any other gemstone, on the other hand, must be altered and refined almost beyond recognition before being set. Pearls were also one of the most popular gemstones historically. Up until the development of cultured pearls in 1916, natural pearls were often worth far more than diamonds. Ironically, only a few decades before cultured pearls became common and the price of pearls plummeted, a wealthy New Yorker traded their Fifth Avenue mansion to the jeweler Cartier for a double strand pearl necklace. At the time the necklace was valued at US$1 million. The mansion is now Cartier’s showroom. I have …