All posts filed under: 18th Century

Queen Charlotte petticoat progress (and punched lace!)

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 …

A petticoat for a pretty, pretty princess

Published by The Dreamstress

This weekend I’m finishing up my two ‘Pretty, Pretty, Princess‘ projects. The first is a completely hand-sewn silk taffeta 18th century petticoat, to go with a matching robe Ã la franÃ§aise that I’ll be making for ‘Robes & Robings‘. I’ve had the fabric for this petticoat in my stash for three years now. It came up at Global Fabrics, and it was just so gorgeous, and so perfectly 18th century, that I couldn’t resist it. At the time, it was the most expensive fabric I had ever purchased (I think I paid $30 a metre for it). I held it, and hoarded it, and waited for the right time to use it. I used a tiny bit of it in making Shell’s wedding dress, but I was selfish and refused to let her have the whole lot for her frock (really though, I made the right choice. Taffeta would have been too stiff and formal for her wedding, and unlike the grey silk crepe, would have been completely ruined by a bit of damp and …