All posts filed under: 18th Century

A 1760s/70s man’s ensemble – again

I’ve been planning on making an 18th century man’s ensemble to go with the Lady Anne Darcy dress for ages. I started one almost two years ago, but it got set aside in favour of other projects. The Grandeur & Frivolity talk was the perfect excuse to pull it out again and finish it, but things didn’t go that easily. First of all, the jacket didn’t look that grand when I fished it out of the bag that it was crumpled in and ironed it: Clearly some taking it apart and re-shaping and interfacing is in order. That was do-able. Making sleeves out of thin air wasn’t though. And I mean ‘thin air’ literally. I can’t find the extra fabric from this jacket anywhere. And then the waistcoat didn’t fit Daniil, the model for the talk. And I hated the squidgy synthetic fabric it was made out of. So basically, all of the stuff that I started with got stuffed back in the bag it came from, and I restarted. I’m using this suit from …

Finished projects: Judith’s basket panniers

Published by The Dreamstress

As well as last weeks hoop panniers, Judith also wanted a pair of basket panniers. I based these ones off the basket panniers at Tidens Toej and Norah Waugh’s pattern in Corsets and Crinolines. For the fabric, we selected a blue damask with a subtle baroque-inspired pattern woven into it. I symmetrical widths allowed me to centre the pattern on each basket. As it is for a show, I didn’t put the slits in the top of each basket. It’s much less problematic, and leaves the elegant lines of the pleating undisturbed. To provide a little contrast to the jutting silhouette of the hoop panniers, I dropped the first hoop of the baskets fairly low on the hips, giving a much more informal silhouette. Once again, I used Lacis hooping wire for the hooping. Now I just need to stop selling or giving away my basket panniers as soon as I make one and keep a pair for myself!

Finished projects: Judith’s hoop panniers

Published by The Dreamstress

Judith contacted me wanting two set of panniers for a show she is doing. This is the first set, a hoop pannier based off of my 1770s yellow panniers (which are based off a set in the KCI) The panniers will be worn as outer wear, so we chose fabrics a pretty, but inexpensive poly-cotton with a faux indigo-dyed chintz type pattern. The print evokes the 18th century without being too obvious, and the allover patterns of winding flowers work well in the tight gathers of the hoop panniers. Rather than using the nifty plastic hooping I used on my yellow pair (which I, unfortunately, haven’t been able to source since), I used hoop wire from Lacis. It actually worked even better than the plastic. The uprights hoops stay up really well, and the whole thing is a bit lighter. Sewn-in tapes underneath hold the panniers in their elongated shape: Overall, I’m quite pleased with the panniers and the pattern as a whole. It’s such a nice melding of 18th century accuracy and the taste …