All posts filed under: 18th Century

An 18th century man-bodice (aka a waistcoat)

When I set the Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #5 “Bodice” I knew exactly what I wanted to make: a 1720s robe de cour bodice for Mariana Victoria, for the 18th Century Court Dress sew along. And when the challenge was approaching I got started – adapting my Ninon pattern for a later date, dyeing the fabric, cutting the bodice lining, sewing in the boning channels. And then life got in the way. First there was The Project (still ongoing, amazing, and unfortunately I can’t show you photos yet, but soon, I promise!), which is a full time job in and of itself. Plus I have proper work to keep doing – life goes on and the money must come in. Then, I got a weird virus that is basically Mini-Mono / Glandu-Lite fever (depending on whether you speak Americanese or Kiwish). My MIL had it, Mr D had it, half a dozen friends had it, and it is weird and awful. First you feel tired and run down for 2-3 weeks, with scattered days of …

Mariana Victoria: Dyeing to show you

Published by The Dreamstress

One of my big projects this year will be a 1720s robe de cour for Demode’s 18th century Court Gowns project based on Alexis Simon Belle’s portrait-within-a-portrait of Mariana Victoria of Spain (and of course the various bits of it will also qualify for Historical Sew Fortnightly challenges). The first thing to do was to dye my fabric. When I signed up for the project the deal I made with myself was that I could only do it if I could do it from my stash. Because of this, I’m going to have to compromise a tiny bit on historical accuracy. For my fabric I’m using two 2.7m lengths of vintage mercerised cotton damask curtains (yes, I really am trying to do a court dress out of 5.4m of fabric!) in dull beige-gold, and one smaller scrap: Sadly, not silk, but the pattern isn’t too bad of a match for what you can see of MV’s dress, and the colour can be improved on. So, to dye the curtains. First I washed them thoroughly, to …

A little mending

Published by The Dreamstress

I actually did do some mending for the Make Do & Mend HSF challenge: there has just been so much else to post that I haven’t gotten around to writing about it! First, a little 10 minute mend. One of the bones in my 1770s silver gilt stays was the tiniest bit too long, and had worn a hole in the kid leather binding: I unpicked that section of the binding, slipped it off the tab, pulled out the bone, cut it shorter, and smoothed it off: Then I pushed the bone back in, and used a tiny piece of leftover kid to patch the area with the hole: All that was left to do was to slip the original binding back on, and re-sew it down: The Challenge: #1: Make Do & Mend Fabric: a tiny scrap of kid leather Pattern: My own, based on one in Jill Salens ‘Corsets’ book. Year: ca. 1770 Notions: Just thread for the mending. How historically accurate is it? Period stays were certainly mended, but my binding technique …