All posts filed under: 18th Century

Masqued marmotte madness

Progress on my Marmotte Masquerade stays is moving along faster than I can blog about it, despite a little un-help from Felicity. Nope. Can’t have it. My fabric. All the pieces were boned, and sewn together: Then, with a bit of help from Mr D, I tried them on. He wasn’t in a very good mood for lacing or photography, but you can still see that my lacing is nice and even The fit was pretty good straight from the pattern, with no alterations other than a bit of lengthening (and I’ll lengthen any future versions another half an inch). The one change I will be making is to try to reduce the waist as much as possible. The stays aren’t giving me much of a cone shape, and I’d like a bit more compression in the waist for comfort. The uplift and shape in the bust is great though, especially considering how little I have to lift and shape. With fitting done, I made adjustments to the pattern and started covering the pieces with …

Masquerade stays: Progress, pain and a trim poll

Published by The Dreamstress

In between bouts of paper marking, the masquerade stays are coming along. They may actually even be finished on time (amazement). In any case, I have an event to wear them to on the 9th, so they have to be done by then! So far, with help from Miss Fiss, I’ve completed all the boning channels and inserted my boning, and sewn together the front, side front, and side back pieces in preparation for fitting. I’ve also cut the lining and outer fabrics for the back piece, and have inserted my lacing bones. I’m using fenestrated metal boning, because it’s the only boning that I have around that’s both strong enough to support the back lacing and long enough for the length of the stays. At the moment things are at a pause while I coat the ends of the lacing bones and let them dry. I’m just using nail polish – it’s worked well in every previous application! Things are also at a pause while I ice my thumb. There was a little problem …

The 1770s Masquerade Stays

Published by The Dreamstress

I’m hard at work on my item for the HSF Masquerade Challenge. Remember my terminology post on marmottes? (If you don’t, I highly recommend that you go read it, as it’s one of my favourite pieces of research ever). If you follow me on facebook you may remember that only a few days after I wrote it I found a fabric featuring marmotte themed 18th century hair: ZOMG. How awesome is that!?! It’s crazy and fabulous and 18th century and masquerade-y. And it has marmotte hair! It also has ship hair (cute, but such a cliche) And lion hair (just weird): Obviously I had to have it, but just as obviously, it’s not exactly suitable for anything historically accurate. But for Masquerade? For something where historicism blends with fantasy and alternative realities? Perfect! So I’m making 1770s stays, featuring this fabulous fabric. Even if they won’t be accurate in any meaningful sense, I still intend the shape they give me to be accurate, so that I can wear them under 18th century clothing. I’m using …