All posts filed under: Admire

The Marmotte Masquerade Stays – Finished!*

I didn’t think I would get the Marmotte Masquerade Stays done for the Bastille Day Ball, because they won’t ever fit me properly as anything but undergarments. In fact, I wasn’t sure if I could even make myself finish the stays at all… But then the Sewphist asked if I had anything she could wear to the ball. When she came over the Wednesday before the dance to try things on, all of my frocks were too long in the bodice for her, and I had a brainstorm. The stays are too short in the bodice for me, so perhaps they would fit her? And they fit her so perfectly, and looked so fabulous on her, that she agreed to finish the binding so that she could wear them (and if you have ever bound stays, you know what a major undertaking that is!). So I showed her how to do the binding around the bottom tabs, and sent her away with bias binding (perfect historical accuracy was clearly not the object with these!) and …

A set of Baroque pearl accessories

Published by The Dreamstress

One of the reasons I love 17th century fashion so much is the jewellery. 18th century jewellery is very pretty, but it tends to get a bit heavy on diamonds and overly ornamented, and just too bling-y. Mid 17th century jewellery is fabulous though. It’s all pearls. Throat skimming pearl necklaces, round or baroque. And pearl drop earrings the size of pigeon eggs, with more pearls twined through the hair. Pearl trimmed clothes, and large hanging drop pearls dangling off broaches. (sings) Pearls, Glorious Pearls! Whenever I’ve worn Ninon, I’ve faked the pearls from my stash of random pearl necklaces, but have always intended to make a set of jewels that captured the look a little better. With the masquerade ball coming up, I thought it was high time I did it. I had a set of really beautiful, high quality faux pearls, still unstrung, so I strung them, and added a vintage clasp (not 17th c HA, but still very pretty, and it gave the effect). I remembered reading somewhere about women in the …

The 1660s Ninon gown – now with trimmings!

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve held off on trimming the Ninon gown for literally years, because I loved it so much untrimmed, and have been afraid I wouldn’t like it as much trimmed. But I’ve finally sucked it up and done it, and (luckily!) I love it even more with trimming! For trimming inspiration I wavered between the Beaubrun portrait that had been my primary inspiration throughout the making of the dress: And the van der Helst portrait of a couple, which appealed to me because of the simplicity of the trimmings (I know that a gazillion bows going up the front of your bodice doesn’t seem simple, but it’s really such a basic trim): At first I leaned toward the ribbon for simplicity. I’ve got some rather nice quality viscose ribbon that is a good match for the ribbons on van der Helst’s woman in colour, width and texture. I made a bunch of bows from them and pinned them up the front, and while they looked lovely, the were a little too obvious. So I had a …