The Dreamstress

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Rate the Dress: ’20s plays with paisley

Last week I showed you an 18th century Robe a la Francaise made up in a floral cotton. It lost some points for the asymmetrical front fastening (which I actually thought was brilliant – it repeated the rococo serpentine line of the dress fabric), and even most of you who loved it felt it was not quite a star of the show dress, giving it an overall 8.4 out of 10.

Since last week’s dress was a formal garment done in a fabric that we think of as informal, this week’s dress is an informal garment, a playsuit, done in a fabric that we think of as formal, silk.

Playsuit, Japanese, about 1920, silk, MFABoston, 2013.239.1-3

This simple ’20s playsuit is made from lightweight blonde (unbleached) silk, trimmed with bands of silk printed in an unusual paisley inspired design in turquoise, vermillion and lime green. The playsuit has a matching tie belt and bolero in the same paisley silk, the bolero further trimmed in the lime.

While the playsuit is identified as Japanese, it was almost certainly Japanese for the Western market – feeding the Western taste for Eastern silks and exoticism.

Let’s take a closer look at the ensemble:

Playsuit, Japanese, about 1920, silk, MFABoston, 2013.239.1-3

There appears to be foxing on the bolero, and the silk has almost certainly darkened and browned with age. There is also a hint of a mend to the silk near the neckline, indicating the fragile nature of the fabric. The playsuit was probably bought and worn as a limited use item: a fun ensemble for a vacation, unlikely to be worn again, or for a specific event.

What do you think? Is it the perfect bit of sartorial fun for that all-important pool party, or for showing off on the lido deck?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10.

A little house sewing, and a little housecleaning

Published by The Dreamstress

I’m really feeling the urge to blog today, but have really struggled with picking a topic. This is partly because while I’ve been doing tons of modern sewing, I haven’t photographed any of it, so don’t have something obvious to blog about.

More importantly it’s because I’m feeling quite down about the negativity of the internet. It’s slightly unfair, because there are so many of you who read and comment and interact and make my corner of the internet a wonderful place, and I shouldn’t let a few negative people who just look at everything and see the flaws in it rather than all the amazing work, and time, and learning that has gone into it poison the experience. I can laugh at the real trolls, but every once in a while the people who *think* they are being helpful but do not understand the concept of help, or charity, or kindness who get me down.

So, for those of you who do know how to support, and help, here is a quick little look at some simple sewing I’ve been doing!

Back in June we had a little gathering at the Castle, and the day before the event I decided I could not live with the terrible black curtains that had come in the house for one.more.day.

I’d picked up some beautiful bird-patterned linen at at Fabric-a-Brac a few weeks before, and it was just enough for the glass doors in the lounge. I’ve always thought it would look cool to have the blinds that I’m going to make for the other lounge window be a different fabric, so I was OK that there was only enough for the doors.

I just make super simple lined curtains, with the most basic two-pocket tape, and almost no gathering when the curtains are closed, because the room isn’t large, and I want to keep the effect as simple as possible.

While making the curtains I thought to myself “you know, these would look really spectacular with vertical borders of petrol blue or midnight blue velvet…maybe I should go looking for some…” But then I decided that I’d just get frustrated running around to all the Wellington fabric stores looking for such a thing, and I was extremely unlikely to find it, and my curtains wouldn’t get made.

Naturally, I found the exact fabric at The Fabric Store less than a week after the curtains were made.

So…there is going to be some unpicking and resewing in my future!

These are far from a complicated or flash project, and I want to upgrade them, but they sure did feel good to get done – at least it means I no longer have black curtains!

Since making them I’ve also managed to replace the black drapes in the bedroom (yes, every single curtain in the house was black when we bought it), but have decided I don’t love them (Mr D picked the fabric 😉 ) so I’m making a new set, and the original pair will get moved to the guest bedroom (Mr D doesn’t mind – I’ve agreed to line the new pair in blackout fabric, and he loves a DARK bedroom).

Now I just need to paint out the rest of the purple paint in the house!

Whew. That feels better 😉

A Historical Dinner Party

Published by The Dreamstress

The Comtesse recently finished her PhD (woohoo! Dr Comtesse!), and as her PhD celebration party, she threw a historical dinner.

Her PhD was in a STEM field, not history, but, as her advisor joked, in researching and planning the dinner she found “an extremely unique way to procrastinate.” I got to know the Comtesse through her love of costuming, and one of the things I really think is fantastic about the historical costuming community is that we do come from all sorts of backgrounds and fields.

For the dinner she requested that everyone wear historical dress from a period before WWI. I think we did rather well:

The Sewphist borrowed my 1813 Kashmiri gown, and Madame Ornata sewed right up until the last moment on a mid-19th century plaid dress with a little draping and construction advice from me. She still needs to figure out a bertha, but so far it is looking amazing, and definitely got the most attention on the night!

(I just love that photo – it looks like a movie poster. Probably for a fabulously dreadful historical murder mystery!)

I wore my just-finished-but-for-the-last-four-buttons medieval gown:

The Comtesse was busy planning the dinner and researching and testing dishes, so she just rented a dress, but she made the most fabulous necklace based on one owned by Marie Antoinette (I think. Possibly Josephine) which I sadly failed to get a good photograph of before the clasp got stuck and we had to switch it out. She also found a miniature ship for her hair, and I did my best at styling it as a 1770s stormy sea-scape.

Before dinner there was a Victorian punch with tea and redcurrant jelly (and champagne AND brandy for almost everyone but me) and period parlour games:

After aperitifs and nibbles we sat down to eat:

The first course was poree blanche, a medieval vegetable soup.

I think many of us were slightly worried about the food, but the soup reassured us: it was delicious. Delicate but flavourful, with hints of nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger. I need the recipe!

The next course was the Victorian version of Salmagundi, a salad of meat and dressed vegetables that originated some time in the 17th or 18th centuries.

The plat principal was a variety of meat and vegetable dishes which you could select as you preferred, served on a medieval trencher.

I passed on the rosbif, but made a liberal selection of frumentie (soooooo delicious!), Macedoine de legumes (quite nice, but not something I’d make myself) and carrots glazed with honey, plus the sauces that accompanied the rosbif.

And then I forgot to take a picture before I’d devoured the sauce verte and ruined the picturesque effect!

Following the mains there was a cheese platter which I failed to photograph, being too involved in chevre inspired happiness, and then we moved on to dessert. Mmmmm…dessert….

Dessert was a bÃ»che de NoÃ«l with espresso cream filling.

Being quite full from all the previous courses, and knowing that I’m not actually the biggest dessert eater, I only took half a piece, and then had to ask for the second half once I’d gobbled up the first half and looked longingly at everyone else still eating theirs! It was SO good.

But wait. There’s more!

Following dessert there were digestifs: true mince pies (with meat, spices, and fruit) following Mrs Beeton’s recipe, fleurs confites (violets, rose petals, and lavender), and hypocras.

As a pestatarian teetotaller, I only engaged in the fleurs, finding the violets to be lovely, the rose petals too papery (though they were extremely popular with everyone else around me), and the lavender to be sensational. I now want to add sugared lavender to EVERYTHING I make!

There were period drinks served throughout the dinner as well: herbed wines to match the courses, and for the non-drinkers, a lemon-barley drink based off of an original Victorian recipe. As someone who thoroughly disliked the lemon-barley cordial sold in shops in NZ, I was dubious, but it was delicious (though after about 11 glasses, I began to feel the definite effects of consuming about 700 times more sugar than I usually do in a day!).

The whole dinner took over 3 and a half hours. We sat down to eat shortly before 7:30, and did not stand up again until 11.

After dinner those in corsets were definitely feeling the strain, but my medieval gown had plenty of room for more!

We still had enough energy for a quick photo session:

And for costume discussions and show offs:

It was a THOROUGHLY amazing experience. I don’t know when the last time I sat down to a 7 course, four hour meal was, and each course was delicious, and the company thoroughly delightful. I am so inspired!

Congratulations and thank you to the Comptess!