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Rate the Dress: Red velvet and peacock feathers

Published by The Dreamstress

Whether you liked last week’s Rate the Dress depended entirely on whether you are OK with ultra-perky, ultra-feminine 18th c shepherdess looks, and whether you found that the non-matchy (in a 21st century sense – a lot of our ideas of coordination and matching are pretty modern) trim clashed with the dress, or gave it the right amount of interest (though, if you look closely, the trim was exactly the same colour as the flowers in the floral pattern of the dress), and whether it reminded you of wallpaper (yes, I’m in that camp, but the trim totally saved it for me).

Though many of you adored the dress, there were enough of you who  saw only wallpaper and clash for it to come down to 8.4 out of 10.

This week I’m sticking with a time honoured and accepted colour match combination, and a significantly more regal and restrained silhouette.

This evening dress in red velvet features gold bobbin lace trim around the neck and sleeves, gold detailing on the bodice, a perky bow at the centre front, and peacock feather embroidery on the skirt.

Evening dress in red silk velvet with metal bobbin lace trim, ca. 1902, Galleria del Costume di Palazzo Pitti, 00000192

Evening dress in red silk velvet with metal bobbin lace trim, ca. 1902, Galleria del Costume di Palazzo Pitti, 00000192

There is a slight hint of historicism in the sleeves, evoking 1810s-does-Renaissance detailing, but the overall silhouette, with the lack of waist seam, and the beginnings of the S-curve, is pure turn-of-the century.

Evening dress in red silk velvet with metal bobbin lace trim, ca. 1902, Galleria del Costume di Palazzo Pitti, 00000192

Evening dress in red silk velvet with metal bobbin lace trim, ca. 1902, Galleria del Costume di Palazzo Pitti, 00000192

So, classic colours, classic silhouette, a bit of velvet, a bit of sparkle.  Do you like it?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

The HSF/M Challenge #3: Stashbusting Favourites

Published by The Dreamstress

Update: as many of you may know, this post had a little hiccup, where I published it, and then a few hours later WP freaked out, and reverted to an earlier version, with my favourites from the blue challenge.  I’ve finally got it working again, so here (finally!) are my favourites for Stashbusting.

As I expected, the HSF/M Challenge #3: Stashbusting was really popular.  After all we’ve all got stashes that are in desperate need of being used up!  So there were lots of amazing items: some with items  that had been in the stash for years, some with items that have only been in the stash for a few months.

Because the challenge fell just after Art Deco Weekend, my sewing was focused on 1930s: I used up some almost-pique I’ve had for 8 years on a ’30s summer suit, and a length of red & white fabric I’d had for two years on a halter,  so I’m feeling pretty happy about my stash, even if my sewing wasn’t as exciting as some of the other items.

So, now, on to exciting items!

My favourites are items  I thought best represent the spirit of the Historical Sew Fortnightly; the goals  of expanding our historical knowledge, raising our skill levels and standard, stretching ourselves, and in this case, clearing out our stashes!

As always, there was a ton of amazing stuff I couldn’t feature, so check out the finished project posts linked through  the comments on the challenge page, or the FB challenge album  (yep, you do have to be a group member to see it, yep, if you ask to be a member we’re going to ask you some questions, and yep, it might take us a few days to answer, but if you are really interested in the HSF, as a participant or active cheerleader, we’d LOVE to have you)

And now, to the wonderfulness:

  1. A Dressmaker’s Workshop’s 14th c half-circle coat.  This fascinating piece, based on a rare extent medieval garment, is practical, versatile, and used stash fabric over a decade old.  Pretty awesome all ’round!
  2. Christina’s 1861 bonnet.  Isn’t it beautiful? And while not all the materials in this bonnet are perfectly historical, the way in which they have been accumulated over the years, scavenged and re-purposed really reminds me of descriptions of re-making bonnets in period writing.  Stashbusting at its finest!HSF Stashbusting Christina's 1861 bonnet
  3. Isabella’s mid-18th century fitted-back gown.  OK, this one is making the list predominantly for the blog post (not that the dress isn’t gorgeous!).  Beautiful detailed shots of draping, details, and puppies and kittens.  Happiness!
  4. Sewing and Sightseeing’s medieval dress.  A fairytale worthy medieval gown, and the symmetry of the fabric having been stash, and the project itself having been stashed as a UFO, charms me.  Plus, fun architecture history!
  5. Mireille’s 1870s day dress:  One of the great things about this challenge was seeing wonderful ensembles made from fabrics and materials collected over years and decades, all coming together to make something marvelous.  This striking 1870s two-piece day dress is the perfect example of that:HSF Stashbusting Mireilli's 1872 gownAnd finally, since we started with a Bocksten find based item, here is a bonus favourite also based on the Bocksten find:
  6. Anna’s 1360s-ish working woman’s gown.  Fantastic documentation.  A great resource post for working class medieval garments, with exquisite sewing details (and a bonus-bonus truly fabulous hat).

If you need more inspiration, here are my favourites from Challenge #2: Blue, and Challenge #1: Foundations

Rate the Dress: a 1770s belle in lacy bells?

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week I showed you Elizabeth Craven, Lady Powis, in her all-over embroidered early-Stuart jacket and skirt.  It’s an outfit that I love SO MUCH.  Everything about it makes me happy.  It’s got blossoms and berries and birds and bees and bugs and other ‘various sundrie spottes’.  It’s like Spindle’s End got turned into an outfit.  I want it, oh, I want it!  The only reason it isn’t top of my sewing list is that I would be 70 before it was done if I started today.

So, umm, slightly biased.

And many of you agreed, giving it a satisfying 13 of 27 10/10.  But some of you who didn’t agree really didn’t like it much, pulling the score down to 8.8 out of 10.  That’s OK, I still adore it!

Now, on to this week!

A confession: I just wasn’t feeling Rate the Dress this week.  We spent the weekend painting the house, and cleaning the house, and my Mon & Tue work schedule was incredibly hectic, and I just didn’t want to blog.  The post on privacy and perfection got published only because it was already written.

But it’s Wednesday morning, and I feel a trifle guilty about the lack of RtD, and (more to the point), Felicity has occupied my lap, at a moment when I don’t have much else to do on the computer.  So, courtesy of Felicity, you get a RtD!

And you know what?  I’m quite excited about it now that I’ve committed to it.  I did what I usually do when I’m out of inspiration:  pick a museum at random, and a costume term at random, and see what turns up.

In this case LACMA and ‘polonaise’ yielded this very feminine and spring-y pink and green ensemble:

At first my reaction was ‘eh, standard 3rd quarter of the 18th century pretty frock, not that inspiring, but I guess it will do’

And then I looked at it more closely and thought ‘well, actually that chenille trim is rather fascinatingly wacky’

And then I looked even more closely and realised ‘there are three dimensional lace bells on that thing!’  Not quite bell-bells, but more like flower bells: bluebells or harebells or something.  But still…three dimensional lace bells, just hanging off of it…

And the sleeves also have rather interesting petal shaped detailing:

And the stomacher they have paired it with have some rather fetching ribbon work going on:

Not to mention the shoes in a different green and white striped silk:

So, all in all, not the standard, boring dress I saw at first glance at all!

I imagine the lace bells would sway and bounce with the movement of the wearer, further adding to the layered, ornamented, embellished, all-encompassing Rococo sensibilities.

So what do you think of it?  Are the bells just mad enough to be fabulous?  Does the whole think work as an ode to perky, bouncy, über-feminine, pink-and-green, rococo-ness?  Or is it terrible and overworked and over-saccharine?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10