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Rate the Dress: Lock me up in 1887

Last week’s 1860s wrapper made us think of warm fires and good books: until we noticed the terrible un-matched front stripes.  Unfortunately, mis-matched stripes could not be unseen, and could not be forgiven, and so the dress lost an average of two points for that flaw, whether your original rating was good, or bad.  Still, 6.6 out of 10 isn’t too bad after all!

Over the past year most of my Rate the Dress picks have been chosen to fit the Historical Sew Fortnightly themes, but sometimes I find a frock that I really just want to feature, and which doesn’t have anything to do with the HSF.  This week’s choice,  from the Metropolitan Museum of Art  is one of those.

Dress, silk, 1887, White Howard & Co.:25 W. 16th St.:New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, CI68.53.6ab

Dress, silk, 1887, White Howard & Co.:25 W. 16th St.:New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, CI68.53.6ab

Dress, silk, 1887, White Howard & Co.:25 W. 16th St.:New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, CI68.53.6ab

Dress, silk, 1887, White Howard & Co.:25 W. 16th St.:New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, CI68.53.6ab

Dress, silk, 1887, White Howard & Co.:25 W. 16th St.:New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, CI68.53.6ab

Dress, silk, 1887, White Howard & Co.:25 W. 16th St.:New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, CI68.53.6ab

I think this dress is fascinating.  The tomato red silk, paired with the red velvet in a very slightly darker shade.  The mix of pleating, gathering, ruching and draping as you move across the skirt, and from the apron overskirt to the velvet underskirt.  Most of all, the chain-inspired trim.  What a intriguing motif to use!

Fascinating and intriguing do not always equal good taste though, so I present the dress to you to discuss, dissect, and judge.  Will you deem it permanently linked to good taste, or shall we lock it away and toss the key (sorry, couldn’t resist a few bad puns)?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10.

The HSF Challenge #24: Re-do

Hurrah!  It’s the challenge you’ve all been waiting for: the Re-Do challenge (due 2 Dec).  This one is super easy.  Pick any previous challenge and re-do it (or do it for the first time).

It could be one that you didn’t finish, one that you wish you’d had more time for, or any time for, or one where you loved the theme so much you want to do it  again.

1780s pet-en-l'aire and pleated petticoat

The challenges so far have been:

  • #0 (the bonus challenge): Starting Simple  – due 31 December NZT.  Finish a project, make a very simple garment, or something you have made before.
  • #1:  Bi/Tri/Quadri/Quin/Sex/Septi/Octo/Nona/Centennial  — due 14 Jan.  Sew something from __13, whether it be 1913, 1613, or 13BC
  • #2: UFO  – due Jan 28.  Let’s get something off our UFO pile! Use this opportunity to finish off something that’s never quite gotten done, or stalled halfway through.
  • #3: Under it all  — due Feb 11.  Every great historical outfit starts with the right undergarments, and, just in time for Valentines day, here’s you’re excuse to make them. Chemises, corsets, corded petticoats, drawers, garters, stockings…if it goes under your garments, it qualifies.
  • #4: Embellish  –  due Feb 25.  Decorations make the historical garment glorious. Whether you use embroidery, trim, pleating, lace, buttons, bows, applique, quilting, jewels, fringe, or any other form of embellishment, this challenge is all about decorative detail.
  • #5: Peasants & Pioneers  — due March 11. As wonderful as making pretty, pretty princess dresses is, the vast majority of people have always been poor commoners, whether they were peasants working the land, servants in big houses, or (later), pioneers carving their own space in new lands. This fortnight let’s make something that celebrates the common man.
  • #6: Stripes    due March 25. The stripe is one of the oldest patterns, appearing in the earliest textile fragments and visual records of garments, and its never gone out of style since. Celebrate stripes with a striped garment. Will you go for grand baroque stripes, pastel rococo stripes, severe neoclassical stripes, elaborately pleated and bustled Victorian stripes, or something else entirely?
  • #7: Accessorize  – due April 8.  Accessories add polish to your outfits, helping to create the perfect historical look. This week is all about bringing an outfit together. Trim a bonnet, paint a fan, crochet an evening bag, sew a shawl, or dye and decorate a pair of shoes to create the perfect period accessory for yourself.
  • #8: By the Sea  – due April 22.  The sea has inspired and influenced fashion for millennia. This challenge is all about nautical fashions, whether you make something to wear on the sea, by the sea, or in the sea (or lake or river).
  • #9: Flora and Fauna  — due May 6.  Textiles and the natural world are inextricably linked.  Until very recently, all textiles were made from flora (linen, raime, hemp) or fauna (wool, silk, fur), and dyed with flora and fauna.  Flora and fauna also influenced the decoration of textiles, from Elizabethan floral embroidery, to Regency beetle-wing dresses, to Edwardian bird-trimmed hats.  Celebrate the natural world (hopefully without killing any birds) with a flora and/or fauna inspired garment.
  • #10: Literature  – due May 20. The written word has commemorated and immortalised fashions for centuries, from the ‘gleaming’ clothes that Trojans wore before the war, to Desdemona’s handkerchief, ‘spotted with strawberries’, to Meg in Belle Moffat’s borrowed ballgown, and Anne’s longed for puffed sleeves.In this challenge make something inspired by literature: whether you recreate a garment or accessory mentioned in a book, poem or play, or dress your favourite historical literary character as you imagine them.
  • #11: Squares, Rectangles & Triangles  – due June 3.  Many historical garments, and the costumes of many people around the world, use basic geometric shapes as their basis. In this challenge make a garment made entirely of squares, rectangles and triangles (with one curve allowed), whether it is an 18th century kimono, a flounced 1850s skirt, or a medieval shift.
  • #12: Pretty Pretty Princesses  – due June 17.  Channel your inner princess and her royal wardrobe. Pick a princess, queen, empress, arch-duchess, or a de-facto queen as inspiration for a fabulously royal frock (or other garment). The occasional prince is also most welcome.
  • #13: Lace and Lacing  – due July 1.  Lacing is one of the simplest and oldest forms of fastening a garment, eminently practical, and occasionally decorative.  Lace has been one of the most valuable and desirable textiles for centuries, legislated, coveted, at times worth more than its weight in gold, passed down from one garment to the next over centuries. Elaborate and delicate it is eminently decorative, and rarely practical.  Celebrate the practicality of lacing, and the decorative frivolity of lace, with a garment that laces or has lace trim, or both.
  • #14: Eastern Influence  — due July 15.  The East has had a profound influence on Western fashions for millenia, from the Chinese silks that were worn in Ancient Rome, through the trade in Indian chintzes from the 17th century onward, 18th century chinoiserie, Kashmiri shawls and paisley, 19th century Japonisme, and early 20th century Orientalism and Egyptian revival.  In this challenge make an item that shows the Eastern influence on Western fashion.
  • #15: Colour Challenge White  – due July 29.  White has carried many connotations as a colour, from defining culture and social boundaries, to denoting status, to implying purity, or simply cleanliness.  For this challenge ‘white’ is defined as anything in the white family — from brightest white, through to ivory and cream and all the shades between.  Whether you make a simple chemise or an elaborate ballgown, your item should be predominantly white, though it may have touches of other colours.
  • #16: Separates  – due August 12.  Make a non-matching garment which can be paired with other items in your historical wardrobe to extend your outfit choices.
  • #17: Robes & Robings  – due August 26.   Make a robe-shaped garment, from a biblical robe, through a medieval robe, an 18th century banyan, a Regency evening robe, a 19th century wrapper, or an early 20th century kimono.  Or, make one of the frocks called robes by modern English speaking fashion historians, such as a  robe volante,  robe battante,  robe à  la coer,  robe à la française,  robe  Ã  l’anglaise  (+  turques,  polonaises, &  circassienne), and the 1920s  robe de style.  Or, make something with robings (read the event page for a description).
  • #18: Re-make, Re-use & Re-fashion  — due September 9.  Sew something that pays homage to the historical idea of re-using, re-making and re-fashioning.  Turn one thing into another.  Re-fit or re-fashion an old gown into something you would wear again.  Re-trim a hat for a new outfit, or re-shape a modern hat to be a historical hat.  Re-purpose the fabric from an old garment (your own or a commercial one) into a new garment.
  • #19: Wood, Metal, Bone  — due September 23.  Cloth may be the most obvious material in historic costuming, but wood, metal, and bone are just as important to creating the right look and silhouette.  For this challenge, make anything that incorporates wood, metal, or bone.
  • #20: Outerwear  — due October 7th.  Make one of the layers that get added on to your basic outfit to protect you, and it, from inclement weather.
  • #21: Colour Challenge Green  — due October 21.  Make a historical garment or accessory in any shade of green  from palest spring green  through to darkest pine green, and from barely-there eu de nil, to vibrant chartreuse.
  • #22: Masquerade  – due November 4th.  Create something  inspired by historical fancy dress and masquerade that takes you out of reality, in to another world (purely historical, fantasy, steampunk etc are all allowed).

What am I going to do…oh my!  I’d really, really, really like to do the project I’d meant to do for Flora & Fauna, but practically speaking I should finish Chinoiserie, or make the 1900s blouse from White, or that set of 1860s undergarments.  Not sure, but I’m certain I’ll have NO problem making someone, and I hope EVERYONE else is able to participate!

Sewings, sonatas and soirees

This, dear readers, is why my Robes & Robings project is going to be hopelessly late:

1840s inspired evening dress thedreamstress.com

I’m not supposed to be taking commissions at the moment, as I’m working more than full-time between teaching at uni and teaching sewing, and trying to run the HSF and work on other projects.  But when Rowena, who I’ve worked with before, contacted me to see if I would make her an 1840s inspired evening dress to wear at a parlour concert set in the 1840s, how could I resist?

I’m such a sucker for a pretty dress idea!

1840s inspired evening dress thedreamstress.com

And Rowena is such a delight to work with, which made taking on a commission very easy.  We only had a month and a bit to make the dress in, but luckily we were able to find a fantastic pure silk jacquard in Wellington, and once the right fabric was found, the project just sailed ahead.

1840s inspired evening dress thedreamstress.com
Sea green was very fitting for this project, as the parlour concert’s programme included Haydn’s Lines from the Battle of the Nile, the Mermaid’s Song and the Sailor’s Song and finished with Steibelt’s  Britannia: An Allegorical Overture (which is, by the way, quite possibly the most hilarious piece of classical music ever written).

1840s inspired evening dress thedreamstress.com

All of the musical numbers featured dated from the turn-of-the-nineteenth century (Lines was commissioned, and first sung, by Lady Hamilton to commemorate Nelson’s victory), but Rowena requested an 1840s dress, because it would match the 1843 piano.  The piano, an English square piano, has been in New Zealand since the 19th century, and it’s quite possible that it performed Haydn’s compositions when it was newly made.

1840s inspired evening dress thedreamstress.com

I’m calling the dress 1840s inspired, rather than a reproduction, because we made some compromises because of time and budget constraints, and in order to make it more comfortable for Rowena to sing and move in.  The pattern is reasonable accurate, but it is cut to be worn without a corset, and is quite lightly boned.  It’s also almost entirely machine sewn, as I didn’t have time to hand-sew it.  The cartridge pleats are worked by hand, as are the lacing holes, as metal eyelets (while they did exist in the 1840s) would never have been used on anything but undergarments.

1840s inspired evening dress thedreamstress.com

Despite the anachronistic machine sewing, I tried to keep the construction as authentic as possible.  Every seam, including the armhole, is piped in tiny piping,  I paired the sea green brocade with a darker jade green silk for piping and trim.

1840s inspired evening dress thedreamstress.com

The whole frock was an elaborate exercise in pattern matching, and extremely careful cutting.  I got the entire dress out of 2.7m of the 145cm wide silk – every scrap that there was to be had in Wellington.

1840s inspired evening dress thedreamstress.com

You may be wondering what exactly a parlor concert (or soiree) is?  It’s just what it sounds like: a small, intimate concert held in the parlor of a private home.

1840s inspired evening dress thedreamstress.com

This one was held in the home of the pianist, who has as many pianos (and piano variants such as harpsichords) as I have sewing machines, and a whole lounge set aside just to house them and hold soirees in.  What delicious luxury!  The house is amazing: full of old furniture and books, authentic to its Victorian roots while remaining both elegant and comfortable.

1840s inspired evening dress thedreamstress.com

Parlor concerts are wonderful, because experiencing live classical music in such a small, intimate setting is  a very different experience to a large concert hall.  This one in particular felt as if I was attending a party in the 1840s where the musical celebrity guests did an impromptu performance.  The performers mingled with the audience before and after the music, and the performance interacted with the audience in a way that just isn’t possible in a bigger setting.  I love parlor concerts.

Also, I’m rather in love with Rowena in her frock.  She just suits the period so perfectly!

1840s inspired evening dress thedreamstress.com

So I haven’t finished a robe, but I’m still pleased with myself!