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Scraps and snippets

Published by The Dreamstress

What’s up in the textile and costume world?

Well, first of all, just in case you have been locked in your closet admiring your pretty dresses and ignoring all the buzz, pre-orders are open for American Duchess’ dyeable leather 18th Devonshire shoes.  Order yours now and save $20 (and guarantee that you get a pair in your size!).  Pre-orders close 10th August.

On a more local note, Wellington Auction house Dunbar Sloane is having a ‘Vintage Costume & Boudoir Auction‘ on the 10th of August.  Based on previous costume-y auctions at Dunbar Sloanes, things will either go for really good prices, or absolutely ridiculous ones.  I might go along to see if it will be the former.  And if you really have to have something in the catalogue – well, they do do phone bidding!

Later in the month, on Aug 28, is the annual Auckland Vintage Textile Fair.  Lots of friends of mine will be there selling their wares.  It would be a great excuse for me to go visit friends in Auckland.  If only I actually needed anything to add to my stash!

Slightly more long-term is the New Zealand in Vogue exhibition at Te Papa, on until Sept 2012.  It’s just a small exhibition in their standard corridor Eyelights gallery, but should feature some cute retro frocks and accessories from the ’50s onward.  And the length of the exhibition means that there will be at least one (and probably two) sets of changeovers, as light-sensitive textiles are replaced with new items every few months to keep them from getting too much exposure.  So it’s worth going back more than once.  And it’s free.  Free is good.

Finally, this is barely textile related, but NZ will be hosting the Rugby World Cup in about a month, and the TV ads are doing their best to convince the country that we are just overcome with excitement at the thought of all those games, and that the All Blacks (the national team) might actually win again.  Take this ad:

Erm.

I can’t be the only one that thinks that souvenir baby nappies (diapers for those of you not in NZ) are a bit…well…weird?  What’s next?  Commemorative toilet paper?  Will they take a leaf from the royal wedding souvenirs and release All Blacks themed condoms?

Don’t answer that.

Finished project: Ninon’s dress!

Published by The Dreamstress

I teased Chiara at the Grandeur & Frivolity talk that I should never let her wear my dresses as every time she puts on one, I love the way it looks on her so much that I never feel I look right in it again!

Sooooo gorgeous!

She looked especially amazing in Ninon’s 1660s dress at the Grandeur & Frivolity talk.  So amazing I almost don’t want to add any more trimming to the dress.  Or that might just be the minimalist in me talking 😉

The trim is on hold anyway while I find the perfect ribbon or lace.

Ah-maze-ing!

I’m so in love with this dress.  It’s everything I hoped it would be, and then some.  The colour is perfect, the fabric sublime.  The skirt pleats, the smooth bodice, the sleeves, the laced bodice.  It all worked perfectly.

The skirt pleats! And the perfectly matched bodice lacing!

And the model! *Swoon*

The fichu/wrap thing is just pinned on with a fabulous brooch courtesy of Madame O.  I’m working on a way to attach it which is both practical and historical.

She looks so sweet and bashful here!

We took a few photos of Chiara and I together after the Grandeur & Frivolity talk.  I look like a dork in all of them, but she looks amazing, so I’ll suck it up and post them 😉

Dorky & gorgeous. Or should that be gorgeous & dorky?

I may look dorky, but at least we are having fun!

I loved my robe a la francaise, but now I LOVE Ninon's dress

All photos are courtesy of the fabulous Sarah.

 

A 1903 corset for Emily

Published by The Dreamstress

I realised I can’t call my 1903 straight fronted corset to go with Emily’s dress ‘Emily’s corset’, as I already did another corset for a different (far more fabulous) Emily.

So, I need to have another name for it.  And I think I have an idea, inspired by the fabrics I’m using.

The outer fabric is an oyster coloured silk shantung.  It’s a gorgeous fabric: almost no slub (the usual shantung problem, which makes it of dubious historical value), and it glows like a pearl.

Oyster silk shantung outer

The story of how I got the fabric is adorable.  My mother in law gave it to me, on my birthday, but she stressed that it wasn’t my present (she also gave me something else, all gorgeously wrapped), it was just something she had lying around that she wasn’t using.  Why wasn’t it a present?  Because that would be like giving me work for my birthday.

Awwww.  Hehe.  I still haven’t managed to convince my darling MIL that really, I would love getting fabric for every birthday.

The lining fabric was also a sort-of-present.  I was cutting out the corset at Mrs C’s house, and didn’t have a fabric I like for a lining.  So she let me raid her stash of quilting fabrics.  I fell in love with a floral fabric with little rosebuds in the same pink as Emily’s dress.

Pretty little pink rosebuds among the brambles

Isn’t it sweet!  It’s reminds me of Sleeping Beauty – it’s all briar roses, waiting to be awakened and open up.

Of course, once I sewed it up I realised what else it looks like.

It's camouflage. It's pretty, rose sprinkled, girly, CAMOUFLAGE.

OMG.  I made a camouflage lined corset.  A camouflage lined corset to go with the girliest, pinkest, frilliest dress ever.

Let's go hunting. Let's catch a man. He'll never see me coming.

Obviously, I’m not going to call this the camouflage corset.  I’m calling it the briar rose corset (though it could also be the fairy godmother corset courtesy of Mrs C and MIL, except it is turning out to have serious thorns).  And I will try to pretend that I never noticed that it hides everything.

Shhhh.  Don’t you dare tell!