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Felicity – the sweet and the not-so-sweet

Published by The Dreamstress

I adore Felicity.  She is wonderful, and lovable and undeniably cute.

Cu-ute!

But she does have some flaws (she had a difficult kittenhood – what can I say?).

Ten things that are sweet about Felicity:

  1. She loves me.  She follows me around from room to room, all day, because wherever I am is where she wants to be.
  2. She loves Mr Dreamy.  Whenever he sits down she crawls on his lap and cuddles up.
  3. She is very gentle with old people, and children.  She was exceptionally sweet to Nana when she met her.
  4. She never tries to eat people food.  You can leave anything – milk, fish, steak, butter, anything – on the counter and she won’t eat it.
  5. She never begs for food, or demands that we wake up to feed her.
  6. She isn’t whiney.  I can’t abide cats that whine.
  7. She comes and sits with you when you are upset.  If I started crying, Felicity will be cuddled up to me in less than a minute.
  8. She comes when you call.  Always.
  9. She chirps and peeps and trills when she wants to be fed, but only if you are already on the way to the kitchen.
  10. She loves when you come home.  Even if you leave for weeks and only a pet-sitter visits her, you aren’t in trouble for leaving her, you are the best thing ever for coming home again.

Felicity taking care of a sick Dreamstress

Felicity and Mr Dreamy share the love

Seven things aren’t always so sweet about Felicity (I couldn’t think of 10, which is a good thing).

  1. She is demanding.  She wants what she wants, when she wants it, and, by-golly, if you don’t pet her, she will attack your calf and bite your ankle.
  2. She really is an ankle-biter (see above)
  3. She holds grudges.  Un-lap her and she will glare at you for half an hour, attempt ankle biting, and sulk.
  4. She is in charge.  She gets petted when she wants to get petted, and pushes your hand away when she doesn’t want to be petted.
  5. She bites and scratches when she is mad.  She is getting much better about this, but still takes the occasional swipe.
  6. She thinks sewing is play time.  Fabric is for hide and seek, and patterns are for ripping to shreds.
  7. She claws furniture.

Cute. Now can I have it back, I need to cut it!

But I'm so cute! Even when I glare at you! Even when I leap at your face...OK...maybe not so much when I do that.

18th century muslin/calico dresses: historically plausible?

Published by The Dreamstress

I think about historical plausibility a lot.  Historical costumers worry about accuracy, but I think that ‘accurate’ often gets confused with ‘common’.  Just because most seamstresses did something one way, doesn’t necessarily mean that one or two might not have done it completely differently.

Lots of things happen today that aren’t mainstream.  Even with the plethora of information on the internet today, people sew, and create, and live in ways that aren’t documented.  It is reasonable to assume that historically, there were also seamstresses who created in unusual ways, and used unusual materials.

The costumer who asked me about 18th century masquerade outfits also asked about ideas for making her dress on a limited budget.

I’ve been turning the question over in my mind, and last night (well, 4am in the morning) I had an epiphany.  Why not use muslin/calico?

Raw, unpatterned cotton calico (which American’s call muslin) existed in late 18th century Europe.  In fact, huge amounts of it were imported, because many countries had passed laws making it illegal to import patterned calico from India in order to protect their own textile industries.

Most 18th century masquerade dresses were just formal dresses, trimmed to represent the idea, allegory, or personage the reveler wanted to dress as.  But some people did have specific masquerade outfits made.

Based on extent examples, most formal 18th century frocks were silk.  But, that doesn’t mean that the occasional partygoer didn’t  use the excuse of the informality of the masquerade as an opportunity to wear a cotton frock.

Robert Dighton, Return from a Masquerade, 1784

I’m sure that the chemise a la reine of the sleepy partygoer above was made of cotton!

I also know of one late 18th century beauty who was the belle of the ball at an international soiree in Germany in a dress of a most unusual material (basically paper) which she described as being styled in the mode of a shepherdess.*

So, with all this in mind, I think it is entirely plausible that there could have been 18th century masquerade dresses made of unpatterned Indian calico.  And I think that a costumer on a budget who finds the idea appealing shouldn’t hesitate to make one!

And finally, just some more 18th century masquerade scenes that I have found:

A Chinese themes masquerade in Venice - looks like anything goes when you are dressing up!

Rosalba Carriera. Gustavus Hamilton (1710—1746), Second Viscount Boyne, in Masquerade Costume, 1731-32

Luxurious masquerade costume for an early 18th century gentleman.  Don’t you love his lace veil?

Lady Betty Bustle and her maid Lucy prepare for the masquerade

The moon and stars in her hair indicate she may be Diana.  I can’t figure out the thing on her skirt.

Dressing for the Masquerade, 1794

A not so flattering depiction of masquerade-goers.

Copy after Jean Antoine Watteau (French, 18th century), The Country Dance

It’s not clear if this painting is meant to represent a real country dance, or masquerade revelers dressed as charmingly bucolic country folk.

The Cascade. Copy after Jean Antoine Watteau (French, 18th century)

Another slightly ambiguous Watteau inspired scene.  Are they masqueraders or not?

A Masked Ball in Bohemia. Attributed to Andreas Altomonte (Austrian, 1699—1780), ca 1748




Very traditional Carnivale inspired costumes, along with a smattering of Ottomans and shepherdesses, are the order of the day in this depiction of a mid-century ball in Bohemia.  Click on the image to be taken to the Met’s site, where you can see more of it detail.

The Ridotto, Francesco Guardi, ca. 1765

The vignettes in this scene of the famous Venetian Ridotto gambling house and masquerade venue are just adorable:

Isn't the little spinner just too precious? And the girl with the basket: so sweet!

I love the trimming on this dress. The mask is a bit alarming though!

This one is definitely my favourite. I'm such a sucker for pink.

She looks like she is having too good of a time

*I’m planning a project based on the incident, so I don’t want to share too much of my scholarship around it yet.

Flourish, polls and other bits and bobs

Published by The Dreamstress

First off, if you check out the Events page, you will notice a new event (in addition to my Pompeii to Paris talk): Flourish.

“To flourish is to grow, thrive and blossom.

To flourish is to develop succeed and prosper.

To flourish is to attract attention, make bold gestures, standout from the crowd.”

The textile design students at Massey University have been creating gorgeous one-off silk scarves as a fundraiser for Downstage Theatre.  If you are lucky enough to be in Wellington you can visit an exhibition of the scarves  at Thistle Hall, and attend a fantastic evening at Downstage to bid on one of the fabulous scarves.

And the scarves  are fabulous – I’ve been watching the students create them and drooling over the designs!  They have put hours and hours of work into the designs, and they can only get one true printing off of them.

Second, you may have noticed my new poll function on the sidebar.  I’ll be running weekly lighthearted polls about textiles and fashion and pretty much anything and everything else I can think of.  Except politics.  And probably sports.  But who knows.

And for the record, speaking of polls, I can’t believe that no one wants to be a zombie!  Just think of the lack of worries – the only thing on your mind would be brains!  Mmmmm….brains….

Mmmm...brains...wait, no, that's a tulip! It does look kind of brain-y, or at least organ-y, doesn't it?

Third, I’m dripping in commissions, and (luckily) also feeling fabulously productive, so as long as I can tear myself away from the dress form and the ironing board and the sewing machine, you should see lots and lots of sewing posts. If I can’t…well, then you’ll see lots and lots of cute pictures of Felicity.

Now that’s not a bad thing, is it?

Felicity pictures can never be bad

Finally, I entered four items in the Historical Costume Inspiration Festival, mostly because every time I’ve been bored and had internet access I’ve popped over and added another one.

Go and check out the other stuff on offer (I’m seriously drooling over the wire Royals Swedish crowns!), and check out the costume portfolios of the ones I have entered.

The waterlily dress