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Textiles: where technology meets “you’ve got to be kidding me”

Published by The Dreamstress

Due to the courses I teach, I’ve been doing a lot of reading up on technologically innovative textiles.

A lot of it is really neat, but also somewhat expected: making textiles lighter, stronger, or better at keeping you warm or cool.

Some of it is just neat, like invisibility cloaks, and knitted heart valves.

And then there is the stuff that is just…weird.

Like the Ebbra – an ’emergency bra’ that doubles as a face mask in the event that you get caught in a sandstorm, develop an infectious cough in a matter of minutes, find yourself surrounded by people with infectious coughs, or forget to leave your building when the exterminator tents it.

And the best part is, you have a second half to give to a friend.

The bra in action

It goes from this...

...to this - in a matter of minutes!

Then there is the Hug Shirt – a wired shirt that uses electronic impulses to give the sensation of a ‘hug’ whenever a friend with a bluetooth or an iphone uses their ‘Hug Shirt’ app to send you one.

The best/worst part?  It was voted one of the “Best Inventions of 2006” by Time Magazine.  Seriously?  The best thing anyone managed to invent in 2006 was another way to communicate without actually touching?!?

All this technology makes me feel like I need to retreat into my Luddite cave and do some hand sewing.

Rate the Dress: Maria Alexandranova in double

Published by The Dreamstress

No one could agree on anything from last week’s Rate the Dress.  Some loved the colours, some didn’t.  Some thought the sleeves too big, others adored them.  The low neckline and high camisa were popular with some readers, and deemed awkward by others.  And while some of you thought the model looked astonishingly modern and real, others found her a bit, well, red-eyed vampirish.  All in all, Bronzini’s Lady in Green rated an 8.4 out of 10.

This week I present something entirely unprecedented: one woman, in one ensemble, as portrayed by two different artists.  You already know the artists and the model as you have rated Maria Alexandrovna in the past (she got a 6.5).

Both Winterhalter and Ivan Makarov painted Maria Alexandrovna (yes, the Victorian Kristen Stewart) in a muted ensemble, lavishly trimmed in lace, and draped in pearls.

I haven’t been able to determine if one portrait was taken from the other, or if both painters painted Maria from life (and if so, at the same time?). Certainly the poses and fall of the draperies are suspiciously similar, though Winterhalter’s portrait implies the dress has a skirt of full tiers of lace, and Makarov’s portrait implies that the silk satin of the dress is blue-grey in colour.

Franz Xaver Winterhalter, Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, 1857, Hermitage

Ivan Makarov, Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, ca 1857

So, a challenge for you dear readers! You have already rated Maria Alexandrovna once. Now you get the opportunity to see her in a whole new light. Or lights. How do you feel about the dress now that you can see how two different artists saw and painted it? Would you have liked one version, but not the other?  Will she rate better than she did in the past?

And how do you Rate the Dress on a scale of 1 to 10 based on the combined effect?

A simple corset with a steampunk twist

Published by The Dreamstress

Because I am being good and practical and doing mending instead of exciting historical sewing, I’ll show you more of Madame Ornata’s excellently interesting sewing.

She is making a classic Victorian corset, but the gorgeous striped chocolate brown fabric gives it a bit of a steampunk twist.

I love the sweetheart shaping.

It’s lined with chocolate brown linen.

Yummy...

Her sewing machine has beautiful finishing stitches, so she has used them on both back and front.

Pretty stitches

Now I just have to convince her to ornament it with leather belting and big buckles!

Or bright pink piping…

Either is good.

She used Buttericks stays/corset pattern

Buttericks stays and corsets

It fits beautifully, but after closely inspecting some historical examples, and the corset as it fits, I helped her lay out an alternative boning pattern.

We are basing it on this corset:

1866 corset from Nora Waugh's Corsets and Crinolines

The curving lines of bones should fit beautifully around the waist.

Unlike the Butterick’s pattern AND the 1866 C&C corset, this one doesn’t have a front busk.  That was a purely practical decision on Madame O’s part – she didn’t have a busk and wanted to go ahead and sew rather than researching and ordering one and waiting for it to arrive.

The corsets and some of the spring steel bones that will be used in it. The curved bones will be spiral steel.

I can’t wait to see what she does with the flossing.  Unlike me, Madame Ornata is a talented embroiderer, so her work should be amazing.

I love the flossing that they put under the point of the bust gussets