All posts tagged: Historical Sew-Fortnightly

Panier-Along #2: Pocket slits and hoop channels

Welcome back to the Panier-Along (look, there is a button! And it links to a Panier-Along page!). Yesterday we cut out our panier pattern pieces – today let’s start sewing! The first sewing step it an optional one. Some historical paniers have slits at the top so that you can use the paniers as pockets (since wearing paniers and pockets can get a bit tricky). If you don’t want pocket slits, you can skip this step and move halfway down the post to the next step. First, mark a line 6″ down from the centre top of your 25″ wide panier outside piece. This will be your slit to reach through. Cut down this line: Now, you need to finish the raw edges of the pocket slits. My way of finishing pocket slits is based on historical examples, but if this method is too complicated you could just widen your slits a little so that they form narrow U shapes and bind the edges with bias tape. To do it historically, make a narrow hem …

Panier Along #1: Pattern pieces

Published by The Dreamstress

Yay! Hello! Welcome to the Panier-Along! Over the next two weeks I’ll be walking you through making 1770sish paniers. To start with, check out the Materials List. Now that you have all your materials sorted, let’s get the pattern figured out, and your fabric cut. I’m using a lovely heavyweight linen in a sort of pinky-terracotta that was in my stash. It’s got some light fading, but is really ideal in terms of weight and the tightness of the weave: it will support the boning well without being too thick to pleat. I know I said I’d be machine sewing, but linen is such a pleasure to hand-sew that I have changed my mind, and will be hand sewing it. The pattern pieces for the paniers look like this: There are two of each (one for each side of the paniers), and they are laid out as I cut them from my 45″ wide fabric. The rectangles are pretty self explanatory, but here is how to draft the panier bottom: Start with a 10″ pattern …

Happiness is historical accuracy (intentional or not)

Published by The Dreamstress

Remember how I said that the fabric for the 1813 Kashmiri dress wasn’t quite accurate? Well, I’ve done some more research, and it turns out it is more accurate than I thought. First, whilst I still can’t find an image of a dress made from a Kashmiri shawl that is darker than the cobalt blue of Salome’s (and I still think that one is at least half fantasy, though there are extent cobalt blue shawls, and at least one extent shawl-inspired dress in cobalt blue), I have managed to find an extent paisley shawl that is black: It’s a European shawl in silk and cotton rather than a Kashmiri shawl in cashmere, and it’s from a few years older than my dress, but where there is one, there might have been more. And the border? Well, my double border still doesn’t match any images of dresses made from paisley shawls or extent examples of dresses made from paisley shawls, but there are a number of extent shawls with very similar borders: If only my wool …