All posts tagged: Ninon’s dress

Ninon’s dress: sleeves!

After two toiles, and three re-pleatings/readjusting of the sleeves, Ninon’s sleeves are done. Or at least I’m happy enough with them to let them go for one wearing while I re-assess them. So typically me! I pleated the top of the sleeves with soft knife pleats. It’s less controlled than the stiff cartridge pleats on most extent mid 17th century sleeves, but I felt it looked more like the softer pleats on my inspiration piece: The bottom of the sleeves are done with sewn-down cartridge pleats. I left a bit of the band at the bottom of the sleeve totally plain, as that seems to be what is going on in my inspiration image. I think it will sit a bit better and collapse less when it has all the trim that is in the inspiration image. I found the sleeve ‘wing’ really irritating. I think it is a leftover transition from the Elizabethan shoulder wings, but as a transition piece it no longer really makes sense, and is just a bit of a …

Ninon’s dress: binding the tabs

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve finished binding the tabs of the bodice of Ninon’s dress. I used kid leather to bind the tabs. This may not be 100% historically accurate. There are numerous examples of 18th century stays bound in leather, but I couldn’t find any extent 17th century bodices with leather bindings. However, all the bodices I did find were bound in a different fabric from the main bodice fabric: usually a sort of ribbed tape. I couldn’t find a suitable modern alternative, especially in the right colour, so I decided to go with kid. I cut apart an old kid glove for my bindings. A few years back I found a bag of mis-matched and soiled gloves at an op shop and I picked them up thinking they might be useful. Boy am I so glad I did! Binding stays with kid leather is soooooo much easier than any other kind of binding. Because the leather doesn’t fray, you don’t have to fold in the cut edges. The leather folds smoothly over the inner and outer curves …

Ninon’s dress: the lining (and eyelets)

Published by The Dreamstress

As you may have guessed from yesterday’s post, all the eyelets are done on Ninon’s bodice, and I’ve put the lining in and completely finished the outside. I used some soft white linen that I had in my stash. The white was a little blinding against the dark gold of the duchesse silk satin, so I dyed it. I used exactly the same dye that I used on the silk, but it came out pale yellow. It’s fascinating what dye does on different fibres. The entire lining is stitched down over the boned linen base using running stitches, just like the outer duchesse silk satin. I finished the edges of the front point, and the entire neckline by turning over the edges of the lining and tacking them down to the turned-over duchesse silk satin using an invisible whip stitch, just like the finishing on the Bath dress. Unlike the front point, the tabs don’t get finished in this fashion; they will be bound. In preparation for that, I’ve basted all around the tabs just …