All posts tagged: tartan

1883 in every way

So, after I posted about pleating my plaid 1880s skirt, an awesome friend crunched some number and figured out that if I counted the thread I used in the skirt in imperial rather than metric I would have used 1883 feet of thread in the skirt, which, since it is circa 1883, is just perfect.  How fantastic is that? Most of the thread usage in the skirt went into the pleats, but after I had sewn them all, and attached the bottom portion of the pleats to the skirt base, I had to do the hardest part: drape the overskirt. I suck at draping overskirts.  I don’t know why.  Mine just never look right!  I do better when they are separate pieces, but after scrutinizing the inspiration skirt from the Met, and considering how much fabric I had left to play with, I decided to sew it as one skirt.  I’m still not sure that was the right decision. First I had to make my pieces of pleating big enough.  Remember, I had a  5.4 …

Rate the dress: plaid in 1840

Last week’s St Patrick’s themed dress elicited some strong reactions.  Some love, some loathing, and a lot of “Well, the skirt is great, but that bodice…ewww” and “I love the bodice…but the skirt is just OTT.”  The dress needed to be cut in half!  The divided opinions cut the rating to 7.4 out of 10 – not quite a pot of gold, but at least the shine didn’t completely disappear like leprechaun gold. This week I’m leaving behind naturalism and historicism, and looking at geometry, and cutting edge design. Well, cutting edge for 1840: The skirt pleating, the bias cutting of the bodice, the elaborate pleated bertha, the wrapped sleeves, the buttons: every element of the dress shows off the distinctively unusual eggplant, mallard blue and mustard plaid. What do you think?  Does the unusual almost-plaid work?  Does the drape of the dress work?  Or is it all just a bit too weird and strange and experiemental? Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10