I wore this jacket with a black silk petticoat already in my closet, a purple mini-tricorn I purchased a few years ago, and various vintage and new accessories.
Photos were taken at Colonial Williamsburg. More photos from this Williamsburg trip on Flickr.
In January 2011, I modified the Rocking Horse Farm riding habit bodice to fit, then sent that re-drafted pattern, along with a red-black crossweave wool, some black velveteen, black braid, and black vintage jet buttons to Donna. In our seemingly endless barter stream, this became my new riding habit for our Colonial Williamsburg trip in March.
More photos from this Williamsburg trip on Flickr.
Posted in 18th Century 
Tags: 18th-c riding habit, Colonial Williamsburg, finished costume, made by Donna 
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18th-c. purple jacket
Now there’s (crappy iPhone photo) evidence that I can make a jacket in a week!
It’s finished with time to spare. All I have to do now for Williamsburg is dye my hair and pack.
Posted in 18th Century Tags: Colonial Williamsburg, last-minute sewing, purple 18th-c jacket No Comments »I did a little bit of sewing today. Made gathered trim for the jacket’s sleeves and attached it to one sleeve. Should be pretty fast to attach it to the next sleeve, then sew the black velvet braid on top on both sleeves. I’m doing all the trimming by machine, which is a first for me.
My sewing machine usually eats trim, so my fingers have been crossed the whole time (still are!). But I really want / need to get this puppy done fast. I leave on Wednesday!
Fueled by vast quantities of Kauai coffee, I started on a new jacket for Williamsburg. Yeah, I went there. Made from this purple-shot-with-red dupioni silk in The Stash. First, I dug out the J.P. Ryan jacket pattern I’d fitted last fall in planning for the Lumieres gambling party (but abandoned in favor of the stripey anglaise).
I tried the muslin on and didn’t like the fit. So I padded out my dressform (ehem), corseted it, and pinned away. Adjusted the back some and took a big old dart in the front (that I patterned out). Didn’t want to waste time on another muslin, so I risked it by cutting the next version out of the black linen intended to be the lining. Ta-da! Fit great.
Had lunch and got the idea (perhaps inspired by Ru-Paul’s Drag Race, which just tells me to make everything more FABULOUS) to make the jacket pin over a stomacher, specifically a stomacher made of this lavender silk-like scrap of fabric trimmed w/a diamond pattern of ribbon, a gift from Loren. It’s already covered in goodness, so automatically ups the interest factor.
Tried on the lining over corset and re-marked the front edge, with occasional reference to the laced-front / stomacher-front jackets in Janet Arnold for necklines. Re-cut and marked muslin pattern. Cut and sewed silk. Watched more Ru-Paul while my back un-kinked. Made a cocktail, clipped and pressed seams. Then bag-lined, baby. Turned and pressed the bejezzus out of that sucker.
It’s now sitting on the dressform, whilst I make shrimp korma (bottled sauce) for dinner.
The stomacher should be easy-peasy. Then it’s time to trim, trim, trim. This *could* be done in time — wish me luck, bitches!
Posted in 18th Century Tags: Colonial Williamsburg, last-minute sewing, purple 18th-c jacket No Comments »This fantastic gown was made for me by SarahBellem Designs, aka my good pal Sarah. I bought this stunning (and frighteningly expensive) embroidered silk in the LA Garment District at Costume College ’08, with the vague intention of making something 18th century. But, knowing me, the material would have languished in The Stash because I was afraid to cut something that pretty — until Sarah suggested making me a new gown for the Colonial Williamsburg invasion before Costume-Con 27.
She draped it on me and created an en fourreau back (although she pleated and re-pleated that several times, finally ripping it out and pleating it directly on me). There was some problems caused by the bulky embroidered motifs too. But she finalized the gown in a few hours at my house a couple weeks before the event. W00t! I will take credit for the sleeve though, since it’s a thrice-perfected pattern of mine that fit beautifully into this gown’s armscye. No idea if it’s accurate, but it works.
At first, I wanted a pink petticoat to go with it (using dupioni silk from The Stash, earmarked for a different project), but then I decided to just use the same black silk petticoat that I’d made for the Stripey Polonaise. And that lead me to trimming ideas…
During an insomniac fit — when I get hit wit many costume ideas — I remembered how much extra black lace fabric I had from the Eugenie gown. That wide scalloped-edge black lace. Surely I could make that into trim somehow, or sleeve flounces, or something. And I have some 1920s black lace mantillas that might be usable too.
So when I got up, I pulled things out. One mantilla could work as a fichu, but I’m not fond of fichus (too much fussing to get them to work and stay). But it was a backup. Then the Eugenie lace — too wide for the neckline, but perfect for sleeve flounces. I messed around making tubes of lace fabric as poufs, but that was too poufy. Lace ruches were too crazy for this dress too (but now I have a bunch of OTT trim for *something* later on!). This gown’s fabric is so fabulous, and I didn’t want super-mega-crazy trim, even though that’s my mandate these days.
Then, looking in my swatch book, I realized I had a leftover yard of dupioni that’s barely a shade darker than the embroidered burgundy. Perfectly fine for ruffled trim! So I set about sewing strips together, scalloping them, and gathering. Then I had to find something for down the center. That proved tricky, because I was low on yardages of everything (having used up so much on the stripey). I had exactly enough of a velvet trim for the neckline. Good for starters. Later on, I did buy another kind of black velvet trim to go down the center front edges.
Accessorized with a burgundy and black feather hoohah in my hair, plus a bunch of gothy jewelry, and it was perfect for evening at Christiana Campbell’s Tavern then tea at Hill and Dale Farm. And someday more!
I wore this dress at Colonial Williamsburg in 2009, and all my photos from the trip are on Flickr, plus we have a Williamsburg trip photo pool dedicated to this event.
I wore this dress at Colonial Williamsburg in 2009, and all my photos from the trip are on Flickr, plus we have a Williamsburg trip photo pool dedicated to this event.
Posted in 18th Century Tags: Colonial Williamsburg, finished costume, stripey polonaiseville No Comments »
