Back In 2015, I Made This Skirt For An 1860s Ballgown. I Wanted To Make A Daytime Bodice To Give The

Back in 2015, I made this skirt for an 1860s ballgown. I wanted to make a daytime bodice to give the gown more wearability outside of formal events, but I had run out of fabric and since the fabric had lived in my stash for years, it had been discontinued long ago.  I had a minor fabric miracle when I discovered some similar plaid taffeta on Etsy! I scooped it up and decided to make an 1850s bodice, since tiered flouced skirts like this were super popular then.

This bodice ate fabric, and I think I used three or four yards in total because the sleeves are massive and multi-layered. There is a black lace/fringe trim on the bodice, which you can’t see very well in pictures but is lovely in person.

The cap and bodice were made to accompany the new ensemble. The cap is made entirely from things found at Walmart, and the materials for the bonnet came from my fabric stash.

Happy National Bat Day! Here’s a happy little bat embroidery pattern from the 1632 pattern book “The Schole-House for the Needle.”

1860s summer dress

La Compagnie du Costume

I have finished my black and plaid 1890s winter dress! While it’s based on an extant piece from the 1890s, I used different materials, as I was trying to make the entire thing with fabrics I already had on hand. I’m very proud to say that I bought NOTHING new to make this dress! Everything, from the plaid wool and the black velvet, to the red silk and the buckram, came out of my fabric stash.

The dress is made from 5 yards of black and grey wool, three yards of black cotton velvet, and about two yards of black taffeta, mainly for linings, which I had to finagle from scraps leftover from other projects. The hat is a buckram and wire frame hat covered in red silk. I was going to embellish it with grey feathers, but I didn’t have any in my collection, so that will have to wait until I have some spare cash on hand.

You can read all about how I made the dress, and see more pictures, on my main dress blog. http://mistress-of-disguise.blogspot.com/2016/11/a-black-plaid-1890s-winter-dress.html

The embroidery for the 1760s waistcoat is officially finished! This one took me a while to complete, but looking back at my sewing diary I actually only spend a total of 16 days on the embroidery (though that was spread out over several months). As of now, I’ve put in around 150 hours, with more work to come.

The next thing to do is begin on construction. When it’s all finished, the waistcoat will be completely lined and have functional pockets. It will also be my first time making hand-sewn buttonholes, which is a little scary.

Now I need to figure out how to embroidery the coat that will go with this!

A very useful resource!

Oh hey, do you know what time it is? It is highly specific resource time!

Today we have the Royal School of Needlework Stitch Bank! There are HUNDREDS of stitch types in the RSN Stitch Bank.

And more added regularly, let’s look at a recent addition

I picked the first one in the 25 recently added Elizabethan stitches, the Elizabethan French Stitch

The stitch bank provides written and photo tutorials as well as a video option to learn to do it yourself. There are examples of the stitch in use, resources, references, everything but a needle and thread!

rsnstitchbank.org