A Sewing Machine Is A Device That Provides A Several-fold Increase Of The Speed At Which You Can Make

ⓘ A sewing machine is a device that provides a several-fold increase of the speed at which you can make mistakes

A New Crinoline and 1850s Petticoats

Finally getting around to posting about my new 1850s undies! I finished them last winter, but Life happened, so here I am, a year and a half later.

Anyway, I finished a new crinoline and basic cotton petticoat first. The crinoline was made by first making the lower section out of cotton muslin, and attaching twill tape at even intervals. I then made each bone individually, the casing made from twill tape, then the boning threaded through, and then the bone stitched closed at the needed circumference. I played around with the size of each bone before I stitched it to the tapes to get the overall shape that I wanted.

To go over it, I made my standard cotton petticoat with a single flounce.

Then I actually got around to reading period descriptions and suggestions for petticoats in fashion magazines of the time, and found that they frequently recommended petticoats made of grosgrain fabric, with three flounces from the knee to the hem. So, I searched the internet and finally found some grosgrain fabric, which I had to order from Greece. (Spoiler alert - grosgrain and faille are pretty much indistinguishable, which I wish I'd known before because faille is way easier to find.)

Anyway, the construction of the petticoat was not difficult, but the grosgrain fabric was a nightmare. It frayed at the slightest touch, exploding into a thousand tiny shards. My serger was garbage and not working, so I used a side cutter presser foot instead, which sort of acts as a serger. It definitely helped, but by the time I discovered said presser foot, I was already so over this project that I threw it in the naughty corner for months because I couldn't stand to work on it anymore. I finally dug it out a few months later and finished it up.

I have to say, it does give an enormous amount of floof, but I would never, ever recommend making one to anyone else. It was a nightmare from start to finish.

There's a more detailed writeup with more of my petticoat research and in-progress photos on my main blog, so please do check it out!

La Mode nationale, no. 17, 25 avril 1896, Paris. Notre patron découpé (Grandeur naturelle). Corsage à pointe. Bibliothèque nationale de France

Détails et Explication du patron découpé:

Ce modèle forme pointe devant très court sur les hanches; des coques de même étoffe, doublèes de soie assortie, forment petite basque; les pinces sont ornées d'un galon brodé. (This model has a pointed front shape, very short on the hips; shells of the same fabric, lined with matching silk, form a small peplum; the clips are decorated with an embroidered braid.)

Ce patron se compose de six morceaux. (This pattern consists of six pieces.)

No. 1. — Le devant. (The front.)

No. 2. — Le premier côté; un cran indique le raccord au devant. (The first side; a notch indicates the connection at the front.)

No. 3. — Le deuxième côté; deux crans indiquent le raccord au premier côté. (The second side; two notches indicate the connection to the first side.)

No. 4. — Le jockey de la manche. (The jockey for the sleeve.)

No. 5. — Le dos, coupé long de façon à former une coque en repliant le bas à l'endroit indiqué par un cran de chaque côté. (The back, cut long so as to form a shell by folding the bottom at the place indicated by a notch on each side.)

No. 6. — La manche ballon, demi-longue; un trait à la roulette indique le dessous. (The balloon sleeve, half-length; a roulette line indicates the bottom.)

Métrage: 1m,50 tissu grande largeur; 0m,70 soie ou satin pour l'intérieur des coques.

I never did update when this got finished last summer, did I?

Happy with how it turned out, even if it does take some serious hairpin architecture to construct a bun that'll hold the hat steady - it's a little heavier (and a lot more ready to blow around in the wind) than anticipated.

This hits so many of my niche interests, it's perfect. ♥

Bookbinding: A Stitch in Time

My mom has been hoping to get her hands on a hard copy of A Stitch in Time, which, as I'm sure most of you are aware, tends to be pricey if you can find it. (It's currently listed for ~$115 on eBay, and more expensive elsewhere.)

So, I decided to put my bookbinding skills to use and make her one for her birthday.

Notes on the design and construction:

The cover design was inspired by (or rather adapted from via considerable photoshopping) this book cover from 1901 that happened to cross my dashboard in a post with a bunch of other cool old book covers:

I created the Cardassian building silhouettes based on a screencap, and the DS9 silhouette is borrowed from the Niners logo. The orchid on the back cover emerging from the Obsidian Order logo is one I found in Cricut Design Space.

(Feel free to use these in your own projects, if you like.)

The bookcloth is by BOOKCRAFTSUPPLYCO on Etsy (dark green). The cover designs are HTV, Cricut Everyday Iron-On (black), Cricut Foil Iron-On (gold), and Vinyl Frog Metallic Foil (holographic silver). The Cardassian Union logos on the end pages were done using Cricut's foil transfer system (gold). The fonts on the cover are DS9 Title and DS9 Credits from st-minutiae.com.