This year, I got distracted from costuming by fun new things like making dolls, and also by a couple of "small business" ideas I have (one of them being launching a small line of historic underpinning patterns, the first of which I hope to publish before the end of January 2013) but I still managed to make some new things this year!

1840s



1910s



18th Century



I also had some projects that I started, but didn't quite finish. . . So I guess this is a good start of a "goals" list for 2013! ;)



Some things, I only patterned, but never made up, either because I got busy working on other projects, or because they are for my future pattern line. . . I don't have a picture of these as a result, but they are:
- 1910s bra (download for free!)
- 1910s princess petticoat
- 18th century side hoops

All in all, a pretty good year! I'm really excited about some of my 2013 plans, but I won't be posting about those until tomorrow! Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve, everyone!

Cream Mitts

I finally got around to seaming my cream 18c mitts the other day. Hooray for a finished project! I really need to block these, as you can see where the needles sat for a while without seeing any progress. ;)

A Hand-Sewn 18th Century Jacket In A Day!

On Saturday, I had an 18th century event I wanted to attend. . . And on Friday, (yes I mean the day before!) I decided that I should turn this fabric:



Into this jacket:



In just the one day, and with doing the entire thing by hand - no machine involved!

Well, this is how far I got on day #1:



Not too shabby! I was able to get up the next morning and finish it enough to be able to wear it. . .





I really feel like this went pretty well, considering that I did not make a mock-up before cutting in to my fabric! I should have probably shortened it overall just a bit, as I'm pretty short-waisted and there's wrinkling there telling me it wishes to be shorter, but it's nothing too extreme. . . Really, I think the only things I need to fix are to move the shoulder strap, and rotate the sleeve. The pattern (which is the JP Ryan jackets pattern) had me lining up the sleeve so that the sleeve seam lines up with the bodice seam under the arm. This is not correct! If you do that, the nook for your elbow will be sticking out of the side/front of your arm. And that's why you see the end of the sleeve being all wrinkly on me! So, I'll need to rotate the sleeve a bit, and then I think it will be just about perfect.

All in all, I'm super happy with it! And now I know that I can hand-sew an entire 18th century jacket in less than 24 hours. In fact, I kept a little log of all the time I spent on it, and it actually came to 13 hours and 6 minutes! It actually should have taken a little longer than this because I didn't finish the second half of the jacket as nicely as I did the first half, and I've yet to make eyelets. . . Just for kicks, when I go to do all that, I'll have to track that time too!

New stays are getting there. . .

Last night, I finally stopped procrastinating the part where I overstitch the panels together by hand, and sat in front of a good movie and went to town. It's almost done! Just a little more to go on the wedge-shaped pieces.



And then, I even remembered to wash out the markings before going to bed, so that it would be dry today in order to put boning in. . . Which is what I need to go do right about now! ;)

New stays!

So I went a little crazy the other day and decided I needed new stays for an event I'm attending a week from Saturday! And that I also need other things, such as an apron, a flat cap, and maybe even a new jacket. . . What can I say? The 18th century sewing bug has bitten - and hard! It was around this time of year many moons ago when I first started falling in love with reproducing 18th century, so every year around this time I start getting obsessed with 18c all over again, and I'm sure that is helping me feel inspired to take on so much just now. ;)

As much as I'd love beautifully period-correct, hand-sewn stays out of fine fabrics, with a deadline like that, I had to be sensible and take short cuts. That said, I also want those period-correct stays some day. So here's my happy medium, so far:



I did thus far by machine. This is a different construction method than I typically use. I'm used to constructing cover layer and lining layer separately, sewing them at CF and CB, and then flipping them, and sewing boning channels. What I've done here is turn the raw edges for each panel inwards, and sewn the cover layer to lining layer, and sewn all boning channels. . . (And the blue you're seeing is the washable marker, which I'm about to wash out - not stitching lines. I was boring and did the stitching in white. But hey, my previous stays are cream, and then pink with white, so I had no boring white stays yet!) So now, I'll whip the panels together by hand. . . And then I just need to wait for some missing boning lengths to arrive, and then it's just binding and eyelets. (Neither of which technically need to be done in order for them to be worn, so even if that boning arrives at the eleventh hour, I should be okay!)

Oh, and for the record, this is the newer JP Ryan stays pattern (the one that has straps).

On a roll with the web site updates!

I figured I would just "get started" with setting up page templates for the events I need to add. . . But then I ended up going ahead and adding the event pics themselves!

Newly added:

- Pictures from the Regency Picnic 2012
- Pictures from the Library Stroll & Tea (Okay, those weren't newly added, but I seem to have uploaded the images right after the event, just never linked to them from the album page!)

Still to add:

- Pictures from Dress U 2012
- Pictures from Costume Con 2011

Belated Spring Cleaning. . .

Just doing a little housekeeping on the web site today. . .

- Updated the Dolls section to include the three newest additions.
- Added a "Patterns" section, which now links to the free 1910s bra pattern. Moved the Corded Petticoat tutorial over there too, because that seemed to make sense.
- Consolidated the "News" and "More" sections into one "Info" section which now has all the biographical and link info in one place.

Still to do in the near future. . .

- Massive update to the Events page. (How did I get to be almost an entire year behind on posting pictures from events?!?!?)
- Finally begin to upload some of the pictures I took of my antique clothing collection.