Wednesday, October 21, 2009

1860's Wool Dress


For my upcoming event at Minooka this past month I decided to make myself a cotton/wool blend dress. I added red velvet trim which I think really made the dress "pop". I got my inspiration from originals and CDVs. Its the same basic pattern for my other dresses I've made in the past however this dress is darted (woo hoo) rather then gathered in the bodice. All the trim is hand stitched, except for the trim on the skirt because lets be honest that's just too much trim to hand stitch! The dress only took me three weeks although I still have a couple more adjustments to make. I'm really happy with how it turned out. Even better is that I had most of the material on hand and didn't have to spend much at all on this project. It helped keep me nice and warm this past weekend so as far as I'm concerned it did its job. I know I'll get a lot more use out of this next spring too.

Friday, April 24, 2009

1876 Combinations


I love the idea behind this, its a chemise and drawers all in one! So i tried first to make them on my own and then after 4 hours i bought the pattern. So this project and all other patterns are now put on hold for at least a week while i'm moving.

until later my friends.
-dear clementine-

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Brown Dress Completed


The dress is officially done! I put the trim on it this past Sunday and its ready to wear. I really do love the green paired with the brown. My belt will be a light blue which always looks good with brown. My biggest concern while doing a brown dress is making it not look drab. While at Greenfield Village all 4 years i had a brown dress with black trim, who would do such a thing? Black doesn't bring out any good quality in brown so why should the two ever be put together. If I can I would like to get a bright pink ribbon/belt to match the pink that is in the fabric but until then my light blue silk ribbon will have to do.

on to finish my ballgown.

-from dear clementine

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Ballgown & Apron


I can't believe it but last night was the FIRST time i've tried my ballgown on since i made the cotton bodice lining.....and guess what IT FITS! I'm so excited and I'm so happy with how it came out. I'm working on putting little fabric flowers on the bertha but after i'm done with that it gets officially attached (its just pinned in the picture) and then i'm good to go! I also finished my brown cotton day dress all i need to do is the sleeves and attach the bodice to the skirt (easy) then i'm done. So since december i've made two dresses and last year that was the amount of time it took me to make one dress.

A couple things I would do differently next time:
incase the boning ( i just pray it never breaks cause if that happens i'm screwed)
line the over sleeves (make sleeve hole bigger)

umm thats all i can think of for now
another picture of the dress. This is another project I finished. I made a pinner apron with this lovely green fabric i got at The Dressmaker's Shop in Leslie, MI. I decided to pleate the fabric because I've started hating gauging because the thread always seems to break on me. I want an apron that i can wash and not worry about it falling apart.....needless to say i've regauged my current apron that fell apart and am praying it wont do that to me again or pleated it will be!

Anyways i'm happy with this one, plus i love the color.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Ball Gown: almost done!

So I'm just a little ways away from being done with my ballgown that i've been working on. The only thing left for me to do is to attach my tiny white poofed sleeves to the sleeve covers. One night I was looking at my pillow and decided to try to see the creation all together. So i put my corset on my pillow, stood that up on the couch and dressed it and voila!
I did just finish the eyelets just last night which is a total of 19 little buggers. The skirt is pleated and DONE.

thank god.

one dress down.....two more to go.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Introducing: Cordelia Thimble


Hello, period clothing enthusiasts! It's Charming Cordelia Thimble and I'm so delighted to be part of Threadbare.

Right now I'm working on an early 1860s wrapper, a garment similar to a housedress or robe that women wore as they were getting ready in the morning or during pregnancy. The wrapper is cut loosely with ties to accommodate an expanding silhouette. More on the construction to follow in my next post.

I've chosen a burgundy paisley cotton chintz with blue and greenish gold. The wrapper will have a V-neckline and pagoda sleeves.

I'm so excited to share its progress with you! Photos to come soon.

Charming Cordelia

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Silk Civil War Parasol

from dear Clementine

I purchased a plain black parasol from the Minooka reenactment I went to with the idea that I would recover it. I didn't like the look of the black because it looked so synthetic. So Becky and I got together this past weekend on a parasol recovering mission.

First I outlined one triangle from the top of my parasol. Next i cut out six panels from that pattern. I pined each together using the outside of my parasol as a guide, pinning each panel to the parasol so i could make sure it was nice and tight. After doing this I sewed it and fitted it, adjusting it as needed. I cut the excess with pinking sheers. For the lining i did the same as above making it a little smaller and folded the ends over the top and sewing all around. The additions on the top are six long rectangles that were folded around 2 in and ironed then loosly stitched on the top. I would recommend planning on cutting extra for the ends so you can wrap (at least the lining) around the edges to cover all the existing fabric.

I just finished my parasol yesterday and i'm really happy how it came out. I recovered the top in gold silk with trim and the inside is lined with a creame silk. I plan to cut down the handle because its a bit too long.
Photo of the bottom you can see how i let the top gold silk hang over like i've seen in many originals.



Top of parasol.


I truly feel i need to add that i bought Fiskars Pinking Sheers for this project and I would NEVER buy that brand of scissors again. They didn't cut well in fact they had a tendency to shred the fabric...............i ended up returning them.

2nd Regency Dress - part 1

from darling Winnifred

This past summer I purchased a beautiful corset from Period Corsets. It's the Alice 1880's corset. I bought it for the various reenactments that I plan to participate in, like civil war and regency. Although it's nearly 20 years post civil war (and 80 post regency), it offered the best support and gives a really great, universal silhouette.


The trouble was that once I put it on under my original regency dress, the dress didn't fit!!

SO!!! I get to make a new one! :D

My original thought was to get a simple white muslin (which was popular during the time as it was easily obtained from India and denoted your status as white was difficult to keep clean) and pair it with a cornflower (or midnight) blue.

I headed off to my favorite fabric store: The Warehouse! Where everything (no matter what the material) costs $3.49 a yard. Knowing their selection isn't always guaranteed, I wasn't sure I'd find what I was looking for. But I lucked out! What I found was ten times better. A really dense, high count white (I'm not sure what it is though, but I know it isn't muslin. It feels like my black H&M scarf.) and a lovely GREEN broadcloth!

What?! Green?! How'd that get in there!?

Yes, green! I was looking for my blues, but nothing looked good with the creamy white. Then I happened upon this springy grass green with a slight sheen and it was perfect! (But at 3.49/yd it was cheaper to just buy broadcloth at JoAnns)


I have completed the underdress and just need to hem it and add buttons. I haven't decided about sleeves because I'm making a robe to wear over it and figure sleeves would just be cumbersome. I guess I'll decide as I'm going along... More to come!!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Ball Gown spool: one

from Clementine.

My newest project was my least expected project to start on. I'm working on a civil war ballgown that's made with a silk/taffeta material. The fashion fabric is a dark red windowpane pattern. There is emphasis on the stripes running horizontally (very fashionably civil war) and on the sleeves the stripes run diagonally. I designed my pattern off of the image below where i really liked the zigzag pattern. While working on the zigzag for the sleeves i altered it and really enjoy my end result. In the end I hope to do the same pattern on the skirt however this won't be happening for awhile, as doing the sleeves took me just about forever so i'd like a break before i attempt to do so on the skirt. I hope i'll have the skirt done for Greenfield Village's Civil War ball. I also plan to make a day dress bodice for this which will look more like the picture, although i might not be doing the pagoda sleeves, not sure yet.




I will be adding more green ribbon to the top of the "bertha" (white panel w/tucks) and champane bows along with ribbon in the white work that goes around the top of the bodice. All of the zigzags had to be done by hand which is why it took so long. Will be adding a white organza sleeve with cotton insert inside it to give it extra poof.

I'm about 70% done. Will have to gather skirt...which should be loads of fun.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Orange CW daydress, spool 1

from dear Clementine


I wanted to write just a little on my first Civil War cotton day dress. The hook and eye's were a bit tricky so i got some pictures to help me along. Now i've seen a few different ways on how to do your hook and eyes and i have to say my way wasen't my favorite way. I'm finding that the hooks will pop out of the casing.
As you can see the hooks are actually attached of the lining which allows you not to put the thread on your fashion fabric...makes sense to me however if you don't anchor the hooks in tightly they'll slip out (which is my problem)
The finished look for the hooks.
My finished dress.

I've already planned out my next cw cotton day dress which i'll start working on towards the end of February. Its going to be the same style bodice but have small pagoda sleeves with trim on both bodice and sleeves. I'll post sketches as soon as i get them scanned.

Inaguguration of Blog!

Welcome to Clementine and Winnifred's blog. We'll be updating regularly on new projects that each are working on.

So far Clementine is working on a Civil War Ballgown which is looking something like this:


Winnifred just finished another project which i'm sure Winnie would love to talk more about soon. I'll show you a photo of it for now.


Wishing everyone the very best,

Clementine