Frilly Fichu

The next item of clothing I have made for C18th is the fichu, or a neckerchief in its simplest terms.

To make this I used my fine linen and cut out a triangle (or a square) and sewed a tiny hem. I then cut out 4 strips of linen (about 3" wide) which when sewn together were twice the length of the two short sides of the triangular fichu, I hemmed this also (both sides). I then gathered half the length of the strip and once it was at the right length, I back stitched it onto the hem of one of the short sides of the triangle (I hope that makes sense!) and then I repeated the steps with the rest of the strip of linen so I ended up with a frilled edge.

Smocks and petal bums

This is just a quick post really on 2 items of C18th clothing.

Firstly the smock. I made this from cotton sheeting which is really wide and so when folded in half it can make a smock cut from one piece (with the fold along the sleeves) so it is like a T shape. As C18th smock sleeves only come to the elbow, I needed to adjust the pattern sleeves:

I then sewed and neatened both side seems. I cut a slit in the neck hole and when my stays were finished I tried it all on and put pins in to where I wanted the smock neckline to come and then hemmed it. I had actually made the back of the neckline far too low so I had to add in a piece of cotton to make it higher! Luckily this wont be seen as the gown will cover it.

After this I had to sort out the cuffs. As said before, the sleeves came to the elbow, so to make the cuffs I had to measure the crook of my elbow, which was 11" and make the cuffs accordingly. To do this I gathered the cuff, but left and inch either side of the sleeve seam and I then bound it with some leftover cotton fabric. Simple really.

Now, the petal bum. This is actually a bum pad that, obviously, goes over the bum and looks like petals. The pad makes the bum fuller and causes the gown to stick out at the back. The pattern was the middle piece of the paper pattern for a bum roll I made which was conveniently the right size and shape for a petal bum pad. It measures at the top 11" (the point on your torso where the hip bone is and is the measurement is from [about] kidney to kidney), at it's widest part 18.5" (width of bum) and is 7" long (from hip bone line to about half way down bum cheek!).

I cut the pattern from 2 pieces of cotton fabric, adding an inch seam allowance. With the right sides together, I sewed the sides and bottom seam, sewing in some cotton tape for ties. I turned the pad the right way round and drew on 2 curved lines (see picture) and then sewed along them using backstitch. I used some polyester stuffing for the padding (can be bought from haberdasheries) and then sewed up the top seam.

Stay pictures

Here are some pictures of the complete stays (my pillows made a good temporary model!)

Stays (part the 3rd and FINAL)

So yes, this is the last post about my stays as today, after 2 months, 2 weeks and 1 day, I've completed my entirely hand sewn stays! I am soooooooo very happy!

To continue from my last post, once all the channels were sewn, it was time to insert the boning. I used synthetic whalebone for this apart from the channels either side of where the eyelets were to go on the back panel, I used steel for these as it would require strength when laced.

When the bones were all inserted, it was time to bind the edges, which took some time and was quite tedious when going round the tabs (which I had cut at this point) so it took me a while to get this part done.

After that I decided to make the straps. My friend and I measured for these when we first made the pattern - 12" plus an inch for sewing into the stays. All I did for these was measure and cut out in the silk, canvas and cotton (for lining) 13" in length and just over an inch wide. I curved the end that was to be tied to the stays before pinning the binding to the silk and canvas (leaving the other end raw) and sewing down. I then lined using the cotton.

At this point I made a cotton case for my busk which sits in the centre front and is ever so slightly shorter than the stays. I sewed this to the top and bottom and added a few stiches in the middle to keep the stays flatter.

Next I started to line the stays. The tabs were individually lined with squares of cotton before the main body of the stays were lined with 3 pieces of cotton (the middle bit being one piece, and 2 side pieces), this was quite fiddly getting it to sit properly (not forgetting to snip the curves!), but quite quick and easy to sew down. I attached the straps at this point too so that they are between the canvas and lining of the stays.

After this, I started on the eyelets. There were 4 eyelets for the straps. I made the holes with what I think is a kilt pin (looks a bit like a safety pin, but much longer and thicker) and then used varying sized knitting needles to make a suitable hole. After those eyelets, it was time for the lacing eyelets at the back! My stays are spiral laced and so the eyelets were set out for this - there were 30 altogether and took several hours to complete!

Once this was done, all I had to do now was was sew on some ribbon along the seam lines on the front of the stays, commonly found on extant stays. You can see this on my collection of final photos in the following post.

A Fly Fringe

No, not the sort of fly fringes for horses, which makes researching C18th fly fringes very hard! I thought I would have a go at making my own fly fringe in preparation for some frilly cuffs, which may or may not have fly fringes on them. (As seen in the V&A book: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Fashion in Detail by A. Hart and S. North pp 134-5.)

I didn't have a shuttle as recommended for making such and nor did I understand how to use one so I just used my good old fingers and embroidary threads I had lying around. I also added in a couple of ribbon flowers. You have to excuse the colours, but this was only a trial run.

Stays (part 2)

After having spent 3 weeks doing the main event at Kentwell Hall (hence why there haven't been any updates), I've noticed that my 'Pictures' folder on my laptop is so disorganised with photos waiting to be uploaded to my blogs before I file them away and forget about them! So here is a short blog on the second stage of my stays.

Once I had sewn on all the side panels, it was time to sort out the back panels as these were slightly different. These pieces were cut on the fold so I ended up sewing through 2 layers of canvas and 2 layers of silk twice. After tacking the silk to the canvas the channels were sewn as normal, but through all 4 of the layers:

It got a little sore on the fingers, but I got there in the end! The next part of hemming was done the same as the rest of the pieces except this time 2 layers of canvas and 1 layer of silk were trimmed to about half so that the other bit of silk would fold over the top and be sewn down. Then both of the panels were sewn to the rest of the stays the same way as the other pieces.

Now it's just a case of sewing the rest of the channels...

Stays (part 1)

Nothing much has happened on my mitts, I have sewn quite a bit of them, but just haven't touched them for some time! I will come back to them, but first...my stays!

Now, my dear friend Lidi came down to visit me for a couple of days and she did some wonderfuk work in helping me make a pattern and toile for my own set of stays and I cannot thank her enough! We took the initial pattern from my Elizabethan bodies and adapted it to make it into a stay pattern and then made up a toile, it looked a little like this:

The first attempt fitted well and only a few minor adjustments were needed so it didn't take long to reach the point of making up the final pattern pieces (drawing on bone channels) and then cutting it out in silk brocade and canvas (drawing bone channels onto the canvas):

It took 8 hours to get this far...so we went to bed!

The following day was the start of the sewing, yay! I had decided to hand-sew my stays as it would be more rewarding...and I have the time to! Some say I'm a glutton for punishment, others a masochist.

So, onto the seams. Lidi told me to start by doing tacking stitches along the seam line and then trim the seam allowance down a bit (I always use an inch for SA) and then hem it down. If the seam is to cover some of the boning channels, then I would sew them first using backstitch (this is where the drawn on channels come in handy!) Once the seams have been down on 2 of the stay pieces, then they can be sewn together. To do this I pinned them right sides together and (without tying a knot in the thread) stitched them together with the tiniest of whip stitches, only going through the silk as there are channels that run along the seams. This is the stage I am at now and it will take some time as there are 7 stay pieces to sew together and nearly 50 bone channels to sew too! Here are some photos of what I have just explained, plus a few extra: