A Bergere Hat

I went to The Original Reenactors Market (TORM) Sunday just gone and bought myself a straw bergere hat. I had already bought the bits to addorn it with - 2m millinery wire, 2m black bias binding, approx. 6m 4cm wide black organza ribbon and lots of ostrich feathers! (as I want to be 'the crazy feather lady'). It is partially based on the hat worn by Elizabeth Foster in her portrait.

I started off by sewing the millinery wire to the brim edge with a whip stitch and then sewed on the binding. After this I used about 1.5m of the black ribbon for the tie and sewed it to the inside of the crown of the hat. I then gathered the rest of the ribbon (although not all of the ribbon was needed) using a large zig-zag stitch. I gathered enough to go around the hat crown. But before I sewed this on, I sorted out my feathers and decided how I was going to arrange them, this included binding the ends with left over binding and then sewing that to the hat before sewing on the gathered ribbon. Afterwards I then positioned the feathers and attached them in place with a few small stitches.

Caraco Petticoat

This is slightly delayed, but at the beginning of last week I made the petticoat for my caraco as I am yet to be patterned for my polonaise gown. The petticoat was made in the exact same way the the polonaise gown petticoat except it doesn't have a flounce because a) I really didn't want to make a flounce again and b) the silk was £15 p/m! All is left to do now is the hem (it is currently pinned) which will be done when someone can measure it for me.

Victorian Cap

Another piece to add to my housemaid wardrobe - a cap. Made pretty much the same way as my C18th one here except it's made from muslin, I only have one ruffle and the bag piece is half oval shape rather than semi-circle.

The cap is actually too small really, but then I'm rubbish at making headwear because a majority of it ends up being too small. With a little ingenuity, I have got it to fit and I'll also add button loops so I can slide in kirby grips discretely. It also needs an iron!

Regency/Victorian boots.

A couple fo weeks or so ago, I bought some white jazz boots off ebay as they were of a similar style to Regency and Victorian boots (2 periods I plan to do/start on next year). It worked out cheaper to buy white boots and dye them black so that is what I did. Before I did that I had bought some 5mm thick leather (I expect something slightly thinner will also do, but this was the only thickness I could get hold of) and drew around the boot to get a shape for the sole and cut it out with a stanley knife. The heel part needed to be cut off as these are separate on the jazz boots.

Once the boots had had 2 coats of dye (Dylon Shoe and Accessories dye) I started to attach the leather soles. Luckily I had some thin black leather at home which I used for the sides of the heel. I then stuck on the thick leather soles - the main sole was quite hard to do as this required pegs and carrier bags to tie the boot and sole together so they stick! To glue the soles on I used, what has been recommended, Shoe Goo and it certainly does do the job well. I also put some Shoe Goo on the edges of the leather to protect them when wearing outside.

When this was done, I made up a couple of organza ribbon rosettes - 1/2" wide and a metre long makes 2 reasonably sized ones. I the ribbon in half and neatened both ends before running gathering stiches along one edge. I pulled the gathers as far as they would go and then arrange and stitched it into a rosette shape. I glued the rosettes onto the toe of the boots with a blob of Shoe Goo.

All I need to do now is find some black shoelaces long enough!

Engageants.

Next year I plan to be a housemaid for the Victorian events at Kentwell Hall. When I found a bit of time between writing essays, I managed to make a start on my first bit of clothing - engageants - these are cotton half sleeves that cover the fore-arm and protect the dress sleeves and so one doesn't have to roll their sleeves up and look like a scrubber (of pots and pans).

I started with 2 x 14" square (for the sleeve) and 2 x 4"x9.25" (for the cuff) of white cotton. I wanted my sleeves to be tight around the top so they stay up - the extant examples I've seen are quite wide so you might want to make your measurements bigger than mine.

Going by the extant examples, I used really small hems and seam - I allowed for 1/2". I sewed the sleeve seam first and neatend it and then hemmed the top. After this I did 2 rows of gathers around the cuff (as the sleeve is tighter compared the extant examples, there wont be many gathers in comparison) and knotted the thread when I got the desired size - 8.25", the measurement around the widest part of my hand so I can put the sleeve on. I then sewed on the cuff which was made up like bias binding.

Another one on the waiting list

This time last week I was in Norwich with my good friend Lidi where I picked up fabric for another century's outfit, this time it's Regency!

The cotton fabric for the day dress was found by Lidi on the market during the week before I went up and visited (before going to an event at the weekend) and was told that I would love it...and I did!

The ribbon is to go round the empire line (we think the colour compliments it well) and the velvet, which was bought at the event from a fabric trader, matches the ribbon exactly and will become a spencer.

C18th Petticoat

The next thing I have made, although it isn't yet complete, is the petticoat. I managed to some some 'champagne' coloured silk in a sale at £5 p/m so I was pretty chuffed and bought 4m as I wanted to make a flounce.

As I wanted a flounce, it had to be 3 times the length of the petticoat hem which would be 3m - so 9m was needed for a flounce. I cut out 2 x 4m lengths about 8" wide and another metre the same width from the left over silk. I then cut out 2 x 1.5m panels for the actual petticoat and then a strip for the waistband.

I sewed up the side seams on the petticoat leaving a 10" gap (starting from an inch from the waist) for pocket access and neatend the seams. Then I started on the flounce. I sewed the 3 strips of silk together and neatened the seams before marking every inch along the length on both sides (it may be easier to do it a metre at a time). I got out the pinking shears and cut triangles at the inch markings before pleating and pinning it.

Once the flounce was completely pleated and pinned I ironed both sides several times to make sure they were pressed well. After this I sewed the pleats down along one length at about 1.5" from the edge and ironed it all again. I then pinned the flounce to the petticoat - the bottom edge of the flounce actually meets at the bottom edge of the petticoat.

After this I decided to attach the waistband. First I had to pleat up the petticoat - as the petticoat is made from 2 panels, the waist measurement was halved to get the final length for each panel (does that make sense?!), the pleats worked out to be about 1/2". The CB has an inverted box pleat and the CF has about a 2" box pleat. I then attached the wasitband pressed it and sewed on a couple of eyelets to fasten it (NB. the petticoat has a side fastening where the pocket slit is).

When this was done, I tried it all on with my stays and petal pad to check the length. The petticoat was a little high at the back, as expected and so the flounce was lowered a bit. This is as far as I have got at the moment, but all I have to do now is sew on the flounce and then it's complete!