A Tangent- but still costume and history based!

I spent part of the Autumn exploring the idea of clothing and words being linked at very particular times. This developed in response to my father's illness and the desire to wrap him the words he couldn't hear us say, to tuck them into the creases, seams and pockets of his pyjamas for him to find and hang onto as he woke up.
This became a textile installation  currently on exhibition in York, but also lead to other ideas.

What would result from combining primary sources with appropriate costume ?  One way to find out.


 Finding documents written by the mill workers proved difficult so contemporary  documents arising from their lives - a newspaper report and official factory accident report had to do as start points for the experiment.

National Archives is a great place to get lost in, virtually and really, but the first find was a newspaper report following an inquest  in Bristol 1860 on Elizabeth Davis, a 16 year old textile mill worker. She been injured at work and later died.

 The mill and the area was quite well documented with photographs from the era, so these were the start point for a simple work dress loosely based on a quarter scale version of a day dress in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion. The account of the accident was embroidered across the bodice and around the skirt.





Martha Appleton was the small dress, 18cm high, and around the hem are quotations from her accident report. She had been injured at work, losing fingers on her left hand.




Made of cotton lawn to keep them delicate and light,  they were dipped in glue to set it into 3 dimensions. Martha was dip dyed but Elizabeth has been rubbed with graphite powder to age  them.

I still haven't made my mind up about them. There are things I would change, scale, the lettering, complexity of the make, but they are also in the exhibition along with extracts from the documentation. The initial responses have been very positive, even emotional.......

Is there anyone in historical costume land who hasn;t  at least heard of Janet Arnold? 

Museum of London has some of the extant garments she worked from for the Patterns of Fashion series and has put a lot of information on line.

http://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/group/21610.html

 I have always found this museum  very approachable and helpful, and they do a pretty thorough  photographic record once they get going.
 I am going to take the time to do more than browse a little - who knows the next inspiration may be lurking there.

Hope you find something of interest too!

A Victorian inspired Return!

Long time, no write, but it seems that the technical issues have been resolved. Well, we can hope!

This is one of the costumes made since the last blog. It is  a little Victorian walking ensemble of short tailed jacket, apron and asymmetrical  back overskirt over a polonaise  style skirt. It was made to fit the cat so some proportions may be rather odd! It is based on a V&A 1868 promenade dress, drawn by Janet Arnold in Patterns of Fashion 2 ,but as the over all length is  9", the jacket is 3", many  modifications have had to be made.

The jacket has a hook and eye closure underneath the fake buttons, but all of the shapes  and seaming
of the bodice and skirt panels  are as faithful as possible.  The elaborate cuff treatments were an adaptation due to scale  but I hope it kept the  idea of the original= they were certainly menace to do - I do need smaller pins and smaller fingers  too.  The flaps at the front of the jacket, collar and other decorative details were also sacrificed for reasons of sanity. The stand collar was borrowed from other extant jackets, it worked better with the cat  proto-doll.

The underskirt is drawn up on loops sewn into the seams to create the volume - the problem was always how to keep the hem level-ish and convincing. After all of the fiddling on the apron and rear panel I prefer it without. The fabric is too bold to carry the details, it becomes confusing. Another decision to regret was the inclusion of the premade roses - they look too mechanical and perfect. And of course there is the perennial cry about buttons - they may be the right diameter but they are too thick!  Some things never change.....

 

On a different note I am opening my work room as part of the York Open Studios event in April  2016- although the focus will be on my freehand landscapes these little costumes will be out and about - so come along if you want to see them or to chat!

Fairfax House dress - toile

So far so good - the trouble is 'so far' isn't very far at all.  To recap - inspiration is -  Phillip Mercier's portrait of Lady Anne Fairfax, 1750. Progress at the end of last week - under pinnings made, like this-

Tasks this week were  petticoats,  source fabrics and toile (prototype dress).  Petticoat is made -



The robe anglaise style dress I'm planning on is  pleated on the back, en ferreau (back bodice and skirt is cut as one)and  front closing. General ideas for the shapes are from Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 1 and from  extant examples in the Metropolitan Museum.  The closest examples to the painting seem to be from 20 years later but....
Toile is kind of done, it's a little awkward as the pins are nearly as big as the seams.  But the fabric choice remains a problem. I posted for advice on facebook and received some good insights, duchess satins or silk taffeta seemed to be the consensus.  Not in abundant supply in York but did find some, not the right colours, but had a try. These are probably the right stuff for period etc but not at this scale- they both bulk up alarmingly as soon as they are pleated and have a dislike of tight corners and shapes. The waist is only 5 1/2 inches and I want to knife pleat the skirt on to this. Compromise time - I'm going into town  on Tuesday  (hope) to buy what ever will do the job- should be shiny,  softly drapey and as close to the slightly greenish yellow ochre colour as I can.  I don't quite believe the colour in this copy - think it is too rich, so will have to pop back into Fairfax House to double check.      Do wish they would allow photography.






In the mean time - distractions -
Sewing buttonholes and buttons onto Gwen's Rupert frock coat,
Trimming the Victorian  1890s day skirt,
Actually got some drawings taken and now  published by the Stamp Press, Manchester.

And there is to be a new fabric in York -   Yipee!

Still can't wrinkle forehead following the botox  treatment 9 days ago - will keep trying.

But at least The News Quiz is back on Radio 4!

 

Victorian Bustle Skirt

Short week at the costume college - Bank Holiday and then a day spent with Jane sampling hem techniques ( brilliant to have such small things and such focussed things to do). So decided to share Gwen's progress with you instead.




 When last we left Gwen she was standing proud in her bustle cage and petticoat- since then she has acquired a foundation skirt,  apron and a bustle piece. The premise is very simple - remake the petticoat allowing for the fullness of the frills, drape a fancy bit in front and pleat high on the rear,  then scrunch up a long piece to hang down the back.  Decorate at will - opera curtains style. Simple!

The foundation skirt is to be  clean, unfussy, as it says, a foundation to build onto.  I've made this fully lined in a nice smooth and soft twill,  a warmer shade than shown in the photos. The pieces are the same as the petticoat-

pre pleating

post pleating

a flat slightly tapered panel for  the front, a tapered side piece, and the rectangular back with a dipping hem. The back is in 2 pieces to allow for a top opening and centre back fastening., it is pleated onto the waistband to give the shape at the top.  Fairly straight forward to do, but quite precise work.  She actually looked pretty good in it! And for once preferred the front to the back ( but didn't photograph it - just imagine its loveliness)







Met Museum example

Once  done it was onto the decorative bits, first should have been the apron -  this hangs in the front and tucks up underneath the bustle. So I opted to do the bustle instead.


nice idea but too tight

The bustle piece is a separate strip at the back usually caught up on tapes but at this scale I tried a slightly different approach. One of the diagrams in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 2 (p9) shows a complete piece laid out with gather points, pleating lines and folds marked out ( by Myra, Dressmaking Lessons II, 1888!)- this reminded me of smocking patterns so - 5 rows of lattice later-

any bottom would proud to wear this!

liked the over all effect but too dense and flat from the side so reduced the amount of gathers to let it bouf more and...


Having made this in the fabric it  struggled to hold its own weight so a supportive lining seemed in order closely fitting the skirt shape and holding the sides place. These were sewn right side to right side and turned out through the top edge.


Lining, showing top dart

Inside the bustle showing the pinches and  the lining.

I will admit to enjoying the smocking too much and over shortened the length -so  made a tapered knife pleated tail for it The tail is inside the bustle piece in the photo to the right - it is secured by the seam and will emerge as if by magic when the whole construct is turned out. I hope.












Then the apron -
This I draped on her, first on the bias and then on the straight grain - it sagged first and handled like cardboard second, but at least the pattern was the right way up. The idea is get long curving folds across the front - umm. 



apologies for the sun spots

 This seemed to use a vast amount of fabric- billows of it. Perhaps the fabric should have been washed first (see distractions) but it is beginning to give the shapes I want. The example has a quite short. heavily folded apron, on Gwen this looked like curtain swags, so hers is longer and more relaxed.
On hers the edges are bound with bias strips using the wrong side of the fabric to give a bit of contrast and to emphasise the curve. across the foundation skirt

 On the version for me the aprons are included in the waistband of the foundation skirt - for Gwen I quite fancied having a neutral coloured skirt to use with a variety of outfits. The apron and tail are now one unit - the apron is secured at centre back with half the tail sewn in place - the other half extends around the back and fastens with a hook and eye at the side seam. The skirt is now complete and the bodice remains to be done -  say it quickly and it sounds easy. At least the full scale one has the pattern done and cut!



Distractions -
making one for myself at costume college - still wrestling with the pesky corset - shape is rightish - just that I appear to be losing weight so it wanders. Big oops. More cake?
Green grocers on market have ripe fresh figs - yummmmmmm.
Date and walnut bread.
Might have killed the washing machine. Really BIG oops.
Which vinegar to use for apple chutney?
Why doesn't privet get the message and stop all of this growing? Cutting once or twice a year should be ample.

Georgian Jacket, caraco, pet en l'air, bodice......

Georgian Jacket - the French Revolution  Dress crossed with the Chocolate Girl.

Somewhere along the way I  acquired a pack from the Northern Society of Costume and Textiles about a dress  displayed at Castle Howard in the 90s.  The linen dress had been worn ( as a disguise!) by the widow of the Comte Guillaume de Panthou, wife of Henry Seymour, to escape from Paris at the time of the Revolution. By that time it was second/third hand, owned by the wife of a Seine boatman, adapted and altered from earlier incarnations. Although fine linen, it was no longer an expensive or luxurious garment, the fabric dates probably from the 1720s and this was at least its third makeover.

It was the bodice that interested me, the short body, fitted back, and the sleeve. The pack contained a gridded pattern to enlarge and detail drawings with notes. This was to be a quick slap it together at Gwen scale to see if this was something I would want to make for myself.  An hour later it was done in the rough and I was making a smarter version for Gwen  as part of her anachronistic pillowcase-wardrobe-in-the-making ( see the Victorian bustle dress). Never can keep things simple.....

As this was a reworked dress for a working woman how fashionable would it have been? Would it have been up to the minute? Was the style exactly what was desired or, like me,  would compromises have been made?  The photo above was the only one I could find for the dress so went looking for other sources for ideas of the front and closer detail on the peplum.  Many do seem to have similar bodies but  vary in skirt, sleeves and neckline. These source images and others are on my pet en l'air pinterest board.
 In the Liotard pastel study, the Chocolate Girl, 1744/5,  the jacket is different in detail, winged cuffs, the longer peplum reads almost as coat tails, and it looks as if the front maybe gathered under the apron bib. What it does have is a flat front with the shoulders  set well back, all  of the in and out curves on the torso happen at the back.
 I decided to take elements from both with a little bit of help from others such as the yellow c1750s example from Christies. This was never meant to be a precise recreation or totally historically accurate so a bit of mix and match wouldn't hurt.


The idea really was to make a short jacket/bodice  with a flirty peplum. The  fabric of choice was another Hobbs pillowcase- nice crisp cotton with a bold blobbish design.  The plan was to unpick and use the short side for the bodice and the larger part for the skirt. The base pattern shapes are from the Revolution dress but unfortunately the peplum was a greedy thing so I ran out of fabric to do the 2 part long sleeves - the compromise was to 'borrow'  a shorter single shape from Janet Arnold.

This is now complete, flat lined and with a contrast binding to finish the cuff and hem ( only because of fabric shortage- couldn't make my own bias).  It behaved quite well, apart from the fraying fine calico as the lining, but it did take forever. The back and peplum are in 4 pieces, the front and shoulder in 2 as well, so lots of  seams and finishing. In trying to speed this up I tried a stitching the top and lining fabric at the same time - http://stay-ingalive.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/how-to-do-weird-running-whip-stitch.html . This seems to be a form of ladder stitch now I look at it but I ended up producing a version  of this. I whipped the return stitch over the top instead of coming back through the fabrics but it does work effectively enough.  I, of course, didn't remember about this until most of it was done.  The compromise sleeves look quite at home, the tuck at the cuff to create the elbow bend was a nice touch. The peplum is a bit exuberant, flirty I wanted but this is very outgoing, very 'pet en l'air'.



This is the first part of the outfit. Of course it needs the skirt. I borrowed my pet en l'air's skirt for the photos but it will need to be  slightly longer at the back to compensate for a bigger bum roll. The Christie's side view has a very exaggerated  bum, the peplum sticks out  above the horizontal. I think a  little less would suit Gwen, but will have to balance the peplum.  I'm hoping this style will suit Gwen's body shape more than the white pelisse - already she looks to be  more slender, the change in angle at the waist flatters.

 By next week this should be done, and hopefully the illustrations to go with it.  (It is going to have to be a Liotard-ish - but what on the tray? Chocolate.... cake? Coffee and walnut? TV dinner?.....)  or maybe match the starker style of the Victorian bustle dress?

pattern source - NSCT pack 2.- A Dress of the Revolution- worn for escape- 1793.  http://www.nsct.org.uk/

Janet Arnold,  Patterns of Fashion 1, p 42 (sleeve)

http://stay-ingalive.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/how-to-do-weird-running-whip-stitch.html

Met Museum and V&A

Princess line bustle dress 1

Spent months being quite tasteful, there just had to be a backlash coming. When I turn nasty I like to do it good and hard - luke warm just won't do. So....

stuck to the recurring theme of the neck to hem long lines and pleating into the seams, and even a bit of polonaising and went Victorian!  Instead of en ferreauing I have been princess lining, not  Watteau pleats but a bustle!  Nothing by halves. While nowhere as ornate or complex as this dress

 from the Met, it will be a fitted, bodice front opening  down to below the hips. From there the front  skirt will be fairly straight but the back will increase in volume over a bustle cage and finish in a small train. I hope.

New things to do, new mistakes to make, exciting. Risking taking and problem solving - okay, on a small scale but still fun.

Back to Janet Arnold and Nancy Bradbury for a start point, again they both looked at the same day dress from the Snowshill collection.   Brightest  boldest candy stripes-
there is lack of stripiness in the fabric stash but lurking in the bottom drawer is a nest of Hobbs pillowcases - still in their packaging - desperate to get out. ( Not mad, bought when sold off as old stock, nice dramatic patterns, tight woven cotton. Only survived this long because I'd forgotten them)  Totally inappropriate. GOOD.




The whole of this has been done on the model, no pattern pieces, just a lot of pins, muttering, tacking and then redoing. Pattern pieces might have been easier.  The back - six panels, each full length with the centre and side panels  having extra width  from about bum level downwards to make pleats for the bustle bit. There is extra length on the centre pieces as well, this excess gathers up  in the side seams to make the polonaise. Again I like the idea of the contrast - fitted sleek v volume drama.

The basic ideas worked very well, worryingly so. The skirt bustled quite effectively and even began to train. It could have been an inch or two longer but there are plenty of opportunities to trim and extend. Getting the false front in was a bit of a menace - maybe that should have been done first and the whole front assembled then put to the back. I ended up starting from the centre back seam and building the dress forward from there. As usual focussed on the fun bit - working out how the skirt bustle came together.  I haven't got this too tight at the waist - there should be an internal waist band to hold the bodice in place which will help. As this was done as an experiment there is no lining either which would have helped avoid the stretching and twisting in some parts of the back.
The front of the dress has a false front  with hook and eye fastening on the centre line. Fabric choice was interesting - there was some heavy black satin all lined up, or another pillowcase - same colours tighter designs- or plain green or.... and I chose this Indonesian cloth. It was late at night, but having tried it all the rest looked safe and predictable. Not a wise choice as it had to be interfaced before it would hold the opening. Sometimes I like it other times it is sink into deep despair but unless something drastic happens it will be staying.  The collar is of the same contrast fabric, as will be the cuffs. There should be pleated inserts along the hem  - giving weight and flare I suppose- they may end up green and blue.

The sleeves are more tailored and shaped than the previous ones - in 2 parts and cut with curving seams. The sleeve head seems very shallow.
I did try a mock up of these and we are back to Pingu wings, flapping in the breeze. These current ones are cut with a steeper curve  but are still a bit flappy. The 18thC ones had lead weights but I haven't seen any reference to similar tricks for this. 


This is still very much under construction - final fit, finishing and trimming to do, all the fiddly bits, but it is looking better than I expected. I have enjoyed using the mad fabric choices - it is unexpected and instead of sitting there primly  saying 'aren't I historical', something else is going on. I will  have to do some thing to the front edges - the transition jars- a length of black grosgrain ribbon came off the pillowcase when it was dismantled - could be very useful.
It is starting to remind me of Yinka Shonibare's fabulous work but without any claim to be discussing cross culture references etc.

I had hoped to be finished by today - excuses are rather thin - keep falling asleep but did take a day out to join in with the Woolly Bike project with Cassandra Kilbride.  We were doing a Viking inspired bike as part of the Yorkshire Festival celebration of  the Grand Depart of the Tour de France this summer.  Very silly - I crocheted curly waves and half a snake. Di stole the show with a longship saddle cover and beard for the handlebars. The final exhibition with all 10 creations will be worth seeing!