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!

 

ghostly dress

Headless wonder !

Currently haunting my hall radiator is the finished calico and PVA dress. It does look strange without a body in it  and is not at all what I expected at the start –  perhaps it was rather ambitious to do a sack back but a good experiment overall. It is fairly rigid, quite cardboard-like, but how this will last I do not know.

Process Problems – supporting the weight of wet fabric as it dries.
Keeping shape as drying – strange things can happen.
Preventing set areas becoming wet and pliable again.
Drying times.
Unblocking pipes having spilt large bowl of glue solution down the sink( hot water and unresolved anger issues worked wonders)

Benefits - do not have holes in fingers from sewing,

very direct way of working – see it, do it, dunk it,
small periods of working then put to one side to dry,
errors can be undone – frustrating but satisfying in the end.

  Would I do it again? Yes.

Would want to use different fabrics – cotton-based for absorbency- patterned/ striped?

Want to be able to fix more permanently – acrylic varnish?
Like the idea of having the 'seams' raw on the surface – really looking at the construction and fitting.
Might keep a body form inside or a wire armature .

Will try just with cutting out and sticking, no sewing.
In the background is the dress I've been making  while the glue dress dried. This is a fairly straight forward 1780s polonaise pattern, loosely based on the extant example from LACMA.  I've gone for

en ferreau back and front fastening with hooks and eyes. A pain - quite literally- to do - an awful lot of sewing before construction and and then a lot of finishing. I didn't help myself by adding a stiff interfacing and lining late in the process - to give that corseted look.  It just needs a wash to get the blue marker pen out and a press over to be officially finished! I do like the fabric, it is summery and fresh, and yes it is Laura Ashley curtaining. One extra tip - do not stab yourself with the needle and then bleed onto the nice crisply white fabric. It is an avoidable trauma - washing it out, not the stabbing.

Next task is going to be doing illustrations for this - patterns, drafting and construction notes and then the fun bit - painting. Romney I think for this - making the most of the creases without getting precious.