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!

 

bustle dress beginnings.




This about draping, drafting, fabric buying, sore feet and getting it cut out. Oh, and Gwen now has a bustle petticoat.

1885 by Mrs Christie of London.

Task- select and source the style and shapes relevant for the 1880s, drape it on the stand over all the underwear we've been making, draft this into patterns, make a toile. and fit it to ourselves. then Work out yardages, set a budget and go buying. The chosen fabrics are now cut out and mostly flat tacked onto calico, waiting to be made up!

Hermitage Museum

I went for a day dress based on this little petrol blue number in the Museum of London. Not the bodice front but the skirt - asymmetric layers, contrasting fabric textures, so lots of interest without shouting about it. The worrying thing is that it is not relying on embellishment for impact but on the fabrics and cut - nowhere to hide. What is good is that the front and back are balanced - there isn't a distinct front and back separation. The only problem is the front seems  intent on broadening the shoulders and bust to narrow the waist - I do not need added emphasis in this area, so went looking for a different frontage - Maria Fedorovna (Dowager Czarina at the time of the Russian Revolution and original recipient of the Faberge Easter eggs-) to the rescue. This was an evening ensemble = red underdress and beaded over gown. Not at all compatible but I liked the shape of the front!  When mashed together it just about works - something like this.
The whole was to be draped on the stand in medium calico - working directly onto the mannequin without a paper pattern. To break us in gently we began with the foundation skirt to cover the petticoat. It was supposed to be simple - use the petticoat pattern, allow for the extra bulk from all the frills, the idea is to cover the petticoat with minimum fuss and without squashing or losing the general shape.  And construct. And then remodel it when the waist fits but the bottom doesn't.

foundation skirt, draped apron and bustle

Very little of the skirt is going to be  visible - just some pleats at the bottom.  The velvet apron fits smoothly over the skirt so the same pattern shapes will be used.
Then it was onto the radical bit - the draped apron hanging from the right hip.  This was a fairly drastic  60" square  at the beginning- on the cross- with the top corner cut off to make a waist.  It is now shaped like a rough map of Africa. The front edge has to hang in folds and the back is pleated high over the bum. Just to make life fun that front edge appears to be rolled under so the folds come from behind. Happy hours of muttering, pinning, more muttering and it was done. pinned, tacked, and oops - the tacking affected the hang so start again.........
On top of this comes a bustle piece - just a rectangle for this and caught up on tapes ( rather like an Austrian blind). It should have been asymmetric too but looked most odd- not quite big or bold enough to look deliberate without giving me the lean of the drunken sailor.

pinching pulling and pinning, shaping the fabric around the form to match the photos. First pattern.

This was meant to be the easier bit because now came the bodice - starting with a vertical centre front, pinning above the bust line and to the side and then pinching the fabric to create front darts to shape it in front.  The back is separate pieces- centre start and carefully mark first seam running up to the armhole and gradually build on the next side back pieces making sure that the grain of each piece is vertical. Sleeves were drawn up  as a basic block pattern and the modified to give upper and under pieces and the bend at the elbow. The front shirty bit is mounted onto separate little panels which will meet edge to edge as a closure, a bit like an  C18th stomacher.

Once happily pinned together on the stand, the edges of each piece were marked, removed. cut down to an inch seam allowance and it was made up and fitted on me - Ah. lots to play with - the two darts  have changed to a seam running up to the shoulder and a dart. The side of the front has been split in two to raise it at the waist, and the shoulder seam moved. Redrawn and remade and refitted.

the early front with frothy bit, final back, sleeve, and the revised pattern

Once the whole was satisfactory, the patterns were drawn up and yardages worked out - about 15-16m in total, in 4 different fabrics! - something plain for the bodice, bustle and foundation skirt (was hoping for something like silk twill) something understatedly fancy for the side apron (a fine damask or brocade?) velvet for the flat apron and cuffs, plus a contrast for the fake shirt front - lawn or fine, slippy satin?

We went down to Goldhawk Road- next to Shepherds Bush in London- on a buying mission -

drawn en route to Hammersmith!

 lots of lovely stuff, especially silks, but trying to find 3 key fabrics each with interest and who work together without arguing  was definitely a mission. It would have been easy to be completely safe - but I could have stayed at home for that, and the Victorians were 'robust' in their ideas of colour and pattern. Bit disappointed not to find a plain brocade like a fine damask for the apron- or even a matching stripe would have done,  and not to be working with delicate tones of brown pink or sage green or muted blue - they proved impossible to match and the mixing was horrible. So came away with a muddy greeny yellow silk, kind of a Prussian blue  velvet, crinkle gauze in yellow and blue and plans for white lawn for the fake front. Umm. Could look like a railcrash or could work really well. The two tone gauze is the jam in the sandwich - it will tie the two strong colours together and hopefully really give the flatness of the velvet some bounce and enhance the sheen and colour shifts of the silk. Umm.

not the true colours - less greeny but sadly shiny

We came back late on Wednesday, cut out on Thursday, spent Friday cutting calico and flat tacking it to the silk to support and stabilise it. Far too organised, so I managed to stab myself and bleed all over a skirt panel, squeaks and drama - don't mind me - save the fabric! Never mind.

As for Gwen - couldn't leave her out - returned to Goldhawk and bought a piece of dodgy second choice fabric to make her a bustle gown and then spent part of Saturday making a petticoat to go underneath it. Need to choose a style now - the rejected House of Worth green thing with train? Umm

Other distractions -
M&S swiss rolls.
Wandering around London at dawn(ish) and dusk - saw the Tower of London poppies, Phyllida  Barlow at Tate Britain, Breakfast in Russell Square,  went to say hello to the Lion Hunt relief carvings in the British Museum, found a great little foody street market behind Westminster, wondered why my feet are sore.
They still have low flying pigeons in the new sanitised and shiny King's Cross.
So many pin pricks now feeling like a tea bag.
Don't leave car and house keys  in unzipped pockets when hill walking - result = blind panic, having to walk the hills twice,  collapsing in heap when found them without any energy left other than for a very feeble whoop and slight waving of limbs. ( they were right on top of hill of course - at least it was down hill from there)


Emsay Crag - now known as carkeys hill. Thank goodness didn't go up Great Whernside as I first planned!





 

Victorian underwear- corset, cage and petticoat.

This last week and a half has been focussed on ladies' unmentionables - none of which should be seen in polite society. We are going to be making an 1880s style bustle dress soon so need the underpinnings to give it the right form. The patterns used were Norah Waugh's from Corsets and Crinolines - or at least they were when we started. 
The corset was first, they are back lacing, steel bones - both spiral and flat steel, with a front fastening busk-  this is to define the torso's shape but has the added fun of moving the squidgy bits in all directions.



Norah Waugh- Corsets and Crinolines

First step - measurements of everything and then padding out a tailor's dummy to fit. We draped the corset - basing it on one from the 1870s/80s with 5 panels each side ( mine had to have 6 (depressing - have another cake?)).   Once the toile was workable we transferred to coutil ( densely woven and sturdy) and construction began. The seams were done to the outside of the corset and  the seam allowance was meant to be trimmed and folded to make a fell seam which doubled as the boning channel.

Far too simple - I ended up making each channel out of bias binding made from the coutil. The eyelet punch was fun but not as satisfying as getting out the hammer and beating them into submission, but at least the busk went in sweetly. When we tried this on  the corset all but folded in half - so more bones were added in each panel and the back spiral bones were swapped for straight steels.  It does now double as armour and weighs a minimum of half a ton. After the  basic fitting came the binding of the top edge and cutting the bones to length- sore fingers- and sealing the whole thing off with the bottom line of binding.

I'm not entirely comfortable in it - it pinches under the arm on one side so am still making minor adjustments there which explains the  unfinished lace trim- ( doesn't explain why one side has lace the top and the other at the bottom - ummm).

Bustle cage - this is the boned structure  intended to give extra volume to the skirt.

dog agility or tent?  It does look better the right way up!

This is straightforward to construct though it has an awkward moment or two and some muscle is required.  There are side front flaps that wrap around the waist, a narrow inner back that gives the tension to make the  wider outer back  steel bones bow. We started by sewing the outer back together and adding the boning channels with 1" tape as in the middle photo. The gaps in the centre are to make adding and removing the bones easier. The top two cross over  and are put in before sewing the side seams. The side seams are a sandwich of the inner back,  the front flaps, and the outer back. Sewing the second of the seams is the fun bit - the bones have to be bent so that the stitching lines match up- tack them into the channels, sew from the

inside the cage- the floor is the inner back.

bottom upwards and use a zipper foot and it was relatively easy- The muscle is needed to turn the whole thing rightside  out.  The top edges of the backs are joined and the whole is assembled onto a petersham waistband- measured to fit over the corset.  To finish the bottom a length of box pleating  is added to the hem - unfortunately I have mislaid the completed image - will add later.

  As if this isn't enough - or heavy enough - on top of this goes a totally frilled petticoat.  Again a simple garment with embellishments. It covers the whole cage, softening the outline while giving extra, extra bulk.

Step 1 was joining the front panel to the 2 side panels and hemming everything.

complete frilliness and the placket opening.

  Next was adding the frills to the back panel. We went for 4 tiers of frill plus one at the waist, so made them 12" deep. The back piece is 40" wide  so the 3 bottom frills were 120" wide and the 4th was 100" .  Making the frills was  repetitive labour rather than difficult, - 4 lots of overlocking, 4 lots of hem pressing and sewing, but the gathering was simple - we zigzagged over a length of buttonhole thread and pulled the fabric up along that. They were sewn to the back at 10" intervals to give 2" overlap.  Once all was done the front assembly and the back were attached leaving a 10" opening at the left top.  Then the mild concussion of trying to remember how to do a  placket to finish the opening. 

 It was put on the stand and pinned to a

petersham band, matching the back/side seams to the seams of the bustle cage underneath.  The back piece has  two lines of gather stitching at the top and these are pulled to fit. The petersham is sewn in place and the whole goes back on the stand for the final frill. This is shorter, only twice as long and narrows at the ends. This  was prepped as before and pinned from the centre back to the side seam  covering the top of the last frill - mine went from 10" to 5" deep and only 80" long. This was sewn on - the industrial machine was a godsend to this,

pinning to the waistband and adding the last frill.

the bulk reduced and the whole length of the waistband covered in white cotton tape to enclose the raw edges. Add on hook and bar fastenings and giant press studs down the placket opening and it is done!

 

The completed ensemble-  I still have visions of  looking like this in Victorian underwear - 

  think I'd be a good foot above the cushions in this bustle and the proportions are somewhat different. Need to find good opportunities for languishing. Answers on a post card?

Distractions list - Far too many  sweets (Minstrels!) museums, rain, Pauline's birthday-( nearly party-popped a bemused delivery man)  tea and scones at Grays Court (dead posh, right behind the Minster, optimistic wasp)  sewing moles - embryonic corset-o-saurus.  Will fill in the details next time.