Titanic Weekend Part I: All About The New 1912 Evening Gown

April 16, 2012April 16, 2012 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 7 Comments

I recently returned from a successful Titanic-themed weekend of events, including multiple vintage dance opportunities. I’ve been working on some new clothing for these events since January, which you can read more about in my past posts relating to the 100th Anniversary of the Titanic. I’ve been rather remiss in posting updates about the progress of the new dresses I constructed for these events… So my first task is to share pictures of my attire and explain the inspiration and construction of the garments.

I created two new 1912 ensembles: an evening gown and a day gown with accompanying hat. Let’s start with the evening gown!

My camera had a challenging time capturing the colors and shimmering sequins on this gown, but this is a good representation of the colors. Look! I wore my ballroom dance shoes, which worked well, and my white kid opera gloves and pearl drop earrings... fabulous!

Fabulous painted backdrop! Perfect for taking photos, although my camera didn't quite catch the colors so well in this photo. I think this gown is so much more fabulous in person! I was told that the sequins just shimmer in subdued mood lighting.

This gown is burgundy silk charmeuse with a gold silk charmeuse underskirt. The bodice is gold silk layered under gold sequined net. The sleeves are the same gold sequined net flat lined with nude colored tulle: the tulle provides unnoticeable stability for the net layer. The burgundy layers are pleated up and held in place in two places by gold silk and sequined net covered buttons. The bodice and skirt are lined with brown cotton and the entire dress is mounted on a foundation of some extra white cotton which I have an excess of in my fabric stash. The foundation layer is essential to the drape of the dress, because it provides stability as well as a layer to attach all of the pleats and drapery points to. The foundation allows the burgundy silk to effortlessly hang and artfully fold without looking heavy or as though it serves to hold an weight. The foundation layer also supports the underskirt which is attached at about knee height (thus not extending all the way up to the waist and saving fabric). If you plan to create a draped Edwardian gown I strongly suggest that you include a foundation layer: the practice is historically accurate and will help your dress look effortless rather than heavy. This gown closes center back with hooks and eyes along the gold sequin area and a complicated series of further hooks and eyes at the top of the burgundy back drape. The hooks and eyes help create the tension that is required to keep the waist carefully draped in elegant folds across the waist.

There is not a hat associated with this gown because hats were not worn for formal evening events. I did create a wonderful Edwardian coiffure with loops and puffs of hair on the crown of my head surmounting the two front sweeps from the front as they swooped around the base of the back of my head. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any closeups of the style. I feel it is necessary to encourage you by saying that the more often I practice my Edwardian hair styling the faster I am and the better the styles look. You, too, can have fabulous Edwardian hair! Practice! Practice! Practice!

I draped the pattern for the foundation, bodice, and sleeves. The underskirt is a mix of information from the usual pattern book culprits (Janet Arnold and Norah Waugh) that I took in and then kept in mind while flat patterning a knee high underskirt pattern. The outer draped layer is just that: draped. It was a good challenge–I would have a hard time creating a flat pattern of that layer. All I can say is that it is just one rectangular piece of fabric that was sometimes frustrating and draped with many references to my inspirational images.

It turns out that the evening gown is a mash-up of two gowns (pictured below) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I think I started by aiming for the pink dress but wound up moseying my way along to the pale blue dress. Do you see the influence of both the pink and pale blue dresses? I do…

1914 Evening Dress — 1914 Callot Soeurs evening dress

1914 Evening Dress 2 — Side/Back of the same.

1911-1914 Evening Dress — 1911-1914 Callot Souers evening dress.

1911-1914 Evening Dress 2 — Side/Back of the same.

Another Annabelle Adventure (Returning Heroes Ball 2012)

March 12, 2012 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 4 Comments

Alliterative, agreed? Ok, I’m done… Honestly, the words just came–I didn’t spend long on them! Last weekend I attended the Returning Heroes Ball hosted by the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers in Holliston, MA. As usual, it was full of fun and laughs. There were fabulous dresses all around (because of course one of the joys of a ball is to observe dresses–old and new) and wonderful refreshments as well. I don’t have pictures of other people, but I have pictures of me!… You can see a variety of people in the photos on Antonia’s blog, Experiments in Elegance…

Me, in Annabelle. I really, really love hoop skirted dresses! And flounces! Whee!!!

I recently gained a new accessory: a deep purple burnout silk velvet scarf, big enough to use as a shawl. The shawl was decommissioned from a friend’s modern wardrobe because it is rather intense for a modern look; however, it works wonderfully as a 19th century piece, I think! I’ve been waiting for about three months to try it out with this outfit… I think it is fabulous and nicely complements the purple in the flowers. Do you think it works for an 1860s look?

Ooo... Purple silk velvet shawl. So cosy! (and stylish to boot!)

Thanks for taking the photos, gentlemen (you know who you are)!

I’ve been trying out more complicated, poof-filled hair styles in preparation for early 20th century styling and I put some extra effort into this hair-do to try out more poof-ing. From the front my hair has it’s normal 1860s style with a center part where each from section is slightly poofed and rolled back to join the low rolled chignon at the nape of my neck (above, left and right)… but from the back this most recent style has extra poof-age!

See the extra poof at the top of my head?

In terms of the hair-styling itself, I think I like the extra poof as it gives more dimension and adds a regal feel to the overall look. Do you like the added poof?

I also decided to rework the hair wreath I’d made for the German Cotillion back in October (left). I’m not sure I like it as a giant mass of flowers, I might rework it again into a crescent shape like the flower piece that matches Belle, my other 1860s ball gown (above right). In terms of the flowers, giant mass or crescent shape?

Project Journal: 1815-1820 Regency Ensemble Part IX: Completion of the Re-made Dress! (1812 Ball 2012)

February 19, 2012February 19, 2012 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 6 Comments

I am so pleased with my re-made 1819 dress. You can get the background here or read the sewing update here! In short, the new style shares only the skirt with its former self. The new ruffles are all hand hemmed and hand sewn on. The dress seams are a mix of machine and hand sewing, depending on if I felt like digging out the sewing machine or not. All of the bodice seams are flat felled by hand. The dress closes in the back with 4 mother of pearl buttons. Oh, and let me not forget that the dress no longer has built in petticoats. Part of the re-make was to create a separate petticoat from one of the two petticoat layers built into the dress. The petticoat ties under the bust and has a single button to close the top of the bust. It is just a sleeveless, simple version of the gown. I’ll have to take pictures sometime so I can share them. But the dress… It fits! It is ruffly! It has so much more style than it did before! Just to compare, the first picture is your first glimpse of its current style, and below that is from before the re-make.

IMG_0540 - Version 3 — The 1819 dress in its first incarnation.

Isn’t it more stunning than it previously was? I wore it to the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers’ 1812 Ball (ok, so my dress was a little forward thinking… maybe I have a time machine?). I had a lovely time, as expected. I made some new acquaintances and renewed some old ones, I was able to wear my recently purchased kid leather opera-length (which means over the elbow) gloves and a beautiful shawl one of my aunts gave me a few years ago, I got to practice my historic hair styling techniques (more to come on that point soon), and I danced! But let me stop writing, because really this post is about sharing pictures.

Friends: don't we make a lovely group? Ok, wait, but there's a funny face...

How about this one? Same group, but now I'm making the funny face. Rather a severe expression, don't you think?

I’d just like to insert a comment here: looking again at these pictures, all the ruffles on the bodice of my dress really manage to make me look much more busty than I actually am… Hm… there are a lot of ruffles going on there!

My friend made this beautiful fan to go with her dress! It's hard to see the detail in this picture, but it's absolutely lovely.

Front of her new dress. She also has the super cute tiara, that is much more sparkly in person...

I’ll leave you with this image: a teaser for a soon-to-come post about the creation of this hair style!

: Quite picturesque, I think. Thanks for taking the photos, Carly (and Mark)!

Project Journal: 1815-1820 Regency Ensemble Part VIII: Re-Trimming the Bonnet

January 30, 2012 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ Leave a comment

As with the 1819 ivory gown, the bonnet that is part of my late Regency look has also been remade from its original style. Why re-make it, you might ask?

Though the bonnet was based off of an 1819 illustration in Cunnington’s English Women’s Clothing the Nineteenth Century, it was built for use in the theatre, so the materials used to trim it are nowhere near accurate for off stage use. However, the shape and placement of the trim was accuratly reproduced from the inspiration image and that fact made the re-trimming possible, because the base of the bonnet could remain unchanged!

IMGP2939 — Before: The bonnet before re-trimming

The original trim was entirely polyester, which stands out when placed with other, more accurate garments and in natural light (rather than stage lighting). The color scheme was pink and peach fabric manipulated in various ways: the flowers were pinked and gathered lengths of polyester fabric, the ribbons were bias cut polyester fabric, the inside of the brim was lined with pink polyester shantung, and the brim was edged with white polyester lace. Aside from the polyester problem, the pink color scheme would not match my darling new spencer, which is brown and green. It’s not that the colors would clash, it’s just that they would look like they were not intended for each other… and I really wanted a coherent, matching look to my ensemble.

IMG_1312 - Version 3 — And After: The re-trimmed bonnet with matching spencer

I removed all of the fabric flowers, the bias ribbon trim, the lace edging and the lining. The lining was replaced with green silk shantung to match the new bonnet trimmings and the spencer while the lace edging was changed to light brown vintage cotton lace that matches the lace used on the spencer. The flowers were replaced with millinery flowers in green and light brown from my stash. I decided to use the spark of orangey-brown near the top so that the bonnet wasn’t too matchy-matchy. The ribbon was changed out for a matching green ribbon that has narrow bands of gold along the edges (I confess it is still polyester… but I like the look of it and I didn’t have enough of my matching green silk satin ribbon to use it, nor did I like the shine of the satin with the green of the flowers). And voila! A bonnet that now is the right shape and has the right trimmings to match my Regency ensemble!

You can see the green bonnet lining here

Project Journal: 1815-1820 Regency Ensemble Part V: Completed Spencer (Massachusetts Costumers Regency Holiday Tea)

January 4, 2012January 21, 2012 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 3 Comments

In the greenhouses at the Regency Holiday Tea.

Despite the long name of this post… Here it is! My (almost) finished 1819 Regency Ensemble! The ensemble includes an early 19th century white linen chemise, 1815-1820 pink cotton corset, 1815-1825 ivory cotton gown, 1819 brown velvet Spencer, 1819 straw bonnet, and mid-19th century fur muff (ok, so it’s not quite as giant and droopy as a Regency muff… but it was cold outside!). You can click on the links to see more about each piece. There is more to come on the gown and bonnet.

Right now I want to focus on the completed Spencer and its details. Please click on the link above to see my research for the Spencer: it is based off a Spencer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You can see pictures of the mockup Spencer here. The Spencer is constructed of brown cotton velvet that is flatlined with white cotton. It is trimmed with green cotton cording, vintage brown lace, and green tassels to match (Aren’t the tassels so adorable?).

IMG_1309 - Version 3 — Back of the 1819 Spencer

I wore this Spencer to the Massachusetts Costumers annual Regency Holiday Tea. This year, in addition to having tea, we visited the Lyman Estates Greenhouses, which were built in 1804 and added to in 1820, 1840, and 1930.

The tea was lovely and I do believe that my Spencer turned out wonderfully! Spencers are so adorable and varied. I hope to make more in the future… but there are other things to do before I go back to Spencers. The next big push is going to be Edwardian outfits for Titantic evens in April!

Project Journal: 1815-1820 Regency Ensemble Part III: Spencer Research

December 25, 2011January 21, 2012 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ 4 Comments

Merry Christmas!

Let me start by explaining my reasoning about adding to my Regency wardrobe. You see, I had two events in mind for which I needed two different Regency looks: the Massachusetts Costumers annual Regency Holiday Tea and the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers 1812 Ball. What to wear???

“Well,” I thought, “I have an 1819 dress that I built last year for the Sense and Sensibility Ball… but I don’t have the right corset to wear under it. Nor do I have any way to make the ball gown into day wear… And, now that I think of it, what will I do with my hair for a day style???”

The first and most foundational step was to build a corset to provide the proper support and shape for the Regency period. You can see my research and construction of the corset in previous posts.

The next step was to turn my ball gown into day wear! Well, Spencers are a classic Regency garment that can perfectly disguise my ball gown by hiding the short sleeves and low neckline, thus turning it into day wear. Perfect! After the Spencer will come the adventure of finding a suitable hair/hat solution.

What is a Spencer? It is a short, waist length jacket from the 18th and 19th centuries first worn by men but quickly adapted into women’s wear. The garment is named after George John, the 2nd Earl of Spencer who was an English politician during the last quarter of the 18th century and the first quarter of the 19th century.

Volare Digital Capture — Early 19th Century Fashion Plate at LACMA (Spencer on the right)

Right now I am interested in the Regency style Spencers, since that is what I will be making, so I will focus my research on that period. Here are some of the Spencers I found most inspirational for my reproduction. These garments are from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection.

1819-1822 SIlk Spencer — 1819-1822 Spencer

Early 19th Century Spencer Silk and Cotton — Early 19th Century Spencer

c. 1815 Silk Spencer Front — c. 1815 Spencer

1804-1814 Silk Spencer — 1804-1818 Spencer (That is a lot of tassels!)

Let’s leave the Spencer here, in the research stage, for today. More will be coming soon with mock-up pictures of my reproduction!

While looking for research images I did come across this blog post that shows a reproduction of an 1815 Spencer at the LACMA. The post (and her other posts as well) have great commentary about the research and construction of reproduction garments with lots of pictures included!

Project Journal: 1815-1820 Regency Ensemble Part II: Corset Construction

December 18, 2011December 21, 2011 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ Leave a comment

Well, it’s been a little bit of time since I shared with you my research and plan to build a Regency corset to accompany my 1819 gown. I’m excited to say that I was successful! The corset is complete, although I still plan to quilt a diamond pattern along front rib section within the next few months (I’ll share photos of that once it is complete). You can see the diamond quilting in the photos in the link, above.

The dummy isn't quite the right shape for this corset, but here it is!

This corset is constructed of two layers of pink cotton twill with a layer of coutil sandwiched between them to provide stability and support. I began construction by flatlining the coutil to the outer layer of twill. I sewed the non-gusset seams (the front and back pieces) together in these flat lined pieces, leaving the inside twill layer for later. Each gusset had all three layers flatlined together and sewn into place with the seam allowances pressed away from the gussets themselves. Then I went back and basted the inner twill pieces into place that had been left aside. I turned under the seams on these pieces and hand sewed them over the seam allowance of the gussets so that no seam allowance was showing.

After completing the inside construction I bound the edges with purple bias silk taffeta, scraps from another project. The final step was to create eyelets. I decided to do these by hand in purple cotton embroidery floss. Each eyelet is reinforced with a metal jump ring that is caught under the thread on the inside of each eyelet. This reinforces the edge of each eyelet and keeps them from stretching out of shape when laced. The jump rings are only visible on the inside of the eyelets, where the stitching is bulkier because it passes over the rings.

The corset is lightly boned at center front and center back. I struggled over what material would be best to create the 2″ wide center front bone. Eventually I remembered a suggestion from a friend, Carly, who had used a creative option for boning that I decided would be perfect for this project. Home supply stores such as Home Depot and Loew’s sell plastic wire ties that are about 3/8″ wide and which come in lengths up to about 20″. The ties are a good 1/8″ thick, strong, but still bendable. They have a similar tension to a steel bone, but are a little thicker. And the nice thing is that you can cut and shape them easily with scissors! Of course, plastic boning is not historically accurate, but it is functional and affordable (a pack of these wire ties is about $5, and there are about 12 per pack) and creates a boned garment that feels similar to one boned with steel bones (and once you finish the garment, who would know?).

In this corset, each side of center back has a single bone. The 2″ wide center front bone is actually 5 wire ties attached to one other with (shhh!!!) masking tape! This is an experiment that I hope will work (I have slight fears that body heat might one day cause the tape to lose its grip and the bones to start to move around in funny ways, or worse, that the tape will leech sitcky goo onto the fabric that will stain the exterior). I put the center front bone in between the layer of coutil and the inside twill, so even if the masking tape does one day create stains, it is unlikely that the stains will make it to the outside of the corset.

For now, success and wearability!

Fezziwig’s Ball 2011

December 14, 2011March 25, 2018 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ Leave a comment

Well, I promised you pictures of my new hair crescent in place… and I did wear it with Belle, my dark blue ball gown, to Fezziwig’s Ball recently… but I was so caught up in the fun of the evening I forgot to stop and have someone take a still picture of the crescent! (I’m sure I will wear it again, though, so hopefully I’ll remember at that time.) This post about last year’s Fezziwig’s Ball gives you background on the theme and title of the ball.

Ready to whirl away on a dancing adventure? Look on!

As a final note, let me just say that the evening was wonderful. My favorite moment: the Grand March proceeding up and down stairs, twice! The room was so full that the leaders ran out of options and marched down the stairs!

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Annabelle, adorned with flowers

December 11, 2011December 21, 2011 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ Leave a comment

Over the summer I built Annabelle, a white flounced 1860 ball gown, in order to have an alternative to my dark blue 1860 ball gown. My intention was to adorn Annabelle with flowers, as in my inspiration fashion plate from Godey’s Lady’s Book (Annabelle is based off of the gown on the far right); however, I did not have time over the summer to add the flowers.

1860godey_sep_b — September 1860 "Dressed for a party" (Fitting title, don't you think?)

I decided to wear a be-flowered Annabelle to the Commonwealth Vintage Dancer’s German Cotillion last week. My original plan was to hand make the flowers from hand painted pink silk organza. I started on that endeavor, but the process was time consuming and so I have only made perhaps 100 flowers (first: cut 5 rounded point shapes, second: fray check the edge all around, third: gather the center of each flower). Each flower is about 1 1/2″ across. When I went to sew the flowers on the dress I realized two things that made me change my mind about using them: the flowers were too small for the scale of the dress and I would need so many more hundreds to make the look work. In the end I used purple millinery flowers, from the fantastic stash I mentioned in the post about my 1860 hair crescent, to adorn the dress. I actually really enjoy the purple flowers and the scale is far better for the overall look as well.

I used matching flowers plus a few others in the pink family to create a wreath for my hair to match the dress.

If you would like to see what Annabelle looked like without the flowers, you can visit the following posts and see pictures: Of Flounces and Dance Cards: Part I and Ochre Court 1860s Ball 2011. And, to finish off this post, here are a few pictures of Annabelle in action at the German!

387329_10150411210219327_28006869326_8480378_607753621_n — Playing dance games at the German Cotillion

393199_10150411211769327_28006869326_8480396_1680756002_n — Playing dance games at the German Cotillion

1860 “hair crescent”

December 3, 2011March 25, 2018 ~ TheQuintessentialClothesPen ~ Leave a comment

I was recently able to purchase a fantastic stash of millinery flowers for a great price (they were basically being given away) and it is some of these flowers that will become a new hair decoaration to match Belle, my blue 1860s ball gown. I hesitate to call this piece of decoration a wreath, because I do not plan for it to encircle my head entirely; however, “hair decoration” and “hair ornamentation” are cumbersome, while “hair piece” sounds like it should be made of hair, which it is not…

There are two sprays of flowers that are sewn together and softly bent into a crescent shape. (Millinery flowers are so much easier to work with than stiff, plastic flowers from the craft store!) Maybe I should call this a hair crescent? I think that is the best name I have come up with so far…

The finishing touch is a comb that is sewn to the back, to help hold it in my hair while I am dancing (I plan to use bobby pins to attach the points of the crescent to my head). Here’s a picture of the finished crescent. I plan to wear it to a ball in December and I’ll make sure to get pictures of it in place.