Silk gift bag

This embroidered bag was a bachelorette gift for an artist friend (Zoe) who was married last month - I sewed the outer bag of green silk and lined it with calico - so that it would be strong enough to hold a large bottle of chocolate body paint and a paintbrush!

The Straw Basket Bonnet

How to make an 1860's doll bonnet from a craft-store straw basket:

Take one small straw basket from Lincraft. (Home furnishings section)
Slice in half, bind the raw edge with cotton bias, line the shell with silk taffeta and lace, attach a silk curtain round the bottom edge, and go wild with feather biots and fabric flowers and white taffeta!

Random ribbon embroidery

Finalist in the Historical Inspiration Festival!

Good gosh! - I went over to Story of a Seamstress tonight and discovered that my 1850s Child's Dress has been nominated as a finalist in the Most Creative Category!

The Historical Inspiration Festival - Part 3

 

Story of a Seamstress is hosting a Historical Inspiration Costume Festival.  She has kindly invited doll costumers to participate - so I'm putting up a few of my 'historically inspired' outfits!

Introducing Bella:

Bella is a mid-century summer costume, inspired by several fashion plates showing breezy summer outfits worn with straw hats:

The dress is sewn of chequered cotton poplin and trimmed with vintage velvet ribbon.  It is ornamented with self-pleats, positioned to take advantage of the striping in the fabric.  The pelerine is made from a vintage cotton collar:

The shawl is sewn from silk charmeuse, blind hemmed by hand and embroidered with silk ribbon roses:

Embroidery Detail of shawl:

The hat is made from half of a vintage straw purse - steamed to shape and trimmed with wired silk ribbon roses:

Under her dress, Bella wears a lace trimmed cotton petticoat, a set of hoops (courtesy of the AG company) and white voile pantaloons:

The Historical Inspiration Festival - Part 2

Story of a Seamstress is hosting a Historical Inspiration Costume Festival.  She has kindly invited doll costumers to participate - so I'm putting up a few of my 'historically inspired' outfits!

Introducing Regency Lilly:

This small gown was put together as a rather drastic holiday from reality during my final fortnight of grad school presentations. Unsurprisingly, is an unholy mess of bad construction decisions (and no lining under that crepe bodice? Really?!) It was based on this c.1815 color plate of an EXTREMELY decorated ballgown:

The underskirt and under-sleeves are sewn from white silk charmeuse, and the overdress of lavender silk crepe.
The dress is trimmed with vintage cotton lace and bands of 7mm lavender silk ribbon.  The three-dimensional flower bouquets are made from wired silk ribbons in varied widths and colors:

A view of the wired silk ribbon bouquets on the white silk underskirt:

The back detail is composed of a sprig of wired silk ribbons and a three-color fall of 7mm silk ribbons in purple, lavender and white:

The Historical Inspiration Festival - Part 1

Story of A Seamstress is hosting a Historical Inspiration Costume Festival.  She has kindly invited doll costumers to participate - so I'm putting up a few of my 'historically inspired' outfits!


Introducing Jane:

Jane was inspired by two specific items of clothing:

Elizabeth Bennet's scrunchy bonnet from the A&E production of Pride and Prejudice

and Anne Elliot's spencer jacket from the 1995 made-for-television adaptation of Persuasion.

The dress is sewn in cotton voile, based off of the AG regency-era patterns.  The spencer jacket and bonnet I drafted myself, and sewed in silk shantung.  A small gold-and-swarovski turtle pin is fastened to the bodice of the jacket. The sleeves of the spencer are not strictly period; this was the first historical pattern that I drafted for myself - before I'd begun to study historical fashion styles.

The spencer back detailing is delicious: hematite 'buttons' fasten down a flare in the silk -

that leads into a lovely full fall of fabric in the skirt.

The bonnets is gathered along three rows of wire, pulling it in for a delightful scrunchy look.