ⓘ A Sewing Machine Is A Device That Provides A Several-fold Increase Of The Speed At Which You Can

A New Crinoline and 1850s Petticoats

Finally getting around to posting about my new 1850s undies! I finished them last winter, but Life happened, so here I am, a year and a half later.

Anyway, I finished a new crinoline and basic cotton petticoat first. The crinoline was made by first making the lower section out of cotton muslin, and attaching twill tape at even intervals. I then made each bone individually, the casing made from twill tape, then the boning threaded through, and then the bone stitched closed at the needed circumference. I played around with the size of each bone before I stitched it to the tapes to get the overall shape that I wanted.

To go over it, I made my standard cotton petticoat with a single flounce.

Then I actually got around to reading period descriptions and suggestions for petticoats in fashion magazines of the time, and found that they frequently recommended petticoats made of grosgrain fabric, with three flounces from the knee to the hem. So, I searched the internet and finally found some grosgrain fabric, which I had to order from Greece. (Spoiler alert - grosgrain and faille are pretty much indistinguishable, which I wish I'd known before because faille is way easier to find.)

Anyway, the construction of the petticoat was not difficult, but the grosgrain fabric was a nightmare. It frayed at the slightest touch, exploding into a thousand tiny shards. My serger was garbage and not working, so I used a side cutter presser foot instead, which sort of acts as a serger. It definitely helped, but by the time I discovered said presser foot, I was already so over this project that I threw it in the naughty corner for months because I couldn't stand to work on it anymore. I finally dug it out a few months later and finished it up.

I have to say, it does give an enormous amount of floof, but I would never, ever recommend making one to anyone else. It was a nightmare from start to finish.

There's a more detailed writeup with more of my petticoat research and in-progress photos on my main blog, so please do check it out!

Le Bon Ton, Journal de modes. September 1854, v. 37, plate 7. Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library

This is magnificent!

Holy shit, y’all have got to see this art deco dream of a quilt from Reddit:

I started this project quite some time ago (almost 2 years!) and I’ve finally gotten around to finishing it. I actually finished the embroidery last year, but I didn’t end up finishing the rest of the stomacher until this week. It’s based on an extant example from the V&A dated 1730-40. I copied the embroidery pattern exactly, but I changed the shape of the bottom of the stomacher since I don’t usually costume that early (I usually do ca. 1760.) More photos and making-of are on my most recent blog post : http://mistress-of-disguise.blogspot.com/search/label/18thC%20embroidered%20stomacher

bodice, waistcoat

c. 1615-1618

linen, silk, silver, silver-gilt, metal, hand-stitched

Glasgow Museums

My latest finished project, based off a couple of extant bodices and a fashion plate which all had this snazzy cross-over front feature.

I actually made the skirt a long time ago as a historybounding, everyday thing to wear. It has alternating panels of striped and solid black cotton, and has a scalloped hem. I love it and wear it often, and decided that I was going to make a matching bodice so I could wear it to costume events, too.

I draped the pattern myself, based off of a couple of extants. Each seam is boned with artificial whalebone and the seam allowances were tacked down by hand with a herringbone stitch. The peplum is lined with black cotton, but the rest is just lined with cheap plain white muslin to save on cost. The bodice closes up the center front with hooks and eyes, and then the wrap panels are folded over and closed at the side seams.

Brain gremlins about my weight are under the cut for those that don't want to read it.

I finished this outfit a while back, but I've been struggling with whether or not I wanted to post it. It's not the outfit, I think that it turned out fabulously. But I've been really unhappy about my weight, and it's been a fight to remind myself that my weight is not my worth. I keep hearing the negative things my mother would say whenever I would gain a pound or two or the "positive" things she'd say when I lost them (things like "oh, you have a chin again!" or "I can actually see your waist now.")

So I'm trying to ignore all that and remind myself how awesome this dress turned out, how hard I worked on it, and how proud I am of the construction of it.

Elizabethan Jewelry Chains

 Let’s talk Elizabethan shiny things!

Left: Portrait of a Nobelwoman in a cartwheel ruff, attributed to John Bettes the Younger, 1585 Right: Portrait of a Lady Aged 21, Unknown Artist, c.1590

Specifically, I want to talk about jewelry chains. They were often worn just like necklaces, but they were also draped around the shoulders or draped in loops at the front of the bodice. They could be extremely long – one found in the Cheapside Hoard was 8 feet long! 

These chains are featured heavily in portraiture from the 16th and 17th centuries, and thanks to the Cheapside Hoard, we have quite a few extant examples of these jewelry chains.

The Cheapside Hoard was found during the demolition of a house near St. Paul’s Cathedral, back in 1912. As they broke through the floorboards of the house and into the much older basement, they discovered a cache of over 500 pieces of late Elizabethan and early Stuart-era jewelry. The jewels featured emeralds from Columbia, diamonds and rubies from India and Burma, ancient Egyptian and Byzantine jewels and coins, as well as delicate gold and enamelwork crafted by the goldsmiths in London. At the time, Cheapside was London’s main shopping center and the home to the majority of the goldsmiths. It’s thought that the hoard was buried to keep it safe, possibly during the English Civil War.

I set out on a hunt to find jewelry bits that resembled the links we see in the Cheapside Hoard pieces. Amazingly, I came across some suitable pieces on AliExpress!

Left: Chain from AliExpress Right: Detail of Cheapside Hoard chain, Museum of London

I didn’t set out to copy any one chain from the Hoard, but instead used the shapes and sizes of those chains to help guide me while I was buying my bits and pieces.

Finding the suitable pieces was really the most difficult part of making these chains. Once everything arrived, assembly was quick and simple.

I ended up with quite a variety of finished chains. None of them are as long as their cousins in the museums, but I think they’re a good start to my Elizabethan jewelry collection, and will definitely grace the front of many a bodice at future events.

Bibliography:

Cheapside Hoard Chains, London Museum —Enameled Chain of Flowers, Bows, and Leaves https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/v/object-119591/enamelled-chain-of-flowers-bows-and-leaves/ —Enameled Floral Chain https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/v/object-119585/enamelled-floral-chain/ —Diamond and Enamel Chain https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/v/object-119584/diamond-and-enamel-chain/

Cheapside Hoard Chian, V&A Museum —Chain, 1590-1620 https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O74076/cheapside-hoard-chain-unknown/

Forsyth, H. (2013). London’s Lost Jewels: The Cheapside Hoard. Philip Wilson Publishers.

Wheeler, R. M. (1928). The Cheapside Hoard of Elizabethan and Jacobean Jewelry. Antiquity: A Review of World Archaeology, 2(8). https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/the-cheapside-hoard-of-elizabethan-and-jacobean-jewellery-by-r-e-mortimer-wheeler-london-museum-catalogues-no-2-1928-1s/1E585E583A88D8B55DB29EE30B85D79E

Ganoksin. (2016, October 19). The Cheapside Hoard – Ganoksin jewelry making community. https://www.ganoksin.com/article/the-cheapside-hoard/

Hackenbroch, Y. (1941). A jewelled necklace in the British Museum. The Antiquaries Journal, 21(4), 342–344. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003581500048381 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquaries-journal/article/abs/jewelled-necklace-in-the-british-museum/965C70079702E42C7096519CBF7A8470

Early 17thC embroidered waistcoats are some of my favorite things. ❤️ Definitely one of my *someday* projects.

Woman's jacket, English. About 1610–15, with later alterations. Linen plain weave, embroidered with metallic threads and spangles; metallic bobbin lace. The Elizabeth Day McCormick Collection.

For those interested in Victorian menswear, be sure to check out The Gazette of Fashion and Cutting Room Companion. It was a 19th century periodical that is geared toward tailors and is focused almost exclusively on menswear. Every volume is stuffed full of patterns, and the articles talk about trends in cut, style, and color each season. It's a fantastic resource and almost no one knows about it.

I've included a link to one of them (1870), but there are multiple volumes available for free on Google Books.

Google Books

Gazette of fashion, and cutting-room companion [afterw.] Minister's gazette of fashion

Really says something about the dire state of offerings for men interested in sewing their own clothes that even searching things like "interesting men's clothing patterns" brings up articles with links to four or five whole websites that primarily offer admittedly nice but practically identical patterns for making button-ups and work pants and maybe a varsity/bomber jacket if you're lucky.

(Branching out into historical costuming for everyday wear is like your one shot at variation, and even then, the ratio of men's to women's patterns on every website is frustrating to say the least.)

Patternmakers as a trans man I am begging you. Give me a little more to work with here.