Vermeer and the Yellow Bodice

Researching the portraits of Johannes Vermeer, yet another yellow bodice keeps popping up! It is a little 'heavier' visually than the Terborch bodice. As you can see in the paintings below, the trim is a lot wider than the Terborch bodice - still multiple rows of trim, but definitely a wider trim; velvet ribbon? The cuffs are black, not yellow. At the waist are tabs (something that is not seen on all similar bodices of the period) that are bordered in black. Like the Terborch bodice, the neckline of the bodice is bound with a narrow black binding. CF seems to be bordered with black trim as well.

Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, 1657, Johannes Vermeer

Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (detail), 1657, Johannes Vermeer


Officer with a Laughing Girl, 1657, Johannes Vermeer

Young Woman with a Water Jug (detail), 1660-62, Johannes Vermeer

A Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman (detail), 1662-65, Johannes Vermeer
Look, a rare back view! The back-most (is that even a word?) two tabs are visible, but it looks like the other tabs are tucked into the waist of the over-skirt. I wonder how many tabs are actually tucked in...

Dutch Baroque

For a while lately, I've been incredibly interested in Dutch Baroque genre paintings, and the costume of the latter half of the 1600s in Holland. The other day as I was perusing the paintings of Pieter de Hooch, I found this:



Now this painting is not by Pieter de Hooch, as far as I can ascertain; unfortunately, I can't remember WHO the artist is! I have perused the Web Gallery of Art for hours trying to find the artist again, with little luck. If you know, please tell me!

Anyway, when re-perusing the work of Pieter de Hooch, I did find this, which is actually by Gerard Terborch, found in the WGA here. The colour and trim details are remarkably similar to the painting above, with a few differences; finer trim, a few less rows, a wider cuff... this painting is called The Concert c. 1657.

The Concert, Gerard Terborch, 1657

I think I will investigate the style of this era next...

Going REtro

This weekend, I drove from my home on the southern edge of MI to my sister's place in Pittsburgh, PA. Naturally, at the prospect of an entire weekend of freedom (the first full weekend I've gotten off from work all summer!) I HAD to bring my sewing, and the new Retro Butterick patterns I bought a few of days ago...-

So, I proceeded to make a mock-up of the pattern I was most inclined to start with, Butterick 4792. The mock-up is just a brilliant blue cotton jacquard that I bought at a resale shop at $5 for 4yd. I actually rather like the fabric, but I hadn't a pre-determined use for it, and I needed SOMETHING to make my mock-ups out of, and I didn't want to go buy scads of new muslin!

I was not particularly pleased with the fit of the front at first. In the picture on the left, a distinct gapping is visible. When I turned to the side, WAY too much was showing through that gap!


To remedy this gapping, I folded the front bodice back a bit at the side seams and pinned it. This definitely helped! I don't particularly like how high and tight the armholes are after pinning, however, so I will probably take my French curve and make those a bit lower. I will also make a dart on the side - a dart slanting up, the type of dart very common in '60's sheath dresses - in order to eliminate what gapping is still left after taking in the front side seams. Although a bit of gap also occurs with the back neckline when I put my arms back, I think I'm pretty satisfied with the back view overall.

More updates to come soon!

The Bronze Duchess

It is finished. Actually, It has been finished for quite some time - since the Regency Ball in Lansing, MI last February, in fact! I apologize for taking such a terribly long time to upload the photos. I can't think of a whole lot to say about it at the moment, so I suppose I shall let the photos speak for themselves.








The photos in this post were taken by A. Rose Photography, and displayed on this blog by permission of the photographer.

So... I'm not sewing right now!

Because I'm at school! I'm at Savannah College of Art and Design, and I haven't got my sewing machine! I'm going to TRY to get my mother to send me a handsewing project, though, so... look for an update within the next month!!

Regency bodiced petticoat/short corset

So, not much to say, except that I'm going to a Regency Exhibition Ball and so am sewing a new dress. Which, of course, requires a new corset. This one is black cotton lined and interlined with black linen, and it's short. My first short corset. It will be transformed into a petticoat when I whipstitch a skirt to it - my ballgown will have a train, so I need something to keep it relatively safe...


The cording channels (I'm using 1/16" hemp cord) aren't quite finished; I doubt I'll get all the cording done before the ball. As of now I have all but the top front binding on, and all the boning is sewn in. I'll post more photos when my family gets back from vacation with the camera in a week!

The Pattern: a significantly shortened version of the 1805-1825 corset in Period Costume for Stage and Screen, by Jean Hunnisett.

New (non-historic) PANTS!!

I've had this pattern forever, and finally got around to sewing them! The fabric was off my mom's fabric shelf, and I didn't notice until I was sewing the pieces together that there are fade lines from where the denim was folded... But oh well, I'll probably spray them with bleach to cover that up. I know, they're not historic - but I love them! I just made them a week ago.

My Pink Pet Kirtle

I know, I already posted a tidy list of things to be finished, but since then, I've actually worked on a couple of them! One of these is my Elizabethan Kirtle. It is inauthentic, wrinkly, pink, and has distressingly rebellious shoulder straps, but it's rather my pet project (I designed and drafted it entirely on my own - the dresses that I manage to complete after this process I am inordinately fond of). Above is a picture of my boning channels. I originally machine-stitched the channels, but since I have a thing against most visible machine-sewing, I handstitched over it with pink 'twist', using a stem stitch.

Yesterday, I pinned this kirtle to my dressform. Unfortunately, my dressform is wider and less 'squishable' than me, so the back edges don't meet on it. On me, though, they close entirely, which is what I was aiming for. I haven't got they eyelets put in yet, but I intend to put them in for spiral lacing. I've never tried spiral-lacing on anything, and I figured I might as well try it out on this! Hopefully I'll get them in by the end of the month.

National Costume Finishing Month

Do you have a project that has stalled? Have you run out of creative steam and feel like you can't make yourself sew? Are you in desperate need of new clothes or just plain wanna sew something to completion? National Costume Finishing Month is for those of us who need a kick in the pants, a boot to the head, or just a fun excuse to finish a costume or three.

Your mission, should you chose to accept, is to complete a costume down to the last stitch within 30 days. It can be of any era, for any reason, be it con, cosplay, faire or SCA, or even *gasp* modern clothing. Work through your stash, buy that fabulous fabric you've been lusting after, or pick up that stalled project and just sew!

What happens if I don't finish within 30 days?

There is no penalty for not finishing... NaCoFiMo is all about jump starting your creativity and letting loose the costuming muse.

What if I finish my project way ahead of time?

That's up to you. You can stop while you're ahead, or if you're like many sufferers of CADD (Costume Attention Deficit Disorder) and you have another costume or three that needs to be realized, you may decide to start another costume. Sew until you can't sew no more!

What's in it for me?

New clothes, for one! Everyone loves new clothes. But just because simply participating in a community effort such as this isn't always enough incentive, we're going to give out made up awards! For being a finalist, you will get one of three lovely banner icons that you can display on your website or LJ info page.

Finalists with one completed costume will recieve a bronze icon banner.
Finalists with two completed costumes will recieve a silver icon banner.
Finalists with three or more completed costumes will recieve a gold icon banner. Bragging rights are included at no extra cost.

Will there be a showcase after all is said and done?

Of course! It's just not up and running yet, but it will be! We also want to encourage you to post pictures of your projects in progress, because everyone loves pictures.

You are going to give National Novel Writing Month credit for this idea, right?

Yep. We totally ganked their idea and decided the costume community needed a similar outlet for pent-up creativity. Thanks NaNoWriMo!

When does it start?

Dec 15 2006 - Jan 15 2007

Why Then?

Most people have some amount of time off of school/work in that block of time, for those of us in the SCA there are few (if any) events.

But that time doesn't work for me!

So come up with your own time period and do it!

Should I wait until Dec 15th to start finishing projects?:

Dude, no. That's what's gotten us all in to this mess in the first place. If you have the time to work on something, do it. It just won't count towards your NaCoFiMo "score" unless it's finished on or after Dec 15th. But YOU will know that you got something done, and won't that feel great? Besides, the more unfinished things you get finished before then, the more space you'll have in your sewing room for other NaCoFiMo projects!

How big does my unfinished costume project have to be?

It doesn't matter. It can be a hem that you've been putting off for two years, or a complete dress that you got cut out but never started sewing. Sure, the latter is going to be pretty impressive when we're all done and put up the spiffy website, but you'll still get your icon/banner/bragging rights.

Now get crackin'!

Dreams of German fashion...

And I dreamt... lol. Oh, how I want a dress like this. In coral or deep red/burgundy silk, black velvet, and a gold-embroidered cream silk inset. ~sigh~ Actually I have no clue what I really want to do with the bust inset. I could make it slashed, as shown in one part of the sketch, or I could embroider it. But I have really no embroidery ideas. Embroidery is something I don't have a whole lot of imagination at...

Now, to figure out how much it would cost to make.

Finished Blackwork Cuff

I've finished one of the cuffs! Actually I finished it a while ago but couldn't upload the pics to my computer. So here they are. Boring, I know...

The ties I wove myself, with help from a lovely tutorial that I found onThe Tudor Costume Site. They're white cotton DMC embroidery twist. You can see my box-pleated cuffs in these pics (I am inordinately proud of that box-pleating). The cuff seems a bit thick *sigh* but I think it'll do.



And now, a positively thrilling picture of the shirt so far. This shows how I'm assembling the sleeves/cuffs. I finished the edge of the sleeve, and finished the cuff entirely, and soon (yup, soon) I'm going to cartridge pleat the sleeve into the cuff. I have never before done cartridge pleating, so I haven't done this yet. Chicken, I know. But I will get it done!! I will.

Sture blog

Well, I've made an entirely new blog devoted entirely to the costumes of Svante and Erik Sture. Blogger is so nice, they let you have as many blogs as you please...

Here 'tis, Murder at Upsala Castle, 1567. It's also in my dashboard, under my profile.

Doublet Sketches

I'm going to costume a couple of my friends for the play King Richard the III. Both of my friends are guys; I decided against helping out the girls in favour of learning how to costume for a guy. Which is very different from costuming for a girl (although I've found that they're amazingly cooperative - "Stand up, sit down, I need to pin this on you, put your arm up - no, like this...").

So... I've been sketching designs, and after attempting to research the men's clothing of the era (well, not the era - I'm not a big fan of the long surcoat things - but rather after. And not English clothing.), I decided against authenticity. Paintings of the most interesting doublets don't show the whole thing!! And there was a particularly interesting one which was black, and therefore nearly impossible to see, which bothered me no end. This is what the sketch below is based off of; A Young Man, by Francesco Franciabigio. It's not very close though, if you look at the upper righthand corner of my first sketch, you can see my idea of the real thing. I added paned sleeves into my design, just to see what it looks like. Personally I find the body to be very boring and rather clumsy. I probably won't use this design. If you have any ideas as to how this thing comes together, please do tell me them, I would be so grateful!



Another doublet from a painting caught my eye, and this was one worn by Albrecht Durer in one of his self-portraits. I find this doublet to be fascinating, especially the sleeves! Unfortunately, the doublet is half obscured by a cape (DIE, thou cape!!!), and the painting is only from the waist upwards, so I have no clue what to do with the bottom. In my design sketch, I tried two different waist treatments, but left the peplum pretty much the same (peplum sounds like a distinctly feminine word, not to be used with a man's doublet!). On the left is a waistline straight across, and only has one fastening, probably some sort of ornate silver hook and eye. On the right, the waistline slants down, enabling a wider fastening, but rather more dorky in this case. Aren't those sleeves awesome?




I'm also playing with the idea of an arming doublet, although I'm afraid my victims wouldn't survive the stage lights. They would just die. But... arming doublets are so cool! I love the idea behind them, and one can do so much with quilting. I may not be able to, but it's a thought.





And, again, just a thought, but I love alot of landsknecht (did I spell it right?) doublets. I have no clue how they're put together besides wild guesses, but they're so interesting. This doublet was from an engraving of a Speisstrager solder (some sort of infantry, I think. Or not.) and I really could not figure out how it goes together! It seems like way too many layers for anybody to just walking in, much less marching with who knows how much gear. I changed the bottom half in my sketch.





Yes, yes, I know, All of my doublets should probably have less 'peplum' and more tabs, but I rather prefer this look. Like I said, I'm not really going for authenticity, just something that looks cool. ~winces~ That sounded rather bad, but it is sort of the point. Perhaps I shall try tabs sometime... And now, the bottom half of my sketches of paintings (the top half of which is at the top of this post), including the Albrecht Durer doublet/jerkin.

First attempt at Blackwork...

I've finally attempted blackwork! I've been wanting to make an Elizabethan shirt with blackwork on it for a while. Blackwork just looks so spiffy. So, I found a couple of patterns at the Blackwork Embroidery Archives, and I set to work. The one I ended up using is called Quatrefoil (I think this means something like 'four flowers'). Everybody I asked told me to use the leaf pattern for my collar and cuffs, but I love the sharp look of the quatrefoiles. I just finished the cuff stitching about ten minutes ago, so I had to run stick them in the scanner and post!

Too many things to finish...

I find finishing things to be dreadfully hard.

~sigh~

What I have to finish:

Eowyn Shieldmaiden vest for my friend
Um... like, the entire thing, practically!

1790s corset of pale green ~gasp~ polyester taffeta! ~hides face in shame~
Half the boning channels and then some, eyelets and binding.

Victorian petticoat of white curtain lining. Yep. I was pressed for pennies.
Whipstitch half the waistband down, 1 hook and eye closure

White print Regency gown
Two of the three skirts need to be hemmed. Lol, yes, I have three skirts on that thing - the top one is very see-through! I just added skirts until I couldn't see through it anymore...

Rose-coloured Elizabethan kirtle
One seam to be covered in trim, binding, and eyelets.


Well, that's all I can think of now. And that's just costume projects!!

~wanders off to contemplate the meaning of Life~

1807 Regency Gown pictures

It is done! Finally. Actually, the making of the dress didn't take a particularly long time... it's just the times in between that sort of stretched out the making! lol

The dress is made up of blue print cotton, with a cream linen lining. The bodice lining is fitted, with two darts on each side. The skirt lining reaches only to my knees in the front, and is about a foot longer in the back.

There is hand-sewn topstitching everywhere! Around the bottom edge of the sleeve, on both sides of each side-back seam, along the back neckline and shoulders... I think that's all of it. On the linen skirt-lining, instead of making a regular hem, I turned it under by 1/8" twice, and toptstitched it by hand. I also topstitched next to the dart seams. Yes, I was having fun topstitching... it's one stitch that I know I can do, and I got a bit carried away. But it does look nice and tidy, I think!

The back closure is hook-and-eye. This is the first time I have attempted a hook-and-eye closure and I am inordinately proud of it (or, I will be once I fix that horrid gap on the bottom!). There are seven metal hooks, and seven handsewn thread eyes. I made the eyes by sewing a 'bar' with a buttonhole stitch over six loops of thread. Tell me if that doesn't make sense! It was really quite easy.

And now, I shall let the pictures speak for themselves (because I can't think of anything else to say). Except: I am wearing a corset and shift, as you may be able to tell. The shift kept peeking out at the neckline, which was rather a nuisance.