New fabric... ahhhhh

New fabric shipment!  I received the two wools from Fabric.com and picked up some things at Jo-Ann's.  Oddly enough, though, this shipment of wool came in the mail before a previously placed order of wool arrived (which hasn't arrived yet).  I must call Fabric.com on that issue.  Anyway, on to the goodies!

 The pile!

 First up, 2 yards of black silk to make a Swiss Waist

 2 yards of 100% linen to line my pink silk Georgian stays

 The plaid wool.... this is the most soft, wonderful, gorgeous wool I have ever seen.  I absolutely adore it.  It's purpley!!!!!  When my mom saw this fabric, she exclaimed, "Purple!  That's not period correct!"  (As a clarification, my mother does not know much about historic clothing.  Proof: every time I show her anything that I've made that's period correct, she exclaims, "Miss Scarlett!")  Purple, in fact, is quite period correct.  Just refer to my Pinterest!

This is the teal wool.  I'm not exactly thrilled about it.  It's of a heavier weight than the red and the plaid wools, which makes me hesitate on making it into a dress.  The weave is also kind of funky.  I'll have to ask for help on that one.  If the weave is not period, I'll just send it back.  If it's too heavy but the weave is period, then I'll sell it to someone looking for fabric for a paletot or cape.  Sarah?

 Here is my lovely, now organized fabric stash!  Puny as it is, I love it.

It's organized by fiber.  Here's the wools...

 The cottons...

 The silks...

 And the lonely linen.  Sigh.  Maybe one day I will find a sale and buy you some friends.  Till then, you must stay a loner, because you are $15.99 a yard.

Finally, one of my favorite purchases!  Little baby Ginghers!  I got these because I need scissors to use at reenactments and I found that these are passable.  I love love love the stork.  It's so cute.

Au revoir, dear friends!

Busy Week!

On Thursday, I practiced my Senior Project presentation on Civil War clothing in front of an amalgamation of AP English students (I am one of them) and Human Growth and Development students (I am not one of them).  I think it went very well except I went over time by like three minutes at least (obviously because I could talk about CW clothing forever and ever).  I think the students were pleasantly surprised with my presentation, not realizing how interesting this rarely-touched part of history is.  It was fun!  Now I just have to cut out some parts of my presentation so I can focus more on the clothing.  I mean, I did make two dresses for this project, they kind of warrant more than 3 overtime minutes of hyper speed speech.

Then, on Saturday, the Ladies Living History Society and the Western Female Seminary Living History Society all took a lovely trip down to the Cincinnati Museum Center for their Civil War Days.  It was great because 1. It is air conditioned 2. Lots of people were able to make it and 3. The museum provided lunch for all of the volunteers.  We also got to play a hilarious game of Questions and Answers with some Union gentlemen, which was very fun!  I was able to wear my red dress, but unfortunately, that may be the last time I wear that dress until fall because it is, in fact, wool.  It's so pretty, though!!!  Sigh.

So... about not buying any more fabric... I might possibly have bought two more dress lengths...  Don't yell at me!!  They were only $3.40 per yard and they're 100% wool and 60" inches wide... I couldn't help it.  Anyway, I got 6 yards each of these fabrics:

For this Caraco Espagnol from Peterson's, 1862:

One word--tassels!

For an asymmetrical bodice. My pseudo-inspiration image:

I say pseudo because it is just proof for myself that there were asymmetrical bodice dresses made out of plaid fabric.  I am probably going to do trim differently than this lovely lady.

Anyway, that is all!  Have a lovely day, everyone!

Red Dress: Complete!

Here are the pictures of the raspberry wool dress that I made!  I love it and I hope you like it, too!

Always Talked About but Never Before Seen

I talk about a lot of stuff, but apparently never show pictures!  I have been talking about my red dress for ages and none of you have seen it!  So, here are some pictures of my stash (and new additions) so y'all can put images to names.

Here is the raspberry wool I talk about so often. This is the wool I used for my dress (now in the final stages of construction) and shall use for my sacque.  Both the dress and the sacque will be trimmed with this velvet ribbon, the sacque with the thicker and the dress with the thinner.

Here is the wrapper and the mitochondria fabric, as I like to call it.  The little round things totally look like mitochondria!  The wrapper is still in want of sleeves, a drawstring and a hem.  After that, it will be complete!

My lovely friend Kelly sold me wrist warmers and garters that she personally knitted and I am in love with them!  The wrist warmers will be worn to the filming of The Light of Freedom (along with the garters, but those will not be visible).

I picked up 1 yard of white cotton twill at JoAnn's yesterday with my Regency stays in mind:

Here is the beautiful, beautiful robin's egg blue silk.  I just got another 4 yards on top of my 7.5 so I can make a second (and third?) bodice.

 I will be making this ballgown from it:

Along with this dress:

I want to make an exact reproduction of the second one, but then I have to find out a way to have detachable bows for the skirt.  Would it be worth it to baste them on every time I want to wear the second bodice?  I'll figure something out.

Here is Sarah's wash dress fabric, a very pretty blue, white and black plaid.  It looks primarily black in this picture but it's actually primarily blue.

And now, the most beautiful book ever,  "Fashion: The Collection of the Kyoto Costume Institute".  It spans the 18th century to the 20th century.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

 Georgian:

 Regency:

1860's:

That's all, folks!  Till next time!

Fabric Shipment Number Two and Thrift Store Finds!

More new fabric!  These are the last of my orders for a very long time.  I solemnly swear to not buy any more fabric until most of my projects are completed!

 First are the wool batting and wool flannel I am using for my paletot.  I practically stole the wool flannel--on clearance it was just $5 per yard for 60" wide fabric!  I almost died.  Perfect!  Also, I got the wool batting for the paletot for only $10 per yard for 92" wide!  I'll be able to use the extra wool batting in my winter hood, too.  I am going to be very warm at the Perryville reenactment this summer!

Sadly, now we say goodbye to the paletot fabric for a very, very long time.  No offense to you, lovely fabrics, but I have to work on my other things!  Farewell until the fall.

 I got these teacups at Goodwill for only 50 cents each!  They may not be perfect, but they are passable until I can go to an actual antique store and find some more accurate ones.  They also are lacking saucers, but again, they are passable without them (and also much more appropriate than my tin cup!)  One of these will probably go to Sarah.

I also got my Easter present in the mail today!  "Civil War Ladies: Fashions and Needle-Arts of the Early 1860's."  It is a beautiful book full of fashion plates, needlework projects, sewing patterns and much, much more!

 See?

 Wonderful!

 Beautiful! :)

 And the back of the book :)

I also picked up some movies from Goodwill.  No matter how inaccurate the Gone with the Wind costumes are, I still adore the movie!  I also got Gods and Generals and Little Women (both of which I've never seen before).

 Finally, a nice little basket I picked up at a different Goodwill a week ago.  We have plenty of baskets at my house, however most of them are too large and/or too shallow to be of any actual use.  This one is the perfect size and just deep enough to hold what I need.  However, it didn't even cross my mind that it wouldn't hold my plate!  Oh well.

Till next time!  Au revoir!

New Fabric and Sacque Muslin!

Don't you love receiving packages in the mail!  It's like getting gifts (only you paid for it!)  A sad existence, I know, but opening a package does give me a decent amount of joy.  Especially when fabric comes in them!  Check out my haul:

First is the 4 yards of polished cotton I snagged off of Ebay.  Only $15!  This will be used to line my paletot.  That thing just keeps getting more and more expensive... sigh.

Next is the fabric for my Regency dress.  I'm using the Sense and Sensibility drawstring day dress pattern from the Elegant Lady's Closet super pattern.  Short puff sleeves!  I'm excited for that one.  It shall be beautiful.

Finally, the lavender semi-sheer plaid fabric I'm making an 1860's sheer dress out of.  I need to get working on this dress as soon as possible or else I'll miss the summer season and have to stow it in my closet for a very long time!  It's on my agenda for the month of May, along with Sarah's dress, so hopefully Senior Project and school won't get in the way of my progress.  As for the design, I'm thinking one word: ruffles!

I also sewed together the muslin for my sacque today.  I love sewing together muslins.  Seams really don't matter and yet they look good in the end!  How lovely! And, it's an awesome crash course in using the pattern.  Always, always, always sew a muslin.  It is very important.  Anyway, the bodice of the sacque is just about right, however the sleeve needed to be taken in quite it a bit for it to fit in the armscye.  After I took it in, then it fit very lovely.  Check out the pictures:

 I especially love the back.  It's going to look so lovely over my hoop!  It is quite gratuitous width-wise, but I figure that it's always good to have more rather than less (at least with a sacque).  I can be assured it will fit over the necessary 4 layers of clothing I wear at reenactments at any given time.  Black polished cotton for the lining is on its way.  And, with any luck, I will be able to wear this to the Cincinnati Museum Center's Civil War days in the beginning of May and use it as a part of my Senior Project presentation.  Let's hope!

Finally, a picture of my lovely assistant, Judy.  She likes to sit underneath the sewing machine... while I am sewing.

Have a wonderful day, everyone!