A Slight Change of Plans

A long, long time ago, when the world was new, I promised my daughter I would make her a regency era outfit to be worn for tea at the Davenport House, a local museum preserved in 1820's style. They host teas in March and May each year and my goal was to have us go in proper attire from the skin out.

Well it's May now and I've gotten as far as a mob cap, two muslins for stays, and a bodice for a little dress pinky has since outgrown. Yay for procrastination!

Now I could wait another year for the Davenport House opportunity to come around once again but it just so happens that my daughter has been pestering me to buy her another American Girl doll. And it just so happens that doll is the lovely 1812 historical doll, Caroline Abbot. It also so happens that pinky's birthday is rolling around much sooner than the next Davenport tea cycle and that the American Girl store in Atlanta hosts an afternoon tea of their very own.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Clearly we need to go in full regency regalia, don't you think?

So let's revisit the Davenport idea, shall we? Originally, the idea was to create a look that fit the 1820 aesthetic. However, Caroline story is centered around the War of 1812. During war, supplies would be a bit harder to come by as would be the latest fashions. I would say reasonably, we should adjust our time frame back to 1810, if not a touch earlier. However, I'm not sure I want to go strictly historically accurate for this. I'm quite in love with the look of 1823 specifically and I don't want to change. My justification is that since we aren't visiting a location defined by a time frame, I'm just going to pull a Cartman here and keep things pretty much the same.

For a refresher, here's the painting that inspired pinky's dress. It's the pale yellow one one the left with the purple sash and bonnet.

I recently located the perfect yellow tone on tone fabric at Fabric.com. It's a lovely dotted swiss in a light goldenrod woven with tone on tone stripes and just a wee bit of metallic thread. The rest of the fabric will come from my stash. Lovely soft cotton organza for the fichu and cap, pima cotton for the chemise and petticoat, along with a silk batiste sash, a straw bonnet, and miles of ribbon, lace trim, and other fripperies.

It's a surprise so don't tell her!

And wish me luck! Not because this is difficult. I'm rather confident it can all be managed. But you know I have a procrastination problem.

No, seriously.

I dream of aqua

and sea glass and mint green and teal and turquoise and anything in that family. I even talked mr man into a seafoam couch back in the early days of our relationship when all I had to do was smile pretty to win an argument. Color selection was the easy part. It's everything else that's a bit of a bear to decide. 1820, the year the Davenport House was completed was something of a hinky middle ground both for fashion.

Nearly everyone is familiar with the two differing silhouettes of the early 19th century even if only by sight. The first was the Regency Era, the era when Mad King George was beginning to lose his marbles and the people were seeing the wisdom of currying favor with the Prince Regency, or Prinny if you're a fan of regency era bodice rippers. If ever a bosom should be heaving, it would be in this era when the undergarments of the era were designed not just to lift and separate as the modern eye favors but to the extreme of putting one's ::ahem:: assets on a pronounced shelf. This is the era most often portrayed in Jane Austen adaptation. The 1995 version of Sense and Sensibility is a case study in turn of the century fashion with most of the costuming set firmly around 1795, a full 25 years earlier than the completion of the Davenport House. 

The second era is the Victorian Era, named after none other than Queen Victoria of England. Most of us know her as an old fashioned, stooped over and stout woman draped entirely in black, she wasn't always that way. Victoria was never considered a beauty, but she was quite fashionable back in her day, even if her mama wouldn't let her walk up the staircase by her lonesome. The early Victorian era starts with the beginning of her reign in 1837 and features a more reasonable waistline, full, sumptuous skirts, and lots of fripperies around the shoulders.

Not quite right for 1820 either. 

There was also the lesser known Romantic Era, which doesn't even rate an honorable mention on Wikipedia. How you like dem apples? Did you ever watch Doctor Dolittle as a kid? Not that hot mess crap with Eddie "screw comedy, I need a paycheck" Murphy but the old school original awesomeness that I watched until my little heart burst featuring Rex Harrison and Samantha Eggar whom I loved solely for her name. (Did you know she was on Star Trek TNG? Yeah, I didn't know that either. Be still my slightly geeky heart.)

The Romantic Era is probably best forgotten as it involves some of the most exaggerated silhouettes since panniers were in fashion. Huge skirts, monsterous shoulders, and hats you use to carry a week's worth of groceries inside. I mean look at that awful dijon mustardy looking thing on poor Samantha Eggar's head? But don't you worry your or rather, my pretty little head. The Romantic Era is just a sketch too late for the Davenport house as well. Trust me, no one is more relieved than I, even if I do like a ridiculous bonnet.

If you want the most accurate depiction of Regency Era fashions, there's really nothing better than Ackermann's Repository. The British periodical, printed from 1809 - 1829 pretty much covered every topic of the day. Politics, society gossip, the latest literary releases, and, of primary interest to the ladies, fashion. So I lost myself on google and pinterest for hours on end looking for the perfect inspiration. (If you scroll down, you'll find links to other years and issues.) I started in about 1817 and flipped around until I found a year where one's waistline wasn't somewhere around the nipples.

1823 was kind of a meh year for history. Britain did some prison reform, central America decided it was tired of Spain's crap, and Pope Pius VII kicked the bucket. But it seems to be a fabulous year for fashion as evidenced here. I think the pink is my favorite. What distinguishes the 1820s from earlier regency fashions isn't just the lowered waist but also the heavily decorated sleeves and hems. Is flouffy a technical term? What about flouncy? I don't know. What I do know is I can do this. Now let's get back to the color scheme. How exactly did I want to work aqua/seafoam/sage into the mix? And while I was ruminating on that over some celeb gossip, I struck gold.

Yes, it's a doll outfit. How about you shut it? It's beautiful. It's gorgeous. It's the color scheme I wish I could do in my living room and it's perfection. It was created by Sugarloaf Doll Clothes over on etsy but is alas, sold out because I'm not the only one who thought this divine. Check out her other work.

I haven't quite settled on all the details as I can't decide between a beautiful warmish mint linen I recently bought on sale from Fabric Mart after Christmas or if I want to pick up a beautiful vintage sari and thus, save myself some of the embroidery necessary to reproduce an elaborate hem. I also haven't decided on a pattern yet as there aren't any that are accurate for those years. I'll have to figure out what will be easiest to adjust and work from there, something I can't do until I've fitted my stays. So stay tuned.

Why yes, there will be a bonnet involved.

I can hardly contain my excitement, even if I will end up looking like a walking pint of mint chocolate chip icing.

In the meantime, if you don't have endless hours to putter around on the internet, do not visit this site or this one here. 

You people never listen.

More than I can chew

I'm not sure how it happened, but I was puttering around the interwebs as one does when they are avoiding housework and came upon the website for a local museum, The Davenport House. How I've lived here for five years and never heard of the place, I can't quite explain but that's neither here nor there. The point is they have tea, regency era tea or whatever you refer to that period of time as here in the states when we clearly could no longer give two hoots about Georgie's craziness or the other Georgie's hot mess secret marriage or whatever it was he was doing. 

As it also happens, pinky is slightly obsessed with American Girl books. We ordered her the catalog and every time it arrives, she is breathless with excitement, skittering around the house with passive aggressive comments about possibly getting a new one or new outfits for the ones she has, or a bonnet, mommy, I can't have a bonnet, can I? Because I know I can't get the new dolls, right, mommy? Like that. And what about this newest doll?

Her name is Caroline and she is perfection in miss Pinky's little starstruck eyes and really, who can blame her when the little thing comes decked out in full 1812 awesomeness, amiright?

There might have been some Caroline books under the Christmas tree this year and it might have renewed her desperate need for a bonnet. But where on earth does one wear a bonnet circa 2013 (can you believe it's that already? ugh?)

Why, to tea, of course. At a house built in the era and later converted to a museum for the era.

Eureka!!

And so, as I do, I have committed to turning out period appropriate garb and escorting our whole wonderful ensemble down to the Davenport House sometime in March, me, the pinkster, Kirsten, and Samantha, resplendent in little empire waisted beauties.

Just when I was thinking of wavering, wondering what in the hell I'd gotten into, what should my eyes come across but that wonderful challenge from The Dreamstress I mentioned yesterday. Here's a refresher. There's a lovely little facebook group to pepper with all my questions since I've never sewn historical before. I'll try to make as many of the early challenges in regency garb as possible for well, obvious reasons. But after that, I'm considering attempting the Federal era.

Corsets for everyone!

Ahem, I mean stays, of course. They were called stays before circa 1840 or so. I'm not quite sure when it changed to corset but it was after both the Federal and the Regency eras.

So again, pray for me.

Tea at the Davenport Part Pinky

Don't ever ask pinky what kind of dress she wants. The answer will always be something Barbie threw up after a night of drinking tequila rose and pepto bismol after throwing a frat party at the dream house. Then you'll have to deal with the hemming, the hawing, the exasperated sighs as you try to take her down from the pink bubblegum nightmare cliff.

No, the best approach is to give her a starting point and say, do you want a dress like this. It helps if your starting point is somewhere close to where you'd like to be. Lucky for me, pinky's little heart lit up like the ghetto firecrackers my neighbors were setting off at three in the morning last night. (Yes, last night and no, I don't live in some alien world where New Year's eve came a day late.)

And the winner is . . . that sweet, adorable little yellow dress on the left with the lavender sash.

Beautiful, am I right? It's precious and feminine and frilly without the need to call the paramedics to wake you from a diabetic coma. I happen to be sitting on the perfect yellow shirting. Well, I wish I was sitting on it, then I could provide you with a picture. Instead, it's upstairs or in a box or something. The point it I have it. I also have the perfect pattern. 

I bought both this version and the ladies' counterpart from Sense and Sensibility patterns a few years ago and never did anything with them. I'd like to think they were waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect moment being right now. So yay for kind of free!

Now these patterns are geared towards an earlier impression, 1805ish vs 1820 when the Davenport House was completed but the changes are slight and will be detailed in a later post. 

The dress itself will be rather easy. Not much fitting involved, four buttons on the back, some sleeves and a pretty hem. But one can't dress regency without the proper underpinnings, even when one is a slight nine year old with long legs. So in addition to the dress itself, I'll need to make the child a chemise, at least one petticoat, and a pair of stays. Yes, stays. Tiny baby corsets. But before you report me to CPS, you should know that we're talking about a garment that's little more than a glorified sports bra, the perfect thing for a hot mess in training who has been begging for a bra since she sprouted stage 2 boobies. (Talk to her American Girls All About Me body book for introducing her to the boob stages of life.)

See? Nothing to be scared of there. Those channels you see are not the hard boning you think of when you hear the word corset. It's cording, aka yarn. She'll even thank me for it, trust. Btw, if you think those are cute, you can read all about them and peruse the website of the really talented woman who made them by clicking here.

After we finish the underthings and the dress, we'll do up the accessories. Pinky is dying for a bonnet. I think we've settled on a purple velveteen bonnet that won't look at all like something Prince was wearing while grinding on Apollonia circa 1987, I swear.

So that's it.

What do you think? Please tell me it won't end up looking like everything that was awesomely bad came down and took up residence on my poor baby's head.

Everyone Else is Doing It

But I don't wanna!!

Do what you ask? The end of the year round up/New Year's resolution post of course. But I just don't want to. If you've been following this blog for a while, you may have caught onto my little procrastination problem. It's disheartening to me at least to set up all these expectations for myself, knowing full well I'm going to blow them. On the other hand, one has to start somewhere, do they not?

So where to begin?

I was thinking I'd redo some previous goals, like the Sew Historical Fortnightly which is starting anew for 2014. The first challenge is Make Do and Mend and I think I'm going to find a vintage sheet to turn into a proper, historical One Hour Dress. I just checked and the Davenport House is doing tea in March and May again this year so I better get a move on with those Regency dresses. I only got as far as the bodice on pinky's dress but the child shot up a bunch of inches and gained a more ladylike figure so I'll be starting from scratch with her. If anyone sees a pretty textured yellow lawn, let me know.

Speaking of the girlchild and all of her growing, as mentioned previously, she's growing. I officially have a tween in my house, a tween who fits nothing, including a swath of patterns I've been acquiring throughout the years. My goal regarding this sad fact is two-fold. The first one is the easy one, sell the old patterns I don't use, won't be using. I do, after all, have an etsy shop and many of these patterns are vintage. Time for them to go. The second part is going to take more creativity, something that challenges me. It is with great reluctance that I must resign myself to the fact that my daughter is too old for traditional heirloom sewing. So I'll be using the old noggin to figure out how to incorporate heirloom touches into something that pleases a more grown up style. I've started a Pinterest board if you'd like to follow along with my meandering thoughts. 

But first up, the child needs more school uniforms and I had the crazy idea to sew them. Two skirts and three dresses, both Oliver and S patterns. I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of time with Oliver and S as pinky transitions from a tween figure to a more adult one. 

Yes, a more adult one. 

Kill me now.

I'm not going to make ridiculous promises about blogging x times a week or sewing up x items a month. As seen previously, it's not my strong point. I am going to make an effort to at least blog more regularly, regularly being left wide open to whatever life might throw my way. To that end, I plan to be more active in the sewing community, perhaps even participating over at Pattern Review. They are a valuable resource to me as I sew and I think giving back is only fair. There are also more than a few challenges running about the internet. I'd like to get involved with Flip This Pattern and try again with Kids Clothes Week even though I failed so miserably the last time.

Wow, those are more goals that I intended, huh? Even so, I think the plan this year is just to take it easy and see what comes along. Give a go or not and try not to put so much pressure on myself. At minimum, I'm going to do more doing and less announcing.

For a sneak peek at the things I have loosely planned this year, check out my 2014 Pinterest boards, one for knitting and one for sewing. 

Well, that's it. Pressure but no pressure. 

Here's to a fabulous 2014! Try not to hurt yourself.

I'm late, I'm late

The week does not end until tomorrow night, yes??

Therefore, I still have at least 24 hours before I'm in a rabbit stew regarding my self imposed one Simple Sewing Challenge, right?

Right.

It would be done already if my stays pattern hadn't come in the mail and set my little heart aflutter. I've already traced off the pattern and cut out my muslin.

I should probably do that post about my Davenport ensemble sometime soon, huh? And I still haven't located the fabric for pinky's dress, which has to be done this weekend, the fabric locating I mean as I intend to present it as my next Sew Fortnightly Challenge. I ordered up a yard of silk batiste, some voile for the fichu, and batiste for the lining and petticoat. As soon as it all arrives, I promise to provide pictures.

ARE YOU HAPPY, BEAR ALLEN???

She knows I love her.

I Dreamed a Dream

Red Sateen Party Dress
from Blue Velvet Vintage

Once upon a time, on a far off blog called Male Pattern Boldness, someone did a lovely post pondering the merits of the shelf bust. And what is the shelf bust? Well, I'd tell you but Peter did a much better job than I ever could of answering that question, complete with pictures to boot so why don't you take a quick peek over there and then come right back.

Are you done yet?

Yes, he sews and he does a wonderful job of it too. Stop gaping at Cathy's fantastic legs and come back here so we can talk about Butterick's latest pattern release.

So anyway, the shelf bust. I fell in love with that look the minute I saw it on MPB and just had to own one. Fortunately, for mr man's wallet, I've not been able to find on etsy for a price I was willing to pay or rather I couldn't justify it in the light of all my other fabric/pattern wants and wishes. But it seems Gertie of Blog for Better Sewing fame, heard my cry and convinced Butterick to release this little wonder.

5882: Gertie's shelf bust dress

I have no words for how exciting this is to me so I'll let Jonah Hill express glee on my behalf.

The other new offerings aren't too shabby, including this cute little shorts and shirt pattern, also by Gertie.

5895 Vintage top and pants

This sweet little knit dress,

5885: Maggie London knit dress

And these two Victorian antebellum reproduction for little miss ma'am's current throwback obsession. I'm still working on the stays for our Austen era dresses. I might get hives if I have to contemplate a corset. Okay, not really. I'm loving working on the Davenport ensembles. It's simply taking a bit of work to have it come out the right way. Eventually, I'd love to put that kind of time into a few different eras, primarily Federal and yes, Antebellum.

5901: Children's Antebellum underthings

5900: Child's Antebellum dress

So in conclusion, I'll be making a mad dash for Joann's as soon as I hear the glorious sound of a Butterick sale.

Squee!