I may or may not have spent most of today messing around on a new toy: Scrapblog*.
The other day I realised that the reason I couldn’t find a picture of the 1780s outfit I had seen in my dream because it didn’t exist! My unconscious mind must have put together elements of different outfits I’ve seen and put them together. Clever unconscious! So I had planned to make an inspiration board/mood board type thing on Polyvore, but I found it was a bit of a pain to import your own images on there. I hunted around for something else and found Scrapblog. And here are the results of my efforts:
So we have a pointed-front blue pierrot type jacket with what appears to be gold trim (as modeled by The Duchess of Chartres and painted by Charles Lepeintre, 1776). I’m not generally a fan of gold, but in this case I think it works very well with the blue. I think I’m going to have a look at my fabric with silver and gold and see what works best – and what trims I can find! I already have a pierrot pattern that has a straight front, so I’ll just make it into a pointed bodice. And that’s where those lucky symbols you lovely people have given me will come into play: self-covered buttons embroidered with lucky symbols down the front and on the cuffs. Yes, this is how it was in my dream. I know, I have strange dreams.
Then the sash is from that pretty cream and black zone-front (I’m a sucker for a good zone-front). I have a little something special for the buckle (yes, I have a pretty little surprise which will be revealed soon!) and I have sourced some red stripe taffeta. The one thing I’m not sure about for the sash is whether one makes a strip of fabric and carefully hems it, or whether you make a double-sided sash of fabric (with or without interlining of some description – lawn/organza?)?
And lastly, a white self-stripe petticoat. I had envisaged regular stripes between 1/2″ and 1″ as in the image from The Duchess and the Pehr Hillstrom painting, but I haven’t been able to find the right fabric with that kind of stripe; I have found a pretty white voile with groups of stripes in different widths, so I think that will work still.
The only bad thing is that having seen that still from The Duchess, I now want a really over the top big hat (which is 1780s correct), but (a) that’s probably not a great idea for my first foray into hat-making and (b) I definitely wouldn’t have enough of the blue taffeta left over for that. I might have enough left for a mini-tricorn, a la Dunst’s Marie Antoinette, but I’m worried that might not look right with a hedgehog (mine probably won’t be a huge ‘hog) – has anyone tried a mini-tricorn + hedgehog combo?
There’s the basis of the outfit, at least – of course, there will be accessories!
I think mini-tricorn could look nice with a not-quite-over-the-top hedgehog, especially if it were jauntily askew. Blue and gold is one of my favorite color combinations, and a white petticoat with it will be divine. I’d be inclined to make the sash by essentially stitching a long tube and pressing it crisply flat, but I really don’t know what I’m doing in that regard! Ohh, can’t wait to see the final product!!
Oh yes, that’s what I meant by the double-sided sash! Thank you – a better explanation than I managed! I might interline it, just as I think it might otherwise ‘collapse’ and fold over upon itself.
I like blue and brass in that sailor way – gold braid and brass buttons on navy blue – but I love silver with blue and I generally wear silver more than gold. Anyway – we’ll have to see what trim I find.
And thanks for the hat/hair feedback – I suspect I should be OK, as my ‘hog will probably only be a little larger than Dunst’s hair is in that outfit, if rather a lot wilder!
I’m really looking forward to seeing this when it’s finished!
I suspect that originally, sashes were a single length of material, like a sort of wide ribbon, but I’ve never looked closely enough at an original one to be sure, and a quick google didn’t turn up anything useful. For your purposes, I think a double-sided sash would work better than a single piece with hemmed edges.
Thanks, Alyx – me too, though I am very unsure of how it will turn out … but nevermind, onward!
And thanks for the sash advice – I think you’re right, a single piece wouldn’t work as well.