So Crewel

I’ve been thinking about embroidery quite a bit lately – my Mum’s been talking about it, the pocket books I want to make one day require it, a present I plan to make for a certain someone involves it – so I thought I’d have a look at the different forms to help me decide what exactly I’d like to try out.

Two particular forms instantly stood out for me - goldwork and crewel embroidery, so I thought I’d share some pretties that make me want to get involved!

Crewel work is traditionally made with wool thread, giving it a thicker, three-dimensional effect, which is what really appeals to me about the technique.  It can also be worked with silk or cotton.  Either way, it just seems incredibly tactile.

Oh, and did I mention that it’s ancient – it’s the technique used in the Bayeux Tapestry – and it was quite the thing in certain parts of my favourite century.  Check out this from the Kyoto Costume Institute:

I’ve got costume schwing!  (Sorry have seen Wayne’s World far too many times!)

Oh, and you might think me crewel (ba-boom!) for posting a picture of a lovely petticoat that’s locked away in an institute, but how about this one: it’s circa 1790, it was embroidered by nuns and it’s for sale (ahem, for nearly $7,000, but hey):

Check out the web site for close-up images.  That is an order - the details are amazing.

And this – who wouldn’t love this?!

This website has a great guide to crewel work with plenty of links and ideas and luckily my local library just happens to have this book:

So, at some point fairly soon, I think I might feel the need to get a little embroidery hoop and make some pockets – that way, if my embroidery skills turn out to be all kinds of suck, the results will be hidden yet still useable!

Oh yes, I did mention goldwork, didn’t I?  Well, that’s a tale for a whole other post, my dears …

(I’m at work and it’s my lunch break, but I’m pretty excited as there are two packages for me: one is parsley seeds from my Nene’s plants and the other is fabriiiiiic!  Huzzah!)

*Oh yes, and I do realise that I could have titled this post ‘Sew Crewel’, but I fear that might have been one cheesy pun too far!

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Mrs B’s Needlework

My Mum went for a walk today and happened to pop into a little charity shop. They happened to have a certain needlework book I’ve blogged about before for a couple of pounds. Apparently it’s rather nice with all those pretty diagrams – I’ll have to have a looksee when she comes to visit next weekend.

I love little coincidences.

And happy Mothers’ Day for tomorrow to all you mothers, but especially mine!

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Sewing at Project Gutenberg (ist sehr gut!)

Whilst looking for something else, I stumbled across a real gem originally published in 1870 containing instructions for tatting, embroidery, crochet, knitting, netting, point lace, Berlin work and guipure d’art: the Project Gutenberg eBook version of Beeton’s Book of Needlework.  I’m sure many of you have already seen this and absorbed it and used the techniques, but if anyone who likes historical sewing (or even modern needlework) has missed it, do have a looksee.

It’s a bit special (in the good way) with instructions for making the following pretties:

I love this little bird!

I like this very much – I think it’d look lovely in whitework on a cravat end.  The Boy likes cravats – perhaps he’ll be lucky enough to receive an embroidered one some day … (of course, he’ll therefore be unlucky enough that it will be embroidered by me and will therefore probably look not so great, but oh well!)

If I could get my hands on the right tools for the netting technique in the book, I would definitely give this a go for evening wear – perhaps in a pearly grey.

This flower is quite darling – I’ve always had a soft spot for fine fabrics appliqued onto net.

Back

Front

This is such a sweet key bag – I think it might need adding to my ‘to-make’ list.  It’s got an owl on it, dammit!  Though the instructions are fairly vague for a beginner like me, so it might have to wait a little while (particularly until I can find some nice grey kid to make it from).

A rather charming work bag.  Although I don’t think I’d have the patience (nor the will!) to make such a beautifully embroidered bag, I would be very tempted to make a more simply decorated version of this for transporting work and storing knitting bits and pieces.  Very tempted, indeed.  I’m even picturing how cute belts would look as the fastening straps … Hmm …

And this last one I thought was quite fitting for any seamstress or needlworker – a very pretty pattern to use on a needlebook or work bag:

Do go and have a look at this lovely eBook – guaranteed inspiration!

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Q: What’s it got in its pocketses, precious?

A: Pretty things, of course!

Specifically, I’ve found two lovely things from the 18th Century which a Person of Quality might keep in their pockets…

The first, is bringing me out in ‘I Want’ sweats… When you see it, you’ll understand why…

Isn’t this all kinds of gorgeous???  Yes, it is three questionmarks’ worth of loveliness!  That colour, that embroidery and,   Perhaps my favourite part is the wording on the two sides:

Apparently, it means:

“Everything is pleasurable when you are in love.”

And so when the purse is closed, we’re left with one word visible on each side: Pleasure and Love.

If you’d like to know more, there is information at the website offering it for sale (with a hefty $800 price tag!).

Also, from the same site, I’ve found another piece of embroidered loveliness:

This is a pocketbook, again, further details are here.  This one has strips and chains of silver sewn onto the silk damask.  Such an elegant design, too.

The pocket book and the purse are both couched (like my earlier post about the chenille waistcoat), this time with metal thread.  Definitely one for the wealthy, methinks!

I’m feeling the terrible urge to re-create these – what writer wouldn’t want a gorgeous, hand-embroidered pocketbook?!  And so I have another project to add to my wishlist!

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Marie Antoinette, Queen of the Zombies

While trying to work out how much fabric I needed, I decided to sketch up my costume to show the changes I’m making to the trims of the original pattern.  Mostly I’m just changing attached lace and floral trim for self-trims and making the flounces more accurate – in the pattern they’re the same length all the way around, whereas I’m putting in a little bit of overlap so they’re longer at the bottom and shorter at the top, more 18th Century-esque.

Anyway, here’s my little sketch, v quickly coloured in Photoshop:

The fancy dress shop in town sells really cheap fans, so I’ll get one of those and try glueing fabric to the paper – I know it won’t close very well as it’ll be thicker, but it’s only a quick and cheap job for one night… Having said that, if the dress doesn’t take me too long, I might use it as an excuse to make a nice fan, which is on my To Make List…

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18th Century Clothing Lust – A List

Having a magpie eye makes looking at 18th Century clothes a dangerous task… I’ve fallen in clothing lust many a time and have several projects in my mind that I’d love to make.  Here’s my list of things I’d like to make one day:

1. Chemise a la Reine.  This one shouldn’t be so far off as some of the others – it sounds like they’re quite simple.  I also have this vague idea that they would be wearable in a modern-day situation… I could be wrong, but it’s worth finding out!  Here’s one with a self stripe (I heart self stripe) and an open skirt over a coloured petticoat (which seems to be an unusual way of wearing them, but not unheard of):

2. Blue stripe polonaise.  I’m a sucker for a pretty polonaise, so when I saw Marie Antoinette, I instantly fell in love with this gown:

I could go on about how dreamy this dress is forever… I don’t generally suit pale colours, but duck-egg and light turquoises look rather good on me, if I do say so myself.  I would love to wear this – it’s just so many kinds of gorgeous.

3. Mentioned before – I want to make the Madame de Pompadour roses gown for a masquerade ball, with a matching mask and fan.  Swoon!

4. A zone gown.  I haven’t entirely decided what yet, but I suspect it’ll be something like the Ducreaux self-portrait I’ve posted previously:

That stripe is wonderful.  They really knew how to make a good stripe in the 18th Century!

5. A Mini-tricorne – another a la Marie Antoinette.

Plus, I could even go to Ladies Day at Ascot or something similar to have an excuse to wear it.  Bonus!  I don’t think I’ll go for an exact replica, but something in this style.  Maybe I’ll make it to go with the polonaise – if I can get a plan silk in the same colour when I get the stripe, I could use that for the hat and for trim/a petticoat.  That would be super-pretty!

6. A hooded jacket as seen in Patterns of Fashion V1 (sorry, I don’t have it with me, so can’t tell you which page).  When my housemate saw it, she said how cute it would look in a waterproof fabric, which I can totally see and would wear all the time in my boring old 21st Century life.  Practical as well as pretty!

7. From practical to piratical – a pirate-style justacorps/early 18th Century men’s jacket… made for me!  I prefer the earlier style with more flared skirts… perhaps even 17th Century.  Lots of buttons, big cuffs.  Kinda like this one, but less brocade-y, more frog fastening-y.

8. This blue jacket from the Koyoto Institute:

‘Nuff said.

9. Stays with pretend front lacing, like these:

I might make them so they could be worn as a modern-day top for special occasions.  We shall see!

10. A ruffly, beautifully coloured mantelet like Madame Berg’s.  I love it – it’s so pretty!  And, 21st Century bonus – it could easily be worn with curren formal wear!  Huzzah!

11. A riding habit that could be worn now – have the vague idea of making it so it could be worn straight or polonaised…  I’m possibly thinking of military styling…

12. Big fat gainsborough hat – again, could be worn at the races or somesuch.

13. Another jacket from the Kyoto Institute, this time in red stripe:

Again – I would wear this in my normal day-to-day life… Did I mention I like stripes?

14. The waistcoat fronts I posted the other day:

Hmm… not too much, then… I’d better get started!

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Something for the Gentlemen – Waistcoaty Goodness

When looking through my file of 18th Century clothes, I redisovered these lovely waistcoat fronts – I don’t normally look at men’s clothing that much when I’m researching the 18th Century, but these really stood out to me:

They’re enough to make me want to spend hours and hours embroidering!  Sooo swoon-worthy.  And they’re for sale!  It’s just a shame about the $1,400 price tag (ouch!).

When I first mentioned to The Boy that I was learning to make clothes, he said I could make him some waistcoats for the office (he’d rather wear these than suit jackets).  I don’t think this was what he had in mind, but maybe I can persuade him…

Anyway, if you’re not impressed by the gorgeousness of them from the front, then wait until you see the back, which reveals the extend of work required to couch all these chenille threads:

Such patience!  I’m having such an ‘I want’ moment with these!  Maybe I need to make a men’s outfit…

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The Master Plan (or, how to sew in 7 ‘easy’ steps…)

I’ve finally got round to writing up my Master Plan of how I’m going to learn to sew, and here it is:

1. Take up linen work trousers – practice hemming and hand-sewing (backstitch).
2. Sew silk cuff from Sew It Up book.
3. Make a shift from cotton lawn, using a combination of Marquise.de’s instructions and those on MaraRiley.net.
4. Sew pair of pockets (thanks to the lovely Lithia Black and her dragonflies, I now am thinking about embroidering these – something I wasn’t originally planning to do!  It’s all her fault!).  I might go for white on the outside and something bright (to match the embroidery) on the inside as a little flash of colour at the pocket opening.  I already have the pattern for these in the Butterick Misses’ Historical Underpinnings pack I bought the other day (this pattern is in the clearance sale at the moment on Butterick’s site – make the most of it if you’re in the US!).
5. Make my Halloween costume for this year to help me learn fitting.  I’ve decided to go for an undead/zombie Marie Antoinette as I like her pretty outfits but like to wear scary costumes for Halloween – I get the best of both worlds this way!  I think I’m going to go for the Simplicity 2832 pattern as it’s much simpler than an accurate 18th Century gown, but is still fitted on the bodice and therefore will give me that fitting experience.  Also, for a fun Halloween party, I would feel too over-dressed in a full-length gown and wouldn’t want to shell out all that money for the fabric when there’s a good chance it’ll end up with someone’s drink/fake blood down it!  I’m going to get the pattern and choose my fabrics in the next couple of weeks.
6. Sew a kimono.  This doesn’t quite fit with the other things, but my mother and I bought the pattern and fabric a couple of years ago, but I was scared off by the bizzare, arcane symbols of the pattern, because I didn’t understand them.  With a bit more know-how and my helpful books, I’m hoping I’ll be able to work it out this time – a new dressing gown for me!
7. Finally – the stays!  I’ve got the Butterick half-boned pattern, which I’m going to make up with heavy-duty cable ties, cotton coutil, a soft cotton lining and something pretty on the outside… Maybe some silk dupion like my cuff but in a different colour.  I’d quite like a greyish blue or silvery grey ooor a darker, more graphite grey, but I don’t think they’d have those.  I think they might have had a very 18th C pale blue, though.  Perhaps that with a deep pink cotton bias tape and as-close-to-matching-as-I-can-get ribbon to fasten…  Rather like the colours of the fashion plate I’ve posted previously.

Then I can start thinking about gowns and jackets and petticoats – oh my!  I just need some more excuses to wear them, as I’m developing quite a wish list (more on that another time).

Meanwhile, after being ill yesterday, I was well enough to go to lunch today with some friends, so the cuff had its first outing.  Here’s a pic in natural light (and hopefully a bit less blurred) of me looking with pride upon my creation ;P

I am being a good girl, too – another chapter edited today – just two more for this week, then another 6 next week and Part 1 of A Thief & A Gentlewoman is all edited up!  This is A Good Thing(TM) too, as my hand-in is a fortnight today, then my Masters will be all done… It’s a little sad.

(EDITED – I forgot to cross off the things on The Master Plan that I’d completed.)

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Silk Cuff – Finished!

I have just finished making the cuff!  Huzzah!

Sorry the photos are a bit blurred – I didn’t realise until I put them on my computer.

The buttonholes look pretty neat, considering their my first non-practice ones, though I did have a bit of a nightmare with the dupion fraying almost as soon as I cut it!  (Despite backstitching around the buttonhole.)  I then overcast the fraying edges, and the buttonhole stitch hid all the disaster, with the only sign being that the buttonholes are rather wide.  Luckily, their fine with the actual buttons.

First sewing lesson learned from experience: From now on, I will use machine buttonholes on fabrics that fray easily.

I have to say, I’m pretty proud of myself for doing this all by hand – I’ve been putting off sewing and dressmaking because of a lack of access to a sewing machine, but it was actually quite enjoyable to sew by hand.  (Having said that, I will use a machine in the future as well as sewing by hand – it’s just it wasn’t as bad as I’d expected!)

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Silk Cuff Progress, Fiction & a Visitor

Just a quick post with a pic of my cuff progress:

As you can see, I’ve done allthe Suffolk puffs.  What you can’t see is that I’ve finished the cuff all nice and neatly and have started the two buttonholes.  The black rectangle at the top is a practice buttonhole on a piece of linen from the trousers I took up the other day, as I haven’t made a buttonhole before and had some scraps.  Just need to finish the buttonholes, sew on the buttons and Suffolk puffs – should finish it tomorrow.

In more 18th Century related sewing news – I’ve washed the cotton lawn I got the other day, so will start working on my shift soon (as and when MA editing allows).  I’ve also managed to find a local hardware shop that sells 8 or 9mm wide cable ties (about 50cm long)… stays, here I come!  Or not, as I’ve realised that I don’t yet trust my handsewing enough to hold together the seams of stays and so would want to machine those at least and I don’t have access to a sewing machine at the moment.  Of course, there is also the matter of me not knowing how to fit clothing yet, either… I really need to get round to properly putting together my dressmaking plan!

There is some promising news on the sewing machine front, though – my mum bought a new one several months ago and it turns out that she hasn’t thrown away her old one (which is a heavy metal beast that’s older than I am – I hear this is A Good Thing in sewing machines), though it is acting up.  Fingers crossed, when I can afford to, I’ll get it serviced/repaired and will have a wonderful, working sewing machine!

I have also posted a few short stories – just look at the ‘Fiction’ tab at the top and you’ll find them.  I hope you enjoy!

And now for that fuzzy, feelgood animal story like the ones they have at the end of the news… complete with photo!

As I was getting ready for bed last night, a massive insect flew into my room.  At first I thought it was a butterfly as it was big and fluttery and brightly coloured – we’ve had loads of butterflies this summer, its lovely!  When it finally calmed down and perched on a basket, I saw that it was actually a moth.  I’ve never seen one like this before:

The colour isn’t very clear in this pic – what looks like a buff-beige colour is actually more of a yellow shade, and the second set of wings, which are hidden when folded, are vermillion and black.  There are also small dots of vermillion at the centre of the rosettes.  Also, its wings are massive when spread, which you obviously can’t see here.  I thought it was really pretty and unusual (at least, I’ve never seen one before!) – a leopard-print moth!

Anyway, the little git sent me on a merry dance, with me trying to catch it to put it outside.  Eventually it landed in the bottom of this basket, which was full of toiletries… So I had to empty it all, march the moth downstairs and put him in the back garden.  Safe and sound and free!

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