Friday, September 14, 2012

I Need to Meditate, or, The Post in Which I Reveal My Lack Of Center

Another little costuming bonbon with which to avoid the Petticoat of Doom: A dainty little purse!

Whilst neatening up the workshop I came across a purse frame I'd bought some time ago in a burst of enthusiasm after reading a tutorial on vintage style purse construction at the Madam's Mercantile page at BustleDress.com.

I rooted around the scraps box and found a piece of buff colored linen from a lady's motoring duster I made for last year's Rural Heritage Day. I backed it with a piece of woven cotton fusible interfacing for body and cut according to the pattern I'd made following the tutorial. It's lined with the green silk from the latest parasol scraps.


For decoration I decided to embroider. I stink at embroidery. I can execute with variable skill exactly two stitches: Stem, and Lazy Daisy. I recall what I really should be doing, (doom...DOOM!) and press on.


I have legit embroidery floss, but I use that for tailor's tacks in pattern marking. For this project at which I'm doomed (DOOM!) to stunning mediocrity, I used nigh-unmanageable threads frayed from suitably autumnal-colored silk scraps. Pro-tip TalentlessHack-tip: Spit helps tame the threads when they get fuzzy. 

The purse frame I used had the distinction of having been painted with a sort of gold-ish automotive touch-up urethane at one time, but only on one side. I guess I just couldn't spare two more minutes for  the other side and now the gold paint is dried in the little jar. :-/ There are only so many solvent vapors one can inhale before one's fingertips begin to tingle, so to disguise the less than complete removal of the gold I scrubbed in a bit of jewelry making gilders paste. 




I use a toothbrush to scrub it in the crevices.





My purse is quite small, so I added a bottom panel. I like the plumpness. 




So yeah, lack of center:


Perhaps I don't need meditation, just a little measuring. 

Madam's tutorial is fantastic. Without the blight embroidery, this little bag would take maybe three hours to make. Next time I'll use some red velvet that I have in the scraps box. 

Monday, September 10, 2012

The Hat Method of Petticoat Avoidance

The Corded Petticoat of Doom is still out there... Must. Avoid.

Do you know what's just as fun as a parasol? A hat! A cute little pork pie hat.  I designed one last year for my younger daughter, to go with her 1871 girl's dress. 



It turned out so well I immediately drew out the pattern so I wouldn't forget.


Yes, five and thirteen sixteenth inches is strange. I didn't measure when I was using paper to develop the buckram form, I just cut the shape.


Half of the crown side. Two and a half inch segments, five degrees off at each segment to make the curve.

I use buckram I get at Hancock's. Most hat-making references tell you to double up for more stiffness, but I used single layers for this small hat. Wired and whipstitched together:


I use a machine zigzag stitch to wire the buckram and a strong thread to hand whipstitch. You can see the straw I'll use to cover it. I like to use bought hats that I can tear apart. Having the crown tip already shaped in the spiral is so convenient. The hat before I pulled it apart:



I got this one years ago from Hats by Leko, it's the fourth hat on that page. It's alternating straw and grosgrain ribbon. I pulled the stitching so I'd keep a straw and ribbon together. When I got a small enough circle of the crown tip, I started stitching that to the buckram frame.


I used the string I pulled out of the hat to sew it back together. It took some untangling and pressing to straighten out but it's a perfect color match. Hand stitching though heavy stuff like this is pretty tedious but the stitches don't need to be really close. It goes fast. 


I pin it to the frame and hand stitch in rounds.  When I get to the brim it gets trickier. It's a matter of changing the tension of the braid as you sew to get the brim to turn up; loose as I come off the bottom of the brim and tighter as the brim gets wider. 

I rooted through my millinery supplies box for stuff to decorate with and found a feather I'd dyed for a winter fur bonnet that didn't color up enough. Lesson: Keep the mistakes, they may come in handy! I found a piece of red silk in the scraps box to ruche up for a hat band. Also some silk verbascums that I always have on hand. They're my favorite hat flower. One more great thing about tearing apart hats is that you can use the straw braid, or in this case the ribbon as decorative items. 




Here's another hat I made from a similar Leko hat using that concept:




For the lining I used scraps from the green silk parasol. I cut the crown tip and sides from the buckram pattern, adding a three quarter inch seam allowance. I sewed only a quarter inch allowance, leaving the rest for ease in the lining. You may wonder what that white stuff is...




That is a pre-made tailoring sleeve head. It's like quilt batting. I got a sack of them from the tailoring supply house. I tucked it up under the fold before I pinned in the lining to soften the hat where it sits on the head. I pull it over the edge just a little bit as I sew the lining in.


 This style of hat in the 1870s fashion plates is worn very forward on the head and the padding keeps the hat from digging into the forehead and leaving a big red dent. :-O





The finished hat:


The Welcome Distraction Parasol

Even if I didn't need distraction from the corded petticoat of doom, I just love parasols. This new one is made of green silk taffeta gotten majorly on sale at Hancock's. Five bucks a yard! Woot! Like most of my fabric, I bought it because I love it. Didn't really have a purpose for it at the time. Have just now realized it's a spot on match for this fabric combo I got a few years ago:


I definitely feel a dress coming on...

Anyway, on the last parasol post I mentioned that I would try seaming the panels with a serger rolled edge. Not sure that was a great idea. It works as a seam, but without having an absolute thread match I think the seam is so much more visible than a fold-and-stitch seam. You might need to click on the pictures for the larger view to get a better idea of the not quite matching color . 




The original parasol was ivory colored so I painted the handle and ribs brown. The rib tip guards I replaced with my favorite button. I use these little guys in so many ways. The button is plastic, so I can cut them, drill into them, modify them however I need to.  For this application, I cut off the shanks with scissors and drilled a tiny hole just a bit bigger than the rib end. 


You can better see what I mean about the serger thread color here as well.

Then I used the same small drill bit to make a hole across the width of the button so I could sew it to the parasol cover. 



Once the button tips are all sewn onto the cover, the tips slide onto the ribs.



I used a different button to decorate the handle bottom this time. 



The finished parasol has a knife pleated ruffle and bias band trim. 



Ah. I feel better now. :o)

My First (possibly last) Corded Petticoat

Rural Heritage Day 2012 is just around the corner! The dress demonstration for this year has our tourism director Stephanie changing from an 1845 dress to an 1865 dress. The hoop and petticoat for the '65 dress is done, now onto the petticoats for the '45 dress.

The first skirt layer for a pre-hoop era dress is a corded petticoat. Once starched, the cords are quite stiff. In addition to supporting the next layers of ruffled petticoats, the corded petti keeps all the layers of fabric from wrapping around the legs.

The concept is quite simple, two layers of fabric with cords in between. The fabric I'm using is some lightweight muslin.  I used a 90 inch length of 45 inch wide muslin, folded. That allows for about 21 inches of corded length. The corded piece will be sewn to a yoke that has a drawstring or waistband.

The cording is Sugar and Cream cotton yarn.



I was worried about the cotton yarn shrinking in the petticoat, so I boiled the whole skein of yarn for a few minutes. To dry it, I unwound a few yards at a time and put the skein and the unwound yarn on the drying rack that inserts into my dryer. When the unwound yarn was dry I balled that up and unwound more. Repeat for the whole skein.

Many costumers around the 'nets make their corded pettis by sandwiching the cords between the layers and using a zipper foot to sew the cords into channels as they go. I tried it this way two times and got frustrated both times. I hate being frustrated, it makes me crave expensive cheese. Knowing how much time was going into this, I devised a new strategy to limit frustration: Sew channels first, and fill them afterwards.



At first I was using a blunt tapestry needle to draw the cords through, but researching the interwebs I found a quilter's page where she was using a long trapunto needle to fill her quilt. I set out in search of one of these long blunt needles and struck out. I did find find doll needles though, long, strong and sharp. The sharp was easy to deal with. A few seconds on the grinding stone and a buff with superfine sandpaper and I had a four inch blunt needle. Huzzah!



Ninety inches of straight stitching row after row is mind numbing. I switch between stitching and filling to keep from going nutz.


You can see the cord tails all over the place. Intrepid costumers who have gone before me advise to be sure the cords don't all end in the same place or the petticoat will buckle right there. 

This project is INCREDIBLY time consuming. I keep my iPhone nearby for photographing the progress and for entertainment. (All praise to the iPhone Netflix app.) I've prepared a graphic to illustrate what I mean by time consuming:



The top row of unfilled stitching is just about the halfway mark. My sanity is hanging by a thread. (nyuk!) I have to do something else for a while. This means of course....Parasol!!