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costumes: gothic fantasy LotR characters 16th century 18th century 19th century 20th century science fiction |
Is it an 18th-century outfit or an alcoholic drink? We shall see!
November 3, 2005
I'm debating these ideas. Links are included for reference, though I'll modify the designs to suit my taste (especially in sleeves; I love foofy ruffles). I also want to keep this to a less expensive costume, though I only have two semi-suitable yardages in The Stash. And, as always, historical accuracy is sacrificed on the altar of making me look cute while not taking forever-and-a-day to make.
Some possibilities, in a not-very-particular order...
A. Riding jacket to go with this skirt -- I have small amounts of the purple left, but would need a solid purple or black material (wool? twill?) and do some creative piecing/contrasty bits. Could sew this one myself as it's not a major time outlay. Although I have no idea what pattern to use. The outfit would be dark, but it's outdoorsy/sporting clothes, so appropriate for the event.
B. Laced-front jacket or similar jacket and skirt, probably from the JP Ryan patterns -- Make the jacket out of black brocade I already have a bolt of, get some white eyelet for the skirt and sleeve ruffles and a fichu. This ensemble would only be half-black, thus more suitable for the event. I'm torn about wearing all-black to outdoor daytime things, both for practicality (it's hot) and appropriateness.
C. Caraco jacket and skirt -- Again, make the jacket out of black brocade I have, get white eyelet for skirt and sleeve ruffles and a fichu. This is a little more black, but still keeping everything light and frothy.
D. Robe a l'anglaise, perhaps using the JP Ryan pattern, view A -- No idea what fabric, don't want to use the black brocade because then it would be all too black. Maybe find some foofy floral print cotton, something pretty and summery.
E. Polonaise gown, probably Period Impressions' 1770 one that half the GBACG has made -- This would also need new fabric, floral cotton or a toile (yes, I know that's only for furniture in this period, but I don't care, nyah!).
F. Sleepy Hollow stripey gown in black and red stripes -- Ok, not very summery or outdoorsy at all! This costume should go to a goth club or a ball or at least a con, but... it'd be so very cool! I'd even want to make this one myself because it'd be fun. Also, I have buttloads of the fabric just sitting there staring at me.
November 4, 2005
However, I'm reallyreallyreally drawn to the caraco, so that's probably the style I'll go with. This historic garment (found on Demode) was the clincher. That's so what I want to wear! The trick will be finding a black cotton print and a coordinating white cotton print. Not essential to replicate that gown, but I love how the two prints look so light and frothy, even if the jacket is a dark color. And in cottons, it all should be quite comfortable and appropriate for June in Sonoma. If I'm lucky, I'll find some cheap quiltery stuff at Joann (as that's all the store is really good for these days, that and pattern sales). I don't recall Fabrics R Us being big on cottons, but that and the nearby SJ Flea Market could be worth a trip in January.
I'm thinking of using Butterick 3640 instead of ordering a bunch of expensive patterns (I already have this one). You proper historical costumers will probably laugh at me, but I think this one's not bad. The lines look pretty accurate, no stupid darts or anything glaringly modern. I'll wear it over a corset -- the pattern actually calls for boning along all the seams, not sure if I'll do both. Not sure if I want to make it into a one-piece stomacher that fastens up one side or leave as-is with a center-front closure. I looked at a zillion historic images last night and both styles of closure seem common.
Right before I left for Europe, I had finally settled on a caraco jacket made out of this black linen embroidered with blue vines -- the seller offered 4 yards literally minutes before the shuttle picked us up for the airport! But I bought it via PayPal in Berlin -- ah, the wonders of modern technology ;-). The skirt would be either black or more likely I'd pick up the blue/green color in the embroidery. Thomas already has a blue 18th-century waistcoat and a black foofy shirt, so those plus black pants, and he's dashing enough for me. Also, we coordinate, yay. However, in Vienna, I got An Idea. Cosi Fan Tutte -- an 18th century gown made of fabric printed with musical notes...
August 26, 2006 But in the Garment District after Costume College, I picked up a few yards of a brilliant blue-green silk taffeta that coordinates beautifully with the black embroidered linen. So I *will* make a caraco jacket out of that and a petticoat out of the silk! Don't know when, but it's so pretty, it surely will happen someday.
August 15, 2007 Specifically, it's the blue caraco. And I'm wanting to make it a zone bodice now. Would a caraco jacket be zone-fronted? I couldn't find any examples in Kendra's real women's clothing links (actually, not many zone's there at all). Here's a zone-ish painting, but it's a full gown, not a jacket. Fragonard's Stolen Kiss is likewise a zone-front gown. Here's a cute stripey zone gown (oooo, wouldn't my red and black wide-stripe fabric look great in something like that?). And of course there's Kendra's own zone-front anglaise gown. But no jackets. Although if this is a redingote, would that be more jacket-like? And it looks kind of zone-y in the front ... And on the left in this fashion plate is a jacket, though her arm is in the way so we can't see the front at all, but is that extra white bit more ruffle or a hint of zone bodice or fichu tucked thru the wide zone opening? I can dream, right? And why would I care if I don't have an exact period source for a gown? That's never stopped me before. Ah hah! Here's a zone-front jacket fashion plate, noted as "Bourgeoise, 1786" on the Costumer's Manifesto site. Anyway, I know how I'll make it -- I have the perfectly fitted Cosi Fan Tutti bodice, so I'll add the zone flappy bits to the side fronts to extend over the stomacher. Then I'll just split the stomacher in half, attach it at the sides, and add a center closure. The original pattern closed at center front, and I changed it to a stomacher, so this is just reverse engineering. I'd like to find a pale blue taffeta or satin for the zone, since the caraco is embroidered black and the skirt is a rich blue. Something light for contrast. And also make one of those big floppy muffin caps with a straw or covered brim out of the same fabric -- pale hats look good on my dark hair. For the caraco skirt, I thought I'd enlarge the pattern from Janet Arnold and try to super-impose that onto the bodice to get an idea for the skirts instead of totally free-handing it. After all, I have the projector and laptop working now, so I should be able to enlarge it pretty easily. Just didn't want to fuss with the Arnold bodice pattern when I have one I *know* fits. Let's not waste that whole summer of muslins.
August 23, 2007
September 15, 2007 Seriously, why do you costumer folk love her? Nice books, but she made diagrams of clothing worn by mutant pygmies. Im-freakin'-possible to scale up from for real people, unless you enjoy frustration or are some kind of architectural genius. I was seduced into thinking I might use those books for genuine costuming applications (as opposed to "ooo shiny!") because I had such good results scaling up from Hunniset and the Tudor Tailor books. But those patterns are actually made for human beings, and, well, they're real *patterns* not drawings of freaky antique clothing items that survived because they were too small to be worn out by people or they were bizarre examples that nobody wanted to scavenge into usable clothing for normal-sized people. Oh, so can you guess how I ended up spending my last couple hours? Yeah. The sewing room garbage can overfloweth with muslin and tracing paper now because I tried to use the scale pattern from Janet Arnold for a caraco. Four pieces for a bodice? Who are you kidding? Even my flatter-shaped 16th-century bodice has five pieces. The Arnold caraco back pieces were way too skinny no matter how much I enlarged. Also, the skirting was extremely wasteful of fabric, which struck me as very odd in an era of narrow fabric widths and overall thrift and clever yardage use (according to Sally Queen, anyways). Jackets were supposedly popular with the middle-classes, so why waste all this width? Anyway, after much annoyance and one wadding of the muslin in a ball and shoving it in the trash can, I finally decided to do what I'd said I might do in the first place: simply draw long, full caraco-style skirts onto the Butterick bodice pattern I used for Cosi Fan Tutte. The bodice fits like a dream (it'd better, after three muslins last year!) and has quite a few nods to historical accuracy so it does "pass" IMO. Dug the muslin out so as to not waste *that* fabric, reused most of the pieces into the Butterick bodice, and *ta da* now I have a great caraco muslin. Just need to even the skirting hem, since I couldn't decide where I wanted it to end. Plus I have to decide the front treatment -- it'll be zone-like, and I may want some little tabs on the bottom. Not sure. Moral of the story: Patterns are my friend. Screw that drafting BS. Not like I'm a Clydesdale, y'know.
Well, no in-progress updates or anything! Months later, I picked up the project again about two weeks before the Lumieres Summer Pique-nique. I wanted something new to wear, as I'd worn the same pink francaise to two other picnics at the same location already. Also, I got the idea of buying a big red wig to go with the outfit :-) I was kind of annoyed by the construction process -- partly because I was rushing so much, partly because I was doing the second round of fitting all by myself (would have helped to have another hand), and partly because I wasn't impressed by the color combo anymore. Oh and I realized I'd never bought matching thread, and these are colors that I never have around. Yeah, great. There's some wonkiness with the zone bodice front that still irks me, but once I got it all on -- first time was right before the event -- I was rather charmed. So it's ok. I'm cool with it now.
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