Coldstream Guards Patterns and Materials

To get us started in the right direction with the construction of the unifrom we purchased 3 patterns. The frist was the button fly breeches from Rocking Hrse Farms

the last two were from Reconstructing History: their 1740s frock coat and

the 1740s-1760s waistcoat

we chose these patterns after Michael spent a lot of time looking at different options for each piece and reading lots of customer reviews and reenactos blogs. We knew going in that there would be a lot of changes to the patterns and made room in the schedule to do full mock ups (which you will see in the next post).

The main fabric is a farily heavy weight Metlton wool in scarlet. The interlinning is a medium weight canvas and the lining is a very light weight navy wool. The cuff facings are going to be in navy wool that matches the linning nearly to perfection and the gold braid on the jacket and waistcoat is a two inch wide gold lace of a generic pattern. the buttons are domed brass in three different sizes for the jacket, waistcoat and pants.

I am making the gators like in the portait and those will be made out of a heavy linen with bone buttons.

1738 Coldstream Guard Project

This last weekend was the official start to Michael's big 18th century project. We are copying a portrait of a British Coldstream Guards officer from 1738.

We actually started this months ago by collecting patterns and deciding on the raw materials and making mock ups of all the pattern pieces, which was a very good idea becasue there was a lot of pattern modification to get the exact look we wanted. But then the project got held up waiting on the most crucial piece, the red wool that the whole uniform was to be made of. But finally it arrived last week so we took advantage of the three day weekend to get as much of the large construction done as possible and now, while still behind schedule, at least the project is back up and running and looking to finish on time. As in ready to wear in three weeks!
I will be breaking this project up in to many posts over the next few weeks as its that big :)

Starting my Fichu

I am using a diagram I found on the web so long ago I can't remember where it came from, but it's so very helpful!: 

I have used it before for measurements and scale it really makes a nice shape and size. 

I am using the same material as the apron so they can be a matched set and am hand sewing the whole thing like the apron. 

I am debating though, whether or not I want to do the ruffled edge. It's a pretty touch and I did cut out the material for it already, just not sure I want to do all the hand work! ;)

18th Century Embroidered Apron

I started and finished the apron all in one afternoon :) not a hard task as its just a large rectangle with finished edges and a casing at the top, now that being said, I am very proud of myself for hand sewing all that!

I ran a ribbon through the top casing to tie the apron on. Here it is over the curtain dress.

Then came the embroidery. I am using patterns from an old book of my grandmothers. I chose a design series that looked the most 18th century to me as the book the designs came from is not a historical one.

The embroidery will be in each of the two lower corners, center bottom and then the large design from above is in the lower middle center. The whole thing will be done in white as that is what I have seen the most of in originals.

I started on one of the corners, it goes relatively quickly as the stitch is simple and there are no color changes but I don't think it will be done before the challenge ends or even for when I was planning to wear it in three weeks. But it will give me a great period project to work on during the event :)

An Update

. . . As you can see I am having a hard time keeping up with the blogging the last few weeks. And that is also translating into my sewing, I haven't done any major sewing since I finished the curtain dress! This is mainly due to three factors: the first being I am taking a class in the evenings for work that is totally eating into my sewing time, two we have been out of town the last few weekends and three I really didn't like/ wasn't inspired by the last Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge. So needless to say I am not doing anything for it, and while I'm fine with that decision it does make me a little sad because this will be the first challenge I will not complete since the whole thing started in January :( okay so sad too bad and now moving on . . .

There are big projects coming up soon, for future events, that are about to get underway. such as a new 18th century outfit for Michael and one for me, some Elizabethan and an outfit or three for costume college. more specific details in the coming days, and I am starting work on the next challenge.Which I will be making an apron and fichu to wear with the curtain dress, like on the original below.

Vintage Weekend on Catalina Island

And the Avalon Ball hosted by the Art Deco Society of LA.
http://adsla.org/info/content/avalon-ball-goes-full-weekend

The weekend started Friday with the boat ride over. I wore my new pants!

Then it was all dressed up and out for drinks in historic places at the Avalon Grill

Then Saturday day was the silent film festival in the historic theater at the bottom of the casino building complete with an original pipe organ to accompany the silent films and beautiful art deco murals. Sadly I didn't get any photos of this :(

Saturday night was the ball at the top of the casino building, a beautiful evening of live music, dancing and friends!

And finally on Sunday we had brunch at the Descanso beach club. They served a lovely mothers day brunch and we all wore our favorite vintage beach wear.

I wore a linen play suit with matching princess seamed over dress. 

Sorry they're aren't better photos, or more of them, I am really bad about remembering to take photos!

Vintage Hair

Last weekend I got a lot of compliments  on my hair which was very nice but something I can't take full credit for. 

First off my friend did my hair for the ball on Saturday evening and she is amazing!

And second, everything I do, I learned from online tutorials and watching friends. Last weekends hair was made up almost entirely of one tutorial : 
http://eileensbasement.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/the-much-anticipated-long-awaited-hair-roll-tutorial/

It's really my favorite and I use it all the time now! I just do different styling to the front for variety. 

Also here's a link to an older post that list other favorite link: 
http://cursewordsandcrinolines.blogspot.com/2013/02/vintage-hair-links.html

A sneak peek

At my weekend, which was spent on Catalina Island for an Art Deco event, more pics and details in the upcoming days :)

And an apology for lack of posting last week, sadly work is so busy right now it is interfering with my sewing habit . . . Weekends out of town don't help much either, though they are way more fun ;)

Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #9

The Challenge - "Textiles and the natural world are inextricably linked.  Until very recently, all textiles were made from flora (linen, raime, hemp) or fauna (wool, silk, fur), and dyed with flora and fauna.  Flora and fauna also influenced the decoration of textiles, from Elizabethan floral embroidery, to Regency beetle-wing dresses, to Edwardian bird-trimmed hats.  Celebrate the natural world (hopefully without killing any birds) with a flora and/or fauna inspired garment."

I combined this challenge with the Curtain Alonghttp://cursewordsandcrinolines.blogspot.com/2013/04/moving-on-to-next-project.html
and made one dress for both! 

Fabric - two panels of the cream background Waverly Indienne curtains. Which sport a lovely floral pattern just perfect for the challenge.

Pattern - JP Ryan's Caraco jacket pattern (after much deliberation and the a great deal of searching)

Year - post 1750s pre 1780s somewhere in there. I wasn't aiming for an exact year.

Notions - 3 covered button molds, some ribbon and plastic zip ties for bones. 

How historically accurate - I'm going to give this a 5 out of 10. The fabric is a cotton and the print is very close to an original and the pattern is based on originals but all the inner seams were done on the machine with only the visible finishing stitches done by hand. And all the notions are modern and not historically accurate.

Hours to complete - I'm going to give this one about 16 from start to finish. The pattern is really simple and went together really smoothly, which surprised me as I expected to fight it a little but I never really did! 

First worn - not yet. Here Dolores is wearing it with the quilted petticoat and my largest bum pad. Also my fishu to cover the shoulders (which i always have to do to hide the tattoo) and to show off the lite ruched band. I am going to make a much larger bum pad and then a quilted petticoat to fit it out of this same material at some point in the future, hopefully before it gets worn :)

Total coat - the curtains were like 10 each and everything else came out of the stash.

Curtain Along Pattern

Found it! . . . :) i knew i had it stashed in the sewing room somewhere, just a matter of a little digging around. And i think its going to just perfect.

Its the JP Ryan pattern, i bought it when i bought my Robe Anglaise pattern last year for this dress:

http://cursewordsandcrinolines.blogspot.com/2012/06/nor-cal-pirate-fair.html?m=1

I've got my curtains all washed and ironed out and now for the cutting out, my least favorite part :( 

Caitlin Amiton

Curtain Along Plans - Revised

Ok putting on the brakes here! I got really excited about the early 18th century Robe Battante which would be perfect to wear with Michael and his new uniform from that time period but then the more i dug into it the more i felt myself moving away from the Curtain Along and setting myself up for more work then i could reasonably finish for the next HSF challnege.

Sooooo . . . that being said i am going to go back to my original idea of making a Caraco jacket out of my curtains to meet both challenges and then AFTER i am done with that i will start to work on making the Robe Battante, as that doesnt need to be worn unitl the middle of June.

So the Caraco jacket will be modeled after this original:

What i really like about it is the length of the skirt and the long lace undersleeves that and the way the fishu tucks into the front give the whole outfit a look i like. Actually i think already have a pattern that will do exactly this look . . . only now where did i put it ;)