IT'S A SURPRISE! It's a wrapper!

I’ve been keeping a surprise for a couple months, and it was fun when I got to finally reveal it. This project was something out of my comfort zone type of thing. I rarely sew for anyone else, not just because of the difficulties of not having the body here to fit constantly, but I’m a slow sewer and often get confused by new pattern instructions where I have to walk away. So I don’t like to be on a scheduled due date either.

There comes a time when you really want to step up and help someone out in their costuming dilemmas. I had a friend, due to very happy circumstances, wasn’t going to be able to fit into her dresses for the upcoming Costume College convention, nor did she feel well enough to sew anything. After being part of a conversation of what an expecting lady could wear, everyone suggested a wrapper. It could be worn before, during and after her confinement.  I contacted Shelley of Kansas Mercantile (on Facebook - Kansas Mercantile ) to see if she had any for sale but she had none, and anyhow they were very pricey for just doing a favor for a friend. So I took a deep breath and decided how hard could a loose fitting robe be? And a cotton one to boot. 

Pattern choices were these and I had them all in my stash: Laughing Moon #118; Peachtree Mercantile #206; and Kay Fig #611.

Shelley had recently tried making the Laughing Moon one and she said it was almost like making a dress. So that wasn’t going to be the easy one I was looking for. I was told by another friend who had made the Peachtree Mercantile that it was really blousy in front, and hard to fit. Since the body I was "fitting" was a couple states away, that seemed hard to do. Two of my friends had made the Kay Fig a couple years ago, and I’d taken a photo of them wearing it. I wasn’t able to get hold of them in time for any feedback or help in construction tips, but they looked nice.

The Kay Fig seemed the route to go since the bodice is loosely fitted over an underbodice. That leaves me room for mistakes. I liked that these can be worn buttoned up on the skirt or left open with a pretty petticoat showing. And it has lots of possibilities for trimming, or using contrasting fabrics.

 Part of the fun of this was shopping for a suitable fabric. I thought I could use something in my stash but the one fabric I had with enough yardage wasn’t a great color for her. So it was off to the fabric store for a suitable color. And I lucked out finding some on sale too.

After furtively getting my intended victim’s measurements, I took my pattern and fabric with me to Williamsburg, VA, when I went back there for a conference. I figured during any down time, or evenings, I would cut out the pattern and fabric and be one step ahead when I got home, since I would only have one month to make it, my own bustle dress, and a Regency morning robe. Except the best laid plans didn’t work with our schedule there, although the pattern did get cut out. But I tried reading the instructions. It wasn’t the normal type sewing instructions: step 1. 2. 3., etc. You would start one part, then stop, go do another part, but wait, don’t do that until you do this. Okay, so I had a lot on my mind with the upcoming presentation I was doing at ALHFAM. I set it aside to go back to it when I got home.

While I was reading it, I came across this photo in the pattern book of my friend, Penny, who had modeled one of the wrappers for the pattern. She had a few years ago claimed she was my personal stalker. I can confess that I’m a stalker of other costumers too, so I consider this a compliment. I texted her and we got to talk wrappers for a bit. She sent me another color photo later when I got home. She hadn't made it, just modeled so she couldn't help me with it.

As soon as I got home, besides cutting out my white Swiss dot fabric for my Regency robe, I cut out her fabric. And the mad sewing was on!

So the underbodice went together ok. I did some piping around the neckline.

I sewed up the skirt portion that is only sewn to the back of the bodice, added piping to the bottom of the bodice, and attached the skirt to it.

Here comes the hard part. I’ve never seen one of these. If I had one in front of me I might have been able to figure out the rest. The over bodice is attached to the shoulders, is pleated across them and somehow kind of closes on the sides and in the front. I had to rip out the shoulder seams to pleat and fit that into the shoulder seam. Then I found out the length of the front section starts at the neckline, not the waistline as I thought a skirt should have been. Seems logical, right? My friend is 6-4, and luckily I had enough fabric I was able to sew a piece to the bottom of the front skirt for the extra length.

I have a pattern review group on Facebook and one day I saw my friend had posted a question about this particular pattern. First I thought, uh oh, she’s going to make it. Then I thought oh good, she might be able to get some help that would help me. But she didn’t ask the right questions for me. So I slyly commented that I was looking at the directions too, warned her about the length, and mentioned a couple things that I didn’t understand and hoped someone might answer them. No luck.

I kept playing with the pleated section of the bodice, but couldn’t figure out how to close up that section of the back skirt that partially comes forward to meet the front overlay.

 I did some chatting back and forth with the pattern designer but again, I’m not good at understanding text descriptions. She mentioned it opens like a French door and to turn it back to sew it. As I am known for fudging it, I turned that outside edge under and topstitched it on top of the portion of the back skirt. It was closed. Done.

I sewed the button holes in but decided to leave off doing buttons since I didn’t know how far over she would have to close it, and crossing my fingers that it would fit, and left the hem for her to do also. All this took me about 1 and 1/2 weeks. 

Two weeks before Costume College, knowing she would need time to hem it and do the buttons, I sent her a text that I had a surprise for her. I mailed it off and in a couple days she sent me a photo of her wearing it. It fit! And the length was perfect! Hot damn!

I was so excited to get to see it on her at Costume College, and I don’t know who had a bigger grin, her or me.

She looked beautiful in it. After seeing some photos of other wrappers with wild contrasting trims, I think this could be a lot of fun to work with, and I probably need to try making another one for me, AFTER I find out how it really is supposed to be sewn. But as long as you don’t look too closely inside, I think it came out pretty good. Yep, I’m still grinning. 

                                                             ~~Val~~

Breakfast with the Bennett’s- My Morning Robe

I think I broke my own personal record of making something in only three days. But at least it was something easy that didn’t require fitting like most of my dresses do. This would be my Regency morning robe I made to wear for the Breakfast with the Bennett’s at Costume College last weekend. I already had the fabric cut out a couple weeks prior to making it but I did have to cut out a lining fabric, and some strips to make my ruffles. I actually made it in TWO DAYS! Any of you who know my sewing speed know I am really slow, maybe only a couple hours at a time. But in a class at CoCo I discovered that’s a good thing! Charles Frederick Worth recommended sewing like a tortoise, not like a hare. So I’m claiming that as my standard now. Slight confession: I still had a bit of sewing on the morning I was leaving for CoCo, so my time spent was 2 days-3 hours, not counting cutting fabric. Still a record for me. And of course it’s not completely done. I want more ruffles on it, and lace.

The pattern, which I shared before, was this Butterick 5544, basically a bathrobe but under their Making History line. So it kinda sorta looked kinda Regency. 

With a few tweaks, I made View C more Regency-like. It had the cross-over bodice, and the side closure down the front, which matched my inspiration photos.

I just came across this one and decided to add it after this blog was posted. It's from the book, "Nineteenth Century Fashion in Detail, dated 1812-14 made of ikat muslin. 

This photo of a modern reproduction told me what fabric to use, a white cotton Swiss dot voile I had in my stash. Because of the sheerness of my fabric, I flat lined the bodice, sleeves, and skirt. Because I was in a hurry, and had some extra Swiss dot fabric, I used that for my bodice flat lining, mostly because I didn’t have time at that moment to cut out the skirt lining and needed to get the bodice done quickly.

I raised the waistline on the bodice by cutting about 2 inches off the bottom of it. When I tried it on me, I had to cross the bodice over a bit more in front but it still fit fine. It’s quite blousy in the front but you can pull in the gathers more to take that in.

The back bodice needed the most tweaking but again, it was minor and a piece of cake. It was a trick I learned from Heather McNaughton of Truly Victorian patterns. I didn’t know the bodice of my Victorian dress was supposed to have two bust darts, so after it was all done and she saw only the one on each side, she told me to take two tiny tucks in to fake it. To make the curved back seams that Regency dresses have, I drew a curved line on my modified pattern for the back.

 Then I transferred them by drawing them lightly in pencil on the inside of my bodice.  Then I took a 1/4 inch seam along the lines. The back is loose already so there’s lots of fabric to play with. And voila!  Perfect for a bathrobe.

I flat lined the skirt fabric with a solid lightweight cotton and sewed it to the bodice.

I still didn’t like how loose it was in the back so after I sewed the bodice and skirt together I made a drawstring casing using their seam allowances, and ran a ribbon through it. I sewed off the beginning of the ribbon going into the casing, and a piece of ribbon on the opposite side seam to tie to the end coming out of the casing.  I was able to draw it in tighter and tied it inside the dress so it wasn’t loose looking anymore. You also, after crossing over the front, tie the front to a ribbon sewn onto the opposite side. That’s your final closure. No buttons, buttonholes, or hooks & eyes to sew. Just what a mad sewing plan needs!
**Edited to add--someone mentioned the sizing on this. On the XL the measurement around the raised waist (2" cut off the bottom of the bodice) is 57", so that gives you a lot of room to move, and pull it in with a ribbon) 

Once those two parts were sewn together, I finished cutting out strips of my Swiss dot to make ruffles with. The pattern suggested using bias strips but I was running out of fabric so I just cut strips on the grain. The ruffles going around the neck and down the front of the bodice are made using 4 1/2 inch wide strips folded in half. This saved time not having to do a tiny hem on one edge. I cut more strips of the fabric to make facings to finish around the neck and front closure. I used some more of the ruffles on my cuffs and shoulder caps. I attached the shoulder ones directly to the armseye, then sewed the sleeves in. The cuff ones need to be re-done. I tried just gathering the sleeves to the ruffle but the ruffles kept getting larger, and in the end, which at this point was one hour before I was going to hit the road, I just did a quick attachment of narrow ribbons on the outside to tie them tighter around my wrist.

I used a white cotton day cap to cover my head, and basted a silky pink ribbon to the top. To finish that look, I clipped curls around my forehead to hang out the cap, and at the suggestion of a friend, tied paper strips around the curls to look like Mrs. Bennett had forgotten to take them out. Using my costumer’s ingenuity in the hotel room, I used bits of toilet paper, which held very well to my hair.

I only wore my Regency bodiced petticoat under this and I felt quite presentable going down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. 

As with many last minute costumes, this one isn’t complete. It needs ruffles down the front of the skirt; a second one on the sleeve cap; lace along the front crossover like in my inspiration photo; and then re-do those sleeve cuffs. It also makes a fabulous normal wear bathrobe, although not your standard one to be worn with fuzzy bunny slippers. But why not?

                                         ~~~Val~~~ 

DOWNTON ABBEY: A Dress & a Tea

A couple months ago I began planning a Tea at Downton Abbey event for my costume guild. Like many others, I’m a big fan of the Masterpiece series, especially of the clothes in the first couple seasons. Once it passed 1918, I just oohed and ahhed but not enough to want to make them. I liked the earlier 1912-1915 styles mostly, and especially the day dresses. I don’t have much opportunities to need the evening clothes, as delicious as they are.

I wished we had more and longer times of cool/colder weather so I could make those scrumptious suits. I still have dreams of these, like Sybil’s blue suit. I do have an awesome Folkwear pattern that is going to get some serious looking at soon.

For the last couple years I kept saying I’m going to make a Downton Abbey wardrobe and just wear all those to Costume College, which btw, is in 11 ELEVEN ELEVEN!! Days. Eek!

When I started planning something to wear to the Balboa Park celebration of the 1915 Panama-Californa Centennial, this got me the push I needed. At the same time a new Butterick pattern #6093 was put out and had the perfect 1914 lines I wanted, minus the big ole collar.

I did a test run on it for my pattern review group and it had some issues with the front skirt. I wrote about that in my post last September. I still can’t believe I started it that long ago. I made something else for the Centennial but finally got back to this and finished it last week. http://timetravelingincostume.blogspot.com/2014/09/1914-purple-plaid.html  

When I first made it the overskirt, which is all sewn as one piece with the front of the skirt, it only came to my center front and not to the side as shown in the photo. And the little pleats at the top side of it just pooched out. Not flattering. And no, I didn’t make a muslin. This was a very fast test run of it. I’d used the size 20 pattern but it didn’t seem to account for that part. And the bodice was made for a bigger bust size than me. I guess I’m spoiled by other patterns that have you fit the individual pieces to your size but I’ll try next time to mix and match the pattern pieces. When I tried it on, the crossover part of the bodice was very open in the middle, which accounted for the insert they had you make. But the shoulders were hanging off the sides. I’m short from the neck to my shoulders and I’m narrow across the front. To correct this, I pulled the crossover closed over more and higher. This deleted the need for the insert. I’d love to try this again and use a pretty insert of lace next time. And maybe restyle it into a 1912 dress like these.

 To correct the skirt, I had to rip out the stitching on one side seam that held both the skirt and overskirt, add a 3” wide strip down the side, and re-stitch it back together. That got the overskirt into the correct location on the side and the pleats now laid down flat. The belt was made using two layers of a stiff interfacing covered by my fabric, and also a fabric bow sewn on the end. It was really cute!

My collar and cuffs were made from a white cotton pique, and I found the wide collar seemed a bit large on me, but that’s my modern sensibilities, since this was the style then. And I was told it looked nice. I used large purple buttons down the front and sides. They were just decorative since I used snaps underneath them on the bodice. The bodice has a side closure that goes partly down into the skirt, which I also used snaps on. *It just occurred to me now that I forgot that was there because I was trying to shimmy my way in and out of the dress yesterday and had to struggle. Duh. Obviously I’m not used to this type of closure since I’ve never worn one before.*

So, it got worn yesterday for our Tea at Downton Abbey that I set up at the Aubrey Rose Tearoom in La Mesa, CA. I got really busy there so I forgot to ask to have a photo taken until later when we were shopping at the antique mall down the street. I wore my hat that I’d bought at a vintage fashion market, but later recognized it as one made by Mela Hoyt-Hayden, who on seeing it said it was one of her’s. She has a definite recognizable style for sure. It has a fabric trim with lavender & pink plaid that ties into my dress. My reticule was a repro that again had some purple in it. I wore my American Duchess “Gibson” shoes for the first time. I remembered to put some padding in the bottom for softness, and did a little pounding and bending on the leather to soften it up too. It wasn’t overly stiff but my feet don’t like anything hard. They were fairly comfortable and are now officially broken in. They even got to walk through a 2 inch deep stream during our torrential rain yesterday.

And now for the Tea at Downton Abbey event!  I was just the organizer for the tea so the tearoom gets all the kudos for the wonderful food and ambience we were served. But I did create name tags with titles for everyone coming, with some educational & historical help from my friend Bess, in England. There is a proper way to address our lords and ladies, you know.

Instead of just giving them a title, I created one using part of their name, and sometimes having a location or home using their street or town name. Cindy was Lady Piselli of Clairemont; Trudy was Vicountess Foland of Park Gardens; Gina- Duchess Lovin of Vista: Lauren- Countess Maringola of Lemonwood. I changed my own title up to use my husband’s original English family name of Bor, so I was Lady Bor of County Cajon.

I also made bookmarks using a collection of the Dowager Countess Violet’s witticisms captured from the series. Everyone had their own individual quote, and I asked them to use it somewhere in their conversation during the tea.

As the time approached for me to drive to the tea, a tremendous thunder and lightning storm hit Southern Ca, and driving down the freeway the rain came down in buckets, and I saw a double bolt of lightning come down. This caused a lot of people to be late in arriving, and sadly Trudy never made it due to really bad traffic conditions driving down here. Some of us had to walk through a couple inches of rushing water on the streets to get to the tearoom. But inside all was peaceful. As each person arrived I tried to announce them and pin their name tag on. I felt like I was bouncing up and down from my seat as they arrived, and it was a good half hour before I finally started eating anything. It was a nice group, about 21 that made it, and we were seated close by at three tables. I was happy to hear Lady Violet’s famous quotes were being used too. A couple people came late so I didn’t get their photos taken.

The guys sat at the other table, and joining them was “President Teddy Roosevelt” (shown on the center right) who I made a special name tag for with the White House logo on it instead of Downton Abbey. He even gave me a $10,000 tip for my hard work.

The rain kept pouring during the entire two hours we were there but when we left it had stopped. So some of us made our way to the antique mall down the street to do some shopping. I think we surprised some shop owners. And I got to take a selfie.

In regards to the pattern I used for my dress, I’d give it 4 Stars due to needing some tweaking but it has a lot of possibilities. I still prefer the Hint of History 1914 pattern #101, which I’ve made also, and is available on etsy or her website, that is very similar to the Butterick but easier to make and fit. It has a waistband instead of attaching the skirt directly to the bodice, and doesn’t have the fiddly overskirt Butterick used. But I do like the belt option on the Butterick.

Back to the slaving over my sewing machine. I only have ELEVEN days to finish everything! But at least I have this dress done to wear to the Sunday tea at Costume College.

                                                               ~~Val~~