Historic bug again :)

I have two massive research projects to share (Spanish tailoring and Westfalen clothing) but kind of fell into a trap of trying to do it all at once because this one little thing here has huge consequences here, and another over here, and then I got super bogged down in trying to support information when I have the support documents in hand so it’s not like I’m citing anything I haven’t actually read. I can use footnotes and quote!

So now I am happy shifting the focus of both to be really easily published and shared.

I’ve taken 10 years after first making gear to make sure everything I have read in English is backed up. In part due to books being published and not digitised so I had to have used book searches. Not easy from NZ until the last few years!

BUT I HAVE SO MUCH EXCITEMENT!

 

Teaching my Victorian workshops has really helped me figure out how I want to share all my research. So far yes, skirts then sleeves has been a big help in understanding the principles of fabric engineering (I am an engineer at heart- I don’t just see in 3D I can visualise forces and densities and I just don’t have the jargon to really explain. But I do read papers on textiles and even found one trying to predict properties of bias for different fabrics.) We’re just going a little faster and in shorter bursts than I’d like. But I also now have sliding galleries to be able to use in my online tutorials so those big blocks of images can be made easier to follow.

So I’ll try the same thing for the Spanish stuff as it’s really about the use of the pattern elements. Much easier, and I’m just rethinking from resources every could have access too. The other stuff is a mix. So really need my academic hat put on.

Skirt workshop this weekend

My workshop this weekend is on skirts. And drapery. Two polar opposites in terms of making but work together.

So I can do a conservative skirt, fully gathered/pleated (to waistband/yoke), very gored. And work through the waterfall drapery and then basically quote from resources at the time- you can’t work out a drapery pattern by looking at the finished garment in the 1880s. And it’s fairly true. So I’m collecting all the extant and contemporary ones I can find to put them into some sort of easy to visualise system.

Currently though printing All The Patterns so as to have them ready for the other workshops too 🙂

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Amazon references

Been fighting a few updating issues with my PC so getting to my blog has been a struggle for about a week. In that time I’ve been trying to grab all the amazonian behind the scenes of Wonder Woman as the costumes really fascinate me! There is not only a clear aesthetic but there seem to be rules about what can be mixed and matched.

I just need a good connection again to be able to get all those references in one place.

In the meantime I have two places for putting the images in easy to find locations:

(I’m sorry for anyone who doesn’t have a pinterest account)

And specifically on The Replica Prop Forum
Home DC Costumes and Props > Wonder Woman= Amazons of all kinds > Wonder Woman= Amazons of all kinds

So far spotted three kinds of chestplate, three kinds of torso support, one kind of skirt, two groin plate patterns. On top of the totally different Queen’s Guard.

Now that my connection seems a little better (woo) I’ll see if I can sort them out.

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draping and workshop writing

I managed to get the hip gathers of my Padme Light Blue actually sitting nicely 🙂 So there has been a little bit of basting of gathers and sorting out layers. next step is to sew. Just need to look at piccies to see which direction the seam allowances lie, or if I’ll have to do some very careful hand stitching to set the SA of the gathers back into the gathered section. Not exactly doable with machined stitches, and so I’d have to look at handsewing them. Not totally ick but enough icky-wiggle room to make it a case of doing one side each evening. The fabric is stretchy so backstitches will be needed and so that means careful stretching as I stitch. Pretty sure that they are machined though and so the SA turns to the vertical gathers and could be hidden in the folds.

 

And so I then turned to other tasks which included plotting out my workshops in more detail and got a little confused. I started listing things to cover that were useful across different elements.

And then I found my initial online guides notes and realised that the answer was there all the time. Doh! The order in my notes is perfect. i just now need to set down and do some digarmas fr sleeves and bodices. And collate some notes on trimming as I have pleats and gathers and darts already written up 🙂

 

So I now have a really good flow for the workshops and have all my current notes sorted into different clear protectors and completely in love with how this current theme works printed up. It’s just so clear and the title and header even looks right. So happy. It meant I was able to print my tutorials for my meeting and it means my workshops will webify easily and then in turn be able to be printed.Pretty darn excited and even if not a heck of a lot was actually done it has been part of a longer term exercise in establishing a routine to get larger projects done.

In that regard as well I realised have have brilliant lining fabric for Missy and can still part with other fabrics. Might have to see if I can get them on TradeMe- the biog issue being that these are varying weights and they really should be tracked to make sure they get where they need to be. And so that makes for a bit of difficulty in setting up an auction. I know I like an upfront cost!

Workshops- A Modular Frock – The Gilded Age

Yep, doing another series of workshops this time with a “single” focus of getting participants a full set of patterns that work together to make a frock from 1870-1900.

Where: Waitakere Central Library, Auckland, New Zealand

When: Saturday afternoons

Dates- TBC, after the Steampunk Festival but over June and July.

The basic frock will be plain, but over the course of the series of workshops there will be moments to stop and be able to think about materials, patterns, layers. And there will be a whole workshop dedicated to draperies and trimming. Yep. Hands on waterfall!

Oh yes. I am keen to make this work for everyone from living history folks, to Steampunk, to cosplay (have I mentioned my Elsa is based on this modular system? Well she was. And that is why my skirt looks the way it does- it is actually a victorian skirt.

So the dates are yet to be confirmed but it will work around the Oamaru Steampunk festival and SCA midwinter. So I am putting out feelers for whether people want a weekly or fortnightly.

Also while these are frocks, and they are challenge there is no upper or lower age, nor experience needed, nor gender bias. The point of the workshops is to get a toolkit to be creative. If you have no experience with sewing you will pick up some handy hints as what I will be focusing on is the engineering. There will be new terms as well.

And I really am keen on getting at least two more cutting tools made up, so there will be a chance to play with them too 🙂

correct shape or trick of the eye?

I am also finding it hard to trust all staged images, as there is a tendency to pouff out draped fabrics when they should fold inwards. I wonder how many people remember the infamous natural form pattern?

The Simplicity 4244 pattern with the paniers turned out and padded?

The original has the area padded out in display, though not turned inside out:

http://www.victorianbridalmuseum.com/about/index5.phtml

I would love to see this updated, polonaise style princesse dresses are a staple in the pattern books of the era that it’s nice to see real examples whenever possible. Seriously, every book has at least one princess and at least one is really a polonaise.

 

And if the Met can have a garment padded in inverse to what would be expected, then yes it’s very easy to to!


Centraal Museum too! (but this is another good example of the mid-late 1880s shape to the skirt, the pouffing over the hips and of the little puff over the bustle.. not really feeling it. But yeah, that’s another Sunburst reference!)

This is simply more a case of feeling too full at the front hip. But I have seen more extreme forms of firm support in contemporary photos.

But I was looking at a gown I adore but feels later than the date as well, and I am trying to tease out whether it is staged or original to the gown.

 

So what is it that makes this feel later than 1875?

Simply put the shoulders. They are very square. Very square indeed and that is not because the mannequin has square shoulders. The sleeve shape also is very angular, another feature of mid to late 1880s patterning.

Compare the shoulders to this very definitely mid 1870s garment:

See the slope of the shoulder, more obvious from the back. The front arm seams are further under the arm than above too. But this is a very well made example of the time so the structure is a bit firmer and so holds a firm line compared to other examples of this decade.

The split and pointed tails of the scaled gown can also be seen right through to early 1890s in Worth garments (see the silvery blue gown also from the met on this page.)

 

But this is why I am devouring everything I can find about what is absolutely known as far as dates of garments. There are a few garments dated to mid 1880s that have a very gored skirt shape that is, as above, original shaping. Even the above has a mix of gored and flat panels. So it may be that the house was experimenting in shifting fullness around very early. That though is proving difficult.

 

Anyway if anyone would like to sponso a trip to see the Worth Archives- maybe a month stay to be able to actually go through all documents then maybe my mind would be rested!

 

I already know the pattern books and periodicals do not show the flared gored skirt shape earlier than the early 1890s. I have gone through every single issue of Der Bazar that has plates and patterns, I have random patterns from other periodical, and of course the cutting books. In fact skirts go extremely boxy before they get pulled to the back and then the hem flares out again. But again Maison Worth was known to anticipate fashion as well as push it in a direction most especially in cut. SO that could apply to shoulders and elbows too…

So yes. Grubby mitts on the archive. Well very well cleaned and gloved mitts.

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seeing double- are these both worth?

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Left & right: Woman’s Evening Dress: Bodice and Skirt (1978-2-1a,b and 1978-2-2a,b)

Left vs right: Worth vs Artist/maker unknown, American.

Left & vs right: Worn by Mrs. Ernest Fenollosa

These are much too closely matched to be coincidence and were worn by the same woman.

Nearly identical in cut, the brocade gown doesn’t appear to have the same fit in the bodice. And that is what really marks a Worth garment. The curve at the side of the waist and generaly sweep feels very Worth. As well as the colours and fabrics.

This is part of my research as I try and identify when Worth started using very flared panels in skirts. These do feel mid to late 1880s. The gores are not heavily angled and there is a bit of bulk of fabric right around the front of the hips as well as sides, and obviously the bustle. But it is the slightly boxy shape of the front that makes these match perfectly to fashion plates.

I do know this flat boxy front was still in use in paterns by 1894! And that is the year we see three distinct skirt patterns.

 

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19thc doppelganger…

Never realised but yeah. Virginia Oldoini, Comtesse de Castiglione...

I think this Queen of Hearts one is the one to do.. I knew of it from one of the hand tinted versions but they idealise her to be blander.

 

Anyway. Pointy nose, pointy chin, eyes that can be unfocused then too focused… and also determined to only work with photographers who work with her as an artist. Look she’s been treated as self obsessed but really, she wanted the captured image to be reflective of what she wanted to see. Not what someone else wanted.

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I am seriously thinking about my own drafting system

Well cutting system I suppose. I am not easy to fit with modern patterns. Really simple and obvious reasons- modern patterns are no better than vintage or cutting systems of different eras.

They are all designed to fit a single (or narrow range) of body shapes. They just are all different shapes. Mystery solved.

 

Right now it’s a low separate bust, oval shaped waist and hips, and no arms. Well okay so sometimes you can see that there was an attempt but modern armscyes are designed to sit flat while on a form.

So it’s not that we have “flaws” it’s that the patterns are designed for a single fit type. And it gets scaled up and down in a way that doesn’t reflect human bodies.

Anyway.

Having finally worked in bias on a large scale, and french bias, and also of course all those 19thC systems and I have gone earlier in research but mostly worked my way through all the early tailors manuals… you pick up on how to work with fabric for an idealised form, and what can be achieved across different shapes, and what was actually used to adjust to fit.

 

But I really want to get one of those brass drafting machines.

Maurice’s system of dress cutting..

Maurice’s system of dress cutting..

by Sivarz, Maurice. [from old catalog]
Published 1889
Publisher [n.p.]
Pages 28
Possible copyright status The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright restrictions for this item.
Language English
Call number 6267213
Digitizing sponsor The Library of Congress
Book contributor The Library of Congress
Collection library_of_congress; americana
Notes There are no page numbers listed
Full catalog record MARCXML

This one has a ball taille, and yes, there is a single seam at the front bodice! This is what I had been noticing in garments so it’s nice to have it confirmed.

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