Adjusted my hoops a little today

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The shape on the left hand side is the shape I want so I’ll mark the levels so I can sew the tape. The side seams are diagnonal so really stretch in this lovely but soft sateen.

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Interior views to show how the whole thing is actually quite light, but is maintained with tapes. At the moment the only tapes in place are in my original Robe de Style (pink) panniers and my normal sized Reitte (tan cotton).

ANd you can sort of see just how much bigger the hoops actually are!

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But maybe this helps even more 😉

What is nice is that this hoop will work for her Confrontation gown as it seems to use a similar shape, and it will also work for a real court gown. But possibly mor elike a mantua than the silver gowns I adore so much.

So more like this:

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Victoria and Albert Museum, London Mantua

Place of origin: England, Great Britain (made) France (woven)

Date: 1755-1760 (made) 1753-1755 (woven)

Note the length of the torso, the film version bodices are not that inaccurate in that specific regard, but they are a bit out of time. And the actual shaping is modern, it’s why I’m looking forward to making the support for the bodice, as it is so unique- and while other actresses had really defined modern busts, they left Norma to have the long quite flat shaping. In this gown at least. But there is clever seaming going on to create that illusion.

Another Mantua of this shape:

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British Kensington Palace Art Funded in 1995
British, Court mantua by British, 1750–1760
Court mantua by British, 1750–1760
© Kensington Palace
Details
Medium:Silk brocade Dimensions: 130 x 214 cm Art Fund grant:£30,000 ( Total: £78,826; Export stopped) Acquired in:1995

And another:

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Museum of London- Mantua
Production Date: 1751-1752
ID no: 83.531
Location: On Display: Museum of London: Empire: London’s Manufactures

I need to do a Extant Gowns I love post for all of these, but I wanted to show this particular flared shape was also not a modern only decision, but based on 18thC dress.

 

But next one will be the silver gowns in sweden 🙂

And this movie costume.

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Marie Antoinette Progress

My Marie Antoinette hoops are too big to easily adjust which is why it has taken the entire 7th Season of New Who to get them to the point I can just push the hoops out or in.

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These are deceptive, a little. The first test wound up kidney shaped and I wound up with more elliptical and normal shape tonight!

They are currently 160cm wide, but the hoops are a little deeper than I want and they’ll be flattened a little more once the tapes are in place at every level I’ll also have to drop the diagonal short hoops.

I still will be able to layer both fine cotton and tulle to soften these. In photos of Normal sitting there are a few indicators of hoops but they are subtle. SO I definitely need to remember all the fluffy layers needed and that adds bulk both depth and width. But I really think it’ll be the tapes inside that help. I may even wind up sewing in a few more sets than I normally would.

I originally wanted to make this to join in with the Robes de Cour group Kendra had organised a few years ago, but I wound up setting that aside as I wanted to be in the group and between me saying I was thinking about making the gown and not saying so in time and what not I wound up shifting to starting an actual Robe de Cour based on the various silver gowns from Sweden. I stalled on that as well as I just wanted to not use the dead dino fabric I had!

Basically I knew how much fabric any of these options needed and I wanted the best fabric for my needs. And I only managed to find that in may this year! That is the fabric above that had to be decoloured. It was very brown originally 🙂

But since then I have become completely smitten with the “confrontation” gown too, so well there may be a few gowns to wear over these hoops and eventual petticoats as well.

 

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