I am very excited about this!

I have needed some accurate 18th century shoes for some time now, and the amazing American Duchess is making some that are going to be perfect!

"Kensingtons"

These would be the ones I would get.

They also come in red. Buckles are sold separately, but she carries them in her shop also.

You can find them here:

American Duchess

Downton Abbey

Masterpiece Theater (BBC) has made some pretty amazing productions over the years. Their historical productions are so fascinating, and the costumes are great!  Which brings me to my topic for this post:

Downton Abbey

It's a great show, near the end of the second season.  For a bit of a refresher, we watched the entire first season today.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any good publicity shots or film stills that I could put on here, but here's some costume inspiration from the time period to drool over...(all are pinnable!)

Formal wear in the 19 teens.

Look at the fancy beadwork!

I love this one!

A hat. A lot of hats from this time period were very large, and loaded with decorations, like this one.

This one is a day dress. I love the stripes on the skirt.

A walking dress or suit, but still with feminine style.

An evening dress. Black, but not necessarily for mourning.

Here's a bonus for fans of Downton Abbey and BBC (these crack me up every time):

Part 1

Part 2

Just for fun...

I have never really been interested in the clothing from this time period before, but I guess it was Sherlock Holmes that won me over.  Here are 3 dresses from the 1880's that I really like: (All images were found on Pinterest and will be linked if you want to pin them! Just click on the link underneath)

A wedding dress from 1880, Bowes Museum

This dress is so pretty! I love the buttons down the front of the bodice, and the ruching strip down the front of the skirt.  Ruching, gathering, and pleating create such beautiful effects when they are used creatively to accentuate the figure (in a good way, of course!).  The idealized body shape of the 1880's is one of my favorites.  It doesn't try to drastically reshape the body or limit movement, it highlights the waist and is very feminine.

An 1880's dress bodice

This one looks like a day dress bodice.  One feature of quite a few dresses from this time period is that they had 2 tops to go with 1 skirt: 1 for day and 1 for evening.

A dress from 1883

If I made an 1880's dress, I would choose fabric in a strong color, like this one.  It shows off the draping of the skirt especially well.

It wouldn't let me upload all the pictures I wanted to, but if you want to see some more, this is my Pinterest board for Late 19th Century Clothing.

I'l be back with some more sewing news soon, life has just gotten in the way for a while.  I'm still working, however slowly.

Rebecca

Updates and Sneak Peeks

It has taken longer to finish my sister's dress than I thought.  That is partially because I have been working on some other projects, none of which are finished either.  I have been pretty productive though, so I'll give you some sneak peeks of what I have been up to.

I drafted a pattern and am almost done with a 1940's dress for my sister. 

I found and altered a pattern for a new pair of 18th century stays. 

I made a cardboard mock-up of the pattern.

(And got fabric and boning for said stays.)

I designed a knitting pattern for an 18th century pinball

(a term to be explained further in another post).

 I've started to knit the front.

(And I am teaching my other sister to knit!)

 I learned how to make death's head buttons.

(This is a larger size I practiced on, the second one I ever made!)

I got this fantastic book! I'll talk about it in another post.

This new year is off to a pretty good start!

-Rebecca

A new sewing project for a New Year!

My first project of the new year: After watching a movie set in the 1940's, my sister decided that she wanted me to make her a 40's inspired dress. We sat down, looked at some inspiration pics, and drew out a design. This has been my first time using my new dressform to sew with, and it is going very well! My sister tried it on today, and everything is in place for finishing it up tomorrow or sometime very soon. I will post pictures when I get the chance; I've tried to show every step of my progress along the way. I'm looking forward to seeing her wear the dress out of the house. It looks great on her!

Rebecca

How to dress in the 18th century:

I am officially done with school for the semester, so Friday night I was able to open this!

"She" is almost exactly my measurements, except I can't get the hips quite large enough, but that's okay, because I don't really intend to be making pants on her (and I have two legs!).

So without further ado, my first tutorial:

DRESSING IN THE 18TH CENTURY

Busyness

So I feel like I have kinda neglected this for a little while, but once exams are over I will be back with some awesome stuff!  Because...
On cyber Monday I ordered:

• A dressform
• "Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centiry Fashion in Detail"
• "Costume Close-Up" and
• "Patterns of Fashion" (all books, and awesome ones at that!)

I can't wait to get them, even though I can't open them until next Friday. :-(
But once this semester is over, I'm going to definitely post more!
Until then!
Bye, I have a PowerPoint to do!

Rebecca