Regency: Blue “Elinor” Dress

After all the work I spent March and April doing on that blue Norse dress, I was ready for a Regency palate-cleanser to reset my brain. 

In February I bought two more packs of IKEA’s “Matilda” sheer cotton curtains on clearance that I planned to use for a new  gown, but at the time I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with it - until I watched the 1995 Sense & Sensibility for the hundredth time and saw this: 

Yes, that’s a photograph of my television, lol. I THOUGHT that I couldn’t find a pic of this dress anywhere online, so I watched the miniseries again (oh no!) and took this picture. It turns out that the reason I couldn’t find it was because this is a green dress, but in this particular scene it looks so perfectly gray-blue, like a stormy sky, and THAT is what I wanted. 

bodice front before dyeing

I used the Simplicity S8941 for this one, just like the white one I made in 2022. I love the way the dress feels, and the way it fits me; this time I made the skirt a bit longer (the 2022 dress was too short and I had to add a panel at the bottom), and I made the sleeves full length this time, which took a bit of re-drafting. Most of the dress is machine-sewn; although I did finish the hems and sleeve cuffs by hand. 

Once it was finished, I dyed the whole thing. I opted to dye it after I made it because I wanted the white cotton twill tape drawstrings to be dyed as well, and I didn’t feel like trying to dye them separately - I didn’t want to risk messing up the color. I used Rit Dye’s Pearl Grey and Evening Blue (2:1), with a couple of capfuls of Teal thrown in to warm up the color just a bit. I’m super happy with the way the color came out: 

The color didn’t come out exactly 100% the way I was envisioning; but I LOVE the color I ended up with SO MUCH.

All done! This was pretty quick - it only took me about two days to sew; the dyeing process was done in the washing machine and took about half an hour and then a complete wash cycle to finish it off. 

I think for my next Regency trick I’ll make myself a new hat. I’ve always wanted Marianne’s big hat from the 2005 S&S with Kate Winslet. More S&S! Yay! Stay tuned… 

SCA: A 15th-Century Velvet Houppelande

At my very first Gulf Wars, someone lent me a giant flannel houppelande on a cold night, which I threw on over my cotehardie, and I have wanted one ever since.  So comfy!  So voluminous!  It's like wearing blankets!  This year I finally made one for myself, since War of the Rams (BAM) in November is likely to be pretty cold in the evenings.  

This houpelande is made of the same cotton velveteen Ikea curtain panels that I used for my Regency pelisse, back in June.  Last year I acquired a huge box of these curtain panels from my local neighborhood swap group for free, and I still had 4 of them left (about 10 yards of fabric) - they were perfect for this project.  

I didn't have enough of the velveteen to make a full circle houppelande, so I used a simple A-line cut for the body of the dress, (adapted from a vintage 80s dress pattern) with side gores for as much fullness as I could pack into this thing.  The sleeves are D-shaped, and come to a short cuff at the wrist.  

The houppelande is unlined - I didn't have any fabric to use as lining, and I figured this velveteen would likely be heavy enough to keep me warm when worn over my other clothes. After it was put together I dyed the entire piece with teal and charcoal Rit dye, which gave the aqua-blue fabric a lovely medium blue-ish-gray color: 

After dyeing the whole thing, I added a collar and cuffs of white faux fur from my stash: 

 

The belt is one I made for a Burgundian gown that I made several years ago and never got around to wearing (oops). I had to move the hooks out several inches from where they were to get it to fit, but thankfully, the belt was long enough that I had plenty of space to work with.  The hooks themselves are gold-colored plastic highlighted with green nail polish to mimic an enamel look; I forget where I bought them originally, I've had them for aeons. 

The padded roll hat in the first picture is one I made many years ago.  It's nothing fancy, just a stuffed roll of damask upholstery fabric with pearl beads sewn on, worn with a netted/beaded snood and a couple of lightweight veils pinned onto it.  

So there's a big, new, warm outfit for BAM that I can wear on cold nights.  I also have my linen coat to wear over my Viking outfits, which won't be terribly warm on its own, but which I can wear with layers of hoods and caps, and my wool shoulder cloak.  

Edit:  It turns out the weather at BAM wasn't cold at all - mid-70s during the day, and only into the 60s at night, so I didn't get a chance to wear this at the event at all.  Maybe next year.  

Regency: Teal Velveteen Pelisse

Behold:  a finished velveteen pelisse for winter wear!  

Last fall I acquired a huge stack of velveteen Ikea curtain panels from my local neighborhood swap group.  I knew right away I wanted to make a pelisse out of it. The fabric is heavy and warm, but not TOO heavy - perfect for our relatively mild central Texas winter weather. 

It would be a nifty addition to my Regency wardrobe, I thought, but more than that, I was in dire need of a long winter coat that was affordable - so I knew I wanted to make one, but I could never find the right fabric and pattern for it.  Yes, I absolutely plan to wear this in "real life" as my regular winter coat! 

left: fashion plate from Ackerman's;
right: design inspiration from Laughing Moon

This fashion plate, and this gown, were my first inspirations.  I loved the ruffles around the neckline and the big tie in the front of both, so I decided to use my Laughing Moon Spencer pattern (#129) for the bodice and sleeves, since it already has the shaping and design on the bodice that I wanted. 

I used the skirts from my Reconstructing History round gown pattern as a guide for the width and length of the skirt panels. 

dyeing the velveteen

The first problem was the color of the velveteen curtain panels:  they were bright aqua, which - no. Too bright and cheerful for me.  

Fortunately, they're 100% cotton, so they dyed pretty easily with Rit dye.  I used a 2:2:1 mixture of dark green, teal, and charcoal gray,  and came up with this lovely deep muted spruce green color.  (Okay, it's TEAL. Rit dye's formula charts call this "Blue Spruce Green," but it's totally teal).  

 

inside ties and hand-finishing

The pelisse is lined in a sage green cotton fabric that started life as a duvet cover I had sitting around not being used. Here you can see the ties I placed inside the bodice to help hold the thing together - I didn't want to rely on the belt/sash to do the job on its own.  The ties will help keep everything aligned properly when I wear it. 

The problem with dyeing the fabric was that I originally did it in two separate batches.  I measured carefully, and used the exact same dye on both batches...and yet, they still came out slightly different colors - one batch was a bit greener, and one batch was a bit bluer. 

So, after I finished the pelisse, I overdyed it again to bring the colors back in together.  The lining dyed, as well, and now it matches the velveteen fabric. 

bodice back

Since I do plan to wear this coat mundanely (i.e. not as a costume, but as regular daily wear), I made a few modifications to the pattern to help it be more wearable - the inside ties are one. 

I also lowered the hem of the bustline by 3" to accommodate a "normal" modern bustline.  It still fits fine when I'm corseted, but since I mostly won't be wearing this with a corset, I wanted it to conform to my "regular" bust shape when I'm wearing it to the office, for example.    

I added hidden side-seam pockets to the skirts as well.  Bitches need pockets! I generally don't carry a purse - just my phone which is in a wallet case, and my keys, and I needed somewhere to stash them. 

I also added belt loops to the side seams of the waistline, to help keep the belt/sash in place. 

before hemming the bottom

Altogether, this pelisse took me about 12 1/2 hours (over the course of 7 days) to construct and finish.  Most of it is sewn on the machine, although I did do all the finishing - anything that's visible from the outside - by hand.  Because it's so long, and there's so much fabric, it's surprisingly heavier than I thought it would be, and it IS very warm.  It'll make an excellent top layer and windbreak in winter weather this year. 

Thankfully, our winters are generally pretty mild, usually averaging about 40-50º most of the time, and only getting down into the 20s-30s for a couple of weeks in January or February; so this pelisse didn't have to be very heavy - it's mostly just a windbreak and an extra layer. With a sweater underneath and a scarf at the neck, it'll be just fine for the weather here.  

Things I would change if I had to do this again: 

(1) the sleeves are a teensy bit too long. They're lovely, but I worry about them being in the way while driving.  

(2) the back of the bodice and the shoulders are very fitted, and I worry that they won't accommodate more than a very thin shirt underneath - I won't be able to wear sweaters with this thing.  (Good impetus to lose a bit of weight before this winter!) 

(3) The belt loops are laughably too big. I should have made them half the size I did; but it's okay, I doubt anyone will notice or care. 

No BAM for Hrefna - What's Next?

 So it turns out that I can't make it to BAM this weekend after all.  My ride got very sick at the last minute, and I can't make the trip on my own or find another ride.  So I'll have a nice, long weekend off work to myself, to rest and work on various projects around the house.  Here's what I've got going on right now, which I'll be posting about in the coming weeks: 

• SCA:  I'm crocheting a new Hedeby bag (yes, crochet, I'll tell you all about it soon) - I need to finish it and then dye the finished product
• SCA:  I've decided to update the male Viking tunic I made for myself over a year ago, which will involve changing the neckline and sleeve cuffs
• Regency:  I'm in the middle of working on a new hat for myself, which I need to finish and then trim up with ribbon and floral elements
• Regency:  I have a new outfit planned, and some accessories to go with it.  That'll be a lot of pattern drafting and engineering patterns from pictures I've seen online

Plus I have about a million other little projects around the house to get done, some of which I'll post here and some I won't (you don't care about the doorknob on my pantry, right?)  I have plenty of things to keep me busy over the long weekend, as well as a birthday dinner for my best friend and roommate; and lots of projects to plan and work on over the coming winter.  

One of the many crochet things I've been working on

Regency: New Jewelry and A Repair

 Here's a beaded necklace set - necklace, bracelet, and earrings - that I made a couple of weeks ago.  This started out as just a bracelet, but I had LOTS of these teal beads, so it ended up being a whole set.  

The beads are plastic, and the chain and fittings are gold-colored brass.  

I'm planning on wearing my white Ikea Matilda dress for Halloween this year, with a teal ribbon and this teal jewelry, and a teal shawl I plan on ordering myself for my birthday.  However, the Matilda dress still needed some work:  it was about 3" too short! 

I needed to add a panel to the bottom of the dress, but I didn't have much fabric left.  I had to piece the panel together, which made the stripes not match up.  In order to draw the eye away from this - and hide the seam - I added a row of puffs to the bottom of the dress.  

It's period, it was easy and quick to do, and it camoflages the added panel very well.  

Now the dress is finally ready to wear! 

Regency: White Ikea Dress

 Long time no see! It’s been about a year since my last entry. Dunno if anyone will even read this, but blogging is fun whether you have an audience or not. ;)

So, I’m still in the SCA and still making Viking clothing. I haven’t done much new since the last time I was here, in that vein - I made a new apron dress because I outgrew my old ones (again!), but I don’t have pics for you at this time. 

What I do have is a buttload of new Regency/Empire stuff, starting with this white round gown: 

This was made with Simplicity’s S8941 pattern, by American Duchess. It’s a 1790s-early 1800 round gown with a drawstring closing front.  The pattern is designed for a woman of about 5’4”, and I’m 5’9”, so I did a lot of adjusting and lengthening. The biggest changes I made were to the bust, where the pattern was too small for my rather ample bosom; and to the overall length, because of the height thing.  (American Duchess has a great post about fitting this pattern).

The fabric is from an old set of IKEA’s Matilda sheer curtains. It’s basically a cotton voile with a woven stripe and dot pattern. It’s very sheer, so I wear it over a long full petticoat; eventually I intend to create a couple of new busted petticoats in different colors so I can alter the feel of the dress. 

I love the way the dress came out. It fits perfectly, and it feels great to wear. I think the only thing I don’t like is the way the back of the bodice is pointed in the back - it’s totally apropos for a 1790s gown; but I think the next time I make this pattern, I’ll straighten out the back. 

Re-Organizing the Sewing Room A Bit

Playing the sliding-tiles game with furniture in my house again:  

Problem: 

• a giant armoire full of towels and sheets in my bedroom, which was in my way, and was also inaccessible to my roommate when I was asleep in there
• a mostly-empty hall closet
• some slapdash shelves on a corner wall in my craft room, full of boxes of fabric and supplies, and  surrounded by piles of same on the floor

Solution: 

1. I removed the shelves in the craft room and put them up in the hall closet, and moved all the linens into the hall closet where they're accessible to everyone
2. I moved the armoire to that corner of the craft room, and re-organized the boxes and supplies into it

And then...

A friend and I swapped dressers over the weekend - my small one for her large one (she wanted to use two smaller dressers in her daughter's room instead of one huge one).  And so this came home with me on Saturday: 

Ikea HEMNES

Most of my fabric stash had been stored in sixteen of those white plastic Ikea (SNALIS, discontinued) boxes (like the two on top of this dresser in the pic), stacked in/on top of that long, low, black shelving unit under the window in the pic (it'll be re-homed soon).  The contents of all but those two boxes fit neatly into the four main drawers in this dresser, and I got all of my small scraps into the smaller drawers at the top.  

So, what do I do with fourteen 5-gal plastic boxes?  I'm not sure yet.  They'll probably end up holding craft supplies in the closet in this room, or full of small tools and things in the garage.  

Cross-posted from my house/furniture blog at pushingfurniture.blogspot.com

Shelter From the Storm

I think everyone who's ever been to Gulf Wars in Gleann Abhann knows about the little white canvas parasols.  It seems every lady has one - they're affordable, pretty, not too modern-looking, and paintable.  I bought one a few years ago myself, and I painted it...and did a terrible job.  I knew I'd either need to replace it, or just re-cover it, but in the interim, I decided to see what it would look like if I spray-painted it to cover up the silliness that I had made:

WOW NO. 

Just...no. 

Since BAM was going to be rainy (scratch that: it's always rainy at BAm), I went ahead and stripped the cover off the frame, cut out one of the sections, and copied it.  I made two adjustments to the pattern:  I straightened out the curve in the panel edge (see the yellow arrows in the first picture?), and I lengthened each panel so that my new parasol would have a bit of an apron to hang down, like the one in this painting: 

Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cataneo,
Sir Anthony van Dyck, 1623

And this is my finished parasol:  

Just the little bit of change in the shape of the panels makes the thing feel HUGE.  There are tension issues with two of the struts (center picture, arrow), which are easily fixed by undoing the little keeper at the end of the strut and loosening the fabric.  

I spray painted the finial gold, and tacked down a green velvet ribbon to cover the raw edges of the fabric at the top.  The fabric itself is from an Ikea RITVA curtain panel - cotton, with a linen-esque weave.  I bought a big pile of them from my old dance studio in town when it shut down last month, and have been using the fabric for many things, from tablecloths to bags to flags (which we'll talk about later this week, tee-hee). 

And did it keep the rain off me?  You bet your ass it did. I used an entire can of Camp-Dry on this thing before I left for the event:  seams, then panels, then the whole thing again once it was dry, inside and out.  100% waterproof.  Yay!  It'll wear off over time, and when it does, I might try painting my device on it.  Or stars.  We'll see. 

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The Problem With Experiments...

Is that sometimes, they just come out all weird.

Lemme back up.

Remember the Ikea linen dress, that once was gray, got renovated, and then dyed purple?

This one. 

I wore it to Crown Tournament a few weeks ago, and on the way home from the event, my friends and I stopped Waffle House (a longtime road trip tradition of mine).  They had just mopped the bathrooms.  Raise your hand if you already know where this is going.

I thought I got my dress off the bathroom floor in time;  I grabbed it the second I smelled bleach...but it was too late.  When I got home I realized that nearly the entire hemline, and some of the front of the skirt were covered in huge, white blotches.  

Damn it. 

I considered spot-dyeing it, but I didn't want to end up with patches along the bottom that were dyed differently, or overlapped, or what have you.  So I opted to lighten the dress and re-dye the whole thing.  Since this purple was achieved with plain ol' Rit dye, I thought I'd give Rit's Color Remover a whirl, since I'd never used it before.  I barely worked.  When I dyed the dress purple originally, I had to do it twice, because the first time, it came out all blotchy.  The color remover, it seems, removed only the top layer of dye - the dress was back to being blotchy purple again.  Sigh. 

So I bleached the crap out of it, hoping that it wouldn't ruin the fabric.  Thankfully, it didn't.   Here it is wet: 

And dry, the bleaching process finished: 

I now have a very pale lavender dress, with yellow tapestry sleeve linings.  Also, all of the buttonholes remained the same color, because I used polyester thread, which didn't bleach.   o_0   The fabric is actually quite a lovely lavender, and it actually looks good on me - and I'd keep it, if the color were remotely even, but it's really, really not.  

I'll be dyeing the dress again tonight.  Wish me luck. 

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The Ikea Cotehardie: Finished!

A short recap:  the Ikea Cotehardie was great, but it didn't fit anymore, and I wasn't loving the look of it anymore.

Before

So I tore it apart, added gussets to the side seams and the back of the arms to give myself more bicep- and boob-room,  painstakingly picked out all the black decorative stitching (what I was I thinking!), and put the thing back together.

During...

And finally, I removed the buttons and replaced them with cloth ball buttons made of the same fabric, and then I DYED IT PURPLE!!!

 After! 

Purple!!  Truthfully, I was going for a soft, heather-y, faded, muted plum...and that's the color I got the first time I dyed this dress.  The problem is, I dyed it in a beer cooler, like I usually do when I dye things, which turned out not to be enough room to keep this big, heavy dress agitated as much as it needed - it settled and wrinkled and came out all patchy.  Seriously, it looked like purple camouflage!  I may or may not have actually screamed.  On a second dyeing - in the washing machine this time - the dye job came out beautifully smooth and rich...and waaaaay more purple than I'd originally intended.  Which is NOT to say that I don't love it, because I do. 

I mean, seriously. That's just an awesome color.
Cloth buttons, and here you can see the tapestry stuff on the
inside of the sleeve that dyed beautifully as well (look back at the
first picture).  Yay! 

I'll be wearing this to a demo with my household this coming weekend;  hopefully I'll have pictures for you of this dress all tarted up and accessorized.  You know how I am about pictures, though.  No promises.  ;) 

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The Ikea Cotehardie, Revisited

It's been over a year since I made my grey linen cotehardie (Ikea's linen, which, sadly, my local Ikea no longer carries, the bastards).  

at Coronation, October 2011

I've worn it 3-4 times, and loaned it to a couple of other women for events when they had nothing to wear.  I've gained weight and lost it since then; and in the last few months I've been toning up and building muscle like crazy (I hula hoop a lot).  

The dress no longer fit properly.  I could wear it, but the arms were too tight across my new biceps so I couldn't really bend my arms much, and the bust wasn't the same shape any more.  Also, I was pretty much done with having a light grey cotehardie.

Last week, I tore it apart.

First, the sleeves came off, and I opened up the side seams so that I could add a gusset at/under the bust on the sides.

I still love this lining, hehe.  It's just a cotton print that looks like eyelet.  Not period, but nobody sees it but me. :)

The long gusset I put in.  It's 2" across at the top, and down the top 3"; then tapers sharply to 1" and stays that way all the way down the side, in sort of an elongated Y-shape.  (For a tiny bit more space in the ribcage, but a lot more space in the bust).

Oh, that's waaaaay better.  It's actually comfy now.

Honestly, looking at these sleeves, no WONDER they were too tight across the top. They're practically straight!  This was one of my first cotehardies, and I hadn't quite gotten sleeves figured out yet.

I removed the top half of the lightweight upholstery fabric lining the sleeves, and kept only the part lining the bottom half where they unbutton.  The lining had NO stretch to it, and was part of the problem.

The second problem with the sleeves is that they cut into my armpits, so I deepened the curve here and on the dress itself.

The third problem was the shoulders, which didn't really move all that well, especially the more developed my upper arms and shoulders become.  In this case, though it's hard to see in this small picture (click on it for a larger image), I added a wide gusset to the back sleeve seam, making it similar to the gore you'd find in a grande-assiette style sleeve; but without some of the other components, and without being set into the back of the garment.  This is basically just a regular sleeve with a big gore in it, hehe.

The dress works!



And I'll stop here, because there are two more MAJOR steps in making over this dress (hint: notice the sleeves aren't buttoned in this picture), but that'll be a blog entry of it's own.

Assuming I don't screw it up!  (^_^)






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Blue Velvet

wait...

You know how long I've been lusting over a blue velvet gown, yes?  Well, GUESS WHAT!  Last time I was at Ikea, I happened across a pair of their SANELA curtains, in the as-is fabric bin...for twenty bucks.  Yes, that would be two blue cotton velvet curtain panels, 55x118" each, in perfect shape (aside from being a tad dusty from having been on display).

Can you say...

"Mariana" by John Everett Millais, 1850.

I thought you could!

And, actually, in the week since I got the curtains, I've been fleshing out the half-assed design I've had floating around ever since I got the idea:

...and I've changed like eight things since I posted this.

Blue velvet, olive-green silk lining with a gold printed design (sleeves, neckline), a gold (a) band around the bottom *or* (b) underskirt (or faux-underskirt), with bright silver buttons - I'm thinking with pearls or glass crystals, but I haven't decided yet.

At this particular moment, I'm thinking my sheer silk veil (which has yet to be hemmed, actually), and cauls...or not.  I'd have to make a set of cauls, and while it'd be easy and probably pretty fast, I really have enough on my plate right now.

Buttons...?

I like all three.  Hm. 

*squee*


But when, and....?  Hmm.


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