Another link collection ...

This is primarily an effort to clear out some the things I've bookmarked and saved. First, Outi Pyy has several posts on steampunk fashion on her blog, Outsapop Trashion: Steampunk Inspiration and Steampunk Fashion. Also, I think this half a bustle skirt and ruffled vest is kind of cute.

From the 2008 Anime Expo, La Carmina has a post containing a few costume images, one of which is a really strange frog-dragon combo (as best I can tell), and another of which is a steampunk lolita look. While I wouldn't think I'd like the short skirt, steampunk explorer look, the outfit comes off really well.

Blakopal on LJ is (was) working on a steampunk jacket. Its a short jacket, bust length, but it goes really nicely with her corset.

Pamela of Needle Tatting and Other Stuff, has some really lovely tatted necklaces, masks, and other items. She also held a 'Tatting is not a lost art' contest not too far back; all the entries can be found in the flickr photostream, Tatting Challenge. Relevant to this post are a few of the entries: a classy mini hat by Joie Reed, a necklace timepiece by Madelyn Smoak (MadArtJewelery), and a hair stick by Brettney Perr. The timepiece and the hair stick came in third in the contest. The hair stick is probably one of my favorites, but I also really like the hat.

Bustle Dresses

ThreadBanger has a series of episodes on Steampunk gear: goggles, gloves, outfit. I didn't have the patience to listen through their talking, since they're all video episodes, but they had a link to Bustledress. I haven't browsed through all their listings yet, but I did come across this Purple Bustle Dress with White Lace and this Garnet Reception Gown. The skirt is kind of plain on the reception gown, but the jacket is awesome.

Really, I don't know why I have this fondness for embroidered jackets when I have no intention of living anywhere that requires a jacket on a regular basis. I guess its for the cooler evenings (if they ever actually cool off around here).

Day to Day Costumes

Costume_9to5 is a community on LiveJournal. It doesn't get much traffic, but the other day Liz posted some pictures of outfits. My favorites were this steampunk feeling jacket and skirt combo and this outfit, especially the jacket.

And in the same vein, both Steampunk Gear and Steampunk Fashion make for some nice browsing.

Charted Victorian Knitted Lace, Part II

I've finished my "chemise trimming" cuffs that I first mentioned here and then later in this post. From The Young Ladies' Journal, Complete Guide to the Work-table (1885), this is the image of the complete trimming set,

So I started by charting out the written pattern instructions,

For further instructions...

This turns out to be a garter stitch type lace. I got through the pattern once, then decided I didn't really care for the garter stitch look. At least, not in size 10 cotton crochet thread. Here's the test swatch, in garter stitch.

So I revised the pattern to a stockinette stitch lace. I also adjusted where the center motif falls, so that I wouldn't have an extra row of plain stitch every 15 rows.

For further instructions...

Since the pattern repeats every 15 rows, which is an odd number, the second time through the pattern all the knit rows are switched to purl rows and all the purl rows switched to knit rows. Here's second chart with the knit and purl rows swapped.

For further instructions...

I ended up doing 10 repeats of the pattern: five times through the first chart, and five times through the second chart, alternating between the two. I hadn't quite realized that my purl side decreases weren't angling the way I intended; the trim with the stitch marker is the second cuff, with the decreases angled correctly (for the last 7 of the motifs).

This gives me some ruffled wrist cuffs. I don't yet have anything to put them on, but I'm sure I'll find something at some point.

Gavin Fernandes

I'm not even sure how anymore how I came across this article about Gavin Fernandes' Monarchs of the East End. Although I don't care for his other series, some of the photos in 'Empire Line' are an interesting portrayal of Victorian-cross-India. For example the Empire Line 1 and Empire Line 2 images.

Obligatory Steampunk

For some reason I feel a need to make an obligatory steampunk post. I think I personally fall more in the category of Victorian inspired, rather than some of the other subcultures that have formed. While I find it fascinating that people adopt the culture fully within their lives, I'm just interested in the clothing. Not even all the clothing, mostly just the formal wear. Fluffy blouses, fitted waists, long skirts, nice lace, and maybe even a slight bustle. The kinds of clothing that you just don't see much of these days. (As an aside, I was in a shop recently, and everything looked like an oversized t-shirt, or long tank t-shirt, so I started looking for something to wear under my corset, because I just don't get the look-like-a-bag fashion that seems to be the current trend.)

In my search for more about steampunk, I found out there's a steampunk magazine. Now, if only some one could point me to something like 'Victorian inspired fashion' or even 'Historically inspired fashion', I might actually get a magazine subscription. The sad thing is that such a thing probably exists, and I just haven't been able to find it. Sigh ...

So in the clothing arena, The Gentleman's Emporium has a nice selection of items I think of as the base elements: blouses, skirts, vests and coats, and some appropriate accessories such as lace gloves and parasols. Found by way of a Burning Man group blog. I really want a lace parasol for going out and walking about. I'm the kind of person that burns within a couple minutes.

Toxiferous Designs had a post pointing to C. Cordova Fashion, and I have to agree that there are some nice, vaguely victorian-ish (definitely steampunk-ish) clothing items. For example, a paisley duster. Unfortunately, the O'Halloran company seems to have closed in 2006.

I have more links to images, but I think I'll save the rest for later posts.

Charted Victorian Knitted Lace, Part I

[A new (and revised) version of the double rose leaf chart below can be found in this post]

In my previous post I pointed out some of the patterns I found interesting in The Young Ladies' Journal, Complete Guide to the Work-table (1885). So my first step was to translate the written instructions in the book into charts, because I'm a visual person and a chart lets me find the repeated and symmetric elements easier. I then debated the size of needles and thread. Since I had a large ball of white cotton, size 10 thread, I decided to use that for my test patterns.

The needles still had me a little baffled. After a quick online search, I came across an excellent little article about yarn weight and needle size by Eunny Jang of See Eunny Knit. The article, "Majoring in Lace, Part II", suggests trying out different needle sizes and seeing what you prefer. So I decided to test out different needle sizes by making a bookmark out of each pattern I wanted to try. I figured that in addition to determining which needle sizes I liked, I'd have something slightly useful.

I started with the Double-Rose Leaf Pattern, No.50, on page 53,

and translated the instructions to the following chart:

For further instructions...

Using size 10 cotton thread, and size 00 (double zero) needles, I knitted 13 repeats of the pattern. Its a long bookmark. On the two ends, I crocheted a small edging with size 8 (1.5 mm) hook. The edging was roughly: dc on edge, ch 3, dc into 1st stitch of chain, dc on edge.

While I liked the tight stitching with the size 00 needles, I also wanted to try a larger size, and see what the result looked like when somewhat looser. The second pattern I tried was the wave pattern, No. 56, on page 61.

I translated the instructions into chart form, as follows. When knitting, however, I changed the purl 2 edging, to a knit 1, purl 1, knit 1 edging.

For further instructions...

I used the same size 10 cotton thread, but this time I knitted on size 3 needles. While on the needles and before blocking, I didn't think much of the pattern and the use of size 3 needles, but after blocking I'm liking the result more. While I still prefer the smaller needles for this cotton thread, I can see that the larger needle size would work well with a fuzzier yarn, such as a wool fingerling.
Although I haven't done so yet, I'll probably add a little crochet edging to the ends to finish the bookmark off.

After these two swatches, I started in on the chemise trim. I decided to change the pattern slightly after the first pass. Thus far, I have finished one cuff and after the second is finished, I'll post the chart and revised pattern.

Victorian Knitted Lace, Revisited

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'd been browsing through Google Books and Project Gutenberg looking for early lace and embroidery texts. Of course, when I went to look for the chemise border I had in mind, I had trouble finding it again. I think I was looking through The Young Ladies' Journal, Complete Guide to the Work-table (1885).

In the knitting section, there was a chemise edging set, that I think I skipped over the first time:

I may give the edging a try. Or perhaps just the cuffs to start with; I can probably manage to finish a set of cuffs. I think what I was looking at before, however, were these petticoat borders (the rightmost is actually just a swatch):

Looking at the images again, what I actually want however, is a series of different edging patterns. Probably three layers, sort of like this:

I'm thinking a lacy stitch pattern, followed by a row of motifs, and then the wave pattern (the rightmost swatch of the previous set). I'm a lot more comfortable making things up in crochet than in knitting, but I think that I can probably manage something like this. I also have this desire to make a full knitted lacy skirt, and overlay it on some plain fabric (like black lace over a purple underskirt), and perhaps this idea could be the edging for that.

I'm still trying to figure out basic things like what size thread and needles to use for something like this. And where to find the appropriate thread (and needles). I'm guessing a size 0 or smaller needle (heh, let's see if I have the patience for that), but I'm not sure of the thread. I have a preference for cotton (static and I don't get along), but the lace knitting threads seem to come in wool and silk, and in that case I'd lean toward silk. Wool cobweb lace looks amazing, though, and if its an overlay anyway the itch factor won't be a problem.

Looking at that book also creates a desire to try making netting; some of the fancy netting. So far, I have no idea what to make out of it, or what to use it for, but I'm sure I'll think of something just so I can give it a try.

Steampunk triceratops

While browsing one of the LiveJournal steampunk communities a while back. Actually, a long while back. I came across a post by Suzanne showing a drawing she'd made of a steampunk triceratops. That drawing is what caused me to spend more time looking into steampunk fashion. Although I fairly quickly came to realize that I'm more interested in the elegant formal wear side, while most of the genre seems to fall toward explorers, engineers, and mad scientists, some of the fashions are still interesting. I plan to post, eventually, about steampunk, but for now I wanted to share the awesome triceratops.

One of the items I liked in the drawing was the scalloped gaiters. I'm not a fan of the gaiter portion, but I liked the scallops going up the sides. So I went looking for pictures of Victorian shoes, and came across The Bata Shoe Museum and All About Shoes.

Two boots: an English button boot (with the scallops) from 1885-1892, and a French boot by Melies from 1880-1885. While I'm a fan of the scallops, I love the embroidery detail on the second pair of shoes. The best part about the 'All About Shoes' site is that you can zoom in on a high resolution photo and really see the detail. Also, conveniently enough, Your Wardrobe Unlocked has a shoe recovering masterclass. So maybe there's some chance that I can make myself a pair of embroidered scalloped boots.

Inspiration Scrapbooks

Outi Pyy of Outsapop Trashion posted about her inspiration scrapbooks. Occasionally I make an attempt to gather inspiring images, and then the project gets pushed to the side in favor of other and newer ideas. While I draw designs in a notebook (and it took a while before I stopped drawing on random scrap pieces of paper), my recent image collection method has been to save images and webpages to my computer's hard drive. That approach results in poor browsing and a complete lack of organization (other than to dump all dress photos into the dress folder), although it does help minimize the physical stuff I collect. I have dreams of getting a tablet laptop, and moving all my designs to digital format, and for the inspiration part, annotating directly on images (say circling the portions I found interesting). I haven't managed to justify the cost yet, however.

What really caught my eye with Outi's scrapbooks, is this page, with all the lace work. I'm still on a lace craze. The two pieces that really caught my eye were the doily dress on the left by Gautier and the coat at the bottom center by Balenciaga. What makes her pages stand out is how she organizes pages (and notebooks) thematically. This blog is in someways my equivalent, but definitely less organized, and I like the thematic collage idea. In any case, she's inspired me, and I think I'll give the themed scrapbook idea a try. Sometime in the near future. Perhaps I'll start with a jacket embellishment theme.

Embellishment

Mary Corbet, of Needle 'n Thread, had a post recently about Alison Cole and her goldwork embroidery. Alison sells goldwork kits, among other supplies and kits, and I though the design on this evening bag was amazing (on this page of the kits). She also has a beginner's, give-it-a-try, kit Rosebud (it's at the bottom of the page). Unfortunately she's in Australia. I'm still tempted, because I can't seem to find any small kits in the U.S. for a reasonable price.

In the process of searching for a more local place to buy from, I found Berlin Embroidery (which is Canadian). They had some lovely whitework kits (they're at the bottom). I'm thinking this whitework magnolia design would be gorgeous as a pocket on a blouse, or perhaps over the collar bone on a chemise.

I seem to keep adding projects to my list of things to try...

Victorian Knitted Lace

I happened to be in a Barnes and Noble over the weekend, and I checked out the sewing/knitting/etc. section. I don't always bother browsing this section, because in the past I have rarely liked the knitting and crochet books I've seen. I also don't really have the dedication needed for large projects, and I'm still in the midst of one largish knitting project (a sweater) and one largish crochet project (a vest or table center piece, I haven't decided).

While browsing through the books, I found a couple books that I almost got. They had items that I would conceivably wear, and more than one in each book, but I didn't really like them as is. Since I'd probably end up changing them anyway, I didn't see the point in purchasing the books. So, I decided to look for a book, for either knitting or crochet, that covers edgings, insertions, and motifs. Or a book with lacy pattern stitches. I found one book of stitches and motifs, kind of, but in boring stitches, and I wanted something more lacy.

So I opened a knitting book that mentioned Victorian lace in the title. I almost got it. I may still get it. The book was entirely shawls and wraps and a couple fichus, but the lacy stitching was amazing. I don't see stitching like that in any of the modern books. My best guess for the actual title of the book is Victorian Lace Today, when I did an Amazon search for 'victorian lace knitting'.

Of course while browsing Amazon I had to check out all the related books. I came across 'Knitting Lingerie Style' by Joan McGowan-Michael, and this was one of the alternate images. It looks like the top in an earlier post I made, without buttons down the front. So, now I'm tempted to get the book.

So, somehow in the course of all this, I decided to look up knitted lace in Project Gutenberg and Google Book Search, because it still offends me to pay $20-$30 for a book that I'll only use part of (if I use it at all). One of those had a book, or books, from the mid 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, and in one of the books was a knitted chemise. While I don't have the patience to knit a full chemise, I'm pretty sure I can mange a wide lacy edging to go on the bottom. So I've decided that's going to be my next knitting project (I've still got a sleeve and a half to finish on the current project).

Back Embellishment

I feel like I'm alternating between older items I've come across, and more recent items. This probably won't continue for much longer, and if I don't go on an internet hiatus I'll have to work on seeking out more items of interest. In any case, I mentioned a couple posts back that I've been working on clothing with embellishment on the back recently. Bonzie of Designs by Bonzie, an Independent Fashion Label posted a plum jacket she created a while back. I was really taken with the fleur de lis design on the back. I generally avoid symmetry, simply because I don't want to worry about having the two halves match; I'm just lazy that way. Bonzie also has an etsy shop with another jacket featuring embellishment on the back.

Also posted a while back, apparently a long while back, by La Carmina was a feature on Lacrima and its Wa Lolita apparel. Wa Lolita is hybrid style of traditional Japanese and Lolita. I think the combination of the two styles is amazing, but La Carmina's post notes that the style isn't as popular as the more traditional Lolita styles. (The dress displayed in La Carmina's original post.) Lacrima's site might be a little challenging to navigate, but the images are worth it.

Ending on a random anecdote, I was viewing housing the other day and the saleslady commented on my skirt, and how rare it is these days to see someone in a long skirt. I was somewhat amused. I've got a couple short (knee length) skirts that I rarely wear, because my legs are scary white and I can't tan (I just burn). So, I wear long skirts, pretty much every day unless I'm using my bike to travel (in which case I have a dedicated grease stained pair of pants). My cousin-in-law was actually surprised to see me in a pair of pants when I had lunch with them. Oddly enough, I only have about six of these long skirts, and somehow I manage to run out of coordinating tops fairly regularly. I guess most of my skirts have similar color tones. I do have plans, and fabric, to make another three or so long skirts. Two of the fabrics at least, should add a much needed change of hue. I may need to make tops that match however.

A suit, of sorts.

I came across this dress at Antique Dress back in March, which only goes to show how long it took me to get around to creating a blog. The dress is listed as circa 1904, in wool, angora, and velvet.

In any case, I love it and at some point (after the to-be green dress), I'm going to recreate it. The only thing I may change is the floral design, or rather the method of floral design. Maybe. I have this current fascination with ribbon embroidery; at some point I'll actually try it, and probably ditch the obsession. Also, I have this desire to use up existing cloth in my stash, so I may have to change the color. I currently have a pale green wool, that's supposed to be for a suit anyways, and a purple wool, that was supposed to be for a cloak. On the other hand, they're both fairly thin wools, and this outfit may need a fabric with more structure.

More Edwardian

I've been busy and out of town, hence the long break in posting. One project involved a last minute (2-day) dress being sewn, because I didn't think anything in my closet was suitable. It's off topic, since I designed it before my current Victorian and Edwardian obsession, and it needs revisions. Going from a pattern made from a woven mockup to a stretch fabric is challenging. Far better than my last attempt, but I think what I want to do with the bust part of the dress may not be entirely feasible. I'm still running revision options through my head.

I've also learned that stitching a design on the back takes me about 10 hours; this is the second back design I've completed. At some point an embroidery machine will be an excellent investment (I think), but in the meantime I'm getting decent at maneuvering a hooped piece of fabric around curves (with the feed dogs on).

Now, back to the regular content. Indiamos has added some updates to A Daily Hint From Paris flickr set.

I'm rather taken with the trailing flower vine going up the underskirt on the left dress, and the flowery vest of the second outfit.

The problem with stitching a design on the back of my clothing is that I can't enjoy looking at it, and neither can anyone talking to or facing me. It's only visible if I walk by and someone happens to be looking at my back. My next shirt is already supposed to have design elements on the front rather than the back; it's just so tempting to fill in the large blank space of the back.

I think the amount of detail on the vest could drive me nuts if I took my usual approach, but it might be an excellent application of the Spoonflower custom fabric printing. I think I can get around a flat quarter of full design in an uncompressed tiff file, but I haven't tried uploading a compressed file. My test project when I'm ready to splurge the money is to see how large of a design I can get in a single file. I'm thinking there are some really cool possibilities with seam matching and such if entire pattern pieces can be printed out (kind of like ClothKits, but with customized clothing and designs).

Of the other newer images, the triangles on the bottom of the skirt in this Mauve Satin dress I find amusing. I also find this Velvet and Ermine Mantle entertaining, but in this case I like the interesting design.

Burda Fashion History

Burda has a series of images of past Burda styles, titled Fashion History. There's around 60 images over the two sets they currently have available. I went through and selected out my favorites, listed below.

From the 1966 group:
I wasn't much of a fan of this group of images; I can't see these styles of dresses fitting on me well. In this sleek black dress, I like the lace sleeves with the lace ruffles on the wrists and the lace ruffle along the collar. In this empire line dress, I thought the bust gathers (pleats?) were interesting, especially how they come out of the lower seam.

From the 1956/1957 group:
These three jackets are bit different from modern day jackets, and they have a fitted waist: a set of double pockets, a corded collar and double-breasted front, and a lace overlay. The last had a caption describing a cream colored lace over taffeta, which could come off too frilly but could also be really elegant.

I also found several interesting skirts. This red dress has some odd pleating on the skirt; a little bizarre, but still interesting. This green dress has all the pleating bunched together at the side front seams. I really like it and I'm debating duplicating just the skirt portion; I am in need of new skirts anyway. I'm not a fan of the mustard color, but the waist detail on this dress I found intriguing, and I thought the dress as a whole kind of nice.

These three coats are all somewhat similar: a "classic, double-breasted redingote", a green wool coat with fur collar, and a "princess coat" with a large flat collar. I have a coat planned already, and only the back is the part of the design I want to keep, so I could certainly flare the skirt out more, and add some of the front details like the large collars and the pockets.

I think I'm just a sucker for a nicely fitted waist.

Linktastic

I'm shamelessly stealing Erin's Friday title from A Dress A Day. I've browsed my way through the top 60 blogs listed in Suzi's blog list, that I mentioned in my last post. So I've come across some number of items, or parts of items, none of which really warrant their own post. So I'm lumping them all together.

First, Erin linked to an older guest post that discusses body shape and what to wear (along with how to imitate a different body shape). The interesting tidbit was that commercial RTW assumes an 8in difference between waist and hips. The hourglass figure has at least a 10in difference, and shoulders as wide as hips (based on looking in a mirror). So I am reminded that I am an hourglass (my hip waist difference varies between 10 and 12in). That would also explain why every time I tried to buy pants they were always 2in too large in the waist if the hips fit.

Adriana, of The Princess Seam, discusses waistcoats. A recent Burda WOF (2/2008) has a waistcoat pattern: 116A and 116B. Cidell of Miss Celie's Pants has created this waistcoat in black. Oddly enough I was more interested in the pattern when all I saw was a scaled down image. The dithering of the red and white stripes somehow makes it look kind of lacy, almost like it was partially knitted with cabling or some lacy pattern. This is the kind of pattern where it'd be interesting to see how everyone makes it unique. I'd make the shoulder ruffles out of organza, make the bottom edge larger and move it up on the side seam so it joins at (or near) my true waist, possibly insert a peeking lace trim along that lower seam (and if not, do something interesting with the pockets), and maybe make the collar a little wider and out of some organza and lace combination. Color wise, I'd probably go with a pale gray or greenish-gray matte fabric.

Phyllis, of The Sewing Divas, shows a side-by-side example of a stylized pattern illustration and the resulting dress. It's a good example because I found the illustration intriguing, but the actual dress not so interesting.

Next, the parts of items I found interesting. Debbie, of Stiches and Seams, mentions a pair of capri pants she's working on, and I have to agree that this pocket looks like fun. Or rather, I like the fan pintuck design.

Bonzie, of Independent Fashion Label, shows off a summer dress. I like the flowers going up along one side of neck (see here), but personally I don't care much for the large lump of flowers not quite center front. I'm still hoping that at some point I can experiment with silk ribbon embroidery and ribbon flowers to add a dainty bit of uniqueness to a few of the garments I make.

Cidell shows some of her favorites from Mrs. Stylebook. I like the asymmetry of the front design on this blouse, and I also like the sleeves. I'd probably have the front design come down from the shoulder design rather than up from the armpit, however.

I like the sleeve detail on this shirt. (Found by way of this post.)

This post by La Carmina has some interesting underwear; unfortunately they're supposedly for men (I find this odd, but to each their own desires). The idea of pintucking and lace with a few bows, however, seems like some nice decoration for underwear.

I don't like red, but ...

Every now and then I come across a knitwear that I actually like. As in a sweater type knitwear, as opposed to just a stretchy fabric.

So I've been working my way through Suzi's list of sewing blogs, and I was getting a bit discouraged since there were a lot of crafty, quilting, knitting blogs, but I eventually found my way to a few more clothes sewing oriented blogs. And occasionally some of these blogs have a few interesting clothing pictures regardless of the usual content. In any case, I came across Bari J.'s blog, which had a post (nice bags, if you're into bags) and an image of the cover of Belle Armoire. Evidently I should keep an eye on magazines, because I think this top is cute.

So, I went and looked up the magazine to see if it had anything else good, and I found an even better knit top.

There's a close up of the upper half of the top in the table of contents of the May-June issue. I may have to find myself a copy to see if the magazine actually says anything useful about those two items. On the other hand, I still have a sweater that is missing its sleeves, and I've been 'working on it' for over two years now.

Imagining Fabrics

I've got a backlog of images from the past few months, that I will entirely forget now that I actually have a place to comment and link to them from.

Instead, onwards. Indiamos has flickr set of published illustrations, A Daily Hint From Paris. (Found by way of A Dress A Day). I saw this dress, and started imagining fabric changes ...

... like the top shoulder/collar portion in a flesh-tone net with princess lace, or perhaps a pale colored chiffon with appliqué/embroidery. And that underskirt matching, with the big bold design (I'm still seeing something like princess lace). Although, perhaps without the slit so high. The edging above the bust in a dark blue-green velvet, and the rest of the gown in a deep blue satin. Or something; I'm still working on the colors.

Back from the 1940s

This probably belongs under the category of things-that-won't-look-good-on-me. I am, however, entranced by the back of this dress. With something closer to tails, of course, than the bow that's on it.



Luckily I can't think of any current dress in the project list to stick that back on, because I can just imagine the sunburn I would get (and the horrible swimsuit strap lines that would show).

The dress that started this all.

So I've had this somewhat recent obsession with tails. Taken to the extreme is Falsetto's outfit from Eternal Sonata (which I totally want, even if I would look ridiculous in it).

And, well, I came across this 1882 dress while browsing Antique Dress

This was in essence my Dress-Of-The-Day. Then in the process of researching victorian era dresses and figuring out where the seam lines are, I decided that I really liked the victorian era styles (probably because they actually have a waist), and I wanted more dresses to muse over and add to my infinite project list. In any case, duplicating this dress is now about two or three down on my project list, in pale green chinese brocade with either dark green or lavender accents (probably dark green).