Monday, May 20, 2013

Historical Fortnightly: #10: Literature

front of dress


back of dress


The Challenge: Literature - I decided to be a lemming and do the Great Gatsby like everyone else
Fabric: Silk!
Pattern: My own!

A few weeks ago, this dress came up on ebay and I HAD to have it. I LOVE it. It's now in my collection and it truly is stunning in person.

The extant dress is very interesting in terms of shapes. I took a lot of detailed measurements and examined the seamlines. The front of the skirt is a normal circle skirt front. It measures 42" from end to end. The back of the skirt has a "pedal" hem. There are four pedals, each are 16" from high amp to high amp, 6" vertical, and have 9" of null space between them at the widest point.

I didn't bother with the silk tulle much because it is mostly gone. There were probably 8 triangles hanging down at one point but not anymore.

The front of the skirt is lightly gathered.

The cummerbund waist is 9 1/4" long on the angled sides, 7" down the center where the flowers are. Across the top of the cummerbund waist is 16", the middle is 17", and the lower edge is 18 1/4".

The back of the cummerbund waist is straight across at the top but curved at the bottom edges; the front of the cummerbund waist is "bow tied" shape.

The top on the extant looks to be a straight tank top style top. The front of the top is straight across the bottom edge, which helps to give the bodice area shaping. It's only 9" from the underarm to the top of the cummerbund waist.

I'm still working on the tank top top for my dress because I haven't perfected it yet, but I think the issue I'm having with it isn't "pattern" as much as I need to move the gathers to the edges and not the center bottom of the top.
Year: Probably about 1927.
Notions:Thread. I do have some flowers for the center of the dress but I got mad at the flowers (I had put them on slightly off center) and they are sitting in the bad craft pile for now.
How historically accurate is it? Very. Dupioni silk was popular in the 1920's and they had sewing machines!
Hours to complete: Roughly five?
First worn: May 18th. It was too cold to wear by itself so I had a long white sweater over it. Still, it looked cute and the skirt is completely awesome on this dress.
Total cost: Mom bought the silk as a birthday present so none!

I know the pictures aren't the best but this really is a fun dress. I think I might tweek it a bit more and wear it to opening reception at Dress U.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Food!

I've been playing with my food again. :-)

Lemon Pepper and Chives Chicken

I had fun with this one and I'm still experimenting with the recipe. It tasted fine but I accidentally burnt some of the chives so...I need to rework my timing next time.

1 tablespoon Olive Oil
2 tablespoons white cooking wine
3 fresh chives - chopped
1 tablespoon of lemon pepper
1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice
2 boneless chicken breasts

I fried up the chicken in the olive oil. All the measurements are relative since I just poured the olive oil in the pan for cooking. Once one side was cooked, I should have only added the cooking wine, lemon pepper, and lemon juice but I also added the chives. Do not do this. I lightly coated the chicken in lemon pepper. Once the other side is almost done, I should have added the chives. The chives are from my garden and some of them have onion pearls. I crushed those using a garlic press and put the pressed pearls on the chicken. Once it was full cooked and I put some salt on it (probably something else I should have added to the list), it tasted wonderful. I didn't take pictures because it was slightly ugly with the burnt chives but, eh, whatever. It was very yummy.

Another thing I've made is my version of study food:

food!

Deviled Eggs! It's just boiled egg yolks, a small amount of the real dijon mustard, a large amount of mayo, and chives. I then mashed it together, sprinkled paprika on the eggs after filling them with the mix, and put green olives on top. Awesome and tasty study food!

Monday, May 6, 2013

Checkered Wool Regency Dress



I'm the one down in front with the purple ribbon in my pink and black hair. The dress is an Apron Front Regency styled dress. It's handsewn with cotton thread. The lining is cotton and the dress itself is 100% checked blue wool. I bought the wool at the fabric.com sale and it is stunning stuff. It moves wonderfully and plays nicely.



Side view of the dress. I did long sleeves since this was originally meant to be a fall dress. However, it works wonderfully for Spring as well!


Ignore the odd wrinkles at the shoulders - that's from wearing the improper chemise and not having the apron front tight enough in the front. Simple issues that I'll fix next wearing. :-) The back of the dress is very full. I probably could have added even more fabric but I was going for an every day somewhat rustic look.

I'll post more pictures when I can finally transfer them from my camera to my computer in a couple of weeks. Thank you to Gloria for taking such wonderful pictures!

Historical Fortnightly #9: Flora and Fauna



The Challenge: Flora and Fauna
Fabric: Poly taffeta I think
Pattern:  Flora!
Year:  mid 18th Century
Notions:Just the fabric and the thread
How historically accurate is it? The cut and the pattern of the fabric are both accurate but I machine sewed the entire thing and it is 100% dead dino
Hours to complete:one!
First worn:Fort Fred, April 27th
Total cost: Maybe $10? I don't remember. I bought the fabric at Jomars a couple of years ago.

Here is my inspiration image (aka, the extant garment I based my jacket off of):


I did the cuffs differently simply because the fabric I had refused to behave.