Dresses inspired by my nieces and now selling on ETSY.

The Ri-Ri Dress:

Wedding Waistcoats:

There were 7 groomsmen in this local wedding and the groom wanted a tweed style waistcoat for each one.

The above are photo's of the finished Groom's waistcoat in a gorgeous hand woven wool.

Below are details of both waistcoats:

Have just bought online a ebook of Garsault's L'art de la Lingerie. I am so excited about seeing what's inside. It's in french though so my Dad is going to have to translate...

Historical Costume here we go...

Having spent months doing research and forgetting to update my blog, I have finally started working on the actual garments. First off, starting with the first layer that would be pulled on in a morning to get dressed; is the shift, or smock and what we think look likes a modern day old-fashioned nightie.
I've taken the pattern from a simplicity costume pattern only because I can't find much resources for the c18th shift.

And it's been making the shift coz it's just one big rectangle with no shape and looks far too big. I've also used a linen I got from our local shop as that's what they were traditionally made from but I've a feeling it's a little heavy.

The Simplicity pattern also included a corset but I've gone to Jil Salen Corset book instead and copied a corset from there.
It's still in the making stage...

Anyway, I'm having so much fun...

The Bath Fashion Museum

I think my wardrobe ought to look like this! All this research is uncovering some fascinating things. This is a photo from the front page on the Bath Fashion Musuem Booklet and it's exactly all these pastel and florals that I wanted to work with. I'm also making my way through Janet Arnolds book on patterns and I've never read anything that makes my heart melt in such a collapsing way. I'll scan a copy in, with all her wonderful notes and drawings in and let you have a look. 

Each section of these old dresses were lined so meticulously (something I have a real heart for emulating) so I ordered a whole roll of white cotton lawn and white linen,  but then I found this ....

Which is a cotton lawn but check how sweet it is. I could only get a few metres so I hope I can source it out again, I'd love them all to be lined in this!!

Anyway, onwards and upwards with this project.

A trip to Bath

I'll begin this trip with us climbing up the Georgian brick stairs to the bridge over the river in Bath. Runners in their leggings and seriously sporty looking outfits all head behind us in droves towards the Runner's Village and to the start of the Bath Half Marathon.A teddy bear costume has just grinned his way passed and we're deciding where best to get a coffee and a quick loo break before we head off to Queen's Square.
I've not seen Bath before. I feel like I'm in Italy: the sun's even threatening to come out and everything is so gorgeous.
I'll be honest, my real reason for coming to Bath wasn't to wach the Bath Half, though I'll cheer my friends on as loudly as I can, but I have a secret plan, a long held desire to make an Eighteenth Century garment and I've taken an exra day off work to go round the Bath Fashion Museum. There's something about the layers of fabric, the ingenious ways to fasten up without zips, the fabrics, the romance, the swishing layers...And I love the idea of lining everything properly with lawns or linens.
So I've decided to make a project out of it, to blog the whole thing; from research to design to making. And I want to make each layer, the shift, the corset and whatever style of dress I go for. I think I'm going to try and blog every few weeks as obviously I've got to do this in my spare time. I have Nancy Bradfields brilliant book as handy companion and Janet Arnolds amazing 'Patterns of fashion' and the only thing to do now is start.

Oh and check out these photo's!

One of those days.

I'm not in the shop today but I'm working from home and am just having one of those days when I can't quite focus on anything in particular. I have so much work on that I should just buckle down and get on with it.
I've had my embroidery machine going, doing some labels for a client and it's just not working right, and I have managed to watch an old Judy Garland film for a client who wants a dress made from it, but now I've given up and working on my blog. It's almost 5 o clock and some friends have just turned up so that's me done for the day. How very lame.