Thanksgiving

Thanks for petticoats and redingotes, gigot sleeves and rococo slippers. Fancy dress and hand sewn stays. Embroidery- hand and machine. Crinoline cages and lobster bustles, paper patterns and scaled up grids. Lids, hats that is, all kinds, even paper ones. Stockings with stripes and silk with clocks. Cloaks! Dolmans, lace shawls, pelerines and pelisses. That crazy 18th c. hoodie, the Brunswick. The humble Sontag. Gloves, gauntlets and mitts. Under-sleeves made of lace-suitable for so many periods. Hedgehog wigs and horsehair (stuff it in the sofa or wear it on your head). The Directoire! The actual one and the revival. Cork rumps and mouse brows and white face paint. Tudor doublets and Jacobean ones. Farthingales and cheesy plastic bridal hoops. Nylon netting for all our bombast needs. Parasols. Pierrot jackets, caracos and hot coco. Skating costumes, bathing costumes, tennis costumes. Casaquins and Harlequins. Liripipes, fun to say and to wear. Ouches, rosettes, and fontanges. Shoes! Every single kind. Corsets and pairs of bodies, chemises and shifts. Kilts, chitons and cummerbunds. The fabulous fibula.
In short, every single dress-up thing that gives us joy, online and in real life. And the lovely community that fuels the fire.

Ever You Thimble Servant,
Miss Brilliantine

A Short Post About Waistbands

Antique petticoat. Business in the front, party in the back.

Perfectly period for bustle petticoats, so why not underskirts?

I dislike above all things to have too many waistbands on my actual waist. I've adapted a petticoat construction for my underskirts. I get a nice flat front and as much looseness as I need to have the skirt hang just a little below the waist.

Front and side front sewn together and finished with a bias tape at the waist. The back is finished with a gathered drawstring and then sewn to the front. The ribbon must be in the casing before it's sewn. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ever Your Thimble,
Miss Brilliantine

Ever

Another 99c Store Costume Hack

You may know I loves me some 99c store. I'm very fond of the re-make or up-cycle however you term it. Some things I use as intended and some I rework. I bought these gentleman's Sunday go to meeting socks and thought "hmmm", they have a high cotton content I bet they would dye beautifully.

Gent's fancy dress socks, quite tall almost OTK

Dye vat with helpful chopstick for stirring

I put them into a bowl of dye and walked away. They dyed beautifully!

If the dye package says Sea Coral, believe it.

Hack the Second-

Stretchy anklets as mitts. The are basically a stretchy tube, if they fit your feet they'll fit your hand.

I really liked the pattern and thought mitts!

Mitt hack modeled by my Sis-in-Law Heather, who always has a manicure.

Super easy, cut off the sewing at the toe. I was going to carefully unpick the seam and it was faster to just cut off the stitching. It doesn't unravel just rolls a bit. Hand stitch between the thumb and fingers and you are done. 100% period-no. But passable at a few feet and well, 99c.

Ever Your Thimble Servant,
Miss Brilliantine

I Take on the Scallops

Here again is the inspiration dress. Not a note for note copy, more like collaborating with the past.

Worth ball gown Philadelphia Museum

Here's how I manged the scallops. First I cut out the pattern on card stock, measuring the hem and dividing it by the number if scallops I wanted.

I drew the pattern on the lining, and pinned it. Then I crossed  my fingers and sewed.

And it worked!  I cut out the scallops very close to the sewing then turned and pressed.

So far so good. Now let's see if the other side cooperates.

Ever Your Thimble Servant,
Miss Brilliantine