another sress making book

How to dress well on a shilling a day: a ladies’guide to home dressmaking and millinery.

 

Highly recommended for the text as it describes the order of sewing and how to. That paragraph on the “bulgarian fold” is really amazing! At least for coming out and stating that the “peacock” style train is impossible to self arrange! Which is something I have trying to get across when getting photos of my gowns with trains- they need a wrangler to look good!

sylvia's home journal

Sylvia’s Home Journal, 1879

The full pattern is not available, but it is interesting to see the difference in how ready made patterns are drawn at this time compared to how drafting blocks are drawn.

Drafting blocks are generally still very heavily 1860s in shape whiles these pattern sketches tend to show the very long line of the era.

oh no!

I still believe one of my beaded skirt obsessions was from a tiny book on costume, probably wedding dresses and is almost certainly gone (the library probably has removed the book from even stack.)

But I think I may also have totally forgotten that one of my favourite costumes from film has a very heavily pearled tablier!

http://www.wornthrough.com/2014/02/museum-life-film-costume-in-the-gallery-and-the-archive/

and:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bauhausfrau/albums/72157632918697746

In fact this so closely matches my image in my head that perhaps I was thinking of it all along!

Though the company that created the gown is very well known for using historic sources so there may also be some influence of the same sources!

princesse dress source!

The World of fashion and continental feuilletons (1879-1880)

I have seen this in Patterns of Fashion 2 for years so it’s nice to be able to put it in context!

There is also a skirt pattern that shows the top and tailing cutting layout but also the curved upper section for fitting over the hips!

And this section is repeated a few times, handy for those who were collecting the magazines by month!

Plate 178 has a style I love, the self trimmed gown, the vertical folds at the neck.

Maybe I can do this with my princesse petticoat? It would make it so very much more useful!

There are other columes online too!

myras threepenny journal

MYRA’S THREEPENNY JOURNAL (1882)

I had only read of this by the term “Myra’s” so finding a copy at all has been fun. This again mainly has plates with front and back views but a few plates stand out, again I love the use of folds and pleats 😉

 

A Concise Treatise on Ladies and Misses' Tight-fitting Garments

A Concise Treatise on Ladies and Misses’ Tight-fitting Garments, 1886

And the tradition of drafting books appearing several years older than pattern sketches.

However this is great as this book deals with basically natural form shapes!

The Complete Dressmaker for the Million

The Complete Dressmaker for the Million, 1875

Once again very old fashioned shapes for the era.

The Art of Dressmaking

The Art of Dressmaking, 1895

What a clever and distinct publication! The garments are photographed and are clearly scale miniatures.

Cutting Out and Dressmaking

Cutting Out and Dressmaking, 1879

And yet another drafting manual being slightly old fashioned.

record of fashion

The Weekly record of fashion, 1882

Beautiful plates.

The Monthly record of fashion, volume 7 1883

The Monthly record of fashion, volume 8 1883

The Monthly record of fashion, volume 9 1884

 

 

Ladies cutting made easy

Ladies cutting made easy, 1885

Beautiful plates, including braid layouts.

The Tailor and Cutter and London Art Journal

The Tailor and Cutter and London Art Journal: An Index of Cutting, Fashion and Trade, 1890

Another tailoring book, but totally packed with diagrams of fantastic quality.

CF Worth disposition gowns

Help. Obsessed. There may have been a Pinterest board created and it may be strictly properly sourced and maybe just updated with a gown that is included in one of the few Lafayette photos to have lots of close views. Such bliss.

 

LANGTRY, MRS

Neg. No: 2194

Neg. Size: 15″X12″

Neg. Date: 10-11-1899

Sitter: Lillie Langtry (stage name) Lady De Bathe, née Emilie Charlotte Le Breton (1853-1929).

I think this may be my favourite of all the gowns Worth produced like this. Though that may be because it’s Lily Langtry!

Yes, I often combine my interest in theatre, costume, and stage so of course I have a lovely file archive of Mrs Langrty.

 

I know a lot of people have been inspired by RedThreaded’s Worth gown, but there may be some weird web archiving glitch so here it is for anyone not yet seen!

 

I apologise! This image has been very hard to source. This is the other woven velvet/satin gown that is also absolutely taken up brain space!

Worth, Tea gown, 1895 © Photograph rights reserved / Mairie de Paris

This has horizontal bust darts! As well as curved bust seams and a waist seam to get that beautiful shaping of the velvet.

 

But all this has been part of my life tidying that has been happening- organising books, papers, digital files. SO this has meant reorganising my patterns and WIP and thus my recent flurry of posts.

 

I’ll be trying to get all my Mina posts from before the website changeover, but that may be a bit difficult!

following is totally cool!

I recently had a conversation where someone apologised for reading all my bog because it felt like stalking. To which, I hope, I replied it wasn’t at all 🙂

I pay for this website and so have full control over the content. If it’s posted here it’s intended to be read- at some point in history 🙂 I just share across different media so that no one has to tread over here! Mobile devices are great but for apps rather than browsers 🙂

The entire point of this website is to put down all the costuming resources I have used for myself and for anyone else 🙂

 

There is really only one thing that I would ask- is to share 🙂 If anything on my site has been of interest please share 🙂

 

(PS stalking is totally different, I only use the term for actual stalking. So that means taking screen caps of my words/photos of self and hoarding/obsessing over their meaning over many years might just get into the creepy area regardless of intent 😉 )

sunburst, I have to!

In tidying all my beads I found my pearls again. All the pearls. The Metropolitan Sunburst gown uses faceted beads so would have glittered like a glittery thing. But I am short shighted, that effect would get very lost on me, especially while working so the more solid effect of the pearls of the Kyoto version is very tempting. It may also be down to the darkening of the lined beads (not sure what metal, but given they look nearly black.. tin? Silver?)

I’m not sure if the instagram importer will work so here is a quick grab from facebook 🙂

In this photo, clockwise from top:

~super delicate cotton tulle. It wobbles so I think it may actually be rayon. It’s still a very gold colour. So to the RIT color remover

~silk faced satin (a purchase from Cynthia Setje waaaay back in 2006! So it’s kind of perfect 🙂 ) Already knocked back to gold from green, it should soften further (6 skirt panels cut and interfaced, colour removed with pre-Dye by Dylon)

~hand drawn beading pattern (pinned to the face of my front skirt panel.) This may get swapped for a scan of my scale drawing which is more accurate 🙂

~glass pearls! You have no idea how expensive glass beads have been for the decade around my start date! These were a lucky dollar store find! (24 hanks)

~silk habotai- intensely yellow- to the RIT!

~silk chiffon- looks quite lovely, much more institutional mint in reality! To the RIT!

 

Not shown are my sequins and lined seed beads.

I may have enough sateen to line the bodice, but there may be a little Worth construction hunting before I commit!