Jenny La Fleur

I seem to be at a stand still on all my projects. I hate that. Oh, except of course the pirate which I just don't want to work on. Nothing against the project, everything that needs doing on it is super boring. I need to get over it I know.

I made a trek to G Streets today so I have the silk thread for my quilted petticoat (huzzah for a decent match on my custom dyed silk!) and the twill tape for the cream petticoat. So I'm all ready to start on the petticoat as soon as I can get the design finalized and the panels sewn up. I really should do that as I don't have a needlework project now. I could be making progress on something while I watch movies at night if I had anything to work on! :>

I also stopped by the needlework shop downtown and discovered they carry silk embroidery thread, several kinds actually. So I'm set on suppliers for that project. I need to decide on the actual shade of color and then I'll be ready to start on that... once I have the fabric... and after I've finalized the embroidery design of course. *sigh* I either have nothing to work on or 4 projects going. Go figure.

Yes I am being cryptic about the former costume and no you haven't missed something. This embroidered silk thread something is a "secret project" for wear next spring. It's secret for now anyway. I'm just not ready to announce it quite yet. *rubs hands together* Ya'll like it though. :> Picture much embroidery so I need to start it fairly soon.

Started work on the new petticoat today. Normally I wouldn’t even consider trying to make something on such short notice (the event is Sunday) but a petticoat is so easy and I really want something new. I’m worn this dress twice all ready after all! *hee hee*

I’ve got the basic panels cut out. I still need to cut some of width off – I don’t need the full 60”. I have a generous yard of fabric left over and I’m thinking that rather than using it to make a ruffle I’ll set it aside and make a matching jacket later this summer. This lovely fine creamy linen would make a lovely ensemble – so easy to dress up and change with accessories. I can already picture it with all black accessories or with touches of pink instead. Yeah… that’s what I’ll do.

Now I have to decide what style of jacket to make. I’m dying to try out the Northern Society’s1790s jacket pattern but on the other hand I’ve been admiring the earlier style laced –over-stomacher jackets like the one in Costume Close-Up lately too… How will I ever decide?!!

I starting pinning trims to my hat yesterday but I’m not content with it yet so I haven’t tacked anything down. I love the ribbons I bought but I can’t figure out a way to put them on the hat in a pretty fashion. Typical. :P

Thank you all so much for you kind compliments on my hat yesterday. *blushes* I'm so glad you all like it too! :>

I managed to mark another thing off my list yesterday as well - I fixed my petticoat last night. I had originally made the top of the ruffle about 1" high but I found that a combination of the heavy linen and nasty Virginia humidity caused it to droop and look distinctly blah. So I closed the gap a bit, making the top more like 5/8" tall. I also covered the machine stitching with 3/8" black grosgrain ribbon. Sewing on the ribbon by hand was a heck of a lot easier than sewing the whole ruffle on by hand. :> I wish I could have found a matching brown ribbon instead of black but no such luck. If I ever do find some I can always replace it. Tacking on ribbon is nice mindless work that I don't mind doing again...

Well I'm off to shower, make a quick trip to the post office (elizabethsdress - you can be expecting an e-mail on that later. :>) and then home again for more sewing. I have several projects to work on but I think I will start with the polonaise tapes. That should be interesting.

( the full to-do list I forgot to post yesterday )

shoe cockades:

I have a series of pics for a tutorial of how I made these, but I’ll post that after my deadline. *grin*

linen petticoat:

Finally finished – yay! The first pic is sans ruffle. After much prodding from the sister I went ahead and added the gathered ruffle after all. It does look nice but what a pain! I’d like to add a band of matching grosgrain ribbon, to cover my stitches but I don’t see that happening today, especially since I don’t have any narrow brown grosgrain ribbon on hand. The petticoat is nicely washed, softened and hanging up to air dry. Once it’s dried a bit I’ll iron it for tomorrow.

hat & hair:

The finished hat! :> I’m very pleased, thinking it turned out quite pretty. It would not have happened without Bridget’s help though. I am seriously millinery challenged but luckily she is not. I pulled together the elements (everything but the silk changeable ribbon swiped from the stash) but could not figure out how to arrange them on the hat in a pleasing way. All the credit for that must go to my long suffering sis. She pinned in place and I sewed it all on. Thanks Bridget!! :>

The hair test also calls for kudos to my talented sis. She patiently curled my hair in soft curlers before bed last night and then worked her magic on the set curls this morning. I’m really happy with the results. It’s not really “me” but it looks period, which is more important. It turned out to be quite easy to do as well. The trick is small curls, fluffed by pulling each curl apart several times to create volume. A few combs, hair pins and a hair extension and viola – big hair! The extension doesn’t need to be curled after all (which is nice) although I do need to tack down that bottom knot…

On to those wretched bodice hooks…

An extra day to work is a total blessing since I have been moving in slow motion all week. Not good with looming deadlines. Here are some pics of the first version of the linen petticoat. I must note that Narcissa is a bit smaller in the waist than I am at the moment. Yep. And pics of the original slits sewn up. Not bad, aye? They ended up inside back pleats, so you can’t even tell they are there now!

The linen petticoat is sort of finished. The ruffle is not working for me so I’m trying to decide if I even want to bother. I don’t have enough fabric to make proper box pleats all the way around so I’m stuck with really spaced pleats. I could use knife pleats or simply gather the ruffle but I’m thinking I may just skip the whole thing. Despite the time I took to hand sew the hems last night I’m feeling very unmotivated about the whole thing right now. It certainly doesn’t need the ruffle.

So besides the ruffle, it’s done. Of course, when I tried it on this morning to mark the hem I found it was actually too big this time around. *rolls eyes* Too big I can work with though – that is why safety pins were invented, you know! :>


My main project now is the hat. I pulled out all our hats and found one suitable for one of those cute “cocky” little hats, that look so charming on big 1780s hair. I’m basing my hat off one in Jefferson in Paris, the peach trimmed one on the right side of the screen capture. In a former life my straw hat was Bridget’s 18th century hat so it was all ready pinned up in the back and everything.

After looking at pics and screen captures for a while, I tried the hat on (with my hair looped and fluffed in an approximation of the correct style) to get an idea of any re-shaping I wanted to do. I thought drooping the brim a bit in front would be nice so I damped that section with a spray bottle and propped it up in the correct position with cans.

I must admit I’ve never actually re-shaped a hat. I read this was the way to do it on h-cost though. I was a little skeptical that it was really that easy (millinery work has always intimidated me) but it was! A few hours later and my brim is nicely shaped and on it’s way to being a jaunty little hat. As you can tell from the pic, this hat definitely needs the big hair to look right! :>

After I’m done typing and drinking my cup of tea I’ll start on the trimming. I’m taking ostrich feathers from our hat stash, denuding most of our old dress up hats in the process. I’m nothing if not resourceful. *hee hee* I’m not sure I want to use the black ostrich feathers (perhaps too much contrast, despite the dark brown petticoat). I may use some peacock feathers I’ve been hoarding instead. The white ostrich feathers will definitely be used though. I still have to raid the stash for ribbons and/or fabric for the rest of the trimmings but I’m looking forward to it. Picking out the trimming is the fun part of hat making. :>

My tea is gone so I’m off…

Thanks for all your well wishes. :> I had a really lovely time in Richmond. Bridget is completely moved out and finished for the semester. Yay, I get my best friend back for the summer! :> We celebrated with Cold Stone ice cream, a California Pizza Kitchen lunch and a lazy afternoon wondering around the mall. It was a really lovely day out too, which made it all perfect.

Once we got home, I started out by redoing the front waistband seeing if I could make that work. No such luck. There just isn’t enough fabric.

So on to plan “b”, which is to basically start from scratch and recut the slits. I got as far as taking out all my previous stitching and sewing up the old slits. I should have gotten further but I ended up making an emergency grocery store run for Mom and then got sucked into a movie B brought home from the library (bad B!). At least I have a blank slate for tomorrow.

I’m definitely dropping the shift, or I should say worrying about it next week. I’m still hoping to get both petticoats (including ruffles), a neckerchief and hat finished by Friday night though. Lets see… 3 days – plenty of time right? *rolls eyes* I should have a hair test with B sometime before Saturday morning too…

I have a petticoat – yay! Well, actually it’s not that exciting but anything crossed off my list excites me these days. :> I also finished up the bum roll, taking out a bit more stuffing and stitching the ends again. Here are a few pics of the cotton petticoat and bum roll in all their glory, along with a few pics of the newly finished stays on Narcissa.

For the petticoat I used two panels cotton fabric (45”x46”) and 2yds 1" cotton twill tape. The front is one panel and back another. The pocket slits are 7.5” long and unfinished, being on the salvage of the panels. The skirts are pleated in fairly large pleats, then gathered to the exact width required. The hem is 4.5” deep and allows for the bum roll in the back. I stitched my initials into the front inside of the waistband so I can easily tell which way to put it on. *wink* The petticoat actually turned out a little long somehow, so I think I’ll take a tuck in it when I attach the bottom ruffle. I’m waiting to do the ruffle, as it’s one of those “optional” projects this week. :>

All in all an easy project, and one I can now simply copy for the rest. (Yeah, all the specific measurements are here in case I loose the paper the are also scribbled on... feel free to icnore. :>) The one difference I will make for the linen petticoat is make a flatter front. It means the pocket slits won’t be on the salvage but oh well.

The 90” (or more precisely 88”) skirt circumference seems adequate, so I will cut down the 54” width of the linen and use the extra pieces make a nice wide ruffle at the bottom of that petticoat as well. I love those 18th century box-pleated ruffles! Okay… enough of a break, on to the linen petticoat!

Well I’ve gone through my class notes and flipped through a few books so I’m off to start sewing those skirts…

I decided on the brown linen for the petticoat and ordered that last night. You guys had some good points about my choices and I thank you heartily for your impute. I really liked them both but in the end it came down to the fact that I really wanted the brown more. I’m just a brown-type girl I guess. :>

I can’t wait until it arrives!

I haven't gotten too much done in the sewing department since my last entry. I decided that I was not in a hand sewing mood today so instead of working on the pocket, I pulled out that petticoat I cut last month. I've discovered I definitely don't like cotton homespun. I used to like it alot but I'm not into the texture anymore. Also, it likes to move, warp and stretch while you are working with it. On top of that it's hard to sew. It's worse than taffeta for messing up on my machine. Blah. No wonder it's cheap.

I got the skirt panels sewn together, all ready for pleating. I'm trying to decide if I want to try the finish the hem, then mark the finished length from the top thing. It would keep me from having to con Mom into marking another hem, but then Narcissa is shaped differently than I am so I’m not sure how well it will really work. Also, I would have to square away the rump issues first and I'm not sure I can do that without the proper petticoat. So I guess the question is, which comes first the rump or the petticoat? *tee hee* I sewed together and hemmed both edges of the petticoat ruffle too. It's a 10" ruffle for the bottom that I now need to box pleat. I love box pleating - it's so 18th century. :>

I think I'm ready for some hand sewing now so I'll sigh off, pop in a DVD and work on that pocket a bit before going to bed. You know, I wish I had some linen thread to use on it but I didn't think to order any. I'm not willing to wait, so cotton it is!