HSF Challenge 3: pink

The third HSF challenge was quite simple, make something pink. Still I had planned to skip this one. Despite having quite a lot of pink in everyday wardrobe I haven't had any inspiration to do any pink historical garments, and I didn't have any ideas about it. When I cleared out my stash I found this tiny piece of pink/purple sink habotai though, and when I found a piece of pink fabric I felt that I needed to do something with it. At the same time when I cleared out some of my old corsets I also found an illfitting ballgown bodice that I had used once. I hated the shape of the bodice, but the fabric was quite nice and I had bought it because I thought it was really 18th century. In a time before I made 18th century creations I settled for just small nods to the time period. The roses on the bodice are pink as well though. This bodice was probably just my second or so attempt at even sewing something by myself.

totally unflattering and box-shaped bodice

 With just small amounts of fabric, each panel of the bodice was quite narrow I decided to just do a small reticule with the bodice fabric as outer layer and the habotai as lining. The reticule is a drawstring bag that came into usage in the end of the 18th century.The simpler silhouettes of the female fashion made it impossible to hide loose pockets in the petticoats and hoop skirts. You can find this type of bag still today, especially if you are looking for handbags for evening wear. They can be in any form from simple to heavily decorated with beads and tassles. There are plenty of tutorials out there for reticules/drawstring bags, so I'm not going to go through every step of it.

I started with ripping apart the bodice. It consisted of seven panels, five of which had the row of roses in the middle, two just had a blue/green/border in the middle. I only wanted to use the the flowers for the reticule. My pattern was simply a rectangle with a pointy end. After some miscalculating I thought that the reticule would end up too short to be able to hold my phone in it, so I took the two panels without the roses and cut out the border and attached it to the top of the bag.

Here is the finished bag. The drawstring channel is handsewn and hidden since it's sewn with brown thread and I followed the lines of brown on the top border.

Here is the pink lining. I also want to emphazise one step that I had probably skipped a few years ago. After having attached the lining and pressed the top I turned the outer fabric in a few millimeters and topstitched it in place. Here it's halfway down and you can see how much neater the right side looks, with the topstitching, compared to the left where it's still bubbling over the top despite it being pressed. This was especially important since I made the lining slightly bigger than the outer shell, since I wanted it to look like a soft sea of silk when I opened the bag.

Here is the bottom of the bag. I couldn't quite get the roses to meed in the middle, due to how I had cut out the fabric. I also thing that the whole bag would probably have looked better with six panels rather than five, but five was what I had to work with.

The finished reticule with, of course, pink ribbons to carry it in. I will be on the lookout for a pink tassle to attach to the bottom to further enhance it.

The Challenge: Pink
Fabric: some kind of brocade, silk habotai
Pattern:my own
Year: late 18th century
Notions: sewing thread, satin ribbon
How historically accurate is it? The shape is correct, the brocade is probably synthetic and the ribbons are definitely poly satin. The main seams are made on machine, but the topstitching and other visible seams are made by hand, I would say 60%.
Hours to complete: 4, most of that was to rip up the old bodice.
First worn: Not used yet
Total cost: $0, all from my stash.

I must say that so far the HSF has really helped me make a dent in my stash and add to those small things that enhance a period wardrobe, but I tend to forget them during work with a big thing, like a full robe.