A visit to Gamla Staberg

Gamla Staberg is part of the World Heritage of Falun, and I have used it restored mid-18th century garden for quite a few photo shoots, for example here and here. Up until now the mansion has been a private home, so not accessible. Over the last year, since the last tenant left the house, it has been going through a careful renovation and been restored back to more what it used to be like in the 1740s. On Midsummer's Day it was time to open it to the public, and I had been asked to come in 18th century costume.

I decided to go with my pet en l'air, since it was the one closest in time to the 1740s.

I had made a new trim for my hat, by simply gathering a ribbon and tacking it to crown.

I was really pleased with how my hair turned out. I more or less used the instructions for the "Summer" simple, pulled back style from 18th century hair and wig styling. The less was due to me not having the book at hand, so I had to improvise in the back a bit. Still my hair is long enough that I can make my own braid and pin it up, but it was hardly visible.

All in all it was a nice day out, and it will be realy nice to see what's going to happen now with the house. I even got a bit 18th century inspiration again, and felt that I really want a new petticoat to go over my pocket hoops and to finally make something with my reproduction fabrics.

Pet en l'air in the park

Today it's Sweden's national day, which most Sweden don't care much about, it's a holiday though. The last few years there has been a gathering of people in Historical clothes in Stockholm, I was able to get there last year but not this year. Inspired by that Cosplay Dalarna decided to have a cosplay picknick, where people were welcome to come in anything, and sit in the grass and chat. I of course decided to go with my newly finished pet en l'air.

 It was also the first time I wore my pocket hoops and the petticoat that I made this Winter. In contrast the skirt is actually part of my first ever 18th century outfit. After that first time I have only worn later 18th century clothes, with a bumpad instead of pocket hoops, but it was geat to be able to put it to use again, and that it fit over my new hoops.

Before I wear the pet en l'air the next time I will probably add another pair of ribbons above the ones that are already there.

There were some sad things though with getting dressed. My bad shoulder unfortunately made it impossible to do anything fancy with my hair. I simply can't lift it high enough to work with my hair. I had planned to do a nice tete de mouton hairstyle, but I just couldn't. All I could do was to simply tease my curled hair a bit and pull it up. It was also very hard to get dressed, and it hurt quite a lot at a couple of times when I tried to reach for the ribbons that hold it all together. It's said but I definitely need to take this injury into consideration for my costumes in the future, and try to find easier ways of getting dressed.

The picknick itself was nice, three of us had dressed up. Me in 18th Century, Tom in some LARP-clothing and Linus in cosplay. There were also a couple of other people who showed up, so nice and easy.

Me and Tom

As you might see I also had a new cap on, and a post about that should come in the next few Days.

The finished pet en l'air

or what a difference some trim makes.

After I had finished the main part of the pet en l'air I started to think about how to close it and trim it.

I'm still hoping to loose some weight, so I wanted to make a closure that can easily be adjusted. So I decided to use ribbon bows, with a stomacher under it.

For the stomacher I simply statrted with pinning a piece of scrap fabric in the gap and cutting it into a nice shape. I realized that such a Sharp point would be tricky to look nice, so I made it more rounded. 

I cut the stomacher in two layers of fabric. The underlayer is a sturdy old tablecloth in some kind of linen blend, and then the outer fabric is the same as the main jacket. I folded the edges toward each other and sewed them together. The stomacher has no boning and is made to be pinned to the jacket.

Then I took what remained of the fabric and cut it into strips. I pleated it directly onto the pet en l'air while it was on the dressform. I had to be quite generous with the spacing between the pleats, because there wasn't quite as much fabric as I wanted left. In fact this is all that remained of the fabric that I had bought.

I also sewed three pairs of ribbon on under the trim. There are no robings on the pet, but the trim acts as robings to hide where I've attached the ribbons and will pin the stomacher. One reason why I didn't do robings is because the fabric is so thick. It's close to an upholstery fabric, and I felt that it was better to go for trim than robings. And then the pet en l'air was finally finished.

I love how the trim turned the pet en l'air into quite and frothy little cupcake. It was well worth the work of putting it on.

Pet en l'air main part finished

The last time I posted about my pet en l'air was in September. Over the winter I brought it to a couple of sewing meets, but when I started to work on my kitchen it was thrown in a bag and packed away. Then I had to clear up my living room after it had been used as a storage, and I found the bag. I simply didn't know where I should put this UFO, so I just threw it onto my dressform...and realized that it looked pretty nice and didn't have much left until it was finished.

Basically I just had to hem the sleeves and skirt and sew the front skirts to the bodice.

Now I need to finally decide on what kind of closure and if I'm going to trim it. The next step will probably be to make a loose stomacher and add ribbons so that I can tie it closed. After that it will be wearable, and then I'll see about the trim. This is supposed to just be a trial version, so I'm not sure that I want to add too much time on trim for it.

Pet en l'air sleeves

I'm not sewing a lot at the moment. I'm busy planning and working on redoing my whole kitchen, meaning throwing everything out and get new stuff, including floor and all appliances.

Still this weekend I got the chance to do two things. The first was that I invited some friends for a party on Saturday, and everyone should come dressed up/out. In the end it was more like a girls' film night, but it was fun and relaxed. I wore my old printed cotton Anglaise, but before we started to watch a film I slipped into something more comfortable. That's when I discovered that I couldn't get out of the Anglaise by myself. The sleeves were so tight, and with my lost flexibility in one of the shoulders I couldn't wiggle out as I usually do. Thankfully I had friends there who could help me undress. (We also discussed the lack of chambermaids in today's society, and that they wouldn't be satisfied with just room and board if I hired one).

With the problems of getting undressed in mind I set out to finish the sleeves of my pet en l'air. I had already sewn them on before Saturday, but it felt more important than ever to make sure that they are big enough.

For the sleeves I went back to my very first 18th century jacket. It's been long since I threw away the jacket, but before doing that I cut out the lining o the sleeve, since that was a well-fitting sleeve, and the most accurate thing with the jacket.

I used the old sleeve as a pattern, but also added a bit at the bottom to make it longer. The sleeves are unlined and I sewed them together on the machine.

I attached the bottom part by hand, using backstitches. I feel as if I have more control of tricky seams when I sew them by hand, and instead of a faster seam that I might have to rip up and redo I took the slower approach.

The top part was pinned on, and the excess fabric was gathered into a small pleat at the back of the sleeve.

A strap, in the shape of simply a rectangular piece of fabric, was pinned on top of the shoulder lining and sleeve seam. As you can see the strap is bigger than needed, I didn't measure it beforehand but simply folded and cut away fabric until there was just enough to cover all the raw seams. As you can see I'm working on my dressform. Even if I can't fit my 18th century bodices on it, I think it's a lot easier to pin curved shapes, like shoulders, on it, than trying to do it flat on the floor or a table. The strap was topstitched in place with running stitches.

To finish the neckline I added neck binding. It's also strip of fabric that was sewn to the right side of the back and then folded to the inside to hide the raw edge.

This is the finished back of the jacket.

As for the sleeve fit. It was really roomy until I added the neck binding. There must have been enough bulk of the fabric, the cotton that I'm using is very thick, so that the back width has shrunk a bit, and that affects the sleeves. I can get in and out, but I need to be careful about this for my next project, and possibly add a bit to the back to avoid the issue.

Starting a pet en l'air

I've always said that I won't feel as if I have a complete 18th century wardrobe until I have a robe à la francaise or sack gown. In order to make a full ensemble I will also need pocket hoops and petticoats. This weekend I decided to start on a pattern for it though, and I want to start with making a jacket version, or pet en l'air as it's also called. That way I can figure out the pattern before ordering a lot of expensive fabric, and I can wear the jacket with my existing petticoats and bumpad without looking too bad.

I have spending time looking for tutorials and inspiration on the web and I would like to recommend the two that I've used the most: La Couture Parisienne and The Fashionable past

I was thinking for a long time if I should order a pattern or not, but decided not to. I didn't start from scratch though. I started off with my Reconstructing History 822, that I used for my navy anglaise. I was after the fitted lining.

 I put the pattern pieces for the lining of RH822 on my muslin fabric and then opened p 34-34 of Patterns of Fashion, since that is a sack gown with all of my favorite elements, not the least that there is a seam between the bodice and skirt part in the front. I simply used the RH822 as a base and folded the pieces until they looked like in Patterns of Fashion. I sewed the muslin pieces together for a quick fitting and then used them as a pattern for the lining.

In the back of the lining I added ties so that I will be able to adjust the bodice. I had first planned to have lacing in the back, but this is a more simple solution from La Couture Parisienne. The vertical lines are boning channels, made from cotton tape and with a piece of plastic whalebone to stabilise the tied tapes.

For the back piece I used a full width of my main fabric. I cut out the shaped side seams, sleeve opening and shoulder seams.

I did my first test of just foldng the fabric to see if I was on the right way. As you can see I'm using my dress form. It is not the shape or size of me in a pair of 18th century stays, but it works as long as I'm just working with the back. I can't drape the front ont he dress form.

I attached the outer fabric directly on to the lining at the shoulder seams and the side seams.

When it was time to start draping I first marked the center on both the lining and the outer fabric, so that I could pleat one side at a time. The pleats are stacked box pleats. I could probably have stacked them more, now the bottom pleats are peaking out from under the top pleats.

The pleats are handstitched to the lining for the first ca 5 centimeters.

Here is the finished backpiece with the pleats. In the end it was a lot easier then I though. The pleats give quite a lot of freedom with adjusting. Now it's on to the rest...