Tuesday, 11 February 2014

Writing and sewing

It has been quiet here, but the rest of my life has been pretty active. Some time ago I was asked by Talia of The Gibson Girl's Guide to Glamor if I wanted to write an article about stage makeup in the 17th and 18th century for a website she runs about Commedia dell'Arte. Which I, of course, wanted and you can now read the article here.

I have also been sewing a great deal and have recently finished a fake fur coat and a tartan beret, but I haven't managed to take any pics of it yet. I'm currently working on three projects, all of them in rather tedious states right now. I'm hemming the purple 17th century bodice, making boning channels in the lining of the bodice for the white national gown and covering the seams of a pair of brown linen stays with strips of chamois leather.

 

I started these last Autumn, so when they are done I can cross off yet another project of my UFO list. They are made of brown linen with yellow boning channels and I will edge it with chamois leather as well.

4 comments:

melissamary said...

I'm about to make my own pair of 18th century stays so I'm trying to gain as much information as possible so I do them right. I'm planning on binding them in leather and I see that you're binding the seam in leather as well. How would you go about doing that? Thank you!
thedeviantdressmaker.blogspot.com

Anna said...

Very envious of your progress! It's looking wonderful. I'm sewing boning channels right now on mine and oh, such slow going.

Isis said...

melissamary: I used chamois leather for my last pair:

http://isiswardrobe.blogspot.com/2011/02/almost-finished-1790s-stays.html

And I liked it so much that I wanted to use it again. Chamois leather is very soft and stretches well around corners and it is easy to sew in. There are several extant stays that are edged with it, so it is period correct as well. :) For the seams I'm just cutting 5 mm wide strips and sew them down as invisible as I can over the seams. Good luck with your stays!

Isis said...

Annabelle: Thank you! I must confess to sew my boning channels by machine- my hands can't handle sewing them by hand.

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