{Works With Her Hands} - HSF Challenge #10 - Art

For the next Historical Sew Fornightly challenge, I actually decided not to sew something, but to crochet something. The challenge theme this time was Art. My dreams were to replicate some beautiful gown from a favorite painting.These were some of my original inspiration:

But, practicality meant that I needed to scale down. I already had some other big projects in the works, and I couldn't spend the time or money on a fancy dress. However, I soon realized that there WAS one piece of art which I absolutely loved that would be easy to replicate:

This plate comes from the 1856 February edition of Godey's Lady's Book. Ever since I first saw the green and pink hair piece, I have wanted to re-create it, and this gave me the perfect excuse! Its description reads thus:

"By Happy Conception of the artist, we have at once the front and reverse of the single graceful figure in evening-dress. Hair in full bandeaux, fastened by a pearl comb, a cordon of the point passed across the brow, fastened by a single black rose and foliage. For a dinner dress, nothing could be more simple and elegant."

I realized after reading it that the coloring of the plate is not accurate to the description. However, I prefer the pink and green to the black, and I just so happened to have green yarn and pink flowers.

After much trial and error of various crochet lace patterns, I settled on Wheel Pattern Insertion from Knitting, Crochet, and Netting by Eleonore Riego De La Branchardiere, published in 1846. 

Here's my finished product....oh the joys of trying to take pictures of yourself :P The hair still needs a little practice, but I'm really quite pleased with how the hair piece turned out!

And the HSF details:

What the item is: Hair piece

The Challenge: #10 - Art

Fabric: sage green wool yarn

Pattern: Wheel Pattern Insertion

Year: Specifically 1856, generically 1850s and 60s

Notions: pink flowers

How historically accurate is it? I'd say pretty close....the only thing that might be different is that the yarn and flowers would be better as silk.

Hours to complete: Several hours of experimenting with different patterns, maybe 1 1/2 hours once I had decided.

First worn: for pictures

Total cost:$0!!!

{Works With Her Hands} - Black and White Challenge

The next challenge in the Historical Sew Fortnightly that I chose to do was Black and White. I had dreams of doing all sorts of really spectacular things with that color combination, but right now practically must take precedence over fancifulness.

What I was really in need of was a new chemise, so I decided to adapt it and still make it fun by adding some black embroidery. This was a neat project because I drafted the pattern myself from pictures of original 1850's and 60's chemises. It worked out really well, and only needed a little tweaking in the shape of the yoke.

The sleeves are just simple rectangles with small triangle gussets in the underarm seams. My biggest problem with my other chemises was that the sleeves were too full and too long, so I tried to rectify that with this one.

The front and back of the chemise are basically just rectangle, but the top front is cut into this funny shape in order to fit nicely into the shaped yoke.

The back of the yoke is just a gradually curved band, but the front pieces kind of remind me of a bat. :/ Thankfully, they look less bat-ish when finished!

Here's the finished chemise, complete with embroidery. There are five tiny buttons down the front of the yoke.

Over all, I'm super pleased, both with how it looks, and how it fits. Glad to now have my own, easy, nicely fitting chemise pattern!

Here are the details for HSF:

What the item is: Chemise

The Challenge: #9 - Black and White

Fabric: bleached cotton muslin

Pattern: my own, drafted from pictures of originals

Year: 1850's/60's

Notions: Black cotton embroidery thread, buttons

How historically accurate is it? I would say about 90%. I think the shape and fabric are good; the embroidery is inspired by original pictures, although I know that it was usually done in white.

Hours to complete: One hour for drafting the pattern, two hours for sewing, and four or five hours for embroidery.

First worn: Yesterday

Total cost: $4 for fabric, maybe?