The most beautiful frocks are to be found at Boutique Renata

I’ve been adding to my Bioshock-inspired 1940s wardrobe: this time a mauve dress with a Peter Pan collar. The fabric is nice and light, not overly crushable and stable enough to sew easily. I didn’t notice until I got to the shop counter that the swirly pattern actually had a defined stripe so I added a bit of length to allow for stripe-matching in construction.

Sewing with stripes isn’t something I do a lot so my first point of call was the internet to see how stripes were used in the 40s. The consensus was straight across the bodice and meeting to an angle pointing either up or down at the seams. I found examples with the centre front angle pointing up and down so I picked the one I liked best.

I went antique-pattern shopping before making this dress and decided to start incorporating some genuine features.

I used the neckline and collar from Home Journal 9323 but it was uncomfortably tight so I sort of ended up in between the vintage one and my original. I didn’t quite extend the collar pieces enough so there’s a bit of a gap at the back. I’m not sure I attached the collar properly either as it's come out a bit uneven.

I also used the vintage short puffed sleeves which have a quite different shape to the repurposed 80s ones I used previously. The contrast fabric is leftover from my regency mourning gown which matched my main fabric absolutely perfectly.

While I like my previous dress in this style a lot, it has a few issues with the bodice. The arm movement is not great and the shoulder points are not really wide enough for me. It is also a bit baggy from neck to armscye. To solve these problems I did a small bust adjustment; a broad shoulder adjustment and my magic armscye adjustment.

Now, in my new dress, this bodice is actually comfortable and I don’t have to keep focusing on how much I want to be wearing it to override the discomfort!

A quick stay

In the tail end of last year I made a new set of regency stays. I seem to have made a ludicrous number of regency stays but they never quite turned out right. After some adjustments, the last long stays I made became quite good to wear but they definitely had a later silhouette. They’re great for 1830s but the next gown on my list is from 1815 and it needs a rather more abrupt shape with a higher waistline and rounder bust.

1815 and 1824.

I started out with my 1820s-30s long stays pattern (adapted from figure 36 in Corsets and Crinolines). Based on the previous one I made I altered the shape a bit to increase the lacing gap and make more room for my hips. I added a second bust gusset and made the starting point of the bust gussets higher. This had the effect of raising my (empire) waistline by nearly an inch. I also made the gussets rounder rather than completely triangular. The end result is much more the silhouette I was aiming for.

I used the welt method to construct the stays as it halves the required number of seams to sew and keeps the inner and outer layers correctly aligned. I did a little bit of quilting under the bust but mostly left the stays plain. I wanted to finish these pretty quickly so I could get on to making my dress (which I had originally planned to be done in time for Jafa last year. Lol.) I may add some more quilting or cording later if it seems to need some more support.

The stays are made from coutil and drill, with a wooden ruler for a busk and cable ties for boning. I stitched the eyelets by hand. This is the first time I’ve used a proper tailor’s awl to do hand-sewn eyelets. I was able to get much larger eyelets this way so these stays will be a lot easier to lace than my others. The fit of these stays is not exactly right - the lacing gap is smaller at the top than I'd like and there’s still not quite enough room in the hips but I don’t think any of this will cause problems when wearing it.

Old and new.

I did a new mock-up of my ballgown bodice and it fit almost right first go. With my previous stays nothing I did could make the bodice have the right look. These new ones fit the earlier silhouette much better.

So, regency stays were the last thing I made in 2017 and a Regency chemisette in muslin was the first thing I made in 2018. I used view D from the Simplicity 4052 (by Sense and Sensibility). Again I was working at speed, with a view to getting a small project out of the way as soon as possible, so some of my technique was perhaps not the best. Still, it turned out quite well, even the cheat square shoulder adjustment I did while cutting the fabric.

Sydney trip part two: leatherworking

The fabric-centric post is here.

The reason I went to Sydney was to do a series of leatherworking classes at Birdsall Leather. I first heard about Birdsall at Gamma.Con in A.K. Wirru's Leathercrafting session. I had been looking for leatherworking classes for years so this was great news.

On Saturday I did the beginner class that covered stamping, stitching, dying and burnishing, as well as an overview of leather types. We each made a coaster to try the techniques. On Monday I had an all day private lesson to work on my Assassin’s Creed pieces. I kept working on these during the free work class on Tuesday.

First thing was to buy a hide. Everything except the glove and the pouches will be made out of 2.5mm vegetable tanned leather. I bought a 15ft hide which will be a bit more than I need but will mean I don’t have to go back to Sydney straight away if I mess something up. And of course there will always be new projects.

My large hide is represented by some pieces cut from it because it’s very unwieldy to move around.

I bought a 1.5mm hide for the pouches and a garment leather for the glove. Besides that, there are dyes, rivets and eyelets, cutting tools, and embossing tools. Turns out kitting out a completely new skillset is not cheap.

Not quite all the belts needed for two Assassins.

My private class involved cutting all the belts using a strap cutter – a fancy device that I didn't purchase. Then we went over embossing.

To prepare my designs prior to the classes; I "traced over" the promo image of Ezio using Gimp and a Wacom tablet.

Then my very kind mother converted them by hand to neat, usable swirls.

This is my first attempt at embossing. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I do need a bit more practice but having been a child who was incapable of colouring inside the lines it was better than I was expecting. I've tried a few different techniques in this sample – haven't yet decided which ones I will use on the final piece.

On the second day I started working on the belts and a bracer.

Leatherworking is a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to working on this project. The classes at Birdsall Leather were excellent. I'm now confident that I will be able to make everything I need.