Fin.

Done!

The Chemise a la Reine project is officially done! Tried it all on today and I'm pleased with how everything looks! This morning I even practiced a couple hair options to go with the outfit.

I can't wait to wear it to the event tomorrow! Photos to come!

Hem, hem

Finished the hem of the Chemise dress. I'm quite happy with the length and I do think the little zigzag finished seam looks quite delicate. I'm very pleased. However, I'm not done yet, because I've decided I really need to sew down the ruffle in the front, it's just way to bulky as it is right now. That's okay though, it shouldn't take to long. Although, I'll probably need trim down the ruffle, which might be a little bit of a hassle.

Otherwise I just need to sew a ribbon onto my hat to hold it on my head and then I'm all set!

Can't wait to wear it this weekend, the weather is supposed to be sunny, it should be really good!

Double Ruffles or Nothing

Yesterday and this morning I made the neck and cuff ruffles for my Chemise a la Reine. I had a little trouble deciding how I was going to attach the neck ruffles to the actual dress, so I did quite a lot of rearranging, pinning, unpinning and such. I decided to finish the edges of the ruffles by zigzagging them twice. I think I'm probably going to do the same thing to the hem as well. It's quite easy and it seems appropriate for the delicate voile fabric.



I've decided to skip the waist drawstring entirely, at least for now. I will see how it goes wearing the dress with just the sash holding things in place in the middle. Later if for some reason the sash isn't enough I'll think about adding a waist drawstring casing.

ETA: Finished sewing on the cuff and neck ruffles to the dress. Also made my shift. The neck is a little wide, and I'm not really planning on putting in a drawstring, at least not at this time. We'll see how it goes once all the other parts are on, particularly the stays.

Some Update Like Things

In the past couple days I have done a little bit of work on the Chemise dress. I tried on the dress with the undergarments I have and everything looks the way I wanted it to, which I'm pretty excited about. I have completely finished the quilted petticoat (though the last little bit was really not too significant). I also have nearly finished my sash. I'm going to have to cut it down a little though, it's quite long.

Today I plan on machine sewing the sleeves on to the dress for extra strength and then start adding some frills...

And I just had a stroke of inspiration for a really easy way to do the waist drawstring.

... Wanders off to think and plan...

Bits and Bobs

Didn't do too much actual work on the weekend. I touched up the sewing where the dress and shoulder bands meet up on the Chemise a la Reine and pinned my sleeves in place. Things are actually looking pretty good. Sewing the sleeves in place will be a completely different story, but I'll worry about that a little while later.

I did go shopping for supplies on Saturday. I picked up a cotton/linen blend fabric for a quick shift to go under the Chemise a la Reine. I also picked up some white silk taffeta to dye blue for the sash. I'm hoping to do the dyeing today while the house is clear of people. Heh.

I also picked up some more fabric and fur bits, and ordered some corset supplies online for my Secret Steampunk cosplay. Heh. Afterwards spent a good hour and half in Rona picking up bits and bobs for this one as well. I'm getting excited.

Sewing and dyeing to come, as soon as I finish my maki.

ETA: Dyed the fabric and it looks pretty good. It came out lighter than the intended colour, which is what I was going for. Unfortunately there are a few splotchy spots along the corners. My pot was a little too small for the amount of fabric that needed to be dyed. Sigh. It's not too bad though. I'm going to do my best to avoid using those areas. It's still drying, so I'm hoping it might lighten up a little bit yet. I also managed to handsew on one of the sleeves. Going to definitely sew the other one on before the day is over. I'm going to sew the sleeves on by machine hopefully also today.

ETA: Dyed fabric is dried and pressed. The colour is actually perfect. The white splotchy areas look like cloud streaks, it's actually kind of nice in most areas. I really love the colour. Yay!

ETA: Finished sewing on the second sleeve.

ETA: Pre-washed my cotton/linen fabric for the shift. I'm really excited to make it, I have no idea why.

Sleeeeeves

Made my sleeves. Now I need to attach them. *headdesk*

Chemise a la Reine Progess Pictures

Did some more work today, and so there are quite a few progress pictures to add. Yay.

Undergarments



The Chemise in Progress



My Jewellery pieces


Next on my to-do list will be the sleeves (I've decided to go with fitted sleeves), neckline and cuff ruffles, the gathers around the waist and, lastly, the hem.

Voila la Voile

Got back to working on the actual dress part of my Chemise a la Reine project today. I'm really aiming to have most of it done this week, which I think is possible. I redid the gathers on the back today and now I am just trying to figure out the best way to attach the shoulder bands to the rest of the dress. Much easier said than done when I'm all by myself trying to figure out if everything is positioned correctly with just quick looks over my shoulder in the mirror. Not very efficient, and for the most part, not really working out too well.

I have everything on the dress form now, if that will help with this at all, but the form is far from my actual size, so I'm weary of trying to fit the gown while it's on there. Sigh. I'll figure it out, but it's taking a little more trial and error than I expected.

Bound.

The stays are fully bound! Yay! The tabs looks a little ... iffy. But, it's done. That's what counts right now.

Steppin' Out

Did a little shoe refurb yesterday. So excited!

Feeling a little Frilly

Today I made a delicious little delight of a hat to go with my chemise a la reine. It's a straw hat with the brim turned up at the back (secured with a pin and pearls). Decorated with a cream box pleated ribbon, accented with a thin pink grosgrain ribbon, a white ostrich feather, plump pink peony and brooch of pearls and diamond rhinestones. I think it's glorious and everything was handsewn onto it. I just need to attach some ribbon to hold it onto my head and it is all finished!

Not bad for a hat I picked up from Value Village for $1.99.

Bound Up Some More

I've finished binding both sides of the top of the stays. I'm still only half way through binding the bottom edge, sigh. I'm going to try to do some more work on that some time today though.

Other Updates:

• I've got a domain for a new costumes site!
• There is a very promising chance for a paying costume job in the very near future
• I've got my residence room assignment!
• But having some trouble signing up for courses, still working through it

Bound Up

Spent about five hours sewing binding onto the stays. The bad news for me is that I'm still not yet done. Not quite halfway done. I am so slow at handsewing, and those tabs really are a killer. Oi. I may also run out of binding before I finish...

Yesterday, I sewed some blanket binding onto the petticoat. The hem part is done, though I am very unhappy with the result in certain areas. The binding on the waist looks better but is only about a quarter finished.

Stays

Managed a bit of work on my Chemise a la Reine project. All the grommets have been put into the back of the stays, marking the end of my first venture into the world of spiral lacing. There are 17 in total. I still need to put the grommets in the straps.

Overall I'm very happy with the look and fit of it. I do regret not thinking to take a picture of the back though. Next time!

My Little Quilted Skirt

Today, one short day break after Anime North, I went back to my little Rococo project. Initially I was going to start work on binding the edges of the stays, but I am unhappy with the materials I have for that job. I'm going to need to go pick up something else, but unfortunately I don't know when that will be, hopefully before the weekend.

Anyway, not to let my drive to sew go to waste I decided to start work on the petticoat. I didn't use a pattern, I mostly just followed my memory of a similar skirt that I saw a little while ago. It's not quite finished, but nearly, at this point. I still need to make a hem, which I've decided is probably just going to be serged and bound, because folding up the material makes it WAY too bulky. And I want to put some kind of binding at the waist as well. The latter is more for aesthetics than anything else. It is otherwise serviceable as it is.

And more importantly I think it's cute. If I grow exceptionally intense about this, I may hand dye some appliques or lace to put around the hem, but that will have to wait a while yet, I suspect.

A Little Bit Rococo

For the past couple weeks I've been pouring over the internet looking at 18th century portraits and photos of the costumes from the 2006 Marie Antoinette movie. In the end I simply could not prevent myself from adding a frothy 18th century delight to my summer costume list. I'm a historic fashion enthusiast after all and I definitely don't have nearly enough historic costumes under my belt.

So I decided I'm making a chemise a la reine. The dress made famous - or perhaps infamous - by Marie Antoinette.

Of course, if you look at a chemise a la reine you will notice it is a chemise, obviously, and thus made out of very light and quite sheer white fabrics. That means first I need to make a corset and a petticoat.

Details:
The corset: I have been planning to make a pair of 18th century stays for awhile. In fact, I bought the fabric to make my stays about this time last year, but then chickened out a little. But I think I'm ready now. I'm mostly I did, however, change the pattern I was planning to use for the project. I used a pattern from Period Costume for Stage & Screen: Patterns for Women's Dress 1500-1800 by Jean Hunnisett, though I only basically followed the boning layout given. I'm making it out of a pale blue toile de jouy, which I know is not a historically accurate fabric for clothing, but I adote the fabric far too much to care. Oh, and no one really sees the stays anyway. There are two inside layers, comprising many mismatched mystery fabrics. It is boned with cable ties. There are 49 boning channels, which is not quite fully boned, but good enough for my purposes. At the moment I'm working through making the tabs, which is even more difficult than I thought it would be.

The petticoat: I picked up two meters of pale blue pre-quilted fabric for the petticoat. I'm planning on hemming the bottom with blue ribbon for a little extra je ne sais quoi. I chose the light blue so that it will hopefully show through the chemise a little, and also match the pale blue pattern on the corset. I haven't started putting it together yet, although I do have a plan in my head. My cats like sitting it on though, very cushy.

Chemise a la reine: I picked up some voile (french for veil), which I seems to be a common fabric choice. I plan on following the general pattern from Norah Waugh's The Cut of Women's Clothes. I'm thinking about changing the sleeves, however, to something a little more fitted.

Afterwards I'll work on getting a sash (pale blue, obviously) and a pretty little hat together. I do have a potential hat that I could use, but I might try to find something better at some point.