Getting Ever So Much Closer to the End!!

So far so good as of late!  No grumbling whilst tearing out stitches!  Huzzah!!!  Just a lot of hand stitching down of squiggles!  That I can totally handle!  The going is slow, but I am really liking the end result!

What it looks like before I stitch all the soutache down...a HUGE green wool pin cushion!  My husband thinks I'm crazy!

The center front is complete!  Huzzah!!!

The side panel is pinned on.  Praying that my friend Tracy can locate more soutache like this so I can complete the coat with like soutache...I ran out!  waaaaahahahahahahaha!!!!

Really happy with the back.  Playing around with the velvet covered buttons...I think I will move them on the final step.

Now I'm just waiting to hear if the same soutache has been re-ordered from the place where Tracy found the first stuff.  If not, I have a very close color that I can use...Here's hoping!!

Be Blessed my friends!

g

Ruth DWB Boarding Suit Progress

(Deep breath...deeeeeeep breath)  Hello there lovely readers!  I have a progress report on my RDWB boarding suit.  You know, one day I am going to say, "I hope that 100 things go wrong on this dress!"  Because maybe then NOTHING will go wrong on a dress!  hahahahahahahaha!!!  It has taken quite a bit to be able to show you this progress.  Wednesday I spent all day (8 hours) sewing the straight, outline lines of soutache onto the coat.  I got them all done in a time that took forever and discovered that there were puckers and buckles along the soutache and on the wool.  It was then that I realized that wool does not take kindly to pulling and tugging.  So, this is my warning to anyone who will work with wool in the future....DO NOT PULL OR TUG ON WOOL!!!  IT WILL THROW A FIT!!!  I decided, in my deluded, lazy mind that I could get away with just laying the soutache on the wool with out hand tacking it down first if I sewed really slowly.  WRONG!!!  After going to bed and trying to talk my OCD mind into going to sleep and failing miserably, I got back out of bed and ripped out stitched soutache until 2 in the morning.  I then woke up on Thursday and after getting everyone off to their respective schools/work, set about ripping out the rest of the soutache.  GAAAAAA!!!!!  

Well, I have since hand tacked all of the outline lines then machine stitched them down and have started on the squiggles.  My fingers hate me.

Front panel of squiggles

The front squiggles I was able to machine stitch after hand tacking them down.  There was minimum warping that I was able to remove with ironing!! 

The back is looking pretty good!

While I was able to machine stitch the front squiggles, I am having to hand sew the back squiggles down.  There was too much warping going on when I used the sewing machine!

More squiggles to come!

Be Blessed my lovely friends!

g

Ruth DWB's Green Boarding Suit: Part 2

This past Sunday through Wednesday, Mom and I went to Spokane to visit my brother and his family and had a fabulous time!  We celebrated my niece's birthday and had lots of fun with her and my nephew!  Then there was the usual binging on food and visiting kid friendly sites like the park.  We were also able to get in a few fabulous anitques shops...and found some neat-o finds!  And OHMYGOSH some silk tulle at a fabulous fabric store that we had been driving by for years.  I finally stopped in to see if they had any soutache, they did not, but found real silk tulle!!!!!  I am so deliriously happy about it!!!  But I digress...

This post is about the progress on the RDWB green wool suit.  I was finally able to cut out the wool after doing the mock up and getting it to where I liked it.  I had some issues with the collar as the patterns I am using didn't have anything suitable that would match the original.  And of course I need to mention the package I got in the mail on Thursday.  I had asked my friend Tracy Gomes (Lady Fleur as I knew her a long time ago) if she had a source for Olive green soutache.  She said she was going to LA "this weekend" and would check for me.  While I was in Spokane, I got a message from Tracy saying to check my mail on Wednesday!  Joy!!  I was going to see samples of soutaches that would possibly work for my outfit!  Well, the package came on Thursday and OHMYGOSH!!  Tracy bought a ton of soutache for me!  In almost the exact shade...I had to coffee dye it 2 times to get it a deeper color, but SQUEE!!!  It totally works!!!  Thank you so much Tracy!!!

Yesterday and today, my OCD took over and I didn't stop sewing until I had both sleeves done.  I think that I just needed to see if everything would work well together and to get down the rounded zig zags that go in between the straight strips of soutache.  Laaaaaa!!!!  I am quite happy with how they sleeves turned out!!  My neck, hands, arms and back are not so thrilled, but my creative brain is super happy!

Ruth's dress...check out all that soutache in on the sleeves....
Photo courtesy:  moviescreencaps.come

My sleeves...I hate the way this fabric and soutache photograph...sometimes it has a blue cast...grrrrrrrrrrr

Velvet strip

I love the way the designer of this outfit used such different shades of green...very era correct..

Fun corner soutache.

It took me forever to do two sleeves...I am fearful of the rest of the miles of soutache I have left to apply to the dress!  But it will get done and I will forget in time what a pain it was to sew it all on!

Next up....sewing the body of the coat together...

Blessings!

g

Ruth DeWitt Bukater's Green Boarding Suit: Part 1

Aaaaaahhhh....green.  And wool.  And velvet.  And Soutache.  And 1912.  And Titanic.  And Ruth DeWitt Bukater.

What do these things all have in common?  Ruth's FABULOUS green boarding suit!  My heart does a most wonderful hiccup when I watch this scene from Titanic.  I understand that for most people, the heart hiccup comes when they see Rose step out of that aweomse car, all resplendent in her pinstripe suit and gynormous hat.  But for me again, it is the outfit that Ruth is wearing.  First of all, my favorite color is green.  Secondly, hello totally off color green velvet and soutache!  Then there is the pheasant feather toque and hand muff!  Le Swoon and Le Sigh!!

I have determined to make this whole outfit for the Titanic Event at The HasBrouck House at the end of April (yes, even the toque and hand muff.).  I would quite honestly love to recreate all of Ruth's fabulous wardrobe, and I may just have to do that when it is all said and done.  For now though, I'll content myself with her green boarding suit.  

I scoured the internet trying to find images of her fabulous outfit and found this site:

Movie-Screencaps.com

My word they have a ton of fabulous screencaps!  I found several that highlighted the details on Ruth's suit perfectly.  I believe I am going to have to order about 1,000 yards of soutache to get this baby complete!  Thankfully I already have the almost exact shade of wool and velvet!  Whoot whoot!!

Frances Fisher is so beautiful and I think was perfect in her role as Ruth.

Lovely sweep of Ruth's coat and skirt.

I believe I see some buttons on the back!

The back of the coat has a very interesting cut.  The sides are shorter than the back center.

Oooooh!  More buttons!

This angle shows that she is wearing ivory boots and how wide the circumference of her skirt is!

This picture creates the illusion of her being almost angelic!  Hhhhmmmm....

Fun positioning of the soutache on the sleeve.  See where it meets the soutache on the bodice of the coat?  Awesome!

A.  Look at the size of that hand muff!  B.  I see more buttons on the front of the coat!  Laaaaaaa!!!

Nice close-up of the blouse beneath her coat.  LOVE her hair!

Image of the front of her coat.  Unfortunately the source where I found this no longer exists...

A fuzzy close-up of the soutache trim and the velvet piece on the sleeve.

For my outfit, I have chosen to use two patterns for the coat:

The general lines of Simplicity 2581 are perfect for the coat.  It is a bit long on me (I have been working on the mock-up) but that can be fixed easily.  The sleeves are even perfect!

I did, however combine the front and side front pattern piece from Vogue 8346 and the Simplicity pattern because of the lines on the green coat.  The seam ended at the armhole, not the shoulder seam.

I'm still undecided on what skirt pattern I will use.  It will all depend on how much fabric I have after I get the coat cut out!

My fabric that doesn't photograph well... :-(

My fabric!  Unfortunately, it doesn't photograph nicely.  It is pretty spot on in real life!

I am really excited about this project...not so much about the sewing on of all that soutache, but I think this will be a very satisfying project!

Blessings!

g

Royal Orders: Order Breast Star

Edited 10/20/17

You can find the huge star in clear on eBay here:  Clear stones order star

Aaaah Royalty.  I had a friend tell me the other day that she wasn't "into" them like I was and it got me thinking.  Why am I so enamored with the thought of royalty? And not just the British royal family, all royalty in general, present and especially past.  I think the reason why I love them so is because over here in the wonderful USA, we don't have any! "Antique" royalty is so full of wonder. The stuff of fairy tales and legend, myth and reality, heartache and true love, tragedy and triumph, love matches and marriages for political gain.  The pictures of Queens and Princesses in their silks, satins, jewels, tiaras, crowns and huge feather fans, really speaks to my inner princess.  I wish I could hear what those ladies were thinking and feeling.  Were they happy, sad, miserable, content?  Did they love their life and their children and husband?

Well, to advance my Royal theme of costuming this year, I decided I needed a Royal Order.  Not a Royal Family order as I shared here.  This Royal Order would be like the many Royal Orders that are in existance today and are awarded to those who are royalty and sometimes not!  I want mine to be complete with a breast star, sash and badge as demonstrated here. Here is a list of some of the orders, most in existance today: The Order of the Thistle, The Order of the Elephant, The Order of the Golden Fleece, The Royal Victorian Order, and The Order of St. Andrew.

First on the list for my Royal Order was the breast star.  I found some lovely sites online that sold reproduction stars, Replica Reglia and Quarterdeck Medals & Militaria.  While they have great reproductions, the price of the stars was a bit out of my budget for costume jewelry.  So, I spent about a week combing eBay, etsy, Hobby Lobby, Charming Charlie, Macy's, Dillards, JC Penney, Kohls, etc. Nothing presented itself to be even remotely close to a royal order star.  Then I happened upon a store on eBay that sold "bridal rhinestone jewelry".  "Ok" I said to myself, this is the last store we will look at.  I scrolled down their hundreds of brooches and necklaces and my eyes landed on a brooch.  THE brooch.  Holy mother of pearl!!!  This was it!  Well...not really, it would need a lot of work, but THIS WAS IT!!!  I am a DIY girl anyways so I was even more thrilled at the prospect of this project.  Below is a long list of pictures and research that brought me to my Royal Order Breast Star!  I still need to come up with a great name and story behind my order, but for now I am just seriously content at the brooch that is pinned to my Emma mannequine!

My Royal Order!!

My Finished Royal Order!  I am incredibly beyond happy with how it turned out!  For some reason, the pearlized ivory disk under the double headed eagle is photographing with a green tint...

A list of real Royal Orders

Breast Star of The Most Noble Order of the Garter, United Kingdom
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia

Information about The Most Noble Order of the Garter can be found here:

The Coincidental Dandy

Wikimedia image

The breast star of The Order of the Rose, Brazil
Photo courtesy of  Royal Ark website

The Order of the Rose is one of my favorite breast stars...hello diamonds and pink roses!!  And it came with a pink sash!!

Information on the Order of the Rose can be found here:

Royal Ark

Breast Star of the Order of St. Patrick, United Kingdom
Photo courtesy of The Tudors Wiki

Information on the Order of St. Patrick can be found here:

The Tudors Wiki

The Doyle Clan 

Breast Star of the Order of St. Catherine, Imperial Russia
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia

Information on the Order of St. Catherine can be found here:

Alexander Palace Time Machine

Wikimedia

Lovely Ladies wearing their Royal Orders!

Princess Alexandra of The United Kingdom wearing the breast star of The Order of the Garter.  She is also wearing three Royal Family Orders: The Order of Victoria and Albert, The Impreial Order of the Crown of India, and another one that I am not sure of it's name...more research will be done!
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

More information can be found here:

Wikipedia

Rafe Heydel-Mankoo

Queen Mary or the United Kingdom wearing the breast star, sash, and arm garter of the Order of the Garter
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Tsarina Maria Feodorovna of Imperial Russia wearing the breast star of the Order of St. Catherine
Photo courtesy of Grand Ladies blog

Wonderful website that contains many photos and paintings of the Grand Ladies of yesteryear

Grand Ladies

The process by which I acquired my Royal Order

Newely arrived bridal sunflower brooch from eBay

eBay link for brooch

The very hour I got my brooch in the mail, I started pulling the "Clear AB" crystals off the brooch.  ( I used my seam ripper and a lot of elbow grease to remove them.)  I left one "ray" alone so I could use it for correct placement of the clear crystals I would glue back on.

I found these at Hobby Lobby.  Perfect, as the package contained an assortment of sizes! 

Brooch with the "Clear AB" crystals removed and the clear crystals glued in place.

Please note that if any of you lovely followers plan on doing this, and you are using super glue to glue in your crystals, be very careful when glueing.  I got too much glue on a whole ray of crystals and they turned cloudy.  I don't know if it is the chemical make-up of the glue messing with the crystals or what, but use caution and a minimal amount of glue! 

Small crown buttons from Hobby Lobby

I noticed on a few of the real breast stars, there were neat little crowns above the center medallion.  I found the above buttons and Hobby Lobby and knew they would be perfect!

Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky

Order of St. Catherine

Earrings found at a local antique store.  The double headed eagle medallion would be perfect for the center of my star!

After I had my crystals and button crown glued to my star, the hard part came.  I needed a medallion for the center of my star.  I had looked and looked and looked for what seemed like forever (Nooooo...patience is NOT one of my virtues!) and I couldn't find anything that blew my skirt up!  Finally, yesterday, I went to a local antique store and literally spent 1.5 hours going over the place with a fine toothed comb.  I finally found a pair of earrings that had what would pass for a doable medallion.  I still wasn't convinced until I took them home, disassembeled them and layed them on the star.

................

I do believe I shattered my poor husband's ear drums I squeeled so loudly with delight!  I was so excited that pure joy was bubbling up in my chest!  Needless to say, I was pretty happy with how the double headed medallion looked on my star!  I also think it is pretty neat that the earrings had the emblem on them that they did.  I am fascinated with the Royal Family of Imperial Russia and the emblem for them was the Imperial Double Headed Eagle.  Too fun!

Disassembled earrings...thank you for your sacrifice!

Another shot of my completed Royal Order breast star!  I'm still pretty happy with how it turned out!

Now that the star is done, I am on the look out for a badge.  I am pretty sure my ribbon will be a dark red as I think it will go well with the color of dress I am planning on making!

More great information on Royal Orders can be found here:

Unofficial Royalty

This AWESOME blog has this great post about the orders that Royals around the world still use.  I will re-visit this when I post about the sash that will go with my breast star:

The Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor

A very long read but this article has great information from an Encyclopedia fro 1911 on Royal Orders.  

The Book Inspectors Collaboration League

My Pinterest board dedicated to Royal Orders...I was dismayed to discover that a bunch of pins I pinned from another pinner didn't have references...I will hopefully be finding out where the pins come from in the future...

Pinterest

Until next time my lovely friends!  I hope I have inspired you to make your own Royal Order Star!  Please share your stars with me if you decide to make your own!

Blessings!

g

HSF Challenge 14: Under It All

Usually when I do a Historical Fortnightly challenge, it is something that is really fun and exciting and colorful and not a necessity.  This time around though, I used the challenge to propel me into making something that I need to make another challenge!  How fun!  Anyhoo, I made a Regency Era chemise/shift last year followed by another Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge Regency Stays.  There were big plans of a Lewis and Clark picnic when my friend Josie came to Idaho and then we both took off to California for Costume College...then my back intervened and things got nixed.  Stooooopeeeeed back!!!  Well, here we are at 2014 and I am going to get a Regency Era outfit done if it...we won't say anything else.

The next step in my Regency wardrobe was to make a bodiced petticoat.  It was rather simple as I already had it cut out!  Yeah!!  I know, it is a boring, white, piece of clothing, but it is done and on time even!!

The Dreamstress and The Historical Sew Fortnightly

Bodiced Petticoat front.  I love the look of this garment!

I did not enjoy the placket part of construction...I had to slit the top of the skirt down the center and go from there.  I know how to do it, but I do not enjoy it.

For the hem, Lara of Lara Corsets suggested cording the very bottom of the hem.  I did that and then added pretty tucks to take up the length and add stability to the hem.

Pattern I used.  Wonderful, fabulous set Mama and I bought together!  Can't wait to make more of these wonderful garments.  

La Mode Bagatelle Regency Wardrobe

The packaging is even lovely!

The Challenge:  #4 Under It All

Fabric:  A very fine, thin cotton

Pattern:  La Mode Bagatelle Regency Wardrobe

Year:  1811-1820 (Regency Era)

Notions:  antique shell buttons, metal hooks and eyes, synthetic thread

How Historically Accurate Is It?:  You know, I'm not quite sure.  I have not done nearly enough research into this era...but the pattern appears to be very historically accurate and the fabric is cotton.  I did use a sewing machine as I do not have any time to hand sew something from start to finish...

Hours to Complete:  Maybe 12 (the turning right side out of the bodice took quite a while...)

First Worn:  Not yet..don't know when it will be worn...for sure in August!

Total Cost:  Fabric was $8.00

Now I just need to wait for Challenge #9 to come around!  At that point in time, Historical Sew Fortnightly will have been a part of 4 layers of my Regency Era outfit!  How cool is that?

Blessings!

g