Autumn in Cranford: The Accessories

Accessories

"Friends don't leave friends leave the house without accessories"

"I've always thought of accessories as the exclamation point of a woman's outfit"  Michael Kors

I love the accessories that go along with costuming.  It is my firm belief that when you decorate your outfits with accessores that fit the era of the outfit, it goes that much further to help your outfit look authentic and like you just stepped out of a fashion plate.  It also helps feed my OCD and "Shiny" Magpie issues...this could be a good thing or a bad thing.  

Anyhoo, I thought I'd share the accessories that I have chosen to decorate my Autumn in Cranford Dress with!

Pelerine

 Pelerines of lace and fine linen or cotton were worn over the day dresses in the Romantic era...a few examples can be found here, here, and here.

I am still debating on what I should wear at the top of my dress.  The fabulous lace pelerine that I found on eBay or the one that I made...the jury is still out...

I just love the way this lace one covers the wide shoulders!

Pretty, pretty lace!

Shawl

There are several instances I have found where a beautiful shawl, more than likely a carry over from Regency days, was worn on a cool day.  I found three lovely examples... one in a painting, one in a fashion plate, (top image of lady in black dress) and an extant example!! 

I followed the directions on to make a long shawl out of two smaller ones from Jen of Festive Attyre.  Her Regency Shawl Hack tutorial came in quite handy!  I found my shawls on eBay from this store.  They were thinner than I had assumed, but that's ok.  The two shawls went together quite nicely, but if you intend to do this, just be warned that my shawls were very slippery and took a lot of pins to keep them together while sewing.

Lovely jewel tone colors!

Works perfectly with the dress!!

Mitts

Another thing I noticed while researching the 1830s was that mitts were worn as well as gloves.  Some lovely examples can be found here, here, and here.

Kaila from Tea Cups and Frocks wore a pair of the most dainty mitts at Costume College and I about drooled all over them when I saw them!  She was kind enough to direct me to where she purchased them... Laci's.  They are made of silk and are hand knotted and are so fabulous!!!

Sadly when I wear them with my dress, you don't see very much of them!!

Reticule

For the requisite reticule, I will be resurrecting the one I made for my Elizabeth Bennet outfit I wore to Coco...Yay for things already on hand!!!

Boots!!

Ok, so I have been biding my time, waiting and waiting.  Finally the day came!  My birthday.  I told all who asked "What do you want for your birthday" that I would like funds to be pooled so I could purchase boots from American Duchess.  I was seriously ecstatic when I was able to order the Gettysburg Side Lace Boots!!!!  Then I was even more ecstatic when they finally arrived on my doorstep!  I think my mailman feared for his hand as I almost literally ripped the box from his grasp!  Ok, nooooooo, I didn't really rip them from his grasp... but I know that he knew I was serious about getting them inside!  THEN!!!  My son had the gaul to ask me if he could open the box!  Is he insane!!??????  Pft!!  No way son!   This is MY box that holds MY boots!  Get back!!  I rushed upstairs and calmly and gently opened the box that held the most fabulous pair of boots I have ever owned!!!!

And yes, I took pictures at each step!!  I am that geek.

Pretty powder blue box!!  Sigh!

The box is even beautiful and so very sturdy!

LOOK!!  Look!! Aren't they beautiful!!  They even smell good!!  

There was a fun gift inside.  A nummy sour apple sucker and a fun pin with a lovely Edwardian lady on it!  Again, the nerve of my son was astounding!  He asked if he could have my sucker!!  Has he taken leave of his senses?  Good heavens!!!  Hahahahaha!!!

Holy Monkey are these babies comfy!!  I ADORE them!  They fit wonderfully (because there is no toe box...didn't have a clue what that was but Lauren educated me....) so I ordered a size larger than what I usually wear to accomodate stockings and perhaps a insert.

Tra-la-la-la-laaaaaaaaa!!!  They work perfectly with the outfit!!  I am so very pleased!!!  I have plans to make many dresses from the 1830s to the 1860s so these sweet boots will get lots of use!!

Well, that is it for accessories for Autumn in Cranford!  Can't wait to put them all together!!

Be Blessed My Friends!!

g

Autumn in Cranford: Dress Done!!!

Whoo hoo!!!  The dress is done!  And shockingly without any horrific mishaps that usually hover like a spector of doom and despair around my projects.  I'm kind of scared.  I didn't have to adjust or alter the pattern one bit and that is seriously unusual for me.  BUT, this is a happy event, because this means I can make more of this dress without any of the usual hair pulling that often times accompanies my projects!

On to the dress-rehearsal pictures!!  (The pics of me wearing the dress were taken before I made the sleeve supports, so the sleeves look like sad, deflating balloons...)

Note to self:  Get a new camera that doesn't make fabric look washed out....

I cannot believe the enormity of the sleeves and bonnet!!!  I acutally look like I have a small head!  Which I DON'T!!!!

My Mrs. Universe pose!!  Look at those "muscles"!!  hahahahahaha!!!!

Miss Rosie had to get in the picture.  She does after all match the outfit!!  Isn't she so sweet?

Ok!  So, I found on eBay from England this fabulous lace pelerine and my Mama bought it for me for a birthday gift!!  It is gorgeous and I may be wearing it instead of the chemisette I originally planned on wearing with the dress....hhhmmm.....Oh yes!  Sleeve supports have been added so the sleeves puff out correctly!

Love how the pelerine looks with this dress...

Dress with the chemisette...love this look as well...

Close up of bodice with chemisette...now the decision of what collar to wear!!!

Next post will be about the accessories I have for this outfit!!  I am so excited to wear it!!

Be blessed my friends!

g

Autumn in Cranford: Just a Wee Little Bonnet

Oooook....so maybe I told a little white lie in the title of this post.  This bonnet is not wee in any sense of the word.  It is HUGE!!  It is so very 1830s in its HUGENESS!  And totally fun!  I used Lynn McMasters 1830s Romantic Period Bonnet and modified it a bit.  I wasn't overly fond of the brim so cut it down a bit (or it would have been truly massive!) and had to enlarge the whole thing as my noggin is a bit on the bigger side.  I really wanted a straw bonnet that wasn't just regular plait straw.  I drew inspiration from these sources:  Fashion Plate, Augusta Auction, The MET, and The MET.  My straw is by no means era correct, but I reeeeaaalllly love the lacy look of it.  I sewed it to rusty orange dupioni silk covered buckram.  I knew that a using this straw braid for a bonnet of this proportion would more than likely fail miserable because of how wimpy it is, so the sewing it to buckram was my solution.  I was hoping that mounting it over the silk covered buckram would give the illusion of the bonnet being lined like these examples:  silk lined straw (I couldn't find the link to the original image :-( ), silk lined straw (I know this is an earlier bonnet, but you can see the silk peeking through the straw).  I had some incredible antique ribbon and ostrich feathers in my stash that I hoped would work really well with the color scheme of the bonnet and I think they do.  Oh!!  And hello wheat spray!  I have had this for years waiting for the perfect hat to put it on and I am happy that it has found its new home!  All I have left to do to finish the bonnet, is find some closely shaded ribbon for the ties.

So....here is the wee little 1830s bonnet with the 1830s day cap on my Emma head form...can't wait to get my bangs all curled up so I can wear this bonnet!

Next week is dedicated to making a Revolutionary War Patriot costume then after that I get to start on sleeve supports for the dress!

Be blessed my friends!

g

A Pocket, A Day Cap, and A Washed Chemisette

Because I am not ready to delve into making the "Autumn in Cranford" dress just yet, I have been playing around with making accessories for the ensemble...a pocket and a day cap.

A Pocket

One of the things I have made is a pocket.  It all started with this sweet image that came with my Past Patterns Romantic Era dress pattern.  It's a paper doll.  I LOVE her!  I adored paper dolls when I was a little girl and this one is so sweet and lovely!  She has her chemise, stays, sleeve supports, bum pad, corded and plain petticoats, wooden busk and a pocket.  This...this paper doll is the reason I needed to make a pocket.  So what did I do?  You got it...the research began in earnest.  I know that ladies used pockets in the late 1790s and even earlier (I haven't done a lot of research in these years), and I have seen many beautifully embroidered pockets.  I don't have time to properly embroider a pocket right now, so I was pleased as punch when I discovered many patchwork pockets!  Patchwork I can do.

Some lovely examples of patchwork pockets... here, here, here, and here.

Source:  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The design of this pocket was a simple one and I liked how many different fabrics were used to create the pocket.

I had done some quilting years and years ago, but for some reason, I totally forgot how to make a simple square of triangles.  Honeybear Lane came to my rescue.  I used some of the fabric from the "Autumn in Cranford" dress and some different colored silks from past and future projects that matched the various colors in the cotton print.

Squares of squares have been turned into squares of triangles!!

Now they have been joined!!

I added more cotton as a border, then cut out the pocket shape.

Bordered in rust and teal silk....She's finito!!  All I need to do now is attach some cotton tape and it will be ready to wear!

For the back, I used some awesome fabric that my mom put in my Christmas stocking years ago!  It was the perfect color to compliment the front!

A Day Cap

After watching "Cranford", "Wives and Daughters", "Pride and Prejudice", and many of the other Jane Austen movies, not to mention the many fashion plates from the 1820s and 1830s, I had a feeling I would need to make a day cap to wear with my outfit.  I contacted Samantha McCarty of The Couture Courtesan and she assured me that it was the fashion to wear a day cap.  Happily, I already had Lynn McMaster's 1830s Romantic Era Bonnet which included a pattern for a day cap.  I did my usual research and discovered some wonderful examples.

"Portrait of the Archduchess Henriette of Austria in a White Dress with Blue Ribbons" (1829) by Johann Nepomuk Ender (1793-1854).

Source:  The Enchanted Garden Tumblr

I LOVE the Archduchess's day cap!!!  I want it so much...along with the rest of her outfit!!!

Source:  Wikimedia

The polka dots on this lady's day cap makes me so happy!

Source:  Heinrich Heine University

You can see this lady's sweet day cap peaking out from under her bonnet.  Perfect example of wearing the cap under a hat.

An Etsy image.  Day cap examples and day caps being worn under bonnets

Source:  The MET

This cap is so lovely!  I love the frilly ruffles around the face.

Source:  McCord Museum

Crazy frills around the face.

My day cap...I apologize for the wretched picture quality.  But you can get the general idea.

I really liked the dots on the day cap of the above painting and I had some dotted swiss in my stash, so after cutting out the pattern in cotton organdy, I re-cut it in the dotted swiss... I am quite happy with how it turned out!

I put my Regency Era half mourning hat over the day cap just to see how it looked!  I love it!!

Too fun!

A Washed Chemisette

After much deliberation, I decided that I did need to wash the tea out of the chemisette.  So, a bath in laundry soap, some bleach, and an ironing later, and I am very happy with what outcome of the washing!  Thank you all for your input and suggestions!!

In natural light...

In light bulb light...aaaaaahhhh...much better!

Well, next step is the sleeve supports and maybe a new reticule.  We shall see what happens next!  I have a feeling that I will be making a Halloween costume for a certain 12 year old first though...

Be blessed my friends!

g