1830s Fur Tippet Mini Tutorial and a Completed 1830s Bracelet

For my 1830s Painting Dress, I wanted to make a black fur tippet like Countess Emilia Sommariva Seilliere in her painting.  I watched eBay for quite a while looking for a vintage cape that didn't cost an arm and a leg and finally discovered the one below.  It pays to buy vintage furs in the summer when the last thing one wants to do is wear a fur...at least in Idaho where it can get to 105!  ACK!!  Anyhoo, I was able to recycle a 1940s cape into an 1830s tippet!  In my mind the lady who wore this cape was a very lovely lady who wore it on an airplane while on her honeymoon to England to visit Bath or the V&A Museum!  Ok, so my imagination is a bit wild!

My fur cape from eBay.  It is dyed and sheared muskrat.  I took the lining and padding out and layed it flat.  As with other fur, it had many pieces stitched together to get one big piece.

I decided that I wanted my tippet to be 3" wide, so cut strips of 6" fur.  Happily, the makers of the cape had sewn together 6" strips already so it was rather simple to cut apart.  I used an Xacto knife very gingerly on the back side to cut the strips apart.  When I had all my strips cut apart, I began sewing it together.

I layed the strips down and butted the pieces together.  I hope you can see it here... black thread on black leather is kind of hard to see.

After all the strips were sewn together I folded it in half and whip stitched the long pieces together forming a looooong tube.  Then I turned it right side out...which took about 45 minutes...I'm not even kidding you!

My beautiful tippet complete and hanging on the dress that it goes with!

I think it is just the right size for the painting reproduction!

_______________________________________________________

Another thing that has to be done for the painting reproduction is the jewelry...the bracelet in particular.

Remember the brooch I found on eBay?  No?  Ok, well it is above...I removed the pin part of the brooch with a pair of side cutters or dykes.

I found a pair of curved earrings at Hobby Lobby.  Of course I forgot to take a picture of them before I cut off the ear hole loops.  Grrrrrrrr...I chose these earrings because they had a curve to them that the straight bars did not have.  I used super glue to attach them to the brooch.

These are the beads that I used for the bracelet part of the bracelet!  Ha!!

The completed bracelet.

Next up...make the necklace for the outfit, then I shall be complete!  Huzzah!!

Blessings to all of you!  And if you are reading this from the United States, I hope you have a most wonderful Independence Day tomorrow!

g