Monday, September 12, 2011

18th Century Project

Sooo, yeeeeeeah, I'm an idiot. I gave myself another project. To be finished in a week.

Here in St. Louis, we have a pirate fest for 3 weekends in September. I've never bothered to make anything specifically for it, mostly because I never budgetted for historical shoes nor have I figured out the hair. I've been wearing my crappy ren faire garb that's 7 years old and has freakin POLY BONING in it. It was in such bad shape I decided to at least whip up a new bodice. Then I started agonizing over the fact that it's still a horrible outfit. Then I remembered Maggie at Costumer's Guide managed to make an 18th century jacket out of one yard of fabric and thought, well hell! I can do that! (Thanks Maggie ;) )

I've made an 18th century gown previously:

It wasn't perfect, a little bright. I simply took the bodice pattern for the above dress and altered it a bit. I decided to make the jacket boned and will try to forgo a corset (the one I made is fully boned with steel bones. Yeah, I can't drive in that) The box pleated hem on the petticoat, which was pinked and took foreeeeeeeever to pleat, got completely shredded at D*Con 2009 and that year's pirate fest, plus I had to wear tennies. I'm going to re-pink the trim and raise it to ankle height to show off my gorgeous American Duchess shoes (which will hopefully stay clean). The jacket will have a button front stomacher with brass buttons. I don't know what if any trim I'll add. I have to trim out my hat a little, and make a cap so I don't have to fuss with hair. Hopefully it won't be too hard to do all that by Friday night :) Sorry for the rambling post, I do that when I post late at night ;) Here's what I have so far. Things are just pinned on now. I have NO clue if any of this is period accurate, but it's good enough for pirate fest.


7 comments:

  1. Oooo, pretty! I love how well the spotted fabric for the jacket goes with the wonderful gold of the petticoat. :D Will you be posting any pictures from the event?

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  2. Cuuuute! I love the jacket! I'll be excited to see pictures of the whole ensemble at the event! :)

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  3. I love it! Such great colors. It's a very fun but classy outfit.

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  4. you did a wonderful job on these dresses. keep up the good work. :)

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  5. So cute! Love it!

    Also, you need to send me a good pic of just you in your new Padme costume - I want to post it!

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  6. I'll try to post some! I have pocket hoops so at least I can carry a camera :D

    Sure thing, Maggie! I should be getting some professional quality full view shots this week. So far all the con pics are fuzzy or with other people ;)

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