Ada Lovelace: Finished Product

I finished this project back in late July, but right afterwards life geared back up again for school. This afternoon I find myself with some free time, so here are the last of the construction photos and some of the finished product.

Finishing the Wig

Bonnie Figured out that we needed support for the side rolls

Like this!

hair wrapped around the rolls

Finished with comb, veil, and flowers

adding lace to the vaeil

I had to cut the lace in parts to handle the curves

Lace attached to the wig/comb

I had to construct it in two pieces: one sewn directly to the wig, and the other sewn to the comb

attaching the underveil to the wig

Sleeves

I made a test version of the sleeves. The sleeves were just a rectangle of fabric cartridge pleated at the upper edge and gathered at the elbow. I supported the pleating with a strip of batting. 

Cartridge pleats marked & stitched

I trimmed the bottom edge of the pleats with some braided trim and added some leftover lace to the gathered elbow. 

finished bodice!

helper cat

Everything together on the dressform

Accessories

The gloves were a thrift store find. I sewed some trim from my grandmother's stash around the cuff. 

After doing some quick research on period shoes, I decided that ballet flats would be a close analog. I did take the sparkly bows off, though. 

 FINISHED!

I won best recreation at the Shore Leave 35 Costume Contest. It was the first contest I'd ever entered y myself. It was pretty great. The response to the costume was unexpectedly positive. Many women were thrilled to see Ada there to represent for female programmers.

Lovelace previews

I've been blogging all afternoon, and I'm getting a little burned out, but I couldn't resist posting a few pics of my progress on the Ada Lovelace gown.

I'm trying to replicate this portrait:

The first thing to notice is that the fabric is probably shot. That is, the fabric is made of one color thread on the weft and a different color thread on the warp. That explains the pink and purple shades and dark shadows. The bright white highlights, I have concluded, have to be the artist's license. There is no way to get all four colors out of the same fabric at these intensities.

I found a brilliant silk taffeta satin for the main fabric.

While this is lovely, it's really too saturated for recreating the portrait. I hemmed, I hawed. My husband suggested using an overlayer over something sheer to damp down the colors. We looked at a white netting which was a step in the right direction, but it was nylon and I really wanted to stick with natural fibers. I kept looking and later found a silk organza that was shot with a dark teal and burgundy. I couldn't believe my luck!

With this organza overlayer muting the intensity, I feel like I've gotten as close to the portrait fabric as I am likely to get if I want to stick with natural fibers, not break the bank, and finish this thing by early August.

Here are a few shots of the project coming together. Eventually the skirt will be joined to the bodice. Right now it is all just pinned to the dress form.

The shoulders on my dress form are much wider than me. I am not concerned about the gap at the back... yet. 

Corded Petticoat (Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #15: White)

As I mentioned back in May, I'm tackling my first reproduction challenge. I am going to make an Ada Lovelace costume.

This portrait is dated circa 1838, so I needed the proper undergarments to get the right look.

I chickened out and did not attempt a late 1830's corset. I wanted to, but I also want to wear this costume in August so... I'm going to tell myself that the line achieved with a mid-Victorian corset and the line achieved with a late 1830's corset are close enough.

I decided that I really did need to make a proper petticoat to create the right shape under the skirt.

I purchased Jennifer Rosburgh's tutorial and went to town. This tutorial was well worth the purchase. The pattern is not difficult, but her input and advice on technique was very valuable.

I chose to make a two-layer petticoat and sandwich the cords into between the two layers. This allowed me to create the corded sections in one long spiral. I used cotton organdy, which I've never worked with before, and it's now my new favorite thing.

The hardest part was getting the first through third rows of cording because I had to work with the two outer layers and the seam allowance. After that it was smooth, if tedious, sailing. I used cotton yarn that was slightly less bulky than 1/8". This meant that I needed a lot of yard. I probably used about 100 yards of yarn all told.

I cannot say this enough: do not expect to finish your corded petticoat in one sitting. You will go mad.

After the organdy layer was finished, I decided that I would need an under lay to keep the organdy away from my legs. I made a (relatively) quick tucked petticoat out of some muslin and gathered them both into the same waist band. I have no idea how historically accurate this is, but I wanted to reduce bulk at the waist.

Then I starched the two layered petticoat and let it dry. Three hours of ironing later (no joke!) and the skirt would stand up by itself.

Here's some photos of the project:

I've added a little bum pad to help create the line of the skirts in the portrait. 

The second under-petticoat. 

Two petticoats in one waistline. 

It seriously stands up on it's own. For hours. Days possibly. The cat knocked this over in a cat fit of mystery fright. 

I am submitting this project for Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge #15: White.

The Challenge: White has carried many connotations as a colour, from defining culture and social boundaries in Ancient Egypt (only foreigners and those connected to the afterlife wore colour), to denoting status (white was often an expensive colour to produce and maintain), to implying purity, or simply cleanliness.

For this challenge ‘white’ is defined as anything in the white family – from brightest white, through to ivory and cream and all the shades between.

Fabric: Cotton Organdy (corded overskirt), Cotton Muslin (tucked underskirt), Cotton yard

Pattern: Jennifer Rosburgh's Tutorial (available for purchase here)

Year: 1820 - 1860

Notions:  Polyester thread, approximately 150 yards of cotton yarn

How historically accurate is it? Except for the machine sewing, this it pretty dead on technique. I joined the two skirts together in one waistband, which is probably less accurate (it would cut down the reusability of both skirts in other outfits -- not very frugal). Overall: 9/10

Hours to complete: 40 hours (most of that spent sewing the yarn into casings)

First worn: Scheduled for early August

Total cost: 3 yards cotton organdy ($24), yarn ($15 - two different kinds used for no good reason), 3 yards muslin from stash ($6), thread ($1) total: $47

Charles Worth inspired gown

The last thing that I made for Steampunk World's Fair was a gown inspired by this astonishing creation by Charles Worth:

images from the incredible online Worth & Mainbocher exhibit from the Museum of the City of New York. 

This is by far the most ambitious project I have ever attempted. The two things that I love most about this design are butterfly train (because butt bows) and the asymmetrical drape in the front overskirt. This project clearly calls for some amazing fabric, and I lucked into some in a serious way. I found this fabric at an interior designer's shop. He was selling a bolt end (approximately 5 yards) of this embroidered silk for ... wait for it... $50. Yes, please!

I wanted to feature this fabric, so after some fussing around, I decided to make the drape and the train out of it. The underskirt was a bronze-y colored silk skirt from a previous costume. I removed the ruffle from that skirt and used some of that fabric and a few remaining scraps to create the bodice.

The Drape
I started by drafting the drape. This was my very first draped pattern, so I was very nervous. It took a while and I had to study the reference photos very carefully (luckily the exhibit features and incredible zoom function). In the end, I settled on this. From the back, it looks very strange, but I knew it would always be covered by the train.

I marked the muslin up and then used it for my pattern. Here's a rough sketch of what that looked like.

back drape diagram

front drape diagram

Clearly, these are just rough guides. If you are interested in make a similar drape, you will need to drape in on a form or on a person, but this should give you an idea about how to start.

Here are some shots of the finished drape. Notice that I left the selvage edge unhemmed as an homage to Worth (also plus because lazy).

The Train
Then I used Truly Victorian's Butterfly Train pattern to finish the bustled skirt. I was running a little short of the embroidered silk, so I made the following changes to the pattern:

1. Narrowing the train by omitting the side panels. 
2. Choosing the shortest pattern length and shortening that by an extra 9"

I also lined the train with a contrasting brass silk. I didn't want the embroidery to snag on anything as I walked and I wanted the poufs to have maximum volume.

This train using hooks and eyes to attach to the garment, and it took a little trial and error to figure out where out them. The website suggests that the train is hooked to the outside of the bodice (this is not confirmed in the sample photo) and the written directions suggest hooking the train to an underskirt (which is what I started with). Hooking the train to a skirt worked fine while I was working on the dress form, but I eventually hooked the train to the inside of my bodice. More on that decision later.

Here's the train hooked to the underskirt:

The train went together smoothly, even with my changes. It's really just a series of fabric folding, not a lot of complicated sewing, and the results were pretty stunning.

The Bodice (in which I do everything the hard way)
In theory, I used the Truly Victorian 1892 Ball Gown Bodice. I say "in theory" because I made some serious alterations to change the back closure from buttons to a laced closure, to accomodate the bustle, and to give the back of the bodice an elongated back point.

After the extensive changes I made to the bodice, I came to realize that all of the Truly Victorian ball gown bodices are all essentially the same pattern. If you are going to have to make big changes to the pattern or if you are going to have a sleeveless gown, it really doesn't matter which pattern you choose. All these patterns are the same basic 5 pattern pieces. There are subtle differences for closures, neck lines, and bustles. You will save yourself a lot of time if you want something exactly like or very close to one of these designs, but if you are going to be making changes, I'm not sure it's going to matter which one you start with.

1892 Ball Gown

1885 Bodice

1879

1881

After making five ("yes, just the five") muslins to get the fit right, I was ready to make the final version.  I followed this fantastic blog's advice about how to do a layered bodice. I started with the lining layer, and added the boning. I finished the top and bottom edges with bias binding before attaching the outer layer.

Interior of the Worth gown, for comparison

This make sense if you are planning to tack ruched fabric to the lining before like this:

However, after much experimentation, I decided that the best option was to apply the outer layer directly to the lining.

 

In another ill-fated "sounded good at the time" idea, I thought I might need a little more seam allowance on the outer layer, so I added bias binding all the way around.

I figured that I might need a little extra seam allowance to deal with the added bulk from the boning on the lining layer and the  muslin interlining on the outer layer. 

all bias binding, all the time

In the end, I didn't need any extra seam allowance and the bias binding just seemed to get in the way. I ended up trimming most of it off.


This finish in consistent with the original that I was copying, but I'm not sure that makes me feel any better about it.

Also, in a fit of perverse drive for "period correctness", I decided to  hand bind the button holes. 

Finally, the bodice layers were attached to each other, and I was ready to start thinking about trimming the bodice.

After many different test drapes, I settled on a gold colored silk gorgette to make just a front drape. I was initially enamored of the chevon shaped drape on the back of the original, but I found that I couldn't get the proportions right to be flattering because I am so short waisted.

I wanted to use some of the teal fabric on the bodice, so that they looked like they really belonged together. Lastly, I wanted to create some sort of pouf-of-interest  to mimic the feather "thing" that sits at the lowest point of the front drape on the Worth gown.

I loosely followed this tutorial to make fabric "flowers" for the front of the bodice and the drape.

The last thing that I did was to make some trim from a contrasting brass fabric trimmed with tan lace. I pleated this fabric using the "fork trick" I found on the Truly Victorian website. I added this trim to the front of the underskirt and the lower portion of the train.

The full effect was truly achieved once I had it on at the World's Fair. I had friends help with the hair and make up. I have good and talented friends.

Finally, I was additionally motivated to complete this project in time for this event because Margaret (Magpie) Killjoy was going to be there making tintypes. You should really check out his stuff. It's amazing. We had seen his work at Steampunk Gettysburg, and I knew I really wanted one in a fabulous outfit. Here's what I got. I couldn't love it more:

Seriously.