April and May sewing

With our house renovations finished in late March it was time to set up the sewing room again and get into the costume sewing. The Dancing Studio booked 4 circus costumes in the Cirque de Soleil style.
A fortune teller,



a strongman



a Pierette clown



and a hooped clown (before oversized beret was made)




were needed for a club circuit talent quest heat in April. I was given fabric and a couple of photos for the clowns, and a brief for the other 2. The costumes were very successful and the group has progressed to the finals.
I don't think house model Bron enjoyed this photo session, it was a bit cold !!.

Then straight after finishing with the Circus, I started the 1870's costumes for a gent and his partner from Bathurst. He owns a restored original Cobb and Co coach, and his partner wished to dress suitably for a Colonial Day display at the end of May. We had a few issues, mostly that the gent is extremely tall, about 6 ft 7 inches tall and the lady has an ample figure and failing eyesight. I chose a Truly Victorian pattern, the polonaise gown for her. It doesn't really need a large bustle, which L. couldn't cope with, and was not so fitted over the front area as some styles. She left it to me to choose fabric and trims. After she approved the colour I decided on black grossgrain trim with some lace bows and a lace neckline trim. I blocked a felt capeline hat for her in proportion with the outfit and her figure, adding some vintage veiling and a pouffed fabric band. Then on the front a white feather and a beaded flower over a lace bow which were also featured on the dress.






R. needed a Victorian style shirt and a waistcoat with watch pocket for his drivers fob watch. He supplied his own Moleskin trousers and brown lace up boots, and a felt hat to complete the outfit. On the day, they were both much admired and had lots of photos taken, and the local newspaper took photos as well I think. L. was very tired by the end of the day, and had to be helped into the car with her bustle and hat because she had forgotten to take a change of clothing. I hope she'll wear it all again soon, but before then I need to make a few minor adjustments to the frill at the neck and add another bow down the front. We only had the one fitting in early May so I think we did quite well. I'm pleased with the resulting photos anyway.


The golf umbrella isn't very 1870's but necessary due to intermittent drizzle on the day.

A rear view showing the bustled polonaise, the petticoat underneath it all



and a final closeup of the very happy lady herself !

My birthday gift to myself

On a recent car trip to our nation's capital between Christmas and New Year, we stopped at historic Berrima in the Southern Highlands of NSW. Peppergreen's Antiques is one of those shops a true collector cannot pass by without going in to see what's new. My antique and vintage underwear collection has a few gaps which I hoped to fill from the Peppergreen's inventory. I wandered around for a while before spying a few likely containers of clothing, and since signs everywhere asked us to call an assistant, I did just that.

I sorted through a bin of salmon pink 1920's and 1930's bras and corsets just out of interest, after all they are a little later than my focus area of pre WW 1 back to the Victorian era. Then I asked for the bin labelled pantaloons, where most of the stock was cotton and similar to those already owned. Then in the bottom of another bin some interesting knitted combinations. 2 pairs, one with longer legs and very cute slit gussets for accomodating milady's bosom.







The other pair was shorter, with a lower neckline and the more traditional gussets let into the neckline. Both were in good condition, possibly unworn which is called "new old stock" in the trade. Not really sure of the exact age as they have some chained flatlocking type stitching on the gussets seams inside, but they are divided crotch. This says pre WW1 to me, so until I can prove otherwise with an old advertisement or such, I'm assuming this to be true.






Then in a display case I spied some stockings which were brought out for me to inspect. 3 pairs were mine by the end of the transaction. I'm really spoilt, aren't I? Photos of stockings will appear in my next post, please come back again?

PS Many thanks to House Model DD#3 Bron, I think she enjoyed modelling these more than Pooh, see previous post, LOL.

Is there a Pooh in the house?

Here is a last minute addition to the costumes for the Dancing Studio show which I was asked to make 1 week ago. My DD3 Bron is my fit model as usual, VBG. Don't know how I could manage without her, as my dress mannequin just didn't do this justice, having no legs and all that!!

The Principal of the studio was bidding for a suit on Ebay and was pipped at the post at the last second. He purchased the yellow toy fur and satin as I requested and this is the result. The tummy padding is seperate to the suit, as I find it sits better on different sized dancers that way. I made elastic "braces" crossed in the back to hold it up and left instructions to push it down before closing the front zipper on the suit. The dancer who wore it last night had 2 VERY quick changes, and I noticed she failed to push it down as far as Bron did in my photo. Anyway, it was a dance with 15 under 5 year olds, called the Tiny Tots, so all eyes were on the cute dancers, not the Pooh. I noticed though !!

I also made a Blue Genie from Aladdin, but was not able to put that on my "model" as the dancer was a 10 year old girl and miniscule !! I hope to get some photos when I see her next, for my own records. I copied from an image courtesy of Google as close as possible, and I was quite pleased with the result on stage.

An exhibition of convict women's clothing

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted here, but I haven't been entirely idle. You can see what I've been doing in the stitching world here

Earlier in the year I was fortunate to work with a great group of volunteers who were reproducing some convict women's clothing for an exhibition which ran from August to November 10th at the Parramatta Heritage and Information Centre. Called "Women Transported", it was the first time a lot of extant artifacts and photos had been exhibited in the one gallery. The curator Gay wanted to show that the convict women transported to Australia were not all hardened criminals, in fact there was a policy eventually of convicting young healthy women of petty crime to send them to New South Wales to populate the country.




We decided to offer 3 different outfits for display: a 3rd class Tasmanian convict, a 3rd class Parramatta convict and 1st class Parramatta Sunday best dress. I was charged with researching the actual designs, making patterns and sourcing the fabrics required. There were 5 volunteer sewers who hand stitched every item. We had an 1844 satirical cartoon called "Beautifully Linked" by Winstanley which showed a version of a female convict outfit, and the word descriptions of government issued clothing but information about Australian convict dress is very scant.

I referred back to English working class clothing of the early 1800's as seen in drawings, including the Cries of London series which although a bit earlier wouldn't have changed very much. The project was very challenging, but I think the resulting costumes were well received. They have certainly started a dialogue about publishing a book on working class clothing in Australia.

The Tasmanian convict showed a drab jacket with a longer sleeve and a dark checked neckerchief. You can see it in the foreground of the picture above.

The 3rd class Parramatta outfit was the most complete.

It featured a shift, petticoat, over petticoat (skirt) jacket, neckerchief and cotton cap, as well as an apron of dressed sheepskin worn for rock breaking duty.
The apron was the biggest hurdle, because no-one in Australia or New Zealand could supply dressed sheep skin. Can you imagine that? We had to get a skin from the USA!

The first class Parramatta Sunday best outfit consisted of a red calico jacket, white cap and straw bonnet which I hand sewed from 22 metres of wheat straw braid, as inspired by an extant 1830's bonnet in our Powerhouse Museum here in Sydney.


These photos were taken yesterday while the exhibition was being taken down. I lost all my photos taken in August while learning to use a new camera! Also, after seeing the red jacket in these photos, I altered the fitting of it last night before it was packed to travel to the next Gallery at Tamworth in February. It now closes much more neatly and fits the very small mannequin better. Did I hear someone say "damned perfectionist" ?

"Narnia" Lion

This photo shows the before and after of a recent Lion's head project.

When I was training in Theatrical Costume at SIT East Sydney no-one told me I would be making historical repro costume one day and animals the next. Talk about variety being the spice of life! This week I turned a child's lion suit into a "Narnia" style lion for the Dancing Studio I frequently work with, using completely recycled or stash materials.

We canibalised a bear suit which I made several years ago, added some fur to the tummy area, and added paws taken from the too-small lion's outift. Next I tackled the too-cute head. It sits on top of the head, so the face needed a "curtain" and the face was far too baby looking. Aslan is an adult Asian lion. I used mr Google for some images, then decided to add patches around the eyes in felt, and some whiskers from 12 pound fishing line. I highlighted the mouth with some braid and felt, then after several unsuccessful shoppping expeditions for long haired fur in a suitable colour, the Studio found some fur vests in their store room. I ripped out the linings, cut through the shoulders and after making a toile in calico I cut a "hood" pattern to suggest a full mane. I made a padded "sausage" like a bum roll and stitched it to the head behind the ears to give some height. The "mane" is quite full and will cover the shoulders of the dancer. The Studio covered some long rods with beige fur fabric as the dancer will be leaning over like the animals in the stage version of the Lion King. The production number is part of the entertainment at a major banking conference, and about 30 dancers will be on stage. I hope to see the number later in the year, as I'd love a photo or two for my albums.

Convict women's clothing

As part of a group sewing for a forthcoming exhibition of Australian convict women I've been researching and helping to reproduce some clothing which may have been worn by women transported to the Australian colony. Our period is approx 1820's to 1840's and is based on a political cartoon drawn at the time, as well as contemporary word descriptions of what women were issued with. No clothing has survived so our efforts are "educated speculation". I've been trying to base the designs on the working dress of Britain at the time, and have come up with a shortgown, petticoat and neckhandkerchief combination which I hope will pass muster. I toiled them last week, and the first photo shows the calico pieces on a dress model. The most difficult part is the fabric choice - we only have vague word descriptions, and unfortunately some terms are no longer valid. For example calico refers to a cotton cloth which came from Calcutta in India, which were dyed then block or roller printed with designs. There are some examples of the fabrics to be seen online in albums on quilting sites, but you can't be sure they were dress fabrics and not furnishings. Then there is "stuff", which is cotton, linen or wool yardage ! Another difficult one is "blue gurrah" which was an Indian coarse cotton cloth, used for petticoats and working class garments. I have purchased some Indian cotton furnishing weight fabric in a blue, and discharge dyed it with bleach to see the result (see photo 2)

The third photo is the result of today's playing with bleach and dye. I bought some 100% cotton washer canvas to make the 3rd class Tasmanian convict clothing, but was unhappy with the colour range available. I bought a milk chocolatey brown, with the plan to discharge dye it after my success with the blue. Well, the first attempt went to a pale terracotta colour, not terribly "drab" which is the desired colour. Now just what drab is can only be a guess, but I don't think it was a pretty pinkish terracotta. A quick call to friend Jenny B. who has a little more experience with colour theory than me and her suggestion was to try a green dye to counteract the red.
So back into the washing machine went 5 metres of 150cm wide fabric with 1/2 cup pale green Gilseal powdered dye dissolved in hot water and a 15 minute hot wash. Voila, a distressed looking drab brown, which when dried was not too bad at all.Photo 3 shows a strip of the pink terracotta, and a strip of the fabric dyed in a concentrated green bath and the finished drab colour yardage.

I'm hoping to visit the Powerhouse Museum on Thursday to eyeball some other clothing from the same period to "get my eye in" for the colours, before I do anything further to the fabric.

Working class day dress 1820's

It's long been a worry for me that we mostly make glamorous evening dress or court dress when we reconstruct period clothing, possibly with the exception of Viking or early Medieval. I guess we all aspire to being a Lady or a Princess etc. Even most blokes want to be a knight, or a king, or a dandy, or Luke Skywalker, not the lowly townspeople in the tavern in a Star Wars movie.

I'm researching Australian convict women's clothing at the moment, for an exhibition in August in Parramatta which will be touring around Australia. So I'm looking for images and drawings of everyday clothing worn by the working class.

On Saturday I volunteered at Hambledon Cottage Parramatta and wore a dress I sewed up on Friday. I had pulled out my Regency evening dress to wear on Thursday, but then had a change of heart. The temperature was predicted to be very warm and that dress is silk taffeta, so I thought it might be a bit warm to wear all day. I thought it was high time the working class was represented, so I graded up the pattern I made for Elizabeth Farm guides' costumes, changed a few details, pulled out some pre-washed 100% cotton fabric and started stitching!

The photos show the front bodice in detail, and the back bodice and sleeves. The seams are piped and there are small imitation mother of pearl buttons down the back. I may change the buttons and work over the buttonholes by hand in the future, but you understand that this dress was produced on a strict timetable, LOL. I tried to keep the visible machine stitching to a minimum, but the seams are overlocked internally. I wore my 1825 chemisette with collar (from Jean Hunisett's excellent Theatrical Costume for Stage and Screen) under the dress, a calico petticoat with a long frill on the bottom, and an 1820's cotton cap. I did cheat with the cap a little, since I have short straight hair. I slicked back my fringe with hair spray and sewed a small plastic comb at the top of the band to hold the cap on my head at the required place. It didn't move all day, and I got quite a few compliments on the outfit. The photo at the house was taken by a visitor, sorry about the quality, LOL.