Stripes, My Beloved, I See You There.

Embroidery on the 18th Century court suit is moving right along! This project started way back in February but had to be put aside because of how much schoolwork I was doing this semester. Now that school is out, I’m finally getting the chance to go back to it.

This suit is based on extant 18th Century court suits. The waistcoat is a cream duchess silk satin with cotton embroidery and metal spangles. So many spangles! I’m glad I have a fella that will let me make his clothes sparkly.

I’m hoping to finish up this week and finally begin the construction. I also need to make a new shirt for him before I can move on to the coat, so that’s in the queue, as well. Now to decide what embroidery pattern to use for the coat...

Was sifting through some late 16th/early 17th century stammbucher (basically little scrapbooks that people would collect cards, stamps, drawings, etc in, especially while travelling; their friends and family could also add little entries to your book, like memories, poems, drawings, or well wishes) in online libraries, and thought I'd share some fun images of people doing who knows what. Bowling for ladies? Running from cupid and getting tied to trees for it? Rolling around your really bendy dude? Just another Tuesday in 17th century Germany.

La Mode nationale, no. 17, 25 avril 1896, Paris. Notre patron découpé (Grandeur naturelle). Corsage à pointe. Bibliothèque nationale de France

Détails et Explication du patron découpé:

Ce modèle forme pointe devant très court sur les hanches; des coques de même étoffe, doublèes de soie assortie, forment petite basque; les pinces sont ornées d'un galon brodé. (This model has a pointed front shape, very short on the hips; shells of the same fabric, lined with matching silk, form a small peplum; the clips are decorated with an embroidered braid.)

Ce patron se compose de six morceaux. (This pattern consists of six pieces.)

No. 1. — Le devant. (The front.)

No. 2. — Le premier côté; un cran indique le raccord au devant. (The first side; a notch indicates the connection at the front.)

No. 3. — Le deuxième côté; deux crans indiquent le raccord au premier côté. (The second side; two notches indicate the connection to the first side.)

No. 4. — Le jockey de la manche. (The jockey for the sleeve.)

No. 5. — Le dos, coupé long de façon à former une coque en repliant le bas à l'endroit indiqué par un cran de chaque côté. (The back, cut long so as to form a shell by folding the bottom at the place indicated by a notch on each side.)

No. 6. — La manche ballon, demi-longue; un trait à la roulette indique le dessous. (The balloon sleeve, half-length; a roulette line indicates the bottom.)

Métrage: 1m,50 tissu grande largeur; 0m,70 soie ou satin pour l'intérieur des coques.

Ceremonial dress of Electoress Magdalena Sibylla of Saxony. circa 1615.

For those interested in Victorian menswear, be sure to check out The Gazette of Fashion and Cutting Room Companion. It was a 19th century periodical that is geared toward tailors and is focused almost exclusively on menswear. Every volume is stuffed full of patterns, and the articles talk about trends in cut, style, and color each season. It's a fantastic resource and almost no one knows about it.

I've included a link to one of them (1870), but there are multiple volumes available for free on Google Books.

Google Books

Gazette of fashion, and cutting-room companion [afterw.] Minister's gazette of fashion

Really says something about the dire state of offerings for men interested in sewing their own clothes that even searching things like "interesting men's clothing patterns" brings up articles with links to four or five whole websites that primarily offer admittedly nice but practically identical patterns for making button-ups and work pants and maybe a varsity/bomber jacket if you're lucky.

(Branching out into historical costuming for everyday wear is like your one shot at variation, and even then, the ratio of men's to women's patterns on every website is frustrating to say the least.)

Patternmakers as a trans man I am begging you. Give me a little more to work with here.

My latest finished project, based off a couple of extant bodices and a fashion plate which all had this snazzy cross-over front feature.

I actually made the skirt a long time ago as a historybounding, everyday thing to wear. It has alternating panels of striped and solid black cotton, and has a scalloped hem. I love it and wear it often, and decided that I was going to make a matching bodice so I could wear it to costume events, too.

I draped the pattern myself, based off of a couple of extants. Each seam is boned with artificial whalebone and the seam allowances were tacked down by hand with a herringbone stitch. The peplum is lined with black cotton, but the rest is just lined with cheap plain white muslin to save on cost. The bodice closes up the center front with hooks and eyes, and then the wrap panels are folded over and closed at the side seams.

Brain gremlins about my weight are under the cut for those that don't want to read it.

I finished this outfit a while back, but I've been struggling with whether or not I wanted to post it. It's not the outfit, I think that it turned out fabulously. But I've been really unhappy about my weight, and it's been a fight to remind myself that my weight is not my worth. I keep hearing the negative things my mother would say whenever I would gain a pound or two or the "positive" things she'd say when I lost them (things like "oh, you have a chin again!" or "I can actually see your waist now.")

So I'm trying to ignore all that and remind myself how awesome this dress turned out, how hard I worked on it, and how proud I am of the construction of it.

Working on a new set of breeches for M. I completely mucked up the first attempt, so I had to cut out a new front and start over. Things have gone pretty smoothly since then. The only quibble I have with the pattern is that there aren’t any bands at the leg hems, and all the extant examples I’ve seen have bands. Shouldn’t be too difficult to add, though!

I never did update when this got finished last summer, did I?

Happy with how it turned out, even if it does take some serious hairpin architecture to construct a bun that'll hold the hat steady - it's a little heavier (and a lot more ready to blow around in the wind) than anticipated.

Back in 2015, I made this skirt for an 1860s ballgown. I wanted to make a daytime bodice to give the gown more wearability outside of formal events, but I had run out of fabric and since the fabric had lived in my stash for years, it had been discontinued long ago.  I had a minor fabric miracle when I discovered some similar plaid taffeta on Etsy! I scooped it up and decided to make an 1850s bodice, since tiered flouced skirts like this were super popular then.

This bodice ate fabric, and I think I used three or four yards in total because the sleeves are massive and multi-layered. There is a black lace/fringe trim on the bodice, which you can’t see very well in pictures but is lovely in person.

The cap and bodice were made to accompany the new ensemble. The cap is made entirely from things found at Walmart, and the materials for the bonnet came from my fabric stash.

Hello, yes, it's me with three 1850s transformation gowns, a wrapper, and all the accessories for them, all needed just five months from now.

“How’s your WIP going?”

"Have you made any progress?”

“How close are you to being done?”