Over My Head?

Courtesy of Demode, I got pulled into the 18th Court Ensemble brigade. Though I don't have the budget to travel to the next Costume Con, I can post and share pictures of what I do. Price is also why I'm making it 60cm sized rather than for me. Like with the Meiji Schiap outfit, Kozu will be my model.

I did a lot of poking around online to see if there was any outfit that caught my fancy. The thought of making panniers and the appropriate petticoats didn't appeal to me. So I started looking at China, and found several male court tunics that looked pretty, but didn't grab me. Also, a tunic isn't a full outfit, and I'm not so familiar with the rank insignia that copying the symbols would feel disingenuous.

I turned to Japan, and went to the Costume Museum in Kyoto. The Edo period is pretty long and engulfs all of the 18th century. None of the dates listed for the outfits I was eying was any more specific than "late" or "early." Likewise, there were no Western years given. I have to estimate.

The formal court clothes of early Edo, looked nicer than the late. By this I mean it looked more lived in, and less a full body prop. However, to replicate this would mean I'd have to create a whole lot of layers, and find a way to replicate the patterned cloth. I seriously doubt my patience on this regard. Similarly, I liked the Ooku garb. It looked simple, but the patterns on the clothes were quite pretty. Again, I don't think I have the mental stamina to do it all without long breaks in between.

I could mimic the patterns with embroidery, but I'm also aware that it's easy for me to bite off more than I can chew. It's happened before. -_-; I could try and use brocade, and maybe I can find something in the right scale, though I doubt I'd find patterns I'd find suitable. Other options include batik, of which I have very little experience, or ordering custom fabric from Spoonflower. The latter would be pretty tricky, since the clothes don't have an obvious repeat and the patterns are asymmetrical. With lots of time and thought I can pull it off, but at the moment it doesn't appeal to me.
  
With these considerations in mind, I've settled on this ensemble. It's an informal court outfit, with easy to find materials and rectangular construction. Also, that orange is eye catching, as is the size of the model's ogoshibakama (posh trousers.)

 

When I was out and about earlier near the garment district, I decided to take the plunge and pick up some orange silk. I could use a cheaper material, or buy inexpensive silk and dye it. However, since this project is already much more frugal than it could be, one or two small indulgences can't hurt. At the shop, I found the perfect fabric at $39 a yard.

I kept looking. 

After a lot more looking around, price checking, and asking about minimum lengths, I got half a yard of a somewhat cheaper silk. It's slubby and hence unlikely to be worn by a posh courtier, but the sticker shock isn't as strong, and the color is fabulous.

 

Topping Off

I spent more time that I should anguishing over this hat. In my mind, it had to be teeny tiny, like many of the Schiap hats I saw. The trouble is, I'm not a milliner, so this would have to be sewn, rather than felt blocked, made from straw, or other milliner tricks. It didn't help that for ages I couldn't find a decent pattern.

Bleuette to the rescue! I found a 1930 Bleuette hat pattern that I enlarged, pinned, and tried on Kozu, in a plain wig for optimum streamlining. Initially she looked like an owl:

Hakama Time

Time till the deadline is short. Thankfully, the hakama, a Japanese lower garment that was popular with Meiji schoolgirls, is pretty simple. It's all rectangles, with the front and back tops pleated to fit. I measured a purchased hakama I had on hand, but a little too late. Here's my first, partial attempt:

I'm not sure how clear the picture is, but the hem is cut on a selvedge, the circumference is too narrow, and the entire thing is so long that it extends above Kozu's breasts. The good thing is that these problems are easy to solve.

A Study in Pink and Black

The bolero's design is heavily influenced by this ensemble here. In truth, much of my outfit is taken by the narrow black skirt and shocking pink with black bolero. Intense pink and black go well together in my mind, so why not go with it?

As for trim, I'm using a kind of looped braid initially bought for another project. The sleeves I'm very loosely borrowing from a Vogue January 1st, 1939 jacket, the front comes from nowhere in particular, and the back is from a (mumbles) Charles Worth sunburst gown. I didn't want this piece to be fully symmetrical.

Bolero, Bolero

Now comes the little jacket for the outfit, draped and ready to go.

 Here's the back.

Now She is Collared

As it turned out, I didn't care for how the collar looked sitting on the dress. I've turned it into an independent piece that can sit on top of the dress for an additional look. The practical result is that instead of sewing the two pieces together, I just added a hook and eye to the meeting corners.

Here's a back view.

On to the Collar

With the dress done, I began work on the collar. I took a wide piece of ribbon, added tucks, and used it as m template for the collar. Not much to see here, I'm afraid.

Shocking Embroidery Nearly Complete

I wanted to commemorate the look of the embroidered dress without the collar. Enjoy.

Shocking Embroidery

To give the embroidery a kimono flavor, with will have a wide collar and wrap front. I've also made it a point to made the Schiaparelli inspired motifs asymmetrical, as is common in Japanese designs. As a nod to Schiaparelli, I'm doing it all in her beloved shocking pink. 

Everything is marked,

Here it is partially done.

Making the Meiji Dress

Phase two of the project is to make a high waisted Regency inspired dress. On page 110 of "Impossible Conversations," she says that she turned to this era again and again for get ideas. The facing page, 111, there's a 1938 photograph of one such design. The light coloring, column-esque skirt and focus on the bosom reflects Schiaparelli's "Statement."

On page 115, the conversation turns to nature, and the Schiap explains her Pagan collection and its leaves and flowers on classic gowns.

With these in mind, and the desire to create a sort of white blouse for the dress, this dress will have a white background, simple lines, and floral embroidery. To give it a kimono flavor, with will have a wide collar and wrap front.

Below, Kozu models the draping I've done.

Slipping Around

Here is the slip, in all its glory.

First Layer

I got the idea in my head that this outfit could do with some undergarments. Since I'm not sure how well wafuku (Japanese) underwear would fit under something with a Western cut, I'm going with Western underwear, circa Schiap's design reign. There aren't too many research sources I know of for 1930s underwear. I saw plenty of ads in back issues of Vogue, though they're largely for girdle/slip/bra combinations. My dolls aren't squishy, so I find most foundation garments superfluous on them. There was a helpful article from the 1920s detailing slips, though they didn't have the line my outfit has.

Thankfully, I came across a book called Vintage Lingerie, and I gave it a flip through. There was a 1930s slip with princess seams, and I'll give that a shot.

After taking Kozu's measurements, I drafted a body block and used it to draft a preliminary slip.
I cut off the shoulder straps, which I'll replace later with ribbon, and lowered the neckline in front and back. I also divided the new block into 3 pieces, with a front (I'll cut it on a fold,) a back and a side piece.

The next step is to pin it together and see how it fits on my girl.

I forgot to photograph her from the front, but so far, everything fits as it should.

Giving In To Temptation

There is a sewing contest afoot, and dolly sewers are welcome to compete! I hope to make an outfit along the "My Favorite Things" theme.

With me being a fan of many things Japanese and particularly school clothes, picking that was a no brainer. As this is supposed to be historical costuming, and I don't know what the era limit is, I'm erring on the side of caution. The Meiji era ended in 1912, and the website covers clothes up to the 1920s, so I'll be going with a Meiji schoolgirl look.

That said, the first idea that came to mind was an outfit along the lines of Elsa Schiaparelli. Alas, while I squeed inside over her outfits I dug up, nothing clicked until I decided to mix her with with an older, foreign style. This outfit, this embroidery, and this hat especially grab my fancy.

The books I'll refer to for this project is Kimono: Fashioning Culture by Liza Dalby, Schiap's autobiography A Shocking Life, and Impossible Conversations by the Met Museum.

Progress Report

Nothing too exciting going in terms of doll swing these days. Comic Con is approaching, and I'm trying to finish my human-sized costume for the event.

Still, some weeks ago, I drafted the bodice for Kozu's outer Renaissance gown and played with some sleeve designs.

 I initially waffled between straight sleeves and shoulder rolls, but the roll looks more interesting, doesn't it?

 I just need to redraft the roll so it doesn't look so wrinkly. This is especially important as I have some satin earmarked for the outer gown. 

A Study in White

I rather like this photograph and color combination. The petticoat is part of Kozu's original outfit, the tube top was made by me in college, I don't remember when.

When Geekdoms Collide

Of the video games I have a soft spot for, the Assassin's Creed series is one of them, especially from AC2 and onward. After Kozu made her arrival, first things I made for her was an outfit from Florence circa 1490.* This involved lurking the Festive Attyre and Realm of Venus pages staring at paintings and what other costumers did. I draped the bodice portion of the dress on Kozu, used calculations to pattern the camica (undershirt,) and the ginorea was made out of trapezoids and blind guessing as I couldn't figure the layout. The sleeves were drafted by me, and made reversible for multiple looks.

Since I was away from my machine at the time, the camica is entirely hand sewn the old fashioned way. I hemmed the parts individually and whipped them together. The same was done for the bodice of the gown. The long interior seams of the skirt was done by machine, but hemmed by hand and cartridge pleated. By my sewing math, the pleats ended up being spaced at .3 centimeters apart, which was a pain to mark. The ginorea binding and interior seams on the sleeves are also machine done.

As a final touch, I bought and styled a wig to match the side waves of the ladies in the paintings. Annoyingly, the wig I ordered was supposed to be "honey blond" and arrived closer to "platinum." Oh well. At least Kozu doesn't seem to mind.

Here are the pictures of Kozu resembling an AC2 background character. . Please ignore the hanging threads.

*At the time, I thought the game started in that year, and looked at paintings from that time. A great many moons later, I found out that the game starts in 1480. Sigh. On the bright side, there wasn't that much difference between the two years.

First layer accomplished

There is a running gag amongst the online costuming community about Costume ADD. I am no exception. Dolls can make this worse, as even tiny scraps can be turned into something for them, and they don't need an excuse to dress up. Then there's my fondness for historical clothing which covers many eras, and a plethora of pretty pictures for inspiration. I have a lot of projects that have yet to be completed.

One of my many grand plans is to create a doublet style overgown for Kozu, complete with kirtle, forepart, ruffs, and other things to make her look like a late Italian Renaissance noble. She will have multiple foreparts (something to peek through the split skirt of her gown,) and doublets which will be hand decorated with couched cord.

I started this project over a year ago, and I keep getting distracted. The doublets still aren't complete, and I decided to focus on one for now and worry about the rest later. The kirtle (underdress) isn't a very fun looking layer and I could not get excited about putting the bodice together. As it wasn't going to peek at all from under the outfit, I made it in plain muslin. Months and months pass before I finally hem the blasted thing, which must be done by hand due to all the tricky curves.

The skirt portion thankfully went by a lot faster. I took the farthingale pattern from The Tudor Tailor, stitched it together, fastened it to the bodice, and then added rows of cording to stiffen the hem. I'm not very sure how accurate stiff skirts are for this time and place, but I decided I liked the look. Tucking cords into the skirt isn't period either, but it was easy and got the job gone.

And now I have something to show:

Italian Peasant with Japanese Name

Festive Attyre is being a huge enabler with me. In this case, I decided that I wanted to make a late Italian Renaissance peasant outfit for Kozu. The designs ended up based off of two women from Pietro Ronzelli's Nativia di Maria. As per usual, as much as possible would come out of my stash.

The wig is very much not from my stash, and neither is the ribbon. I didn't have any ribbon of the right size that would look good for a lower class ensemble.

The main feature is the kirtle and sleeves, particularly the trim. I didn't deliberately go after the black and red color scheme, but that was the material I had that had good weight and drape, and that yarn looked good against it. The trim is made from lines of single crochet from a cone of yarn older than I am, and is hand applied. Except for the long skirt seams, this thing is hand sewn. The sleeves are separate and are mostly machine sewn.

Under the kirtle is the smock. Since I was short on linen scraps and the sleeves are tight, I just made short smock sleeves so I wouldn't have to worry about stuffing them in. At first I miscalculated how much of the ruffle I needed, so I had to partially dismantle it and piece in some more material. I was pretty much out of linen scraps type 1, so I went with type 2 for the last bit of length. Yay, mismatched peasant! Mostly handsewn except for part of the ruffle.

The apron is made of pieces of material left over from making a human sized apron. There wasn't enough from the big scraps to make the third panel, so I pieced it together for more budget saving peasant goodness. At this point, I no longer wanted to handsew, so the long sides of the panels and the piecing are all done on machine, though I used the blind stitch feature on the machine for hemming. The short sides are hand hemmed, but I took my dear time finishing that.

Here's a detail:

Weirdly, though I didn't want to hand sew this part, I jumped at the chance to connect the three pieces of apron with insertion stitching like the woman in the painting in a pink dress. I guess my brain decided that embroidery is not at all like construction sewing.

So this is the outfit from top to bottom. it took a lot longer than it should have due to project hopping, but I'm very satisfied with how it turned out.

Fake Fur Fun

Despite my many distractions, I'm still forging ahead with my Renaissance projects. A recent diversion was this pretty little link. Courtesy of Jen Thompson, I heard of these furs before, and know I wanted to try my hand at making one of the more ornate versions for myself. Cue a trip to the store where I spent too much on pretty gold beads and Sculpy, several tizzies looking for portraits featuring zibellinos for research and accuracy purposes, and fun with crochet.

Crocheting the critter was easy and relaxing, except when I had to pull out rows. Eyelash yarn likes to tangle with itself. Despite careful yet haphazard measuring, I was not pleased with the size of the first critter. I wanted something my girl could hold in her arm, and I created a lap blanket. As I still had enough yarn left, I made a smaller one. I also got some gold Sculpy. Initially I wanted to make a pretty white head and paw beads like in the first link, but the clay picked up a frightful amount of black lint.

Both heads started as triangles of foil covered in clay with features sculpted in. The eyes were pressed in with the help of a bead, and I embedded jump rings into the bottoms so I could later attach them to the zibellinos. the patterns on the paw beads were initially going to be historically accurate, but after a bad tizzy I decided it was simpler just to use my own design. These also have jump rings in the bottom. More beads were added on as claws, and the whole thing was fastened on to a new belt.

While it's not perfect, I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out.

 Here Kozu models her pelt, in a purchased outfit that makes the gold of the piece stand out all the more.

The Red Camellia Blooms

 As with every Dolpa, there are one-offs on display. In the Dolpa where I ordered Frederica, there were twelve for us to drool over, and I took pictures of my favorites, for that way I can admire them whenever I please and not worry about winning the lottery. 

That said, in this Dolpa there was something a little different in that instead of one slip per guest for all of the one-offs, guests could put in a slip for as many of the one-off dolls as they were so inclined. If a person one for one doll, they would no longer be eligible to win another. I eyed my favorites, placed the slips in each box, and realized that I but one slip in the wrong box. I was pleased that I could explain the situation to the staff in Japanese, and things were quickly rectified.

Towards the end of the party, boxes of slips for the one-off were brought up front, and the drawing began. I did not realized that my name was called, but fortunately my mom was faster on the uptake. It turned out that I won the SD Shinku sculpt, and I took her home with me that very night. First things first, I had to give her a name. I wanted the name to reference her sculpt (shinku means "crimson",) and fit with my other girls. After a lot of thought, I decided on "Kouzubaki," or "red camellia." It's a bit of a mouthful, so I call her Kozu for short.

It wasn't long before I realized that while she can fit in a lot of Linnea's things, there are plenty that are too small for her, specifically the waist. For the most part I don't fuss over this, as she is in little danger of a limited wardrobe. I have several outfits in the works for her, but the only one right now that is done, and will be saved for a later post.