A teen girl's day book, week II... and project updates

Date... Jan. 14, 2010

Starting time...7:57 am

Mood...normal

Outside my window...dead branches. the skies are dark, and I'm hoping it might rain. Anything is better than so-so weather.

I'm thinking...that I'm gonna run out of time before school starts

I'm reading... The Midnight Dancers by Regina Doman

I'm listening to... The Secret Life of Daydreams from the movie Pride and Prejuduce

I'm wearing... my pjs and a bathrobe. I'll change before school, I promise!

Yesterday, I...went to "school", drama club, then to the library

I'm excited for... Friday and Saturday!

I'm sad because... I'm not sad

I'm hungry for... nothing. I just ate.

The song stuck inside my head is... Wuthering heights, by Hayley Westernera (?)

I want... fabric! five yards of green cotton, and 3 yards white cotton. I also need 1 yard of 1/4" wide featherweight boning (badly now. I can't go much farther without it)

I love... the new Simplicity pattern for Early Spring 2010, 2444

I loathe... my new schedule and commitments (a few of them, anyway)

This week, my goal is... to finish my dresses (Valentine's and Little Women) and to mend the table cloth

Did I meet last week's goal?... yes

Ending time...8:05 am

Well, here are my updates. This is "Project Valentine's Day":

It doesn't look quite right in these pics, but don't worry...
Then I took a pic of the inside of the bodice... the lining.
The bodice back is assembled as well, and the skirt is gathered and sewn... but I can's sew them together, as I need the boning!


This is the skirt I made out of the fabric my great-grandparents gave me for Christmas. I'm thinking about doing the waistband differently though... the gathered waistband with elastic seems to add bulk; but I won't fix it for a while. Spring isn't that close I'm also not going to do pockets or use the buttons on this skirt... I think I'll make an apron.



And here is the fabric and trim I'm using for the Little Women costume replica... sorry for the shadows.






Here is the bodice to date:
I think I'm not going to do the white ruffle sleeves underneath:
I also think I should have cut the plaid fabric with the bars going vertical rather than horizontal, like Jo's stripes, but I thought I was going to run out of fabric... I'm going to have 2 yards extra, actually!

This dress has a black sash at the waist only seen in the movie, not the stills... I think I won't do that either. The dress will fasten in the back.

I hope to buy a small gold locket and put it on black ribbon like Jo's... but I might not find one, who knows?

Well, that's all for today.

The Lady of Shalott

On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road runs by
To many-tower'd Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.

Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Through the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot. Four grey walls, and four grey towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott. "

Just a snippet of "the Lady of Shallot" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. You can read the rest here.

The castle ruins are Tintagel Castle's ruins, by the way. Quite a few folks believe the real King Arthur lived in Tintagel.

The painting is of the Lady of Shallot, the subject of the poem. This painting inspired the costume and row boat in the movie version of "The Lady of Shallot'. The website for the movie is here.

Project : Valentine's Day

Well, I have to admit I've been working on my Little Women costume rather than another project I started before that; and I need the dress before I need the costume.

I'm doing this pattern, It's So Easy Simplicity 2884, veiw B, with the exception of the closure in the back; I'm doing A's ties rather than the buttons that close B. I'm sewing it out of red fabric, and, since it is rather low, and it's still winter, I'm going to wear a white three quarter length sleeve shirt underneath.

Here's a pic of the fabric.... it isn't exactly what it looks like in real life, but close.


I still need to purchase boning; 2 yards of 1/4" wide featherweight boning, to be precise. I only need 3/4 of a yard for this pattern, but I decided the bodice of my Little Women costume needs to be stiffer.... so I'll get two yards.

Another one of the reasons I'm not working on it so much is I can only do so much with out the lining; I'm still waiting for Mom to wash the cotton I'm using for lining, but she's had a lot to do lately.

So, the pleats in the upper bodice are done, the pieces of fabric are cut out, and the neck straps are sewn, pressed, and sewn to the bodice, the bodice back is sewn together, the skirt is assembled and gathered........ but that's almost as far as I can sew before I need the lining.

So I sewed a skirt out of the yard of pink flowered cotton I got for Christmas from my great-grandparents:

The heart-shaped buttons will adorn a pocket or two on the skirt. I've sewn the skirt, but I don't have pics of it yet, and I haven't sewn the pockets either.

Then I cut out the bodice peices for a dress I'm going to make out of a old set of sheets my grandma from Canada gave me. It's a pretty wild print; don't worry, it's a dress I'll wear when I'm sitting behind the lavender bushes reading a novel during the summer months, or if I'm sewing or cooking or something. I love wearing colorful dresses at home!
Well, that's that. more soon.

Celine

What women wore in the early 1910s

well........... this post, I must say, is long overdo. I was going to post it as soon as I got back from the holidays, on the 4th, but somehow I kept on putting it off. There were quite a few things I needed to tend to first, before I could resume blogging. And then the Little Women fashion event was "announced" and I started thinking in terms of Civil War fashion. But, better late than never!

First I must kill a typical assumption. Everyone--including me, six months ago-- seems to think that 1900-1915 or so were what is called the "Victorian" era. Well, wipe that thought out of your mind for good. The Victorian era was from about 1835 (Princess Victoria became queen, in 1829. The Industrial Revolution marked the beginning of a new era) to 1900 or so. Queen Victoria, you must remember, died 1901. (If you want to see what women actually wore, here's a link to the costume study for The Young Victoria. )

After Victoria died, her son, Edward VII, became king; hence, the word which no one (save those who love historical costumes) ever uses when naming off various eras: Edwardian. (the pic on the left is Edwardian, by the way)

The Edwardian era was short-lived.... some say it ended in 1910 with Edwards reign, but I believe it ended in 1918, after World War I ended.

Edwardian fashion was very different from Victorian fashion. Here are two pics: the first Victorian style-dress, the second Edwardian.


I must note: this is one of the many styles that was during the Victorian era. Remember, the Victorian era lasted for 65 years.... there were also bustles, bloomers (yes, bloomers. Young women in the Suffragette movement ran around in bloomers, which was basically their underwear; usually for athletic reasons, though. It was hard to run in bustles.) The figure women desired drastically changed.



This is Edwardian, circa 1912. Skirts got shorter, corsets got looser, and and the hobble skirt was "invented". (Here's a link to a article with pictures of it.)

One of the funniest Edwardian fads was the hobble skirt, I must say. Honestly, loosen up the restriction of your corset, and what do you do? You bind a different body part.

The skirt was so tight, it would rip during a normal stride. Therefore, they tied their legs together with rope to prevent that. Grandmothers believed the hobble skirt would make ladies out of the young women of the day, since they had to shorten their stride so much.

A good example of the Edwardian era costumes are the costumes in the movie "Titanic". Of course, the movie has quite a bit of objectionable content, so instead of watching the movie to see the costumes, I just look at the costume study. Here's a link. Also, here's a link to an article containing several drawings of Edwardian clothing from the original magazines and whatnot.

Did you know that the zipper was invented about 1915? So much has happened over the past 100 years....
Celine

Here's the link to the jack pot of stills from Little Women, 1994.... just thought someone might want it, for reference for the Little Women fashion event this February. Here 'tis!
http://www.erasofelegance.com/entertainment/movies/littlewomen/littlewomen.html#8

Celine

Little Women fashion event....decided on a project!

Hi! Well, I have decided what I'll do for the Little Women Event. I have a good five yards of red and green plaid (very Civil War-ish, if you ask me... but I specialize in the late 18th and 19th century, all except the hoop skirted era.)

Here's a link to a video of the dress: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crpVZ4HiRUU&feature=related (the red one, with the lace on the neckline; the one Jo, the girl curling and burning her sister's hair) is wearing. The dress is in the video until 8 min. and 30 seconds about, so stop watching there.

At first, it seemed almost impossible to find anything but this picture. The movie is from 1994, back before people started using the computer to look at pics of their favorite movie's dresses; back before (gasp!) costume studies. (by the way, if you are interested in costumes at all, I know you'll love www.costumersguide.com. It has almost everything from every period, sci-fi, or fantasy movie... except Little Women!)

However, I finally hit the jack pot at www.erasofelegance.com... at least 60 stills from the movie ! If you are having the same problem, (after all, in order to enter challenge #4, you need a pic of your inspiration, according to Rebecca at www.rebecca-livinginthepast.blogspot.com, the "host" of this event. Here's the exact link to the page with all of the stills. Click to enlarge them.



Unfortunately, even the stills don't give you a good look at the complete dress; in the movie there is a ruffle a foot from the hem that we never see in the pics.... but, it's better than nothing.








well, I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else does!

Celine

Little Women fashion event

I'm going to try and sew a gown for A Young Lady's Blog's Little Women fashion event, inspired by one of Jo's dresses in 1994's Little Women. Can't wait!


Got to go! Bye!

Celine