Costume College 2018 theme is really inspiring me!

I'm really inspired by "Dressing the Royals" theme of Costume College 2018!

I just finished my 1898 evening/court gown for the Last Csar Dinner, and I have some court wear from previously worn outfits, including CoCo 2016 Gala. I'm pondering on if I should re-wear all my court wear at Costume College this year - so tempting! Although I'm also inspired to sew some new things and revamp some previously made outfits (including the court wear), so in the end, it will probably be a little of both.

I stumbled across this photo that I had forgotten about, in Gloria's CoCo Flickr album: photo by InTheLongRunDesigns. I love the way she captured the sun and shadows on my Napoleonic Bee court robe from Costume College 2016 Gala!

'Bees, Bees, Bees' - my early 19th century Napoleonic Silk Court Open Robe & Court Gown

I have never felt so completely regal and ready to be or visit royalty that evening, than I did in this gown.

Time for some CoCo Royals planning!
What are you planning for Costume College 2018 theme?!

Regency Napoleonic Open Court Robe - April (Late) 'Gender-Bender' HSM challenge

For April's 'Gender-Bender' challenge, I made a Napoleonic bee open court robe, which reflects the heavy influence of men and the politics of the day on women's dress. During this part of the Regency era, Napoleon used the bee as a symbol of his strength, reign and power. Thus 'Napoleonic' bees became a part of ladies court wear: it was worn by Empress Josephine, a fashion leader of the day, the Emperor Napoleon himself, the royal family and a few favored members of his court. I made the bee open court robe in April, but trimmed it in June. 

Below the lovely red silk brocade splurge in order to make this fun outfit!

Red silk brocade with embroidered gold bees

Napoleonic bees open court robe - in progress

Historical Sew Monthly APRIL challenge:

http://thedreamstress.com/the-historical-sew-monthly-2016/

The Challenge: Gender-Bender – make an item for the opposite gender, or make an item with elements inspired by the fashions of the opposite gender. 

Material: Red silk brocade with gold Napoleonic bees, a narrow 30" wide

Pattern: Butterick 4890

Year: Napoleonic era court robe about 1804-1807

Notions: Matching belt of same fabric. Bronze gold metal trim on both the open court robe and the belt.

How historically accurate is it? It's patterned after the shape and seam placement of the court robes of the era as far as I can tell (I am not an expert, not having seen extant garments in person, but have looked at them online and fashion plates of the time). The trains can be very wide to very narrow, and medium to extremely long. The fabric I believe is as close to period appropriate as possible. I machine sewed the long seams and hand finished and did hand sewn trim.

Hours to complete: I was about half a day in cutting it out, since I was super careful in cutting with wasting the least amount of fabric, in order to save the most possible of what was remaining. The fabric was only 30" wide, so it was quite difficult to cut out, and I had to piece on the two side train pieces. Also took a long time to sew together, sew in a lining, hem and create the belt, add the bronze gold metal trim. I lost track, but I'd say this was probably about 30 hours altogether.

First worn: Worn to the Gala this year at Costume College in July 2016, with an embroidered court gown underneath!

Total cost: Er, um, this fabric cost waaaaaay too much. I searched for silk bee fabric for a court ensemble for years: I was looking for black with gold bees or purple or royal blue with gold bees, but burgundy with gold bees is what I could find finally, so red it was! It was $33/yard. Lining fabric was stash, and trim inexpensive. Totally worth it, I'm so happy with the finished court robe!

Napoleonic era 'bees' open court robe by TheLadyDetalle

'Bees, Bees, Bees'

Costume College Preview

I had a wonderful and amazing time at Costume College! The Gala was definitely an evening to remember, with so many gorgeous and amazing outfits by all the talented costumers who attended!
 I plan to blog about CoCo here shortly (including how my Winter Wear Hooded Cape workshop went, and post photos my outfits with construction info).

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a preview of my Gala gown, a Regency open court robe and gown of the Napoleonic era entitled, 'Bees, Bees, Bees':

'Bees, Bees, Bees' Napoleonic court robe
and gown by TheLadyDetalle

I'll post more on CoCo soon! Here is a link with a few more pics on FB!

Costume College Gala - Bees, Bees, Bees

For Costume College's Gala event, I'm doing early 19th century court attire: an open robe and gown, I'm fondly terming 'Bees, bees, bees'!

Here's the fabric:

Silk brocade w/ Napoleonic Bees

I am making a Regency court robe (open robe) and a Regency court gown. I decided to follow Kat's advise and use Butterick #4890 to make the court robe (she made a gorgeous version of this at the end of last year for the Regency Baltimore Harbor weekend), and then I plan to use the La Mode Bagatelle gown pattern as a base to make the Regency court gown. I found a gorgeous silk bee fabric recently online that I'm using for the court robe, it was listed as silk shantung, but it's silk brocade: it ravels like crazy but it's very luxurious, I feel very spoiled and I'm loving working with it. It was way more than I ever pay for silk (I like super deals) especially for a non-wide 30" yard! But...it's really hard to find great silk Napoleonic bee fabric on super deal, so I just couldn't resist when I found this lovely Napoleonic bee burgundy silk brocade with gold bees: YUM!

I also have 4 yards of a gorgeous embroidered silk taffeta I picked up in the Fashion District about 5 years ago: cream with tiny red & cream flowers, that I am using for the court gown itself. It was always intended for a Regency so it's being used for its original purpose (win win!).

Fabric for the Regency court gown

I had a few days off recently so I was able to a decent bit of sewing in: so far I have the bee court robe all together, minus the final belt and the little gold trim I am planning for the edges. I have the court gown fabric laid out, but I don't have quite enough for my La Mode Bagatelle pattern pieces (I'm about a half yard short), so I'm going to have to be creative and figure out how to get it out of the fabric I have: a coordinating hidden back panel (but if I do, I can't really wear the court gown without the court robe), or add a different hem, another fabric for the top or just a bunch of piecing. Once I figure out what I want to do, I'll be full steam ahead on the court gown!

So far this is the progress on the bee court robe:

"Bees, bees, bees" Regency court robe

As soon as I figure out how best to do this, I'll start cutting out the court gown and sewing it together: it's so exciting to be so far along with my Gala outfit so early, which takes the stress off a bit and makes it more fun: I'll try to post a few in-progress pics. Eek, lots to do:

Here's a bit more about the idea formation:
I've been wanting to make a Regency court outfit, gown or robe with bee fabric ever since I began costuming. I have been on the lookout for great fabric for the last few years for this project, and occasionally pick up a bit of silk bee fabric at a sale price, but generally it's hard to find and expensive: so while I have acquired some and even made a bee muff a few years ago (and have some other bee fabric on hand to make up at some point, it wasn't quite what I was looking for, for this project though), until I recently found the PERFECT bee fabric for this plan, so I decided it was time to get this early 19th century court outfit going finally.

I'm going for something similar to this or this:

Here's a link to my Pinterest board for Napoleonic bees and also for court wear:

I'm an 'inspired by' rather than an exact copy costumer: the train on the original is too long for my super narrow fabric (there just wasn't enough of it: I COULD have gone a little longer and wider, but Kat made up the Butterick trained open robe already and it's gorgeous, so I knew I didn't need to go longer, plus now with the yards I have remaining, I should be able to get a spencer, muff, reticule & bonnet out of it hopefully! We'll see what I can get with careful cutting and piecing ;)).

I cut the fabric out for the open robe very carefully, and I'm going to try to get a spencer, bonnet, reticule (and maybe muff) out of the remaining yardage: I going to line it with mustard yellow silk taffeta. If I can get these done for CoCo, I will wear them with my yellow cross over gown.

I find it inspiring how often ideas can be YEARS in the making, but then they finally come together one day!