Costume College - Classes I taught

Wow, I have to admit that Costume College always goes by in a quick blur. This is especially true whether teaching classes, taking classes or just enjoying the long weekend of costuming and costume friends, lol. And I'm quite delayed in getting my posts up!

I taught three classes this year, one on Friday and two on Sunday, all workshop kit classes, which ended up being a lot, but I had a great time teaching, and the students said they had a great time in the classes, so yay!

1) Winter Wear - Muff Workshop

This one was on Friday, it was a full class, and we made silk taffeta portrait muffs!
I brought the down pillows pre-done (you've seen some of the pictures of the mess that makes, right?!), and everyone got one, plus a kit that included silk taffeta, silk ribbon, a fabric portrait and pattern instructions. Everyone got right to work, some making it up by hand and some by machine, and quite a few of the students finished by class end, and we had a lot of fun!

Here's some of the students finished portrait muffs:

Katherine Adrian's lovely Marie and purple silk muff

Mother and daughter took the class together! 

Lovely bright aqua trim!

Beautiful and quickly finished!

2) Regency Detailing: Learn Reverse Applique

This one was Sunday, and a workshop/skills class, which was really fun. Everyone got a kit with silk taffeta squares, drew on an alphabet letter and design of their choice, and then cut away the inside of the top layer of their design, tucked under the seam allowance and did reverse applique: end result is the back fabric shows thru to the front. It was also a full class and a lot of fun!

Students hard at work!

Samples with Reverse Applique and Historical Detailing

3) Sewing Kit or "Housewife" Workshop

This one was also Sunday, and the only class that had a couple of spots open: since it was one of the final class times of the weekend, I wasn't surprised, lol. I had a great group of students, who each got a housewife kit of embroidered silk taffeta, cream silk taffeta and quilted silk, along with binding, pocket, pin and needle 'holder', silk ribbon for ties and more. It went by quickly with everyone sewing and learning together!

Finished student housewife:

Silk Housewife sewn by Pam Metsers

Yay, so I had a wonderful time at Costume College teaching classes again this year, and hope to teach again next year!

18th Century seafoam blue wool hooded cape - June (Posting LATE) HSM Travel Challenge

For June's HSM challenge of TRAVEL, I made a late 18th century seafoam blue wool hooded cape! I was on a mission to get a wool cape done for another example for my Costume College class, so I made this hooded cape in June!  (Posted late).

Seafoam blue hooded cape by TheLadyDetalle

Back of wool hooded cape

Front of wool hooded cape

Historical Sew Monthly JUNE challenge:

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

The Challenge: Travel - make a garment for travelling, or inspired by travel.

Material: Seafoam blue fine wool from 96th District Fabrics and linen from Fabric-Store.com for lining

Pattern: My new TheLadyDetalle Hooded Cape Pattern now available on Etsy!

Year: late 18th century

Notions: N/A

How historically accurate is it? Very! All hand sewn except the staystitch I did inside to hold the fashion and lining together until I hand sewed it together using the bias binding. The material is what they would have had at the time, wool and linen. The colors are period appropriate, and the shape is period appropriate, based on garments like these.

Hours to complete: An hour to cut out and staystitch, an hour to make bias binding and pin on. A few hours to sew binding on, pleat to fit neckline and hood, and finishing work. Probably 5-6 total. I have made a few of these now, so I'm getting a little faster.

First worn: Not yet worn: made as an example for my Costume College limited class, "Winter Wear - Hooded Cape Workshop" taught a few weeks ago!

Total cost: The fine seafoam blue wool was bought at Fort Fred Market Fair earlier this year: $9 a yard. (Used about 3+ yards). Linen lining was about $8-9 a yard, and used about 3 yards). So roughly $50. And I have some big leftover fabric pieces to use to make accessories and other things!

TheLadyDetalle Hooded Cape Pattern

Winter Wear - A hooded cape limited workshop at Costume College

How many of you love historical outerwear? You dream of Victorian skating parties in the depths of winter or winter sleigh rides in the light falling snow. An 18th century carriage ride to a Twelfth Night in Williamsburg, with a wool blanket to warm your frosty toes and a down-filled muff in your lap to warm your hands in...

18th Century portrait

Mmmmmm...
I don't know about you, but I get SO excited when I see historical fashion plates of a lovely pair of ladies in beautiful silk pelisses or hooded capes and mantles, or a Victorian woman at a skating party with a fitted mantle and matching fur-trimmed muff! I dream of warm woolen cloaks with large fur muffs and linen-lined silk fashion hooded capes trimmed in warm fluffy marabou.

18th Century print

[And if you live in a warm climate, don't despair, you can still wear a lightweight fashion cape made of breathable fibers (think silk, linen or cotton), and you can even leave off the hood and just make a cape or pelisse!]

I'm so excited to share what I have learned about outerwear of the 18th and 19th centuries! About two weeks ago, I taught a class at Costume College in L.A. called 'Winter Wear - Hooded Cape workshop' - as you can imagine, we were making 18th (or 19th) century hooded capes!

Here is the inspiration that started it all for me!

18th century extant pink
silk hooded cape & muff by
The Digital Museum

I had a full limited class of 10 students, and we had 2 1/2 hours to make progress on our capes. I started the class with a short history of capes and outerwear from the mid 18th through late 19th centuries, illustrating how the shapes changed (and yet in some cases changed very little) through the years. Here is a link to my Pinterest board for capes & outerwear for a more visual history of outerwear in portraits, fashion plates and extant garments. This is a subject that I'm continuing to learn about as I continue to research outerwear from the early 18th century through the turn of the century.

Here's my (shortened) version
of the extant cape & muff!

After the brief cape history, everyone got their pattern kits and pattern instructions and laid out their fabric to cut out the cape and cape lining, and then the hood and hood lining. The students brought a variety of fabric, from a velvet, to a herringbone wool, to a silk satin, to taffetas, and much more: it was quite exciting to see all the options and styles that everyone chose!

I helped a few students slightly modify the pattern to make one longer and one shorter, to help others with squeezing the pattern out of less fabric, how to make it reversible, whether to add additional lining for warmth or take away lining for warmer climates and more. I brought along 2 hooded cape examples, my pink silk and my blue green wool, as well as my black mourning cape, along with a rusty red hooded cape in progress, in order to show how to put the cape and hood together, how to pleat the neckline, how to pleat the hood, how to add the bias binding, and more.

Rusty red 'hooded cape in progress' as
class example - really helped with teaching
the class!

I'm super happy that I brought the hooded cape in progress example, as well as two slightly different hooded cape examples, as I was able to use those to illustrate how it should come together, where to lengthen/shorten, and more.

Here are a few pictures of the CoCo class below, hard at work:

Winter Wear - Costume College class

Students hard at work on their hooded capes!

We didn't get as far as I would have thought in 2 1/2 hours, so if I teach this again, I would make the class a little longer: overall the feedback I received from my awesome students was very positive, they said they learned a lot and enjoyed the class! If you're one of my students and you're reading this, again please reach out with any questions: you all had such pretty fabric and plans and I can't wait to see all the finished products!

Two of my students finished their hooded capes already, Joy and Kailey Frye, a mother and daughter pair - Kailey is 14 (the same age as my niece, Jenny, who finished a cape as her first ever sewing project earlier this summer!).

Finished student's hooded capes
by Joy and Kailey Frye

My niece, Jenny, sewing her first ever
project: a cape! 

I really enjoyed teaching this limited workshop class at Costume College, and would definitely do it again!

A bit of background, I draped and drafted my hooded cape pattern a few years ago by researching the shapes from a few historical sources, and then drawing and re-drawing the shape and making various muslin mock-ups, until I was happy with the shape and fit. I have made a few hooded (and even one sans hood) capes, which can be found on my Costume Portfolio page under 'Outerwear.'

If you are interested in giving one of these hooded capes a try or missed getting into my limited class, my hooded cape pattern is now available for purchase in my etsy store, TheLadyDetalle!
Use coupon code: 'COCO16PEB' to get 20% off your purchase through 9/30! 

Hooded cape pattern by TheLadyDetalle

And this is my next outerwear project: drape a version of an 18th century pelisse similar to this!

I'm teaching at Costume College - Winter Wear - Hooded Cape workshop

Guess what?! I'm teaching at Costume College this year! I'm pretty excited about it, a workshop class to make a late 18th century hooded cape, called "Winter Wear - Hooded Cape workshop.' I submitted a class to teach and they accepted! I've taught classes (Late 18th century muff workshop & Regency Dress Detailing) at a small convention called Dress U and Dress U the second in 2012-2013, but teaching at CoCo is new for me: I've only attended one other year years ago, and this year I'm attending again and teaching a class, yay!

It's a 2 1/2 hour workshop, and the class size is fairly small (limited, since it's so hands on). Students will bring their fabric and pre-made binding, and then will get a pattern I created for a late 18th century cape with optional hood and trim options. Students can choose to make a high fashion hooded cape/muff, a more subdued mourning cape, a more practical winter garment & much more: I'm also going to do a brief talk on history of outerwear. I've been so obsessed with outerwear lately, I'm super excited to share the knowledge I've learned about the shapes, history, and how to.

It's going to super fun, I can't wait!!

Here's the first late 18th century hooded cape I did: it's pink silk taffeta lined with pink linen and trimmed in white marabou.

Here's a link to my blog entries on capes and related outerwear:
-Late 18th century Pink silk & white marabou feather hooded cape & muff
-Late 18th century Black silk marabou feather hooded cape
-Late 18th century Black silk mourning cape

-Early 19th century Regency cream silk & white marabou feather pelerine
-Early 19th century Regency 'fichu' in Rusty red burgundy silk & black marabou
-Early 19th century Regency 'fichu' in Yellow silk w/ black trim

I'm really looking forward to CoCo and hanging out with everyone, and I'm about to start my Gala outfit and will share my plans on that soon!