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!

Sewing kit or 'housewife' FUN with kits - Embroidered Bees and More

Late 18th and early 19th century Sewing Kits or 'Housewives' were made for women or men to carry both sewing supplies (to fix on the go) and also to carry jewelry or money. Here is an example extant version from Winterthur.

Inspired by lovely extant examples and the great use of something like this for someone like me who loves to bring a small sewing bag with me for getting a bit of sewing done 'on the go,' I decided to make one of these last year.

I recently finished another Sewing Kit or 'Housewife' a la 18th/19th century, burgundy silk brocade with embroidered gold bees, trimmed with mustard and gold silk. I used leftovers from my recent court robe, made bias binding for the kit and then hand sewed it all together: it was a lot of fun! I can't wait to use this to store needles, pins, scissors, thread and more!

Embroidered Bees Silk 'Housewife' by TheLadyDetalle

Finished Insides of Sewing Kit

Finished Sewing Kit or 'Housewife' Example

Sample SEWING KIT 'Housewife' by TheLadyDetalle

Here's a link to the original Sewing Kit 'Housewife' I made last year. It was a fun and quick hand sewing project, and I use it ALL the time when I bring sewing with me, so I decided to make myself another one or two (*smile*).

Then I thought, 'hey, maybe others would be interested in a pattern for one." and "hey, I have some great fabrics on hand that I can make up some lovely and unique kits with", so I created 20 kits with pattern instructions so folks can sew their own 18th/19th century Sewing Kit 'Housewife'. I have to admit, I enjoyed cutting it all out, coordinating fabrics and colors, being creative and putting the kits together and making all the binding.

KITS for making up your own Sewing Kits and Pattern Instructions are available now on Etsy, as well as Sewing Kit 'Housewife' Pattern instructions on Etsy available as a digital download.

I hope you are inspired to make your own 18th/19th century sewing kit or have already made one!
Comment here to share your plans or questions.

Happy SEWING!

18th century sewing kit or 'housewife' - September HSM Challenge 'Colour Challenge Brown'

For September's  Colour Challenge Brown challenge, I created an 18th century sewing kit or 'housewife' out of leftover silk scraps, with rose burgundy, blue & brown being the main colors! . 

First, the finished sewing kit / 'housewife':

Silk Sewing kit or 'housewife' by TheLadyDetalle

Silk 'housewife' w/ silk ribbon

An 18th century sewing kit has been in the plans for a long time, but I know so little about them. I've seen these sewing kits popping up at Fort Fred (where I picked up a small version a few years ago made of cotton/linen), and more recently someone made one & posted on LJ. So my mom is currently making a bunch of fabric books (a really cool alternative scrap-booking idea), and I asked her to save the scraps from the outer cover fabrics (one of which I gave her to use), and she gave them to me last weekend and so now I made an 18th century sewing kit or 'housewife' using fabric book scrap as a base.

The scrap was a quilted (low slub) silk dupioni in a rose burgundy, and was JUST too pretty to throw away, so based on my small reproduction 18th century sewing kit and a few images I've seen of like  ones, I decided to put one together, making it up as I went.

Cutting the silk dupioni

First, I dug in my leftovers bin, which is basically leftover fabric from finished projects, and came up with a few pieces to use.
The outside (fashion) of the sewing kit is the rose burgundy quilted silk scrap mentioned above, and the inside I lined with a leftover piece from a reproduction muff for sale in my etsy store, a blue silk dupioni with embroidered wheat (in brown silk).

This was a really quick little project, basically cutting out a piece that is 5 1/4" X 17" in the rose burgundy quilted silk and then the same in lining (blue embroidered wheat silk), pinning and hand sewing on the rose silk bias binding all around, in order to finish the main piece.

Pinning & sewing binding - lining side

Then I added all the various little pieces that make up the needle holder, a pocket, a band (to hold in thread) and more. It was a lot of fun and quick to put together, and I Google'd to get a few image ideas of what to include inside.

I also dug around for a very small piece of blush colored silk dupioni (leftover from my 18th century riding habit waistcoat) for a pocket, a few small scraps of coutil from my Regency stays (for needles), and some brown gold dupioni from my yard sale find silks for binding, as well as some silk ribbon. I also made bias binding for the fashion fabric/front/back of the sewing kit from a small amount of rose burgundy dupioni from my stash (silk sale earlier this year which matched almost perfectly, yay).

Adding the sewing kit pieces

A fun, quick little historical sewing project that incorporated the challenge color BROWN, used stash scraps and from which I learned a bit more about historical sewing kit/'housewives'.

Historical Sew Monthly SEPTEMBER challenge:

http://thedreamstress.com/the-historical-sew-monthly-2015/

The Challenge: Colour Challenge Brown: it’s not the most exciting colour by modern standards, but brown has been one of the most common, and popular, colours throughout history. Make something brown.

An 18th century sewing kit or 'housewife' made of rose burgundy quilted silk dupioni, and lined with blue embroidered with brown wheat silk dupioni, with touches of brown gold & blush finishes.

Fabric: Small scrap of rose burgundy quilted silk dupioni (from mom), small scrap of blue embroidered with brown wheat silk dupioni (from a muff I made previously), bias binding from rose burgundy silk dupioni stash fabric, pocket from blush silk dupioni (from JoAnn's leftover from my late 18th century riding habit waistcoat), white coutil (from 96th District Fabrics leftover from my Regency stays), and some small pieces of brown gold silk dupioni (from yard sale find).

Pattern: No pattern. This came entirely from past experiences in looking/handling small reproduction versions and seeing images online. I guessed at the sizing and details, and used Google to confirm some general images of 'housewives.'

Year: 18th century - going for late 18th century

Notions: Silk ribbon & then small sewing accessories just to show how they fit

How historically accurate is it? It's a reproduction 18th century sewing kit ('housewife') out of close to period appropriate fabrics (silk dupioni is not quite period, but it's low slub quilted and embroidered dupioni, so hard to tell).

Hours to complete: about 4-5 hours total.

First worn: Not worn, will be taken with me and used when I re-enact sewing or want to bring along to an event and sew.

Total cost: Almost nothing. All stash (except the quilted scraps from my mom) and all small leftover pieces from other projects, so I felt very thrifty, which is I'm sure how they made theirs & felt also!

Silk 'housewife' by TheLadyDetalle

Next up is October - Sewing Secrets