Cinderella HSF part 3

I got the Facebook notification on Saturday that Abigail Larson had posted the pictures of her photo shoot in the dress I made her.  I was driving around town with a friend, and I made some excited noises as I saw the pictures…and almost made my friend swerve into another car.

Squealing passengers cause accidents…perhaps this time I’ll learn…

But HERE THEY ARE!!

Very few people could manage to look completely at home in a 17^th century dress, but she does it.  Gracefully.  If you are not familiar with her fantastic artwork, head to her website to peruse her gallery: www.abigaillarson.com.  She is one of my very favorite artists, so if my opinion holds any sway- head on over!

Cinderella HSF, Part 2

I made this costume for the 6th challenge of Historical Sew Fortnightly: Fairytale.

After looking at some of the other completed challenges on the Facebook group, I realized I interpreted this challenge a bit differently.  I relied much too heavily on the artwork, rather than creating my own historical dress based on a fairytale.  But this is my first Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge, so lesson learned.

The 18th century dress is based off Abigail Larson's gorgeous illustration of Cinderella:

 

Abigail Larson drew inspiration from this historical dress while sketching.  It is gorgeous, and it was supremely helpful to have something historical to look at while figuring out where the seams should go.

I really enjoyed making the dress, though I could have made it more historically accurate.  As I said before, I interpreted the challenge a bit differently than others.  I leaned heavily on what Abigail drew, and as she added some more modern components, such as the faint outline of grommets in the front, I added these to my costume.

I had to also make her all the underthings so the dress would have the correct shape.  This ordinarily would not be counted as part of the challenge, so I will not list those bits in the cost, fabric, ect details below.  I did make a pair of 18th century stays, a chemise, a bum roll, a petticoat, and a fichu, all of which can be seen in part 1 of this post.

The Challenge: Fairytale

Fabric: Black Cotton Sateen
Pattern: Draped the pattern on my dress form
Year: 1780
Notions: 6 buttons, self-made bias tape, 14 black eyelets, lace trim, green silk ribbon
How historically accurate is it? 60%?  I used sensible-ish fabric.  When I look at this picture I see Cinderella before becoming a princess, probably in mourning clothes, mourning the death of her mother.  I draped the pattern- making sure to have seams in period correct places.  I used pinking shears on the seams to keep them from unraveling.
However, the construction was all modern- I used my sewing machine.  I also used grommets because the artwork looked like there were grommets.  I should have been more historically accurate on this account.  I also used my button hole setting on my machine rather than doing button holes by hand.

Hours to complete: Around 40 (not counting the under garments)
First worn: Not yet, but Abigail Larson has promised to wear it and send pictures :D
Total cost: $80 USD (again, not counting the under garments)

Cinderella HSF

Because I don’t have enough to do *snort* I signed up to be part of Historical Sew Fortnightly. Basically, every fortnight there is a new challenge. It must be historical, and based on the category of that particular fortnight. I saw Fairytale, due on April 1st, and jumped on the wagon.
I knew exactly what I wanted to make. A dress based off Abigail Larson’s beautiful artwork. Seriously, she is amazing. Not only is she a wonderful artist, she also loves Poe and Opera. Um…can I just saw how much I want to be her best friend? Because she sounds way too awesome, and honestly I didn’t even expect her to answer me, never mind answer me so nicely!
Anyway- I contacted her to ask if I could make one of her dresses. I check all day at work for plagiarism…I’m not about to commit it myself. I also offered to make it for her, because let’s be honest- I have three huge boxes of costumes. My sewing “room” is a closet. I have zero room to store all the projects I’m working on. So I am making this dress for her:

Excuse me while I fan-girl a tiny bit….


The costume isn’t completely done yet, but I wanted to post my progress. Because you cannot have an 18th century dress lay correctly without the proper undergarments, I started on those first because I had about two weeks until I could officially start on the actual project.
Stays, chemise, bum roll, and petticoat!

I drafted my own patterns, but I tried to stay as historical as possible.
Then I made the fichu…not exactly historically accurate as the patterns I saw for fichus were a whole lot smaller than the one I made, but I wanted a really full look, so I made it a whole lot larger.

Then I made the pattern for the Robe a la Polonaise and started sewing. I cannot even begin to describe how amazing it was to have Abigail Larson send me the reference photos of the historical dress she used as inspiration for her art. Literally a jaw drop moment. I appreciate people who do their research :D
I was a tiny bit worried that the arm holes were not deep enough, so I had my mother try it on. Surprise. The arm holes were not deep enough. So I fixed that.

I cannot wait to see this dress on Abigail. I just hope it fits…and it is long enough… If my math is wrong…I may just sit down and cry.