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Ok, ok, I got a Live Journal account...
Nov. 17th, 2007 09:11 pmYes, I am on board Live Journal now. It's time to get things together. Life has been preoccupied by so many pressing needs, but time is starting to come to my side. So, the moment has come for a new project. DH seems relieved to see me re-engaged in something stress relieving.
So, my prospective project is for the Poe party, to be held in Baltimore in January. Poe died in 1849, so my target era is the 1840s. I could probably slip by with one of my civil war era dresses, but I feel I want to do something more representative for the period. I'm thinking possibly wool, with the characteristic low waistline of this era, the high v-neck, pointed front and possibly either a late-style pelerine or a gathered bodice. It all has to come from the stash, so I've got to calculate just what to use.
But my biggest concern at this point is the pattern. I have a Patterns of History 1840 dress pattern. It's ok, but it is very high waisted and doesn't have points on the bodice (figure beginning, not end of the decade). I cut it out and I think if I can get better results if cut the lining long, I can refine it and then drape the top layer on top. I'm reading Hunnisett to get a better frame of reference (she has a pretty complete section on this era).
One big question will be what to make this from. I feel it should be fairly somber (it is, after all, all about Poe), but I don't have any mourning material on hand that I can think of offhand. Hunnisett writes of rather amazing gathering, which looks fairly fun to accomplish. Still, I don't know that I could do it in wool (although, granted, I do have two pieces of incredibly thin white wool which I suppose I could try dyeing to a more appropriate dark color). Since this goes down in the category of yet another mid-century experiment, I don't feel compelled to invest in silk--though in the period photos I've found online from this era, that fabric choice seems to predominate.
However, first to the lining. That should get me rolling on this.
So, my prospective project is for the Poe party, to be held in Baltimore in January. Poe died in 1849, so my target era is the 1840s. I could probably slip by with one of my civil war era dresses, but I feel I want to do something more representative for the period. I'm thinking possibly wool, with the characteristic low waistline of this era, the high v-neck, pointed front and possibly either a late-style pelerine or a gathered bodice. It all has to come from the stash, so I've got to calculate just what to use.
But my biggest concern at this point is the pattern. I have a Patterns of History 1840 dress pattern. It's ok, but it is very high waisted and doesn't have points on the bodice (figure beginning, not end of the decade). I cut it out and I think if I can get better results if cut the lining long, I can refine it and then drape the top layer on top. I'm reading Hunnisett to get a better frame of reference (she has a pretty complete section on this era).
However, first to the lining. That should get me rolling on this.
