HSF #18, or, the challenge completed by accident

In my last post about the saque, I let slip that I had just made the gown of a française without doing it over panniers (but using rather inconsequential padding instead)... and then wished I had had panniers because the gown felt so... unfinished and the silhouette was leaving a lot to be desired.  (Not to mention the minor embarrassment of having made a gown essentially blindly.)

So, while in the middle of something completely unrelated (schoolwork) - I suddenly had a brainwave: I have three or four more old ('80s) bridal hoops just sitting in my closet that can't be worn unless some wear and tears are fixed, and that no longer have that perfect conical circumfrance (from being shoved into garbage bags and stored - squashed - in any which place/box/hanger over the years): why not take one of them and mold it somehow into full panniers using ribbons underneath and creative gathering/sewing at the waistband.

And, as sometimes my crazy ideas do: it worked, and in less than two hours I had historical-looking (when worn under something) panniers of the trapezoid variety (with another hour or two to sew everything in place).

(Sidenote: I tried the saque on over it - and wouldn't you know - it looks great now, PHEW!  Major shout-out there to Katherine's tutorial skills - proof that one can make an accurate saque sans panniers to drape it over.  Only problem is that before I can take pictures wearing the saque over panniers, I need to make the petticoat, since the other I was using has a significantly narrower hemline and won't fit over the panniers, and the gown with only the panniers looks very bizarre.  Always one more thing to complete...)

Mind you, it was a completely spur-of-the-moment thing (well, procrastination played a little hand in it - there's only so much reading about budgeting and budgeting systems that one can take at a time; six hours is enough to send anyone loopy).   Only after it was done did I think, "wait, wasn't there an HSF related to re-making something?  I hope it covers making something newer into something older - going the reverse of what is usually done in history."  And, sure enough: HSF #18: Re-make, Re-use, Re-fashion - and, even better, it's only due in less than a week!  Very timely.

So, without further ado, the finished panniers (collapsed top / collapsed bottom / front / side):

Before (collapsed / front / side):

Just the facts!

The Challenge: HSF #18: Re-make, Re-use, Re-fashion... modern hoops into 18th century panniers

Fabric: the hoops are a polyester/nylon blend base fabric with plastic boning in channels (3); also used scraps of a quilted cotton for part of the waistband and to secure some of the "molding" (you'll see in the photos below)

Pattern: None. Silhouette based on images of gowns in museums from 1760s-1770s, and from browsing of others' pannier projects (theirs are significantly more authentically made than mine).

Year: time machine'd from 1980s to 1760s-1770s

Notions: all-purpose thread; 56" of 5/8" black satin ribbon (leftover from another project); safety pins (to close it, for now - eventually I'll sew on a ribbon tie)

How historically accurate is it? Shape-wise, when you can't see the panniers themselves, it'll pass for accurate since it mirrors the more trapezoidal/gradual/flared panniers rather than the "block" ones. Materials-wise, not remotely. Construction, passable.

Hours to complete: 2 hours for pinning/shaping for finished 'product'; another 1-2 hours to sew in place.

First worn: Only once with the saque gown, but no pictures of it (except on its own) have been taken.

Total cost: It's FREEEEE! The hoops were from my costume stash (hand-me-downs I played with as a kid, so must have been from at least the '80s or early '90s); random pieces of fabric leftovers in my stash (as were the ribbons); and thread was just generic white polyester all-purpose from the thread stash.


And the making of... trial and error style... :-)

Anyhow... the before pictures were posted above, so won't re-post.

First, I fiddled around a bit trying to make the topmost (smallest) hoop be level with my (the dummy's) waist so that it stuck out straight instead of having an abrupt slope.  I made some progress, but it still wasn't fully flat... progress pics below (full length side / full length front / close-up back / close-up side / close-up front).  I used the scraps of the quilted fabric to create "straps" (if you will) on the sides (initial thoughts were to run some hefty wire beneath them, but that was scrapped) and around the back (somewhat as padding)... then pinned it all under so it looked neat:

I then used the final small scraps of that quilted strip to pull the front of the top hoop right up to the waistband so it was pretty much flush with it and created a flat front (the pictures show two longer pieces before I trimmed one and used the other for the back).  Then I used the second (longer) piece to pull the back of the top hoop toward the waistband, leaving a little bit of a gap so it's not perfectly flush:

As a result, the top was an oval. Ta-da!  Step one, done.

Next, I cut a small hole above and another below the second (middle) hoop, approximately a hand-and-a-half width from the line of the torso/waistband on the front, and did the same on the back.  Then, I tied one end of the black ribbom through the hole (so a "dot" can be seen on the outside of the hoops), pulled it through (tight) so that the hoop was forced flat on both sides, and then tied it off and measured it (13", on the inside, not counting the excess for the knots).  Then, I repeated the same thing for the other side, on the middle hoop.

The bottom hoop proved a bit more tricky, and I ended up having to re-cut the holes for one side since it was making the hoop become concave instead of flat (it still is, somewhat, so I'll have to perhaps sew a heavy chain or something into the bottom to pull it down/flat, since if I was pulling on it, it was fine).  But I used the same width (internal) as for the middle hoops, though placement of the holes was another  two inches or so (three-ish fingers) to the outside of the middle hoops.

Tied those off, and, it was all set (minus the bending-inward bottom hoop), just needed sewing.

I must admit, I was a bit unorthodox in putting this together: the only thing on this that I actually measured was the ribbon holding the hoops into the oval shape so that that would be equal, the rest was "eye-balled" or measured using fingers, hands or forearms as units of measure.   Turned out well, though.