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... :-)

Hit the saque! ...beginning HSF #17: Robes and Robings

...ok, bad pun.  Remember when I said that the 1865 evening gown was going to be the most ambitious thing I did?  Well, as it turns out, this robe will probably take the cake for that - mostly due to the shape of the skirt.  It's gone well so far, only a couple snafus (granted they were big ones, but thankfully easily fixed), so the robe part is done (stomacher will be finished Tuesday, and hopefully lower sleeves, too).  Granted - it won't be trimmed, and it won't have a proper self-fabric petticoat (yet), but the basic dress will be there.

Here's the dress as it was this weekend: no sleeve flounces or engageants, no trim, a pinned-in piece of fabric temporarily used as the stomacher (actually the square 'sample' piece that the stores have for ordering in bulk, it was on sale for a dollar so I grabbed it one day), and the bodice waist pinned to the correct height...

I rather like it so far, especially the back, though the front needs finishing at the time of these photos.

... Without further ado, here's how it got to the above photos.

Inspiration (and historical reference/"proof" for the existence of printed/indienne cotton saques) came from this Pinterest page of cotton saques put together by Katherine of Koshka-the-Cat (thank you!!).  And MAJOR props also to Katherine for her tutorials on making a saque (this project really fits nicely under the "Gratitude" HSF, too, I realized); I used those as my "making-of" guide, though I did a few things differently (so far it's come out ok though).  The silhouette I'm going for is not a "court" silhouette, but narrower, more everyday one like that of the "block print francaise (c.1770)".  Wide isn't the most flattering for me, anyway, and right now I'm making do with a rather extended hip roll padding (with quilted petticoat on top) in place of panniers, so I doubt I'd've been able to get that trapezoid shape perfectly right (I know, I know, shame on me.  Pocket hoops are on my to-do-list).

And the construction...

In which I get a little ambitious (perhaps): 18th century saque / robe à la française

So, I am intrigued by and want to make a robe à la française at some point... I picked up some fabric on sale a while ago: it's the same fabric as from that curtain-along last year, but in a "blue-scale" on a white background, instead of multi-color on white.

Think it could be acceptable for HSF#15: "White" (since some color is allowed) or is there too much blue?