Ardent Modiste

 For a long time now, I've wanted an Edwardian bathing suit. So, with summer quickly approaching, I happily decided it was a good time to start making one. I am basing mine mostly off of this extant one in The Met Museum, which has the top attached to the bloomers, with the skirt on a waistband that I will put on top. This one is made of wool, but I will be making mine out of a navy blue quilting cotton. Mine will have a sailor collar with some shell buttons, much like this one. I will be frakenpatterning, using a blouse pattern in Authentic Victorian Fashion Patterns, and a bloomers pattern in my turn of the century tailoring book. I haven't fully decided what to do for the skirt but I will probably just do a circle skirt, or just a rectangle gathered up to a waistband. I am so excited for this project! Thanks for reading!

 This post will be about making a green wool vest inspired by renaissance bodices and eighteenth century stays. Let me say now, though, that I am apparently very bad at taking progress shots, because I can not seem to find any. I am sorry. I will get better. So, first I had to decide what fabric to use. Originally, I planned on using a light green linen blend as the outer fabric, and a white cotton as the lining. But I realized before cutting it out that it would not have enough body to it. I had also recently gotten some green wool from a family member, so I ended up using the wool as the out fabric and the green linen blend as the lining.  I cut out the fabric. Then I sewed all the seams of the lining and the outer fabric, ironed them, and pinned the two layers together. I basted all the edges together, then over about a week I gradually hand stitched on all of the twill tape on the edges.  I hand sewed on the eyelets, six on each side.  I have been lacing it up with white kitchen tw

  So my friend Luiza and I have decided to do a historical cosplay-thing, making the dresses that Eliza and Angelica Schuyler wear in the musical Hamilton.  Eliza's dress is the green one, and Angelica's is the pink. We will start with shifts and stays, then going on to bum-rolls, petticoats, bodices, and skirts. As well as other things. Our deadline for the two entire ensembles is Halloween, however that may not happen due to a late start.  I will only be recording the crafting of the stuff that I am making, and not what my friend is making.  I hope everyone enjoys this new series, it may be mostly what I will be posting about for the next year or so. If anyone has any ideas about quick, little, historical things that I can make and post about, go ahead and put then in the comments of any post. I will do my best to look at them, and who knows, I may make one or two during the long hours of hand stitching the long hem of a skirt!  Anyway, thank you for reading! I'll see you

 Hello again!  I will eventually post some sewing projects of mine, but first I want to post this: Reviewing historical costuming books!  The books that I'm going to talk about are: - Making Edwardian Costumes For Women - Authentic Victorian Fashion Patterns - The American Duchess Guide To 18th Century Dressmaking - Turn Of The Century Fashion Patterns And Tailoring Techniques Alright, let's get started. 1. Making Edwardian Costumes For Women By Suzanne Rowland I like this book a lot. It has 10 projects to make within its pages. This book also goes into detail on what fabrics, trims, and techniques to use for each project. For some of the projects it gives the patterns in a scaled down form, which one then has to scale up. If a pattern is not scaled down then you are told how to draft the garment to your own measurements. This book also has lots of words on every page but other than that I think this book would be good for anybody who just wants some basic Edwardian garments. 2

Ardent: enthusiastic or passionate  Modiste: a fashionable milliner or dressmaker I'm not sure if other people feel this way, but in trying to come up with a name for this blog, I was feeling like everybody who has a youtube channel or blog had already used the great names. The ones that you immediately think of as the one you should use. So it took a couple hours, but I finally came up with a blog name I am proud of: Ardent Modiste.  It hits all the check boxes: it sounds old, it explains what I do, and it sounds kind of french.  Sounding french was not a check box, but whatever. I am excited to start writing here! But first, here's a little summary of me and what I enjoy doing(if my blog name didn't already explain it to you). My name is Zora, and I am a historical costuming nerd who loves Medieval, Elizabethan, 18th century, 19th century, and early 20th century dress.. I live in the United States and adore books, tea, and blankets. I hope to post often-ish, maybe once a