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Project Updates, Apologies, and a State Historic Park!

Dearest Readers, Once again, I am sorry for the lack of activity on this blog. The past few months were quite busy, as I was finishing up the school year. But I hope that at least over the summer I can keep up a steady pace of posts. But don’t get your hopes up, for my promises may be worth nothing at this point. 😬 Anyway, at the moment I can’t think of any projects that I finished since February, though I’m sure that there are some. But plenty of new projects(and some changes) have come to fruition. First of all, my friend Luiza and I decided to wait and make the Schuyler Sister’s gowns in a couple of years. This is because we both have bigger projects that we would like done sooner. Eventually, however, the gowns will happen.   But that doesn’t mean that all work on them as stopped. I will continue to periodically work on Luiza’s stays, but other projects will come first. However we decided that instead of those gowns, we would make regency ones using the 1790’s round gown instructi
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February 2022 Update

 Dear reader,                         h i again! I will spare you a lot of boredom regarding a lot of what I have been doing lately, with a TON of half finished sewing projects with not a lot of time to work on them, but I have been busy(ish) this last month! I completed two projects that I have been wanting to make for a long time now. An edwardian petticoat, and a definitely-not-historically-accurate medieval dress. I'll go more into depth about them in a bit.  But I just wanted to let you know that a trip to a historical location is happening very soon. I'm not going to tell you where yet, though, because I want it to be a surprise! But know that I'm very excited about it! Anyways, back to the projects. The first one is the medieval dress, which was a rushed project that I made in a week, in preparation for a New Year's event. It is made of a brown cotton flannel, completely machine sewn apart for the sleeve, neckline, and skirt hem. I used a guide that I found onlin

Happy New Year!!! - and a small update on 2022's happenings(which hopefully will happen).

Dear readers, Happy 2022!!! I wish you all a good year!  I also apologize for the lack of activity of the blog, I can't believe the last post was in March! I've been really busy this past year, as I get back into a routine.  I will try to post more often. I have a few projects that are almost done, so keep posted! I am really excited for this year, for sewing projects as well as other things I might be able to share on the blog. I ~hope~ to go to a few historical places this year. I have always wanted to go to Bodie, and I am hoping this year is the year! Bodie is a State Historic Park in California, near the Cali/ Nevada border. It is now a ghost town, but in the 19th century it was an important gold-mining town. A lot of its buildings are still intact with items like furniture still left inside. It sounds really cool! As always, thank you for reading and I promise there will be more content in the next few months. Best,                Ardent Modiste

The Hamilton Project- An Update on The Stays

 Hello there, dear reader!          So if you have read   this blog post about The Hamilton Project , you will know that my friend Luiza and I are making a historical cosplay of Elizabeth and Angelica Schuyler, who are characters in the musical Hamilton.  I have a little update on the stays, which is the first garment of this project that I am making.      Mid-morning of a beautiful rainy day, the mail-human brought me the great gift- of linen! This linen, is special, being what I will use to make Luiza's and my stays. Also, I suppose I should address what stays are, being that it isn't really common nowadays to know exactly what the structured under-garment is underneath all 18th century clothing. Here is an example from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: These are British stays, from the late 18th century, made of blue silk. The shape of the stays changed a lot over time, due to needing the stays to provide the right shape for the fashion of the day. After all, you don't w

An Edwardian Bathing Suit

 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!

Making A Green Wool Vest

 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

A New Project Series- The Hamiltion Project

  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