Work Basket in Silk and Berlin-work

Another design from Peterson's 1861 novelties.  I've been stitching away at the Berlin work since last summer, and am slowly making progress:

The original pattern calls for two shades of blue, with yellow silk accents, and finished with sky-blue silk and ribbons.  As my stash had some unclaimed green silk (no blue, alas), I decided to work it in two shades of green instead (keeping the yellow accents).

This is a decent-sized basket: the lower circumference is 35" (all hand stitched, 6" wide, in wool on cotton "penelope" canvas), with paste-board behind the Berlin-work to provide structure.  Silk-covered pasteboard makes the bottom, and the upper portion is unsupported silk, which closes with a ribbon drawstring.  Two cords form handles, which attach to the lower "structured" portion.

The embroidery frame is home-made, based on instructions from The Ladies' Self-Instructor in Millinery and Mantua-Making, Embroidery and Applique, Canvas-work, Knitting, Netting, and Crochet-work (1853).

There will be more pictures, as events warrant.

Links for Original Bonnet Patterns

Every so often, I end up digging out these links for someone or another, so here they are in one convenient place, with my comments and the bonnets I've made from them:

1. Godey's 1857 Sun Bonnet You have to scroll down to it.  I used this pattern for my corded sheer sunbonnet, and like the shape it has.  Don't be overwhelmed by the pattern pieces: there's actually only 3 of them, but they are given a second time as "half" pieces (to be laid out on a fold for cutting).  

(Back, close up on front brim and ties; 'first draft' bonnet sans ties)

Cut two of the brim/front, one crown, and one curtain.  Measure your head before cutting, to ensure that the brim (longwise) will go over your head, coming down to chin height, with the short side going from the crown of your head to your nose (add an inch or so for seam allowances, and a bit extra on the sides so they can be trimmed straight after cording: my first attempt developed a distinct slant and by time I had it straightened out, it was well-suited to someone much smaller than me). Cord the brim segment: I stitched the outer edge--curve to curve--right sides together, then turned it right-side out, and "sandwiched" the cords, top-stitching between all the layers behind each cord. Sugar'n'Creme crochet cotton was used for the cording, and it holds up alright, though it does better with a good starching.  I then joined the crown to the brim (it needs to be eased in a bit), encasing two self-fabric ties in the seam, so that they can be tied in the back for better fit.  The curtain is hemmed along three outer sides (I cut it on the selvage to reduce hemming), and then the top is sewn along the raw edge of the brim/crown portion.  Self-fabric ties are added to the front to keep the bonnet in place when worn.

    

2. 1859 Winter Hood (Finished sketch and description) Sometime it's called the "marquise hood", after the site where the pattern is found.  Though only two pieces, this one's a bit trickier.  Make a mock-up, and try it on over your period hair (mine slips down the back unless it's sitting on a bun).  The "half bell" piece is the brim and crown; cut it out with the straight edge on a fold, giving one large bell-shaped piece.  The other piece is the curtain: cut it on a fold as well, making a sort of rainbow-shaped piece.  The rim of the bell (the straighter curve) is the brim, gather the "top" of the bell to fit it into the curtain (leaving a few inches to fold back the brim), and try it on.  Once you're happy with the fit (I had to cut down the brim, despite my large head and mass of hair), cut the real fabric, quilt as desired, and line with a fun silk.  I encased the raw edges in a silk binding, but you could also sew the edges of each piece to it's lining right-sides-together, turn out, and then join the pieces (this will require hand-sewing the lining separately, I'd rather hand-sew binding). 

(This bonnet is shaped by the curvature of the pieces and a little gathering along the connecting seam.)

3. Mrs. Clark's Sunbonnet Pattern (Not an original bonnet, but appropriate to the 1850s-1860s) This is a very straightforward pattern for a slat bonnet.  It includes women's, teen's, and children's sizes, and apparently makes up quickly.  I've seen several pretty cotton print bonnets made from this pattern, and the friendly people at the Sewing Academy have several threads explaining how to adapt it as a corded bonnet or winter hood.

4. Peterson's 1864 Red Riding Hood (Kelly of Mackin-Art made it up beautifully here, and gives construction details).  This is a straightforward hood; it's all one piece (plus optional lining/non-optional ties).  It's basically a 27" square, with scalloped edges.  One corner is rounded, and the whole piece is gathered along the rounded corner, and on the diagonal between it's two neighbors.  That gathered diagonal becomes the edge along the neck, with ties at it's termini, the rounded "corner" goes up over the head, and fourth, intact, corner is the center point of the triangular curtain.

(The lining in the upper half conceals the tapes used to gather and shape the hood; it also protects the hair when worn.)

Girdle Pocket #1

The Girdle Pocket by Mrs. Jane Weaver (Peterson's Magazine, February 1861)

I like little bits of fancy work out of the old magazines.  They're cute, they don't require 6 yards of specially-ordered material, you can work on them anywhere, and you don't have to alter them when your dress size changes.  

Really, they're just wonderful.

The girdle here referenced is a decorative belt (possibly the shaped outer garment known as a "Swiss waist" or "Medici belt"), not to be confused with the 20th-century undergarment.  The only other picture I've seen of one was a suspended pocket on a cute little waist with brettels. Similar "waist pouches" will appear in the September issue; they are "suspended the waistband by a chain and hook, and sometimes by a cord", and elaborately decorated in "gold, silver, and jet" or coordinated to the dress's trimming.

The description indicates that the pocket should hold a portmonnaie (which I will be making just as soon as I can find an accurate 2.5" frame) and handkerchief.  In the meantime, it should nicely contain my Berlin-work card holder.  I picked this pattern over the waist pouch one, both because it has more complete instructions, and because I realized that most of the materials were already in my stash--mostly because the three colors of velveteen I had lying about were the three colors of velvet called for, and it's fun to see how the original color schemes match up.

Needed:

1/4 yard sky-blue silk (more like a 7" by 16" piece)

Small bits of red, green, and black velvet (I used cotton velveteen: non-synthetic velvet is hard to find)

Gold cord and thread (I don't know why I have this)

Black glass seed bead (96 small 1/16", 14 larger 1/8")

Half yard of velvet ribbon (using scrap velveteen, see above)

Pasteboard (recycled a box lid)

Lining material (fiber not stated; using linen or silk from the stash)

The Process, Day 1:

First off, I traced out the individual applique shapes onto pattern paper.  Cutting out the small, fiddly bits proved the more difficult piece of the undertaking.*

I then traced the overall pocket shape onto the pasteboard; in addition to providing structure for the finished item, these served as templates for cutting the silk background.

Having no blue silk to hand, I decided to dye a white remnant from the stash.   As it was a small amount, I used locally-available RIT royal blue instead of ordering a silk-specific dye. (The wonderful Sewing Academy board, once again, offered a wealth of tips, particularly in this thread: http://thesewingacademy.org/index.php?topic=3338.0).  I used about a quarter of the bag of dye in 3/4 c. water and 3/4 c. vinegar, and let my test pieces "bake" in a warm oven for 40 minutes...giving a ridiculously deep blue.  After extensive rinsing, it was still almost black in color.  I'd heard that silk and RIT tended to be a bit lackluster, so I'd expected that hours would be needed for such a hue, if it was even possible. As I was aiming for more of a "sky blue", I diluted the dye bath by half again with water, and tried a ten-minute piece.  Perfect!  The trickiest bit was probably getting the wet silk to drip dry without clinging to itself and making permanent creases (note to self: another excellent reason to avoid ever getting silk wet).

While the silk was drying, I started on the center bit with the crossed gold threads over a green background. Each overlapping gold thread gets a small black bead on it, and the four symmetrically arranged 'stars' mean that it needs to make a fairly straight grid or it will look sloppy.  I've been having trouble with the tension, and think that on the next side I'll start securing the beads from the start, working from the middle, to keep the crossing threads aligned (instead of tacking down the crossed threads, and putting the beads on later).  The instruction aren't clear on the matter, but I interpreted the "border" on the center piece as a thread edge around the "crossed" section, with a small gap of unembellished green fabric, and then the wider gold cord/braid at the edge of the green section.  That seems consistent with the 'thin line = thread', 'voided line = braid' convention; the white space between the two could be either the blue silk background or the green velvet/een of the center piece (both are represented as unshaded white).  In all other instances, the gold cord abuts the edge of the appliques, so I am taking it thus, rather than ending the green at the narrower thread border.

Progress status: Silk is cut and dyed, patterns are traced and cut, and the green center piece is in progress.

At the next update, I hope to have the crossed background and small beads done, and possibly the four central "stars" as well (I think they look more like flowers, personally).  The next step will be attaching the green center to the silk (through the beads on the stars/flowers), and cording the edges (I intend to couch the cords, securing the edges of the green at the same time); I then get to repeat the cording with the other appliques.  The final step will be making up the pocket and adding the gold tassel decorations.  Victorians? Subtlety? What ever do you mean?

*This may have something to do with my scissors.  Having a good sense of proportion, my apartment contains four pairs of scissors and a rotary cutter devoted to specific fabric/thread purposes, a bolt-cutter for metal, and one pair scissors for everything else.  The latter may have come off the worse in a wire-related incident a few years back (hence the bolt-cutters).