Magpiecostumer's Blog

An extant example from the Metropolitan Museum

magpiecostumer — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:41:44 +0000

I have finally found publicly available photograph of an extant muslin Robe à l’Anglaise from the Metropolitan Museum all of the examples I’ve seen so far are embroidered so the fact that I’m using a plain fabric is a variation from the documentation but its a variation I can cope with.

While I was searching the met website I found a lot of portraits that could help with my search for a hairstyle I can imitate (Using the advanced search for the years 1760-1799). I just bought a wig on ebay so I can make an attempt at a good 18th century hairstyle.

My stays are now fully boned. I ran out of artificial whalebone as I didn’t allow enough extra for the fact that the boning I’m using is narrower than the pattern recommends so I ended up finishing the centre front panels with cable ties.

18th century Hair ideas

magpiecostumer — Mon, 24 May 2010 12:22:06 +0000

The last few days have been spent looking at 18th century hair. Watching The Duchess helps for 3D images and pictures of the back but nothing beats period images. I’ve been looking at portraits I don’t want seriously high hair but I’m looking at wigs on ebay as I contemplated styling my own hair with rats but decided that a lot of curls down the back of my head would be too much effort. Instead I’m planning to do something based on this tutorial. I’m now in the process of going through a lot of images of later 18th century hairstyles to get some inspiration.

My list of images so far is mostly portraits so you can’t generally see the back of the hairstyle but you get more variation than fashion plates. Here’s my links roughly in the order I discovered them. I haven’t yet gone through them all properly to narrow down a single style.

On a clothing front I have nearly finished boning my stays. This is a photo of the cotton drill interlining of my stays. I bought it mainly because I got about 5 metres for $2 and the pattern is fun. This print will be visible on the inside but the outer layer will be brown linen.

c.1780s ‘Chocolate’ Robe A l’Anglais

magpiecostumer — Sat, 08 May 2010 04:35:30 +0000

I know its been a long time since I updated and I promised more photos from my holiday but it seems a little late to upload pictures now.

I’ve started a new project for the Earthly Delights ‘Age of Indulgence Chocolate ball’ in July. I’m trying as much as possible to use items from my stash but I don’t have enough brown in my stash to make a gown (except for some taffeta that is set aside for another project) .

Last year I saw a yellow embroidered muslin Robe A l’Anglais at the museum of London (unfortunately this was a behind the scenes tour and I’m not allowed to share the photos) I also saw a white embroidered Robe A l’Anglais at the Hereford Museum (again I’m not allowed to share photos) The only thing I can share with you is this example from the V&A of a ‘Sack back robe’ in sheer cotton. It’s not quite the same but its an example of making a traditional style of gown in the newly fashionable muslin.

So the result of all this is that I have decided to use a purple cotton/silk blend voile as purple is also closely associated with chocolate it’s a close enough association for me.

I’m using Simplicity 3635 for the corset and Fig Leaf Patterns 101 for the Robe. More updates to come soon with photos.

the V&A mark II

magpiecostumer — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 04:31:35 +0000

Well it took a few weeks to get around to this post but these are the photos I took at the V&A when I made my return visit. I spent quite a bit of time in the textiles gallery focussing on SCA period textiles and embroidery. I also managed to find the plaster cast gallery (I could see it from the floor above when I walked along the gallery but it was difficult to actually locate on the ground) which had a lot of casts of period funeral effigies.

The Museum of London

magpiecostumer — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:57:00 +0000

Tuesday was spent at the Museum of London. We had a behind the scenes look at some of the costumes but I signed an agreement that I wouldn’t upload the costume photos to the web. So I’ve uploaded all my photos from the medieval gallery instead. The one disappointting thing is that the gift shop didn’t have the Museum of London series on medieval clothing and accessories so I’ll probably be putting in an order with Mainly Medieval when I get home.

Victoria & Albert Museum

magpiecostumer — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:26:31 +0000

Monday morning was spent at the Victoria and Albert museum, there was a lot of cool stuff to see (I could have spent a week in the textiles gallery) but it was so rushed I barely got to see half of what I wanted to see. I was also dealing with a new camera (I lost my camera on public transport on Saturday, I bought a new one on Sunday, but it sometimes disagrees with me on whether or not the flash is a good idea). So I went back for a less hurried visit during my free time today (Thursday). These are photos from Monday’s trip, photos from my Thursday trip to the V&A will follow in another post.

Tower of London

magpiecostumer — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:28:36 +0000

On Friday morning we met the tour group from America and after a coach tour around London we checked into our hotel and then headed out to the Tower of London, I skipped some of it (especially the white tower and the chapel) but took photos mainly in the Medieval palace section.

Hampton Court

magpiecostumer — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 07:49:13 +0000

Between the Weald and Downland museum and Hampton court I have skipped over two days because I don’t have any photos I can share. On Monday we drove up to Herefordshire to see the costume collection at Berrington hall, and the Hereford city museum, but we were only allowed to take photos for personal use, we then drove back down to Reading where Aylwen’s relatives made us very welcome and took us to see Windsor Castle on Tuesday, but I wasn’t inspired to take photos. So we’re now up to Wednesday and Hampton Court where I took a lot of pictures including a costumed interpretation of the celebrations surrounding Henry VIII’s wedding to Catherine Parr.

Weald & Downland open air museum

magpiecostumer — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:27:17 +0000

After Southampton I moved on to Chichester and the Weald and Downland open air museum. This museum rescues buildings, which would otherwise be demolished from all over the country. It was a good place to see buildings of many different eras and regions in one place plus there are also details of construction visible in some buildings e.g. exposing what’s under the plasterwork, or things that have been covered up by later modifications to the building.

Southampton Medieval Merchant’s house

magpiecostumer — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:24:28 +0000

After a night in London where I met up with Aylwen, we went down to the south coast to Southampton and saw the Medieval Merchant’s House. It is restored as much as possible to its original 14th century state with furnishings from the period. I had hoped to go see Osborne House on the Isle of Wight but we got there relatively late so the price of the ferry to the Island wasn’t worth it for the limited amount of time we had there.