1890´s Purple/green Day Dress

Hello again!

My next project I wanted to share with you is 1890´s Day Dress. I made it in early autumn. The idea for this dress started with cream floral quilt-weight cotton I had in my fabric stash. I absolutely love this fabric with purple flowers and yellow-green leaves (which is my favorite shade of green). The fabric piece was too small for anything big but I knew I wanted to pair it with other fabrics anyway. Next I found this rich purple cotton velvet in my stash, which was the perfect shade. That´s when I knew the silhouette and type of dress I wanted to make. All that was missing was skirt fabric. So I got  a green taffeta with most beautiful sheen.

Preview of the 1890´s Day Dress. Bodice is flat-lined and fully boned with 5mm spiral steel boning. It fastens in front with hooks and eyelets, buttons are purely decorative. 

Mutton leg sleeves assembled and ready to be inserted. I used for these sleeves pattern by Laughing Moon (LM103). 

Skirt hem ruffle before ironing, 6,5 meters of it!

Sewing the hem ruffle on my Singer 221K Featherweight. It took some serious measuring and precision to get the pleats even. After attaching the ruffle to the skirt I hand-sewed notches on all pleats to keep the purple lining visible. Two notches per pleat.

Front view of finished 1890´s Day Dress.  Again please excuse the silhouette of the skirt. I haven´t yet made the appropriate 1890´s petticoat to give it the proper flare.  

Side and back view of the dress.

Detail of the back.

Finished hem ruffle.

Accompanying hat to the dress. This is one of my favorite hats. It is a Bustle era hat and the pattern is from Lynn McMasters. Embellishments are my own. These hats were still worn in first half of 1890´s so it is appropriate for the dress. The inspiration for this hat were hats in the show Lizzie Borden Chronicles which has probably the best costumes ever.

Side and back view of the hat.

Then I made Victorian underbust corset. I drafted the pattern from Dore Corset pattern (overbust) by Laughing Moon. This is a one layer corset in jacquard coutil with wide spring steel busk. I will have to get a better photo of this.

Detail of a modesty panel in the back.

Edwardian hat referred to as a Togue. The pattern was from a book Making Edwardian Costumes for Women by Suzanne Rowland. It is a reproduction hat. The frame is made of wires and then netting is applied over it. Trim is all hand-stitched using net, knitting yarn and gold trim. 

Side view of the togue with organza flower made by me.

This hat reminds me of Dowager Countess of Grantham from Downton Abbey. The colors fits as well! Now I still have to make a dress or cape or dress & cape to go with it.

Thank you for reading and have a nice weekend!

Maxi Dresses & Army Shirt

 First lot of my early autumn sewing projects. :)

Maxi dress made in satin fabric. The pattern is from Burda 4/2014 magazine. I sewn this dress as a birthday gift for my sister. She picked the pattern and fabrics herself. This is the second dress I made using this pattern, you can see the first one in here. This dress is sewn on Henrietta, overlocked on Bebe and hemmed on Cornelia. 

Front and side view of the bodice.

Back view.

Happy owner of the dress. :) My sister <3

My sister is a talented musician and she can wear this dress for her concerts as well as for casual events.

Another maxi dress for myself this time. I had this viscose fabric for this dress for a while and didn´t get to sew it. When I was starting to sew dress for my sister, I figured why not sew this one simultaneously? Having a few machines I don´t have to change the thread color for another project so it was easy sewing them along. This one is sewn on Agatha.

Front and side view of the bodice.

Back view.

Men´s army shirt in medium weight fabric for heavy use. The pattern is from the book Burda Style- Sewing Vintage Modern. This is a modern interpretation on men´s 1940´s shirt. I really enjoyed sewing this one, so many intricate details! :)

Shirt is hemmed on Cornelia with 3 different shades of thread to give the stitching ombre effect.

1940´s collars were so much more stylish then modern tiny ones! :)

Slip dress made in stretch-satin fabric with lace trims. The pattern is from Burda 7/2013 magazine. Slippery stretch-satin fabric was a bit difficult to work with, especially delicate shoulder straps. I made this dress to be worn underneath sheer dresses.

 Lace trim detail.

Stretch-satin top from the same magazine as the slip dress. This top is meant to be worn underneath sheer blouses that I love! I have quite a few chiffon fabrics in my stash waiting to be sewn. Both slip dress and top were sewn on Fiona.

Autumn coat made in college fabric. The pattern is from Burda 9/2013 magazine. I absolutely had to buy this fabric, the print is so beautiful! This coat is sewn mainly on Bebe and details such as pockets are sewn with Henrietta.

Machine Dust Covers

Some of my machines were still missing a proper dust cover. Since I don´t approve of the plastic covers, I made them something nicer. :)

For the Janome CoverPro CPX 1000 aka Cornelia, I made quilted stripey cover in green and white shades:

For stripes I used 100% cotton fabrics for quilting.

I used two home dec fabrics and a lace fabric on top for one side...

... and one home dec fabric, duchess satin and lace fabric on top for the other one. Satin ribbons are topstitched.

Details of decorative topstitching sewn on Henrietta. I used topstitch and embroidery threads.

For Singer 221K Featherweight aka Fiona, I made cover and some accessories. Foot control is stored in its own draw-string bag. Flip-table has its own cover since it hits the screw on the face-plate while turned up and that can scratch the table.

Cover turned upside down turns into a storage bag that fits into Fiona´s case. No scratches on my machine while pulling it out of the case. ;)

Dust cover/ storage bag with hand quilted hexagons. 

Union Jack cushion I designed last year got finally finished too! Blue triangles are replaced with little brown hexagons fitted into the triangles. Diagonal red stripes are topstitched with decorative stitches.

Singer 201K

As soon as I read the history about the Singer 201K, I knew I had to have one. Just to pick up some of the stories:

"Possibly the best machine Singer has ever made..." 

This machine was presented to HRH Princess Elisabeth as a wedding gift in 1947. 

Also it is rumored that Rolls Royce used these machines for some of their upholstery.

I searched and searched the local auction websites, but it seemed like this machine was nowhere to be found. I saw one in a treadle but hesitated to get it since I don´t have a room for another treadle. And I really wanted electric machine to see what all the fuss was about. :) Finally I saw an advert for "some old Singer sewing machine" and immediately recognized the 201. In a couple of hours the machine was mine. And (again) I foolishly went to pick it up without a trolley. Good Heavens this machine is super heavy! I only managed to carry it 8 steps at a time. Seriously, not what you would call a portable machine. ;) 

And here she is, meet Agatha:

Singer 201K made in Great Britain in 1936. I named her Agatha since most of Hercule Poirot films are situated in this year.

And now the problem, Agatha hasn´t been used for decades. All of her wiring was falling apart. I guess you can expect that from an 80 years old machine.

Light wiring after we took the lamp off.

The whole machine was taken apart, cleaned and rewired. Motor got lubricated and the machine got oiled properly.

Motor taken apart before cleaning and rewiring. The carbon brushes haven´t been worn out, so we didn´t replace them with new ones. I´ll have to order new ones just in case as I plan to use this machine a lot. :)

Here she is after the job was done. Ready to sew.

Agatha has beautiful ornamented face-plate. I saw the same ornament on some early Featherweight machines. My 1955 Featherweight Fiona has striped face-plate so I´m happy I got this one on Agatha.

Plug with new wiring. This model has a knee bar instead of a foot control. I cannot operate the knee bar due to my tiny sewing table. It doesn´t fit. But the plug is identical with the one Fiona has and her foot control works on Agatha well! Happy me :)

Even the motor cover is embellished with decals. It is a shame they don´t put decals on machines anymore. In my opinion the modern machines have a serious lack of grace. And they´re white! Why?

Beautiful trademark and the stitch length dial. This machine is famous for it´s precise stitches. Oh, and it sews backwards too, isn´t it great? ;)

I´m really happy I got this machine and it is now in a working order. I hope she´ll serve me years. I plan to sew most of straight stitch seams on her...