Evenstar Designs

Look what's finished! I finished the habit shirt and made the collar from some black faux leather I found stashed away. I also added some fancy red trim onto the sash.  I made a cockade from black ribbon and an extra gold button.  I hope you like it!

After watching a Facebook live stream of the milliner's at Colonial Williamsburg making a Robe a la Francaise in a day, I was inspired to make a pet en l'air . What is a pet en l'air ? Glad you asked. A pet en l'air is similar to a Robe a la Francaise , but it is shorter. I guess you could call it the 18th century "mini dress".  Pet en l'airs were considered "undress" (   deshabille in French) or in other words, casual attire . One thing I noticed that the mantua makers in CW did was that they started the gown in the front, and worked backwards, whic h makes sense. (I've had great difficulties in the past getting a gown to fit properly in the front because I had already finished the back and sides.) So I draped the pleats in the back, basted them in place, then un-basted them a few days later because I didn't like the way they looked, and then re-basted them. Story of my life. Next I made the stomacher. It attaches with hooks and eyes ...

This post is a little late, but here it is. I went hog wild when McCall Company had a huge pattern sale. One of the goodies I scored was a reprint of an original dress pattern from 1953. It came together quickly and was fun to wear. I also crocheted a hair net to go with it while I was in the car on a road trip. Voilá!

I've wanted to make a riding habit for a while, and finally started one a few months ago, but then life happened and I didn't work on it for a long time, then I decided to finish it for our upcoming trip to Colonial Williamsburg *s queals* . This will be my fourth trip! I decided to make the habit look like the generals uniforms, so it's kind of a cosplay project. I draped the entire thing to myself which had it's trouble spots, but was enjoyable just the same. Enough talking - here are the pictures! Ready to cut out the waistcoat from the drafted pattern Waistcoat lining with puffy shirt  (the sleeves on the puffy shirt are ridiculously puffy :D )  And now with the fabric  And then I started draping the coat.  I'm sorry the lighting is so bad!  I didn't take any pictures of the construction of the coat, but here it is after I added the sleeves  And here it is after I had to modify the sleeves......