More pictures of my line

I should have posted these earlier, but here they are 5 months after the fashion show. (Other fashion show post is here.)

Photography by Jamie Ward

Makeup by Kayleigh Saad

Stockings from American Duchess
And the suits were all made by me!
Models: Stéphane Cormier, Inderpal Virk, Dale Strickland, Bill Robinson, Drew Gilbert and Ceigh Foss.

From left to right: Stéphane, Dale, Ceigh, Drew, Inderpal, Bill.

 And here are some more photos from the runway taken by Joseph Comeau.

I love the lighting here.

Ceigh's suit fits my little sister! I suggested that she go as Lestat for Halloween this year since she has the right hair for it.

She hasn't even seen Interview With The Vampire, but she likes the suit.

I had hoped to have more photos to post. Andrew Kelly took some very nice photos of all the lines before the fashion show, but he hasn't responded to anyone's efforts to get in contact with him, and the preview images we were asked to choose from have disappeared from his website. I'm rather pissed off about it.
Edited to add: It's been 2 years and we never saw the photos or heard from him again. Ugh.

Blue Wool Waistcoat

I'm not sure if I have any construction photos of this but if I do they're in the other computer where I can't get them at the moment. If I find them I'll update this post.

 I started this waistcoat quite a few months ago (when it was very cold outside). It's made of an old wool blanket, which was the same pale greenish colour as old tupperware. I sort of used a pattern, but I drew on the uneven edges freehand after tracing out the basic shape.

 I dyed it blue, and spent a great deal of effort making sure the edges were darker than the rest. The blue was way too bright, so I overdyed it with grey.
The seams are machine sewn, except for the collar which was overlapped and whip stitched down on both edges. All the seam allowances are whipped down too. If I had thought of it earlier I might have done all the seams like the collar.
It's unlined and the edges are left raw because it's so thick and felted it doesn't need anything to keep it from fraying.

 I made the buttonhole stitches quite far apart for the same reason.

 The buttons are some silvery ones I bought a while ago.

 It's very bulky and warm.

 Since it's not remotely historical in any way I gave it tails. I though they would look really cool but I actually find them rather limp and sad.

 I don't think it goes very well with all the black and white I usually wear, so I'm going to have to make some more blue and grey things to go with it. I don't think I'll be wearing it at all this summer anyway.

Maybe it would look better with a coordinating coat.

Cotton shirt #2

I am now the owner of three ruffly shirts! Altogether I've made 12 shirts in my lifetime, but this is only the third shirt I've made that is meant to fit me and is actually good enough to wear.

The first of these 3 shirts is getting really worn out.

 It's made from what little shirt cotton I had leftover from my line, which meant I had to piece the sleeves.

You can't see it in the pictures, but it's actually 2 slightly different cottons.
I couldn't get enough for 6 shirts in the exact same fabric.

 Most of it is machine sewn. The gathering is by hand because it works so much better that way.

The ruffles are cut on the selvedge.
I overlapped and basted them together in the middle so the slit wouldn't be any wider than necessary.

I put a whole lot of whipstitching on the bottom edge of the slit for reinforcement, because that part is tearing quite badly on my other shirt.

The collar is hand finished on the inside and front edges.

 I made a whole bunch of thread buttons. I've gotten pretty good at making them!

A partly formed button on a little bone awl.

When I make these I wax my thread, iron it between paper so the wax sinks in, then give it a couple more swipes with the wax. I've started making them a bit fatter and pulling the stitches tighter. It makes them so dense and hard they feel like pebbles.

I have to use pliers to sew the little X's on the backs.

I like to leave the thread tails long and braid them together in convenient bunches.

Buttons of various colours, intended for linen shirts of various colours.

 Since it's so similar to my other shirts there isn't much point to posting a lot of construction photos.

The finished cuff with three buttons. Two wasn't enough because they are very tiny buttons.

 The sleeves are attached with French seams. All the others are flat felled.

The collar. Too bad the buttons aren't as white as the fabric.

 The only hand finishing is on the collar, cuffs, hem, buttons and buttonholes.  Other than that (and the gathering) it's all machine sewn. This isn't something I would have done before, but I had quite a lot of practice making my line, and I learned that sewing machines aren't actually evil.

It turns out you can even put little hem gussets on by machine without too much fuss.

 Since shirts are a very practical thing this fits nicely with this months HSF theme.

It's a rather long shirt. Were it not tucked into my pants it would cover my butt quite adequately.

The Challenge: #5: Practicality. (The first one I've done this year.)

Fabric: Two mostly similar plain white cottons.

Pattern: The same as I used for this shirt, but with slightly longer ruffles.

Year: Second half of the 18th century. Probably a good chunk of the first half too.

Notions: Linen thread, polyester thread, beeswax.

How historically accurate is it? The overall look, the pattern, and general construction method are fairly accurate. The material (aside from the buttons) and the machine sewing are not.

Hours to complete: I can't say for sure, but probably about 10- 14.

First worn: Today.

Total cost: Nothing I guess? It was all stuff I had already.

 It's a very comfortable shirt. The collar isn't too tight, and I didn't mangle the buttonholes like I did last time.

A view of the piecing seam on the sleeve.

 I still need to make more shirts! 3 is much better than 2, but it's still not very many shirts.

My claws were in a terrible state over the winter
but the weather has warmed up and they're recovering nicely.

Pants are also a thing I need to make. My first pair has completely worn out and now I'm back down to 1.
For someone who does so much sewing I've got a pretty pathetic wardrobe.