Period Costume for Stage & Screen

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Patterns for Women`s dress Medieval age – 1909

Jean Hunnisett is an author of Period Costume for Stage & Screen book series. There are five books which cover period from Medieval age till 1909.

The first book covers period from Medieval age till 1500, the second one is from 1500 till 1800 and the third one is from 1800 till 1909.

The other two books contain patterns for outer garments.

Today we will have a look in to the second book – from Renaissance till Rococo.

The part one describes the techniques of the costume making such as the interpretation of the dress, choosing appropriate fabric, draping, step by step of bodice making, fitting and finishing, making petticoats, pads and chemise.

And the second part contains the patterns. For help to make your own pattern there are simple nice drawings and scales. Do not worry, there are not just drawings. There are also step by step descriptions. All this you can read on almost 170 pages.

I would like to make a note that Jean wrote all these books from her own experiences. She did costume design for movies such as Joseph Andrews (1977), Elizabeth R (1971) and The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella (1976).

Joseph Andrews:

Elizabeth R:

The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella:

We have to realize that costumes for stage and screen are not always historically accurate however I dare say that all the Jean`s books have very solid basics to achieve your sewing goals.

Have fun with sewing 🙂

The Peacock Dress

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A master peace in tailoring.

Have you ever seen dress fully embroidered with small beads in shape of peacock feather? No? Let me introduce a dress like from a fairytale. Here it is…

… a dress like from a fairytale which became a truth in 1900 – 1902, designed by Jean-Philippe Worth for Lady Curzon, Baroness of Kedleston to celebrate the coronation of Kind Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in India.

The dress is made of embroidered silk taffeta using gold and silver threads, and emeralds also.

The bottom edge is styled with white silk roses. The bodice is also decorated with fancy lace.

I am captivated by all those delicate details and fine work. As you may also see on the photos below. There are couple question which came to my mind … How long did it take to finish this magnificent dress? How many people did work on this? How it really was to make the dress?

The gown is part of National Trust Collection, and if you are eager to see it, you should visit Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire, UK where the dress is displayed. You will not see it in all the glory from 1903 as the material faded out after many decades, however it will be nice experience anyway.

I really like Lady Curzon`s sitting pose photo attached below. I understand it is better to sit wearing this gown. And why? …because the weight is 10 pounds :-0!!!

Can you imagine to recreate the dress again? … hm, why not… Now, all we know that this is very ambitious project however there is one person who would like to manage this task. Her name is Cathy Hay, a founder of Foundations Revealed. Will she succeed? Will see. Fingers crossed. To follow the project progress click on these links: Peacock Dress blog, YouTube Channel.

Would you like to try this dress on? I would 🙂

Hedva – Czech brocade

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Traditional fabric manufacturing

Hedva is Czech fabric manufacture founded by brothers Schiels in 1890. The company produce from jacquard fabrics (brocades, tie fabrics, tablecloth fabrics) to final products, mostly the accessories for men (ties, bow ties, cloth handkerchief, tailcoat belt) and furnishings (tablecloths, bedclothes, pillowcases, …).

Now let`s focus on brocades ;-). Hedva has wide range of brocades for various purpose – ecclesiastical clergy, national costume, wallpapers, upholstery and of course for historical gowns.

Full offer of historical brocades is here.

I am also Hedva customer and I may say that I am really satisfied with the service and with the fabric quality. Would you like to know which brocade I bought? It is this beautiful green-blue brocade with dogs and thistles.

This brocade I used to sew medieval surcote. And now it is finished. Have a look…

There are many Hedva customers who sew historical dress. You may get inspirations from them from Hedva photo gallery.

Now let`s go shopping 🙂

My Rococo project

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…flowers, ribbons, ruffles and laces…

I have to confess I love Marie Antoinette fashion style. I had a plan for many months to sew Rococo dress. During the summer holidays I attended historical dance course focusing on Baroque/Rococo era. This made my plan to become true.

I got inspiration from these two pictures of sitting ladies in floral dress :-):

And I was also inspired by Marie Antoinette movie with Kirsten Dunst:

My plan was to sew light morning dress so I picked up white cotton fabric with floral pattern, white lace and light green ribbon. I used sewing pattern by Simplicity # 4092.

To be honest, I had small struggles with sewing … however … I finished the dress and here the result:

After a long morning walk and dancing you need to have a rest, sit down on a park bench for a while and enjoy the sun.

At the end of beautiful day you need to have a cup of good hot chocolate in (of course) floral china :-).

Anyway … do you like my white wig?

Prior Attire

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…alias dressing up through the centuries…

Prior Attire was founded by Izabela Pitcher who has been running her creative business for 16 years. She hand-makes historically accurate garments for museums and historical interpreters, UK television, at English Heritage and National Trust properties. (woow :-))

Izabela has official web side www.priorattire.co.uk where you can follow her work. She does not work just for well known institutes but also for historical dress lovers. If you would like to order a dress, you will be on waiting list for approximately 8-12 months. However it is worth of waiting!!!!

Let`s have a look on her beautiful work:

I feel also to mention that Izabela`s work includes fantasy and steampunk projects.

It is not a surprise that Izabela has YouTube channel with 150K subscribers. She has videos series named “Dressing up” . She shows how to dress up from the under layer to the top layers, including shoes, accessories and hear style, completed with professional photos. Her videos also include comments related to dressing up and period fashion. I love her videos as they have also funny moments :-)). Watch for example this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3zjuYJ_RVI

Are you Facebook fan? Here is Izabela`s Facebook page named “The Victorian Dressmaker“. Enjoin….Like and Share…

And finally I have to mention Izabela`s first book named “The Victorian Dressmaker“. The book contains Victorian dress patterns and sewing techniques. If you sew Victorian gowns, you should have this book in your bookshelf.

Let me say that to follow Prior Attire is absolutely worth it. 🙂

La conjura de El Escorial (The Conspiracy)

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Who was Princess of Eboli?

Her full name was Ana de Mendoza de la Cerda y de Silva Cifuentes. She was Spanish aristocrat, married to Rui Gomez da Silva, having upto 10 children. Later … she was accused of the murder of secretary called Escobedo in the royal palace El Escorial and she was arrested in 1579. The movie “The Conspiracy” was inspired by this incident, staring Julia Ormond as Princess of Eboli.

Princess of Eboli

Let have a look on the dress.

Let see more

Let see the whole length of the dress.

The credit for costume design goes to Javier Artinano and Delfin Prieto. I really like how good the costume reconstruction was done to present Spanish fashion of 16th century not only of women`s gowns. The men suits are also very nicely presented.

Here are few more movie shots…:

Do you think of this stiff Spanish fashion of 16th century?

Fleur de lis

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Alias Flower Lily

Fleur de lis (how nice it sounds in French) is decorative symbol associated mainly with French royalty and especially French heraldry.

How it looks like? It is the image of golden flower with blue background. You might see it as night sky with thousands stars.

A decorative symbol of Fleur de lis

Fleur de lis can be seen on fabric of royal gowns from medieval times till the age of baroque, which we can follow on paintings as these:

King Louis XIV

Fleur the lis appeared also on European arms and flags. For example House of Bourbon had this beautiful heraldry design.

There is also Florentine fleurs-de-lis. The symbol design contains also petals and it looks like this:

Nowadays we also use this symbol…. however, not to claim our royalty status :-). Personally, I bought earnings with fleur de lis symbol.

I think my next purchase will be this beautiful fountain pen.

Would you like to purchase anything with fleur de lis symbol?

Die Mode 1790 – 1842 Book Trilogy

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Have you ever bought any book in second hand bookshops? …

I do. Really. And I found few book treasures.

My newest purchase is the book trilogy of fashion between 1790 and 1842 published in 1905 in Munich. It is in German however it is not big deal for me. The books have a lot of pictures of dresses. If you have knowledge of historical dressing, you are able to read a lot of information from the illustrations.

The pictures include portrait paintings, painting by Philibert-Louis Debucourt, caricatures, drawings, illustrations of Pierre de La Mésangère, fashion plates of Journal des Dames; Gallery of fashion London property; Hamburger Journal der Moden und Eleganz; Journal des Gens du Monde, Paris and others…

How refreshing it is to know that at the beginning of 20th century, the books of 18th and 19th century fashion were published.

1st book 1790 – 1819

2nd book 1818 – 1842

3rd book 1843 – 1878

Have you found any book treasure in second hand bookstore?

Sartor.cz

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Are you looking for historical brocades for your historical sewing?

If you go to general fabric shop, you will not find there much historical brocades … well, basically none. You need to visit historical festival or any festival of medieval crafts market. The most available source is the web. And I recommend you to visit web site www.sartor.cz.

Sartor is a Czech company which is base in Prague. Sartor is company with long term fabric selling experiences. They offer wide rage of over standard fabrics, such as historical brocades, silks, wedding fabrics, laces and other sewing supplies (for example – corset supplies).

The web site allows you to switch the language from Czech to English or German. You can pay not just in Czech koruna but also in Euros, American dollar and Polish zloty. …and the shipping is worldwide…!!!

Do you need historical replicas fabrics? Here are few of them:

Would you like any brocade?

Are you looking for silk?

They also offer linen nad wool…

Now, when you picked a fabric look for the details. There are fabric photos in various angles (which is very good help to image how the fabric will behave in move), brief description, color, content, pattern repeat, very important merit – weight and width, availability in stock, price per meter and quantity discount.

Why I brought the merits weight and width into your attention? Based on this information you can deduce the fabric thickness and how many meters you really have to buy. Not all the fabrics are in standard width of 140 – 150 cm.

I have also one little “hook” for you. Here is the list of the events in 2019 where Sartor was selling their fabrics. However the events for 2020 are not released yet.

What fabric will be on your cart to purchase?

A cape sleeves

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Fashion history repeating….

A cape sleeve is a short or long loose sleeve, hanging free of shoulder. Medieval age is the era when cape sleeves were very popular. Isabel of Valois, as a fashion icon of medieval age, is one of the queens who wore them (pic2.)

As the bodice silhouette is tight, the sleeves are the object of interest. Their length in many cases “touches the ground”. With walk they wave alongside the body as a “smell of a man” :-)).

The cape sleeves are also modern nowadays.

Do you have dress with cape sleeves in your wardrobe?