Crowning Glory

After two years my hair is now past my waist. Due to this, I felt it was time I put some effort into finishing making my caps and hair pieces for different impressions to make the most of my hair, when dressing late 1850s to early 1860s.

I have wanted a new evening hair piece for a while now. I love my yellow and black lace evening cap, but it is nice to have a change sometimes. This new one is copied from pictures in various magazines. I used millinery wire, a hair comb, green tape, wax orange blossoms, small pink flowers and green velvet leaves. I think that it is really pretty and compliments many hairstyles.

 Back

Front with back in mirror. 

I also finally made a nice lace cap. I also used various images from fashion magazines including Peterson's and Godey's to create this design. I thankfully had some vintage tiny white flowers left over from my wedding bonnet and some light green ribbon from trimming a bonnet a few years ago. The lace was recycled from Jessie's daughter's first wedding dress, which we had pulled apart a few months ago (the dress was a bustle gown made with a tulle overdress with embroidered net lace). I designed it using three sections of gathered lace with the bottom ruffle gathered onto an oval section of plain tulle.  

Sorry I have no photos of me wearing it. It really is nice on and very fancy.

Finally, I have continued with my knitting in making a working class cap by using the Godey's Sortie Cap pattern. I found this very easy to knit as the directions are simple. I used 4 ply wool that was left over from making my garters. There are a lot of people that have made this pattern, some of their suggestions I found very confusing (such as knit an extra setting row... which doesn't work as you drop every second stitch as the end and adding an extra row makes no difference). I would suggest just following the pattern. It seems small when you start, but when the stitches are dropped it gets a lot wider. The completed cap fits perfectly and stays on without claps, even in the wind. I did make one change in placing a ribbon through the front as it was rolling a little (as can be seen in the drawn image, but I didn't like that much).

 Sorry about my creepy mannequin, I am not sure why I painted them this way.

Nic's Wedding Jacket

We have decided to set our wedding in 1861, which is one of our favourite periods for clothing. Nic wants a South Australian Volunteer Rifle Officer's Uniform. This has been quite a challange for me however as I have never made a man's jacket before or worked with melton wool. We had a lot of difficulty sourcing the correct wool, braides, trims and badges, but we are very happy with what we ended up with. Nic purchased the Period Impressions - Enlisted Man's Frock Coat, which is close to the desired shape with only a few alterations. I also had 2 photos and the military tailors description to assist.

The original photo of a South Australian Volunteer Rifle Officer.

I had to trace the Austrian Knots on the sleeves with silver and red cords.

The sleeves are mirror images of each other.

Trying to work out the collar decorations.

As the wool is so thick I had to stich it down to flatten it.

After the wool was flattened I Pinned then slip stiched the linning to the collar.

Finished lining

Finished Collar.

Buttons on the shoulders, I hand sewed it on through the wool only using the gap in the sleeve.

.... There will be more as I finish it

Well it has been hard and taken longer than I would have liked but it is finally finished. Unfortunately I broke my arm 3 weeks ago and have only now been able to get enough movement to finish the hand stiching needed to finish the sleeves, hook and bars and the skirt hems.

The finished Jacket being modelled by the handsome Nic.