A sewing friend gifted me a pair of sheer voile curtains. She’d intended sew a robe chemise but there wasn’t enough fabric, so she reckoned she’d see what I could make with them instead. One became a ruffled 1780s apron and the other became a white muslin summer mantelet!
I enjoy turning pretty things into other pretty things. In this tutorial, I turn a glass-and-brass necklace into a DIY Georgian parure.
One of my favorite 18th Century costume references is a portrait by Sir Nathanial Dance-Tolland. I love the puffy blue stomacher bows. I love the enormous pearls worn high on her neck. I love her pet squirrel. But mostly I love the lace mantelet that she is wearing over the top of all of it. While less heavily textured, this embroidered silk gauze from FabricGuru has such a similar scale and vibe to the fabric in the portrait that I reckoned it was MEANT. I would make the blonde silk gauze mantelet from the portrait!
Remember when I made a rhinestone 18th Century Stomacher Brooch? Here is a tutorial for making a pair of 18th Century Girandole Earrings to match!
In the collection of the Victoria & Albert museum in London, there is a stunning antique Portuguese brooch. Thanks to an aliexpress seller who likes the piece as much as I do, today we’re going to make our very own 18th Century Stomacher Brooch!
I made an Alphonse Mucha Inspired Summer Wreath for a turn-of-the-century-poster event this summer. For a quick hot-glue job, this is shaping up to be one of my prettiest costume pieces! (There’s probably an important life lesson in there somewhere.)
In honor of the annual Spring Fertility festival, here three pairs of 18th Century Pockets! (All of them bright, colorful, vaguely egg-shaped, and perfectly designed for holding your Easter chocolates!)
Northern America is colder and wetter than Northern Chile in January. I needed Pacific Northwestern 1790s style!
They seek it here, they seek it there – those Frenchies seek really good dotted Swiss cotton everywhere! Sheer, spotted, and crisp with body for DAYS – there’s only one reasonable thing to do with a fabric like this – make a tutorial for a really swashbuckling 1780s ruffled fichu!
When I started the Infinitely Ruffled 1780s Apron I had little experience with hand rolling hems, and this apron – this apron had a LOT.
