French Revolution Zombaes - Finished!

As per usual, I fell behind on documenting progress while I was busy making it. To make some attempt at recap...

The only photo of the dress construction I have is the sleeve pattern, which was scaled up from the Norah Waugh pattern.

Figuring out patterning and construction on my own was a challenge, and frustrating at times. I'm fairly experienced with sewing, but I still prefer established patterns and instructions that I can modify as needed but have a foundation to refer back to. But it was a really good learning experience, even if I didn't always love it, and it came together wonderfully in the end.

I also made petticoats, roughly following American Duchess's old tutorial. So. Much. Pleating. But it was fun once I figured out the spacing.



We got our stays in plenty of time, and they were incredible! I did a fit/wear test right away and loved it.

As far as finishing a single piece, the wigs were probably the quickest part of the whole costume. I started with the Boogie Babe wig, which turned out to be a great cheap alternative to the Lioness wig so many people use (though I still want to get my hands on one of those someday).




There wasn't much organized method to it. I just separated and broke up the curls, and teased as I trimmed, using historical portraits as reference. I left the lower back at the base of the neck long and straightened then recurled the hair into about six sausage curls. Once styled, the wigs were sprayed with silver and then white hairspray from a party store. Since we were blending our real hair into the wig to hide the hairline, we needed something heavy to help cover and blend the different real versus fake hair colors. The silver was more opaque, so it did a pretty good job of this (though we didn't spray quite enough on our own hair the night of), but it was very silver. The white over the top helped hide it and soften everything, but some still showed through. It didn't wreck the look, and it worked okay with the ghostliness and the silver jewelry, but it wasn't what I intended. The white on its own looked great and actually replicated the look of powder really well, so that's something I'll be doing on other 18th century wigs in the future.


I don't really have any photos of them, but the "mitts" were $1 knee-high stockings bought just a day or two before the event. Everything else struck out, and they were a lifesaver. I literally just cut finger holes, and the tears and runs that developed just added to the creepy ghost/zombie theme.

And that's pretty much it!

With our awesome new friend, Lady Toxie.

A lot of stuff came down to the wire, we got a later start than we intended, and we went down to the party a few hours late. But it got done and we wore it and it was awesome! For being such an elaborate and fussy looking finished product, they're ridiculously comfortable. Even in the the short time we were there, a lot of people loved our costumes, and a surprising number actually got the whole theme. Seeing their eyes go wide with recognition was really gratifying. We got a lot of compliments on the wigs, too, which was great. We're definitely busting these out again. On these in particular, we're going to work on distressing them and making them more zombified (they were more ghoulish/ghostly this time, which actually worked well as its own thing, too). I'm also going to eventually make another set of chemise dresses with the same design and a bit more accuracy to wear to reenactment events.

I'm already on to the next project (big things afoot), so more on that soon!

French Revolution Zombaes - BLING Part II

The saga continues...

Marie Antoinette mini portraits

I still haven't replaced older Marie's portrait. But I did make other changes to both portraits. To drive home the fact that it's Marie Antoinette and give a more obvious visual connection to royalty, I got some little crown brooches to add on. This was also inspired by royal family orders, which feature a crown above a portrait of the royal/monarch on a ribbon. Beauty From Ashes has great information and tutorials on royal family orders.

I looked for a simple design that was similar to the portrait settings, and it had to have rhinestones of course.

I didn't think to take a photo before doing modifications, so here's the seller's photo. Found here.

Then I lightly repainted them with silver acrylic to tone down the shine and match them to the settings. Luckily, having pin backs already they were really easy to attach, and I can even remove/replace them as desired.

I also added more ribbon, black organza this time, with a bow on the bottom of the setting and a single length across the satin ribbon bows.

"MA" lady-in-waiting badges

These have a place in 18th century history, but not necessarily in France, so they kind of straddle the line of accuracy and artistic license. I based them off the "badges" worn by ladies-in-waiting to female royalty, featuring the woman's jeweled initials on a ribbon bow. The era-appropriate examples I could find were all Russian, but at various times they were used in other countries as well. They have a fun history, and again, Beauty From Ashes talks about them some here in connection to other royal orders. I figured that since France had a cultural influence on Russia, and Russia and Austria had some political connection, and Marie Antoinette was Austrian... well, this wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say it's historically plausible, especially in an unofficial capacity, even if it didn't actually happen.

I got some appropriately swirly and Rococo-ish - and, of course, sparkly - letter brooches in "M" and "A" for the queen's initials.

Seller's photos. Found here.

I also got some more crowns for these, since the badges almost always have them.

I followed Beauty From Ashes's royal order sash tutorial for the bows, making some changes to allow for a better fit on the shoulder. The first layer is a 4" wide loop, the middle layer is a 3.5" loop, and the top is a single layer 3" wide with pinked edges. They turned out a little messy because I was making them quickly last minute, so I'll be going back and redoing them at some point, but they turned out well enough for the night.

Hair doodads

I knew I wanted feathers in the hair almost from the start, and the rest of the ribbons and such to go with it kind of happened as the entire costume got more elaborate. Two ostrich feathers was kind of the benchmark, and initially I was going to do one each of white and black. But I didn't like the asymmetry. So the plan evolved a few times and we ended up with two black and one white.

The "brooch" is the center of the necklaces that I removed when I was modifying them (having swapped them with the actual brooches that I had originally ordered for the hair).  I used strips of the same black fabric from the lady-in-waiting badges to tie everything together.

Sash "Buckle"

Modifying the necklaces left me with four center pieces, and after doing the hair doodads I still had two pieces left. There was really no need to add them to the costume, but at that point I figured I might as well just on principle. The more ostentatious sparkle the better. The only place left to put anything really was on the waist sash, and as luck would have it the necklace pieces were exactly the same length as the ribbon width (3"). I added a pin back to the top and that was that.

Fans

This project was continually evolving, and this whole new detail was thought up just within the last few weeks. I really came to it by thinking of ways to accentuate the French theme, as well as the zombie theme, so I looked up "brains" in French and fell down the rabbit hole.

They might be undead, but they've still got manners.

I needed something for that to be written on, and fans were the most obvious solution. They're a better and more convenient accessory than a sign or something would be, and have the added benefit of being practical.

The fans themselves are the very basic bamboo slat and fabric variety. We went through a ton of handwritten and calligraphy fonts and picked some that were the most suitable for historical context and/or kind of rough. I painted the slats and fabric edge silver, and my friend did all the Photoshop whatnot and painted the text on.

They hang from the waist by a length of black organza ribbon, tied to the waist sash.

Next, the finish line!

French Revolution Zombaes - BLING Part I

As promised, a recap of all the many, many rhinestones involved in this project. And there are many. So I'll break it up into two chunks: first the more straightforward jewelry, and later the ribbons/bows/extras.

Rings

I'd been searching for a bunch of gaudy cocktail rings that both looked correct and were affordable, but style and price and quantity never worked out, so I decided to just make them. It ended up being fantastically cheap that way, too. The first set I made with ring blanks I already had, plus 3mm and 4mm rhinestones (fortuitously left over from King George's crown).

The second and third sets were "designed" (and I use that term that loosely) based on Georgian jewelry and the rhinestone sizes I had. The blanks were chosen based on size accommodation and interesting detail: the prongs on the side are reminiscent of a crown and a little more ornate, and I knew I'd be able to bend them out of the way if I needed more space for the rhinestones.

18x25mm. Seller photo. Found here.

18mm. Seller photo. Found here.

One is 18mm with a single matching stone, just to look oversized and ridiculous; and the other is 18x25mm using a single 13x18mm stone surrounded by some 4mm stones, which is equally oversized and ridiculous but also imitates a stone layout fairly common on 18th century rings.

Earrings and Necklace/Brooch/Whatevers

Aside from the mini portraits I already had, earrings were the first jewelry piece I was completely decided on using. I came close to buying some really good options, but then found a necklace/earring set that looked really promising. Even though I'd scrapped the idea of a necklace in the traditional sense (too much interference with neck wound makeup), I figured I could pin the necklace to the dress like a weird brooch thing.

Fig. 1. Weird brooch thing. Found here.

They were a little funky in person and needed some work, so I initially just added more rhinestones and repainted everything darker - with DecoArt Dazzling Metallics in Shimmering Silver as a primer, topped with Jacquard Lumiere in Pewter sort of lightly drybrushed on.  On the necklace, I also removed the chains and the round rhinestone links on the sides.

Don't know why I didn't photograph the earrings, too. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That itself was a big improvement. But then I decided they weren't large/obnoxious enough. So I ended up ordering two more necklace/earring sets to harvest for parts, which were modified with rhinestones and paint the same way.

For the earrings, I took the posts off both pairs and the teardrop rhinestones off one pair (and set the extra teardrops aside for the necklace mod later). The piece without teardrops was turned upside-down and connected to the piece with the teardrop, and then the posts were reattached at the new top.

Earrings on the left are brand new before any mods at all, and right is the result of the second round of mods.

The necklaces... I don't even know what to call these, really. They sit where a brooch would, but they're shaped more like a necklace, and they're actually built from both. Who knows? But I love them.

Each one ended up being Frankensteined from parts of two original necklaces, the extra teardrops from the earrings, and a separate brooch. I had already ordered some brooches in a similar design to go in the hair with a bow and some ostrich feathers.

Seller photo. Found here.

When they arrived, I realized they were a little large and heavy for the hair, and I liked them better on the dress. So I decided to remove the centers of the necklaces, replace them with the brooches, and then use the necklace centers for the hair instead (more on that later).

The brooches got the same paint and rhinestone treatment.

Left is repaint only, right is repainted and added rhinestones.

On the necklaces I removed the round side rhinestones and chains again like before, and disconnected the centers...

...and removed the teardrop rhinestones from them, keeping the teardrops and setting the rest aside (for hair doodads later). I used the extra connector rings to attach the remaining necklace pieces to each other and the brooch. The teardrop rhinestones from the center necklace pieces and leftover from the earrings were clipped onto the necklace at strategic points to match the teardrop on the brooch.

There were a few minor tweaks after this, and ribbons are still up for debate, but this is pretty much before and after.

TLDR: each pair of earrings is built from two pairs, and each necklace is built from two necklaces and earring remnants and a brooch (so 4 necklace/earring sets + 2 brooches = 2 finished sets), and everything was repainted and further bedazzled.

It still wasn't quite fussy enough, so I've been playing around with some little bows of black organza ribbon. I'm still not sure about them, but if I use them, I'll add three to each side, essentially between what was originally each separate chunk.

And that's pretty much it!

Stay tuned for Part II!

UPDATE: On the night of the event, with everything on we decided the necklaces as brooch collar things didn't quite work how we wanted. Weirdly, it made them less ostentatious somehow. So with some extra black organza ribbon, I turned them back into necklaces. Wacky hijinks!

French Revolution Zombaes - Testing and Prep

You wouldn't know it from my activity here, but I've actually been really busy with costuming! I've been steadily working on French Revolution Zombaes, but because everything's being budgeted and I'm waiting on stuff to arrive, I've been picking away at different parts of the costume bit by bit. So I initially thought I'd wait until I had whole chunks done to post about them. Some things are finally coming together now, but even though there's nothing totally done, Labyrinth is just shy of two months away. So I thought I'd better get to it!

It's been an ongoing and evolving work in progress, but in the the last few weeks I finally got down on paper what I've been thinking about for a design.

Dress:
-white cotton voile, possibly over a black satin-y lining
-3/4 "poofy" sleeves
-single drawstrings at the neckline and waist
-ruffles at neckline, sleeves, and hem
-ribbon waist sash (probably moire)
Hair:
-very large hedgehog (probably a wig)
-fascinator thing with at least two ostrich plumes, a rhinestone brooch, and a black ribbon bow
Jewelry:
-Marie Antoinette mini portrait on a bow
-"MA" lady-in-waiting badge on a bow (inspired by contemporary Russian examples)
-large rhinestone earrings
-large rhinestone necklace worn at the neckline like an oversized brooch
-several rhinestone rings
-SO. MANY. RHINESTONES.
Makeup:
-either general deathly pallor, or pallor with early/minimal zombification rot
-light dirtiness from crawling out of the grave
-prosthetic appliance for the stitched-up decapitation

Of course I already have the Marie Antoinette portraits I made way back. I'm still tempted to redo older Marie, either with a different portrait entirely (why, oh why, did I not think to use her infamous chemise gown portrait???) or at least a better quality print. But that'll come down to last minute tweaks.

I also have little crown brooches to add to the centers of the bows, and I might add more ribbon too (the theme with almost everything on this project so far has been "when in doubt, add more"). All the jewelry really needs a post of its own, so more on that later.

And typically, everything else is a lot of mockups and prep and waiting right now.

Back in May I ordered 1780s stays from Historical Designs on Etsy.

© Historical Designs

They'll be plain coutil, with front and back spiral lacing. Her work looks and sounds amazing and I'm beyond excited to get my stays in the next few weeks.

I can't properly start the dresses or petticoats until the stays are in hand, so in the meantime I've been focusing on accessories, starting with the bum pads and pockets. The cost for both was basically nothing, as I used old fiberfill and scrap fabric, which was awesome. I used Simplicity 8162 (the first American Duchess underpinnings pattern) for the bum pad, and Simplicity 3635 for the pockets. Both are fairly straightforward so there's not much to say or show, but I did make a few experiments and tweaks.

On the bum pads, I made the first one in the largest size thinking bigger is better - and it is, with caveats. I initially overstuffed it, and both it and I didn't look right while it was worn (very stumpy and stocky, which is already a problem for me being short, high-waisted, and curvy). So I made the second one in a smaller size and stuffed it more conservatively, then pulled some stuffing out of the larger pair and it too looked much better with less stuffing. The two sizes really only differ in how far they wrap around to the side and front of the hips: when viewed from the front, the larger size gives a little more width. As it turns out, having two sizes was perfect. My friend and I have the same hip measurement, but our proportions are different: she has wider hips, I have more butt. So with appropriate stuffing in each bum pad, the smaller size with volume concentrated in back was better for her, and the larger size with some extra volume on the sides worked better for me.

She won't sleep in her actual cat bed, but apparently bum pads are good enough for nap time.

On the pockets, instead of using bias tape for the opening and outer edge, I did a facing on the opening (adapted from the Simplicity 4923 shirt) and just sewed a normal right-sides-together seam along the edge. There was honestly no reason for this except that I didn't have any bias tape and was too cheap/impatient to go out and buy some. I had plans to embroider Marie Antoinette's initials on the pockets, either by hand or machine, but that didn't pan out. I do want to make another pair someday, so I'll definitely try embroidery next time.

We're very mature costumers, clearly.

Both the bum pads and pockets are kind of 99% finished and tucked away right now and waiting some last minute tweaks, namely checking the fullness of the bum pads when all the petticoats and dresses are done to see if they need more oomph to support the weight. So I'll get finished photos when everything's assembled.

With those base underpinnings done, I did eventually make a rough mockup of the dresses to get an idea of what my game plan was. I primarily used Fresh Frippery's awesome tutorial, as well as looking at the chemise gown American Duchess made from it too. The tutorial calls for three lengths of 55" fabric, or 165" total circumference, and I had ordered enough to account for that. But I'm playing with the idea of adding a black lining (for more dimension, and it gives a nice spookiness factor), and as American Duchess advises, 165" is very full to begin with and the thicker the fabric, the bulkier the dress. The lining I'm thinking about is the same fabric I used for the Lucille Sharpe nightgown, and luckily I had some yardage left over. So I made two mockups of 165", one with a lining panel sewn into the front and one of just voile.

The mockup with the lining wasn't terribly puffy, and maybe I could have gone with 165" and been fine, but after the bum pad puff debacle, I decided to cut down the fullness and scale it back to the 138" given for the chemise gown in Norah Waugh's The Cut of Women's Clothes: 1600-1930. I've seen lots of people make that version and they turn out perfectly suitably full. I tested the voile-and-lining mockup at 138" and liked it, so I cut the just-voile mockup down to 138" as well so they're both prepped for eventual construction. I ended up with something like this...

It's kind of strange - and honestly really great - how quickly during construction these dresses come together and actually look like what they are, even without the sleeves and finishing.

Even though I'm happy with the 138" circumference regardless, I'm still undecided on the lining. I'm not too worried historical accuracy, as these are zombie costumes, after all. I want things to look basically era-correct, but some artistic license is required. And they'll be torn and weathered, so there's also no need to consider HA for the sake of wearing these to reenactment-type events (I'll eventually make proper versions for that). I do really like the look of the black underneath, but it's just not at all actually necessary. The decision may ultimately just come down to time and money; there are still a few essential things to make and buy that take precedence.

Just yesterday I did a mockup of the shift using Simplicity 8579 (American Duchess's newest underpinnings pattern). Not really anything to show there, at least until I have the finished shifts done. I do need to decide if I'm going to do the HA French seams, or just say "eh" and leave them raw or finish them with overcasting or something. The pattern went together really well, and despite being worried that the pattern size I'd bought was too small, with the ease it ended up being almost a perfect fit (aside from bust, which stays will deal with; and upper arm, which I can adjust to be roomier).

I've also done one hair test. I'm not into the idea of HA pomatum and powder products right now (see a trend with this project?), so I researched and asked around for modern equivalents. I ended up using Murray's Superior Hair Dressing Pomade from a suggestion by American Duchess, and plain ol' all-purpose flour because it was the closest thing I already had in the house. I didn't really follow any one tutorial, as I used a lot of different sources and research, but the videos by The Dutch Milliners and historical portraits were especially helpful. I put the pomade in my hair while it was damp, then let it mostly dry before curling it very small sections with the smallest foam rollers I had. After setting overnight, I took the curlers out and let the hair relax. With more pomade on my hands, I broke the curls apart, then powdered everything - focusing on the roots - with sifted flour and a fluffy brush. I pinned the top into a sort of bouffant, then pinned the sides into place where I wanted them.

I think I need to use more pomade and a finer powder, and the sides need more teasing or rats for support. But I'm really pleased with it as a first attempt, and I think it'll be a good technique for more realistic historical costuming someday. Ultimately I don't think it's big enough for this project, though, which is all about excess and taking things to the extreme limit. So I'll probably be getting a wig (likely the Lioness wig everyone else seems to use to great effect) just to make it that much more extra.

In anticipation of building huge hedgehogs, I got a bunch of mesh bun donuts to cut into oblong rats to support and fill out the sides better.

One of the dumbest things I've bought for a costume ever. Thanks, Dollar Tree.

Coming up next: SO. MANY. RHINESTONES.

Vague Updates or Something

The end-of-semester school crunch is in full swing, so not much else has been going on around here. BUT...

King George is still very much in-progress. He's taken a backseat to some other impending costume deadlines, but I'm still casually picking away at it. I painted the whole crown with DecoColor Premium gold paint pens, which had turned out well in swatch tests. But like the liquid leaf paint, it turned out hard to get a smooth non-streaky surface on the larger flat areas, and I ended up hating it. So now I'm in the process of sanding that off as much as possible and looking for yet another gold option. Top contenders right now are gold leaf and spray paint. Gold leaf has the potential for an amazing finish but really depends on my ability to apply it well, and could be either easier or harder to work around the rhinestones (don't have to tape anything off, but also have to manually work around every stone). Spray paint has the benefit of being quick and easy, but I'll have to tape off the rhinestones and the finish will never be as dimensional as I want. This whole process has been so out of the ordinary and experimental for me, I'm also seriously considering just relegating this crown to a glorified mock-up (probably finishing it, and maybe trying to sell it or use it as a back-up?) and making a second one out of metal. We'll see what happens.

We did make it to the Great L.A. Air Raid in February, and it was a blast! It'll definitely be a yearly event for us. We assembled a civilian outfit for my friend from a combination of our regular vintage-esque clothes (my red crepe chiffon blouse and brown belted jacket, and her plaid tweed trousers and saddle shoes), and I wore an unholy amalgam of several mismatched uniform pieces (modern lookalike Army 5-button sweater, replica Army HBT pants, authentic Navy leggings, and USMC EGA pin, oh my).

And French Revolution Zombaes are a go for Labyrinth Masquerade. Most of the fabric has been bought, design is finalized, petticoats and dresses will hopefully be started in the next few weeks, and I'm getting ready to order stays and sourcing some fabulously gaudy rhinestone jewelry. Exciting stuff! Full post on all that coming soon once things get rolling. Stay tuned!

18th Century Miniature Portraits - Marie Antoinette

So, as promised, the mini portraits for the French Revolution Zombaes.

I did a lot of research on 18th century miniature portraits and other related jewelry (Pinterest boards here and here) and decided on a few details I wanted: round/oval, symmetrical, silver, fairly simple design, and sparkly.  Georgian jewelry can get quite elaborate and is quite varied (The Pragmatic Costumer has excellent posts here and here and here), but I wanted something a bit more subtle: upper-class but not royal, and that I could reuse on other costumes.  I found these from Beyond the Basics on Etsy.

They hit everything on my list except color (which isn't a deal-breaker and is an easy fix anyway), and as a bonus the little shapes around the edge look a bit like fleur-de-lis.  Who can say no that that?

For the portraits themselves, my friend and I chose these:

By Joseph Kreutzinger, 1771

Copy of the original by Louise Èlisabeth Vigèe Le Brun, 1785 

I followed American Duchess's awesome portrait tutorial as a starting point and then kind of veered off as I played with other techniques.  After prepping the images (scaling, printing, cutting as per the tutorial), I popped the pictures into the setting without glue and did some comparison tests with the surface: brushed Mod Podge, stippled Mod Podge, and sticky domes.  The domes looked okay, but for this I preferred the stippled Mod Podge.

It helped hide some of the graininess and lines from the so-so print job, and made the portraits look more painterly.  I'm not sure how it would hold up to water, but I don't plan to get these wet, and it looks pretty darn cool anyway.  (Also, if you go this route and have the surface plain instead of using a dome, I still highly recommend having a dome of the correct size on hand for tracing the image before you cut it out.)

When that was finalized I pulled the test images out and glued the real images into the settings with Mod Podge, then stippled the front.  I forget how many layers I did, but it's really just a matter of personal choice and aesthetic.  I had planned to leave the setting its original brassy color, but decided in the end to make it silver after all.  For that I used some silver acrylic I had sitting around and lightly (and carefully!) drybrushed it over the fleur-de-lis shapes and the raised rim around the portrait.  I was a little too heavy-handed on mine (1780s big-hair Marie) but it still looks alright.  The silver paint has already rubbed off the setting loop just from handling it while I attached the bows, but the rest has held up.  Silver Rub 'n Buff might be a better option next time.

The bows are 1.5" satin ribbon.  I maybe should have used a grosgrain instead, but I wasn't thinking about it when I dashed into the craft store 10 minutes to closing to grab this really fast.  So I've just told myself to pretend it's silk strips.  The front bow is a single piece that I ran through the loop and stitched together in the back, and the back bows are actually two separate pieces sewn into half loops and stitched down on each side.  I might add some tails depending on how much more floof our dresses need, but for now this works.

What a saucy young lady!

I don't know why this Marie keeps photographing such weird colors -  this is the least yellow-orange out of every photo I took - but she's much nicer looking in person.

This was a super fun and easy project, and I can already see myself going crazy and doing portraits of EVERYONE.  Don't be surprised if you see some more historical personages popping up from time to time.

Busy Summer Recap

Lots going on lately, if only I could get things organized enough to actually post about it.  I've been working on an indie film, which has taken up most of my costuming time, and that's ongoing until at least late fall.  As a result, I haven't done anything for the Historical Sew Monthly since April - though I did a lot of research and came close on a few things, and having finished one challenge, I'm still doing 100% better than past years.  What I have done, however, is make some quality progress on a few other personal projects.

Lucille's robe and nightgown from the finale of Crimson Peak are coming along nicely.  I've got the nightgown sleeve drafted, maths (eww) figured on customizing existing patterns for the rest, and lots and lots of swatches and dye tests.  I think there's enough worth compiling for a post now.

I've also finished step one of a new project: French Revolution Zombaes.  Essentially, Queen M's most fashionable groupies who got the guillotine and came back as des morts-vivant.  Chemise dresses, huge hair, bloody stitched-up necks, and of course bedazzled mini portraits in honor of their dearly departed queenie.  It should be a lot of fun, and as a bonus, all of the non-zombies aspects - namely the dress, jewelry, and hair-styling practice - can be reused for more serious historical costuming.  The bit I started with was the mini portraits, and I'll post about that soon too.