Meadow of Mirth; or, the Making of a 1902 Bolero Jacket.

Hello all!

I know, I'm horrid at updating things.  Truly, very horrid.  BUT in my defence, I have been sort of good about updating my Instagram for this blog, so if you like to look at pictures of finished things, hie yourself thence.

For quite a while now (let's say... er... ten years?) I've been wanting to make this, and this year I have finally gotten around to doing it.  This year is turning out to be the year that I bust the Real Stash to get through my Mental Stash, which is rather nice, not only because it involves improving a part of myself that I abhor (that is, going through with projects to the very end) but also because when an item has been a part of one's imaginary closet for so long, it is rather a relief to have the garment to call upon when you actually need it.

So!  This garment was originally inspired by, as many of you may recognize, Lily Bart's suit that she wears at Bellomont in House of Mirth (2000) :

  And it's funny, because I spent ages in love with the way the back is pleated on hers, like so.  There is also a bolero worn by Victoria St. John in Episode 6 of Berkeley Square, seen at bottom:

But then I saw this fashion plate, and fell in love with the green bolero.  It's just more... bolero-y, and I love the drape of it.

So I decided to combine the two.  I had already made a trumpet skirt (in ILO19 "Meadow" linen from Fabrics-store.com- I just adore this color) about five years ago out of the same linen, and I had quite a bit left over.  I'm still planning on making something else to match up with it from the same era, but we'll see what it is- I have a few ideas.  Maybe this 1907 jumper for over a nice new shirtwaist?

In any case!  I actually (for maybe the second time in my entire life) took progress pictures of this, so I can show you how I made it.  I've drafted my own patterns for most of my sewing career (mostly because I'm lazy and cheap, and paper patterns go against those two deeply ingrained values in my heart haha), but recently I've been actually drawing them out before I draw them on the fabric, on a 1/8th scale.  Usually this ends up being changed a great deal, but it does give me some idea of where to start and how I'm going to fit everything on the fabric.  

So, I ended up with seven total pieces (two bodice fronts, one back, two sleeves, and two pieces of neck binding).  I didn't get a picture of the back piece before I pleated it, but you can see how the front of the bodice is cut one with the faux "robings" on the front:

Before:

Before and after:

Both turned back:

I topstitched the robings down and under at the bottom.  Before I did so, however, I made a small horizontal cut in the fabric where the robings met the bodice so that I could have room to both turn under the bottom of the robing and hem the bottom of the bodice (the piece is shown sideways here).

I pinned all the box pleats into place and eventually topstitched them down from the bottom of the armscye up (they're only pinned about half way here).  There is one pleat in the middle and one each where the shoulder seam becomes the back of the neck.  You can see that the bottom is on the selvedge- that did get hemmed up.

Box pleats!

I wore it to a show the same day I finished it (which was only a day after I had drafted it, which almost never works as often as I think it will haha), and I didn't have any time to take nice pictures (or starch my collar, or put in collar stays) so please forgive these ones, but they do show the construction well enough:

You can see how the back kicks out in a cute little bolero-y way.  

That far right pleat had been sat on during the car ride home.  It was re-starched into place shortly after this was taken haha.

I love how the front falls down into a point.  I added the tassels- it just seemed like a natural choice, and I love how they look.

The shape looks funky here, but it's just because I was holding my arm so you could see how the bodice cuts up.  

I have to say, I've been planning this for so long that I expected it to already be old news and underwhelming by the time I'd finished it, but I really did fall in love with it when I put it on.  It's such a fun little jacket, and it really brings the outfit together and makes it into something distinct.  It's very hard to get good pictures of because there are so many dimensions to it, but it really is quite lovely in person!  I'll have to go on a more picturesque outing to get some nice photographs of it.  

Until next time!

Making Lavender Water

Leave it to me to make the first project ambiguously labeled!

I am going to try to post at least once a week, and since this week has involved attending a plethora of meetings, I haven't had time to do anything extensive.  But, every little bit counts, so first a bit about lavender water and why it matters to the Project.

Lavender water is, for all intents and purposes, timeless.  The ancient Romans (apparently- if I have any ancient world historians in the audience, please do correct me!) used to use lavender in their baths, and the oldest actual receipts (recipes) for and references to lavender water I have seen date to the mid-14th century; I'm sure the practice of using it is probably much older.  Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, its supremacy was intermittently usurped by more citrus-based scents like Eau de Cologne (originally its own scent, which I'll address in another post) and Florida Water, but it still remained popular enough to be mentioned in ladies' magazines throughout the period, and enjoyed a massive comeback in the late 19th and early 20th century.

I've seen a number of uses listed for lavender water, some of them more surprising than others.  One thing is certain though- no lady's toilette (or pantry) is complete without it!
Lavender water can and has been used for:
-Perfume.
-Face/body wash.
-Freshening linens.
-Cleaning (usually recommended to be put into vinegar solutions to combat the smell).
-Mouthwash
-Flavoring.*
-Sunburn relief.
-Bug repellent (this really works).
-Calming the nerves (lavender is described as "mildly narcotic", and will actually act as a relaxant if put in bathwater, rubbed into the temples, etc.  Make sure to mix essential oils with something else like witch hazel if you put them in water or the oil will just float on top).

*When you see lavender water in recipes, ALWAYS make it of actual water infused with lavender and proof alcohol, NOT the kind made with essential oils and witch hazel.  I don't recommend ingesting this as made with essential oil- while neither it not witch hazel seem to actually be harmful, especially in trace amounts, the scientific jury is split enough that I'd think twice about it.  One drop of essential oil is the equivalent of about 50 plants, and you wouldn't drink 50 cups of any other herbal tea.

The three basics of lavender water are:
-Soaked lavender in water OR lavender essential oil.
-Water
-Some kind of dispersant to mix the water and oil.  This is usually some kind of proof alcohol (vodka works) or witch hazel.   Depending on what you want to use your water for, change the dispersant accordingly.

For my recipe I used:
-3 ounces distilled water (tap water will work fine if you can't get distilled).
-1 ounce witch hazel
-10 drops lavender essential oil.

Add all ingredients together and shake well.

(Note: 1 fl. oz= 1/8 cup)

I was filling up a glass jar I bought to hold the water, so I ended up multiplying the whole recipe by ten.  I decided to use oil and witch hazel because I'm not going to be ingesting this.  Witch hazel is wonderful for the skin, and is sure to lend itself to the task if you intend to use the water for any skin-related purposes.
I also (as you can see below) ended up dyeing the water slightly purple with blue and red food dye, one drop of each- I wanted it to be more blue so I put in a drop of blue in a glass and then dabbed the red on my finger, which I used to stir the colors together in the glass.  When I got the color I wanted, I dumped the glass into the bottle.  Original lavender water was rarely actually purple, and making it so was an innovation introduced to give products in glass bottles some appeal.  It is in such trace amounts in my bottle that it will not actually show up on the skin, though many Victorian skin creams were in that color range because of their ingredients, though I have found that it is also a color which, when blended, makes the wearer look more pale.  While I am fairly pale (though perhaps not so much as I should wish), I am a very yellow-white, and those creams help me to look a more desirable blue-white.  But I digress!

You can buy all of the ingredients at CVS or Walgreens, etc. if you don't want to order them- just check their in-store availability on their sites first.  I ended up making this because I didn't want to buy it, which is funny, because my overall cost ended up being $8 over what I would have payed to just add it to my order.  It all worked out though, because I ended up getting an even nicer bottle and label than what I could have bought.  I got a glass bottle with a cork stopper at the Goodwill (this blog's tagline should be "how to achieve aristocracy on a budget"), and found an extant lavender water label online.  Printed and glued on a couple minutes later and voila- lavender water!  I will be using this mostly for perfume, washing, scenting linens and cleaning around the house.