Off to the museum...Chintz Caraco & Petticoat

I went to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London yesterday. It is so huge, there was no way you could get round it all properly in a day,or even a week, and I only had half a day. I focused on the 18th century costumes, taking pictures and quick sketches.

My camera did a better job than I thought through the glass without flash. This outfit is a Caraco and Petticoat from 1770-80.

The right sleeve had a ruffle around the bottom edge, but the left one didn't. I think it probably must have come off with age, but other than a small tear on the inside, I couldn't see any evidence of it.

The front closed with 9 hook'n'eyes, three on each pair of tabs. They don't match up in a straight line. I thought this was strange, if you are going to spend so much time making a dress, you would think you would take the time to make sure the most visible part is neat. But then maybe is has just stretched that way from being worn.

The skirt was a wide box pleat with the pleats outwards from that being around 2" apart.

It looked like the hem was originally pale blue ribbon, but the museum had put some kind of net on it for conservation purposes, it looked like a modern addition.

Metric v Imperial - the never ending war

As very much a child of the 90's I really should eschew all thought of feet and inches with a firm hand, this however is not the case. I really should know by now though, that you shouldn't try and do half your measurements in cm and the other half in inches...it just doesn't work. Because it turns out the difference between 3" and 3cm is a badly fitting waistline. So after...

Carefully drawing out the basic block, checking it twice, checking it again,

Writing up the labels,

Getting help to fix the slightly dodgy bust dart that decided it didn't want to be part of the regular block,

Tracing, ironing, rough cutting, laying it all out neatly,

Correcting the massively wrong original labels,

Learning quite how useful a pattern master is at drawing on seam allowances,

Using said pattern master to draw said seam allowances (1.5cm),

Cutting out all the pieces,

Pinning them and stitching them...

Turns out this was an important kind of 3cm. The kind that really needs to be obeyed if you want the newly padded mannequin's cover to fit. The kind that you really shouldn't measure out as 3" when drawing the basic block all those hours ago.

Oh well, lets try again tomorrow.