Embroidery Conundrum

I know I haven't gotten around to telling you all about making my chemise. I am like 80% I'm remaking it and that thoroughly demotivated me to talk about the trial version. I am about to embark on my embroidery journey. I am fairly confident this will come easily to me. I have always done well with abstract graphic designs in art classes and such, and I know the basic stitches and principles already--blew through a book on basic stitches in about 20 minutes because it was all "yes, I know how to do that."

Honestly, the bigger questions I had were the most simple of all:

how to thread the needle--by which I mean, does the embroidery thread run doubled or just with a tail at the top but leaving only one thread in the fabric (one with a tail up front)

do I knot the ends (mixed messages on this so I'm going with the Victorian site that said yes)

do I unwind my double-helix thread (if I want it thinner, which I do, then yes, I can)

So once I got those questions answered, it was time to decide what, exactly, I want to embroider. First embroidery project is the red dupioni silk that will cover my stays, because I can't find any black lace that does not look cheap and plastic to sew on as per my original plan. I have to embroider the fabric before I can cut it, and I am going on a road trip this weekend and expect at least one of the 6-hour drives to be in daylight and thus prime time to work by hand.

I was looking at styles of embroidery today, and I found two styles that I like, and I don't know which one to use.

Blackwork Embroidery

Con - It is not period appropriate (it was popular in Elizabethan times but had fallen out of use by the 18th century)

Pro - It would mimic the lace-covered look I wanted originally

Con - It works better on gridded fabric, which mine is not

Pro - It is essentially outlining patterns rather than "drawing" with thread and filling them in, which is harder to keep looking nice (case in point 99% of the embroidery how-to books on the market)

Con - Its pattern would be exceedingly difficult to transfer by hand (and since my fabric is not on a grid it would have to be traced onto the fabric)

Pro - It is a graphic design style of repetition and interlocking that I have worked with and enjoyed working with on paper

Satin Stitch Embroidery (AKA regular filled embroidery)

Con - It would not give me the lace effect I wanted originally

Pro - It is period appropriate

Con - It will require an original freeform design

Pro - It is the kind of embroidery I'll have to use on his waistcoat so this would be good practice

Pro - It would be equally easy on non-gridded fabric as it would be on gridded

Pro - The pattern would be easier to transfer onto the fabric than a blackwork interlocking repetition pattern

Sigh. I think I just talked myself into the free-form satin-stitch. It's for the best, really it is...and I would be disappointed, I think, whichever way I chose. One path cuts off the other, simple as that, and I want both right now.

So. Now I just need to find a pattern that is appropriately dramatic, suited to the space and shape it will go, and work-able in a monochromatic design (black silk on red silk only). Maybe my artist mum can help me with that this weekend....

Here's some thoughts of things I like but why this exact pattern wouldn't work:

Middle section only - still too wide

The part on the coat - has no centerpiece

Would not work in black only but isn't that utter gorgeousness?

(No) Commercial Patterns

Apparently the 18th-century "rococo" period is not really all that popular among amatuer/hobby-costumers. I say this because there are very few commercial patterns for the time period, and those that do exist are either full-on courtly formal sack dresses (pictured at right) or American Revolution styles that aren't at all what the French fashionistas were wearing. Or fashionistos, for that matter--I have yet to find a single men's costume that even remotely approaches what I need for his. This dearth of variety in women's costume is in English only...there is one German site that offers a wider variety of styles including the one I am making. But since I don't speak German, for my robe a la polonaise I instead have 3 different costume patterns that may or may not in the end contribute to my dress (one for the petticoat, one for the split skirt, one for the bodice and sleeves).


Essentially, then, I am designing my own. Okay, far, far, FAR from really, because I have 2 different books for each of us and a fabulous website that goes into a lot of detail about how to make the clothing of the time. It will be more useful for his, because the women's robe on that website is the sack dress most typical of the time, which is not what I'm making. But the site is where I'm getting my chemise and stays patterns, and taking her construction advice if not the pattern shapes for my dress. Her patterns are developed from old tailoring guides and museum pieces--which is pretty much the same (in the sense of equivalent, not the actual same) source material as the books I have are pulling from.


I'm both excited and terrified at the prospect of creating my own designs. Terrified because, going back to the whole, I'm a beginner and likely to have enough trouble putting real patterns together thing: what the fuck am I thinking?! Excited because, my dress will be completely and entirely customized to my figure, which is not at all in the standard way (broad shoulders, high waist, large-boned and heavy-muscled, long-limbed without the attendent lankiness), and because when I've daydreamed about making costumes it's designing my own fanciful shit and then realizing it, not just placidly recreating someone else's daydream.


I've taken as many screen-shots off Stanze's dress as I can to see how they seamed it, and I'm planning to draw out a to-scale view of my own body and use my math skillz to measure out each seam relative to my size. I never thought I'd be combining both my Art I class with arithmetic, but trust me to find a way, lol. At least I have experience blowing things up from a small scale to a large on a grid, thanks to a couple different Art I projects, and I have enough skill with a pencil to draw the lines right. I'll have to do it blowing up the patterns from the book(s)/website for his, anyway, so it's not actually that far a stretch to staring at how the costumer for the movie put Stanze's bodice together and then copying it onto paper.


...Right?