Thursday, November 24, 2016

A Champagne Taffeta Mantelet

I'm afraid I was a lousy blogger, and I didn't take any pics of the making-of for this one. That's mainly because making this mantelet was a totally last minute decision before the Georgian Picnic this year. Our weather had been in the mid-70s during the day for most of the month, then all of a sudden there was a shift, and they were predicting highs in the mid to low 50s! I didn't have a single scrap of 18thC outerwear, so I picked a project I thought I could put together quickly, grabbed a few fabrics out of The Stash, and got to work.

The outer fabric is a champagne colored taffeta, and the entire thing is lined with black fleece. I took a page from a couple of friends that had made similar mantelets before and used marabou to trim the edges to make it look like fur.




The pattern I used is from the 1769 book, Art du Tailleur. Thankfully, with 54" wide fabric, the entire mantelet can be cut out in one piece, which cut down on assembly time.



I absolutely loved the mantelet once I was finished with it! It was so snuggly and warm, and I felt so elegant while I was wearing it. The hood is absolutely gigantic, as it was designed to be able to fit over the tall hairstyles of time, and I think it would fit over even the most elaborate of coiffures. The length is nice, as it ends at just about the waist, and so it doesn't make me feel like a big tent. I do, however, want to make an 18thC pelisse sometime in the future, which is totally tent-like and crazy.

In total, this version took 6 hours to make - 2 for total assembly, and 4 hours to sew on the marabou by hand. Thank goodness for tv marathons that I can sew to. I absolutely thought that I'd have the entire project done in an hour or two, but that was a big nope. At least I know for next time how long it takes, and if I do a fur edging, it will take at least twice as long to sew on the trim, so I can budget my time a bit better.

I want to make a couple more, with some actual fur (faux, I'm too broke for the real stuff) edging rather than marabou. There are a lot of images of matelets like this in a cream silk with fur edging, and I'm completely fixated on making a similar one.

I'll also take way more pictures so I can do a proper write-up!

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