The "eyes" have it! A tutorial.

I have always been fascinated with antique jewelry.  One finds some unusual traditions when exploring the jewelry of the past.  We see mourning jewelry which contains miniature portraits and often hair of the deceased, jewelry with hidden compartments and other mechanical parts, commemorative miniature portrait jewelry --the list goes on.  I think my favorite category has to be the Lover's Eye jewelry that became popular in the late 18th century.

A "lover's eye" miniature is a painted miniature of the giver's eye, presented to a loved one.  These miniatures were painted in watercolor on ivory or gouache on vellum and they were set in rings, pendants and brooches for women and cufflinks, and small containers for men.  The idea behind this trend was that the eye was only recognizable to the wearer and could therefore be worn in public, while safeguarding the identity of the lover!  Portraits from the time rarely show subjects wearing these which suggests that these miniatures were often concealed out of site to further protect the identity of the lover.

These portraits often include a lock of hair or a small portion of the subject's face.  They are typically decoratively set with enamel or jewels and range from a few millimeters to a few centimeters in size.

The most common story of the origin of miniature eye portraits occurred in the late 18th Century when the Prince of Wales was refused permission by his father, King George III (and by British law) to marry the twice widowed and Catholic Mrs. Maria Fitzherbert.  Mrs. Fitzherbert avoided the Prince by escaping to Europe.  The Prince had a popular court miniaturist design and paint an eye miniature and sent it to her with his proposal.  Apparently, his gift swayed Mrs. Fitzherbert and they were secretly (and illegally) married.  The artist, in turn painted the bride's eye as a gift to the Prince.  Soon the Prince's idea caught on and became popular throughout Europe.   There are other reports of eye miniatures created up to 20 years earlier in France so there is some dispute as to the actual date that this trend began.

Eye miniatures remained popular in the 19th century however they evolved into mourning or remembrance jewelry, often portrayed with a tear or with hair from a deceased loved one.  Later Queen Victoria revived the eye miniature to use as presentation pieces.

To me, these are true eye candy! Here are some gorgeous period examples--Brooches:

Pendants:

Rings:

I fell in love with these the first time I saw them so it was only natural that I would decide that I needed to add some to my 18th century accessory box!  I would love to have had the time to pull out my metalworking / enameling supplies and go at this project hardcore, but I decided to do it quickly and on the cheap!  

Here is a little tutorial on how you can make your own eye jewelry.

Materials:

• eye pictures (instructions below)
• flat back decorative cabochon settings
• thick permanent craft/metal glue
• glass cabochons
• dimensional adhesive such as Aleene's Paper Glaze or Judikins Diamond Glaze
• Alternative--stick on resin cabochons in lieu of the glass / glaze
• various beads/ crystals/ pearls for trimming
• jewelry findings

First you will need to come up with a picture of an eye that looks painted.  You have several options here.  You can take a digital pic of your loved one's face and do some cropping or you can find a stock photo online.  I tried taking a picture but couldn't get the look I wanted so I put a search for male brown eye into google images and found all kinds of goodies:

Save your picture to your hard drive and open it in a graphics editing program like Photoshop.  

Open your filters palette and experiment with different looks.  I played with different brush strokes filters to give my picture a hand painted look.  I also played with the contrast and brightness to bring out the colors.  Pictures often wash out when printed and you want to avoid that.  When you are satisfied with your picture save it.  You will need to resize it to fit your cabochon settings.  My large setting was 30 X 40 mm so I sized my picture to about 32 X 42 mm.  I did this for the different sized cabochons that I was using.  I put the different sized pics into a Word doc and printed it out on photo paper.  If you are using regular paper, you will need to seal your pictures before proceeding with your project.

Gather up the settings and trim.  I used different types of rhinestone chain from the fabric department at Joann's and Hobby Lobby and some from my stash.  Wrap the trims around the cabochon opening to see how it looks:

One thing to note--The individual crystal/pearls are connected by little metal bars.  When wrapping the trim around the cabochon, you will want to push the crystal/pearls together so these bars do not show.  This will make your trim shorter so you need to make sure you have enough!  When you are pleased with the look, use a jewelry glue like E6000 to glue the trim in place.  Allow sufficient time to dry.

Gather up your cabochons and glaze.  You can either cut out your pictures beforehand or after the cabs are glued on.  If you are using resin stick on cabs, you will just place them on the picture and cut away the excess.  If you are using glass, you will need to put a generous blob of glaze on the center of the pic and press the cabochon on it.  You want the entire surface of the picture coated with the glaze. Clean the excess glaze off with a damp paper towel and put a book on top to weight them down until dry.  Once dry, cut away the excess paper.  If you find that glaze got on your glass, you can easily clean it off with rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab!

Put a dab of permanent craft glue in the center of your setting and place the cabochon in.  Viola! Your miniatures are finished!  

The fun really begins when you fashion your miniatures into wearable pieces of jewelry.  Here's what I came up with:

Brooches which can be worn as large pendants on ribbon

Bracelet with baroque pearls

Pendant with freshwater pearls

I love the way these turned out and I will probably experiment with a few more!  Can't wait to wear them! I wonder if anyone will figure out who my lover is!

A Winter Trifle

I love quick projects.  No project fits the bill better than millinery.  Decorating hats is probably my favorite of short term projects!  I have a particular weakness for the little Bergere hats of the 18th century.  Bergere hats are brimmed hats with an almost flat crown.  Women of all classes wore these little hats as sun hats.  I've made a few of these which were lined with pleated silk and decorated to different degrees from fairly simple to fairly ornate with large feathers.  The one pictured below is probably the most traditional treatment of these little hats:  a simple straw hat base with some ruched ribbon around the crown, a bow and a tie that is tied behind the head.

Some were covered with fabric or lace.

This beautiful example from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London is heavily embroidered on straw.

And this stunning example from the Colonial Williamsburg collection is embroidered silk.

So far, I've only found these hats in straw so I was delighted when browsing Jas. Townsend to find a Bergere hat made out of wool felt.  The wheels in my head started turning to design a winter version of my favorite hat.  I decided that it should have a more tailored feel to it as I don't see wool felt as being something that should have lace and frills.  I also decided that any feathers needed to be removable so that the hat could be worn in inclement weather.  So I gathered my supplies and went to work.

What you see is the hat blank, various sizes of Ostrich feathers, a hat pad made of pheasant feathers, a 10 yard spool of black silk ribbon 1 1/2 inches wide, a marking pencil and my ribbon trim book.

I decided to do a shell ruched ribbon trim around the brim with some sort of cockade or rosette in which to stick the feathers.  The ribbon trim would be like the one I used on my Regency ball gown which is my absolute favorite ribbon trim.

This trim is quite simple to do though it is somewhat labor intensive.  Basically you will be stitching a lot of zig zags.  The directions I've seen say to use ribbon twice the length of the finished trim.  I've found this not to be enough when working with silk ribbon as it is thinner than the synthetics and the gathers draw up tighter.  To know how large to make your zig zags, you will double the width of your ribbon.  My ribbon is 1 1/2 inches wide so I need to make marks 3 inches apart along one edge of my ribbon.  On the opposite edge, I need to find the point midway between the first set of marks and make a second set, also 3 inches apart.  I started the first set of marks about 1 inch from the edge.  I marked a length about twice that of my finished measurement to start, knowing that I would have to add more marks as I went along.

Then you will stitch running stitches from one edge to the other creating the zig zags.  While this can be done by machine, I find it more reliable to do this by hand with a doubled length of silk thread.  There is nothing more frustrating to be pulling up gathers and have them break.

Now the fun begins.  Start pulling up the gathers however tightly you like.  Check to see how this fits on your hat and mark more of the ribbon if more length is needed.

Once your ribbon is gathered, pin it to the hat.  Tack it on firmly using a running stitch along the center gathers.

I decided to make a rosette using the same trim.  I marked a couple of feet of ribbon and drew up the gathers to make a circle.  I stitched the gathers in place in the center.

I wanted to do a center piece and place a backing.  I decided to make a felt backing with a little pocket that I would be able to stick my feathers in.  So I cut a circle the desired size and made a wedge for the pocket.

The wedge was stitched on the circle then the backing was stitched on the rosette.

I wanted a large silk covered button for the center but I couldn't find any button forms large enough.  I found a 2 inch flat button so I cut a circle of silk a little over twice the diameter of the button and I added a little stuffing to give the button a softer look.  I gathered the circle, put the stuffing and button in the middle and stitched it to the center of the rosette.

Then I stitched the rosette on the hat, making sure that the pocket faced toward the back so any feathers would be laying in the right direction.

Voila!  Finito!  This hat will not have ties.  It will be held on with hat pins.  The pocket in the rosette gives me some options.

Here it is with just the pheasant feather pad:

Some added small ostrich feathers:

Some added large ostrich feathers:

And finally with just the large ostrich feathers only:

The feathers seem quite secure when stuck in the little pocket and I like that they can be easily removed for storage as I can keep it all in a fairly flat box!

Fast forward 100 years . . .

Last you left me, I had written about my 1783 Chemise a la Reine.  My new project skips forward about 100 years.  I was asked to portray Ellen Hardin Walworth at our Maryland State DAR Founders Day Tea.  October 11 marked the 125th anniversary of the founding of the DAR and I was proud to be asked to play Mrs. Walworth who was a fascinating woman.  She lived from 1832 to 1915.  The DAR was founded in 1890.  I had these portraits to get an idea of how Mrs. Walworth might have dressed:

 The top portrait looks to be a natural form gown from about 1878 - 1882.  These gowns were called natural form gowns because they were not worn with bustles.  That period was followed by the bustle period.  The sleeves look to be of that period.  The second portrait looks to be possibly in the 1890's due to the big sleeves.  Really large sleeves were popular during that period.  The big leg of mutton sleeves were typical of that era.  Bustles were not worn during that period either.  I bought patterns from both of these eras and decided ultimately to go with the natural form one.  I greatly dislike those huge sleeves of the 1890s.  I like the shape of the natural form skirts better as well.  They are flat in the front and don't flare much.  There is a lot of fullness in the back.    I settled on Truly Victorian Patterns:  TV125 for the 1879 Petticoat, TV221 for the  1878Tie Back Underskirt, and TV420 for the 1878 Cuirass Bodice with evening options.  Research revealed that older women typically wore darker colors so I found a glorious Sienna silk taffeta at Renaissance fabrics.  It's one of those silks that changes colors in the light as the warp and weft are different colors.

 I made the petticoat first.  It was the most labor intensive of the three pieces.  I did not make the train.  This era is quite a departure from the 18th century and Regency garments I'm used to making.  The skirts of this era have all of their fullness in the back.  The back of the petticoat has an inner and outer back with tiered net ruffles between them--yards and yards and yards of net!  Fortunately I was able to get 10 yards of cotton netting on Ebay for a reasonable price.  The back of the outer back piece has a piece of cotton twill tape sewn on the inside about 8 inches above the ruffles with buttons sewn across.  This is where you would attach the train.  I added an extra ruffle figuring I can put the buttons on the lace trim if I ever want to make a train.

The petticoat closes in the center front with a hook and eye on the waistband.  It is made out of bleached muslin.  I used my ruffler attachment set to a 2:1 ratio to do the tiny pleats on the ruffles. There was just no way I was going to gather that much fabric. I concealed the raw edges of the top of the ruffles with cotton beading lace and blue ribbon.  Once that was completed I could work on fitting the other garments.

The skirt was very straight forward.  Just sew the front to the side fronts then the side backs and a large back piece.  There is an opening left between one side back and the back.  I chose to actually made a placket so my petticoat wouldn't show.  I pleated the back piece to fit the waistband then attached hooks and eyes.  There are ties attached to the inside seams where the side backs join the back.  These are tied pulling the front tighter and making the back fullness protrude more in the back, not allowing it to move around to the sides.

 The instructions for fitting the bodice were quite interesting.  You had to do several different calculations that you don't do with modern patterns.  However, upon making the muslin, it fit perfectly with a few alterations.  I refashioned the neckline so that it was a square in the front but with a high back--unlike the version on the pattern.  I also raised the neckline about 3/4 of an inch and it was still quite low.  I don't have proper Victorian underpinnings and a corset really is necessary to achieve the correct silhouette so I fitted the bodice using my modern waspie corset then I ordered one with a little more coverage and a larger hip spring.  Corsets of that time actually went halfway up the bust but I was able to achieve the right look using the modern corset.  I wore the outfit with American Duchess Tavistock button boots.  They really button with a button hook!

 I remembered that I had that little antique Victorian or Edwardian camisole.  It's a lovely little thing--completely hand made with the tiniest pintucks and feather stitching.  There are patches sewn on where the cami had worn.

The bodice went together without issue.  I did have to use plastic boning which I dislike as I didn't have any sprung steel bones in the correct lengths and time was of the essence.  Typically bodices were underlined (called flatlining) to give them more structure so I did this using unbleached muslin which allowed me to make my dart markings easily. Bodices were typically not lined.  Seams were just finished and typically a waist stay was stitched in.  Edges were faced with self fabric bias strips. Truly Victorian patterns have you make a bagged lining.  Given the ravely nature of the silk taffeta, I decided that I would go ahead and do a bagged lining using lightweight black silk.

I was able to find some nice wide vintage lace on Etsy in a sufficient quantity for this.  I have a huge lace stash but most of it is either narrow or Swiss embroidery, neither of which was the look I wanted.  I just hand whipped the lace in place making little pleats as I went along.

I went ahead and made machine buttonholes but at a later time, I'll go over them by hand.  I had gotten some 1890ish vegetable ivory buttons from someone in the Vintage Fabric Buy and Sell Facebook group which were the perfect shade.

I ended up with almost 4 yards of extra silk taffeta!  The yardage chart didn't list anything wider than 45 inches and my silk was 56 inches wide.  So I purchased an overskirt pattern to make up at a later date.  Ladies could change the look of their outfits by putting different overskirts on!

Our beautiful Maryland State Society DAR Chapter House where our Founders Day Tea was held was the perfect setting for a photo shoot.