The Crafty Side of Life: Circus Princess

I already mentioned Laura and her circus clothing, in the post about the black dress... Then someone was asking about her stuff... so there you go.

So, our "little" reenactment group (which actually works as a foundation) has a firejuggler/stunt/acrobatic subdivision, they have amazing performances, especially, when it comes to firejuggling. However, some time ago (it must have been at least a year ago, or even further before), they desided to come up with an Edwardian circus themed performance. I heard them talking about clothes, saw some finished clothes, but I was in my own world (working on my stuff, and such), Then one of the guys asked me to fix up / finish the shirt he started for himself... I ended up fully taking it apart and redoing, the decoration was just icing on the cake.

and when Laura approached me if I could, or would make her clothes. Oh well, why not.

She sent me one picture as an inspiration,

and then we agreed that we use the picture as an inspiration, mostly, because 1) of the time-frame an exact copy wasn't really doable, 2), I much prefer clothes "inspired by" to exact replicas, I like to work with existing, documentable elements, but adding my own twists and turns.

Laura said, she would like to have her ensemle in the blue/green/yellow colors, so I kept that in mind, while I was hunting for other fabrics at I Love Textil, and sent her pictures, when I saw things that looked like something she described.

We've met up, went to a cople of their stores, and then bought some stuff,

Then I looked through pinterest and my old Burda magazines for patterns, but ended up drawing up my own. The patterns/ pieces in themselves were not to complicated, a short sleeved peasant blouse with a ruffle around the neck, and a tennis short, with overlapping, rounded edges at the hem. I did make a mock ups, and when Laura asked whether she could keep it for summer pijamas (of course), I knew I am on he right track.

The secret lied in the decoration. I went to the haberdashery, picked up a bunch of trimms, and dug trough my laces/trimms box, and gout out the gold lace that was left over from Ádám's shirt.

I will not go into the sewing, as it was really simple and straighforward, however, let me point out the decoration: The blue satin shorts have lime-green edges and lace, and gold decoration. The green shirt has blue and gold decoration (all sewn up by hand, because machine-sewing it would have made it way to rigid.)

For the underbust corset we chose a fabric that has two colors, blue warp and green weft in the textile itself, and, since it looks more green than blue, the deco was blue and gold. was made from Ora Lin's Waspie Waist pattern, which is free on her site. Great pattern, and when I approched her on Instagram about sizing, she was really helpful and fast with her answers. (Later I bought her trumpet-skirt pattern, since sewed it, but that is for another post). Two things that I should point out: since it is a form fitting garment you cannot leave out making a mock up. It is pretty much like the knitting of a gauge swatch of sewing... you can take your chances and leaving it out, but it is not adviseable. I would not even take the chance with the shirt, much less with the short, and definetly would not with the corset. The other thing: The original pattern has 6 eyelet for the lacing I used 5- and that was a mistake. MY mistake, don't take me wrong, and not something that could not be lived with, but still, I need to remember this for the next time. With the six eyelet, one could lace it as we do with regular corsets, leaving a little ear at the middle, then pull and tie the lace there. I laced it from the upper edge to the lower, and it opens up at the waist after a while.

I think, pulling the lace from the middle can help a lot with that. Even with the 5 eyelet it CAN be laced with the bunny ear- method, only it will not fall to the middle, and you will have to try wich suits you better.

As you can see from this picture (and also , if you roll down to the Edwardian bathing suit post - I have not mentioned there, but), I made a similar corset/belt form myself, from black. For that, I had to cut off from its width, as I was planning to use it more as a belt and less as a corset, and I have a pretty short waist, but the pattern is still great.

Then Laura went and was happy with the circus clothes, she performed a couple of times in that, but she still needed some wings for the "angel-dance" (I thing they called Isis wings in English, but don't quote me on that). She wanted the wings to be detachable relatively fast, so there was a little west made (I draped a piece of paper, mocked it up and corrected the fit there), and inserted the wings to the shoulder seams.