Best In The West

Pleats & Ruffles

/ Karin McKechnie-Lid / Leave a comment

Day Two of #VictorianFebruary hosted by @ladyrebeccafashions is: “Pleats and Ruffles”…and those two are my favorite things! Pleatastic taffeta pleats of silk and soft luscious ruffles of organza and batistes…they make my heart flutter.  🙂

Vintage flocked dotted batiste all edged in silk ribbon worn over a daffodil yellow petticoat…now I need to get better images of this one to show the layers. This is the lilac parlor at our Tombstone house.

Blush pink silk and English net with embroidery and antique lace… Someday I’ll attach at the blush custom roses …for the day we can attend balls again.

 

Our friend T.E. MacArthur is so lovely in this violet gown of satin, silk, and tulle…so many ruffles, so many pleats!
Close up of all the kinds of piping and pleating on a tailored violet bustle gown I made.
Wedding gowns are my favorite things to create, this gown was made from a rare silk that was hand carried from Thailand. I used every inch of it.
A special gown for a special friend on her wedding day, we were able to attend in person as well. Love is awesome.
Pretty silk bayleuse pleats and ruffles for underneath an 1890s ballgown. Don’t you love the sound of taffeta?
I had a Tissot moment when I made this “simple cotton frock”. It’s one of my favorite fancy day dresses.
Hand-stitched pleats float even more that machine stitched ones. I promise to finish this gown in 2021, it always seems to get set aside for others.


And It’s All Stripes…

/ Karin McKechnie-Lid / Leave a comment

It’s Day 1 of #VictorianFebruary hosted by @ladyrebeccafashions and today the theme is “Stripes”! As a designer, I love stripes…working with them, matching them, creating them with lace or ribbon…stripes are a perfect Victorian era motif!  🙂

I couldn’t resist capturing all these lace stripes in this silk petticoat ruffle.


And a stripey petticoat in my stripey Victorian house in Tombstone….where even the walls and ceilings are stripey with original beadboard paneling. 😉

One of my favorite silk gowns where I used dyed to match silk ribbons to create stripes in the silk organza knife pleating…it’s a waterfall of absinthey stripes. Some day, we’ll have Victorian balls again, right? I remain hopeful. 🙂

Velvet ribbon stripes on net with striped matte brocade for one of my favorite 1870s styled gowns. 🙂


From The Lily Absinthe Collection

/ Karin McKechnie-Lid / Leave a comment

Ruby red cashmere, fur, and lace addition to our museum collection. I confess…I tried her on and twirled!  🙂

 


At The Atelier- In The Works

/ Karin McKechnie-Lid / Leave a comment

After a long winter of client work, I can finally share the specialty stuff, repurposing extant pieces from our museum collection. First step is to assess condition and strengthen, if need be. I’m seeing an 1890s day suit out of this silk faille and rare (all) silk velvet! 🙂

 

 


At The Atelier: Design Creation- Part 1

/ Adam Lid / 1 Comment

Every design starts out with an idea which in turn is transformed into a pattern block. Often when developing a new design, it’s necessary to revise the pattern after testing it out with a toille (aka mock-up) and sometimes this can be quite time-consuming, depending on the complexity of the design. Below is a rough idea of what we envision for the design. The pattern would be transformed into basic pattern blocks/sloper that could later be used to develop individual styles. Below is one source of design inspiration from the June 1892 issue of Demorest’s Family Magazine:

And onto the drafting…

The pattern has been drafted utilizing a period tailoring manual, in this case the 1895 edition of The Keystone Jacket and Dress Cutter by Charles Hecklinger. Now, it must be said that while Hecklinger provides fairly comprehensive details, you really have to parse some of his instructions because they ambiguous on first reading. Also, for the collar, I had to “fill in the blanks” with basic pattern drafting knowledge that’s not readily apparent in the book- this isn’t a complete cookbook for tailoring by any means but pre-supposes a lot of knowledge on specific details.

And now to put the pattern draft to the test and cut out the toille. I’ve traced out the pattern pieces onto muslin, adding a 1/2 inch seam allowance in the process.

The cut out pieces for the toille. Now to assemble them… 🙂

(To be continued…)