Hmm...

[nuranar]

I want to do a post on "Loot from the Costume College Trip," which will include not only what I got in the garment district, but also from the Marketplace and various other excursion during my time with fancyfrocks. But I wanted to get to this!

First, I do need to show this white/cream wool flannel.



It's good quality, fairly soft, and lighter weight than B. Black & Sons standard flannel.  Best part? It was $5/yd!



I'm not sure yet what I'll do with it; I think I ended up with about 3.5 yards.  I could make a quilted petticoat, but I already have a red flannel petticoat (embroidered, not quilted) that's a bit lightweight but I still really like.  This would certainly be perfect for an 1860s "underbody" - think a corset cover, except made of flannel for warmth. And it might have sleeves. I can't remember.  I could also do a flannel chemise and drawers, but I want to research that a wee bit more and also ask for advice. Canton flannel is the other period option for warm underclothing.


Here's the real impulse buy of the garment district - pink linen!  I fell in love with the color and just had to have it, thinking nothing more specific than "something 18th century" in mind.



I had a brief panic attack when I started to look for ideas, since I read that linens and wools were really only available in blues/greens/browns etc. because of dyeing difficulties, and Nicole's color posts didn't reference any but silk in pink.  But I'm slightly less freaked out now, and encouraged especially by George Stubbs's The Reapers.



See? Pink dress! Pale pink, but still.

But now there's a new concern.

When I washed the linen, it shed an enormous anount of lint in the dryer. That didn't completely surprise me; I was actually glad to see it, assuming that the loose stuff was gone and the weave nice and tight. But when I ironed it, it was absolutely covered in pink fiber pills.  Eventually I used my lint roller and went through probably half a dozen sheets just on a quarter of the surface of the fabric. I've never had any fabric behave like that. I thought it was good quality and would hold up to an 18th century style, especially with good quality lining. But now all bets are off. :(


So what do I do with it?  I still really, really want to do something historical. It would break my heart to chop up a good length of 6 yards to make one invisible petticoat and leave the rest to languish. The same objection goes for a Regency gown. And really, it's not fine enough for a good Regency gown. It's definitely not appropriate for 1860s. Or should I go way far back and try for "something medieval"?  Flemish, maybe? Or koshka_the_cat's Holbein?

I just want something that will be both pretty and a good use of the fabric.

Comments

[butterbobbin.livejournal.com]

Did you serge or zigzag the raw edges of the linen first? If not, that would be the culprit, and as far as I know there's not a fix for it afterwards. :-/

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

I serged the raw edges, yes. The problem isn't the edges - it's all over! :( I can always lint-roll it to kingdom come; that's doable. I'm just worried that it will continue to fuzz, or that it will fall apart or do something else horrible.

[butterbobbin.livejournal.com]

Serging should have kept it from doing that, then. (According to one reviewer on fabrics-store.com, it does pill all over if you don't serge the edges - that's where I picked up that tidbit...) Maybe you should try washing a small piece of it again and see what it does. I would imagine that a good quality linen shouldn't continue to shed and be strange after the first washing.

It's such a pretty colour, too. I hope that you'll still be able to use it.

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

There's nothing wrong with the edges at all. It seems weird to me that the edges would affect pilling on a 6-yd piece, but I guess it's possible... I hoped this was better quality than fabrics-store, too. :(

I'd thought of washing a small piece; I just hate to cut into it!

[jordannamorgan]

Is it just a glitch of my friendlist that I'm seeing this post twice?

(Also, did you get to download those zips?)

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

*sigh* No, Semagic hiccuped when crossposting to DW. And apparently my browser wasn't refreshing properly when I checked to make sure it hadn't double checked.

(And no, but I am trying to now.)

[jordannamorgan]

No problem. :) It's just so I'll know when to delete my bookmarks of the download pages. (I saved them in case LJ ate them en route to you, or something.)

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

I've downloaded and I'm listening! I like! I haven't gotten to the FMA ones yet.

[jordannamorgan]

Yay! :)

The vocal version of "Brothers" is in Russian or something. I don't care for it so much myself. I dearly LOVE the instrumental version, though.

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

I generally get a ton of lint the first time I wash linen, no matter the source. I think it's just that linen fiber now is chopped up so it can be spun on cotton machines, so we lose all the glorious wearing properties of handspun linen with it's long staple. :( I don't usually end up having to lint roll when I iron, but it looks like your linen has a much smoother finish that the linens I usually use, so it's probably more noticeable.

So, what I would do is lint roll as you iron, make your dress, and then . . . never wash it again! Spot cleaning -- the period way.

since I read that linens and wools were really only available in blues/greens/browns etc. because of dyeing difficulties

Quoi? Madder gives great reds and pinks on wool! Also oranges, but that's generally a sign you messed something up. That's definitely a dyestuff that's been in use throughout history. You can get screaming bright pink with safflower on linen and cotton (http://www.reconstructinghistory.com/blog/dyeing-with-safflower), but I'm not sure about the usage of that in the 18th century. There's also the entire British army with their red wool jackets, so don't feel limited to "dirt" colors on wool.

Linen in general is fairly difficult to dye using natural dyestuffs and the colors aren't very fast, but wool you can easily dye pretty much any color under the sun except true black.

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

Googling turned up this article (http://www.nwta.com/Spy/winter00/dyes.html) on dyestuffs available in 18th-century America. If they had red, blue, and yellow dyes available, then any color is possible. I think if you just avoid the chemical dyes beloved by the Victorians, you should be OK. :)

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

That makes me feel a LOT better. Now that I think about, I remember a lot of lint the last time I washed a bunch of linen; I think it was hankie stuff for Regency underpinnings last summer.

And it did have (and honestly still does) a very smooth finish. I wonder if it was polished? Or maybe using really short fibers instead of rougher, longer ones to help give a more even appearance.

I'm totally fine with never washing. Mostly I'm worried about sweat stink! No chemise will keep the underarms of this dry. Any recommendations?

I wondered about madder myself! But WHOOPS, the original source didn't say wool. My mistake. SO sorry.

I guess I'm just afraid of the remote contingency that someone's going to give me the hairy eyeball, all "that's way too bright, you pathetic pretty princess wannabe who tramples authenticity!" The picture above is fairly close in tint, but if anything a bit bright thanks to flash. It's a rich tone, not bright.

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

For the sweaty armpits, I know that some people who wear corsets without chemises (clubbing, etc.) spritz the linings with vodka. It kills the bacteria that get smelly and supposedly evaporates quickly and without scent.

There's also a set of stays at the V&A that has scalloped leather patches at the underarms (http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O115752/stays/), which I assume has something to do with protecting it from sweat and wear. Maybe you could try removable dress protectors in the underarms?

I guess I'm just afraid of the remote contingency that someone's going to give me the hairy eyeball, all "that's way too bright, you pathetic pretty princess wannabe who tramples authenticity!" The picture above is fairly close in tint, but if anything a bit bright thanks to flash. It's a rich tone, not bright.

Oh dear! My take on this is once you get to the point where you are wearing a natural fiber in a color that can be achieved with natural dyes -- and dyers in the past were experts in achieving a wide variety of colors, even really bright ones -- you are so far ahead of most people that the only way you can farther is by dyeing your own using natural dyes. And since dyers in the 18th century had access to both cochineal and safflower, bright pinks on vegetable fibers were totally available to them. There are a couple other exotic woods that give really bright colors, too, but I can't remember if they're pink or purple.

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

Vodka, eh? Interesting! And dress protectors make sense, too. (The stays are pink linen!)

I LIKE your take on it. Now I feel all better. :D

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

So they are! I hadn't even noticed, I was so distracted by what was going on in the underarms.

Yay! :D My other take on it is if someone gives you grief for your fabric choices and you have documentation, give them your e-mail address and if they really want to talk about it, they can e-mail you after the event. Chances are, you'll never hear from them.

[fancyfrocks.livejournal.com]

I love these fabrics!
When I wash linen it's the same- a whole fist full of fuzz. Ditto washing once, the more you machine wash the more it breaks down the fibres, but I'm guessing you already know that.

I still say 18th century! It would be so pretty!

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

:D

I guess I do, but I've actually worked with linen, and rewashed it, little enough to think about the lint effect. And I've *never* had fuzzballs like that, so I guess it really unnerved me. I doubt I'll be motivated to wash it anyway. Thanks for the reminder! And yes, I think it'll be super pretty, too. :)