Shoe Rosettes

Hi Friends!

Over the past few years in my free time, I've been translating an instructional article from a German magazine called Der Bazar, which was published in the 1800s. This particular article, from 1861, explains how to make fancy bows ("rosettes") to put on women's slippers, shoes, and boots to make them fancy! Rosettes and cockades were worn to decorate items like shoes and belts for ladies, but also worn as brooches, memorial pins, or even political pins!

Here is the original (the text is on both pages; the pictures that go with the article are on the 2nd page):

My translation is below, for those of you who want to try it!

Most sincerely yours,
~ Sarah

Shoe Rosettes

With 10 illustrations

With this rich selection of rosettes we offer our readers the opportunity to do justice on their own to the elegance required by fashion in regards to one's chaussures.

We provide the rosettes in various levels, as well as their size and their original accoutrements -- from the simple little cockade to the trimming decorated with lace and pearls as befits the costly velvet mule, the bridal boot, or ball shoe. A few of the originals shown in the given illustrations are only fitting for this type or that type of footwear due to their style, as pointed out in the note given with the individual descriptions when appropriate; no footwear is out of the question for the use of the remaining rosettes. For indoor slippers or mules, as well as with boots that one wears to the theater, in the carriage, or with evening clothing, fashion dictates that rosette decorations are a color that contrasts with that of the shoe, yet is in harmony with the rest of one's toilette. With walking boots, though, choose trimmings that do not contrast.

No. 1 Rosette á la Pompadour

Materials: 90-100 cm black satin ribbon, 2 cm wide.

The ribbon specified above is basted into very small pleats and is set in a spiral onto a 4 cm round foundation, starting at the outside of the foundation in rows spaced as closely as possible, so that the pleated lines of ribbon stand up.

This rosette can also be made larger, in an oval shape, in which case the foundation is cut in the appropriate shape and, naturally, more ribbon is also used.

No. 2 Cockade Rosette

Materials: 40-44 cm black satin ribbon, 1 cm wide; one small steel buckle.

Lightly singe the ribbon, and tack onto a 3 ½ cm round foundation in 3 or 4 rows in a spiral; slide the buckle decorating the middle onto a smooth piece of the same ribbon.

No. 3 Rosette Impériale

Materials: 70 cm black lace, 2 ½ cm wide; 77 cm currant-red wired chenille; 19 middle-sized foam beads. *Translator's note: Schaumperlen is unclear. It could be foam beads or foam pearls. I mostly see this word used to describe seafoam, so I'm not sure what kind of bead it's referring to.*

Pleat the lace, and baste in 3 tiers in a spiral onto a 3 cm round foundation. Fasten 8 chenille loops between the first and second lace tier. Every loop should have a black foam bead in the middle. Fill in the center with a tuft of chenille loops, the outermost and innermost of which should likewise be decorated with beads.

No. 4 Rosette for Morning Shoes and Mules

Materials: 67 cm brown satin ribbon, 4 cm wide.

In terms of the arrangement of the 6 individual bows and both of the ends that comprise the trimming, we refer you to the illustration, since for this rosette, looking at it is the surest explanation. The bows appear to be held together in the middle with a loosely attached short ribbon loop, but you can pull this smooth through a wide curved buckle to give the whole thing the true character of a shoe rosette.

No. 5 Rosette, Noeud Papillon

Materials: 40 cm black satin ribbon, 1 cm wide; 20 cm of the same ribbon, 2 ½ cm wide.

To arrange this rosette, form 4 individual bows of a 5 cm ribbon length each, and tack these in a half circle to the foundation.  The inner decoration is a cockade made of the narrower ribbon, done just as in No. 2.

No. 6 Boot Rosette

Materials: 140 cm brown satin ribbon, 2 cm wide; a steel buckle.

The long, narrow shape of this rosette makes it suitable only for decorating boots. Cut the foundation for it in a tongue shape, 8 cm long, with one end 4 cm wide and the other end 2 cm wide, and rounded on both ends. Begin on the narrow end and attach the ruffle in two single rows, so that each forms a half circle. On the third row, which follows the second in the same shape, continue the ruffle straight away continuously around the wide end of the foundation and then towards the middle in spiraling oval rings, as far as it reaches. The empty space remaining within the ribbon decoration is covered with the buckle, drawn upon the remaining brown ribbon. The illustration will truly enlighten the understanding of the arrangement described here.

No. 7 Rosette, Noeud Papillon

Materials: 40 cm ponceau satin ribbon, 4 cm wide; 15 cm black lace, 3 cm wide; a small steel buckle. *Translator's note: ponceau appears to be a bright red-orange.*

Make 4 individual bows from the ribbon, each made from a 5 cm length; additionally, make 3 shell-shaped leaves, just like those given in the description of No. 11 — and arrange both sets on the foundation cut in the shape of the rosette — the 4 bows in a half circle on the outside, the 3 leaves in the middle, and the two separated by the black lace. The point where the 3 leaves meet is covered by the buckle drawn onto a piece of the ribbon. When placing this rosette, the straight flat side is put toward the top.

No. 8 Rosette for Morning Shoes and Mules

Materials: 78 centimeters gray taffeta ribbon, 2 to 2 ½ cm wide; 70 cm black lace of the same width.

The foundation of this rosette must be 6 ½ cm long, 4 cm wide, and in the middle, in the shape of the rosette, somewhat narrower. Form 12 individual bows, each made from a 5 cm length, and tack them to the foundation in threes on either side, in horizontal rows and alternating with a crinkled black lace. Fill the gap between these trimmings with 2 small bows set opposite, one pointing up and one down, and cover their attachment with a flat ribbon drawn through a curved buckle.

No. 9 Lace Rosette

Materials: 66 cm black lace, 2 ½ cm wide; a small piece of wide currant-red ribbon or silk cloth; a steel or bronze button.

Cut a 3 ½ cm round disc from strong paper, cover it on one side with lining gauze, and on the other with the colored silk cloth. Divide the black lace onto it in 2 pieces, one 23 cm long and one 43 cm long, and baste each piece in very small pleated folds. On the back, halfway up the width of the lace, draw a fine black silk thread through each pleat, to hold them in evenly in place. Set the longer of the two trimmings around the edge of the round piece, so that it extends beyond the edge by 2 cm all around. Pull the shorter trimming together into a rosette and place it in the center of the red backing, so that it it only appears through the airy lace background.

No. 10 Rosette with Tassels

Materials: 78 cm dark blue taffeta or satin ribbon, 2 ½ cm wide; 33 cm black lace, 3 cm wide; 7 cm very narrow black lace; 2 small blue silk tassels; one small steel buckle.

To make the 15 petals of the rosette, cut the blue ribbon into 5 cm pieces, leaving a 2 cm piece to secure the buckle. To make each individual petal, do the following: Fold both corners of the upper long edge down to the middle of the lower long edge, in opposite directions, so that you form a triangle. Turn the triangle over, and fold both corners from the sides down and somewhat overlapping, so that they extend beyond the bottom edge of the triangle, and so that the top forms the dahlia petals you can see on the illustration. Trim the points that overlap and point down, and fold the lower side corners to the back, so that the the petal gets narrower toward the bottom. Form all the petals in this way, and then decorate every one of them with 3 steel or gold beads in the top of the opening, which you string together and fasten with one vertical stitch. Baste the petals in 2 open circles onto a round stiff foundation you have cut from tulle, gauze, or linen, which has a diameter of about 3 cm, and on one side, following the shape of the rosette, it must be bent and flattened. The arrangement of the petals can be clearly seen on the illustration. Gather the wider lace and surround the rosette with it, by basting the lace to the back of the stiff foundation all the way around. The two tassels can either be thread-covered or made of creped silk. Fasten them in the middle of the rosette such that they hang down through the open side of the surrounding petals. Finish the entirety by taking the narrow lace, pull it together into a small rosette, tack it to the remaining space, and then slide the small horizontal buckle onto the piece of ribbon set aside for this, and fasten it on top. This rosette should be set upon the boot or shoe in such a way that the tassels fall toward the toe.

No. 11 Rosette à Coquille

Materials: 88 cm white satin ribbon, 2 ¼ cm wide; 38 cm white blonde, 2 ½ cm wide; a small steel buckle.

The shell-shaped leaves making up this rosette are folded individually from an 8 cm piece of the ribbon given in the “materials”. Lay the folds from the middle of the bottom edge diagonally toward the corners of the top edge, in 3 folds, first on one side, then the other, which simultaneously form the veins of the leaf and have to reach over one another somewhat in the middle of the leaf. Due to the folds in the middle, the leaf obtains a length of about 3 cm. Trim the bottom to form a straight line.

Cut foundation of this rosette in the shape of a heart, 4 cm tall and 5 wide, and then stitch down the white blonde along the outside edge in folds. On top of this, first place the 7 outer leaves and then the 3 inner leaves as seen in the illustration. A leaf also covers the center, and place atop it the buckle drawn onto a piece of ribbon in a contrasting color. Instead of a leaf, you can take the ribbon that is through the buckle, pull it tight, make a small bow, and stitch in the middle with the buckle. When placing this rosette on a shoe, the pointed side of the rosette should be on the lower side.

Red Memorial Day Daydress

Dear Ladies and Gents,
you may have noticed an item of wear recurring in mention multiple times: a basic red cotton daydress, which, when worn without hoops, can serve well enough as a camp or work dress.

Garment Data:
- Type: Civil War style daydress
- Date made: Just before Memorial Day, 2013
- Pattern: Simplicity 4551, plus alterations. I actually ignored the gathered front, and just used the lining pattern for both the in and out, and thus made a darted bodice.
- Fabric/Materials: A red cotton calico print, just over 6 yards, 42" wide
- Trim: None
- Time to finish: About a week

The fabric I selected was a red cotton print from JoAnn's, with flowers on it. I had the yardage originally for a "prairie" dress, but decided to put it to use for the civil war era.

Note that the flowers are not in a regular pattern, unfortunately.
They are white with a dark (black?) center. This color combination meant that I could wear "Red, White, and Blue" for the Memorial Day church choir concert, civil war-themed, that I was going to be dressing for.
I found out later that the fabric is fairly thin, and not exactly colorfast.

Bodice front, with front darts pinned in. This is from the lining side. The lining is just a plain muslin.

And the same front piece from the outside.

The assembled bodice, from within. Note that the lining and outer layer are sewn as one.

The completed bodice, with the bodice band at the bottom. I later realized that the bodice was too long, based on where my waistline was, so I ended up putting a 1-inch tuck to the inside, about an inch above the bodice waistband.

 

Here with the sleeves pinned on.

And here with them sewn on! The bodice was, at this point, done aside from closures.
Unfortunately, I noted some fit issues when I put it on:

Whoops! Turns out this was a combination of problems: 1) the pattern size is not necessarily indicative of actual size. 2) measurements on the back of the pattern are more important than the size number. 3) the measurement on the package is not necessarily the same as the measurement of the final piece.
Note also that the neckline was too tight and was pushing on my neck. Also, the sleeve seams were dropped too much with respect to my shoulder line. And the sleeves were too wide on the lower arm.

A sleeve before it was attached. The blue underneath becomes my "kickplate" or hem lining/facing for the skirt. This is a piece of fabric on the inside, where you can't see it, that makes the skirt hang more steadily and absorbs the brunt of my toes kicking the skirt. This means that the skirt itself takes less wear and will last longer.

This fabric was actually another skirt, that had been worn out and stained. I love the regular pattern and wish I could have a dress just of this fabric!

And a close-up, for droolworthiness. It is definitely a cotton, of better quality than the rest of the dress!

Here you can see the lining attached around the bottom of the skirt, to protect the hemline.
I attached it while the skirt was still a flat rectangle.

The waistline, with gathering stitches. Upon consideration and later experience, these stitches should have been smaller and closer together. What I'm aiming to do is create a "gauged" waistline, so the fabric at the top of the skirt is folded over (ideally somewhat more than I've done here, but I was a bit tight on yardage), and then basted with gathering threads in very regular, even stitches. The stitches are about 1 cm long (between 1/3 and 1/2 inch), and are made with two rows of double-stranded 100% cotton thread that has been waxed with beeswax.

What I've done here is pinned the waistband in a few places to make sure the center and sides match up, and then tightened the gathering threads some. You can see the "skirtiness" starting to take shape.

The wide view, so you can see how it's starting to shape up.

Gauging, from the outside, after the bodice has been whipped onto the waistband.

Note that the gathering has formed perfect ripples of fabric.

You can see that the bodice comes down all the way to the gauging, and that the bodice waistband covers the separate skirt waistband. If you look really closely, you can even see the small whip-stitches holding the "pleats" of the gauging, and the small tacking stitches in the waistband, holding the skirt to the bodice!

...Aaaand from the inside. Note that those perfect ripples of fabric kind of just hang there. The bottom edge of the waistband is whip-stitched to the "valley" of every "pleat". The things that look like horizontal puckers in the waistband are actually a slightly darker red large thread stitch, holding the bodice waistband (not visible) to the skirt waistband.This doesn't sound solid, but I promise, it is. Also, if you use short pieces of thread, and use a lot of them to go around the skirt, then if one section breaks, you don't have your whole skirt falling off, and it's easier to fix.

Note: You can see daylight between the pleats, which means that each gather was too wide and the pleats are too big. If I had made the gathering stitches smaller, then the pleats would be more numerous and closer together. I ended up flattening them all to one side and whipping them down to eliminate the gappage, though if I were to redo the dress, I would repleat with smallter gathers.

 

This is the assembled garment! It still needs closures, though.

I still had some fit issues, as you can tell by these pictures of the back. Again, this had to do with the bodice being too long.

The neckline creeping up the back of my neck, as you can see here, was eventually solved by cutting out a crescent from the back and refinishing the edge.

The necktie. I borrowed the way of tying it from another reenactor - who got the method from Godey's Lady's Book.
Though I have heard that cutting the necktie on the bias means it will lie flatter, I cut this one on the straight - perpendicular to the grain. This had to do with fabric restrictions (and it is also due to the time restriction - I didn't have the time to piece a bias tie from smaller sections).

Here's a picture of the tie close up.

From the side you can really see how the back of the neck was pushing forward. The tie is basted on, but will eventually need a white collar to be under.

The front, pinned shut. It took me half a year to get around to adding buttons. You can see how it pulls: the fit issue of being too tight was later accidentally resolved by me changing shape.

The finished product! The best full-length picture I could do on my own.

 

And on Memorial Day! The dress was a hit.

It has become a staple of my wardrobe. Here you see it in Gettysburg, June of 2013.

Here I am at Sunbeau Valley, the local horse farm, for their annual reenactment. I'm also wearing my slat bonnet and blue belt.

Same event. You can already see fading along the bottom hem, where I scrubbed out Gettysburg mud. At this point I was still pinning it shut.

And at LINK: Hale farm in August. Different neckwear! And you can see that I'm still pinning it shut.

November, and in LINK: Gettysburg again. By this time, I've added buttons, but am here wearing it with a Sontag (Bosom Friend) for warmth, so they don't show! Later in the day I added a wool cloak, and was actually wearing a sweater beneath, as well: it was quite cold, and very windy!

 

Here you can see the buttons and the collar. The collar is borrowed: collar and cuffs are on my list of "to do"s! The buttons are shell. This picture was taken at the LINK: ORMB this year.

And last, but not least, a picture from June/Gettysburg, of the red dress as seen in a tintype. Credit to Szabo for the picture! (And I'm realizing I never posted about the June 2013 150th Gettysburg trip! Well, that may be coming up, we'll see.)

Most sincerely yours,
~ Sarah

More possible Civil War hairstyles

Playing around with hair - May 2013.

This is just a rolled and pinned looser style, done right after my hair dried so that I have a lot of fullness and curl. The ribbon/lace thing is based loosely on a Godey's illustration, and could be worn for fancy occasions.

Same style as above, sans decoration.

A hairstyle I found in my Dec. 1862 Godey's.

  

Trying the style out! I couldn't quite get the figure-8 on the back, though. I really like this style.

Another style I like is having the back braided and coiled, and the front smooth and down over the ears before wrapping around the bun. There is a picture in the book "Dressed for the Photographer" where you can see a lady having this hairstyle (approximately). Here I also braided in a ribbon, for fun!

Same as above, different angle.

Same as above, different angle.

And just for fun, a modern design: a french braid all the way around my head.

Same as above, other side.

Most sincerely yours,
~ Sarah

A Ball!

By February 2013 I had gotten my "ball" gown ready enough to wear. I'd been to a few reenactments (Summer 2012 - posts will follow at some point!), and was excited to hear about the Grand Military Ball in Canton, Ohio. (Edited to add: the ball is called the Ohio Regimental Military Ball [SK 2/17/2014])
I didn't get many great pictures (and I'm only posting my own photos on here unless specially noted), but I'll share what I have!

Me in my hotel room before stepping downstairs for the dance.
I did end up adjusting the hoops after the ball, since I noticed that my foot kept hooking the bottom one.

Back view. I made the ribbon hairpiece based loosely on an illustration in Godey's.
My hair was braided and coiled on the back of my head, and covered my ears (as you can see in the previous picture). I also had ringlets coming down the back, but you can't see them because they are obscured by ribbons and lace!

LOTS of people!

With LOTS of pretty dresses!

The dancing was similar to Contra dancing.
We did Reels, and circle dances, and waltzes; we did dances where you switched partners as well as dances where you stayed with one.

Most sincerely yours,
~ Sarah