I have been immersed in 18th century and loving it. I am in the process of making an set of stays from Butterick B4254, with a couple minor variations. I have lowered the back (although it may need to be lower still) and narrowed the straps, based on others’ review of the period accuracy of this pattern. One side is finished, barring a 5 inch piece of bias tape binding… One package almost bound the entire half. Oh, and the eyelets that are going to take forever to do.
In addition, my wig came in and has promptly been styled in a hedgehog poof. Or as close to a hedgehog as I could get it. I had initially purchased a Marie Antoinette wig, the blonde one with the pink bows, but it sucked. It had been squished flat into the package and I couldn’t regain the pretty look of the picture. I then ordered a 30 inch wavy brown Lacey wig from maxwigs.com and it was a very nice looking wig! I was almost sad to rat it to death. I would certainly order this wig again for other costumes and uses.
I used a combination of Demode‘s and American Duchess‘s tutorials to style my wig. I initially tried for a pouf, but didn’t leave enough hair in the front to smooth over the pouf so I switched to a hedgehog style halfway through. The pouf might have been a bit too early for my chemise a la reine anyway, and thus, out of fashion. I used a length of brown raw wool that I had laying around as a “rat” to give the style some height, and teased the 30 inch sections around the wig like crazy. I left a little curly/wavy piece for a lovelock.
I want to make a hat SOOOO badly, but my friend is making one for me, in exchange for her chemise a la reine. Maybe I should make one of those tiny crowned hats, that way I can make a hat, but it will be different…