Marie Taglioni's Sylph Costume Part Deux

When I left off, I had completed the bones of my Marie Taglioni Sylph costume. As I had mentioned before, I used a Truly Victorian pattern base and modified, using an illustration as my main inspiration. I was pretty pleased with my progress so far but had to make amends with the fact that the costume itself would veer to less accurate than I had originally planned. After taking a short break I came back to it and realized I was being too hard on myself (why are we always so critical of ourselves?!) and my construction, materials and overall lines were historically accurate. Silly Sara is silly. I went ahead and attached the hook and eyes to the back and then started in on the details.

            My main inspiration, Marie Taglioni as the Sylph in Les Sylphides, premiered 1832

To review on my inspiration, Taglioni is shown with a lovely floral crown on her head, flowers at her bust, pearl jewelry and a blue satin ribbon sash emphasizing her tiny 1830's waist. I have never made ribbon flowers before but always wanted to. I bought double faced synthetic satin ribbon at my local shop in orange and deep yellow. I knew I wanted to burn the edges so they would curl and resemble real flowers, hence the poly. The lovely woman at the fabric shop told me to buy three lighters to burn the ribbon as they would get hot with prolonged use. She wasn't joking. In case you wondered, they get really hot really fast. So, I changed tactics and used a candle. And you know, it worked really well!

My new favorite tool

Each flower consisted of four petals and one center petal in the contrasting color. I hand sewed a gathering stitch through four petals and gathered and tied a knot. I then sewed the last petal in the center. I did this 50 times, bringing the petals with me to the pool and around town when I needed an easy project to stay occupied. I then attached a bunch to the front of my bodice.

 

So many flowers!

Once that was done, I took a strip of felt and sewed a wire to the back, then smothered the front in ribbon flowers. I attached a loop underneath on both sides in order to secure to my hair. It took almost no time at all.

 

Close up of the floral crown

Once that was done, I simply tacked a blue satin ribbon round my waist once I was dressed and I was done! I ordered white satin ballet slippers and attached white satin ribbon as laces. Originally I had grand plans of making my own but I ran out of time. I may revisit in the future. My wings were a bit of a disaster. I traced out white voile wings and sewed a bendable wire to the edge, then tacked to the back bodice. They kept getting bent (I used thick jewelry wire) and weren't what I had envisioned, so I will probably redo them this fall. 

Close up of the bodice with blue satin ribbon

Playing around with poses

A lovely friend made me all the pearl jewelry, which I promptly forgot to wear for my shoot. I also wore my pearl drop earrings from Dames a la Mode. I think I have worn them with every outfit lately. The bodice was surprisingly comfortable. Early 19th century ballet was very different from today, Movement was not as extreme with a concentration on low port de bras. So due to how I constructed the sleeves I could not raise my arms up over my head. Other than that, I did not feel constricted and was able to move about easily at the pool party at Costume College.

I really enjoyed trying to bring an illustration to life. I will touch more on wearing the Sylph in my Costume College round up, as I noticed several issues at that point. A week after CoCo I took the Sylph back out and took some pictures in the woods.  I'm happy to report that despite three outings I have managed to keep the white satin bodice pristine.

My favorite photo as the orange really pops!

We found this massive tree trunk and it was so fitting