Class project: ladies wool high-button spats

[labricoleuse]

Another student project, this time a period reproduction of a pair of late 19th c. ladies wool spats...



left: antique spat from our archive
right: reproduction in pumpkin-colored boiled wool by Jacki Blakeney Armit
(note the slight alteration to elongate the area over the vamp to accomodate high heels)


detail of the interior construction and finishing of both pieces


Jacki models her spats with the shoes for which she made them


front view of same

Comments

[daft.livejournal.com]

What is the binding material on the seams?

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

Narrow twill tape.

[ardoise-vide.livejournal.com]

they look like mini-corsets on the inside! :D

they also look crazy cool.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

That was my first thought too. ;-)

[madamekat.livejournal.com]

They look great!! She could make a bundle making them and selling them on Ebay with "steampunk" in the description...

[sola.livejournal.com]

Several people already do, on Etsy; they fetch quite a good price, and not all of them as as well-made as these.

[kavavita.livejournal.com]

those are beautiful!

I've never worked with boiled wool before. Did it come that way, or did she, uh, boil it herself?

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

I think she used scraps from our fabric stock--it looked like it was a wool gabardine that had felted, either it came that way or was washed in hot water. (Either way, it was already like that, felty, rather than something that she did to the fabric, though it's easy enough to wash some wool yardage and felt it up a bit.) The feltiness helps keep raw edges from fraying as much as they otherwise might.