Thursday, April 7, 2011

1866 Geneva Hand Fluter

The dress I'm working on for the historic masquerade at Costume Con has a fluted collar. The logical thing to do? Buy a second fluter on eBay! Why a second? The first is the crank sort, but I don't have the heating rods.

Here's a demonstration of it and a picture of the pleats I made the other night. Those have since been turned into a ruff-like collar :)

The video is probably a little longer than it needs to be. Except for the part where my pot holder gets too hot and I toss it aside, it's awfully repetitive. Still, authentic 1860s sizzling sounds!

1866 Geneva Hand Fluter from Katherine on Vimeo.

Pleats!

And an update--I heated both the top and bottom of my fluter in the oven. A friend heated the top and bottom of hers and the top, well, melted. As in molten metal. I think mine may have been a different material? But be careful!!!

8 comments:

  1. I didn't even know something like this existed! I NEED ONE OF THESE!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Isn't it awesome? I bought it on eBay, of course. They always seem to have a few listed, so it's just a matter of waiting for the right one.

    Now I want to make tons more things with pleats--I just have to figure out what they are :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I already admired the pleater over at LJ! Lovely...and I do like the idea of the "sizzling"!
    Sabine

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love it!!! But what's the best way to heat the fluter?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I know I'm super late to the party on this post, but i just bought one of these tonight and I can't wait to try it. I'm thankful for your video!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I just found a Geneva Fluter stamped 1866 in my basement that was my grandmothers. Thanks for the video as I had NO idea what it was used for!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi, you heated it wrong. You don't stick the whole thing in the oven. Instructions for heating should be on the iron. You heat one part in the oven, one on top of the stove. It should say, "heat this" heat on top of stove" why would you think you heat the handle? Lol

    ReplyDelete