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.

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!!!