How to not make a Jenny Lind Fan

 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/57843176451203674/

Unknown Pinterest source.  Painting appears to be late 1850's, and shows a lovely Jenny Lind fan in use.

https://art.famsf.org/fan-jenny-lind-or-palm-type-mirror-19838336

Jenny Lind fan from the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. Dated to late 19th century but very consistent with 1860's and 1870's Jenny Lind styles. Bone Handle, the palmettes are referred to as being starched paper.

https://art.famsf.org/fan-jenny-lind-or-palm-type-78688

Jenny Lind Fan from the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco dated to 1860. Total height is 9 1/16" tall, and is made of starched silk.

I started with bare bones of an old tore up celluloid fan. 

Using the length of the fan stick I drew up a floofy doopy shape. In this case my bones were 4.5" long so the pattern for the fabric was 5" long.

The fan was already broken, so in this case I added a new piece of lace to stabilize everything.

This is my new best friend, at least for use on attaching the lace to the celluloid. It did bleed through in a few places, definitely need to find a better alternative in the future.

The green charmeuse was far too flimsy for even my "stiffener" to fix. This as a very lovely lilac silk taffeta from the silk baron that was a lot of natural stiffness. Your best bet is to find silk between 21 to 25 momme taffeta, with a good tight weave.

Here I used a potato/corn starch combination to stiffen each piece. Originally the plan was to dip the pieces in the potato starch but it wasn't quite thick enough, so a couple of teaspoons of corn starch really helped to stiffen the mix. After thoroughly coating the pieces, they were left overnight to dry.

By morning the pieces were dry enough to use, and just as a sealant I threw a quick layer of hairspray on them. An old costumer told me this helps preserve the potato starch and keep away the dreaded potato musty smell. Whether true or not  the hairspray did give it a lovely aroma. You know you did it right when the pieces are indistinguishable from paper.

Here's where my perfect fan dreams kinda got into a bleed through mess. I took two of the fabric pieces and sandwiched the fan rib with it, using the fabritac to hold it in place. You can see the results again. It did a great job, just looks like a poor soul really intense sneeze all over the silk. Using a wet rag to gently rub over the silk did help, but not enough to fully remove the discoloration. 

So what did I learn? I learned that cheats like fabriglu are okay in a pinch, but nothing beats good old fashioned aka slower methods... and that hairspray can be used on fabric. Who knows, maybe I'll try again. Next time it may work or it may end up like this project in the bin. Its about the fun, the experience and getting to try something new.