A Spooky Striped Early 1880s Ensemble

For my second post of the day, I have something completely different, but with a similar Halloween inspiration.

And much like my robe a la polonaise, this dress is also made from a Wilmington “Gone Batty” fabric. Except for this piece, I bought the black and white stripe print fabric. Fifteen yards of it, to be exact.

I didn’t use any references for this project, I just had an idea in mind and I wanted to make it a reality. And that idea evolved and changed as I worked on the project. I didn’t take a lot of photos while constructing this, since it came together very quickly. But I’ll do my best to explain my thought process.

The project is made from three pieces – a skirt, dress, and hat. It’s worn over a 1881 style false rump made from dense rows of cotton organdy, and a corset made following a pattern in Norah Waugh’s “Corsets and Crinolines”.

I had the foundations done ahead of time, so the first piece I started making for this project was the skirt.

I was originally going to make the skirt entirely out of vertically cut strips of the striped fabric. But when I actually got to starting on it, that seemed awfully boring. So I ended up alternating strips that were cut horizontally and vertically for a more intricate effect.

I draped the top panels to fit nicely over the false rump, so they taper in towards the waist and have some shaping to them. The rest of the skirt is made from rectangles that were seamed together and gathered down.

It kind of does wonky things to your eyes when you look at it. But I think that’s part of its charm.

I had three design ideas I wanted to incorporate into the dress:

1. I wanted it to button down the entire front.
2. I didn’t want it to have a waist seam – the bodice and skirt would be continuous from shoulder to hem.
3. The skirt would be bustled with glittery skeleton hands.

Easy enough right? I also had a sketch to work off of, but the finished dress doesn’t really resemble it.

I usually don’t bother draping skirts since they are somewhat simplistic in shape and require a ton of fabric. But since this was a new era and silhouette for me, I thought it was important to drape it and do a full mockup.

Here is my first mockup fitting.

A few tweaks hat to be made but I was pleasantly surprised with the shape and fit! I also played around with bustling the back while featuring glittery skeleton hands.

And then I made the dress. Yeah, I wasn’t kidding when I said I was bad about photographing the construction process.

The dress was actually very simple to construct once I had it drafted. It was assembled completely by machine. And the hem of each panel was turned outward and covered with pleated satin trim from my stash, which was also sewn on by machine.

I didn’t stitch down the seam allowance, or add boning or a waist stay like 1880s dresses traditionally had. Nor did I bother with lining. The neckline is finished with a facing and that’s about it. The inner edge of the facing isn’t even tacked down – all that secures it is some lace trim which was (shocker) also sewn on by machine.

The only hand sewing involved was stitching on all the buttons, and securing skeleton hands to the front of the bodice. It kind of looks like they are cupping the chest, which I think is hilarious.

I used bows sewn from striped fabric and matching lace trim to cover the end of the hands, and make them a bit cuter.

The same method was used on the back of the skirt, where there are more hands. Except these are positioned to look like they are gathering the fabric that shapes the dress.

The actual shaping of the dress comes from gathers sewn before seaming the pieces together. Along with a carefully placed tacking stitch and twill tape ties.

All of that is hidden by another draped panel.

And that’s the dress! It was paired with a hat I made from interfacing and corduroy, with matching lining.

The construction of this is pretty on par with the dress…and by that I mean, it’s pretty crap. But looks decent from the outside.

I was so frustrated the day I worked on it, I didn’t even have the patience to pin the wire in place before sewing it on….which led to me breaking four needles whilst constructing it. Yeah. Don’t sew when agitated, it can be dangerous!

It’s trimmed with some dyed goose feathers, more skeleton hands, and a fake dragon skull I bought at Michaels. The glittery hands came from Michaels too, they were in the floral decor section – originally attached to sticks and meant to be part of Halloween bouquets! But I think my usage of them is superior.

The shoes were from American Duchess, simple black pumps called “Tissot” and appropriate for the era.

And here it is all finished!

Compared to my Robe a la Polonaise which had so much hand work invested in the construction process, this is practically a pile of garbage. But I think I like it just as much as the polonaise, just for completely different reasons.

I’m a big believe in that things don’t have to be perfect to be worth making, or worth appreciating.

And even if you’re capable of superior construction, sometimes it’s nice to focus more on the the creative and artistic aspect of sewing, rather than what the inside of a garment looks like.

Sort of like how an artist might slave over a painting for months, that they are really proud of. But also bang out a beautiful sketch in ten minutes. Both can be appreciated even if the quality (and quantity) of work put into them is very different. Who’s to say that can’t be the case with historical costumes too? Or at least that’s my justification for it!

I think this is one of the most visually striking things I’ve made in a long time, if not ever. And I’m proud of it because of that. I hope you like it too – though I’m sorry about the lack of progress shots!

Thanks for reading! I hope you have a wonderful Halloween (or just a wonderful day, if you don’t celebrate) and hopefully I’ll be back with another post sometime soon!

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Photos : 1780s Robe a la Polonaise + Pumpkin Hat

As promised, here are the worn photos of my 1780s Robe a la Polonaise and the coordinating pumpkin hat! I feel like I should have taken the opportunity to call this project the Pumpkin Polonaise – unfortunately it’s a little too late for that.

But even without the catchy name, I think it’s a pretty great costume!

If you are interested in how I made it, the construction notes can be found here.

I also wanted to give a big thank you to Lenny Bruno Farms who were nice enough to let us take pictures in their beautiful pumpkin patch!

 

Thanks for reading! And keep an eye out for another post coming later today, that features another Halloween themed project! 🙂

An 1880’s Inspired Dress : Pumpkin Project 2018

It’s become a bit of a tradition for me to make a Autumn themed ensemble in October, and photograph it in a local pumpkin patch. Last year I made an 18th century Redingote and the year before that, an 1890’s dress.

This time around I wanted to venture into a period I’m a bit less familiar with – and slightly terrified of (fitting, since it is halloween, huh?) : The 1880’s.

The bustle decades of fashion in general intimidate me. I think I understand how the dresses are supposed to go together, and the rough shapes the pieces should have. I mean I’ve read books about them, looked at original patterns, and scoured photos of dozens of extant garments! But I always get overwhelmed when it comes to making them, and had never finished one…until now!

It has its problems, but I learned a lot and its made me way more confident about attempting costumes from this period, so I think it is a success – at least in my eyes!

I went into this project knowing what period I wanted it to be from (the 1880’s) and what fabrics I wanted to use (orange silk shantung, black faille, and black sequined lace)…and not a lot else.

I tried to design it without referencing fashion plates, since I wanted it to be somewhat original. I also wasn’t too concerned about historically accuracy – I was OK with it having some fantasy elements to it (like fake spiders. and sequins. and fake spiders with sequins on them). I figured that would take a lot of pressure off me when constructing it, which was good since I only had a week to make this!

This was my first sketch, but I did make some changes as I got further along with this project.

I decided to make the skirt first, so I could drape the bodice over the skirt and hopefully have a better fit.

I also decided the skirt would be two layers. Layer one has a black base, with contrasting trim on the hem, and a sequined overlay.

Layer two is orange shantung that has been pleated and trimmed to form a bustle.

Both of these layers go on top of this petticoat, which I hemmed and pinned to be more appropriate for the 1880’s, and a lobster tail bustle straight out of Norah Waugh’s Corsets and Crinolines*.

I put the foundations on my dress form, took measurements off them, and used that to create a underskirt pattern. Well, pattern might be a stretch! I figured out the dimensions of the pieces, then these were transferred directly onto the faille with chalk.

This is the front panel of the underskirt.

…And the finished underskirt. I wasn’t great about documenting this. The back panel is just a rectangle gathered to fit the waist, with a ruffle sewn on to the lower half to add volume.

The waist was finished with ribbon, and closes with a hook at one side. Everything was stitched with french seams, except the top 10″ of the right side, which was left open to make the skirt easy to get on and off.

I originally wanted to add dagged trim to the hem – to look like Jack o lantern teeth, but I didn’t have enough fabric. So instead I sewed together several rectangles of orange fabric,  hemmed them by hand, then pleated them down to add texture.

The pleats were kind of unruly, so I tack stitched them down 2″ away from the top edge. I also finished the top edge with binding, to prevent fraying.

I topstitched the pleats on to the underskirt…and then top stitched black binding on top, because I realized the white binding I originally used would be visible through the lace overlay (oops).

I don’t actually have any photos of adding the lace overlay, but it was effectively a three yard cut of lace that I trimmed hemmed, and gathered, until it fell just above the pleated trim. It was stitched onto the underskirt, just below the waistband.

I was originally going to fussy cut the lace into the shape of trees and hand-stitch it on, but I ran out of time and the lace wasn’t really dense enough to do that.

( In these photos the overlay is just roughly pinned on – it hasn’t been hemmed and gathered yet!)

This is also the kind of beginning stages of my bustle.

The bustle had three pieces – two “poofs” made out of rectangles with three sides gathered (the other edge makes up the hem, and was stitched by hand). And the front portion which draped down, and was made by draping the fabric and pleating it until I liked the shape.

The pleats were tacked down by hand, and the back edges were bound. Then I pinned lace across the pleats to add interest.

That was all stitched on by hand, too. And that was about it for the skirt! I added a waistband to the bustle layer, and a few hooks to keep is closed. There were also some plastic spiders added later, just for good measure.

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The bodice pattern was draped over all the skirts, and though I draped/patterned it myself, I used a lot of original pattern images as a reference when placing the darts and seams (you can see some of them here, if you scroll around).

Then I transferred that to paper, and turned it into a mockup…which was way too big. Like so big I couldn’t even tell how well it would fit when taken in. I pinned the necessary alterations, then marked them all on my pattern.

This was mock up number two, which still needed a few changes but fit surprisingly well! I loved the shape of the hem, and I thought the fit through the bust and shoulders was pretty great!

Here is the “final” pattern.

Most of the garments I’d seen from this period were flat lined. So I cut each piece out twice, once from shantung, and once from a lightweight canvas-y fabric.

Each piece of shantung was backed with the canvas, then treated as a single piece.

Unfortunately I didn’t realize until after sewing all my bodice pieces together that I still had a large needle in my machine, like the type you use with thick wools. It had caused the seams to pucker quite badly. I didn’t have enough fabric to recut the entire bodice, but I did re-cut the front panels.

Here you can see the difference in the darts sewn with a silk needle (left) and one with the heavy duty needle (right). Changing your needle matters!

Now I had to assemble the center panels before doing a fitting. These were made from the black faille, and lined with the canvas material.

I bound the edges to prevent fraying, and used my machine to stitch 15 buttonholes into the left front panel. Then I sewed 15 buttons onto the other!

Here is the first fitting (this is before I replaced the font panels, so ignore the puckers!) – somehow the black panel was too short, leaving a gap at the shoulder. So I had to add an extension there. But everything else looked really good!

So I decided to add boning into the bodice. Most garments I looked at from the 1880’s had pinked seams, with boning sewn into the center. Though I wasn’t aiming for perfect historical accuracy (in case the sequined lace didn’t throw you off!)  I did want to practice some historical techniques for future projects.

I used spiral steel boning for this, since I thought it would bend well with the curved seams. I loosely whip stitched 3/4″ twill tape around the bones, then used more secure whip stitches to sew the bones into the bodice. 

Here is the interior – you can see the bones, and the grosgrain ribbon waist tape that I added.

You can also see the bias binding, which I used to finish the bottom edge of the bodice.

Now onto sleeves! I flat drafted these using a few measurements, but they were way too big.

This is take two, which was better, but still not great.

I think it took me three more attempts before I ended up with something I was happy with. I don’t have a worn photo, but this is the final pattern.

The sleeves were…one of the more frustrating parts of this project. It seemed like no matter how I lined them, what I lined them with or how much ease I added, they wanted to wrinkle.

Finally I attempted flat lining them with the canvas I used on the bodice, which seemed to work OK but still isn’t perfect. I realize now it must have been a drafting error…but I didn’t have any of those problems on the mockup!

The sleeves have a velvet cuff, which covers the top edge of more pleated trim. I also stitched on more lace, and I tried to make it look like the lace was crawling up the sleeves.

I sewed the sleeves onto the bodice, then trimmed the seam allowance down to 1/4″ and whip stitched it to the lining.

The bodice also got a collar (basically a 2″ wide rectangle with curves at the front) made of velvet and lined with faille. I like the contrast of the super black velvet against the less black faille.

Then I added a bunch of lace to the shoulder of the bodice…and a couple of spiders. My whole concept for this is that the lace is a spiderweb.

The final touch for this costume is the hat! It has a brim made out of buckram, a cap made from interfacing, and is generously decorated with lace and various halloween decorations. Including a whole fake bird I bought from michaels.

The interior is lined with gathered tulle, and cotton. A comb was sewn in so it can sit at an angle without falling.

Now up until this point, I was pretty happy with this project. And then I tried it on. And somewhere between adding the waist tape and sleeves, the fit became awful.

Or not even the fit, the fabric just…rebelled against me. It puckered really badly and rippled down the back (not something visible in ANY of my previous fittings) and the darts at the front strained too. But I don’t think it was too small. Because the bodice almost gaped away from my back.

Despite the fittings when making sleeve mockups going fine, it was suddenly really tight around the underarm and shoulder. But when the sleeve head was larger, it was baggy!

I think these problems would have been less obvious with a cotton fabric, or something without a sheen to it. Unfortunately one of the reasons I gravitate towards shantung, is because of its sheen.

I think I can probably fix it (or greatly improve it) by removing the boning in the back seam and taking it in slightly. I think removing the sleeves, letting them out, and cutting 1/4″ of material out of the armscye might help with the issue there…and I’m sure there are other fixes too.

But even with its faults, I’m happy with this project. I like the design of it, the fantasy elements, and the fact I finally finished a bustle dress! That fact alone has given me the confidence to attempt more…and hopefully those will fit a bit better.

Here are the worn photos:

I hope you’re having a lovely Halloween, and thank you so much for reading!

1840’s Dotted Dress, Photos

I think this is my first costume photo set of the year. How wild is that?!

These were taken a location we visit often – conveniently right next to a busy street where people can stare, and unruly patches of poison ivy. But there is fence and sometimes cute horses, so sacrifices must be made.

These photos are of my 1840’s dotted dress, which I made over the course of a week and have spent the last month blogging about. You can read about the construction in more detail here, here, and here!

This project was based on examples from the 1840s, and made from eight yards of quilting cotton using a self drafted pattern.

Unfortunately my giant organza petticoat wasn’t done at the time I photographed this – so the skirt is lacking some of the fullness I had hoped for. But I don’t think that takes away from the pictures too much. Or at least I hope not!

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My least favorite part of this dress is the back – I feel like the fit problems I mentioned in my making of posts are a lot more obvious here. Taking it in at the back seam would help a lot, but the waistline should be raised slightly too.

Thanks to the way I stitched the skirt on, that would be an easy fix. I don’t like returning to “finished” dresses, but maybe when the weather cools down I’ll be  motivated to do that – and re photograph it with my fuller petticoat!

Despite my annoyance with making the bonnet, I do love the profile it has!

And I like this photo almost enough to ignore all the rippling at the back (okay, not quite, but close)!

And that is it!

Thank you for reading, and for all the comments on my posts about making this. I’m looking forward to sharing some other photo sets (and progress posts) very soon!

1918 Ensemble, Dressing for Downton

Today I’m dipping my toes into 1918, and the wonderful fashions it has to offer.

I actually researched this period quite heavily earlier in the year when I was pursuing a design job for something set in the early 20’s. The job didn’t work out, and it left me a little bitter towards the era. But this weekend my mom and I booked tickets to the Downton Abbey Exhibition and I thought it would be fun to wear an understated period costume to the event.

The late nineteens are a perfect period for casual historical dress since the silhouette (though more modest than what is fashionable now) wasn’t dramatic like the early 1910’s, or the later 1920’s. Though corsets would have still been worn during this period, waistlines were starting to widen and you can get away without one. Perfect since I would have to wear this for four hours of public transit!

(it was also 2 days after Thanksgiving so a corset would not have been welcome regardless of the wear time…)

I based this ensemble mostly off of two ads: This one for the blouse, and this one for the skirt. I also made a coat to wear over it, which was based on ones from a winter Sears catalogue.

I had all the materials for this on hand, and made it over a 4 day period (some of those were half days with Thanksgiving and all). I’m really pleased with the end result and this may motivate me to make more vintage themed clothing to wear on a regular basis!

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I started with the first piece: the camisole.

I draped this on my dress form. Getting the right amount of flounce at the hem to create the proper silhouette was probably the most difficult part.

This is it transferred to paper.

The body of the camisole is made from silk charmeuse. This particular cut was *very* off color, so one side is more yellow than the other, but it’s only really noticeable at the back.

I sewed a strip of wide cotton lace into the center (backed with more charmeuse) to serve as the statement of this blouse.

I’m not sure when this lace is from, but it came from a collection that included pieces from 1910. Based on the design and weight I would not be surprised if this lace was also from that period. I outlined it with some zig-zag edging to add a bit more texture.

The collar of the camisole is also charmeuse, but I backed it with fusible interfacing. Then I stitched a half inch away from each edge, and used that as a guide when turning the edges inward.

It was pinned to the top edge of the camisole, with the right side facing the wrong side. Once turned the right way out all the raw edges will be hidden!

Then I topstitched the bottom edge down.

The bottom edge was gathered slightly at the front and sewn to an interfaced waistband.

The final addition were straps, made from bias cut strips sewn into tubes.

The back closes with three glass buttons. This is the first time I’ve done functional button holes in…3 years? Maybe longer?

I finally bought a home sewing machine, which though slower than my industrial, has some stitches and features that I’ve missed! The automatic buttonhole is one of those things.

It is a SINGER 4423 Heavy Duty *, if you were wondering. I go more in depth about it (and all my sewing machines) in this video.

I used the camisole as a base for draping my next pattern: the blouse. I believe these pieces would have been combined in the 20’s, with a closure hidden on one side. But I thought making them separate would make the pieces more versatile. And the camisole also provides enough coverage that I didn’t need to wear a slip over my bra.

Here is the pattern I ended up with. It’s shaped by pleats below the shoulder with a drawstring waistband.

I cut all the pieces out from a thin, crisp, silk shirting. This fabric was a dream to work with – I’ve never had something make french seams easier!

I didn’t take a lot of progress pictures for this, since it came together in a single evening. But here you can see the main pieces assembled. All the edges were finished by machine with rolled 1/4″ hems. Seams were flat felled, or finished with lace binding. And the bottom edge was turned inward to create a channel for ribbon.

I tried to draft the sleeve pattern for this the historical way, but I got confused and made it up instead. This worked surprisingly well! Fit the armscye perfectly on my first try. I just had to adjust the length and width a little.

The cuffs were gathered by machine.

Then sewn onto the cuffs. The raw edges were bound with lace binding. I wanted to add button closures but didn’t get the buttons (or know what size they would be) until the day before wearing this piece, so I used hooks instead.

The sleeves were sewn on by machine, then the raw edge was bound.

I also made the collar. This was assembled from a layer of the checked silk, which was backed with interfacing, and a layer of silk charmeuse, which was supposed to be lining. I sewed the layers together with the wrong sides facing each other, then topstitched around the edge.

It looked great! Until my iron smeared burned goop all over the corners of the checked side. I couldn’t get it off, and I didn’t have a lot of fabric left…so I made the charmeuse side face out instead. I actually really like the contrast of this, so it was a happy accident. But it means the topstitching looks a little sloppy since it was originally done on the other side.

I sewed the collar on by machine, then tacked it down a half inch away from the edge to keep it in place. The final touch were silk covered 3/4″ buttons. Three on either side of the bodice, and two on each cuff.

I also added a snap just above the top button to secure it to the camisole.

And the back! I didn’t expect to love this as much as I do, but I’m really happy with it. It’s delicate yet structured and so different from anything I’ve done before.

I usually shy away from thin or slippery fabrics, unless I’m using them as an overlay. But making a tailored piece out of them was surprisingly easy and fun – I think this will motivate me to branch out more with my fabric choices.

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Unfortunately the skirt didn’t go as well. At all. My first attempt was made from a beautiful wool, but the finished skirt looked awful. It had a wide, rounded waistband that made me look so heavy.

There was also way too much fabric, and it drooped at the seams. It was supposed to have pockets, which I tried making out of a contrasting wool, but then there was way too much contrast. So I remade them from matching fabric and it looked even worse! The whole thing was an unsalvageable mess.

Attempt number two was made in three hours from a purple chevron fabric I got from the plaiditudes collection at Jo-anns. I draped the skirt design on my dress form, then used the muslin as a pattern, adding seam allowances by eye. It was SO messy, but the end result turned out a million times better than my first attempt.

This skirt has way less volume, and has pleats in the back instead of gathers. The waistband is still wide, but it’s straight which is a lot more flattering. And there is decorative seaming down the front instead of pockets.

It’s not my best work, but it fit, and it looked pretty good!

I think the same can be said about the jacket. This piece was actually drafted, partially assembled, and completely cut out over a year ago – I even made a video about it. I planned on this being my winter coat for 2016, but after buying a glorious winter coat from J-Crew I lost interest.

The jacket also had some issues I wasn’t happy with. I ran low on material so I couldn’t make the skirt as wide or long as I wanted (it actually has plenty of volume, so I’m sort of glad for that now). I also had to ignore the grain line on some pieces, and didn’t have enough left for a matching hat which I was originally really excited about.

Plus the topstitching on this jacket was plagued with problems. It kept skipping stitches, which meant I had to sew over them again, leaving backstitch marks. This was made worse by my plan to use contrasting stitching during construction.

Even though this was only a year ago, I’ve learned a lot about my machine since then and working with heavier fabrics in general. Unfortunately that helps me moving forward, not with the issues this jacket already had. To fix the topstitching I would have had to completely disassemble the bodice and remove it all by hand. And that still wouldn’t resolve the grain line or length issues.

But I already had a lot done. So I decided to take a half day and get it finished, fully knowing that it was impossible to make it perfect given its other issues.

Finishing it included:

Figuring out which pieces went together

Figuring out wtf I was thinking with the pocket design (the required topstitching would have sewn them shut..)

Sewing the entire bottom half together

Hemming it

Sewing the cuffs on

Attaching / lining sleeves

Attaching bottom half

Lining the waistband

Sewing in closures

Tacking the collar

Sewing on buttons

…in less than a day.

Surprisingly, it turned out okay! I’m not going to share close ups since the finishing isn’t great at all. The interior skirt seams were left raw, and the topstitching  got a little messy at points. But it’s finished, and I love the shape and design of it. Hopefully I can reuse the pattern for a similar jacket, made to my current standards.

It’s a little wrinkly from yesterday.

And that is it! Four pieces in four days. All together I think they looked lovely. And it was surprisingly comfy and weather appropriate!

I accessorized the ensemble with a pair of Katie & Kelly shoes (these were like $12 on clearance at DSW last year) and the Authentically Academic bag from Modcloth. I had gloves from the 40’s with me too, along with a 50’s themed pair of Quay sunglasses…so it was a little all over the place, but very retro.

For my hair I slept with a mixture of 3/4″ and 1″ curlers in, all wound inward towards my face. In the morning I brushed them out, then tucked the ends under and pinned them to the base of my scalp.

Sort of how you would do a faux bob, but the volume from the curls makes it look more like a fancy up do. I teased my bangs a bit and pinned them to the side. Then sprayed my hands with hairspray and used them to smooth and flatten the top before setting it with a heavy misting. It’s probably more of a 40’s style than 1918, but I felt it looked passable.

Any loose bits are probably from me trying to adjust bobby pins after putting the blouse on and getting the buttons caught in it. That happened several times.

That is it for today! Thanks for reading!

My next post will be about the exhibit itself!

18th Century Redingote, Worn Photos

As promised, today I have the photos of my 18th century redingote ensemble to share! If you missed them, the blog posts about constructing this dress can be found here, and here.

For the fourth year in a row I went to the local pumpkin patch to photograph my newest piece. I really love this as a backdrop, there is something magical about it in the morning! The lighting is so pretty, and the contrast between the field, mud, pumpkins, and corn makes me smile.

My dresses always get a little dirty there, but it’s nothing a bit of water can’t fix, and I think the pictures make it worth it!

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This ensemble consists of a redingote, skirt, hat, and fichu, which I detailed the process of making in the posts linked above. It’s worn over a chemise, stays, a bum pad, and a cotton/netting petticoat, which I also made. The only pieces I didn’t make are the socks (charlotte russe), the wig (color.salon, ebay), the shoes (fraser, American Duchess*), and buckles (cavendish, American Duchess*)

If you want to see the layers in a little more detail, I have a video showing the process of getting into this – and a few clips of me wearing it! It can be watched here.

Now onto the photos!

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And that’s it! Thanks for reading!

Making 18th Century Jumps – And how they look worn!

Today’s post focuses on a project that I did a terrible job of documenting (to be honest, that’s been most of my projects recently). It was also completed more than three months ago, and in progress long before that. So even if I did have a lot of photos of making it, the details are a little fuzzy in my eyes.

The reason this was so poorly documented photo wise is because I filmed the whole process. And up until last month I only had one camera, which didn’t let me take photos without disrupting the filming process.

This is bad news for those of you who like written descriptions, but if you are more of a visual learner the videos showing all the steps can be found on my youtube channel (here for the jumps, and here for the skirt) or down below depending on your email settings.

Now what is this project? It’s my second adventure into casual 18th century costumes. If you read my posts about making this dress than you may be familiar with my fascination towards what was considered casual hundreds of years ago.

Even though that dress was considered “Undress” it still required getting into stays and I felt awfully formal when wearing it. I wanted to stick to the same undress theme but make something that looked and felt different.

Unsurprisingly I found inspiration in Fashion: A History from the 18th to the 20th Century*, specifically this ensemble that consists of silk jumps and a matching skirt.

(this definitely contributed to the shaping too)

While researching that I came across a blog post (which I’m so mad that I can’t find again – I think it may have been on the American Duchess blog) that talked about French fashion being considerable more casual in the 1700’s than most of Europe. With an emphasis on practically in dress (so, not skirts so long you would trip over them).

I had also been seeing ads everywhere for the live action Beauty in the Beast movie, which got me thinking about what a historically accurate version of the famous blue dress would look like.

With enthusiasm coming from those discoveries (and dozens of fashion plates) I got to work!

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I started by draping the jumps. For those unfamiliar with these garments, they were a support garment most often worn by working class woman. They are conical shaped down to the waist, but usually flared out beyond that point so they could be worn over skirts.Their structure comes from layers of fabric quilted together rather than boning. This makes them a lot more comfortable than stays, while still providing some shaping of the torso.

Here is the front of my draped jumps – this was tricky since I’m draping over a dress form made from hard foam. When the garment is actually worn my body (especially my bust) will compress to be a different shape.

If you don’t have a dress form, or find this hard do bypass, I think you could get away with altering a 18th century riding coat pattern. The shape and structure of this is similar, it just sits higher on the shoulder and has a smaller skirt.

The side…

And the back. I draped this over the appropriate petticoats to make sure there was enough volume in the tabs.

I traced the pattern onto paper, then made the necessary alterations so it had more of a conical shape, and added seam allowances. After a quick mock up I moved onto the final garment!

I cut all the pieces out from the top layer of fabric (a home decor material from Jo-anns), a cotton for lining, and quilt batting.

The first step was marking lines for the quilting onto the lining. These are diagonal across the pieces and a half inch apart. All the lines line up at the seams to create a subtle chevron effect (which was probably more trouble than it was worth).

The quilt batting in sandwiched between the lining and the home decor material. I trimmed the quilt batting so it didn’t extend into the side seams, then got to sewing!

The first two panels done – I used a pale blue thread and longer than average stitch length. These panels were my test, so after it worked I repeated the process with the front and back pieces.

The rest of the lining cut out and marked. You may notice that the only seam allowance is in the side seams. The rest of the edges will be bound with binding, like stays.

All sandwiched together!

Quilted and stitched together!

Now here is my major regret – I hand stitched the seam allowance down, and hand sewed boning channels into the interior of this to add more support. I don’t regret adding these channels, but hand sewing them was a terrible idea. It was so slow and not nearly as sturdy or clean as I would like.

If I made this again I would make another lining layer from lightweight cotton, add the boning, then sew it to the interior of the quilted bodice before attaching the binding. It would be a lot faster, shouldn’t add too much bulk, and would look so much better!

Now for the binding. I’ve mentioned my hatred for binding concave curves many times, and that still runs strong. It was made a lot worse on this project because of fabric choice.

I choose to use this polyester suiting I bought many years ago (if you’ve been around since my Napoleon costume, this is the scraps from that!), since it was the best match for the floral design. This frayed so much, and seemed to pucker rather than stretch, even though it was cut on the bias. 

I machine stitched one side, then turned it inward and whip stitched the other side to the lining. It isn’t very even since parts frayed away to nothing before I could sew them, but from a distance it looks okay(ish)!

To make the curves look a little bit better I blanket stitched around them with embroidery floss.

Then I sewed eyelets into the front. I assumed since this fabric was quilted it would be thick enough to hold the eyelets. I was wrong – they haven’t torn out, but they are really warped after a single wear. Definitely should have added canvas to the front few inches to avoid this.

I also bound the arm openings.

And that is it! Overall I think they are pretty, just a couple of things I would do differently next time. And there will probably be a next time, since I really like the shape and functionality of this garment and am itching to make another! Maybe out of maroon and gold jacquard? With a shantung skirt.

Speaking of the skirt, I literally have no photos of it or the construction process. It has three panels (two in the back, one in the front) and a pleated waistband with side closures. The hem is straight, with the length adjusted at the waist. But the hem didn’t end up being that level, since the weight of the additional fabric in the back flattened my petticoat and made it appear several inches longer than the front.

Speaking of petticoats: I used an ample bum pad with the cotton/tulle petticoat overtop. The tulle was pinned up quickly before photographing this, which is the reason for any skirt lumps. This skirt fabric was a lot thinner (but also weirdly heavier) than I had expected and would have suited a quilted petticoat much better.

The shoes are, as per usual the Funtasma Victorian-03* (I’m looking into getting a more 18th Century appropriate pair soon, I swear!). I used my real hair with a few feathers and fake flowers stuck in it.

I made the chemise from some fabric I had around. And the apron is from what I had leftover. It’s two rectangles of fabric with curved tips, and a lace overlay. I gathered the top and used lace to bind the edge and form the ties.

Overall I like this ensemble. Especially the fit of the jumps. I think from a distance it’s really lovely, but I want to remake it with different materials and a slightly different construction strategy!

Here are the photos of it worn:

(Fun fact these were taken next to a busy street on the weekend before July 4th. Everyone was staring. The fence was also infested with caterpillars, which I didn’t realize before putting my hand on it. I really don’t like caterpillars and was not happy)

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That’s it for this one! Thank you for reading!

Striped Cotton Dress, Early 20th Century, Photos

A few weeks ago I got three projects photographed, including my Striped Edwardian Gown, which is the one I’ll be sharing photos of today!

I have two blog posts about making this dress and hat. They can be read here, and here.

This dress was such a fun project to work on, and I’m really happy with the end result. It fits nicely, I have a lot of mobility in it, and I think it looks quite authentic.

To add to the authenticity I decided to use my real hair for this shoot – and I’m so glad I did! It looks a lot softer and (for obvious reasons) more realistic than my wigs. My styling skills have ways to go, but I’m going to practice and use my hair more often with future projects.

As far as foundations go, I wore this costume over my white and pink chemise, my pink and white corset, a bust pad, and white chevron socks…And I’m just realizing I never blogged about any of those pieces. But you may have seen them in spotlight videos on my youtube channel.

Since the shoes show, I bought a pair of these* in white – which aren’t as comfortable as the black ones, but compliment the dress nicely. And these earrings* which are from the Downton Abbey collection.

I was so comfortable wearing this costume. I’m not sure that shows, but it was the best I’ve felt in a costume in a long time!

Now onto the pictures!

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That’s it for this set, but I will have more to share soon! I haven’t been thrilled with what I’ve accomplished so far this year, and seeing photos of completed works makes me feel a bit better about things. So I have plans to take more soon.

 

Draped Velvet Dress, Photos

As promised, here are the worn photos of this years Christmas Costume!

These were taken at a Christmas tree farm. This was our fourth years photographing a costume there, and I think this year was the most successful. The lighting was on our side for once, and it’s easier to focus on a red dress than a white one. It’s also a really easy dress to lay out and walk around in since there isn’t a petticoat.

The only downside was it being a bit muddy and really cold. It isn’t a practical dress for December. But I think it looked lovely in this environment, so I’m glad that I didn’t let that stop me.

Construction notes on this dress can be found here. And making of videos are posted here.

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And that’s it! I think I have one more post going up before Christmas, but incase I forget: I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, or Holiday, or if you don’t celebrate, then a really great week in general. Thanks for reading!

 

1830’s Plaid Pleated Dress, Photos

Today I have another set of photos to share. Much like the last photos I posted, these have an autumn theme and were taken in a pumpkin patch. I thought it would be make the perfect lighthearted backdrop for a wacky dress like this one, and it did not disappoint!

This was my first time having the whole ensemble on and I was pretty pleased with it – everything fit and was really comfortable. I was a bit concerned the petticoat would show, or that the bonnet would slip around, but neither of those were an issue.

I paired this with my regency stays that I made ages ago, and my “Victorian“* boots. Neither are particularly accurate to this period but helped achieve the silhouette I wanted. I talk more about the petticoats and the construction of this costume in these posts:

Post 1: The Bodice

Post 2: The Sleeves, Skirt, and Bonnet

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Before getting into the photos I wanted to mention my last post, where I reviewed a bunch of costume reference books. If you’re interested in any of them this is the time to buy! Amazon has $10 off book purchases, and Barnes & Noble has 15% off your order, which makes the price of those pretty inspiration books a bit easier to manage!

Now onto the photos!

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And some muddy boots after a long morning! Luckily none got on the dress.

And that’s it! Thanks for reading!