1869 dress for Candlelight

I got a bee in my bonnet last weekend and decided that I couldn't bear to wear my same old bustle dress to Candlelight two years in a row, so I made a new 1869 outfit for the occasion. Luckily, this style of dress goes together quite easily, and I was able to pull all the supplies that I needed from my stash. All I had to buy this week was a $1 sprig of greenery for my hat. Now that's my kind of Christmas miracle!

The gown is made with green plaid silk that I picked up at a Fabrique sale earlier in the year for $16. No, not $16 per yard - but $16 for the dress length. Best. Deal. Ever! I had no idea what I would make with it, and I usually try to avoid adding things to my stash without a plan, but this was just too good of a deal to pass up. My students pointed out that the fabric looks like a roll of Scotch Tape, and wow - yeah it does! Maybe I can convince Scotch to sponsor my dress if I sew a big product patch on my back like a race car driver. But even though I do look a bit tape-ish, I thought the green was quite festive, and I matched the event's Victorian Santa so well.

To make the dress, I used a combination of patterns from Patterns of Fashion and Theatrical Costumes for Stage and Screen. It's a pretty simple dress on its own, and the only embellishment is a set of antique glass buttons with flowers cut into them. At first, I thought about adding fringe or rows of trim on the dress, but then I fell in love with a 1869 fashion plate from La Mode Illustrée showing a similarly austere gown worn with a black tunic over it. I poked around and found several period patterns for this type of garment, including one in the book 60 Civil War-Era Fashion Patterns that is referred to as a "pannier mantilla". I loved the description, which states: "a more useful article of dress is not likely to appear this season, and will more than repay for the slight trouble of making it." How charming!

I also found a similar garment and pattern in an 1869 copy of de Gracieusse that is archived on the Het Geheugen van Nederland archive (search for "gracieuse" plus the year that you want to find the magazines). This mantilla, which you can see in the middle of the top and bottom row of the illustration above, is a little more fitted and has an open V-neckline, so I used the body from this pattern, and the pannier flounce from the other. I always love detangling the pattern sheets in these old magazines, and somewhere hidden in this jumble you can find the pieces for my mantilla.

To finish the outfit, I dyed another pair of vintage gloves with Rit to match the yellow in my dress. I also took a straw pillbox hat from the 1960's and tacked the sides of the top together to make it look more like an early bustle tilt hat. I added a vintage moire ribbon to the back and a bit of Christmas greenery to the top, and that's it. The ribbons liked to flap around in the wind and stand straight up or wrap around my face and look ridiculous most of the time. I probably should have gone with narrower ribbon like the hat shown in this 1869 fashion plate, but the color matched my dress so well that I couldn't resist. Oh well. Go big or go home, right?  :)

On the way to the event, I stopped by my favorite Victorian chapel and took a few pictures. Here are some of my favorites, and as usual, there are more on flickr, plus a few others of our group at the Candlelight event.

late 1880s plaid bustle dress

For this year's Frontier Forts Day outing with the DFWCG, I decided that I just couldn't bear to wear another "this old thing" dress.  I didn't have a lot of time to work on anything fancy, but I whipped up a simple summer bustle dress using some fabric from my stash and a few patterns that I wanted to test out for another project.

The underskirt is made from an 1887 foundation skirt pattern in Patterns of Fashion, and the overskirt is made from the Truly Victorian asymmetrical overskirt pattern.  The pattern for the bodice came from a January, 1888 la Mode Illustrée pattern sheet, and the fashion plate that shows the made up pattern can be seen on the right.  I bought the pattern from a seller named ryphat on ebay, and I was thrilled to discover that it fit me wonderfully with very few alterations.  Her stock rotates quite a bit and I don't see the exact pattern that I used for sale at the moment, but I definitely recommend these patterns if you are looking for some new historical pattern options and you are a fairly average size. I did change up the bodice a little to make this dress suit my tastes, and I drew inspiration from several late 1880s la Mode Illustrée fashion plates found on the Bunka Gakuen database.   I decorated the center placket with a double row of mother-of-pearl buttons and added the pleated sections beside the placket to make my dress resemble a few illustrations like the ones seen here.

Since May events can be pretty toasty in Texas (I think we hit 90 degrees this year), I picked some cotton fabric from my stash that is almost sheer to try to keep cool.  The underskirt is unlined except for a facing at the hem, the overskirt and sleeves are lined with voile just to keep the color of everything consistent, and the bodice is lined with cotton sateen.  It was actually turned out to be a very cool and comfortable outfit and I was never uncomfortable from the heat, which was such a wonderful thing. Of course, I still wasn't opposed to catching a bit of a breeze to keep my ankles cool when the opportunity arose!  ;)

Best of all, the plaid fabric came from Walmart and only cost me $14 total, and the other fabrics for the lining and accents were given to me in trades, so this is probably one of the least expensive dresses that I've ever made.  Two other ladies - Liz from the Pragmatic Costumer, and Megan from Mistress of Disguise - also happened to be wearing dresses made out of Walmart fabric at this event, and we were quite proud of our fabulous display of Walmart Victorian couture.

But my favorite part of this new outfit is definitely my bonnet.  I LOVE silly hats, and I think the tall, elaborately bedecked bonnets worn in the 1880s like this one from the Met are some of the most wonderfully ridiculous hats that I've ever seen!  To continue my cheapskate costuming streak, I made the base of my hat by cutting down a modern hat that I never really wore very much so that the crown would just perch on the back of my head.  I wired the edges and covered the base with some antique tatted lace from my stash that I dyed dark grey to match my dress.  Then I just added a pile of ribbons, lace, and a few flowers (also from my stash) to the top to give it some height and color.  I've never been overly fond of ribbons that are tied under the chin, but luckily, I found examples in 1880s fashion plates like this one proving that these bonnets could be worn with or without ties.  I sewed a comb under the front edge of the hat and pinned the bottom corners to my hair with bobby pins, and it stayed put all day with no worries.

At first I was hesitant to make what is essentially the same dress two times in a row, but making a wearable mockup  helped me discover a few minor problems with my outfit, and hopefully my next dress, which will be a close copy of this bustle dress, will be even better.  I know these issues might seem nitpicky, but here are a few notes about what I would like to change:

- I wore my short bustle with this outfit, and unfortunately, the hoop boning folded in on itself while I was driving to the event, and I don't think the bones popped out again until I finally noticed my sad, deflated butt toward the end of the day.  And with the smooth skirts in back, there isn't a lot of drapery to to create fullness in back on its own.  Poo!  So the next time, I need to remember to check my bustle after sitting to make sure everything falls back into place like it should.   

- I was unsure what I should line the placket on my bodice with, so I used coutil in the hopes that it would add some stiffness and keep it flat.  But actually, it tended to buckle above my chest when I was sitting, which I'm guessing is because the fabric was stiffer than it needed to be and crumpled more than it draped.  Also, I did not interline my collar with anything, and it wrinkled a good bit as well.  I think next time I will keep my placket soft and interline my collar with some hair canvas to see if that helps the problem any.  

- I was worried from the start that the long flaps of the overskirt would flap around and show the white lining, and yes, they did. Not that this was a huge problem with this dress, but the next dress that I am wanting to make has applied stripes on the underskirt, so I don't want the top layer to blow around and show where the stripes stop. I think with the next one, I might add some hidden button tabs that would attach the overskirt to the underskirt and keep everything in place better.

- I think the fit of my bodice is about 90% there, but I did get some wrinkles under my armpits that show up on my back and the sides of my chest from time to time.  It seems like the fabric of my bodice is getting pushed down a little under my arms, and I have several theories as to how to fix this. I thought about cutting the bottom of my armscye a little lower to remove some excess fabric under my arms, but I'm worried that it will reduce movement if the armscye goes too wide since a tight fit in the shoulders usually moves better than one that is too big.  I also considered raising my waistline a little or adding a waist stay to try to keep the bodice pulled down better so the fabric doesn't ride up from the waist. Or, perhaps those are stress wrinkles and I should let the bust out a little more.  But I'm not sure which of those options would really solve the problem, so I would love to hear your tips if you know how to fix this! 

- Finally, the pattern that I used didn't have a lot of instruction about how to fasten the bodice or the placket, so I used hook and eye tape for the center-front lining and a few large snaps to attach the open side of the placket and outer fabric.  I know snaps weren't used in the 1880s, so I will definitely switch to hooks for the next one, but even more importantly, I need to use more hooks to keep it smooth.  The few widely spaced points of attachment worked okay on the upper half of the bodice, but I need to attach it very securely below the bustline because I discovered that it tends to pull away from the body there if you aren't careful.  I ended up having to add a few extra pins to keep my  placket flat because I didn't use enough snaps.  I would love to do more research on the construction methods of surviving 1880's bodices with plackets before making my next gown.  This was just a "good enough" solution done at 3:00 a.m. on the night before the event, so I know there must be better ways.    

And that's pretty much it!  It's not the fanciest outfit that I ever made, but it was quick and cool and comfortable and I learned a lot from it.  You can find many more pics from our event on flickr.  

1883 winter accessories

So what's a girl to do when there's a Victorian holiday event coming up, but you only have a boring old dress to wear and no time to make a new one?  Why, you whip up a few new accessories, of course!  I already had a fabulous fur muff that I made for the Historical Sew Fortnightly "re-do" assignment, so I decided to make a matching fur cape, cuffs, and winter bonnet for the HSF "celebrate" challenge.  I couldn't be happier with my festive new accessories, and it really made my old dress feel new and fun again for the holidays.

Winters in Texas are never very cold, but I knew it was going to be in the low 40's on the night of our event, so I needed something to help keep me warm.  I decided that a capelet would be the easiest option to make in a short amount of time, and I've always loved the little fur capes from the early 1880's that tightly hug the shoulders, such as this beauty that I stumbled across on a fabulous blog known as The Cabinet Card Gallery.  Luckily, I had just enough faux fur left over to make this style of cape, so I was really pleased that my last few scraps could be put to a good use.

The pattern for my cape came from the accessories section of Fashions of the Gilded Age, Vol. 2.  I tried out several of the cape patterns in that book, but I finally picked the "cashmere and satin hood" because it had such a great shape and it made up easily.  I enlarged the cape part of the pattern by 110% since the original was really small across my shoulders, and I rounded off the bottom edge to be smooth vs. notched.  Instead of including the hood, I added a simple rectangular standing collar.  The cape is lined with a silky brocade, and I used 3 coat hooks to close it in front.

I also made up a set of fur cuffs to add to my jacket sleeves, similar to the look that you see in this fashion plate of a woman with a matching cape and cuffs (and the worlds smallest muff!  OMG - what happened to her hands!?!?)  The cuffs are detachable and just basted onto the jacket so I can take them back off when I want to wear it in the summer.  I also bought a new pair of leather gloves and wore a pair of gold bangles over them, which seemed to be a popular fashion... although somewhat inconvenient if you need to take your gloves off and on frequently to check your cell phone.


I also wanted a more wintery hat to wear with my outfit since the only bonnet that I have from this period is straw and more appropriate for summer.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a bonnet pattern on hand, and I was too short on time to order one, so I used my Lynn McMasters seaside bonnet pattern to get me started.  I cut down the width of the brim and drafted a new crown to make the shape more appropriate for the late natural form years.   It isn't meant to be an exact copy of any one bonnet, but you can find a wide variety hats in a similar style in my 1883 Peterson's magazine, such as the ones on the left.   

I used a remnant of maroon cotton velvet to cover the bonnet, and it has a gathered lining of terra cotta colored silk.  The hat is entirely hand-sewn, and everything except the $.50 sprig of berries came from my stash.   It is a bit hard to see the shape once all the frippery is on it, so here's a picture of the base before it was decorated.  Below, you can see the finished version from various angles.  

I didn't get very many good pictures of me from the Candlelight event, but I decided to dress up again for a morning stroll through the woods so I could take some more pictures just for fun.  Here are a few of my favorites (and more on flickr), and I'll be back soon for one little photoshoot postscript.  I also want to write up a year-end recap of my experience with the Historical Sew Fortnightly project.  Now that I survived a year's worth of challenges, it's time to celebrate!

a happy little bustle

The next DFW Costumer's Guild event is something that I've been wanting to do for YEARS now.  We are riding a vintage steam train in Victorian costumes!!!  *squee* And even better, we are riding the train on the weekend of a historical reenactment event called Frontier Fort Days.  This is seriously one of the coolest costume activities that I have ever been a part of, so of course I need a new bustle dress that is appropriate for the occasion. 

I decided to make a dress from 1883 since the fashions from this year have small bustles and no train, which hopefully will equate to a less cumbersome outfit for a day of walking and train-riding.  I already have most of the undergarments that I will need, but I decided to whip up a quick 1880's style bustle for my outfit since my other bustles are more appropriate for the 1870's.  I already owned the Laughing Moon hoops and bustles pattern, so I decided to make up the 1880's short bustle included in that set.

This little bustle is so cute and perky - it makes me smile every time I look at it!  The pattern went together like a dream, and it was a wonderfully quick and pain-free project.  I made it out of a remnant of red and white ticking that my Grandmother gave from her stash, and it is boned with proper hoop steel for a change (vs. my crazy experiments with wire rope and piano wire). 

Next on the agenda - a pleated plaid skirt. The event is only a month away, so cross your fingers for me that everything else is as easy as my happy little bustle!