Introduction, to blog and Victorian Dress
This blog is written to tide me over until I have the time and motivation to develop myself a website. It's probably going to be mainly about the clothes I make, but you never know. We'll see what happens. It's possible I'll just get bored of the whole idea soon anyway.
I recently decided to make a Victorian costume so I could dress-up and go to the Historic Oamaru celebrations fete in November. Actually, it was the other way round; I decided to go so that I could make a costume. (Although you don't have to dress up to go.) When you read the costuming websites on the net, everyone else has all sorts of events and "faires" to go to and so forth, whereas the Oamaru thing is all I know of around her. Being that we are not in the US, Halloween isn't really that big of a thing here either, so there isn't really a big dress-up opportunity there either. Plus, I don't like that Halloween is celebrated firmly by date rather than season - it makes no sense here. So annoying. Christmas should be in winter too.
Anyway, Victorian dress. It is a bit of a mish-mash of years, with the dress being taken from 1874, the "combinations" (drawers and top in one to wear under everything) dates 1877 and after. The corset is from a patent application made in 1868.
Here is a break-down of the items I need to make:
combinations - from these pictures. here and here. So far I have tried making one lot, and not suceeded terribly well, and have drafted a pattern for a second lot that I am too scared to make in case they are not good either. They are ready and waiting however, and shouldn't take too long to finish to a basic degree, although I would also need to bind the neck and arm holes with something, and put some lace around the bottom. To make them pretty. Actually, there are a lot of nice camisoles, chemises and drawers from the Victorian era, so I was thinking later to make some and use as real pretty pajamas and so on.
corset - scaling up the pattern from the patent proved difficult, since I didn't know what scale to use. However, I got the idea from these made by someone else just a year or two ago, so I sent them an email and asked them for the length of the centre front opening so I would know how much to scale them up and they replied and i was very happy. This weekend I scaled up all the pieces and cut them out, but haven't sewn anything yet, so we will see what happens. If it doesn't fit I don't really know how to modfiy the pattern so I hope it works mostly straight off.
petticoat - like the one at the top of this page. I'm making it out of pale blue linen. Not sure of the authenticity of that, but it sounds alright to me. the ruffles I will try starching to make them stick out more and not crush. Not sure how that will work as I have never starched anything before. Should be interesting. The cotton for the dress is not too heavy, but there will be a few layers and folds and stuff.
bustle - won't be like a cage or whatever, but like the one on the petticoat page above. Haven't done anything there yet....
dress - so far done nothing, as I need the underwear done first. However, I have a picture from here (top dress) and a pattern to use as a base for the jacket. Picture is shown at left, because the site it comes from is being really slow and you might not get to see it otherwise.
Also there will be a corset cover, which is a bit like a camisole. I haven't decided on that yet, but it will have nice lave and stuff on it.
This is my progress since the 14th September to the beginning of the just passed weekend (22nd). Whether this actually gets done or not mostly depends on whether the corset works out over the next week.
I recently decided to make a Victorian costume so I could dress-up and go to the Historic Oamaru celebrations fete in November. Actually, it was the other way round; I decided to go so that I could make a costume. (Although you don't have to dress up to go.) When you read the costuming websites on the net, everyone else has all sorts of events and "faires" to go to and so forth, whereas the Oamaru thing is all I know of around her. Being that we are not in the US, Halloween isn't really that big of a thing here either, so there isn't really a big dress-up opportunity there either. Plus, I don't like that Halloween is celebrated firmly by date rather than season - it makes no sense here. So annoying. Christmas should be in winter too.
Anyway, Victorian dress. It is a bit of a mish-mash of years, with the dress being taken from 1874, the "combinations" (drawers and top in one to wear under everything) dates 1877 and after. The corset is from a patent application made in 1868.
Here is a break-down of the items I need to make:
combinations - from these pictures. here and here. So far I have tried making one lot, and not suceeded terribly well, and have drafted a pattern for a second lot that I am too scared to make in case they are not good either. They are ready and waiting however, and shouldn't take too long to finish to a basic degree, although I would also need to bind the neck and arm holes with something, and put some lace around the bottom. To make them pretty. Actually, there are a lot of nice camisoles, chemises and drawers from the Victorian era, so I was thinking later to make some and use as real pretty pajamas and so on.
corset - scaling up the pattern from the patent proved difficult, since I didn't know what scale to use. However, I got the idea from these made by someone else just a year or two ago, so I sent them an email and asked them for the length of the centre front opening so I would know how much to scale them up and they replied and i was very happy. This weekend I scaled up all the pieces and cut them out, but haven't sewn anything yet, so we will see what happens. If it doesn't fit I don't really know how to modfiy the pattern so I hope it works mostly straight off.
petticoat - like the one at the top of this page. I'm making it out of pale blue linen. Not sure of the authenticity of that, but it sounds alright to me. the ruffles I will try starching to make them stick out more and not crush. Not sure how that will work as I have never starched anything before. Should be interesting. The cotton for the dress is not too heavy, but there will be a few layers and folds and stuff.
bustle - won't be like a cage or whatever, but like the one on the petticoat page above. Haven't done anything there yet....
dress - so far done nothing, as I need the underwear done first. However, I have a picture from here (top dress) and a pattern to use as a base for the jacket. Picture is shown at left, because the site it comes from is being really slow and you might not get to see it otherwise.Also there will be a corset cover, which is a bit like a camisole. I haven't decided on that yet, but it will have nice lave and stuff on it.
This is my progress since the 14th September to the beginning of the just passed weekend (22nd). Whether this actually gets done or not mostly depends on whether the corset works out over the next week.
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