1870s summer white, and a picnic

 The StL Georgians (I can't get used to not calling it that, even though the group has branched out into other eras) had a picnic this summer, and it was going to be toasty. My Victorian wardrobe is quite limited so far because I'm a little too in love with the 18th century to really commit to other eras, but I have an 1870s ballgown that has yet to be worn; so what about using the pretty pink skirt from it?  I was having quite a joint pain flare-up and just couldn't countenance wearing a corset that weekend, so this got me thinking... were there any semi-loose, semi-cool summer garments in this era? I went to the fashion plates for answers and found the following:

 

 

 

Sure, they're all most likely being worn with the usual underpinnings, it would have rarely been proper NOT to, but I felt like they were all loose and fluffy enough that maybe I could get by with a modern bra.  Truly Victorian's TV401, the 1870s blouse waist, felt like a good base to use, and by adding some ruched trim and bows, I felt like I wasn't looking too out of place! The blouse went together extremely quickly from an old bedsheet, I'm sure I'll end up using this pattern again.

 

 

Thanks to a very late vet appointment for poor Charlotte (my bunny who at this point was in early kidney failure and we just didn't know it) I knew I was going to miss the first half of the picnic, but everyone was so sweet when I got there that it was a balm for my stressed soul.

 

 

We had such a fun range of eras so that each person was a fresh visual treat! Hot and sweaty though we all were, the afternoon was a delight anyway, with drinks and fruit, sandwiches and desserts, and good stories and laughter. 

1890s Wool Jacket

 This has been a difficult past few months for me... I started out the year with so much optimism, and lost my sweet senior rabbit Coal in January. He was my handsome companion of 10 years, so it left a definitely hole in my daily routine, missing his bright snappy black eyes. Then my sole remaining bun, Charlotte, had months of health struggles until she finally had to be put to sleep in June, and I genuinely feel like I failed her somehow, which makes the grieving process harder.

Sweet babies, barely tolerating each other for a Christmas photo

 

 

For now, I am rabbit-less, although we still have a darling sassy cat (found as a tiny kitten in an alley last year) and three needy dogs, so they are a big comfort.

Slow sewing is a comfort too, so I have managed a couple of projects that I really enjoyed. First was an 1890s jacket from the Black Snail pattern #0520.  This was my first attempt at anything resembling traditional tailoring methods, and I found I really enjoyed learning padstitching!

I had found an incredible deal on a hefty wool blend, and backed it with a canvas in all the spots required by the pattern, giving a really great shape to the jacket. 

Soooo much padstitching

 

While I didn't intend to fully duplicate the raised collar of a coat I had saved from a museum Instagram post, I really embraced the neat swirly design on the back of it and tried to bring a taste of that into the project.

Despite not always being sure of what I was going for or if I was tailoring correctly, I really was pleased with the nice clean lines of the jacket. I chose not to follow the pattern's skirts, as I wanted a tad more pleating around the front.

The sleeves didn't need any internal support, much to my surprise! The pattern had me cut a little half-moon of canvas that gets stitched into the upper armscye, and that was quite enough to keep it standing out from the shoulder.

I got to wear the jacket with a basic wool skirt for a skating party in Forest Park with the StL historical sewing group, and enjoyed the opportunity to put this to the test.

I was PLENTY warm the whole day, that's for sure!! My hubby was a good sport to dress up in black vest, pants, my dad's woolen greatcoat, and a top hat...but I couldn't quite convince him to ditch the sunglasses against the snow glare.

 

Jean of Fabricating History and Alyssa of The Sewing Goatherd looked marvelous and warm in their beautiful green ensembles!

I absolutely loved my hat, which was whipped up the night before from a black straw 18thc bergere, a lot of black matte taffeta, some ostrich feathers, and dotted net veiling. Initially I thought "Oh I'll just take this apart when I need my black bergere back" ...but it's way too cute to disassemble now.

Forest Park has a lot of picturesque spots, but none more perfect for this era than the wrought-iron Victorian bridge, and iron park benches near the lake. We had a lot of fun trying to get just the right feel.

 

 

 

 

 The following are my favorites, and it's fascinating how authentic they look with a bit of an old-timey filter applied!

 

 

Alyssa and I were all smiles that day

 

The jacket had just the dramatic flair I was hoping for, and hopefully will get worn for more late Victorian winter outings!

 

Fresh year, fresh projects!

 Overly optimistic as always, I have a TON of things I'd love to make this year, or at least to get started on! In no particular order (I want to leave room to tackle them only as they inspire me), here we go!

Somehow I stumbled across this portrait of Marie Antoinette -- and while my brain is probably just forgetting a million images I've seen, dark green feels less usual in 18thc portraiture than most other colors, especially for the frequently painted MA. This painting crossed my path at just the right time, when I had just bought a stunning changeable green taffeta shot with the lightest pink, absolutely perfect for recreating this gown. But because I love the fabric so much and want to save some of it, most likely I'll be doing a jacket/petticoat combination rather than the full sacque gown I imagine was probably being worn here. Also fortuitously, I have a LOT of suitable lace (something like a 26 meter roll?) and it took no time at all to find the little pink paper flowers.  The petticoat is sitting at home right now, already halfway done, as I'm going to wear it to an event this weekend (hopefully) with a plaid pet en l'air.

Next up, this amazing gown in Alexander Roslin's portrait of the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna (born Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg, later Empress consort of Emperor Paul I of Russia). I have a fondness for her as a historical personage, it sounds like she made the best of a difficult situation with the nightmare of all mother-in-laws, the formidable (and similarly German-born) Catherine the Great, who yanked from Maria the first two infant sons she bore. But though most women would have been overshadowed by a monarch like Catherine, Maria Feodorovna held her own. She was bright, well-educated, curious, won over her difficult husband, had 10 children, and greatly influenced Russian charities, architecture, and politics during her era. 

I'm not much of an orange-wearer, but this dress just won't leave my mind, and I've been wanting to try it for years. I feel sure it's silk satin rather than taffeta, and most likely a Robe a la Francaise, but for the sake of yardage (I have an orange satin that's been sitting in my stash) I'm going to attempt to make it a Robe a la Anglaise instead. I have rather a lot of vintage gold net and ivory flowers with green leaves, so supply-wise I should be set!

 

A Renaissance gown has been very high on my list for the past 6 months. For years I have watched The Borgias over and over and OVER again, and love all of Lucrezia's floaty, decadent gowns, so maybe this year I'll attempt something like a mashup between the papal investiture ceremony gown and her wedding gown (because I love her headdress in that scene). I now have the Margo Anderson Italian Gamurra pattern recommended to me by Costumer's Closet, 10 yards of a stunning gold silk damask (for $10 a yard!), and quite a bit of a sheer ivory window-pane material for a camicia...I don't anticipate that any of it will really be historically accurate, being more screen-inspired than anything, but since Renaissance is a hot thing in the community on Instagram right now, it might be time to dive in! The show mixes textiles and textures in the most intricate, delicious way, so it would be fun to experiment with that.

                                 

Victorian needs to be high on my list this year as well, if I ever want to finish my self-set "Decades" goal of making one gown per decade from 1700-1900.  I have a really fun red cotton print that I'd love to use to make something like this 1840s day dress! There's a good Truly Victorian pattern in my stash that should produce a similar gown.

Similarly, I'd like to get a good 1850s gown in, from a dark brown and navy stripe (synthetic, but hey I'm not just going to throw it away!)....

...and a plaid 1860s gown as well (I've got a brown/blue/red plaid silk that I picked up for $10 a yard and it would be perfect for this).  While I only plan to make the day bodice for now, eventually it'd be nice to also have a matching ballgown bodice, and hopefully there's enough yardage left over for that.

 

There's a lovely lilac plaid sitting in my fabric storage, and possibly enough solid purple fabric to attempt this Natural Form (ish? there's a wee bit of bustle there) walking gown...

...and just to round out the Victorian insanity, this amazing bustle gown, for which I have lots of grey satin stripe with a little bit of yellow ribbon stripe running through it.

I have a beautiful yellow and white silk damask that would be a stunning riding habit, a la Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons, and a black straw bergere, all ready to go....if I ever feel like making a million black buttonholes! 😂

From the thrift store, I found a remarkably similar orangey/burgundy fabric with dark green stripes already woven in....and I think it'd make an amazingly similar outfit to the "Portrait of a Woman inspired by Lucretia" by Lorenzo Lotto. We'll see if I ever get around to this or not, it's not high on my list but the fabric is just too good to let go.

And then a couple of VERY long term projects, because they'd be so detail-intensive:

I'd just love to have an early Regency ballgown that's spangled at the bottom. I have a chocolate brown silk in the stash already, and a ton of flat gold spangles....but probably not as many as I'll need for a very intricate design. I might start off very small in design and see what my tolerance for such a project might be, but thanks to the 1790s adjustability, I could work on such a thing for years and still be able to fit in it despite any weight fluctuations. 

Lastly of all -- This incredible sequined Worth gown has been on my radar for years, and it's always surprised me that none of the 'big' costume names have been interested in tackling it. Whatever I do would only end up being my approximation.... I have neither the interest nor patience to painstakingly count the number of sequins per square inch to make an exact copy. But it really is an absolutely stunning piece and I can only imagine how it would shimmer with each movement. The silhouette itself is nothing unusual...basic Edwardian bodice and skirt shape... but the sequins embroidered onto the sheer overlay on both the bertha (is it still called that by the 1900s?) and skirt will be a challenge.

So there we have it! Way too many projects for me to get done in one year, but I'd rather aim too high than too low. It's lovely to have something to look forward to, and I'm not really the kind of person who feels pressured by setting goals for myself and then not moving as quickly as I'd like on them. These days, sometimes it's progress to get in 10 minutes of sewing, but my love of fashion and art just can't let pieces and projects like these go without a fight!

1830s cotton gown

 

In my quest to do as many decades of popular European fashion history as possible, I always assumed the 1830s would be the LAST I'd ever hit up. Those crazy sleeves! Those uber-feminine prints! THAT HAIR! But for some reason, after seeing this gown on Etsy (it's still there for a cool $3800) I really started to get the burning desire to jump in:

 

 

There seem to be quite a few examples like this in museums -- light ground cotton, with floral print, geometric, or a combination of both.

 

 

Armed with that knowledge, I bounded off to Thousands of Bolts (my go-to website for inexpensive cotton) and found a great pink floral-and-geometric to fit the bill. It arrived, I cut into Truly Victorian's TV455, and apparently I was SO excited that apparently I didn't take a single progress picture until I hit this point:

 

 

But then I started running into some issues, namely that even though I have the Bootstrap dummy which is made to my size, I didn't have the confidence that I was fitting it correctly. I have joint issues that make some movements really uncomfortable so I almost NEVER make a back-closing gown which I hate taking off and on, and the frustration of this made me sew up the back and open it instead down the front seam, just like the gown that inspired me on Etsy. I also cut down and rounded the neckline a bit more because I felt like it was just too high and restrictive.

 

Here you can see it opened up down the front as I'm also trying to draft a couple of types of pelerines, the large cape-like shawls that were so common to the era. 

Being that this is such a light cotton and most likely to be a summer-time frock, I wasn't too fond of the idea of big puffy hot pillows bound to my upper arms to pad out the ludicrous sleeves. Luckily, I had stumbled across Kendra's great blog post on drafting her sleeve supports, and there is some historical precedence for these 'crinoline' type of boned puffers!  

I sewed up a little sleeve cap insert and added a heavy-duty zip tie to the bottom (ok, it's two taped together because I don't think they come that long) like a tiny hoop-skirt. I ended up having to soften the edge of it with a quick and dirty tulle ruffle because it was showing too harshly through the very light cotton of the gown sleeve, but that only adds to the puffery.

 Not sure why I was watching Emma while doing 1830s things but hey

And it WORKED. Boy howdy did it work:

 

 KAPOOOOFFPH. Hi neighbors, don't mind me in my dress with built-in WaterWings.

 

 

I chortled when I saw these pictures. A lot. There's something about just full-on embracing a really ridiculous style that tickles me pink, and I'm SO glad I went for it.

These shoes were an exciting find to me -- Target flats with quite square toes (too bad I took this picture in the grass where you can't see it, but they are really a great shape). I sewed some ribbon ties onto them and they're just about perfect.

 

 

 The dogs weren't too happy because there were no butterflies to be had, so I stalked them instead in the yard. I opted not to go full-crazy in making a corded petticoat (sorry, not THAT obsessed with this era) and instead wore my quilted puffer petticoat and felt like it did the trick. If I wear this to an event, I might try starching a light cotton petticoat to go over that for even more oomph. Was I wearing a corset or stays? Nnnno.

 

My hair is all my own....because I bought it. I actually have hair down to my waist but it neither curls nor cooperates, so the side-curls are 'sideswept bangs' from Amazon, wrapped around foam rollers and dunked in boiling water for a minute, then left to completely dry before removing the curlers. They're great because I can clip them in for any number of historical hairstyles...1710s, 1810s, 1830s....I could probably even pin them to the very front of my forehead for that funny curly mop look in the 1880s. The braids are also hairpieces wrapped around my real bun. Throw a few flowers in for a springy look....but keep reading for when things get wild.

 

I made my own gold 'torpedo' earrings, and got into that weird shoulder-necklace trend as well with some box-chain from Etsy, then whipped up a sheer pelerine and combined it with my Regency chemisette for the extra whitework look. The pin is an actual antique piece, and the 'belt buckle' is just a brass stamping from Etsy with a wire slider glued to the back of it.

 

But wait, there's more! 😂

 For the fun of it, when the weather started getting chillier, I also made a self-fabric pelerine, seen with some museum extants.

 

For some reason it makes everything feel very 1990s Laura Ashley to me, but I'm nostalgic so I can roll with that. I think this would be a great piece for traveling or even just a breezier outdoor stroll, to both protect the dress and cover the neckline and shoulders a little more for warmth.

 

Much pink. Very geometric. Large overstuffed Grandma-chair.

 

And then I reallllly lost my marbles and tried an 1830s formal hair-style. It wouldn't have been worn with a day gown like this, but there are a few fashion plates out there that make me think I could insert short sleeves and more lace around a lowered neck-line and get away with it:

So I pulled out ALL my hairpieces, birds, flowers, feathers, you name it...

 

And there we have it. Peak Ludicrousness. I snorted a lot, giggled a lot, and considered going to the grocery store like this because who WOULDN'T find a little joy in seeing something this silly and extra? 💖