1880's Bustle Gown.

I have been sewing away (between work and shuttling children) on an 1880s bustle dress that was supposed to be for an event today. Well, the fates did not cooperate so I did not get to go, but I guess that gives me time to tweak a few things I wasn't happy with but was prepared to overlook due to time constraints. So after this post I will be spending the rest of my day in the sewing room but thought I would get up the first group of pictures/construction notes on this project.

I had not intended on making an 1880s bustle dress for this event, I tend to like the more natural form gowns of the mid 1870s because I am very short and fluffy, so I do not need more "pouf." But when the lovely Mara gave me her Imperial Bustle, I figured I would just go with that period that way I did not have to make one.

I spent a lot of time on Pinterest and found a few elements I liked that I thought would work for my frame and lack of height. I do not have them saved so I will have to post the inspiration photos later. Anyway, besides the bustle and corset, I was also gifted some TV patterns and this lovely deep red (garnet) silk. So I decided to use that for my dress as well as to repurpose a lovely plaid silk dress I have been holding onto for years. Both fabrics are much lovelier than these photos depict.

                                     

I did not have an appropriate pattern for this era and had lent out my pattern book so I had nothing on hand. I thought about just completely drafting something but because of time, and the fact I just REALLY didn't want to, decided to take one of the patterns I was given and just alter it. A lot. I used the TV mid 1870s Dinner Bodice pattern as my base, cutting the neckline much higher and shorteniing the back peplum pieces, as well as adding width to the peplum from the waistline down to allow it to fit over the robust 1880s bustle.

For the skirts I knew I wanted to incorporate the plaid, but I did not have very much of it. I also knew because of my height and size I cannto handle a lot of drapes and ruffles. I found a fashion plate that had stripes of plaid going verticle on its underskirt so decided this would be a good idea. I took apart the plaid dress and measuring the length I needed for the strips cut out as many as was possible.

The source of my plaid fabric.

 

I did not have enough fabric to space these evenly all the way around the underskirt, so I placed the first 5, starting with center front, a set space apart, then I placed the remaining ones where needed, pleating the fabric up in between to make them look closer together than they were. The left side of the dress has one more stripe than the right as I planned for the drape to go all the way to the hem on that side.

                                      

Here is the finished underskirt pined to the petticoat for placement. It has a yoke like the petticoat to help eliminate bulk at the waist, but I wanted to drape it first and decide how I was doing the overskirts before putting it all together. I also decided that before I could be sure how I wanted to drape the overskirt that I needed to see how the bodice was going to work, so I started on that next. 

                                 


I love how the 1880s bodices are so fitted and go up to the neck, unfortunately I just cannot pull them off. I am too heavy and I do not have much of a neck anymore as I have two bulging discs at the base which has made it even shorter. I decided that if I went with the faux vest look I could leave it open up at the neck even if this isn't something that would have been done. To keep this from being to Christmassy, I decided to turn this into an 1880s Gryffindor inspired costume. I had been wanting to do a mid 1870s Professor McGonnagal, so now it will just be a different decade.

I had a lovely golden yellow shot silk left over from my corset (yes the one that is still not finished) so decdided to use that as the vest. It is perfect for the color scheme. I used a heavy twill I had for interlining, and as you can see it sewed up very nicely.

Simplicity 1777 Sew Along

Melissa and I and are doing a Retro Sew-along! For our first design we chose Simplicity 1777. Here is a picture of the pattern and the material I will be using. If anyone wants to join, let us know. The more the merrier!

1880's Chemise Finished.

Yes, I actually did finish this, almost *cough* a year later. I just used a simple white flat lace I already had to create the neckline casing for adjustment. It is a synthetic, so obviously not historically accurate, but it was what I had on hand. I would like to make another one of these from a light weight linen, so when I do I will get better trim.

Chemise being worn with gifted corset.

The simple ribbons through the top allows me to adjust the neckline as needed.

The gifted Victorian Corset & Bustle.

For my Bustle Dress, which is needed October 11th, I need an entire set of underpinnings. I never make myself anything which is why I always miss events, well that and illnesses, whether mine or the kids, so it was a great help when Mara offered me a corset she has made as a mock-up, and her old bustle! This has saved me so much time! I really do not think I would have had time with work to get all of this done, particuarly when these two things are so time consuming. The bustle works perfectly, and though the corset is a bit small, I will just allow it to have a bit more room in the back than it should until I can loose a few pounds.

I had been saving this cute little trim for when I made my corset, but now that I have something that will work for the time being (obviously I should have one made for my shape but its not going to happen for a while), I decided to go ahead and put it on the corset I was gifted. It took me a few hours to do the top and the bottom, but I really like how it looks with the lovely silk.

Here is the corset with its original trim. It was constructed from a muted fleshy-peach silk, with flat-steal boning. It is very well made, she did a wonderul job on it.

I pulled off the other trim and sewed this one on by hand. The busk comes up high enough that I really do not need the ribbon at the top--I don't think. If it turns out I do, I will just tack one in place. Because this trim is cream and the binding on the corset is white, I took a simple flat cream lace I had and bound the bottom edge as well, so it did not look so stark (not shown).

Here is a close-up of the corset over my chemise. I realy do love this trim, At one time I had enough to trim the top and bottom, which was my intent, but I cannot figure out what happened to the rest.

Side view of the corset, worn over my chemise, with the bustle Mara gave me. 

A little bit more on the 18th Century Corset.

I finally transfered these pics so I could uploads them, but admittedly not too much progress has happened. I have yet to make up my mind on what I am doing for the binding so I have seriously been stalling. I did however, get both linings basted in, and one half's grommet holes done. Not quite as neat as I would like but at least they are done. 

 

I had this nice piece of vntage cotton--lovely and soft--that I thought would make a nice lining.

I took the corset, and making certain the it was flat across the top and middle, pinned it to the lining. It is important that there is no wrinkles in the cotton when you do this. You want it perfectly flat all the way down to the waistline; from waist down I did it was done differently.

This is not the best picture to illustrate this, but I will try and explain. There is "give" in the shape of the corset from the waistline down, as the pieces move and spread to go over the hips, to make this work our correctly, once i had to top part pinned smooth, I flattened out the bottom pieces as much as I could to give that spread, then cut all the way around--from waistline on one side, around the bottom, to the waistline on the other side. One it was cut out, starting from the center back I started to pin the tabs, slicing straight up the middle between them so there was enough fabric to so spead out. The most difficult piece is where the side front/front meet, but I used this same process, moving and flattening the pieces as I went. You have to pin each piece really thoroughly or they will slip.

Once it was all pinned, I started to baste the lining to the silk by hand. I thought about doing it by machine but felt I had much better control if I did it this way instead. Now the top and bottom (including tabs) are basted on WITHOUT turning under or finishing the edges, this is because of the binding. At center front and center back the edges were turned under. I gave myself a good 1/2" inch for this, It not only made it easier to pin, it gaves it more heft for when I sewed in the grommet holes.

I trimmed all the excess away. I was sirprised at how neat it turned out to be.

It's that time again...

Yes, it is that time again; when I actually FINALLY get off my fanny and post to the blog, and plan out what may--or may not--get done for Halloween. After several custom costume transactions that turned out to be more of a pain then they were worth, I am taking a serious step back from it and concentrating on actually sewing some things for myself and my family. I have an event coming up a Bustle Era event coming up on October 11th, and then Halloween looming in front of me, so I need to get moving on the costumes for both. So I need to complete the following outfits:

1:Bustle Dress--including petticoat, chemise (I get to cheat on corset and Bustle because the lovely Mara gave me those), drawers (still not sure on these), Hat and ruticle. Hey no need to panic I still have 13 days??

2:Assasin Costume--My daughter saw a cool cape pattern from Simplicity and wants that for her costume. What the rest of the thing will entail we have yet to decide.

3:Link Costume--Can't remember which one my son said but I know it did not involve chainmail. Going to try and use more historic shapes and fabrics so he can use this for other things as well.

4:Anime Costume--Don't know which one this is. Making it for my son's friend.

5:Husband's Halloween Costume--this could end up being either Hagrid or the Jolly Green Giant.

6:Simplicity 1777--Almost forgot about this one! I am supposed to be doing a sew along for this dress with Melissa. Need to get going....