HSF#12... 1865 dress for Princess Royal Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa

Not quite finished with HSF#10... but already looking forward to the next project. :-)

HSF#12's requirements: pick a historical princess, queen, empress, duchess, etc., and create a dress that either she wore or could have worn.

Since I have an American Civil War ball coming up (September), I figured I would pick an 1865 ball gown.  It would need to be dark/black, since I'm trying to only use fabric from my stash for the rest of the year.  I originally wanted to do a dress for Queen Victoria, but all of the evening dresses (photos, paintings) I found for her were from at least a decade prior since she didn't go out in public after Prince Albert's death except for a few state occasions or official photos for various commemorations.  Plus, any evening dress she would have worn at the time would have been for a slightly older person than I am now and I want to be accurate in that context.  But, in my search for "queen victoria 1860s evening dress" I stumbled upon a few photos of another Victoria - the Princess Royal (Queen Victoria's eldest daughter).  Lo and behold, there were even a couple of photos of her in an 1860s BLACK evening dress (from the style of the bodice, skirt shape - round bell rather than elliptical, and sleeves - small/lacey, it looked like it may have been 1861-2 - probably in mourning for her father).   Plus, the dress is simple (as in, there aren't a million ruffles or fripperies to the nth degree; again, probably a reflection of being in mourning), which is what I was looking for.  Score, gown chosen - with a slight modification to the skirt (make it elliptical) and bodice (shallower bodice front point).

There are what look like two versions of a black dress: this (older?) one with bigger sleeves and a plainer skirt (with a few bows) and this (later?) one with smaller sleeves and skirt trim and edge ruffles.  The bodice looks to be the same one as a base, but perhaps it was modified and then paired with a different skirt?  Her hair is different (simpler in the first), so it's definitely photos from two different occasions.

My fabric is a poly-something that looks like a satin.  It's a dark slate blue, almost black and is on the thin side, so will definitely need to make a dark petticoat to wear under it.

The pattern I will use is from Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 2.  The skirt will be based on the 1865 day dress (so it's elliptical), and the bodice will be slightly modified from the 1861-4 evening dress pattern (i.e., much shallower front point) to look like the 1865 peach silk linked below.  I have exactly 5 yards of fabric, so I have no wiggle room for mistakes (but, yay for multi-piece Victorian bodices that one can squeeze in between skirt panels).

For visual reference of the base bodice/skirt construction/shape, I will be using this peach silk (1865)  from the Met Museum.  Nice, simple, elegant lines, and the ability to zoom in closely to see seam placement is VERY helpful. :-)

Goldberry's green monster of a dress

Yes, the green UFO overdress dress is still giving me issues... So though I fixed and mostly finished it (just needs proper lacing), I'm not going to count it for this challenge after all... The fit is less than stellar, even with taking out and re-sewing all of the skirt seams, and it doesn't work with the image of Goldberry as I had hoped it would. She is graceful, the dress is not; she is elegant, the dress is not. *sigh*  It's not a bad dress, per sé, it's just more appropriate for a faire or something like that.

Thankfully, I have a back-up plan, though there is (yet another) time crunch (sadly, this looks like a pattern...).

I will recreate her silver-green dress as a medieval cotehardie instead, using non-period (though looks it, almost) fabric.  I was originally planning on a reversible dress using the UFO green dress and this other fabric, but since that dress isn't quite up to par, and I'm making the silver-green anyway, might as well just make it as it should be and on its own.

(Once I finish the lacing of the UFO dress, and making of the silver-green, I'll post photos on here for comparison purposes.)

Hello, Monday. :-)

In which I get a little ambitious (perhaps): 18th century saque / robe à la française

So, I am intrigued by and want to make a robe à la française at some point... I picked up some fabric on sale a while ago: it's the same fabric as from that curtain-along last year, but in a "blue-scale" on a white background, instead of multi-color on white.

Think it could be acceptable for HSF#15: "White" (since some color is allowed) or is there too much blue?

...and the challenge continues... HSF #10: Literature

So... the "flora and fauna" challenge was engaging enough that I'm going to try my hand at another.  And, yes, I have 10 days in which to do it. :-)  Again.  Hopefully this is just coincidence and not the beginning of a trend... (well, I will prolly have to bow out for a lot of the challenges this summer due to work and class, so guess I'd better get the sewing in now while I can.)

The next challenge in the Historical Sew Fortnightly is:
#10: Literature – due May 20. The written word has commemorated and immortalised fashions for centuries, from the ‘gleaming’ clothes that Trojans wore before the war, to Desdemona’s handkerchief, ‘spotted with strawberries’, to Meg in Belle Moffat’s borrowed ballgown, and Anne’s longed for puffed sleeves.In this challenge make something inspired by literature: whether you recreate a garment or accessory mentioned in a book, poem or play, or dress your favourite historical literary character as you imagine them.

The intent of this one is for it to be a literary (read: historical/period) source and/or inspired garment or accessory.  And, being me, I gravitate toward garments... So, after wracking my brain for something that I would love to do (one of Christine's dresses from Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux - because now I can't read it without seeing the costumes of the movie; an Edwardian outfit from a favorite *fantasy* historical fiction novel; or a Regency dress like something Eleanor would wear) but can't due to time and learning curve...

I finally settled on something similar enough to what I've done before that doesn't require learning a new silhouette/pattern/style and therefore can be finished relatively quickly, and is something I have wanted to do but hadn't had a solid concept for exactly what it would look like before, AND (takes the cake) incorporates the use of (finishes) a UFO (UnFinished Object).  Tri-fecta.

And it is...

DONE! HSF #9: Floral... Indienne anglaise en fourreau

Ta-Da!!  La robe, c'est finie!!! 

       

And I now have a record for the fastest other-than-a-skirt-only project I've ever made.

The Challenge:  #9: Flora and Fauna

Fabric: Indienne floral/stripe print (cotton) - an old tablecloth made from curtains (third iteration of this fabric now), approx. 80" diameter (2 yd, 8 in / 3m), printed in the '70s or early '80s and found in attic; white linen lining - 40" width, approx. 1 yd (from stash)

Pattern: Patterns of Fashion's c.1770-80 The Gallery of English Costume floral stripe with quilted petticoat; construction following Katherine's anglaise en fourreau (wonderful tutorial)

Year: 1770-80

Notions: poly thread (cream, red (since I ran out of the cream), white (for hooks/eyes)), 11 hook/eye pairs

How historically accurate is it? I'm not an expert at appraising accuracy since this is my first project, but I'd give it about an 85% accuracy.  The main detractor is the curve of the hem of the gown since I used the edge of the tablecloth to conserve fabric (and sewing time), and as the tablecloth was round, that meant that the front edge was also round instead of hanging straight to the floor; it looks like it's worn à la polonaise as a result (with a bit of a train), though it isn't actually polonaised.  It was entirely hand sewn except for the hem (original to the tablecloth), since machines and I don't get alone.  The pattern is accurate to Patterns of Fashion except for the hem curve, the fabric is cotton with a linen bodice lining.  Another detractor is that the thread I used was a poly blend (from stash).

Hours to complete:  14-16 or so; I started on April 27, finished May 6 at 11:54pm (that still counts, right?). 

First worn: Not yet, but perhaps to Colony House's Fourth of July celebration this year.

Total cost: 100% from stash/attic, so $0... but if counting what it cost at the time... the curtains were probably $30-40 back in the day; the linen was $6/yd the hooks/eyes were most of a set, so $3 when I bought them, thread (used two and a bit 110yd/100m spools) was $2/spool... $45-55 total 

Inspirations... primarily, the illustrations of the gown in Patterns of Fashion and this one (p.6 of the PDF): Blue silk brocade Robe à l'anglaise (1770-85) ... plus several gowns from the Met - Robe à l'anglaise (1784), Robe à l'anglaise (1750-75), Robe à l'anglaise (1785-89) - and the Colonial Williamsburg eMuseum (it's not letting me link at the moment, will post those later).

Had a really fun time making this... especially with the deadline.  It was definitely a challenge due to the limited material and the fact that some of it was (rather heavily) faded (one side of the skirt front, and one side of the back).  The most time consuming parts were the en fourreau pleats, the skirt pleats, and the front center trim (had to piece each striped "strip" from at least two if not three pieces of fabric to make the pattern match - often with millimeters to spare).  For posts on each part of the construction, click on the 'red stripe floral indienne' label.

...and, take a bow (curtsey) :-)

HSF... the indienne adventure continues...

So, I spent a few hours sewing the gown over the past few days, and was able to finish it at 11:54 (or :56)pm on May 6, so technically within the deadline.

Here's a few more progress photos...

First, pinning and then sewing the en fourreau back (THAT was a challenge, to get the stripes right, since as it turned out I had sewed about an inch too much toward the center on one side and hadn't lined the pleats up properly for the skirt when I first sewed that, so it was a tad lopsided).  It still looks fine, but one of the side stripe pleats (I'll let you guess which one) has a significantly narrower fold to it than the other.

...on the dress form the next day

Then, deciding whether to sew two stripes of self-trim down the center to break up the bodice at all... and, once I did decide to do it, figuring out HOW I was going to do it since I didn't have two strips of stripe that were the same size AND the same pattern for symmetry.  (That's the problem with making something from a tablecloth, I suppose.)  So, each stripe is pieced together from at least two (the one on my left is three) pieces (some of them small/weird angles for sewing) other pieces of stripe.  It worked better than I thought, actually, though it took longer to first pin and then sew.  

Pinned on the dress form - somehow managed to get it to shut this time...  And added the cranberry petticoat I'd made for that anglaise...

Can you tell where the seams are on the stripes?  

When I pinned and sewed it, I left about 1/8" over the front fabric (which in turn was 1/8" further than the lining) to cover the hooks/eyes and have a flat (yet fully closed) opening.  I also was on the last yard of cream thread when I was sewing these on, so had to switch to a red to sew the inner edges of the trim... not ideal, but better (I think) than pure white.  Then I sewed 11 pairs of hooks/eyes, evenly spaced, to the front center closure.

On the dress form...

DONE!!  Final photos wearing it, and official write-up for HSF in the next post... :-)

HSF floral tablecloth anglaise progress (or, a race against time)

So, I left off on Monday with just the lining sewn together and the skirt and back pinned on.

Well, I'm almost done, as of tonight.  Not bad. :-)

After sewing the skirt on later Monday night, the gown graced my dress form until Wednesday night, when I cut and pinned the bodice front, a small bit of robing on the shoulder, and the sleeves onto the dress.  Used up a full box and a half of pins doing that, so pinning the en fourreau back in place will have to wait until I've sewn everything else (which I'll do tomorrow).  It took a while, too... since I wanted to get the pattern to match perfectly on the front, with the stripe going over the shoulders the same way, too.

Here's a few progress photos...

The last of the fabric; just enough for the bodice fronts and two sleeves.
That pile of fabric at the top (left on the fabric) is the skirt as it's attached to the bodice lining (white), in case you were wondering. 

One reason that I might actually be done with this on time: the tablecloth's edges were already hemmed, which I am shamelessly taking advantage of for my sleeve edges and bodice edges and skirt hem.

I pinned the sleeves in first before pinning the bodice fronts on.  Not sure how period that is, but it seemed to work really well.  I think the sleeves for this one may have come out better than for the cranberry...

Modeled on the dress form... The bodice doesn't close because the dress form isn't wearing the stays...

I'll take a better picture later, in better light, I promise.

So far, not bad for a second first attempt; not great, but not bad.

I'm really enjoying this project... especially the challenge of using the tablecloth. I've heard tell of 'curtain-alongs' - has anyone else ever done a 'tablecloth-along'?

It's also interesting because the fabric is so old (older than me by at least 10 years if not more) that it is stiff and almost brittle in places (which made the pleating kinda fun since it didn't want to un-learn a pleat).  Quite the different experience than the cranberry that had newer fabric which was also a tad thinner.  If I can find some more time this summer, I may just go hunting around in the attic again to try and find the curtains and make a petticoat to go with the overgown.  At this rate, though, since I'll be taking another class this summer and still working, not sure I'll have the time... So, I will prolly wear it with either the cranberry petticoat or else will need to make a plain off-white one (since the fabric is no longer a true white, but has yellowed a bit - thankfully evenly).

Next steps... 1) sew everything that's pinned; 2) pin and sew the en fourreau back; 3) if have time (and fabric), make engageants for sleeves (perhaps?).  So close, but not quite there yet :-)