Embracing the Challenge

HSF Challenge #6: "Join the Historical Sew Fortnightly heroine and sew up some stripes!"

http://thedreamstress.com/the-historical-sew-fortnightly/the-hsf-challenge-6-stripes/

The challenge really seemed to encompass a wide range of eras from Jenni's 1930's dress to Sarah's regency under gown.

Jenni's dress was a lovely 20s to 30s transitional day dress done in a summery seersucker. 

http://livingwithjane.blogspot.com/2013/03/historical-sew-fortnighly-challenge-6.html?m=1

Mouse Borg made a very impressive striped fur muff! Having never worked in fur before I was quite enthralled and amazed with her project :)

http://mouseborgdesigns.blogspot.ca/2013/03/striped-muff-finished.html?m=1

And Sarah made a lovely Regency under gown for a ball gown that I just can't wait to see the finished results of. Spoiler alert, it's a sad post, her kitty had some trouble with the project and needed a serious vet visit but is fine now.

http://sarahlizzi.blogspot.com/2013/04/hsf-6-stripes.html?m=1

Making My Bustle

I was going to make my bustle using the Laughing Moon pattern because I already had it lying around and it looked relatively easy. Then just before I got started I read about Jennifer's trials and tribulations with the pattern over at Historical Sewing 
http://historicalsewing.com/the-tail-of-3-bustles
Her favorite pattern came from Truly Victorian and while I am familiar with how good those patterns are I didn't want the wait of having to order one online.

But then I remembered that Lauren over at American Duchess had recently patterned out a lobster tail bustle for her recent "green acres" dress.
http://americanduchess.blogspot.com/2013/01/v346-how-to-make-victorian-bustle.html?m=1
Her post made the whole process sound so easy and painless and she was so happy with her results that I figured I could do it too!

As Lauren and I are of a size I decided to just make mine to the same measurements as hers. So far i have made it through the steps with little difficulty and am now just a few simple last steps from being complete!

I need to add my ruffle to the bottom edge and then insert the bones. Well in my case I am going to use round reed left over from making my pocket hoops last year :)

So far so good! I totally recommend American Duchesses pattern, it is clear and well explained. I cant wait to have this complete and try it with my dress :)

Bustles

One of the problems I encountered with the striped dress was satisfactory undergarments. I just couldn't find the right combination of petticoats, hoops, or bustle pads to give me the shape I had in my head. So I am going to make my first bustle! I have a little short bustle that I bought on eBay way back in the early days that has served me well to this point but now I think i am going to go for the full lobster tail bustle. 

And below is a look at some original bustles that I have collected images of from various auction sites for my own sewing reference.

My favorites are the smaller pads made of horse hair or wire mesh:

This is similar to my old short bustle:

And also the full cage varieties:

Then there are the longer un caged bustles like the lobster tail ( which I am going to make):

Stripe Dress - decoration and done!

All the pink edging on the over dress and the bows had to come from the same fabric as the underskirt otherwise  the colors would never have matched, not even close.

So using some of my excess yardage I cut strips of the pink stripe out and then carefully pressed the white edges under.

It was a little bulky to work with but I made it work and luckily didn't have to edge all that much. 

The bows are false because if I had tied them like normal the white back would have shown through. 

The tassels came from the depths of my stash ;)

And voila! It's all done, well in advance of the picnic which isn't till the end of the month :)

Stripe Dress - an update

So the overdress was completed this weekend!

I did finally decide to make the bodice and overskirt as one like an 18th century polonaise. There was no specific reason why, I was building the two pieces kinda simultaneously and then just like that one was sewn to the other :) I had to show it with the punk waist band because otherwise it just looked so awkward. 

The whole thing still needs to be trimmed but that's all relatively easy.

Oh and if you noticed the skirts look different here than previous photos that's because I am trying out different combinations of undergarments to get the best looks. In the previous photos I thought it looked to big and this is too narrow, perhaps I will get lucky and the next attempt with be just right, a la Goldilocks style ;)  

New Hair

Kind of off topic but I'm excited so I couldn't resist sharing!

I changed my hair color around the beginning of this year to be closer to my natural color which has become quite dark, as a result the hair pieces I use for historical hair styles no longer match. So I got in touch with my friend Tracy Lynn over at The Historical Hairdresser and purchased a whole new set!http://www.thehistoricalhairdresser.com

Two buns

Three small curl clusters

3 loose hanks for braids and such

And two big sausage curls

I'm very happy with everything and can't wait to get to use it :)

Stripe Dress Progress

Based on the fashion plate I am copying, the over dress is very much a polonaise and likely bodice and overskirt are on piece attached at the waist. I haven't quite decided if I am going to do that too or have them as separate pieces. I'm still trying to decide what will be easier.

But the bodice has been mocked up and the skirts draped! 

The whole thing still needs to be fitted so there's likely to be a bit more adjusting but the bodice is coming from an old muslin that I had drafted and fitted to myself a ways back, it's the foundation I use for all my 1860s gowns, so it should be pretty close.

The skirts just started out as rectangles and it was just a whole lot of pleat here and tuck there until I had a shape I liked. While I am quite happy with the back I am not in love with the front panels yet . . . I feel like they are too full like maybe I have to much being plated  into the waist toward the front. . . Not sure though.

Alright off to the next step!

Stripes Inspiration - continued

This group was all hoop dresses :)

Stripes Inspiration - bustle gowns

Before I found the fashion plate I'm copying I did some digging through my archives to look for inspiration. Here are some extant bustle gowns that I was initially considering :)

The Garment District

I am lucky enough to live near enough to Downtown LA and the garment district. Which is an incredible area to buy fabric with dozens of shops and sellers with a huge variety of fabrics sold by the yard at often whole sale prices.

I try to go no more then a hand full of times a year to keep my fabric hoarding to the bare min of what I need to sew right now. And I try to go when I have more then one thing on my list. 

We went on saturday and while the trip was mainly to get fabric for a big upcoming project of Michaels, I did get quite a few things for some of my own upcoming projects.

The large black is cotton velvet for something renaissance and as a fabric staple. The smaller blue is wool for an upcoming HSF challenge.

The purple and gold will be for a bustle dress or two :)

This light blue has a future as a twenties dress:

And the shear cotton is going to be a chemise d'la reine at some point when I get around to it :) 

Embracing the challenge

#5 peasants and pioneers - making something for the common man/ woman :) http://thedreamstress.com/the-historical-sew-fortnightly/the-hsf-challenge-5-peasants-and-pioneers

I really just fell in love with this little poppet that Jenni made for her daughter! http://livingwithjane.blogspot.com/2013/03/historical-sew-fortnightly-challenge-5.html

Caroline's little knitted pouch is adorable and super handy looking! Originally meant for her fires starting supplies it looks like it also fits modem items like credit cards :) http://caddamsbetraktelser.wordpress.com/category/historical-sew-fortnightly-challenge/

And black tulip made a very incredible corded 1870s sun bonnet! She did the whole thing by hand and it looks just perfect! http://blacktulipsewing.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/peasants-and-pioneers.html

***I need to add a little caveat here - as stated previously in the week I am not on Facebook and as a result I only see a small portion of participants who are posting directly to the dreamstresses site***

Spring SDI Victorian Ball

Was this last Saturday out in Pasadena. The event is held at a beautiful historic masonic lodge.
http://victoriandance.org/

Always a fun event, there is a live band and the four dance sets are made up of waltzes, polkas, and quadrilles. This year we were joined by quite a few friends from the Bay Area as well as the usuals from down here :)

I was able to wear my new natural form dress, as I finished all the last minute hand sewing in time. However that being said I wouldn't have called the dress complete as most of the over skirt train and flowers were all set on with either safety pins or stitches! I was very lucky to have my friend Autumn help me with all that!! 

Even being so unfinished the whole dress held together very nicely and I felt really quite secure in it. What I really liked was the narrow skirt, it made it very easy to move through tight figures while dancing and in general move through the ballroom which can be very packed. And with the train all tucked up there was no fear of getting stepped on either. ( my head is cut out of most of these because of bad red eye I couldn't fix ;)

A New Picnic Dress

. . . And the reason for making that giant striped skirt for the most recent HSF challenge.

Actually the dress came about as a means to meet the requirements of the challenge and then I found out about an Impressionist Era picnic planned for the end of April. 

I am copying this fashion plate: 

Hideous isn't it?! I just love it :D outrageous wide pink and white stripes, huge bustle and frilly large pink bows! It's going to be ridiculous, girlie, and so much fun :)