The Inspiration
It is difficult to say where this one first began. I knew that I wanted to attend the GBACG Wives & Daughters picnic. I even had a fabric picked out. Then I found this particular fabric in the LA garment district. It was absolutely perfect. I also knew that I wanted to start with the Truly Victorian pattern again. I'd used this one before, so I knew it would work. It did take a few mock ups to get the fit right, but the pattern was a wonderful jumping off point.
The fabric
The Petticoat
I knew that I wanted to try the corded petticoat thing again, and that this dress would need a substantial support system, since I did not want to stray so far from historical accuracy as to wear a hoop, and I equally didn't want a limp hemline. My previous petticoat had worked wonderfully, but had been very heavy. I was determined to figure out a way to lighten the load.
At a previous Costume College ('06 or '07), I had attended a lecture on corded petticoats. The presenter suggested using cotton organdy, as it has a permanent finish on it that remains stiff, even with washing. I ordered six yards of "stiff" cotton organdy (apparently, the stuff comes in two different stiffnesses), and used about four yards. My skirt started out as two panels of 45 inch wide fabric, about two yards long. After sewing the two panels together, leaving an opening at the top of each side, I proceeded to sew in at least 45 rows of cording from the hem up. I just kept adding more until the skirt was the length that I wanted. The cording is more concentrated at the bottom with five rows grouped together; the cording progressively spaces out as you go up the skirt until the last several rows are each about an inch and a half apart.
One thing that I discovered as I worked was that the "sandwich" method may be a better option rather than the "tuck" methond. I used the sandwich on the hem, since I had folded up fabric to use as a sort of casing for the cord. Once the hem was done, though, I switched to the tuck method. While I think that the tuck method worked just fine, I think the sandwich method looked neater and provides a more stable foundation garment. My only concern is that the two layers may shift as you work. I'll have to try it sometime at let all of you know how it works out.
Once I had all the cording in, I simply sewed a narrow waistband to both halves of the skirt and threaded a drawstring through each side. The drawstrings tie at either side of the skirt.
After wearing the petticoat once, I have discovered that it really does need to be starched. The organdy gives a lot of support, but not quite enough to keep its shape for a full day at Dickens Fair. So, before I wear this again, it will get a good starching.
The Bodice
It took a bit of work to get this to fit perfectly, but it truly paid off. The finished bodice fits wonderfully, even when I lace my corset a little too tightly, as I did for Dickens fair this year. Even with a little extra room, the bodice did not wrinkle or shift.
At any rate, the construction was fairly straightforward. The only thing I made sure to do was to cut the lining on the grain so that it would stabilize the fashion fabric, which I cut on the bias. Oh, and I eliminated the gathering in the the upper portion of the bodice. At the time, I was planning on some other bodice trim/detail, which I didn't end up doing. I'm still not sure exactly what I want to do--maybe a belt, or some sort of bertha. Eventually, what I really want to do is make a chemissette and a lace bertha.
I decided to use buttons for the back closure. My friend Bridget had an extra set of buttons that she gave me that looked beautiful with the bodice. Considering how much grief hooks and bars/eyes always give me, I think this was a really good choice.
The Sleeves
The sleeves get their own section because they really are their own entity...not just on this dress but in this particular era in general. I knew that I wanted to do something a little different with this dress, so I spent some time looking at fashion plates to see what other options there were. I discovered some adorable Renaissance-inspired sleeves that I decided to use as my inspiration. To create them, I simply took the large gigot sleeves and drew three sets of gathering lines. After sewing the gathering threads and then the seam, I gathered each set of threads to fit my arm. I then handsewed bands of velvet trim to cover the threads. Once the sleeves was set in the armscye, I removed the gathering threads at the sleeve head.
Now, I did make a few changes to the sleeve base itself this time around, since I had some problems with them last time. In my previous construction, I fully lined the sleeves and then had trouble getting all of that fabric into the armscye. This time, I simply created a hem facing for the bottom of the sleeve so that the top edge would be a single layer of fabric. I'm very glad I made this change, as the sleeve head fit very easily into the armscye this time. The second change I made was that I nixed the sleeve opening at the hem. My hands could just barely slide through the opening if I sewed the seam all the way closed, so I did that instead. It was wonderful to not have to deal with any kind of closure there.
The Skirt
Well, what is there to say about a skirt. It's three panels of fabric pleated into a waistband that is hand tacked to the bodice. Since I didn't actually make it to the Wives & Daughters picnic, and had a bit more time to work on the dress before wearing it to Dickens, I decided to add ruffles to the hem. I managed to get three bias ruffles out of my left-over fabric, with the bias on the middle ruffle going the opposite direction. Originally, I had planned on sewing velvet trim to the top of each ruffle, but I didn't have enough. I ended up using a satin ribbon to finish the top edge of the bottom two ruffles, since they were covered by the upper ruffles, and just used the velvet ribbon on the topmost ruffle.
Oh, and to conserve fabric (since the bias ruffles pretty much ate up the last of it), I used scrap fabric for the hem facing.
The Bonnet
I got the inspiration for my bonnet from the book (?). I've done a little bit of work making bonnets from buckram and decided that I could probably figure out how to make this one out of just a wire frame.
The most time consuming part was figuring out the frame. Not only did I have to toy around with the dimentions, but also with the structure--basically, how to keep it all together. It was a pretty fun project, actually, and pretty rewarding once things started coming together and actually looking like a bonnet. Once I had the frame the shape that I wanted it, I covered it in some silk taffeta I had laying around. Now, apparently, I made a terrible mistake in not making the bonnet full enough. I had decided to base the fullness of the fabric cover on the circumfrence of the largest wire ring. The problem I was concerned about was how full the fabric was going to get as it wrapped around the last wire and had to be gathered at the back of the neck, as was shown in the inspiration fashion plate. Unfortunately, this makes the front of the bonnet not very full; it still doesn't bother me very much, as I think it looks remarkably like the inspriation photo, but it has already opened me up to criticism.
The ribbon ties are from a nice wide vintage ribbon I purchased at Michael Levine in LA a few years ago. Originally, I wanted to decorate the bonnet with self-fabric roses, but I ran out of time and patience for that. I ended up using purchased flowers...still cute and pretty, I think.
I ended up purchasing a little cap to wear under the bonnet. I figure that I'm an "old" married woman now, so I can wear those frilly little caps that look so adorably rediculous. I really like the one I bought (plus is was a great price), but it needs a bit more frilliness around the face, so I may eventually add a bit of lace to it.
