19th century Victorian – Page 7 – Fashion Through Herstory

1880s Evening Gown – Sewing & Construction

Published on February 3, 2014 by fashionthrougherstory17 Comments

In my last post I told you about my trouble with the pattern for my opera gown. Now I will tell you about the sewing and construction of it, and also show you the finished gown (bodice and train only).

So after I got the mock-up to fit properly I brought out my fashion fabric. The dress is made in a polyester golden brocade, which both feels and behaves a lot like silk.

I bought 6 m of it on sale before christmas, and now it was time to lay it out on the floor.

I also cut the lining, adjusting the lenght of the train to the 4 m long ivory cotton.

The different layers (lining, fashion fabric, interlining (cotton twill) and paper pattern piece).

Then I marked all the darts (as usual being very bad at marking the notches), and basted al the layers together.

I recently learnt a new trick, on how to sew darts on fabric and interlinning which I wanted to try. You simply baste the layers close to the darts, then sew inside the dart, very close to the original sewing-line.

This way you can easy get a nice looking dart without any bulk, and the stiching won’t show once the dart is sewn.

I then sewed the whole bodice together, and dressed in corset and bustle for a try on.

Hm, not great. Some changes are needed. Like taking the armhole and shoulder seams in a bit. I also need to re-shape the front a bit, and make the neck opening a bit lower and bigger.

Once all the changes was made, it was time for the buttonholes. I started by practice on a piece of scrap fabric, and it looks pretty decent (if you ignore the green thread).

So, on to the real deal. Marking the spaces and finish covering the buttons.

The buttonholes took about 3 hours (guess I’ve becoming faster), and when finished I sewed on the buttons. I’m really pleased with the way the front bodice looks, and are happy I took the time and money to buy 5 extra buttons.

Then I pinned and sewed on some boning chanels (made from leftover cotton stripes) and put the cable ties in.

Then I once again got dressed to try it on.

And even though it fit much better now, it still needed to be reduced a bit at the shoulders.

But the waist and the front clouser looked fantastic (if I may say so myself).

Now it was time to make the piping for the neckline. I used a cotton cord and some leftover fashion fabric (cut on the straight grain).

Pinning those pesky corners, making sure they look neat, and cuting the seam allowence to get the piping laying smoothly.

Then I sewed on the lining. I folded the allowence and sewed it on by hand at the neckline/collar and buttonhole stand.

Then I started on the back pleats. Using the pattern as a guide and treating the two layers (fabric and lining) as one, box-pleating the three back seams.I then attached the pleats to the bodice sewing into the interling by hand.

Next up was the lenght – cuting and heming the train.

After sewing the lining to the train from the inside, I snipped the seam-allowence,

and pressed them flat, making sure the lining was a couple of mm smaler, les it would peek out.

Heming the train would have been an easy step, if I’ve cut the lining long enough. But no, I had to skrimp on the fabric, leaving me no other choise but to piece the train (using scraps) to the desired lengt.

Then I mesured/draped the train to get the right placement on the laces for the “poufines” in the bustle back.

When wearing the dress you simply tie the stings together to get the right lenght on the train.

When the bodice was finished I brought out the fabric I saved for the apron, and got to work draping it on the dressform.

I also decided the dress needed some more decoration. And finding this fringe trim the day before the bal caused me to re-visit the sewing machine, and using 8 m of it on the hem of the bodice, train and apron. (And since this was a last minute change, I haven’t got any picture of the trimmed dressed).

Even with the dress finished I’m not totaly happy with the neckline – the fabric is being pulled in some ugly directions at the neck, caused by some fiting trouble.But It is to late to do anything about it now, and the bal room will be faily dark…

So here it is, the finished dress/bodice.

Train un-draped

Train draped leaving the sides straight/down, and then with sides tied up.

Train totaly draped (walking lenght).

Facts:

What: A 1880s trained evening bodice.

Pattern: Truly Victorian 462 (totaly re-modeled)

Fabric: 6 m golden polyester brocade, 4 m ivory cotton lining, 0,5 m ivory cotton twill for interlining.

Notions: Thread, buttonhole thread, 15 buttons (which I covered in fabric), 2 m string for piping, 3 m string for busteling/draping the train, 8 plastic cable ties for boning, 2 m self made cotton bias tape for boning chanels, 8 m brown fringe trim.

Time: 25 hours

Cost: About 800 Sek (120 Usd)

Things I would do Different: I would definitely have draped my own pattern, and taken the time to do multiple mock-ups to get the fit over the shoulders and neck just right. I will also have changed the lines of the side/back piece which curved shape now causes it to pull a bit. And re-placed the straight boning with spiral boning in the curved side/back seam, for the same puporse.

Final Thoughts: I love the dress. I think it is cool yet elegant and I did get lots of compliments on it at the bal. The unusal neckline makes it so interesting and viasualy pleasing.

I would love to wear it again – perhaps at a steampunk convention, paired with brown throusers and some cool accessories.

1880s Evening Gown – Pattern Trouble

Published on February 1, 2014 by fashionthrougherstory2 Comments

I’ve been so busy finishing my opera gown, that there’s been no time to blog about the process – and really, I didn’t want to spoil it and show it of here (in the unlikely case someone at the bal, read this before the big night).

But now the night has past and I can tell you all about my trials and errors in the making of the gown.

As some of you might know I decided to make myself a gow similar to this one, to wear at the “Oskarsbal” late januay.

I almost jumped up and down finding the perfect pattern online and decided to buy it, instead of draping/drafting my own, thinking I would save some time and effort.

Truly Victorian 462 had the perfect neck opening, and the train extended from the bodice back piece without a seam. Exactly like my inspiration gown.

So I took my mesurments, and drafted the pattern from the pattern sheets, without any alterantion.

I cut and sewed a mock-up, and then I laced myself into the corset, doned the bustle and petticoat and tried it on.

And it was huge!

I mean look at that – so increadable large, not even the shoulders fitted, and that sleeve – I could get two arms down that sleeve.

What the heck went wrong?

I went back to the pattern, and quickly discovered that I’ve drafted the wrong size (no brainer), following the lines on the wrong side of the intended letter, thous drafting one size to big. And since I’ve wanted to stay true to the pattern, I didn’t think of controling the mesurments before cuting the mock-up (stupid).

But it seems to me there is way to much widht to acomodate only one size. I doubt there is about 30cm in differens between sizes. Ok, I don’t know, but somewhere it went wrong, and the only thing to do is to try to fix it.

Being in a bit of a rush, and not trusting the pattern anymore, I decided not to draft another pattern in the correct size, but to try to adjust the current mock-up to fitt.

I started by pining away 6cm in each side seam, and 4 at center back. I also pinned a 3 cm vertical tuck on the backpiece to acomodate my erect posture.

Then I put it back on. (I’ve been doing all this thinking and pinning still wearing my undergarments).

So much better. But still some thing needed to be altered. So I made the front 4cm smaler, took out a bit on the shoulders, and made the neck opening a bit bigger.

I then transfered the alterations to the pattern, moving the mesurments around a bit to get a good spread at the different seams. (Everything outside the lines are to be cut of)

Then I re-cut the mock-up and sewed it up again.

Now we talking.

And before I took it of I cut some of the neckline and put on my long opera glowes, just to get a feel for how it would look.

I even tryed to drape the bustle, but I guess it’s easier to do when you’r not wearing it…

All this fiddeling and messing around with the pattern set me back almost a whole day. So with now only 6 days left to the bal it was time to move on to the sewing.

An Innovative Corset

Published on January 30, 2014January 30, 2014 by fashionthrougherstory3 Comments

For the HSF nr 3 this year: Innovation, I knew I needed to make something usable for the up-coming bal. And since you can’t make a balgown without the right foundation wear, I decided to use this challenge to make a 1880s corset.

I re-used the 1880s corset pattern from Nora Waughs Corset and Crinolines. (I prevously made a black corset from this pattern for my sister).

I started by adding some extra widht to the pattern to bring it closer to my measurments.

Then I cut it out in a sturdy cotton bedsheet,

sewed it together and tried it on.

It fits suprisengly well. The only thing that needs to be changed is to take out a bit on the top back, to get a more even lacing, and to re-shape the bottom front to make the curve over the stomach nice and smoot.

Then it was time to bring out all the fabric and notions. (here I got: a cream cotton sateen, a cream cotton interlining, a busk, lots of plastic bonning, thread, the pattern, grommets and lacing cord).

Then I cut the fabric, basted on the interlining and marked the space for the piping, and sewed them in.

Close-up of the piping, sewn in green button-hole thread.

Then I sewed the pieces together twice – for strengt.

Setting the busk using awls to get the studds through the fabric without ripping it.

And leaving holes while sewing to get the eyes through.

I made lots of self fabric bias trim to use as boning chanels.

Sewing them on from the outside.

And snipping the seam-allowence on the inside.

When the gromets, the busk and the boning chanels (no bonning yet) are done, its time for the lining. I choose a light green cotton lining from my stash.

Corset with lining sewn on – before turning.

The lining sewn in. (One side turned and pressed, and the other one still in-side-out).

Now it’s time for the boning. If you put them in to early you will have big trouble with lining and sewing.

This is what I used for boning. (Left to right: Heavy pliers, methal pipe cleaners, electrical tape (to cower the sharp edges on the metal), plastic cable ties, siccor and plastic whale bone).

As you can se I used all of my three boning options on different parts of the corset. Using the strongest (metal) ones close to the lacing, and the regular cable ties in the boning chanels, and then using the softer syntetic whalebone in between.

Then I grabbed my finishing/decoration kit (green cotton bias tape, white cotton lace, green button hole thread and cord for piping (which I did in my first few steps).

Cutting the un-even top and bottoms of the corset,

and then attaching the bias tape.

At this point it was time for me to stop working on the corset, and leave it for a couple of weeks.

You see, I started this project begining of december, since I needed to have the corset to be able to start on my opera gown. And since the HSFs rules says that no item should be finished more then 6 weeks before the challenge du date, I needed to paus sewing for a while. And since it was only the decorations left, the corset was fully functional and could still be used to build my gown upon.

***

So, last week (3 days before the grand bal) I finaly had the time to finish it.

By now I had tried it on several times, and had realised the bust needed to be re-shaped to get a smoother look. So I ripped some of the bias tape of, re-cut the top and stiched the bias tape back on.

Then I decorated it with the white lace and some green flossing.

And finaly Finished:

Just the Facts:

Challenge: nr 2 – Innovations

What: A 1880s Corset

Innovation: The 1880s was known for it’s innventions (actually the whole 19th century was). My item can both represent the whole era, or the new style of hourglas figure and bustled skirts made fashionable and avalaible thue to both the steel manufacturer, and the comercial sewing factories. Some relativly new innventions in the 1880s corset was: The split busk, the metal gromets and the steel boning – all innvented during the 19th century.

Pattern: Nora Waugh “1880s corset” from Corset and Crinolines.

Fabric: 0,5 m ivory cotton sateen, 0,5 m ivory cotton lawn and 0,5 m light green cotton.

Notions: A 33 cm planchett, ivory thread, green buttonhole thread, 30 silver gromets, 4m cotton string for piping, 4 m ivory cotton laces, ca 10 m of boning (2,5 m steel, 8 heavy duty cable ties and 3 m syntetic whalebone), 2 m green biastape and 1 m ivory lace.

How Historical Accurate: Pretty good. The pattern’s correct and the sewing machine was widly used by this time, even though I’m not sure of the right assebly tecniques. The material used are accurate, part from the plastic bonning. So maybe 7/10.

Time: About 10 hours

Cost: 400kr (44Usd) (all those notions make it so expensive).

First worn: On January 25 for a grand bal (Oskarsbalen), and then a few days later for a photoshoot.

Final Thoughts: It tured out great. It’s quite comfortable (even after a couple of dancing hours) and stil gives me the desired hourglas figure. I think this will be my “go to” corset for many costumes.

1880s Evening Hairstyle

Published on January 26, 2014 by fashionthrougherstory1 Comment

The “accessory” for my 1880s evening gown which caused my head to hurt most was the head itself. Who the h-l do you get a lovely opera style hairdo with my short and klingy hair.

This was what I wanted

I tried a lots of different alternatives. Like faux hair and braids, curling and twisting but nothing got me even close to what I needed to achive.

So I reluctantly pulled out my “new” wig. It is from the same company where I bought a lovely long haired wig for my medieval hairdo, but this one is just horrid.

Promo pic.

And in real life.

It is so plasic looking in both the colour and the shine, it feels realy “costumy”. And besides it is way to big. The only “good” thing about it is the fact that it don’t have bangs. But with two days left to the bal, I needed to give it a try.

So I re-read the chapter on “late victorian hairstyles” in Historical Wigstyling, and got to work, testing the methods on a smal piece of the wig first.

Roling a piece of “hair” to a thread spool (I curently don’t own real hair curlers), then setting it, using steam from my steam-iron.

The result looked perfect.

Time to move on to the actual wig.

I started by separding and creating some bangs, which I curled on hairpins and and more spools of thread, and then secured with pins.

Then I covered the rest of the wig with a cotton sheat and steamed the bangs, letting it sett over night.

Then I just grabed pieces of hair, twisted, pinned and braided until I got a cool looking hairstyle.

But when I put it on my head it looked ridiculus.Like something from a Tim Burton movie.

No! Lets try again.

Trying to keep the hair a bit more to the back of the head, and not so much upwards proved to be a lot easier. So now I got a nice, elegant hairdo.

But once again: Nice on the dummy – Stupid on me.

I feelt like a ginger prostitute in some movie about Sparta. Not good.

Right about now I started to panic.

It was the evening before the bal and I was totaly lost.

Thank good for internet, and lovely helpful people, who told me the hairstyle I was trying to build was not really 1880s (more 1870s) and that this is what I should be trying for instead.So after studing a few more pictures of simular hairstyles, I feelt it would be do-able using my own hair and some false hairpeces.

I also wanted to wear this tiara, since I wouldn’t wear any other juwelery.

So, I grabbed my siccors and cut all the remaining hair of my old (lovey) wig.

Buying some proper haircurlers.

And got to work curling and steaming again.

I then curled my own bangs on smal stripes of fabric, soaked them in wather and sleept on it.

The next morning I removed the curling strips.Then I put a cap on and got on the train to the capital, and the bal.

When arriving at my hotel I emedetly started working.

Begining to make smal tufts, in my own hair, to secure the faux bun onto. Cowering the back of my head with a hair net, to keep all the short flying hairs in place. Then I loosened the faux hair from the curlers and started pinning and winding them into a bun on the back of my head. I then frizzed the bangs some more, and attached the tiara with bobypins. The last step was to attach a few hanging curls on the back of the bun.

And the finished hairdo

And it still looked pretty hours later.I’m so happy with how it turned out, and even got some nice copliments on it. Maybe next time I don’t have to worry so much.

1880s Evening Accessories

Published on January 23, 2014January 27, 2014 by fashionthrougherstory2 Comments

When attending a grand bal you do need some more stuff then a beautiful dress.

Yes, today we will discuss accessories.

This is what I will be wearing (besides from the gown).

A pair of ivory opera glowes. They really should be made of leather but what do you do, atleast they are in a nice syntetic style which don’t look to shiney and plastic.

The mandetory fan. I was looking at big feathery ones,but they where either in the wrong colour or way outside my pricerange. So I will get yet another use out of my ivory lace one.

The shoes will be my American Duchess Kensingtons, decorated with some leftover fabric. They are about 100 years to early, but they are both comfortable and in the right colour so they will have to do. Besides, I will be wearing long skirts.

As a bag I plan on making my own “reticule” out of some leftover fabric from the bodice, but I haven’t started on it yet. I’m thinking something like this.

As outerwear I will be re-using my brown velvet cape (it will be the 3 outing).

And maybe some shawls, and neckpieces depending on the weather.

I have decided not to wear a necklace (because of the style on my dress neckline) , but are thinking about some earings and maybe a brosch in the front neck.

Hm, I need to think a bit on this. But the victorian motto is “More is More”, so I may just have to take some time tomorrow away from my busy sewing schedule for shopping.

To make-do a 1880s Petticoat

Published on January 15, 2014January 16, 2014 by fashionthrougherstory7 Comments

And so we start of the new sewing year with HSF14 Challenge nr 1: Make-do/Mend.

As I stated before, I’m determend to try to fit the challenges this year in to my list of items which needs to be made. So with a bit of bending the rules on this challenge, I got to use it for that 1880s ruffled petticoat I desperetly need for my up-coming balgown.

I’m thinking something along these line. (pic from Iza of http://adamselindisdress.wordpress.com/ you should check her out to.)

For this challenge I made a petticoat out of a bedsheet.

I started by ripping the sewn hems of it, and throw it into the washer.

I used no pattern – only some diagrams and pictures for reference. And cut the skirt pieces out of half the sheet.

And the ruffeling pieces from the rest, making them bigger and longer further down the skirt.

I sewed gathering thread on all the ruffels using a strong button-hole thread and sick sack stitch, hemming them at the same time.

This technique makes it very easy to gather the ruffels later on.

Then I hemmed and measured the spacings of all the ruffels.

Then I gathered all the fabric and stiched it down on the back piece of the skirt. And lastly I Sewed the front skirt to the back and stiched on a cotton twill tape as a waistband.

And then I tried it on – and I hated it.

It is way to narrow in the front (making me look huge) and the ruffels need to be at least twice as fluffy.

And I do think something is of in the lenght proportions of the ruffels.

Well here it is on the dressform looking a bit better but still way to slim in the pouf department.

With a night to sleep on it, I do think it will work for my purpose, but I know it will probably go straight into the re-make pile once the present event has past.

Just the Facts:

Challenge: 1 (2014) Re-Make.

What: A ruffeled bustled petticoat made out of a bedsheet.

Year: About 1870 – 1890s.

Pattern: None

Fabric: One white cotton bedsheet – 1,5 x 2 m.

Notions: Thread, strong thread (björntråd) and 2 m of 1 cm wide cotton twill tape.

Historical Accuracy: So so. The style and siluett is about right, but I’m sure the ladies of the day knew not to scrimp on the fabric in this kind of grmnent. Maybe 4/10.

Time: 4 hours.

Cost: 90 Sek (10 Usd).

First worn: Around the house for photos (and testing the toile for the gown…) But it will get a proper outing on january 25, for the gran bal at the opera.

Final Thoughts: I think this petticoat was to much of a rush job to begin with. I wish I had taken the time to make it proper and use enough fabric to get a nice ruffeled bustle. Instead I spread the ruffels to whide and gathered them to losely. It’s a good thing it will be hidden beneath the skirts.

“Oskarsbal”

Published on January 11, 2014 by fashionthrougherstoryLeave a comment

As I metioned in my prevous post I just recently decided to go to the grand bal at the Opera in the end of january.

But what is it?

It will be a night at the Opera in 1880s style, with white tie, evening gowns and loots of fans and juwelry. Lots of the people I know from erlier costuming events will be there and they tell me it’s the event of the year.

There will be food, music, dancing and loot and lots of people in glorius evening wear.

The offical website of the bal (In Swedish).

Honestly I have no idea what to expect, but I will tell you all about it afterwards.

This will be my first grand costuming event and I so looking forward to it. (Now back to the sewing room).

1840s layering

Published on January 7, 2014 by fashionthrougherstory2 Comments

This is beginning to become a series, but I think it is good to show the amount of clothes and layers there is to most historic costumes.

Often you only se the gown and can only guess there are some foundation underneath, but exactly how many petticoats do it take to get that special silhuet, and how do you keep warm during coold winter weather.

So this time I will show you the different layers of a mid 19th century woman of everage wealth.

Let’s start fully dressed in: Gown, bonnet, cape and apron.

When you remove the outerwear we got more of a indor look in: Gown, apron and coif.

Then we remove the apron and bodice to find a warming undershirt (should be woolen but I make do with ordenary sporting clothes).

And under the skirt there is a warming quilted petticoat. You can also wear additional petticoats on top of the quilted one for warmth and to ad more widht to the skirt.

Beneath the petticoats there are a hoopskirt and a bumpad – which both helps the skirt to get the desired shape. (I use a modern bridal hoopskirt, but you should really use one made for this purpose).

And as the layer closest to the body we find the chemise, the corset, blomers, stockings and lacing boots.

Because the mid 1800s are a relativly new era to me, I’m still in need of the proper corset and chemsie. But for now, the late Regency (1820-1830) undergarments I do have works just fine.

19th Century Christmas Party

Published on December 23, 2013 by fashionthrougherstoryLeave a comment

On the 14th of december I went to a chrismas party in Stockholm.

The dresscode was – whatever you like from the 19th century.

And as you might know Iv’e been working on my 1840s dress to wear to the event. And it was acctualy done in time, even though I needed to both let it out some and shorten it a bit after wearing it outside for a photoshoot, (good thing I did the shoot before the party). I also had the underwear, bonnet and outerwear finished and waiting.

I’ve been so looking forward to this.

But before the party me and Johanna took a tour to the christmas market.