1890´s Purple/green Day Dress

Hello again!

My next project I wanted to share with you is 1890´s Day Dress. I made it in early autumn. The idea for this dress started with cream floral quilt-weight cotton I had in my fabric stash. I absolutely love this fabric with purple flowers and yellow-green leaves (which is my favorite shade of green). The fabric piece was too small for anything big but I knew I wanted to pair it with other fabrics anyway. Next I found this rich purple cotton velvet in my stash, which was the perfect shade. That´s when I knew the silhouette and type of dress I wanted to make. All that was missing was skirt fabric. So I got  a green taffeta with most beautiful sheen.

Preview of the 1890´s Day Dress. Bodice is flat-lined and fully boned with 5mm spiral steel boning. It fastens in front with hooks and eyelets, buttons are purely decorative. 

Mutton leg sleeves assembled and ready to be inserted. I used for these sleeves pattern by Laughing Moon (LM103). 

Skirt hem ruffle before ironing, 6,5 meters of it!

Sewing the hem ruffle on my Singer 221K Featherweight. It took some serious measuring and precision to get the pleats even. After attaching the ruffle to the skirt I hand-sewed notches on all pleats to keep the purple lining visible. Two notches per pleat.

Front view of finished 1890´s Day Dress.  Again please excuse the silhouette of the skirt. I haven´t yet made the appropriate 1890´s petticoat to give it the proper flare.  

Side and back view of the dress.

Detail of the back.

Finished hem ruffle.

Accompanying hat to the dress. This is one of my favorite hats. It is a Bustle era hat and the pattern is from Lynn McMasters. Embellishments are my own. These hats were still worn in first half of 1890´s so it is appropriate for the dress. The inspiration for this hat were hats in the show Lizzie Borden Chronicles which has probably the best costumes ever.

Side and back view of the hat.

Then I made Victorian underbust corset. I drafted the pattern from Dore Corset pattern (overbust) by Laughing Moon. This is a one layer corset in jacquard coutil with wide spring steel busk. I will have to get a better photo of this.

Detail of a modesty panel in the back.

Edwardian hat referred to as a Togue. The pattern was from a book Making Edwardian Costumes for Women by Suzanne Rowland. It is a reproduction hat. The frame is made of wires and then netting is applied over it. Trim is all hand-stitched using net, knitting yarn and gold trim. 

Side view of the togue with organza flower made by me.

This hat reminds me of Dowager Countess of Grantham from Downton Abbey. The colors fits as well! Now I still have to make a dress or cape or dress & cape to go with it.

Thank you for reading and have a nice weekend!

Victorian & Edwardian Underpinnings

We had a photo-shoot of my historical garments this summer and we took over 400 pictures! Don´t worry, I´m not going to post them all here ;) I thought I´ll divide them into a couple sub-chapters and the first one is... underpinnings! However, this is still going to be a long post as we shot some older stuff as well. And my dear sister agreed to model some of the garments, thank you sweetie! <3

Corsets & Chemises

My second Victorian corset using Laughing Moon´s Dore Corset pattern. I made a few adjustments, lowered the armpit for comfort, made wider hips and corrected some other fit issues. This one has 33 cm long straight busk with gold clasps. Although I must say I prefer the 36 cm long busk I used on my previous corset. Fabric is a beautiful cream jacquard coutil with gold roses. And gold lace trim. I love gold! Split drawers are from the turn of the century and the pattern was from a book Making Edwardian Costumes for Women by Suzanne Rowland. 

Detail of hand embroidered chemise worn underneath the corset. Chemise was previously introduced here and here.

My first Victorian corset using Laughing Moon´s Dore Corset pattern. Previous post about the corset can be found here. Lily is also wearing split drawers made using the same pattern as mine above. I made three pairs of them. I find them very comfy! :)

Detail of the crochet yoke on the chemise. More about the chemise here. 

Detail of the flossing. 

Second chemise I made using the same crochet pattern as the yellow one above. I added satin ribbons.

Back of the chemise.

Front of the chemise.

Chemise without the corset photographed on a mannequin for modesty. :) 

Victorian Corset made using Laughing Moon´s Silverado corset pattern. This corset is a bit longer than Dore corset. I used 36 cm long spoon busk, which is my new favorite busk by the way. ;) The fabric is jacquard coutil dyed with antique blue dye. Cotton corset laces are dyed as well with the same dye. Edwardian chemise is a replica of an actual antique chemise, the pattern is from the book Making Edwardian Costumes for Women by Suzanne Rowland. Split drawers are my third pair from the same book.

Detail of chemise trims.

Silverado is a bust-gore corset pattern. Here is a detail of the flossing embroidered on the boning channels and on the bottom of the bust-gores.

Tucks on the front bib of the chemise.

Gold aglets! :)

Corset flossing.

And again chemise photographed on a mannequin for modesty. 

Corset Cover

Corset cover previously introduced here. 

Tournures

Imperial Tournure suitable for 1880´s Second Bustle Era. Sewing process can be found here.

Regular Tournure for 1870´s First Bustle Era. Pattern was from Truly Victorian (1887 Imperial Tournure TV163- Regular Tournure).

Comparison of the two tournures.

I managed to use some bias binding of-cuts from previous projects to complete Regular Tournure. Luckily shades matched the fabric (not that they are really visible on the garment...).

Petticoats

1840´s -1850´s Petticoat previously introduced here.

Detail of the exquisite embroidered cotton fabric used for the petticoat.

Edwardian Petticoat which is a replica of an antique petticoat. The pattern is from the book Making Edwardian Costumes for Women by Suzanne Rowland. This was a LABORIOUS project! But it was well worth it, I love the outcome!

Detail of the top flounce with pintucks and lace insertions.

Two lace insertions on the top flounce.

Sewing 4 m of dense pintucks on the top flounce! Yeah! 4 m!!! It took me two spools of thread to sew them.

And each pintuck had four threads to be knotted and cut off...

Thanks for reading and see you soon! :)