1880´s Christmas Bustle Dress

Hello again!

Please, let me introduce you ... my 1880´s Christmas dress! A little late but better late than never, right? ;) I started working on this ensemble last year a little too late in December, it was 10.12. I think. And with all Christmas hurry I just couldn´t complete it in to weeks. I got it finished in 11.1. instead. But it will be ready for next Christmas. ;) The whole idea for this dress came from a beautiful quilting cotton I found in a store in the beginning of December. It´s the plaid one I used for skirt and faux vest. It is the only material I purchased for this ensemble, everything else came from my stash.

For overskirt I used Truly Victorian pattern (TV362 1884 Wash Overskirt). Great pattern, easy and quick assembly but it eats a lot of fabric! I was lucky I had quite a lot of red tulle lace, but still I had to piece it a bit. For skirt I used my own 3-panel pattern I drafted last year.

Detail of the embroidery. The Blue Jay and Tea Cup design is from Embroidery Library. It´s embroidered by machine using mostly viscose embroidery thread. Then I embroidered beads and sequins around the design. For collar trim I pleated double-face satin ribbon and hand-sewed crystals on it.

Detail of lace applique, beading and sequins. All sewn by hand.

For bodice I used pattern by Truly Victorian (TV463- 1884 French Vest Bodice). This is second time I used this pattern and I love it! It is truly unique how it instructs you to draft the pattern to fit you like a glove. All pieces are flatlined separately, then the bodice is sewn together, boned with 5mm wide spiral steel boning and then lined with cotton lining.

Detail of the hat. The pattern is Bustle Era Hat by Lynn McMasters, view C. Although I love it and it is probably the most beautiful hat I´ve made so far, I have an issue with it- it took 4 hatpins to keep it in place and I still didn´t feel like it is secured properly. The reason why it doesn´t want to sit on the head properly is that the bottom edge of the crown is more curved than the head. I love the outcome but because of this I probably won´t be making more of view C in the future. I´ll option for views A & B I made before and they fit perfectly with just one hatpin.

The materials I used for this project: 

-red striped tulle/lace I used for the overskirt

-horrible skull quilting cotton I used for lining the bodice

-black/silver velvet I didn´t use

-black plaid snowflake quilting cotton I used for the skirt and faux vest

-cranberry quilting cotton I used for bodice

-red guipure lace off-cut I used for appliques

-red satin I used as lining for pleats on the bodice

Here is the leftover of cranberry quilting cotton I used for bodice, you can see I had to place all pieces very strategically to get them all cut out. I got this fabric from my dear friend Liisa, thank you darling! I bet you didn´t guess what will come out of it. ;)

Jia helping to press bodice pieces. :)

Geisha with collar pieces that need to be pressed.

And Chanel found the best possible bed on a buckram I used for the base of the hat.

That´s all for today folks, thank you for reading!

Autumn Sewing

Hello everyone!

I have been really busy sewing and embroidering all autumn. Now that it´s 1st of December, I thought I will show you what I have been up to this autumn. :) And then I should probably start working on some Christmas items I have been planning to do...

First project is 1890´s Walking Dress:

Here are the materials I used for my 1890´s Walking Dress: dark purple lace, mauve taffeta, dark purple cotton velvet, beige/purple plaid, beige satin, mauve floral jacquard, dark purple lining fabric and mustard cotton which I used for lining the bodice. Dottie approved all of them. :)

Front and side view of finished dress. I haven´t yet made 1890´s petticoat so please excuse the silhouette of the skirt. The petticoat will give it it´s flare at the bottom. It is on my "To do" -list. ;)

The sleeves are Mutton Leg Sleeves and I used Laughing Moon´s pattern (LM103) for them. I adjusted the cuffs and made them pointy in the back. The bodice pattern I´ve drafted myself. Front opening closes with hooks and eyelets. Buttons are for decoration only.

I made a reticule form cotton velvet with metal clasp. The floral motif is embroidered by machine.

Back view of the dress with machine-embroidered sash made from beige satin. I took an inspiration for the sash from the book Victorian Fashions by Carol Belanger Crafton.

Detail of the sash. The black border is hand crochet by me using cotton crochet yarn. I also made the tassels using the same yarn in orange and black. I love the colors, very autumn, very Halloween! 

Hem of the skirt.

Since this is an autumn outfit it needs an outer-garment- a cape! Which were ever so popular during this period. The pattern is from Truly Victorian (1890s Cape). Standing collar is wired with heavy-weight millinery wire. Dark purple lace fabric is applied over the plaid fabric to give it interesting detail and to make it more cohesive with the dress.

Front and detail view of the cape. I still have to make a hat to go with this piece. 

Side and back view of the cape worn with the dress underneath.

This purchased velvet bag I had for ages and it was stored away and unused. I remembered it and dug it up. I embroidered the motifs on a machine, added lace trim and gold tassels and it´s back in the game! 

I made this Halloween table-runner from quilt-weight cotton fabrics. I love it! Two machine-embroidered designs on big squares and smaller squares.

Detail of first embroidery- Skeleton Unicorn from Urban Threads. I framed the design with some decorative stitches.

Detail of second embroidery- Pumpkin and Squash from Embroidery Library. Both designs were free in October. And they got me completely crazy about machine embroidery. I had an embroidery machine for two and half years and only used it a couple of times to embroider reticules. For those I used designs that came with the machine. But now that I discovered what gorgeous designs are out there, I will definitely embroider on it more!

Other view of the table runner.

I had to get these silly lanterns! Maybe you can tell I love Halloween. ;)

And some more machine embroidery. Our cushions were rather faded and after seeing these designs I had to embroider them. These are from Embroidery Library and they took ages to make. I have set my machine almost at a slowest embroidery speed to not to put excess stress on it. This way I hope it will serve me longer. Each of these designs took about 4 hours to embroider and that´s only embroidering time, when you add thread changes ( about 38-48 thread changes per design), each design took me whole day to make. But they were well worth it.

Geisha appreciating new cushion.

 Witch´s Hat and Too Cute to Spook designs in detail.

Witch´s Boot design in close view.

And I was so excited about Halloween I made this hexagon bag from the same fabrics I used for the table runner. Whole bag is hand-stitched. There were still some fabrics left so I started to work on hexagon quilt, but that will be finished later...

Back view of the bag.

Bedroom needed new cushions as well. These are from Urban Threads. 

His Skeleton Cameo- Baroque style embroidery design. Both cushions are 40 x 40 cm.

And Hers Skeleton Cameo design. These two almost took entire spool of obsidian embroidery thread (500 meters)!

Thank you for reading and see you soon! :)

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! :)