My blog last year was very sad. Only three posts for an entire year. But there was barely anything worth writing about. I played around with a couple dresses but didn’t finish anything. Yes, a couple are very close, and I wrote about one in my blog (1887 Autumn Plaid bustle dress)) but to date, none are finished.
Last week I
was contacted by one of our fashion show organizers updating us on the status
of the Riverside (CA) Dickens Festival, and this year’s theme, so it made me
start thinking hard of what I wanted to wear for it. I had a few ideas for new
dresses, but really? Did I think I would get it together enough to start and
finish a NEW dress by the end of October? Not the way my life has been going. I
took a look at what was in progress and decided to picked one from there.
About 5 months ago I tried to get my sewing mojo back in gear. I spent days looking through dresses from my inspiration file, and then cross-referenced my fabrics, all while trying to get a spark going. Something finally kicked in with the 1830s fabrics I’d collected, and boy, did I have a lot of different fabrics for that! I have cottons, I have silk taffetas, I have plaids! Plaids have been hard to find lately, at a reasonable price, so I’d been grabbing any that struck a cord, and were a good price. I still consider this a hobby and a costume, so I don’t throw a lot of money into it unless I have too. These are my pretty fabrics.
Rather than make yet another Truly Victorian pattern for this period (of which I’ve made 5 from it), I looked at two other ones I had. And this time I wanted to convert the pattern to a front opening. I’d seen it done by a friend at Costume College and you could barely tell it opened there, which is what I was hoping for. I also wanted one that wasn’t off the shoulders. I had Period Impressions 1837 Day Dress pattern that I’d seen made up by another friend, Carolyn, and it was lovely, but she said it was very hard to work with. The Past Patterns #003 1830-36 Full High Gown was the one I chose, which was also the one another of my friends, Cindy, had made up and she said it wasn’t hard to make.
I didn’t have much luck in trying to find some extant examples of the ones not off the shoulders; most of what I found weren’t. I also read front closures were more likely for work dresses, like this brown one.
Jumping forward to last week with the Dickens Festival, and I started thinking about this dress again. It had some aspects that would fit with the Festival’s fashion show theme and it was slightly close to being done. And then I came across another version of a work dress that Past Patterns had done in the meantime, converting it to a front closure, #017. If I had known this pattern was out there, I would have bought that and saved myself a lot of work converting #003 to a front opening. Today I bought it for myself as a late Xmas present, and I may use that for my other fabrics in the future. https://www.pastpatterns.com/1830s-to-1840s-jacksonian-era/workdress-with-three-sleeves-pattern
I also made
a note of her belt, and saved this photo of a red plaid dress from another
exhibit I saw. I think a black belt on mine would look good. It was also plaid
so a two-fer.
Since I
still didn’t have anyone to fit the pleating on the front of my bodice on me, I
pulled out the skirt, which I’d forgotten I’d already sewn the side seams, and
this made it quicker), and began to cartridge pleat it. I got to use my new
package of Tiger Tape I’d bought recently for this. I heard about it from
another costumer, and its pre-marked for the ¼” that we use for pleating. You
can use any width you like. Its slightly sticky but I found mine didn’t stick
very well and used some pins to keep it in place. Others said they had no
problem with it sticking, so maybe mine is a bit dry, or its my cotton fabric.
I bought it on Amazon but quilt stores carry it. I don’t know about fabric
stores. Because my eyes made the tape markings a bit blurry, I marked every
other line w/ a dot of black felt marker to make it stand out more so I
wouldn’t miss a stitch. I used one 18” piece I cut for the entire skirt. The
roll comes with 30 yards.
My sleeves
also were sewn together and I plan to baste those in today. I pinned my skirt
onto my dress form to see how it looked. The pattern called for 4 panels of 45”
wide fabric for the skirt but I only had enough fabric to cut 3 panels for it.
I think it will be fine.
While I was
reading all the information in the Past Patterns booklet, I kept looking at the
paper doll drawings she’d included of all the underpinnings. One thing stood
out to me, a stiff ruffled “bustle” on the back of the petticoat.
I first
wanted to try and buy one already made since I didn’t want to start yet another
project, but had no luck. However, after talking to those ladies, and seeing
how easy it is to make, and also happen to have quite a few yards of a denim
twill in my stash, I’ve decided I’m going to give this a try. This is one that
one of the ladies there made. There is also a similar one in the American
Textile History Museum, in Lowell, Mass.
