THE 2025 COMPILATION OF WHAT I MADE OR DIDN’T.

 

This is the time of year when you take stock of what happened during the year, and with costumers, it’s looking back on what you did or didn’t accomplish in our sewing.

This year I feel like I accomplished very little so it’s always good to actually look back and see if that’s true. So I just skimmed over all my posts from last year and listed what I had made. Holy heck, Batman! They were all blue! And here’s the sad thing, in my modern wardrobe I seem to have mostly bought blue tops. I must be in a rut. So I’m making a concerted effort to look for other colors now. Surprisingly, most of the ones that caught my eye are blue, but I found some green and burgundy.

For my first couple events of the year, I just wore something I’d already made, my 1837 Purple Floral dress for a holiday tea and a historical presentation I did for the San Diego Mayflower Colony.  

 

Following that, I finished an 1860s dress I had started in 2020 for a fashion show at the Riverside Dickens Festival. I had a choice of three that I had made on my assembly line but chose this one to finish since I thought it would stand out nicely in a show. I added some antique accessories to it since it was rather plain by itself.

This got me started on something new, an 1873 Blue & White striped seaside dress I wore to the Port Townsend Victorian Festival fashion show in April. I feel like I cheated by using a pattern I’ve made many times, but it was the easiest to make quickly.

With another fashion show coming up in May, I again pulled one of my incomplete dresses out of the closet, a 1911 blue embroidered skirt and blouse. The show was held at the Harvey Girls Museum in Perris, CA. We’ll be doing another show for them in 2026, this time wearing Colonial to Regency at their request.

Normally Costume College has me making lots of new costumes for it, but this year I got lazy. I wore my 1870s blue & white seaside dress again but then bought a black chiffon caftan to recreate a 1920’s Erte-themed outfit. I was really happy with it even though I didn’t make it. Ok, this was one outfit that wasn’t blue, but I didn’t sew it.

Another dress, long in planning, was something for either a Regency tea or picnic, whichever came first. I had a block printed voile in a blueberry pattern that I’d been saving to make for it. I ended up having to rush and trim a bonnet when we finally organized an afternoon tea in November at a friend’s house. I have a few ideas for a turban to make for it next time.

Nearing the end of the year, I really went off the rails in costume making and made myself a Halloween outfit. Not historical at all. But a caftan in orange with black spiderwebs to wear while handing out candy. I tried making a big spider hat but he wouldn’t stay on my head, so I added a spider to a witch’s hat, which also wouldn’t stay on my head, and draped a giant spider around my neck.

And then I spent the entire month of November and December making something that I wouldn’t be wearing: Xmas ornaments. I hadn’t done embroidery for years but after seeing a pattern for redwork ornaments by Jolly & Bright last year, I just had to make them. All fourteen of them. I added them daily to our holiday mantle as I finished each one. Even after I was done, I wanted to make more and offered to make individual ones for my friends. Then I started creating my own patterns to make others. I did buy another pattern for all snowflakes but am trying to decide if I should make them in blue or stick to the redwork.

 

 

After all the holiday rush and Christmas was over, I felt antsy again, and wanted to sew. I had finally got some petersham ribbon so I could finish the binding on my Victorian corset I’d started in November. In the last week I finished it. It’s made of a pretty pink brocade and I put lace along the top edge so I can immediately see which is end is the top. I made my last one in 2016 and its got worn spots and blood on it, so it was time.

 

All I have to do now is have it laced on me. Which will happen this coming Friday when I go to my next sewing workshop. I also plan to cut out the teal silk taffeta for the 1870s dress I’m recreating for the Port Townsend Victorian Festival in April. They requested some of us to make dresses from photos they had of former residents of the city. I’ll be using Truly Victorian #423 as the base for my dress.  Oh, look! It’s not blue!

At this point I don’t have any other plans for anything to make. Usually when an event is coming up, that helps me make up my mind. I’m going to keep on looking at photos of dresses and see which one grabs me next. I have an entire stash of fabric that needs to be taken care of.

                    HAPPY NEW YEAR AND HERE’S TO BETTER TIMES!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MY MIND HAS GONE BACK TO THE 1850s

 This is what happens when you come back from a major costume event, like Costume College: your brain goes wild, and you want to make all the things!

The last couple years there have been many changes in my costuming plans. Life-altering changes strained what I was able to do, and limited events I could go to. All of this apparently depressed me, which I’m just now recognizing. I still enjoyed the planning of costumes and writing about them but when it came down to actually getting out the patterns and fabrics, nothing happened. Mostly I put it off to there was just nowhere to wear them or I couldn’t physically go to, so why bother?

If you’ve been following my blog for the last few months, you’ll see I got partly out of my slump by actually sewing two Regency dresses and coordinating Spencers, all because my friends and I talked about going to a tearoom in Regency dress. They’re not quite done yet (sleeves and hems as usual) but since we haven’t set a date yet, the pressure is not on to push me forward. And then I was delayed with planning for Costume College.

So what changed?

IT’S TIME FOR A NEW BLOOMER DRESS!

A few days after coming home from Costume College and while doing some searching on Pinterest, I came across a link for an interview with a lady who had written a paper on 1850s Bloomer dresses, and she mentioned me in her research! Then I followed the link it had to her article she wrote, and she actually named me in her footnotes!

INTERVIEW: https://history.vcu.edu/.../a-tale-of-two-bloomer...

ARTICLE: https://www.tandfonline.com/.../03612112.2021.1934267

My story about the bloomer dress, and making it, happened 13 years ago. I’ve always wanted to make a new Bloomer dress so I could wear one again. My original green silk taffeta one is kind of warm to wear in SoCal weather and my second brown cotton version didn’t turn out exactly what I wanted in the style, and the bloomers I’d made to go with it were also a bit too short. But after I shared the discovery of that interview, a couple of my friends said they’d love to make one too. The challenge was on! And that started a new planning mode for me. I collected photos together to refresh my memory of them and decide on my fabric and pattern.  

           

I still liked my V-neck version using Simplicity 3855 (1850s) bodice but this time I didn’t want the pagoda sleeves I used on my brown version.

                         

I already have two cotton reproduction 1850s fabrics a friend had given me a few years ago that I plan to use. I’m leaning towards the blue fabric, since I’ve already made one in green. And it’s a color I’ve never used.

      

PINK STRIPED 1850s DICKENS DRESS

And then another conversation came up: what to make for the Riverside Dickens Festival fashion show next February? And of course the Port Townsend Victorian Festival is a few months later. 

I started thinking about a dress I had begun planning during the 2020 Pandemic and had bought fabric for. I still wanted to make it. Yesterday while looking for something totally different, I found a bag that had the bodice for it already cut out. The Universe is speaking to me again!

                     

I used Simplicity 9761 for the bodice but don’t plan on using those sleeves. And unfortunately not the skirt portion either because it takes a total of 17 yards to make that dress and I only have 9 yards of my fabric.  

         

I may try a full skirt like the lady in this photo did where she used a wide horizontal border of her fabric around the bottom. That was the dress that first inspired me to make it.

                                                 

MAD FOR PLAIDS!

While looking at the earlier Simplicity pattern and the McCalls one, I remembered that I had also wanted to make another one of them in plaid again since I sold my first one I’d made. My two inspiration photos show the peplum over the skirt I want but I also love the V-neck. I have so many silk taffeta plaids now in my stash to choose from. So it may get a kick in the butt too.

                                                                                                                                                     

Some of this may sound repetitive of what I’ve written about in the past. I talk a lot but don’t always produce. (Yes, there’s a closet behind me that still has a few unfinished dresses in there). But I’m hoping with some goals coming up, and the idea of a group costume, it might help me out of my slump.

It’s also time to make a new Victorian corset. After wearing mine at Costume College, it again reminded me that bones were poking out of the back into my lower back, and the fabric is tearing around the knobs on the front busk. At least it still fits so I can use the same size for it this time. That will be at the top of my list.

Lest I forget, one other costume got me excited to try making one for Halloween, of all things: a Spider Lady. Inspired by my friend’s own costume, I’m planning my own but totally Halloween-oriented. The bright orange fabric with spider webs on it will be made from a caftan pattern, with a giant fuzzy spider on my head. The pattern is supposedly easy and quick, so that’s a big benefit.