1873 Blue & White Striped Seaside Dress

This is another dress that came out of the “black hole” of the Pandemic. Back in 2020 I began planning my dress for that year’s Port Townsend Victorian Festival and was going with a seaside theme. This wasn’t for the fashion show but to wear the next day. I fell back on my easiest pattern to make quickly and chose my favorite Truly Victorian #410 polonaise. I’ve made about 6 of them now but it’s fun to try and make it different each time.

This time I decided to make it with a long front to look closer to an 1888 style. I got the body of the dress and the skirt done before the decision by the world and the Port Townsend committee that the event would have to be cancelled. So this is how it looked before it went into my closet.

FAST FORWARD TO 2025:

As I started attending a few more events, rather than starting new dresses which my OCD/squirrel sewing brain always wants to do, I was remembering ones I had close to completion in my closet, aka the “black hole”. It recently saved me when I needed an 1860s dress for another fashion show at the Riverside Dickens Festival and remembered the three I’d made on my assembly line in there that needed very little to finish them and I did indeed finish one for the show. Rather than alter some other dresses for *ahem* “size changes”, I pulled this blue striped dress out and decided it would work for this year’s Port Townsend event.

Of course I needed trims and buttons to be able to do that, and did my favorite part of sewing, finding ideas and shopping. This dress just begs for trims and ruffles and bows, so it’s a lot of fun to work with. I went shopping on etsy and found some ruffled lace and crocheted lace for it, and some white frosted buttons. Apparently I really liked those buttons because I found some in my button stash later but wasn’t enough for the dress. So now I still have some extra. Actually, as I’m writing this, I looked at the TV pattern photo and noticed the trims on the back peplum. Hmm, I still have more of my lace trim I can add there. And I may just have enough time to do that.

I had sewn a three-inch ruffle of self-fabric cut horizontally around the hem of my polonaise and would have loved to add a deep ruffle to the skirt but sadly didn’t have enough of the fabric. It could have used it for volume but while hemming the skirt I put some one-inch crinoline tape inside the hem and it stands out nicely now.

I spent one day at a sewing workshop sewing all my trims on it, adding the lace on top of the polonaise ruffle, on my cuffs, and inside the neckline. Then when I got home, I worked on my buttonholes. Just the lace around the inside of the neckline seemed rather plain so this is why I added the white crocheted lace along the outside.

After I put it all on my dress form, I wasn’t happy with the longer front just hanging down straight. My previous versions had this lovely drape up to the sides that looked more flattering on me. So I ripped out the side seams on it, pleated it up and then added the ties to the undersides in the back to create my poofy bustle. I began playing with bow placement too. Yep, that peplum does need some lace on it so it stands out more. This is becoming one of those never-ending dresses. Don’t have any more fabric for ruffles? Add more trim! 

 

 << Lace on peplum

Now I’m a week before I leave for WA, and I’m still writing the narratives for all the models in the fashion show. In between that, I’ve been finishing my own dress, and figuring out my accessories. My reticule was easy; I had bought an antique crocheted one with little diddly-bobbers (which we sometimes refer to as udders) a few years ago and it wasn’t lined as they usually are. So I made up a quick little bag for the inside out of navy-blue taffeta.

For my hat, I was wavering between trying to make a flat perch hat of this period but had no base or I could use a small straw bonnet I had that could actually work as is. When I bought it, it had some weird flowers on it that I removed, then put a ribbon and my own flowers on it. But I ended up never wearing it. While looking at styles online I came across this fashion plate, showing this little bonnet shape on the lower left, and another on a dress fashion plate. So that nailed it.

I dug through my ribbon stash and added some navy-blue ribbon and bows and a white feather to it to tie into my dress color. The bun on top of my wig keeps my hat in the perfect spot for how I plan to wear it.

 

On May 3rd we will have our fashion show in Port Townsend, and I hope/plan to have photos taken of me wearing it.

Since a group of us will be going to tea the next day I’m hoping to finish up a little alteration on the sleeves of another polonaise I made back in 2019 for Costume College for our Disney Bustles on Parade mini-theme a group of us did. I picked One Hundred & One Dalmatians for my dress, so I named it my “Dalmatian Dress”. Without the doggy accessories, I will just use the same accessories as my blue striped dress. But if I don’t have time to do that, I’ll be wearing the same blue dress for the tea.

COSTUMING IN JANUARY & FEBRUARY 2025

 

It’s all about recycling, reusing, and panic sewing. I started this year with plans on wearing dresses I already had so not to stress myself too much, especially since my “motivator” still doesn’t seem to be working very well. And that was my original plan 15 years ago, to have a costume from every era or decade in spring/summer and fall/winter versions for when I needed them. But as we all know, sometimes those dresses we made that long ago have shrunk in our closets.

My first costume event of 2025 was the CGW (Costumers Guild West) “Toast the New Year Tea” at the Chado Tea Room in Torrance, CA. It was originally planned for January but due to the LA fires which affected many members, it was rescheduled to March 1. The costume theme was open to any era, and boy, did we have a variety! Roughly guessing from memory, there were at least 30 attendees. We all felt like this was a much-needed break from all the chaos that had been going on. I chose to wear my 1837 purple floral dress since I knew it still fit recently and it was a front opening that I could get into by myself. I also made it easy by just wearing some pinned-on curls covered with my white lacy cap. And I got to wear my antique Belgium tape lace pelerine again.

 

The following weekend I would be presenting a Powerpoint “history of fashion” show for the San Diego branch of the Mayflower Colony at the Green Dragon Tavern & Museum in Carlsbad. I struggled through writing and gathering photos for this for almost two months, because I had been asked to include men in it. I know very little about men’s historical clothing. While trying to do some research online I really had trouble consolidating them into a chronology. Almost everything I found was vague, contradictory, and with very few photos I could use. I did find some from movies and TV series to include that looked pretty accurate to my eye but not much I could talk about. I stressed myself over this so much because I didn’t want to give out incorrect information and be embarrassed if I was called out. But in the end, the group really enjoyed it, and I got a lot of very intelligent questions that I was able to answer.

I decided again to make it easy on myself and wore my 1837 purple dress. I brought my dress form with my 1770s Colonial red, white and blue caraco and petticoat on it, and my friend, Shannon, came as my 1870s model. I also brought underpinnings from just about every decade I was covering and Shannon held those up for me as I described them. The split drawers got the most attention as usual. This group was not very costume oriented, other than the 1620s “pilgrim” time period but found a few who were really interested in the Colonial period that they wanted to try getting into, which looks slightly similar to the 1620s. We even inspired two new costumers and now they both want to come to Costume College in July.  

The San Diego Mayflower Colony President sent me a copy of their newsletter where they were introducing me as their upcoming speaker. At the meeting they also had some nicely printed flyers on the tables using more photos of me and I was happy to see they acknowledged Shannon. They were a very appreciative group of people and later I was approached by two representatives of the San Diego and Escondido branches of the DAR who asked if I would be willing to be their speaker next year. I’ve already done two for the DAR in the past eight years, so I’d like to do something different for them, like a live fashion show if they’re able to handle about 10 of us, since they include us in their meal. We shall see.

 

A week later on February 22nd I had the Riverside Dickens Festival fashion show. All I had to do was show up in my dress and write my own description. And I would wear another 1837 dress, this time in my black cotton dotted Swiss one, as I would be portraying London’s most prolific female serial killer, and who was also in mourning for the husband and child she had killed. The only problem was this dress was a back closure and I didn’t want to deal with that. So my plan was to alter it to a front closure, and I had a week to do it. I also wanted to add a little something to trim it and found a painting of an earlier dress that had a frothy little ruffle around the neckline. I found some chiffon ruffle on etsy, and that arrived within a couple days. There’s not a lot I can talk about on this dress so I added my black turban and was considering also wearing my watch.

 

But this is where the “magic costume closet” failed me. My overall size hadn’t changed too much in 5 years, except for shrinking ½” in height so I now I have to shorten all my dresses. However my upper arms had. This dress was made back in 2014 and my upper arms had gotten a lot pudgier since then. So how hard would it be to unstitch the sleeves, cut the armhole open a little more then let out some of the gathers in the sleeve to fit that. Except it also had piping and that would need adjusting. Once I had the back hook/eye tape removed, I sewed it shut and then opened the front up. Right away I could tell I needed a little bit of my fabric to add to the seam or even make a decorative placket on the front. But I couldn’t find my leftover fabric anywhere! And I only had 4 days left to do all this.

I checked my “closet” for whatever I had dating 1830-1860s to cover my characters time-period but they all probably would have the same sleeve and hem problem. On to Plan B.

Remember back in 2020 I made three 1860s dresses using Truly Victorian’s #452 work dress on my assembly line method? All they needed to be finished were buttons, buttonholes, and hems. That would be soooo much easier to finish in 4 days. The only dress I had buttons for was my royal blue one so that made my decision easy. (No one should laugh at me for my assembly-line method of cutting out and partially sewing three dresses at a time anymore).

The dresses also didn’t have collars yet and I was in no mood to make one. So I went searching online for an idea. I came across this photo that I saved and that gave me an idea. I didn’t have that exact type of collar, but I did have an antique tape lace one and decided to go with it. Then I added my jewelry. I think the brooch is Agate but I’m not sure. Surprisingly I don’t have an 1860s bonnet or hat, so I’ll just wear my black lace cap and shock everyone. Hmmm, maybe I can do some shopping while at the Dickens Festival. I had it all done on Thursday morning, and now I can relax.

 

 

These are a couple photos I came across that someone took of me in the Dickens fashion show, and a screenshot from a video that was being filmed in front of me while I was sitting on the wall of the water fountain.

 

Of course we all know what happens when you relax; your mind starts planning. I’m going to a sewing workshop the following weekend on the 28^th, and I can finally start working on a Regency day dress in hopes of going to a picnic later this year. I love the planning stage. I do way too much of that but it makes it all fun. I want to start this blue floral block printed cotton voile one that came from India on etsy and possibly cut out an all-white one (haven't decided which fabric yet) at the same time. I’ll be using the Nehelenia bodice portion since it’s already been fitted on me and came out really nice but making a much narrower skirt. I’m going to put some pleated self-fabric trim on the neckline too.

I even have two possible bonnets I can wear with it, although the green one is a bit big on my head. And maybe in the future I can make a couple Spencers to go with it, one using this blue silk dupioni that was gifted to me back in 2003, and another in hunter green linen.

  

 

And to just throw some more fun into my life, we’re in the planning stages for the Port Townsend (WA) Victorian Festival fashion show on May 3. I’m hoping to wear yet another dress from the closet and it also needs some enlarging (arms) and shrinking (hem) But I have time, and I know where that extra fabric is. Wait, now I know where that extra fat in my arms came from, my height!

My next fashion show I’m in is May 11 at the Harvey Girls Museum In Perris, CA. It was cancelled last year so I stalled on finishing my 1911 Blue Embroidered dress. The skirt needs finishing. I’m still not sure about the layout of those panels in front. I may lose the center one. Ideas are to add some covered decorative buttons down the front of the two panels, and I need to work out how to make my belt. I’ve saved a few ideas on that. So I plan/hope to do that and not have to do any altering on something else to wear. 

In the meantime, I’ve continued making my hand-sewn kerchiefs and pelerines, some using new shapes I made by tracing off some antique ones I bought. These are some of the pelerines I made, and I’ve started making some really pretty ones in black voile too. My plans are to accumulate a bunch of them as my friend & I hope to share a table and sell things at the Trunk Show at Costume College this year.