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.