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.