Gaslight Gathering Victorian fashion show

We got some wonderful video taken of the Victorian fashion show at the Gaslight Gathering Steampunk & Victoriana convention a few weeks ago. You can get a good look at each and every gown the models wore that were copied or inspired by fashion prints or photos.
I’m the first model in Video #1 wearing my 1850s turquoise & gold plaid gown, and the last model in Video #2. Each video is 15 minutes long. Enjoy!
Video #1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlNOIzBSHHU
Video #2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-qdJAQfjmw

These are my critics, Chloe and Rudy, who are very helpful with my sewing. It’s very hard work.

A DIY Pattern Organizer

May 24, 2011
Do you need a portable pattern reference guide? Step this way!
I came up with this idea of having a portable pattern reference book about 5 years ago after numerous trips to the Garment District in LA, and coming across the perfect fabric for a costume but not having the fabric amounts with me. How many times has that happened to you? I don’t always go looking for fabric for a specific pattern, which I would have the amounts with me, or sometimes the muse just hits me. So I’ve either under-bought or over-bought the amount I needed.
I started writing down all my pattern numbers with a slight description next to it, & hoping to remember what it looked like. But when you have over 250 patterns, your memory doesn’t always serve. And it got messy after awhile.
I tried the 3x5 card method but that’s not great for carrying that many around. It’s still a good idea for putting your fabric swatches on unless you’re like me and also have an Obsessive Amount of Fabric. I ended up putting swatches of them just in a Ziploc bag.
I found a 6 ½ x 3 ½ inch vinyl bound book with an elastic strap around it, and decided to put pictures of all my patterns in it, along with fabric & trim amounts needed for it. The first time I showed it to a group of Costume College newbies who were going to the Garment District and didn’t know how much fabric they would need, I almost didn’t get it back.
I’ve shared my idea with a few people, with favorable comments, and today while working on mine, I decided to share it with more people. Because that’s what costumers do.
Start by finding your book to make it with. I bought mine at Staples office supply, and yesterday saw some in a variety of colors on sale for $3. I think they’re normally $5. Then start collecting photos of all your patterns. The easiest way is to find them on the internet, either on the pattern company’s website, or if out of print, on eBay, or just type in a search. Copy and save the photo to your computer. Make sure you save the pattern company name and number with it; example, TV 410.
You will need to print them out to a size that will fit in your book. I like them about 3” or less so I can see the details. But you can do them half that size to put two to a page if you like. The speediest way to print them is to put them on a Word document where you can put multiples on the page. Once that’s done, cut them and tape them to the page in the book. Trim the photo as much as possible to eliminate bulk in the book. You can include the name & # on the print out but I just write it in the book next to the photo.

I put them in a numerical order in my book. I’ve tried different ways, like the era but I seem to try and hunt them by number more often. Although I do have one section that is a compilation of all my 1930s & 40s ones. Leave a couple pages blank between each pattern company to add other purchases later. The books come with a lot of pages so it will take quite a few to fill it up. It’s small enough to carry in your purse, or back pocket, and will save you from disastrous purchases in the future.
And while we’re on Obsessive-Compulsive Costuming, have I told you about my Costume Projects & Fabrics book? This one is 7x9”, a mini three ring binder, also purchases at Staples. I cut pages of card stock in half and punch holes in it for my pages. Much cheaper than buying them.

I print out pictures of my inspiration gown & the pattern if I have one yet. Then I tape the fabric swatch next to it. Sometimes there’s more than one fabric for multiple gowns. I write on the piece of fabric how many yards there are too.

It’s just a way I try to keep control of what I plan to make with a fabric I purchased, or at least remember WHY I bought it. This is a similar idea to using 3x5 cards. Since they’re taped on the pages, it’s easy to move them if I change my mind what I’m using it for.
I also have a second book that I move these pages to once the gown is completed, along with a photo of me wearing it. There are some days that I either don’t have a costume to work on, am stumped by how to do something, or just don’t feel like sewing. This becomes a very satisfactory replacement, and I see instant results.

**UPDATE -July 2023-- this white notebook eventually became my pattern one because I had so many patterns, I couldn't fit them in that small red book anymore. And with a 3-ring notebook, I can easily move the pages around, and its still small. **

Sewing piping & ruching-1850s style

May 13, 2011
AKA Piping for Dummies:
I started a new costume a few weeks ago, an 1850s gown, and it will be my first attempt at doing piping. I tried doing it a few years ago, and never figured out how to get in between the fabric and the facing where it was just a narrow cord showing. Later I did a fake piping as trim along the edge of a sleeve jockey, my collar, and cuffs by sewing my silk taffeta trim right sides together to the edge of the fabric with a narrow hem. Then I turned it over to the inside and sewed a tiny hem to the back. I was basically just covering the edge of the fabric but from the front it looked like a nice narrow piping. You’ll probably remember this from an earlier post when I made my 1860s olive green gown.





For my 1850s gown, which I’m recreating from an original, I wanted to do it correctly as the pattern indicated. I already knew how to make bias strips from my fabric, and cut several lengths of it using a ruler that was 1-1/4 inch wide. After asking my friends on LiveJournal for suggestions to use for the cording, the overwhelming popular one was Lily Sugar n Cream 4 ply cotton yarn. I happened to have a few rolls of it from using it on a corded petticoat.Michael's carries this.




I folded the bias strip in half and placed the length of yarn down the middle, and secured it at one end with a straight pin. To keep the edges even, I pinned it down the length of the fabric. I used a zipper foot and sewed it as close to the edge of the yarn as I could. I even let the foot go slightly onto the top of the yarn to get it closer. For instructions on how to do this, I pulled out my copy of Cloak & Corsets “Modern Sewing Techniques for Historical Clothing Construction”, and found the chapter on piping. It had enough information to guide me through the next steps. http://www.cloakandcorset.com/products.php





I pinned it to the right side of my bodice with the half inch portion of the bias strip even with the edge of my bodice & basted it to hold in place. In this case, my seam allowances are a half inch, and I was sewing it around my arm hole & shoulder seams. On the armhole I started and ended it under my arm at the side seam. I overlapped the ends and pinned the loose ends up into the seam allowance so they crisscrossed. Later I trimmed those ends off even with the seam.




When I sewed the seams together I sewed the piping again using my zipper foot, and kept it close to the yarn. I thought this was going to be hard getting it exact but with my silk taffeta I can actually see the bump made by the yarn. You can also feel it. And you do want to get it close so the piping isn’t flopping around outside the seam.



Then I sewed the sleeve on as usual, making sure the edges were all even so my half inch seam would work. Here you can see the armhole piping. You can’t see the shoulder one since the seam is towards the back but it’s there. And once I got the hang of this, I didn’t stop. I decided to do it along the bottom edge of the bodice too. There are some other seams on the bodice that will be getting piping also.




And THEN I got to try a different method of making ruching to trim the front of the bodice. My method as shown in my earlier 1770s gowns, was to turn the edges of the strip of fabric to the center and press, then gather it down the center, so it was ruffley on the edges. This gown does it different. The edges are turned under 1/4 inch on the sides, and gathered down BOTH sides so it pleats it down the middle. This photo shows the sewn edges on the strip on the top with a gathering stitch. The bottom one has it gathered up and pinned to the bodice. I hand sewed it using a basting stitch with only a small stitch showing on top down the stitch lines on the sides.



The first strip I sewed on the bodice has the gathers not level enough so I’m going to take out some of the hand stitches and even it out a little more. But I learned something new and now have a new trim technique to add to my skills.

Gaslight Gathering Steampunk & Victorian Fashion Shows

Last weekend I attended the first, and hopefully annual, Gaslight Gathering Steampunk & Victoriana convention in San Diego, CA.


This is Kaja Foglio, who with her husband Phil, write the comic Girl Genius which was the inspiration for much of Steampunk fashion.

With my friends, Mary Jennings, and Shelley Peters of the Kansas Merchantile aka The Widow Peters.

Other than wearing Steampunk, my friend Cindy asked me to be in the fashion show she was running on Mother's Day, which would be Victorian fashions that we used historical paintings, photos or fashion prints as our inspiration.
I already had one gown made that I'd sort of copied from a fashion print, and started another that I was using a photo of Queen Victoria to copy but realized that it was the same pattern as the other gown. So I decided to wear another gown that also had been inspired by a painting.
My first gown, an 1850s turquoise plaid was inspired by this print of the green plaid gown. I previously documented the making of that one.


We had a photographer that grabbed us as we left the room for a quick photo, and unfortunately by that time my lips were quivering from so much smiling, and I was rushing to change into my next gown. I've decided I need to wear this WITHOUT the bonnet because it's big bow is covering all the pretty trims on the front, and my brooch.

My second gown, which was just documented in my previous post, was an 1885 blue floral gown inspired by this painting.

I carried a basket with roses in a similar color and one in my hand. I didn't get a photo I liked that time, so this one with my friends Lauren and Cindy (the show's narrator) shows it off partially.

I'm doing another fashion show this next weekend, and will be wearing my 1770s red floral caraco again since they don't have anything from that time period, and my friend Cindy will be wearing her purple pleated gown. At least neither of us have to rush to finish anything because I want to focus on my new 1850s gown right now.

Previous Gowns Part 3: 1885 Blue Floral

I’ve started to catch up on documenting some of my older gowns, and this was the latest. I started this gown in 2007 & finished it in August 2008 for a Victorian tea.
I finally found the photo of a painting I’d printed off the internet that inspired my 1885 blue floral gown. With the help of a friend, I was able to get a scan of the photo to put back on my computer. *If anyone can identify the painting or painter, I’d really appreciate it. I printed this off my computer quite a few years ago and had a habit of not saving any identifying information with them.*




**Edited to add- the painting has been found! This was “Pruning Roses” by Robert James Gordon.

Besides loving the blue color, I liked the dark blue insert on the bodice and was happy when Truly Victorian came out with the French Vest pattern with the insert.









When I saw this fabric at Rosie’s Calico Cupboard, a quilt shop in San Diego, I knew right away it was perfect for this gown.





The painting doesn’t really show what the underskirt looks like but I decided I wanted to continue the solid color for it. I also didn’t have enough of the blue floral to make the skirt. The bodice was fairly easy to construct and the insert portion was even easier than it looks. I thought it was some complicated bit of hooks & eyes system to attach it, but instead it was just sides sewn to the front portion of the bodice to continue it to the center. Piece of cake! I used buttons & buttonholes as my closure on this, and used modern flat blue buttons. In hindsight, it also made it easier to alter the size because as I began losing weight, just moving the buttons over made that easy too. I had one oops while making it though. When I was opening the buttonhole up using my seam ripper, I pushed too hard, and I ripped right through the buttonhole and went an inch and half into the fabric. I did a very tight zigzag stitch over it in navy blue thread to close it, and I’ve been told it’s hardly noticeable. But I notice it.
As you will see in the photos of the completed gown, I was still in my early years of knowledge of how these were made and worn. The skirt in this era should be flat in front, with the excess in the back to go along with the bustle. And a little fuller petticoat wouldn’t hurt it either. But overall I still like it, and this pattern is very flattering.






I don’t have any decent photos of the hat since I’ve repurposed it into other colors for other gowns. At times I’ve worn an antique black wire frame bonnet with it but at some point I’d like to make one that looks more like the original painting.

1912 Suit for the Titanic Boarding Party luncheon

Started Feb 7, 2011/ Finished April 17, 2011
For the Titanic Boarding Party luncheon, portraying Dr Alice Leader, survivor of the sinking.


One of our costume guild members began planning an event for the anniversary of the RMS Titanic sinking on April 12, 1912. It was to be a Titanic Boarding Party luncheon at the Harbor House Restaurant in Seaport Village, San Diego, on April 1 7. We were each to pick a real person from the Titanic’s passenger list to portray, either a survivor or not, and try to come up with their story.
I chose Dr Alice Leader, who was more interesting than just being a 1st class passenger.
Alice and her husband John worked together as physicians at a practice in New York City. Alice boarded the Titanic at Southampton by herself as a first class passenger. She was 49 years old. She shared cabin D-17 with her friend, Mrs. Margaret Swift. Both she & Margaret were rescued in lifeboat 8.
After her rescue from the Titanic, Alice returned to work. She retired in the 1920s and was a frequent visitor to the Orlando, Florida area. Alice Leader died of heart failure in Florida on April 20, 1944; she was buried in Attica, N.Y.

I began looking for something suitable for a first class passenger who was also a doctor. I liked the idea of a suit that could be worn while boarding the ship. Then I came across a photo of a hunting party where a lady was wearing a suit with a set of furs and it matched a fashion photo I had. I liked having lots of buttons and trims.




From here I gathered my accessories, starting with a hat I’d bought in 2004 from Mela Hoyt-Hayden at the Costume College Marketplace while I was there. I added my furs, an antique Edwardian parasol that was long enough to be a walking stick, and a smallish doctor’s medical bag I recently purchased in Williamsburg, and was the perfect size for a lady doctor.






I could only come up with two commercial patterns that were close to what I wanted to use, one by Rocking Horse Farms, or Wingeo 410 & 411. I already had the Wingeo pattern so I decided to use that. At some point, I still want to try the Rocking Horse one.




I’m using a lightweight suiting wool blend that I’ve had for about 5 years. It’s a light chocolate brown, and I bought some dark chocolate velveteen for the collar and trims. Unfortunately during that time some little winged beasties nibbled on some of it, so I had to recut one piece that was unsalvageable, but on the front with the lapel, I decided the lapel folding over would cover it. Besides I didn’t have enough fabric to recut that piece. To prevent stretching, I did a staystitch around all the pieces, & flatlined the front & back pieces with interfacing because of it being so lightweight.


I had a really hard time getting started on this Wingeo pattern. There is only one sheet of directions, and they’re minimal. It has a two collar option, one being a contrasting collar, but it’s not really clear how to do that, especially if you’ve never done a lapel collar before. I ended up begging for help and Jennifer Rosbrugh of Historical Sewing stepped in to try and decipher the directions. http://www.historicalsewing.com/ This was all done over the internet so it was confusing for both of us. Since the directions only showed a drawing of the jacket w/o a lapel, that confused me further. After a week of going back and forth, Jennifer was able to write up some new instructions for me and it was enough for a light bulb to go on and have an ah hah moment. Part of the problem was sewing the separate collar and it’s placement on the jacket so it lined up properly with the folded out lapel portion. The directions said to sew on the collar from the dots A to B. Except there were four dots and none were labeled. So when I finally sewed it, using the dots closest to the center opening, it didn’t lay down far enough to line up with the lapel.








This first photo shows the incorrectly lined up lapel collar. The second shows after I opened it up to the dot where it was supposed to match up to the dart on the jacket, it lined up properly.

































I would not recommend this pattern for a beginner.
I sewed the sleeves on and then the belt, which I sewed by machine on a side seam on both sides, then hand tacked it to the front, leaving the back portion un-tacked. I read somewhere that it should stay loose since the back would tend to gather. I imagine if I had fitted the back portion a little more, I wouldn’t have had the looseness there. I wasn’t very happy with how the sleeves were fitting me at the shoulders, and then surprisingly in an Edwardian drafting class, it was discovered I had a very short shoulder line from my neck to the tip of my shoulder. So that explained why it was hanging down so low on my arms. So I had some help drawing a new line for my armseye and I cut off about 2 inches in, and reset my sleeves, which looked much better.
The belt made also of velveteen was attached to the jacket but I didn’t attach it on the back because it had some fullness that would have bunched up if I stitched it.


Once that and the sleeves were done, the rest went a lot quicker. The skirt also didn’t have much directions, and the only stumble made there was in the kick pleats which really didn’t have much to fold under the pleat but it looks ok. I forgot to take pictures of that while I was in “frantic-mode” of sewing for my event in three days.
My plans to cover buttons with the velveteen didn’t work because the fabric was too bulky. So I went in search of acceptable looking buttons. I found some at Yardage Town with a clover pattern cut out in the middle. They actually had enough of them for once. I used 6 large ones on the front of the double breasted jacket, four on each sleeve, and two on each side of the two kick pleats of the skirt. At some point I’d like to add a velveteen trim to the bottoms of the sleeves, but at this point, I’m just happy that it’s wearable.







The last part of this was my high necked blouse. I tried an Edwardian blouse I had on but the cotton sleeves fought with the cotton lining of the jacket sleeves and it was impossible to get it on. I almost didn’t get out of it. Plan B was a fake blouse, aka a dickie. I couldn’t find my pattern for making the blouse so I used another one for a high necked cape, Butterick 4952.
I just cut out the front and back pieces, with the collar. I shortened the bottoms of both bodies, and cut off part of the sides to even it out from the armholes, and just hemmed each side without having a side seam. The front seams and the collar overlapped enough to snap closures. I used a piece of antique lace from my stash and sewed one part around the collar, and then two pieces down the front on either side of the closure. I left a small area near the top for my Edwardian brooch to close it.







These photos were taken by Jerry Abuan. I didn’t realize until I saw the photos that when I put my hat on after getting out of my car and sticking my hat pin in, that I forgot to set it at an angle. This position isn’t the best angle for me or to show off the hat to its best. I also noticed the jacket wants to scrunch up too high above the waist after I’ve been sitting down. It causes the lower part of the jacket to pull at the last button. I don’t know if it’s too tight or what causes it yet. I need to get in the habit of pulling it down each time I get up.


We had our Captain Edward John Smith, and many lovely ladies.
More of my photos can be found here. http://www.pbase.com/cinnamonhrts/titanic_boarding_party