CREATING A VICTORIAN GARLAND FOR MY DRESS

 I’m one of those attendees to Costume College this year that decided to pull some outfits from my current wardrobe to wear to the events there, rather than stress myself out getting something new done. Especially since I took on the task of running the Costume Exhibit again, on top of being the Assistant Dean.

Who am I kidding? Of course I tried to make something new, even though I already had a dress recently finished that I could wear to the tea.  While I was playing around with a 1912 dress, I though how easy it was, and would be perfect for a tea. But after having some fitting issues where it was too big on me, I put the bodice aside. And the skirt didn’t even get started. So back to Plan A, the finished dress.

A couple years ago, I had jumped headlong into creating a “Worth” dress but then the year 2020 happened, so that got stalled. It will happen one day.

So next up was a dress for the Gala. I wanted to wear a gorgeous seafoam green evening dress I’d made way back in 2011 and wore to the tea at Costume College, and later in two fashion shows. That’s all the wearing it’s had. And it needs to come out again because that silk taffeta wasn’t cheap.

And of course, the major worry was: will it still fit after all these years? It does! But the bodice at the neckline was really loose and kind of falling off my shoulders. What the heck? The waist is pretty snug but wearable. But it was too long as I expected. I need to wear flat shoes these days, and age has reduced me by half an inch in height.

I wanted to refresh my dress, so I started looking on Pinterest for ideas on dresses from the 1890s. What caught my eye was the fabulous floral garlands they put on the necklines. Some covered the entire neckline, others had one on the side, and some just on the top of the shoulders. These same photos also gave me some ideas of what kind of hair decoration I could use for my wig.

After taking a class on making hair decorations from Costume-On, I used some of those ideas to make this. After measuring how big I wanted the base of my garland to be, I made a 7-inch base of two layers of buckram, basted those together, and then covered it with some leftover cotton batiste, again just basting it closed in the back.

I pulled out bunches of silk and vintage flowers from my millinery stash, and was looking for some big roses. But none of mine were very big. I like using small buds and flowers on my hats, so that’s what I mostly have. But I did have these two pretty silk ribbon flower pins I’d bought from Jewels by Olivia at the Costume College Marketplace a few years ago, and decided those would be my anchor flowers on each end. I also had a long garland of green ribbon leaves I think I removed from a hat. Or maybe bought from another dealer. I looped that around the sides of my base and basted those one. I originally was going to just hot-glue everything on but there’s no way I would ruin these lovely silk ribbon trims with glue.

I then pinned the ribbon roses on each end. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll wear it with the larger being at the bottom or top of my shoulder. I put my smaller vintage flowers in two shades of pink in the center of the roses.

And here it is pinned on the shoulder of my bodice.

At the time I made this dress, I barely had enough of the lace to go around my neckline, so there was a 3-inch gap on the center front where it closed. Now that I’ve moved the closure over more, part of that is resolved but there’s still a little gap that I had put a small nosegay on before. So, what to do? This lady gave me some ideas. She's got pearls, a choker, & a brooch. I need to check my jewelry stash and see what would work there. You can never have too much bling, right?

And speaking of bling; I was going to make a long pearl necklace like she has to wear with mine, and ordered some bags of pearls to make one. But then my friend came over and brought me a pearl necklace that was just the same length I wanted. Cha-ching! That saved me a bit of work, although I still think I’d love to make one too. I’m thinking I might put one of the strings of pearls through my hair too.

And speaking of hair, my original plan was to have one of these perky ornaments on the front of my wig. I’m still not sure of location because I need to bring my wig out and play with it. I may put it on the back, like this photo I took off a TV series. Either way, there will be a strand of pearls going somewhere also. I ordered a large 5-inch rhinestone brooch from Amazon and am expecting it shortly, to combine with some peacock feathers I already have.

 I pulled out 4 different brooches with either rhinestones or pearls on them, and tried them all on the center front of my bodice. I probably could have gone shopping at Joann’s for a large rhinestone button but I wanted to use what I had. This bow-shaped one was the temporary winner. For now. I still think I need something a little bigger to fill in that gap. It’s too bad I can’t find all the rhinestone bling I was buying for my 1830s Court Dress I made for CoCo a few years ago. But I’ve no idea where I put it, or if I even still have it. Still looking though.

I did end up going to Joann’s after all, and bought a nice brooch to go there, so there will be photos later with it.

I also bought a pretty hairclip to add to the front of my wig, so this is how it looks. Unfortunately, my weak Styrofoam head had a hard time holding all that weight, so it’s a bit lopsided. But it looks good on me.

I’m down to two days left before I hit the road and head to Los Angeles for this event. Now the panic ensues finding all my undies and accessories!

REGROUPING AND DESIGNING SOME 1910-1912 DRESSES

Waaay back in 2017 I almost finished a jade green linen dress using Truly Victorian’s TVE45 1911 bodice pattern and TVE30 narrow panel skirt pattern. It got put on my back burner for 6 years. I kept wanting to go back to it but just wasn’t feeling it. Maybe it was the color; maybe it was how I trimmed the bodice. And recently I thought the skirt wouldn’t fit me anymore even if I finished it. I was wrong. Either way, I got bored with it. So, I decided to sell it, and start fresh with some other fabrics I had, and with some new ideas of trimming it. The kimono sleeve pattern is very quick to sew together, and basically has no fitting.

Two of my fabrics are cotton, and quite sheer. One is a darker baby blue than the photo shows, another is a striped patterned sheer, and one is a rosy linen. The blue cotton has white embroidery that follows the length of the selvedge and I cut it so the embroidery goes down the front of the bodice, then cut a piece to go across it. I also will add some to the sleeves. Then cut the skirt so I get it going down the front of that. I’ve also wanted to make an all-white dress and add laces to it, so the white cotton sheer has possibilities. But the rose linen has been clamoring for attention for a long time, and I have definite plans for it.

I’ve been collecting ideas for trimming the bodice for the entire 6 years this has been on my planning board. I still keep coming across other dresses that this pattern could be used for making them from. Isn’t that pink one with the black lace overlay to die for? You can raise or lower the center piece to whatever level you want. 

 

I even saved pictures of outfits that friends had made just for the inspiration. The first photo in cream I saved from way back around 2008.

A few years ago, I bought some fabric in a tobacco brown linen to go with some trim for another bodice, that would look fabulous like this dress, but I only bought 8 yds of the fabric so I’m not sure if I could make it with this. Worth looking into though. 

Getting back to my rose linen, this is the dress that it wants to be. And I have the perfect lace to trim it with. It would be fun to use a lace overlay with it, but my lace trim is an off-white, and I don’t have any lace fabric that would work with it. So that needs some further thinking. I think this will be a fun dress to trim out. The photos came from the Idaho State Museum.

I have a few ideas for the belt too. There’s the one on the purple dress that uses the lace on it. Then there’s these. I like the idea of using buttons on them too. And that swag between the buttons on the light brown dress is cute.  

I went to another sewing workshop again last week, and got all three of the fabrics cut out for the bodice, and am currently cutting out some fabric to flatline them. So, progress is being made, albeit slowly. I decided to use the Laughing Moon #104 Titanic dress pattern to make my skirt with because I decided I wanted an A-line skirt rather than the narrow one.

I had a slight “squirrel attack” yesterday when I noticed a blue dress in one of my friend's photos that sure looked like it had the same lines as the bodice pattern I’m using. And its an evening dress! I hadn’t even considered this could be made in a fancy fabric too. This has got me thinking of what I could use for that now. LOL!! And of course then I had to go looking for more ideas along that line. If these are making you think of the dresses worn on the Titanic movie, then you've got the right idea. 

And where, do you ask, will I wear all these at? I have no clue at this time. IF, and that’s an IF, I get the rose one done, I’m thinking I might wear it to the Sunday Tea at Costume College.

I do have some sad news to report. My tiny, almost-21-year-old kitty and sewing companion left us last week. She spent most of her time in my sewing room, climbing on fabric, or in bags of scraps, and kept me company. She was my rock during the last few years of isolation too. I’m still waiting to hear little reminders that she’s still here with me, like her brother Rudy did when he left us. But she's running around with him now. 

                                              May 24, 2023