Sabrina

It's been over a month! I need to get this recap wrapped up.

Saturday was mostly a socialize with friends day. I wore my old 1883 print polonaise during part of the day. Not very exciting, thus no pictures. Several of us had lunch in the hotel restaurant. I had a pretty tasty tomato and white bean soup. Then I was SO ready to get out of my corset. The only class I took was Cynthia Settje's (RedThreaded) "Measure of a (Wo)Man" class. I was in a group withquincy134 and Christine (who I had met the last time I was at Costume College, but, silly me, I didn't realize it was her until the evening!) and we took a very thorough set of measurements. I did mine with my corset on, so I'll be able to adjust some of my patterns to fit better. Very useful! And you really do need someone else taking your measurements. How else are you going to measure the length of your arm while its bent or across your back from armscye to armscye?

Then it was time to get ready for the Gala. I was feeling pretty bored with my 1871 lavender silk gown, just because I'd finished it so much earlier, but it was really fun to wear and I loved it. There were lots of other early bustle gals, which added to the fun. I was ready pretty early because the hairpiece made doing my hair SO easy. I just put my own hair into a braid and pinned it into a loop. Then I stuck the curly hairpiece just behind the braid and then curled my bangs. Done! I also remembered all my accessories, like my silk neck ribbon, white gloves, and Dames a la Mode earrings. I headed down tokoshka_the_cat andllyrafantasyfae 's room to bug them about taking photos. ;) They were still getting ready and I was able to help them out with a few things. Then I wandered down into the lobby to see all the people in the line for the red carpet. A picture of me with Christine and her husband in their incredible embroidered suits (once I finally realized who she was):

bauhausfrau looking awesome in her Fox habit inspired by The Duchess with bonus Alyxx in the background.

And Taylor and Jenny-Rose looking fabulous, as always!


Taking pictures outside meant that we didn't end up doing the red carpet, which I was fine with. I got some good pictures of my dress, a couple of Katherine in her beautiful hand-beaded dress, and Amy Lee in her Captain America. We had fun!

Also, I thought it was funny to take a picture of them both looking at pictures:



Even more pictures taken of people after dinner, including a couple of Empresses, other bustles (with butt bows like mine!), a couple takes on Captain America, and beautiful friends in creative and wonderful costumes:


I somehow missed all the dancing. A bunch of us were lounging around outside the room and chatting. And afterwards there was another quiet hangout in a hotel room. With delicious cheese and crackers and olives! Fun times with friends. :D

I took a lot more pictures, but they're kind of awkward because they're more "documenting people's costumes" and having them stand alone and pose in a hallway with bad lighting than actual good photos. I need to try and get more pictures of people in pairs/threes next time. As always, please let me know if you prefer to have a picture of you taken down. :)

I had to get up bright and early on Saturday so that I could dress in my Little House ensemble and go to ashamanja_babu's dance class. It was so much fun and Elizabeth is incredibly graceful and a great teacher. I think I may have 2 left feet though and certainly my too-long skirt didn't help. A dress up to my neck and a corset also made dancing hot and difficult for deep breathing (I feared an asthma attack), so I sat most of the class out, but joined in again at the end. jenthompson got a fabulous pic of me with my bodice unbuttoned and my skirt hiked up to my knees to cool down. Scandalous!

Afterward, our Little House group got together for pictures. Elizabeth wins the award for "most Little House authentic" for having a book of Tennyson AND having knit lace for this ensemble. Classic Laura stuff. :)

We all get points for historical wedgies though! ;p

After pictures, I was a slacker and took off my costume and didn't go to any more classes, but hung out with friends by the pool. I wore a t-shirt and jeans and had my entire head in curlers. I didn't get any pictures of that, but there are some floating around...

I needed lots of curls for the Gala. I was very pleased with how my Gala Little Mermaid gown turned out. I hadn't actually tried everything on together, so it was nice seeing it all come together just like I envisioned. The only problem was that, because I made my train's waistband too small, I had to waist rather tightly to get it to fasten. You could have seen me in the bathroom at one point with my bodice undone so that I could loosen my stays because they were really digging into my ribs. :p

Aside from having to put my hair in curlers and then later take them out, my hair was super easy. It's just 2 pony tails, 1 higher than the other. The flower ornament is shaped like an upsidedown U and it covers the elastics and is just pinned in. You can see sort of similar hairstyles on my Pinterest board, especially this plate.

There were SO MANY gorgeous ladies at the Gala! I loved girliegirl32786's big butt and billowy skirt:

Jen and nuranar made an awesome Grandma Wolf and Little Red:

These early bustle dresses by Elizabeth and a lady I met named Christine were so ruffly bustly wonderful! I now need an early bustle dress even more than I needed before! Conveniently I made a Garment District purchase that will help with this. ;) (You can also catch a glimpse of half of the_aristocat in her 1880s court gown in the back right of the picture. Needless to say, she looked stunning!)

llyrafantasyfae and gilded_garb made incredibly clever, cool, and sexy burlesque Captain America and Winter Soldier costumes. I made them have a showdown so I could take a pic:

We had lots of laughs and danced up a storm. There was a small midnight photography session before heading to bed. Good stuff!

Whew! I'm tired out. I had a long day today. This is the weekend of Doors Open, when a bunch of historic sites around the city are open to the public for free tours. Places like the Legislative Buildings and the Lieutenant Governor's house, but also other random houses (and a jail!) that have been converted to offices and things. My living history society was invited to spend the day at Dalnavert House (built 1895) to add some colour. We hung out on the lawn and porch all day, playing games like croquet and the game of graces, and had a couple of displays of an early 19th century tea set and some 19th century sewing notions and tools.

I had to get up early to dress up in my polonaise and such. I was happy to learn that I was alright wearing the corset for about 5-6 hours, but that I might want to make a Victorian one with less reduction in the future (probably for the 1867 stuff). I had lots of nice comments from people about my dress which was fun. :)

I've also come up with a very simple hairstyle that works for this era: it's a low French braid (so that all the hair is joined into the braid as the first three strands are braided) with the end looped up and tucked/pinned under the little hole the French braid makes. I'd have a better braid loop if my hair was longer, but it gives the sort of low silhouette of the very early 1880s. I got the idea from some of the pics in Fashions of the Gilded Age Vol. 2 that have a sort of knot above a looped up braid. Mine's just a simplified version.

I didn't get a chance to see much of the house, but what I did see was lovely. It's all restored and filled with period furniture. The Costume Museum of Canada had also put up an exhibit of 1880s dresses in one room. This sort of confused me because the house is 1890s and they have tons of 1890s stuff, but whatevs. Also a weird convo with someone from the Costume Museum. I was with another living history girl and we were looking at the dresses when the Costume Museum lady said, "Can you imagine wearing a tight corset like that?" And I said, "Yes, I'm wearing one right now." She just sort of looked at me like I was speaking gibberish or something and then said, "The waist is so tiny," pointing at the mannequin. I'm not sure if she just didn't hear me, or actually had no comprehension of what I said. It was so odd. :s

I have lots of pictures of the dresses but am too tired to upload them right now. I also got several pictures taken of me in and around the house and I'll post those when I get them from the photographer.

So close to being done! I got all the buttons and buttonholes finished this weekend. I wanted to have the entire thing done, but was just not disciplined enough. Since the closures are on, I was able to take pictures! The ties for bustling are all pinned. You know what's not fun? Trying on your polonaise and having pins poke you in the butt. Seriously. (Excuse the wrinkles. The skirt has been lying around unfinished for a really long time.)
( Print Polonaise Pictures Presented )
All that's left is sewing the bustle ties, hemming the skirt, and adding the skirt flounces.

I'm so happy with how this has turned out. I was worried that I would have a lot of trouble with fit, but that went smoothly. The buttonhole-making wasn't too bad either. And I LOVE the buttons. They're vintage and made of real mother-of-pearl, so they're heavier and have a lovely rainbow-y shine. The only thing that bothers me, from looking at these pictures, is that it really looks like I could use another petticoat under the skirts. I have a narrow late-Edwardian style one I can use, so problem solved. :)

I got the sleeves hemmed and I made a collar and edged it with my pretty cotton lace from Treadle Yard Goods. Hemming and adding lace were both hand sewing projects, so took a bit of time. I've attached the collar with a strip of fabric for a facing/edging along the neckline. It now needs sewing down, also by hand. Then I am moving on to hemming the skirts of the polonaise. The last few things are all rather time-consuming hand sewing bits: sewing down the front facing, buttonholes, buttons, and ties for bustling.

Oh, and then I have to finally hem the underskirt and add a flounce to it. I think I have enough fabric for either one wide flounce or two narrower flounces. One flounce is sounding like less work to me, so it'll probably be that. Hoping to finish this up this week and then get started with the ball gown!

Please help me decide, friends! Should my 1882 print polonaise have a standing collar or a falling one (like a shirt)?

Both are correct for the period, although the standing collar is far more common. I'd use pretty much the same technique to put in the collar, so neither is more work than the other. I think both would look good, so no help there. This is why I can't decide. See my Pinterest board to see what I'm talking about.

Also, I'm so lazy and just want this thing finished that I decided against adding cuffs and instead am just going to hem the sleeves. This is what prompted my collar indecision, because I was originally planning on having matching collar and cuffs, both trimmed with a narrow cotton lace. Now, with the plain sleeve hem, I can make plain white cuffs to tack in (which I see in tons of 1880s photos) and I can reuse the white cuffs for other things later.

I have all the big pieces together now. It just needs ironing before putting together the sleeves and adding them. Then it will be all the smaller, fiddly bits, like collar, cuffs, buttons, buttonholes, hems, and ties for bustling.

There's also seam finishing. I'm not sure I even want to bother, but if I did, it'd be whipstitching all the seam allowances like in koshka_the_cat's antique cotton bustle dress. What do you think, friends: is it worth spending the time doing the hand work to neaten up the seam allowances, or should I just leave them so I can get on to sewing other things?

Well looks like all the pattern really needed was to be lengthened 2 inches, 1.5 inches right above the darts and 0.5 inches across the middle of the chest. This is the Basque Bodice for Medium-Sized Ladies in Frances Grimble's Fashions of the Gilded Age Vol. 1 (pg. 173) using the 43 cm ruler. If you have a larger bust, you might not need to lengthen the bodice as much. But I'm pretty short and short-waisted and still needed to lengthen it significantly, so most normal height people will probably need to lengthen a bunch.

I added skirts to the front and side-back pieces as well as box-pleat extensions into the back piece at the waist (based on other patterns of polonaises in the book). I'll lengthen the skirts in the back and side-back pieces for the real thing. In this mock-up I just wanted to get a chance to see how the more fitted parts would go and to figure out the polonaised front. I also cut the armscye in a bit in the front. The curve of the CF of the bodice needed slight adjusting (taking in at the top and letting out just slightly at the bust). This was after I'd made the waist a bit bigger at CB and the side-most dart. Thinking about it, I could probably go up a ruler size, but I won't because I'm too lazy to trace out another one.

And, miracle of miracles, the sleeve fit almost perfectly! Seriously. It just needs a little bit taken out where the pins are and maybe where that wrinkle in the back of the arm is and to be lengthened by an inch to where the mock-up sits now. Crazy.

I think getting the silhouette just right first really made fitting this easier. With a period silhouette, it makes sense that the period pattern would fit correctly right? One of the key things that I've noticed about silhouette thanks to the_aristocat is a low and rounded bust. Also the natural form belly. Definitely have that going on. ;p

I'm glad this went so smoothly. I need to get a move on with the sewing or I won't have anything to wear at CoCo. Maybe I can get it cut out tomorrow? Or at least cut this mock-up apart for the pattern, draft up a collar, and actually sew the hem on the skirt. That seems more likely. Then I'll be away for a week's vacation in Chicago and Indianapolis. Darn, just when I'm making progress!

I don't it's cold here. I mean I have a cold. And it makes me feel blah. I think I just crashed after all the school and conference stuff. It's put a damper on the sewing. My skirt is still sitting around with its hem just pinned up. I ironed and trimmed it at some point, though. In even better progress, I drafted up a bodice pattern! I will attempt to cut out the mock-up today. We'll see how that goes.

Tomorrow is a sewing write-off day because I have to go to a baby shower during the day and group watching Game of Thrones in the evening and, if I'm suddenly completely better, maybe the weekly visit to my grandmother, but probably not. I had to skip out on the living history group sewing day today which made me sad. But my nose is like a leaking faucet and my head feels about 2 sizes too big. There's no way I would have been able to do 5 hours of sewing. Plus, I'd hate to go there and potentially infect everyone. So I slept in and had chicken-vegetable soup for lunch. :)

I have a new upcoming project for post-CoCo sewing: an 1895 outfit! It seems very likely that next year's Victorian Studies conference will be in my hometown with the theme of Making Victorians. Combine that with the fact that much of our conference will be connected with Dalnavert House, a local museum originally built in 1895, and you get my project/presentation for next year. I want to make an entire tailor made suit (but this may change to a dress, not entirely sure yet, depends on what fabric I find) from the ground up (including undies) and document the process. Talk about the research done, the hours put in, the $ it takes, what the historical costuming community looks like, what wearing these items is like, etc. I think it'll be really interesting. And with a big deadline like that, I'll have to get it done. :)

(I had shown my prof my earlier post of all my 1880s undies and the beginnings of the polonaise outfit and she said I should show that at the house. "But it's the wrong era!" I declared. We just couldn't have that, now could we?)

I sewed a hook onto my petticoat a while ago. Just finished sewing the eyelet. So that is now officially done!

The skirt is coming along too. It's all together and I just did the button and buttonhole. I'm taking a page out of jenthompson's book an putting elastic at the back to hold the front of the skirt back. When I tried everything on the other day it was just too poofy, but holding the back part of the skirt back a bit gave the right natural form shape. I sewed one side down. Just need to try everything on again and measure the elastic. Then it's just hem and ruffles. The ruffles will have to wait until I'm done the polonaise though, to make sure I have enough fabric.