This month:
Trisha asks about creating a dress form for a French fashion doll and patterns for it.
Shawn inquires about the historically correct way to piece an 1880 chemise
Cathy explains about the DPP Corsets competition and FR
Now that we have had an introduction into the fashion of the Natural Form, it's time to proceed with choosing the details of your outfit. There are many options depending on the year that's taken your fancy.
I will start by focussing on the particulars of fashion by year, and covering the three types of dress: Day dress, Evening dress and Ball dress.
"The ideal at present is the greatest possible flatness and straightness: a woman is a pencil covered with raiment" ~ October 23, 1875, Harper's Bazar.
We shall be wandering into that very peculiar era of fashion in the Victorian Era, known as the Natural Form with its Cuirass Bodice.
Since fashion is always intertwined with economics and war, I will take a summarized look at the socio-economic climate that occurred during this era.
Overcoming the structural challenges of this project was a breeze for our master milliner Lynn McMasters, but choosing how to finish off the covering to match Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter in the new Alice in Wonderland movie was much more difficult.
Here she shares the details on covering and finishing this fantasy topper, including how she printed her own fabric and made her own supersized hatpins. The result demonstrates how to bend and shape basic, accurate period costume ideas into enviable theatrical, fantasy, gothic or steampunk works of art!
Last month I showed you how to draft the front, back and side back of the Seaside Jacket. This month, I show you how to true up the pattern, fit the jacket, draft the sleeves and construct the jacket.
I'll also share some key lessons I learned in this whole process, including a classic mistake.
Here we find ourselves at our last instalment. I'm a year older and three years wiser, and I hope you have gained as much from this series in reading it as I have in writing it.
Is it perfect? No. Is it period correct, yet simple for the beginner? Yes.
In this last article, I will go into a more advanced discussion of fitting. I'll show how to make up for disproportions such as erect and stooping figures, low and high shoulders, and more.
We give here, the front and back view of a Lady's Sea-side Jacket. It is made of light cloth or flannel, and braided as seen in the design. The diagram on the next page, which represents the front and back, will enable any lady to cut it out, fit it correctly and make it up at very little expense. It cannot fail to please. Peterson's Magazine, August 1873
This month Marion discusses the issues she ran into in using the straight Peterson's patterns, how to overcome it, and pattern the jacket.
Next month, she'll walk through the truing up the pattern, fitting, drafting the sleeves and making up the jacket.
When is a flat pattern not a flat pattern? When is a Hatter sane?
The answer to the second question is rarely: we’re all mad.
The answer to the first is: when you can use a flat pattern to create a hat that looks like it couldn’t have been made with a flat pattern but really was by joining flat shapes together to construct a three dimensional shape.
With a new Hatter due to hit cinema screens soon, we thought we'd ask Lynn how to create his signature topper!
Marion traces the beginnings of the second bustle era by reviewing fashion illustrations of 1868-1869 from Peterson's, Arthur's and Godey's magazines.
If that isn't enough, also included are all patterns published by Peterson's in 1869!
If you’re used to the modern approach to sewing, then the Victorians' methods might seem a little strange at first. Once you’re used to them, however, they truly make sense and help to make your clothing look authentic.
This pink satin evening bodice gives a good overview of late Victorian construction techniques. Katherine shares her observations as well as fifty photos of the detail of the inside and outside.
Originally published as part of our 2009 Single Pattern Project, this extract from our lengthy article on recreating 1860s underthings focusses on that most intimidating of engineered supports: the cage crinoline.
Sunny Buchler talks you through the history, the practicalities of moving in such a contraption, patterns and book references.
1868-1875 is commonly known as "The First Bustle" period, but in fact it was one of several bustle periods in the 19th century, and it certainly wasn't the first!
This month we start a fashion review series, looking at the looping, shirring, pleating and draping methods that we now call a "bustle".
In our recent survey you told us that you'd like to see more how-tos involving costume accessories.
Loren Dearborn shares with us two easy techniques, using polymer clay, to create beautiful and convincing portrait and mourning jewelry appropriate for the 18th and 19th centuries.
Mary Dotson shares with us pictures of late 1890's wool tailored suit from her collection.
About ten years ago, I was approached by a vintage clothing dealer who though I might fit an 1890s dress.
Marion McNealy flips through her late 1890's fashion magazine collection and not only dates the suit to a specific season and year but finds the fashion plate that probably inspired it.
For the Victorians, methods of folding and draping the fabric of a bustle truly developed into an art form. There were many different styles with assorted fanciful names like "The Waterfall", which burst in and out of fashion.
I'm going to show you how I created my ladybird gown's "Butterfly" bustle drape. It is very simple and needs no pattern at all, being created from just a rectangle of fabric.
Other dressmakers and designers have experimented with this style too, and it can still be seen in some museum pieces. It is made to be worn over the bustle cage and a plain skirt.
The bustle was allegedly invented in the mid-1860's when a society hostess's crinoline collapsed and her maid re-pinned the excess fabric to the back of the gown.
This story, while entertaining, is almost certainly apocryphal, and the design probably came about much more naturally as the train on a crinoline took on larger, more sweeping proportions.
Let me show you how to create a small boned cage, based very loosely on Hunnisett's 18th century pocket hoop pattern in Period Costume for Stage & Screen: Patterns for Women's Dress 1500-1800. This is not a totally historically accurate reproduction but it creates an exceptionally easy-to-wear support that gives a lovely period silhouette.
One of my priorities when reproducing the fashions of any era is to be able to create something which can be simultaneously historically accurate and individual and distinctive in style. It is becoming harder and harder to accomplish this with Regency fashion due to the huge amount that is reproduced every year, partly due to the enormous popularity of Jane Austen.
In response I've made it my task to uncover some of the lesser known extant examples of Regency clothing, giving you a detailed insight into some more unusual examples of Regency outerwear. These are often found packed away, unseen, in the archives of museums for years, dropping into an oblivion of forgotten fashion styles.
You'll discover ways to make your own reproductions distinctive and imaginative whilst staying within the realms of historical accuracy: we'll begin by examining the pelisse and how to pattern it, then moving on to the spencer, cloaks, capes, mantles and wraps.
One of my priorities when reproducing the fashions of any era is to be able to create something which can be simultaneously historically accurate and individual and distinctive in style. It is becoming harder and harder to accomplish this with Regency fashion due to the huge amount that is reproduced every year, partly due to the enormous popularity of Jane Austen.
In response I've made it my task to uncover some of the lesser known extant examples of Regency clothing, giving you a detailed insight into some more unusual examples of Regency outerwear. These are often found packed away, unseen, in the archives of museums for years, dropping into an oblivion of forgotten fashion styles.
You'll discover ways to make your own reproductions distinctive and imaginative whilst staying within the realms of historical accuracy: we'll begin by examining the pelisse and how to pattern it, then moving on to the spencer, cloaks, capes, mantles and wraps.
Who'd like a shelf full of free Victorian tailoring manuals? Yes, I knew that would prick up your ears! It's been a full year since Marion last shared a collection of dressmaking and sewing books. Inspired by Jason's series, she's been building another collection: mens' and womens' wear tailoring books from 1855-1886.
Looking for riding habit ideas? Searching for cutting instructions for a Norfolk jacket or a Newmarket skirt and jacket? We've got the answers here, in these complete digitised online copies of original Victorian books, ready for you to download and enjoy.
Nowadays, in the era of rubber bands and ionic hairdryers, a woman's hair is frequently a momentary affair: wash, dry, stick it in a ponytail and go. The entire process can last no more than a half-an-hour, and for short-haired women it is even less.
For the Victorian woman, however, hair was not just an inconvenience or an afterthought: it was practically a religion...
This month we feature excerpts from a pro-dress reform book written in 1873. Mrs. Stuart Phelps did not lack for enthusiasm in her distaste for the styles of the day, considering them utterly impratical and accusing them of hindering women in their advancement towards equality with men.
Burn up the corsets! Make a bonfire of the cruel steel that has lorded it over the contents of the abdomen and thorax so many thoughtless years, and heave a sigh of relief; for your "emancipation," I assure you, has from this moment begun.
This month we excerpt the best bits from "How to be beautiful: Nature unmasked : a book for every woman", a slightly opinionated book published in 1889 that provides equal measures of enlightening insight and amusing entertainment for us in the present day!
Ms. Dean was definitely not a "dress reformer", because she believed in the benefits of corsets. However, she did promote jersey underwear and cycling, two key elements in the dress reform movement.
Every little while some writer, some "dress reformer", opens up a tirade against corsets. They are generally represented by these "agitators" as a death dealing instrument of torture. If these people have personally found them injurious, they have made them so.
Next month, in contrast, we'll excerpt sections from a book on dress reform.
I've often been frustrated that there are wonderful Victorian patterns available (published in the period or drafted from extant dresses) but there is very little information on how to put the pieces together or on the other finishing details that go into making historical dress.
Here I'll address this gap by doing a photographic analysis of the construction techniques used in three Victorian evening bodices in my personal collection.
Due to the Single Pattern Project, I'm most interested in the elliptical style. Two of the bodices were either worn with elliptical skirts or with the early bustle style, the third was probably worn with the earlier circular hoop style.
My passion for Ostrich plumes started when I saw the opening credits of the 1997 movie Wings of the Dove.
Where do such plumes come from?
How do milliners fabricate them and can I create such confections?
These are all questions I asked myself then, and they led me on a course of study and experimentation. In this article I will share some of what I have learned along the way.
I've often been frustrated that there are wonderful Victorian patterns available, but there is very little information on how to put the pieces together or the other finishing details that go into making a dress.
My goal with this article is to address this gap by doing a photographic analysis of the construction techniques used in three Victorian skirts in my personal collection. Due to the Single Pattern Project, I'm most interested in elliptical skirts, but I only have one in my collection. Therefore, I've chosen a skirt from the preceding Hoop era, and one from the following Early Bustle era to compare to the elliptical skirt.
or My hat looks like it has a dead fish on top because the bow just lies there! How can I fix that?
One of the most often used decorative elements on late Victorian and Edwardian hats were bows and ribbon loops.
To a non-milliner, trying to recreate some of these fantastic hats may seem a daunting task. Here are some tricks that simplify things.
Most in the reenacting and historical costuming communities spend countless hours and large amounts of money researching and executing the perfectly period-appropriate hourglass corset or bustle. We feel elegant and oh-so-Victorian with our suddenly-tiny waists and perfect posture.
It may be hard,then, for we, as modern women who don a corset for a few events a year, to understand the many difficulties presented by wearing these garments every day, and why there was a movement right at the start of the Victorian era to do away with them altogether.
While there are wonderful Victorian dress patterns available, either published in the period or drafted from extant dresses, there is very little information around on how to put the pieces together in a historically accurate way or complete the other finishing details that go into making a dress of this style.
If you're going to go for accuracy with your Single Pattern Project, Sunny Buchler redresses the balance for you this month with her photographic analysis and comparison of the construction techniques used in four 1860s bodices in her personal collection.
Nine pages and over a hundred large and detailed clickable images in this article alone will give you every minute detail you could ever want to know about constructing your bodice!
By now you probably have a good idea of what you'll be creating for your Single Pattern Project entry, be it historically correct or with an ultra-modern twist. Now it's time to start thinking about the details: the trimmings and embellishments that will complete your vision.
Our project gown uses quite simple trimming to great effect. This use of trimming, simple or elaborate, is very typical of the period - the Victorians loved their trimmings! They used it everywhere - furnishings, clothing, accessories, even carriages. If it could be trimmed, in all likelihood it would be trimmed.
This month Lynn shows us how to add large areas of silk flowers or ribbon decorations to a hat, without using glue and without sewing each one on individually.
Why would you want to add decorations to a hat in this way?
There are several reasons, but the most important would be to save the base hat from being damaged, either because it is vintage or because you might want to redress it in the future and anything you do now will have to be undone.
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