| 1872 Victorian Christmas Dress |
| December 2008 With just under a month to go, I decided to re-do my "1863" Winter Wool Gown from last year, and make into what you see now. I wore it last year for our Christmas in the Village but the dress was very incomplete, and since I participated in that event again this year I thought it best to scrap the whole gown and make it into something more period correct. So, with some guidance from the Yahoo!Group 19CWoman, I bought some red taffeta from JoAnns (birthday present) and purchased 2 (TV303 and TV405) patterns from TrulyVictorian.com. And here we are with the finsihed result! I didn't take any in progress pics, since I was a little pressed for time, and the directions were very easy to follow! However, I'll break down some of the specifics of each part of the costume so this journal retains some order instead of my random wanderings. Undergarments: Unfortunately I do not have any pics, but I might be persuaded to put some up. I have a mid 1850 corset along with many basic p'coats underneath. For the bustle I modified what I used last year; a basic p'coat made with several layers of tulle. I added some cotton quilt padding to the back for the actual bustle part (similar to a pillow) and some rows of leftover tulle underneath the batting. Bodice: I followed TV405 very closely; I dont think that I made any modicifations. My Vest Basque closes in the front with 12 hooks and eyes. There are 12 buttons (covered with the same fabric as the bodice) which serves as a fake closure. The collar and cuff edges are decorated with bunches of 3 gold seed beads, leftover from another project. The tail of the bodice also has 2 bigger fabric covered buttons which conceals where the bodice seams end. I also felt that I needed something to break up the beige vest portion from my skin, so I added a little box-pleated ruffle along the top of the vest. Skirt: The old skirt had 5 panels of 55" wide fabric; the new one has 3 panels of the same width. Definitely happier about that, 5 panels was a tad excessive. The skirt is attached to a waistband with no pleats in the front, some small pleats at the side, and the rest of the fabric pleated onto the back. I'll also add the new skirt is hemmed. :) Overskirt: I really wanted a skirt/overskirt that was gathered up (like TV305), but I'm not sure why I chose TV303 instead. I think that I didn't want to short myself on fabric, but I can always make myself another one later. ;) I did make some changes to this; namely lengthening the back of the side drapes (so they wouldn't be hidden under the bodide tail) and I left out the sashes on the back. Since I lengthened the side drapes, I felt that I didn't need the longer sashes, though I might go back and add those in at some point. The skirt is attached to the same waistband that the skirt is, due to time constraints. Nothing like waiting til the last minute, eh? I realize that this is why in pictures, the back of the skirt looks a little funny and un-even. I also wanted to decorate most of the overskirt edges with beaded fringe (matching the color of the bodice with some glass seed beads I bought). After I started on this late one night and realized that I had managed to put the fringe on the one egde where I didn't want it, I ditched that idea. So there is a bigger box-pleated ruffle (to match the top) along the overskrt edges. Well I think that's all of my thoughts. There are some things that I'd like to add to this dress, but for practical purposes I'm calling it done. I will put a list up of things that I'd like to do with the dress, though they probably won't be done unless there is a deadline and some sort of pressing reason for these things to be added. So here they are, in no particular order: Separate the Skirt and the Overskirt Add long beaded fringe to Overskirt Add same beaded collar deco to rest of bodice Get design & add to collar and cuffs Add ruffle of some sort to bottom of skirt Add something to the vest part of bodice Add Undersleeves And some General Victorian Stuff: Make a real, wire bustle Couple good p'coats Corset cover Shoes! Hairpieces/hats |
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