In which I learn to Floss...

... My corset, anyways.

A few months ago I started up a dance night with a group of friends, and several of them have been trying to convince me that I need to learn to floss, which I steadfastly refuse to do. Then last week I wasn't feeling well, and instead of laying around doing nothing I decided to take that time to finally floss my corset.

When I finished, I shared pictures online toting that I had learned to "floss". Anyways, I thought it was pretty funny. But here's the end result.

This is my 1880's corset made from the Truly Victorian pattern. It's the most comfortable, though not the most technically well made, corset I've made yet. And now now it's the prettiest corset I've made.

For anyone who doesn't know, flossing is used to hold the bones in place from moving around in the boning channels. Plus it's an extra way to add some decoration to your corset. I played around with a few different styles with the help of some tutorials I found on Pinterest. There's a surprising amount on flossing info out there.

Never Before Photographed Projects

Over the last year and a half I've had a lot of projects that I never got around to photographing. Until now. If you follow me on Instagram that you know that I just got a new, processional sewing form (!!!). Today I was taking photo's/video for a review I'll be doing of the form and ended up getting pictures of some of my projects that I haven't gotten photo's of yet. I still have more to photograph, but they needed to be ironed so I'll be doing those on another day.

I'll talk more about the sewing form in my actual review post, but I just wanna say how awesome it is! Not only is it going to make my actual sewing easier, getting photo's of my projects will be a lot easier!

First off, my Victorian corset. I started this one near the end of 2015 and finished it early this year. The pattern I used was from Period Costume for the Stage and Screen by Jean Hunnisett. I used duck canvas from Joann's for the base fabric and flat lined it with this pretty blue fabric I found at a garage sale (I'm not sure what type of fabric it is).

While I really love this corset, I did make a few fitting mistakes and will have to make a new one. But I'm really hesitant because this one is soooo pretty...

Next are my Regency Half Stays. These came together really quickly, I think over the course of a day or two. I also used a pattern from Period Costume for the Stage and Screen. The pattern I used was the Regency corset pattern but I modified it by basically chopping off the bottom half to make half stays instead.

I also used duck canvas from Joann's for this with hand stitched eyelets and ribbon for the lacing.

And finally, my Sontag shawl! I posted at the end of 2015 that I was working on this and I finished it early this year but never got around to getting pictures. I found the pattern on Ravelry for free and it was a good, easy project. This would be a perfect project for a beginner/intermediate knitter.

That's all I've got for now, but I'll be posting my review and more projects that I hadn't gotten either any or any decent photo's of (such as my green Regency dress!).

The Historical Sew Monthly January Challenge | Bustle Pillow Tutorial

So I did do the first challenge of the Historical Sew Monthly in January, I just haven't gotten photo's of it yet. But, I did make a video tutorial for it. I was going to get photo's and post them at the same time I shared this tutorial, but they weather has been pretty rainy and I've been really busy lately. So I thought I would just make a quick post and share the tutorial.

Here ya go!

I'll write up the official post for it with all the info on the item after I get pictures. Which will hopefully be soon. ;)

Costume Love {1885 Winter Evening Dress}

A long time ago I created a blog series which I only ended posting the one time. Well, I'm finally writing the second post in that series. This is going to be something that I just do whenever and won't be on any sort of a schedule.

Now on to the dress! I adore everything about this 1885 evening dress! Everything about it looks perfect for a winter dinner, from the colors to the fur. The dress is made from silk and feathers, it's style is typical to the mid 1880's with it's small bustle and long bodice.

What do you think of this gorgeous Victorian dress?

Bustles, bustles, and more bustles!

Before I started working on the wishing dress I never realized just how much I love bustle dresses from the 1870's and 80's. They're shape is just so different from any other era and they're so pretty!

Now that I have the proper underpinnings for a dress from this era I've been thinking that after I make the wishing gown I will make another bustle dress, but more historically accurate.

Here's a little history on the rise and fall of the bustle.

The bustle started to appear in woman's fashion in the last few years of the 1860's. The bustle continued to grow larger while the skirts grew smaller and the cage crinolines went out of style. In the early part of the 1870's the skirts were still quite large, flat in the front but still fairly full in the sides. But as time went on they started to get smaller while the back increased in size.

Originally the bustles were high up, but as the years went by it lowered until it finally disappeared in the middle of the decade. For the next several years it was fashionable to have a very slim figure, known as the natural form, which had a long straight bodice and the back was also long and straight.

The bustle returned in the 1880's. The skirts were much smaller and not as full on the sides, but the bustle had returned. They grew larger as the years went by and were quite large in the late 1880's before the bustle went out of fashion again by the early 1890's.

Here's some gorgeous bustle dress inspiration ranging from the early 1870's to the 1880's.

ca. 1885

ca. 1875

mourning dress - ca. 1872-74

ca. 1885-88

1887 Wedding Ensemble. Made of Wool.

Victorian Undergarments

I (mostly) finished my Victorian under garments. YAY! I'll probably need another petticoat and I still need to get some longer ribbons for my chemise and 2nd petticoat drawstrings. But I'm off to a good start!

So the last few weeks I've been working on a second petticoat for over my Truly Victorian bustle. I drafted my own pattern based on Truly Victorian 107, which surprisingly turned out really good since I pretty much drafted the whole thing with math (which I'm not very good at).

The chemise and drawers were drafted with a tutorial from The Sewing Academy. I ended up putting a drawstring neckline thought so I could adjust it for the Wishing Dress neckline.

I also finished my first corset! I drafted it with this tutorial. Over all I think it turned out pretty good for my first completed corset. The back has a bit of space but I think that's because I laced it myself. I could definitely get it tighter if someone else was doing the lacing.

Things are "Bustling"

Sorry, I couldn't help myself with that title. ;P

Last week I made my first bustle petticoat. YAY!

As I mention in my previous post, I went and bough the Truly Victorian 101 Wire Bustle pattern and wire. After the pattern arrived I went to Joanns to get fabric. I used a plain white cotton and ended up getting 10 yards because I had a 60% off coupon plus I want to make a chemise out of it. The pattern only needed a little over 7 yards though.

I have to say, it was the best pattern I've ever used! I've avoided patterns as much as possible, one because they're expensive, but also because commercial patterns can get kind of confusing. Well, that was not the case with this pattern! Sure, there was 1 or 2 things that I had to read a couple of times to understand what I needed to do, but other than that it went really smoothly!

Here's the bustle before I made the ruffle overlay for it.

And the finished bustle.

 

I think I may have read the pattern wrong because the ruffle overlay didn't cover the first bone. Unfortunately i didn't realize this until after I had sewn it on and hand stitched the sides down. I think I'm just going to add another ruffle to the top to cover it. It'll be an easy fix.

 

Even though the pattern says that with the ruffle overlay you don't need another petticoat, I'm still going to make at least one more petticoat to get the silhouette I want for the Wishing Dress. I still haven't decided on a pattern yet.

Bustle and Petticoat Mock Ups

A few days ago I went to work on figuring out how I wanted to do my bustle for the Wishing Dress. Becuase I'm cheap, I started out by trying a pattern from Jean Hunnisett's Period Costume for the Stage and Screen. I copied out one of her bustle petticoat patterns and put it over top of a basic pillow bustle I made a while back.

This was the end result.

I also took another pattern from the book for the mock up of the skirt. I didn't gather it in the back like it was supposed to be since I didn't know weather I would end up using that skirt pattern or the bustle underneath. So it's just kind of pinned in the back.

After much consideration I've decided to make a bigger bustle, and one with wire in the back. This was partially to get the bigger bustle but also becuase I'm afraid that after I put the weight of the skirt and the waterfall bustle it will kind of crush what silhouette I have. Having a bustle with wire will give both a bigger shape and also give it more support.

The pattern I ended up going with is the Truly Victorian 101  Wire Bustle. I also purchased the wire for the bustle from Truly Victorian, which is really convenient because it'll come already cut and to the proper size. I won't have to worry about finding wire, then cutting it, and then finishing the tips. Plus it's pretty cheap. Which is always a great thing, especially since I think I'll end up spending a lot on this costume.



I can't wait to get the fabric and for the pattern to get here so I can make it!

Costume Analysis {Christine Daae}

This post is going to be a costume analysis of Christine Daae's "Wishing Dress" from the stage versions of Phantom of the Opera. I want to do a second post sharing my favorite reproductions of this dress, becuase I've found so many amazing and helpful links! But because this post contains a huge amount of photo's already, I'll save that for another day.

First off there have been so many different productions of Phantom of the Opera (which from now on I will reference as POTO) since the Original Long Cast back in 1986. Even though each production's dress is different, they are all very similar. For the most part they're all identical except for things like trims and slight differences in material.

I came across this website which has reference pictures from all the different stage versions of POTO. I went and actually printed out almost 100 pages of reference photo's at the library via this site. I've gone through all the different version to try and pick a version I like best and reproduce that one. But beucase they were all so similar I decided on just basing it on the newer US version and taking pieces from the other versions that I liked better and add them.

My research book.

Original UK version.

When I was looking through my photos I found something interesting in this photo. Along the bottom of the skirt are seven lines going around the skirt. At first I couldn't figure out what it was, but I have a theory. I believe this photo was taken during a dress rehearsal and the skirt wasn't finished yet and I believe this may may be the underskirt.

Original UK Version.

You can see there's a bit of a difference on the detail of the vest part of the bodice between the original UK and the newer UK versions.

Newer UK version.

There's a more tassels/fringe on the German version, which I personally don't care for.

Germany.

Mexico, Spain, Brazil, and Argentina.

I love the bustle on the newer US version! Isn't it gorgeous?!

Newer US Version.

Newer US version.

If you look at the center of the apron part of the dress you'll see a seam and how the fabric is angled in so the pattern creates a "V".

25th Anniversary Special

 In this one it goes straight. No seam in the center. I think this is the only version that they did that with. I think it looks better in the other versions myself.

I believe this is from the newer US version, but I'm not sure.

Australian version.

 This is a great view of the skirt without the train. To save fabric they used their lining fabric on the part of the skirt that's covered by the over skirt/apron. Definitely a good thing to know!

Not sure which production.

Here's my list of the things that are difference in the various productions and which versions I will be using as a reference.

Collar and Cuffs Details - Newer UK

Neckline - Newer US

Apron - Original UK or 25th Anniversary version.

Bustle - Newer US

Wig - Newer US, Germany, or 25th Anniversary

Now lets talk patterns. I've searched high and low for decent patterns for dresses from around the period. Here's what I found.

For the corset I'm planning on using Truly Victorian 1880's Corset. For the petticoat I'll be using either Truly Victorian's 1870's Petticoat, or their Victorian Petticoat. I'm still undecided. And I still haven't figured out what I'm going to use for the bustle, but I'll probably keep it simple and just use a bustle pillow pad. I'll figure that out once I made the mock up.

For the bodice I decided to go with Truly Victorian's Ladies 1880's Dinner Bodice, which I purchased on Ebay since I couldn't find it on the Truly Victorian website. It'll need a bit of modification on the front, but it's the closest pattern I've found.

I still haven't found anything for the skirt. If I have to I'll draft my own pattern. And for the over skirt/apron I think I'm just going to draft it myself.

And the bustle. I've heard the style of bustle/train called a waterfall bustle, but I haven't been able to find any patterns or tutorials on how to make it. If anyone knows of anything even remotely similar, I would love to hear from you!

Shoes. I would love to purchase American Duchess's Tavistock boots. I've wanted a pair of these since she first announced she was working on them! But I doubt I'll be able to afford them so I'm going to be keeping an eye out in stores and places like Ebay for something suitable.

The hair. Oh gosh. To get a wig that long is going to be hard! I haven't done much shopping around yet, so I can't say what I'm going to do yet.