The 1871 Dress

I've decided that before I make the Wishing Dress that I want to make a dress from the same era I'm basing the dress off of, the early 1870's. I'm doing this since I've never made a historical dress before, and while I'll learn a lot when I do the mock up, I want to be familiar with the techniques and other aspects of the dress. Also, I want to make it with directional fabric since the Wishing Dress has directional fabric and I don't have any experience with matching up patterns.

The pattern I chose is from Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 2; the 1870-1 dress. I still need to get the patter enlarged, but I got impatient and started on the skirt. I measured it all out myself and have the muslin cut and the pieces pinned together.

I'm thinking I may change the neckline to this though. 1 because it's almost identical to the Wishing Dress, and 2 because I think I like this better than what the pattern has.

Dress ca. 1875

As for the fabric, I'm still figuring that out. I want to make the dress blue for some reason (perhaps because that's what the dress the pattern is based off of is) but I still don't know what type of material I want to use.

The pattern has 2 difference bodices, one for day wear and the other for the evening, so I'm going to need a fabric that would be suitable for an evening dress as well as a day dress.

Let's talk about bustles

I know I'm getting a late start on this, but the month isn't over yet, right?

The first challenge in the Historical Sew Monthly is foundations, which leaves the door open to all sorts of possibilities! I really want to work on the mid to late Victorian era this year and build up my wardrobe for these era's. I've started with the foundations for the Wishing Dress, which I'm making historically accurate for the early to mid 1870's.

There were several types of bustles used to get the desired shape during the 1870's and 80's. There were cage bustles, bustle pads, lobster tail bustles, elliptical crinoline bustles, and bustle petticoats. And each of these had several variations in the way they were made.

From left to right, bustle pad, cage bustle, lobster bustle, elliptical bustle.

I've actually found in several of my mockups that having a simple bustle pad has been helpful to give me an idea of what I need to do for the finished garment. So for the first Sew Monthly challenge I've decided I want to make a nice bustle pad.

I've chosen this for my first project mainly because I recently got a new job which will be taking up my afternoons. It will be a quick and simple project, but still a good project.

Here's a few examples of bustle pads for inspiration.

Let's Talk About Wigs | The Phantom Costumer

So I totally forgot to post my new video here on Friday. Oops! Well, here it is! This video is just a short one about different types of wigs. I hope it's helpful for anyone who doesn't know the difference.

Anyhoo, I also changed my YouTube name to The Phantom Costumer. My sister suggested it and I couldn't refuse. I'm still trying to decide if I should change the name of my blog to match, but I really like Adventures in Costuming. Any thoughts?