theladyrebecca | Entries tagged with 1890s

I really don't feel like I made that much this year. I'm not sure if that's because I just started sewing for the first time in two months, or if it's actually true, though. So here's what I made:

1830s plaid silk dress and yellow bonnet, made for wearing in Oliver, plus the Victorian Festival and Costume College

Blue wool coat, which I basically wear every day

Burgundy and mauve striped silk bustle dress, for the Victorian Festival and Costume College

Burgundy silk Regency dress, as a pattern test for Laughing Moon

Ripaway mermaid tail and Cinderella costume (and some other bits) as costumes for Disenchanted, for which I was Costume Coordinator

1890s Plaid "ice cream parlour" shirtwaist and navy walking skirt for Costume College, but also worn in The Music Man

Yellow 1890s Gala Gown for Costume College, including choker, royal order, bracelet, and petticoat with detachable train

A white cotton Victorian-style robe, which turned out to be the most practical thing I made for Costume College

Elephant dress for my friend's new baby

1910s white cotton and lace dress, worn to Snoqualmie Railroad Days

3 skirts and 3 playdresses through my etsy shop

Dapper Merida for Dapper Day; Also worn in White Christmas and to Christmas tea

Disney-print 1950s jumper dress

Princess Anna Frozen Fever

A bodice and skirt combo for the Silverbells Carolers, plus a few alterations for them

A "Totes Ma Goats" totebag as a secret Santa project

A skirt for my mom

A Marauders Map Fleece Blanket for my dad

The beginnings of an 1883 walking skirt (not finished, though I started cutting out a bodice mockup yesterday)

I guess that's a decent amount of stuff after all. But if I'm going to be on track for CoCo this year, I can't just take a two month break from sewing again!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/307537.html

Saturday of Costume College, I wore my 1830s plaid silk dress (with the bonnet that was so big that I had to carry it on the plane), because I was wearing it for Jennifer Rosbrugh's Dressing the Plus Size Silhouette Class. I thought I remembered taking something earlier in the day than that, but maybe all I did was socialize, because I can't find anything on the schedule that looks familiar! After her class, I had signed up to take a class on Patterning from an Extant Garment, but it turned out they meant existing, not extant, and it wasn't suitable for fragile extant garments, so I left that class within the first 10-15 mins.

That turned out to be good, since it meant I could start getting ready for the gala. And for once, I wasn't running late! I wore my new yellow silk 1890s gown for the gala. I'm mostly pleased with how it turned out, but there's something about the fit and/or plainness of the back of the bodice that bothers me. I also styled my hair with all the tiny curls on the top of my head, since that's how you always see ladies of that era, but it was such an unflattering look on me! I wish I hadn't done my hair like that, because I'm not a big fan of how my pictures came out. We made the super-long trek to Maggianos for dinner, probably for the last time, since you can no longer walk through the mall, which made it a very long and hot walk. I ubered back, and unfortunately lost one of my shoe rosettes somewhere between Maggianos and the Marriott lobby, which is a bummer. I'll have to remake it for the next time I want to wear my Titanic deck dress. After we got back, we just hung out in the CoCo lobby area, chatting with people and taking pictures. We got a fun picture of (almost) everyone who was wearing yellow, which was a lot of people!

Eventually, we went to sleep, but definitely not early enough! I think I wound up getting about 4.5 hours of sleep before waking up for breakfast and the Bargain Basement on Sunday. I didn't get that much this year, but boy, they wanted to charge me an arm and a leg. Those estimators are ridiculous. I did talk them down significantly, but still paid more than I should have at "bargain" prices. The one thing I was really happy that I got was an extant 1860s bodice, so that was really cool. But no fabrics this year, which was unusual. I did manage to snag a few Truly Victorian type patterns, though, and a couple trims/laces.

For breakfast, the Bargain Basement, and my first class, I didn't have time/energy to wear the bustle dress I had planned for Sunday, but luckily, I made a Victorian-ish dressing gown, so I wore that over my corset/bloomers/petticoat all morning, then changed into the dress after my class. It was a great class! It was making and setting Elizabethan ruffs, and the two teachers each had a different great method for setting them, so it was really nice to learn both. I was so inspired by the class that I had hoped to be able to make one as soon as I got home from CoCo, but didn't wind up having time before the Ren Faire the next weekend, so that is on hold. But at least I have the linen and the know-how now.

After class ended, I changed, had lunch, and spent some time socializing before taking my final class, which was Soutache: Mastering the Tangle. It was a really good class, but I doubt I'll really ever have the patience to apply it on a garment. It's really challenging. I did wind up going to the marketplace a few times over the weekend, too. I bought a whole ton of ribbon from the new ribbon vendor (such great prices!), a gorgeous early 1870s huge fashion plate in a frame (only $10!), and a busk, but totally forgot to go back to Richard the Thread the second day for millinery wire (they had run out by the time I got there the first day). So now I'll have to order that online. We ended the day at the pool (which is what we did Thursday night as well). It was so nice to get to spend so much time socializing this year!

As you've read about previously on here, Monday's shopping trip was really a let-down, and I purchased almost nothing. Luckily, I did make up for that by the trip down there last weekend, so hopefully I will be mostly set for the year now. And I think I might start selling the silks I'm not as happy with anymore. In any case, I need to start making everything so that I'll be ready for next year's CoCo!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/301171.html

Hmm... Apparently I never did any CoCo wrap-up posts this year. I had so many costume events in August that I completely forgot. Whoops!

So here's part one of a brief wrap-up, assuming I can remember everything.

I arrived Wednesday into Long Beach, met up with a few other ladies (Sarah, Britta, and Patricia), and we drove (in our super fancy Infiniti rental SUV) to the Queen Mary. We changed into our Titanic-era clothing, and spent a few hours there. We dined in the restaurant, then did a self-guided tour all around the ship, taking a ton of pictures as we went (so many pictures, that by the end of it, my phone had died!). It was awesome. We got a lot of stares and complements, of course, and our pictures turned out sooo good! I would love to do something like this again. Here are some pictures:

We changed out of our costumes and left Long Beach around 8:30, I think, stopping for groceries on our way up to Woodland Hills. The next day, DodiRose, Sarah, Britta, and I went off to Burbank to check out the vintage-ish shops in the area. We went to Unique Vintage and Besame, among others, before heading back to Woodland Hills to change for the checking in and the pool party. That evening, I wore my burgundy silk Regency dress. I was pleased with the dress, but I wish I had styled my hair differently, as I don't think the pictures of me look very flattering.

Friday morning, I took a limited class that they should not have allowed me to sign up for. I signed up for Hand Stitches in Millinery during mid-registration, but it overlapped by 30 mins with the class I was teaching (which I didn't notice until like 2 days before CoCo). Combined with the fact that that class was running waaay behind schedule, I learned about 2-3 stitches. It was a good class otherwise, though. I ran behind in the Making Royal Orders class I taught, too, because I forgot to factor in the time it would take to distribute materials (which was like 20 mins). That said, I saw a bunch of my students wearing their royal orders for the gala, and I got lots of good feedback on it, so I think it was still a success. I watched some of Jennifer's Dressing the Silhouette class before going to grab some lunch, before my shoot with

quincy134 (it was so nice that she did that!) and I finished off the class portion of the day with Jenny-Rose and Abby's Pomatum or Hairspray class, which was really cool to watch. During the day, I wore my 1890s Ice Cream Parlour shirtwaist and wool skirt.

Friday evening was when our Titanic group decided to wear all of our costumes. I loved the turnout on this! All my past costume groups tended to fizzle out, but we had nearly 20 people in this group, and everyone looked wonderful. It did make it really difficult to round everyone up for photos, though, and I know we missed at least one or two people in the big group photo, which is really too bad. Some of us made movie reproductions, others opted for costumes of the era, and we even had one person dress as the iceberg! Naturally, we took a bunch of pictures. After a quick tour of the marketplace, several of us gathered for champagne, cupcakes, and chatter in our room - it was nice to host a small room party!

I'll do the rest of CoCo in another post, since this is already really picture heavy.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/300867.html

I made my choker and bracelet yesterday, put everything on, took a couple quick pics, and determined how I needed to fix the sash (a large dart at the shoulder), and if I should add more boning (I added one bone in the CB). I made all the adjustments, plus added the ribbons to my dressing gown and 1830s shoes, and thread marked where my train will attach to my 1890s petticoat (I realized hand-sewing it on on Friday night is going to be easier than making a ton of buttons and button-holes), which means that all my CoCo sewing is done! I packed almost everything last night, too. Pretty much all I have left is doing a load of laundry of my muggle clothes, so that I can throw my clothes for Thurs in the suitcase. The nice thing is, that even means I can go see a movie with my friend for her birthday today. I'm super excited!

Oh, and here's a quick pic of my gala gown:

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/296385.html

I'm almost done with everything for Costume College! I need to try on the gala gown again to a) see if the one piece of boning I put in the CF is enough, or if I should go ahead and add it to most or all of the seams, and b) figure out how to alter my royal order sash from last year. It turns out that in the 1890s, it was more common for the sashes to go into the bodice at the neckline, because the sleeves are otherwise too poufy for them. I only realized this on Friday, though, so there wasn't enough time to order new ribbon to make a brand new sash, so I need to alter last year's. I'll probably just have to make a new one if I want to wear it again with my turquoise ballgown.

I also realized I don't have the jewelry findings I need to make the choker and bracelet I want to wear with the gala gown, so I'll pick those up tomorrow and do those tomorrow evening.

If I don't have to add more boning to the gala bodice, I probably actually have time to do the trim on the Regency dress, but I don't think I'm going to. I'm going to start packing tonight, finish up the jewelry, and figure out how I'm doing my hair for the gala. And maybe I'll even have a bit of time to relax, go to the gym, or go see Mamma Mia 2 before leaving on Wed morning. After stressing and sewing all weekend, it's a nice feeling.

I'm too tired to post a pic right now, but I have been posting to instagram, so you can check them out there.

As far as this weekend's sewing goes, Thursday evening, I made the gala gown sleeves, trimmed one of them, and sewed the pearl mesh in place on the bodice. Friday, I spent the entire day sewing all the appliques down the front of the skirt, and trimmed the other sleeve. Saturday, I switched to machine sewing and made the bloomers I had cut out, plus made a Victorian-style dressing gown from start to finish. I actually used a Hogwarts robe pattern as the base, which means that unfortunately it's not as full as I'd like, but it will work. I want to get different ribbon for the sash tomorrow, because I don't like the ribbon color I grabbed from Joanns last night. Today, I attached the balayeuse to the gala skirt, put hooks and eyes on the three skirt waistbands that needed it, fixed the tie on my 1830s sleeve poufs, fixed the button on my bustle bodice, added the piece of boning to the gala bodice, and made a royal order. It's been a very busy weekend!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/295496.html

The gala gown is coming along sooooo slowly. It's really frustrating. Yesterday, I spent over two hours mocking up the taffeta oversleeve that goes on top of the pouf. It just wouldn't lay right. And it wound up being the simplest shape, so I don't know how it took me two hours to figure out. All I got done yesterday was mocking up/making up the oversleeves, cutting out and sewing the inner fitted sleeves, putting on more hooks and bars on the bodice (till I ran out of bars), and doing one side of the binding on both neckline and hem.

I also spent a good hour trying to figure out the trim placement on the bodice. Nothing was thrilling me or looking right at all. I really wanted to find a way to incorporate the skirt appliques into the bodice, but I just couldn't figure it out. So at this point, my plan is just to take the pearled mesh that I'm using for the sleeve poufs, and ruche that over the bust, plus take some ruched mesh left over from last year's gala gown train, and put that over the shoulders. I will also probably add a pearl-embellished trim on the edge of the oversleeves, because otherwise they're looking very plain. It's not at all what I was originally intending, but honestly, once I put a royal order sash and all the jewelry on the form with the bodice, you can hardly tell that it will have almost no trim. You can also hardly tell (I hope!) that all my accents are a mixture of white and pale ivory. I don't know if last year's sash will fit with this bodice, but luckily, I sewed it instead of gluing it, so I could always probably alter where it connects at the hip.

Here's a pic of all the ridiculous jewelry on top of the trim I pinned on:

I have to run to Joanns after work for a bunch of stuff, but today's goal is to finish the darn sleeves, sew down the bias edging, finish the hooks and eyes on the bodice closure, and sew down the ruched pearl mesh. Though with the speed this dress is going, that's probably far too overeager. That said, if I finish that, all I'll have to do is sew down all my pinned trim on the skirt and probably add one piece of boning in the CF of the bodice in order to make it wearable, so at least that's good.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/294809.html

Gah! I feel like I'm making no progress! Granted, I knew I didn't have much time for sewing yesterday, but all I managed to do was finish sewing on the hem trim, half of the hooks/bars on the bodice, and the tiniest bit of sewing on the right front skirt appliques.

I'm going to the gym after work today, but I think this might be my last gym day before CoCo, unless I actually finish everything before Monday or Tuesday. It just sucks up too much of my sewing time. Unless it's grossly hot in my house when I get home today, I'm going to switch gears and work on the bodice sleeves and neckline/hem binding. I think I'll feel much more comfortable when those are done, because at least at that point it will be wearable, even if it's not done. If I can manage to finish those today, I can use tomorrow after work to maybe add some trim to the bodice and make the spare pair of bloomers, and/or add a detachable train ruffle to my petticoat or maybe start on the dressing gown. I want to try to do everything that requires an iron before Saturday, because it's supposed to get back to disgustingly hot this weekend, and stay that way till I leave. And hand-sewing on trim or the balayeuse ruffle shouldn't require an iron.

No new pictures till something actually looks different!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/294252.html

Well, I didn't manage to cross anything off my list yesterday. But I did get most of the hem trim sewn on. I think I'm missing about 30" in the front of the skirt right now, and that's it. I also pinned on all the trim on the other side of the front of the skirt, so that's ready to be sewn on, too. I don't have much sewing time today, but my goal is to finish the hem trim, start on the front skirt trim, and maybe get a few hooks and eyes done on the back of the bodice, since I also prepped the bodice enough to put those on (aka, I removed the sleeve mockup and pressed the bodice edges).

Here's a pic that shows the rest of the front trim pinned on. It is unfortunately impossible to get the two sides matched exactly, since all the applique motifs lean in the same direction. I did some cutting and fiddling to get it to be close-ish, though. I really hope this doesn't come out super tacky!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/293810.html

Costume College is soooo close, and I feel like I'm making no progress! On one hand, I'm totally panicky, but when I slow down and actually think about it, I'm probably doing okay. This is what I have to get done:

Finish gala sleeves. I have already mocked up the fitted and poufy part, but I still need to mock up the petal part that goes over the pouf. All pouf pieces are cut out, and one poufy part is assembled.
Finish edges of gala bodice
Hooks and eyes on gala bodice
Trim for bodice. There will likely be lace over the stomach, plus a ruched or pleated band around the hem, and maybe some sort of band over the bust like in my inspiration. Also possibly lace over the shoulder straps. Obviously I haven't really figured any of this out yet.
Finish hand-sewing trim on gala skirt. I got one side of the front all sewn on yesterday. I have to pin the other side in place and sew that all on. The hem trim is all pinned in place, and I've sewn about 16" of it down.
Add balayeuse to gala skirt. If I run out of time, this may be pre-gathered lace or eyelet ruffle.
Hooks and eyes and waist of gala skirt, 1890s petticoat, and 1890s walking skirt
Fix button on burgundy stripe bustle gown (and make a few extra in case they break again)
Gala jewelry. I want to make at least one choker, one necklace, one bracelet, and 1-2 royal orders.

If there's time, I also want to do the following:

Make a spare pair of bloomers. These are cut out, just need assembly.
Make a robe/dressing gown
Add trim to red silk Regency dress hem

Hopefully that's everything.

By my estimation, I have about 5.5 hrs to sew today, 2 hrs tomorrow, 5.5 Wed, 4 Thurs, 5-6 Friday, 8 or so on Sat, and 10+ on Sunday. I want to finish everything except the optional stuff and maybe the gala gown jewelry by then, because that will leave Monday and Tuesday for packing and any little things I've forgotten.

Today, like yesterday, is supposed to be stupidly hot. I realized yesterday morning right after I turned on the iron, that it was too hot to have the iron on, so I spent all yesterday hand-sewing trim on the skirt. I got all of one side of the front appliques done, plus the little bit of the hem. Today, I'm hoping that I can finish the hem, and if time, start on the appliques on the other side of the front. Tomorrow is only a couple degrees cooler, so if I'm still on hand-sewing, it's not a big deal, but then Wed I will really need to kick into gear on the sleeves and such.

Here's a couple pics of the trim so far:

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/293538.html

I didn't wind up with as much sewing time as I had thought yesterday, because I forgot to factor in eating dinner. Whoops. So after running errands after work, walking Lion, and eating dinner, and before I had to go off to another audition, I managed enough time to cut out all the silk pieces for the gala bodice, pin them to their lining pieces, and cut out bloomer pieces (two legs for show bloomers, and two that I will use for bloomers for me - luckily, the actress and I are about the same size, so I was able to cut them all at once).

When I got home from the audition, I assembled the show bloomers, which only took about an hour. I forgot to get bias tape for the knee elastic channels, so had to make those out of tucks in the fabric, which took a tiny bit longer, but seem to work fine. I'll pick up more tape before I make mine.

This morning before work, I also wound up with a few extra minutes, so I flatlined the two back pieces of the gala bodice. I'll get back to doing the rest of it on Friday.

After work, I'm heading straight to the theatre, where I need to 1) make a pair of fake legs to sit on top of the flying carpet, 2) figure out how to add ankle straps to two pairs of shoes, 3) sew together the apron waists/skirts/straps and put whopper poppers on them, and 4) finish decorating the carpet. And of course, whatever else might come up, but that's in order of priority of when they'll be needed in the show. I'm getting there about two hours before they start the run, so I'm hoping to at least get steps 1 and 2 done before they start.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/293020.html

Like usual, I didn't get nearly as much done this weekend as I had intended to. I hemmed my gala gown skirt, figured out the trim placement for the skirt, and did a mockup of the bodice. Luckily, I started with my bustle-era bodice block, and then just had to alter neckline, armseyes, and hemline, so that wasn't too bad. I've ripped apart the mockup so that I can use it to cut out the silk, but I needed to switch gears and do some of the theatre sewing, too, since they go into tech this week.

Unfortunately, I didn't leave quite as much time as I needed for the theatre sewing. I needed to make an apron neck strap, plus three faux-waist cinchers (the waistbands of the aprons), and one pair of bloomers. One of the cinchers is done, and the other two are started, but one needs 6 eyelets on it, and the other will hopefully have trim added to it. I'm putting them on the actors today before I add the whopper poppers, and I'll also need to go out and get more, since I only have three left. I didn't get to the bloomers at all.

I have to be at tech rehearsal tonight, but I'm bringing my sewing machine, so other than the whopper poppers that I don't have, I'm hoping to completely finish the aprons tonight. I don't have to be at rehearsal tomorrow, so I'm making the bloomers then, and I hope to cut out, flatline, and assemble the gala bodice as well.

For those of you who voted on my trim placement, this is the one I've chosen! Adding the marabou to the bottom would be a) more time consuming to sew, b) impossible to keep clean, and c) probably wouldn't last long. Plus I would need to go out and buy the marabou. So no marabou is a much better option.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/292197.html

I actually met yesterday's goal! Not that it was that hard. But after the fitting for the show and grocery shopping, I came home, ate dinner, and sewed until (past) bedtime. Which is really what I need to be doing every day. I got the trim hand-sewn on the apron, and pressed and sewed the whole hem on the Regency dress. Success!

Unfortunately, I don't expect any sewing to happen today. I work till 3, then I'm going to the gym on the way home, then I have to start laundry and get ready for a friend's Anniversary party, and then come home and dye my hair and go to bed. I also need to pick out an audition song for tomorrow and practice that at some point. But hopefully I'll be able to sew in between the audition and another friend's housewarming party on Saturday. And Sunday, I plan to have another not-leaving-the-house-because-I'm-sewing-the-entire-day day. At least a little of that will have to be for the show - I have to make three faux waist cinchers that go with the aprons, and probably a pair of bloomers, but I also want to hem my gala gown and start on the bodice patterning. So much to do!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/291941.html

I finished all the theatre sewing I could yesterday. I don't have the fabric yet for the faux waist cinchers that make up the waistbands of the aprons, but the aprons are basically done (one of them needs trim hand-sewn on, which I hope to do today). I also altered the sleeve poufs for Cinderella, added clear straps for Cindy's bodice, and made arm poufs for Mermaid.

And I finished my sleeves for the Regency dress. They took way longer than I had anticipated, because it took me a while to wrap my brain around the fitted inner sleeve. I don't know why. I think maybe because it's been a while since I made a one-piece fitted short sleeve? No idea... But anyway, they're done, including all the binding on the scallop parts, and I used two layers of the silk organza for the poufs, which I think is the perfect level of opacity. I think they came out really cute!

I took a break from the Regency dress to do all the theatre sewing, and to allow friends to weigh in on whether the Regency dress needed the embellishments around the skirt. Naturally, everyone told me it did. Gah! I don't have time for this. And I possibly don't have the fabric. So instead of diving right into that, I'm going to hem the skirt as is (hopefully tonight, after a fitting for the show and getting groceries). Then if I have time for the embellishments after finishing my gala gown, I'll go back to the Regency. But at least it will be done for now.

I also think I picked how I want to embellish my gala gown. It uses a little of the elements of my inspiration dress, but makes them a bit easier (I hope), and less prone to looking tacky (fingers crossed). This is my new inspiration image, though I will probably also pull from some other looks, possibly including my original inspiration:

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/291829.html

I literally did not leave the house this weekend. And other than meals, sleeping, and taking 30 mins to exercise in the living room, I pretty much didn't leave the sewing room. On Saturday, I started messing around with the 1890s shirtwaist. I figured out the patterning for the shirt fronts. I started with an armseye/side seam shape from the new 1890s Butterick (ugly pink dress) pattern, but expanded the width to the CF by about 3x the pattern width. I knew I wanted tucks down the front, but didn't know how many. So I fiddled around with the pattern until I got all the tucks in the right place, then cut off the excess, sewed all the tucks in place (5 in the CF), and cut the neckline following the pattern shape. Then I did the same thing to the other side. Oh, and since I wanted to see how this would all look in the actual plaid, I took a risk and did all this fiddling with the actual fabric! I also pinned the three back pieces in that pattern on their seam lines, matching up the armseye, and keeping everything else as one large flat pattern, because I knew I wanted gathers in the CB at the waist.

After I figured out all the shirtwaist body pieces, I switched gears to the mermaid tail, because that way I wouldn't have to change my serger thread twice. I serged off everything that I had hacked off during the fitting on Thurs, hemmed it, then added three tiers of the pre-ruffled organza at the bottom. While I was doing that, I was also waiting for the snap tape that I dyed turquoise to dry, because naturally, this is a rip-away mermaid tail. Once it was dry, I added the snap tape (ps - sewing snap tape to two layers of sequined material is annoying as anything), and I finished off the waist with bias tape. Done!

Then I moved back to the blouse. I sewed together the body pieces, then started on sleeves. I couldn't decide if I wanted a 3/4 sleeve or a long sleeve, so I used the leg-o-mutton sleeves from the Butterick pattern to start with, but I increased the sleeve head by about 2-3" on all sides, and dropped the width down to below the elbow, in case I decided on the 3/4 bishop sleeve. I flatlined the first one with organdy, made it up, and decided I hated the leg-o-mutton part. So I chopped off the bottom of the sleeve and made it up again. Too much pouf (I know, I don't think I've ever said that before). So I took it all apart, and took about 1-1.5" off all around the head, plus narrowed the sleeve under the arm just a tiny bit. Success! Of course, that meant that I had to take it all apart again and use it as the pattern for the other sleeve.

Once I had those assembled, I used a cut-down version of the cuff that comes on the old Butterick eton jacket pattern as cuffs for my sleeves, which worked quite nicely. Then I did all my buttons and buttonholes (16 total!), and moved on to the collar. I used a collar from an old early 1980s blouse pattern I have, increasing it to my size, adding about .5" in height, and turning it into a pointy collar. (I had pulled that pattern out a bunch as I was making the blouse, since it was kind of similar to what I was going for, but in a smaller size, with smaller sleeves, and with a totally different front tuck arrangement.) I hate sewing collars, but I wound up being able to complete this one with only a couple errors, both of which I was able to fix without undoing terribly much. And for me, that's really something!

I tried it all on with a vintage clip-on bow tie that I picked up at an estate sale a few years ago, and it went perfectly with this blouse. I had sewn gathers into the waist edge for the fronts and CB, pulled them up to fit while I was wearing it over the corset and petticoat, and finished off the bottom edge with bias tape, machine stitching it down because it's going to be tucked in and no one is going to see it. The other modern thing I did on this that made me happy was use a variegated thread that was pretty much the colors of the plaid. I enjoyed watching it change color as I sewed the whole shirtwaist. Anyway, I'm quite pleased with how it came out, and it makes me want to wear it in an old ice cream parlour and/or on Main Street at Disney. The funny thing is, I realized after I finished everything just how close this plaid is to the plaid of my 1890s suit, as you can see by the hat in the 2nd picture.

I probably won't get to sew too much today, since I'm going to go to the gym after work, and then have trivia tonight. Tomorrow, though, other than hopefully going to the gym and watching the big fireworks show they do really near my house, I hope to get some sewing done, and I think I may stay in all day on the 4th and sew. I'm not feeling very patriotic anyway, and my goal is to finish the little fixes I have for Cinderella for the show and to completely finish the red silk Regency dress by Wed night. That way, all I will have left is the gala dress, which is going to take a whole bunch of experimentation, since I'm still not sure exactly what I want to do anymore.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/291021.html

The 1890s walking skirt is almost finished, but I ran out of the wide bias tape yesterday when I was binding the hem. I plan to swing by Joanns on my way home so that I can possibly remedy that tonight. I think I made a big mistake lining the wool with twill, though. It is so freaking heavy! I thought the gala gown skirt was heavy, but this beats that one by a lot. I guess I should have bought lighter lining fabric, instead of using the stash. It drapes nicely, but boy is it going to be hot and heavy to wear at CoCo!

I also added in a CB panel to the mermaid skirt yesterday, and cut down the length of the waist (it was so high-waisted!). I want to do another fitting on the actress before I go any further with it, though. It's such a fitted garment, and with all those sequiny-type scales on it, it would show if I have to undo anything. So I guess that's done enough for now until our fitting next week.

Of course, I skipped the gym yesterday in order to work on those, so I better get there today! My goal for today is to stop at Joanns for the bias tape, get home, take Lion for a walk, start laundry, give Lion a bath, clean the bathroom, vacuum the house, and tidy the living room, then go to the gym for a zumba class at 7, then possibly return some things at the mall before it closes, maybe pick up some snacks/food for while my mom is here, go home, pack my bag for our two days in Canada, and go pick my mom up at the airport (and take her to the Sonic that just opened about 10 mins from my house). She arrives at 10:30, and I get home at about 5pm. I'm not sure all that is possible, but I'm certainly going to try. In fact, if I wind up with extra time, I can even finish the hem on the walking skirt!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/289919.html

I was full of big aspirations yesterday, wasn't I? I didn't get home from the fitting until 7:30 yesterday, and then I had to make/eat dinner, and suddenly it was 9:30. I finished flatlining the 5 skirt panels that I had not yet gotten to, and that's it. Also, at the fitting I found out that the elastic on Cindy's arm poufs needs taking in, plus I need to add the clear straps to the bodice, and put the choker on a slightly longer piece of ribbon (I also need to not cheat and try glueing on the whopper popper to the choker this time, because that totally didn't hold). Oh well, altogether not too many changes, and probably will only take about an hour total, so not too bad.

The mermaid tail was way too small, as I rather expected. She has to be able to sit in it, and there's no way that would have been able to happen. So I'm adding in a panel up the CB of the skirt, then I can add in the snap tape closure (it's a ripaway, add all the pre-ruffled organza fabric at the bottom (I was so excited to find pre-ruffled fabric!), and bind off the waist and hem. Shouldn't be too bad. *knock on wood* But I want to finish the 1890s skirt first. I want to get both of them done before Thursday night, though, since my mom is coming to visit and will be here until we're able to have our next show fitting. (aka no sewing time this weekend) I may have to sacrifice trivia night or a little extra gym time for that.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/289715.html

I spent most of my three-day weekend sewing, and it was wonderful. Literally, all I did this weekend was sew, see The Incredibles (which was fantastic!), go to the gym (every day except Friday), and make one run to Joanns. Cinderella is completely finished, even though I wound up running out of lace on Friday (hence the run to Joanns). I also made the Mermaid tail to the point of it needing to be fitted on the actress. That involved altering a pattern, cutting out/flatlining the three pieces of satin to the outer sequin layers, and sewing the pieces together. And I only had to change the serger needle once!

Here's Cindy:

Once that was done, I switched to my 1890s skirt. I didn't get as far on that as I wanted, because (as usual), I underestimated the cutting time. I'm using that new 1890s Butterick pattern with the hideous pink dress on the cover (or at least, I'm using that for the skirt - I'm probably going to combine the bodice pattern with an old Butterick shirtwaist pattern). Anyway, it's a 7 piece skirt, so 7 pieces of lining (I'm using twill), 7 pieces of the outer skirt fabric (a dark navy mid-weight wool), and 7 pieces of hem interfacing (I had just barely enough hair canvas). And then attaching all the hair canvas to the twill, then flatlining all those pieces to the wool. I have about half of them flat-lined at this point, and the rest of them are pinned, ready to be serged (which is how I flatline). I was watching The Alienist while I worked on it, which seemed very appropriate, but now I've finished the season. Any recommendations for another 1890s show available on Netflix or Xfinity on demand?

We have a shoot and fitting this afternoon for the show, but I'm going to skip the gym this evening in favor of putting the skirt together. I think maybe there's a chance I can actually finish it? Or maybe come close? I guess it depends on how long the fitting takes. Once I finish that skirt, I'm going to move back to the Mermaid tail. Then it's a toss-up whether I'll do the 1890s blouse or move on to the Frog Princess ballgown. Who knows - I might just hand that off to one of my stitchers.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/289427.html

On Saturday, I put the waistband on the gala gown skirt, and marked the hem length. I've also completely scratched the idea of a new corset for it, because there is just not enough time, so I'm going to use my 1870s corset. On Sunday, I was playing around with trims - I cut out some of my appliques, and I also did a test of the silver metallic grid on the ivory matte satin. And I hated it. It was so wrinkly and awful. I think I'm either a) going to have to do it by hand, or b) put the ivory on the skirt before doing the grid pattern, or c) both. So that's annoying and time consuming. I cut out the shapes for the front two ivory "cutaways," and put them loosely in place on the skirt, and they look AWFUL.

So basically, I'm so not feeling the gala gown right now, and am questioning all my choices. So I think I'm going to step away for a minute. I'm either going to work on my 1890s shirtwaist and skirt for CoCo, or I might assemble an outfit for Disenchanted. I'd love to get the CoCo stuff done. I think it should be a relatively quickish project, and will make my mind a little clearer for the Gala gown, because I won't have so many projects in my docket.

This is what my sewing to-do list looks like right now:

1890s gala gown - embellish and hem skirt, do entire bodice, make jewelry
1890s shirtwaist and skirt - make entire outfit
Regency red silk dress - embellish skirt and make sleeves
Disenchanted costumes - there are a total of 10.5 costumes. I will have at least 2-3 stitchers on this, and I'm about to hand things off to one of them, but we have three looks from the waist up that are needed for promos in about a week, and then everything is needed by July 11th. And I still have more fabrics and pieces to buy for some of them. Hopefully I won't actually have to do much stitching on them, too, but I'll probably do at least 1-2 of the looks.

So basically, this is why my brain is going crazy. And looking at my schedule, I should have 13 evenings and 7 full days before the Disenchanted costumes are due, and an additional 5 evenings and 2-3 full days after Disenchanted before CoCo. And that's if I do nothing else besides what is currently on my calendar. Gah!

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/287584.html

Yes, I actually worked on my gala gown! I spent much of Friday and Monday working on it, though considering I spent quite a bit of time on it, I don't feel like I have much to show for it. That said, I had no idea how complicated the interior structure of an 1890s skirt is. I was working with the pattern of the 1893 skirt in Patterns of Fashion, plus lots of tips from Kelsey Patton on the internal structure, and this is what I wound up doing:

The exterior of the skirt is butter yellow silk taffeta from Home Fabrics. The skirt back pieces are so wide that I had to piece in the lower corners that make up the CB of the train.
The interior layers begin with a base of upholstery cotton sateen, which I managed to find at one of the big Joanns in the area (they didn't have it at either of the smaller stores I normally shop at). This also was pieced, though I saved some fabric and didn't worry about the piecing matching up like I did on the taffeta.
On the sateen was a layer of hair canvas, which I got from fabrics.com. Hair canvas is 23" wide, but I did mine so that it basically reaches to about 18" up from the floor. That means that by the CB of the train, the hair canvas was actually about 35" deep (aka more piecing).
Because the hair canvas is grey, it would have shown through if I had sandwiched it between the sateen and the silk layers, so it is actually on the inside of the sateen.
Over the hair canvas, I have another layer. Because a) I was out of sateen, and b) I wanted it to be yellow like the outside, I made this layer out of yellow poly matte satin, leftover from the Designer Disney Snow White skirt from last year. On one of the back pieces, I managed to cover all the hair canvas with only two pieces of the matte satin. The other one has like 7, because all of my pieces were weird triangles. Not ideal, but oh well.
Once I had all the layers mounted on the sateen, I flatlined that with the serger to the taffeta layer. If you were to look at the layers from the outside in, you would find silk taffeta, cotton sateen, hair canvas, poly matte satin.

After all the structure was completed, I made up the placket and the pocket bag pieces, and sewed everything together. I ran out of time before doing the darts/gathering into the waistband, but should be able to do that this week, though I do have at least one alteration, plus possibly theatre sewing to do first. Once that is done, I'll be able to start on all the embellishments. I'm a little worried, to be honest, because the skirt is already really heavy!

Please ignore the super messy sewing room in the first photo. In the second photo, you can kind of see the process of mounting the interior facing over the hair canvas.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/286866.html

The petticoat (minus the detachable train) is almost finished. I just need to hem the bottom ruffle. What I wound up doing is having one ruffle that goes all the way around the skirt, but is about 10" closer to the hem in the front than in the back, because I was seeing that on some extants. Then I put another ruffle that is wide at the CB, and tapers out at the sides, then another shorter ruffle that goes all the way around the hem, each ruffle attached to the one about it. And naturally, because it is so ruffly, it ate up at least 7.5 yds (if not more) of my 9 yds of fabric. So now I'm not really sure I have enough pimatex left for the train...

I think once I hem the bottom ruffle, I'm going to move on to the skirt, so that I can see just how much oomph I need for the train portion. That way I can also tell if I can supplement with a different kind of fabric, or if I need to order more Pimatex. I don't know how much of it I'll get to this weekend, since it's the final weekend of my show. But I really want to be done with this petticoat and get going on the skirt. Time is quickly running out, and to add to that, I just accepted a gig as Costume Coordinator for a show this summer.

Crossposts: https://theladyrebecca.livejournal.com/285621.html

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Rebecca Maiten

Lady Rebecca Fashions

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Diary of a Costumer

Entries tagged with 1890s

2018 Year in Review

Costume College Wrap-up Part Two

Costume College Wrap-up Part One

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