Victorian Sewing

Wow I actually do sew costumes still! It has been so long since I have done it I was beginning to wonder myself. This isn’t one of the fanciest dresses (well skirts now but will be a dress soon) that you would see at a large SASS event by any means but it is a big deal for me. I am not usually that good at going off on my own. If I have directions I tend to stick to them. I am fine if I start something on my own but if there are directions I am lazy & just following along like a lemming off a cliff. So for this one I really kind of took a picture of an outfit & made my own version from this & that, making it my own.

Let me give you a little crash course on Victorian Era Fashions. There are basically 5 periods; Pre-hoop & Hoop 1830-1869, Early Bustle 1869-1876, Natural Form 1877-1882, Late Bustle 1883-1889 & Belle Epoch 1890-1901. There are very distinct characteristics that set these periods apart & I do not claim to be an expert by any means. I just know the basics & just try to research the rest as I go along.

I like wanted to make a Natural Form dress. The big thing about the Natural Form period is that as the name suggested they primarily did not wear styles that required a hoop or bustle to hold the shape of the dress or at least nothing as elaborate as the earlier or later periods. When hoops & bustles could be huge! Also I should add that sewing patterns where nothing like what we have today they came in magazines all the pieces printed on one large page all over lapping in black ink, the lines of each piece in different combinations of dots or dashes. I will have try to find an example to show you all some time.

I drafted the overskirt from Fashions of the Gilded Age Vol #1 & the underskirt was made from Truly Victorian’s Fan Tail skirt, the trained version.

This was my inspiration from Fashions of the Gilded Age:



Here are my fabrics:

I used the diagrams in the book as best I could to get the general shape for the over skirt. Then I just pined & repined until I got the look I liked.

Here is the nearly finished product:






I still need to add a pleated ruffle to the underskirt & make a bodice, but I am so happy with the way that this turned out I had to share! I am still trying to decide what to do for the back. Here is a picture before I added the ribbon trim:



I will be sure to post some pictures of me wearing the finished dress hopefully at The SASS World Championships in June.