As a finishing touch to my Women’s Tailoring Project, I thought I’d share some silly pictures from my photo shoot with you! We received many strange looks and even had strangers whipping out their cameras to snap photos… I’m sure they were very confused about what was going on!
Here we finally are, at 1913! Let’s look at some truly lovely pictures!
Well, we just got to see my 1883 tailoring project. Now let’s enjoy taking a mental stroll with my 1903 tailored look! Again, there are lots of pictures to see!
Oh my goodness my 1883 tailored bustle dress and undergarments are finally finished!!! YAY! Let’s glory in the beautiful pictures and the fabulous clothes… Since I can’t decide which pictures I like best, you get to see more than a few.
Finally, here are some pictures of my fitting for my 1913 tailored look!
We’ll start here, where you can see the mostly dressed view. This look is a tailored suit from 1913. In the picture you can see the pleated skirt. I actually wound up making the finished length longer than I originally thought I would.
The skirt is worn with an Edwardian blouse featuring cluny lace, pin tucks, pleats, and pleated cuffs.
To the right you can see the look with the unfinished jacket and hat. The jacket still has a mock-up collar and at this point there is no facing, so the interior canvas is visible on the lapels of the jacket.
This period is a strange mix of Victorian holdover clothing (like the blouse) and 20th century clothing (the tailored suit).
Under the skirt are undergarments that have slimmed down since 1883 and 1903 while still remaining numerous and Victorian in principle. On the left you can see the full length chemise which still features lace, pin tucks, and silk ribbon. The silhouette has narrowed considerably from the Victorian shapes of the 19th century, but the whole look is Victorian, not modern. The corset is much longer at this time, but the bones stop about four inches above the bottom edge so that movement is not impaired. This corset is constructed of a silk/linen blend that is flat lined with coutil. The seams are flat felled on the inside. It is edged in the same fabric cut on the bias. The top edge is also edged with lace and
silk ribbon. To the right you can see the corset cover for this look: simple and straight forward, with just a small edge of lace. There is also a matching fabric petticoat for this look. The petticoat (or underskirt) is edged with a pin tucked ruffle and finished at the bottom with matching embroidery. It closes at the waist with a hook and eye. The chemise, petticoat, and corset cover are all constructed of the same ivory cotton.
As you saw in my last post, the undergarments for my 1883 look are complete. The understructure, especially the corset and bustle, is essential to the creation of the silhouette in 1883: without these pieces the exterior garments would crumple and sag. The thing is, the exterior garment is tailored to fit this exact shape: if that silhouette is not created by the undergarments then the exterior garments just don’t fit!
Let’s take a look at the exterior garments. First, the skirt. This skirt is many layers: the one you can see now I call the “foundation skirt.” It is the part of the skirt that hangs from waist to floor without any draping on it. In reality, the foundation skirt is actually made of two layers. The first layer is the one you can see with the velvet knife pleats along the hem–the knife pleats are 10″ high (ending just above the tabs in the wool)–but don’t be fooled, the knife pleats are attached to a cotton underskirt that extends up to the waist. Why? Multiple reasons: 1-this skirt is already super heavy with just one layer of wool and the velvet trim, and I haven’t even added the drapery yet; 2-the skirt is already super warm as well, it would be too warm with velvet all the way to the waist; 3-the Victorian mindset was to not waste precious money on beautiful fabrics that weren’t seen, so this technique of using cotton underskirts edged with fancy trim is very common; 4-velvet rather than cotton would add more bulk to the circumference of the waist, and the goal is to make the waist as small as possible. You can’t see the pins, but I did have to make alterations at the waist, since the bottom edge was already finished. There are more skirt layers coming: a gathered and draped “back drape,” and an asymmetrically pleated “front drape.”
The jacket is the other exterior garment. This garment is actually a really good example of the alterations I almost always have to make before I am able to finish a garment. The left side is how the garment fit when I put it on my model. On the right side you can see all my safety pins moving and adding darts to make the jacket fit better. Although it looks wrinkly, once I stitch all those alterations it will actually allow the jacket to fit smoothly over the torso. You can also see my mockup collar on this jacket.
What comes next? Well, because I needed to basically take out all my front darts and seams and move them, I had another fitting with my model before starting to finish the garment. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera! I’ll try to finagle pictures, but they’ll be coming later. After the second fabric fitting I move on to finishing my garments completely!
I’d decided months ago to attend the Dancing with the Dashwoods (Jane Austen period) Ball recently hosted by the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers; however, I was in a sticky spot about what to wear! I did not have a dress appropriate to the period of this ball and I really needed to focus on my tailoring project… what to do?!?
Well, I decided to spend just one day making a cotton Regency dress. I quickly adapted a pattern from Norah Waugh’s The Cut of Women’s Clothes: 1600-1930 to my size and decided to forgo the mockup step. Cutting out the fabric is my least favorite part of making garments, so I tried to make that part go as quickly as possible.
In an effort to simplify things, I included two petticoat layers in the dress itself and decided not to worry about finishing my seams on the inside. The bodice also has two extra layers inside of it to keep it opaque. Each piece (of three layers) was treated as one piece when I went to sew it.
All in all, the basic seams went quickly. What slowed me down and took about a third of my time on the dress were the finishing steps of completing the neck trim and putting closures on the back. The trim took a fair amount of time to pin, stitch, and thread through the ribbon loops, and the hook and thread loop closures took time because it was getting late at that point…
Fast-forward to the ball! I had the good fortune to be able to bring along friends as well! It was crowded but super fun to dance in period costume and a period hall! Enjoy the photos!
I reached a point where all my patterns were complete! The next step was to make a mock-up, or toile, of each garment. My mock-ups are made out of muslin: their goal is to determine what changes I need to make to my patterns so that the garments will fit well before I cut and sew the garments out of my fashion fabrics.
By eliminating major fit issues in my mock-ups I am able to achieve a better fit in my final garments with fewer alterations. In these photos you can see the pins that mark the areas of the garments that I need to go back and change on my patterns so that the fashion fabric garments will fit better.
Look 1: 1883. In my brain this is the “bustle dress.”
Look 2: 1903. This is the pigeon breast dress.
Look 3: 1913. This is the tubular suit look.
Yay! My project is on its way to becoming actual garments. There’s still more work to do, but it’s inspiring to see it beginning to take shape!
The first step of this women’s tailoring project was to research what exactly I wanted to recreate. That being finished, I embarked on the next task: to create patterns for each of the garments I would be building. Each look is made up of about 8 separate garments: a chemise/combination, corset, corset cover, petticoat, blouse, skirt, jacket, and hat (the 1883 look also includes a bustle). To create the patterns for these garments I used a combination of the methods mentioned below.
The simple undergarment patterns such as the chemises and corset covers were drafted using my models’ measurements. Pattern Drafting for Fashion Design, by Helen Joseph Armstrong, was a great starting point for creating these shapes.
The corset patterns were adapted to fit my models from the book Corsets and Crinolines by Norah Waugh.
The petticoat patterns were created using a combination of methods. For all of them I found an image I wanted to recreate, then I either used the drafting method I used for chemises and corset covers, or I used a historic pattern that was lifted from a historic garment like the patterns for the skirts and jackets (mentioned below). The images came from a wide variety of books, including The History of Underclothes by C. Willett Cunnington, Everyday Fashions, 1909-1920, as Pictured in Sears Catalogs edited by JoAnne Olian, and Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper’s Bazaar, 1867-1898 edited by Stella Blum.
For the outer garments (skirts and jackets), I used patterns from historic garments that were resized to fit the models who will be wearing the garments. The patterns are lifted from historic garments and printed in books such as Patterns of Fashion 2: Englishwomen’s Dresses and Their Construction C. 1860-1940 by Janet Arnold, Turn of the Century Fashion Patterns and Tailoring Techniques by S. S. Gordon, and The Cut of Women’s Clothes: 1600-1930 by Norah Waugh.
In addition, I also consulted a variety of books to get more background information about the fabrics and colors, method of construction, and look, name and use of each garment. Other helpful reference books include, but are certainly not limited to, English Women’s Clothing in the Nineteenth Century: A Comprehensive Guide with 1,117 Illustrations by C. Willett Cunnington, Underwear: Fashion in Detail by Eleri Lynn, and Authentic Victorian Dressmaking Techniques edited by Kristina Harris.
For the hats, I found an image I liked and then used millinery reference books to get more information. Millinery books included From the Neck Up: An Illustrated Guide to Hatmaking by Denise Dreher and Edwardian Hats: The Art of Millinery by Anna Ben-Yusef, edited by R. L. Shep.
More coming soon! Next, a look at my mockups of these garments!
My first large sewing project for myself was, fittingly, an 1860s gown nick-named “Belle.” (This is the full story of Belle.) Owning a gown like this was a childhood fantasy for me, ever since my first days of loving Gone With The Wind. I finished construction of this gown about four years ago and since then I’ve lovingly stored it and its accompanying undergarments and hoops in my closet, alongside all my modern clothes.
I’ve been hoping for an opportunity to wear Belle for the last four years, not only to give a purpose to the dress I so lovingly created, but also to see how it feels to wear it for a hours at a time. 
I just recently attended an event called Fezziwig’s Ball, which was presented by the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers in Salem, Massachusetts. I was able to sing Christmas carols, dance, and have a real experience wearing Belle–and I was in the company of others who not only appreciated my hard work, but who had also worked hard to create and wear their own 1860s dresses!
I learned a vast amount of small details about the practicalities (or hindrances) of wearing 1860s clothing. For example, I understand now why vintage dances from this period turn constantly in the same direction: because your hoops gain so much momentum that they can only sustain fast, continuous movement in one direction, not changing directions. That particular sensation was just not as clear when I was practicing dancing in modern pants or knee length skirts. Also, I have much clearer idea of why women would faint so often. Imagine dancing fast for four minutes in modern clothes, but then imagine doing the same amount of movement while laced into a corset! I felt faint after four minutes of fast dancing, and my corset wasn’t laced nearly as tightly as ladies would have been laced in the 1860s.
I had so much fun learning first hand and am quite sure I have more lessons in store for me in the future! I’m eagerly awaiting the next 1860s themed ball to be presented in March 2011 by the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers, the Returning Heroes Ball, a specifically 1860s Grand Ball.
