Tag: Women’s Clothing

Titanic Weekend Part II: All About The New 1912 Day Ensemble

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We took a rather in-depth look at my new 1912 evening gown. Now, on to the second 1912 ensemble that I also wore during the weekend: day gown and hat!

Gown and hat with (unbuttoned...) white kid opera gloves. I'm so pleased with the overall effect! Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the back. There are cool details back there, so another fashion shoot will be required in the future...

This gown is constructed from silk charmeuse. The skirt is a single layer in addition to the overskirt panel in front. The bodice has a foundation of the same white cotton as my new evening gown. Mounted on to that cotton are (from the neck down) layers of ivory silk charmeuse, ivory silk flat lined with fabulous ivory colored diamond lace, black silk velvet, and black silk charmeuse. The overskirt panel is trimmed with matching silk velvet and the belt is constructed of the same. There are small buttons on the overskirt velvet trim (because, really, the Edwardians just loved adding buttons everywhere!). Because the back bodice mirrors the front in its style (which unfortunately I don’t have a picture of right now…), I had to be crafty with my closures. The dress has two places that open with hooks and bars: the left side from just under the arm to a few inches down the hip and the left shoulder seam around the neck to the center back of the collar. The effect is a form fitting dress that looks like it was magically donned. The side closure is straight forward, with the foundation layer hooking first, to take the tension of holding the dress tight, and the outer charmeuse layer hooking over that simply to stay closed. Again, the foundation is essential to achieving the elegant, effortless exterior. The neck closure is a series of hook and bars that turn different directions to accommodate the seams: front to back at the shoulder, hooks that hook up on the collar to attach it to the back neck, and hooks going sideways on the center back of the collar.

In addition to the gown, I also constructed what I call the “mushroom” hat, which you can read more about in this previous post. I created the pattern for the hat, which is basically just a shaped brim with circular side band. The side band support the crown, which is a circle that is pleated to create that “mushroom” shape. I love the hat! It lends such an air of Edwardian drama and elegance to the look! And I am so pleased the the “mushroom” shape worked out!

Hm… Patterning this dress… Well, the general skirt shape is from Janet Arnold, but it is adapted to have two symmetrical box pleats that terminate at the top in delightfully detailed seams (which I really, really need pictures of!). The bodice pattern was draped with many references to my inspiration image. I created a basic shape for the bodice and then cut in into the different pieces (ivory silk, ivory silk and lace, black velvet, and black charmeuse) so that each piece would fit together perfectly. The belt is slightly shaped but doesn’t actually have a pattern.

The dress is inspired by this image from a 1910 issue of the magazine Bon Ton.

I'm sure you can guess, but the dress I was referring to is the one on the right.

In the end I made a few changes: I added a train, discarded the white under sleeves (I made them, I tried them, and they just didn’t work! They pulled the bodice in all sorts of weird ways… Maybe if the were not so tight they wouldn’t pull so much? I am fine with having gloves cover my lower arms, anyway.), and drastically scaled back the beading. Perhaps you’ll remember my plan to bead this dress? Well, the beading was drastically scaled back because I didn’t like the beads I bought as much as I thought I would (they are rectangular and larger than I thought… not seed bead-y at all), I realized I didn’t want to devote as much time as it would take to do the amount of beading I originally intended, I didn’t have enough beads to bead all four panels as much as the one panel I completed and I didn’t want to buy more beads, and I didn’t like the beading motif I had created, nor was I inspired to change it. You can see that I did leave one outline shape of beading on the bodice in the velvet section, but the rest was scrapped. That one line is repeated front and back (symmetry, you know). I did actually complete the overskirt top panel, but decided not to use it after my scaling back plan was complete (you can see it, below). I’m going to keep the beaded panel and see if it finds its way onto another project one day… I would still love to do intense beading on a garment, but I’ll have to pick a different one, because it wasn’t measuring up to my expectations for this dress.

Scrapped beaded panel. A mix of silvery and black beads. I started in the center with the somewhat wonky lines, can you see improvement? I think it would have been distracting from the dress to have four panels like this.

Titanic Weekend Part I: All About The New 1912 Evening Gown

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I recently returned from a successful Titanic-themed weekend of events, including multiple vintage dance opportunities. I’ve been working on some new clothing for these events since January, which you can read more about in my past posts relating to the 100th Anniversary of the Titanic. I’ve been rather remiss in posting updates about the progress of the new dresses I constructed for these events… So my first task is to share pictures of my attire and explain the inspiration and construction of the garments.

I created two new 1912 ensembles: an evening gown and a day gown with accompanying hat. Let’s start with the evening gown!

My camera had a challenging time capturing the colors and shimmering sequins on this gown, but this is a good representation of the colors. Look! I wore my ballroom dance shoes, which worked well, and my white kid opera gloves and pearl drop earrings... fabulous!
Fabulous painted backdrop! Perfect for taking photos, although my camera didn't quite catch the colors so well in this photo. I think this gown is so much more fabulous in person! I was told that the sequins just shimmer in subdued mood lighting.

This gown is burgundy silk charmeuse with a gold silk charmeuse underskirt. The bodice is gold silk layered under gold sequined net. The sleeves are the same gold sequined net flat lined with nude colored tulle: the tulle provides unnoticeable stability for the net layer. The burgundy layers are pleated up and held in place in two places by gold silk and sequined net covered buttons. The bodice and skirt are lined with brown cotton and the entire dress is mounted on a foundation of some extra white cotton which I have an excess of in my fabric stash. The foundation layer is essential to the drape of the dress, because it provides stability as well as a layer to attach all of the pleats and drapery points to. The foundation allows the burgundy silk to effortlessly hang and artfully fold without looking heavy or as though it serves to hold an weight. The foundation layer also supports the underskirt which is attached at about knee height (thus not extending all the way up to the waist and saving fabric). If you plan to create a draped Edwardian gown I strongly suggest that you include a foundation layer: the practice is historically accurate and will help your dress look effortless rather than heavy. This gown closes center back with hooks and eyes along the gold sequin area and a complicated series of further hooks and eyes at the top of the burgundy back drape. The hooks and eyes help create the tension that is required to keep the waist carefully draped in elegant folds across the waist.

There is not a hat associated with this gown because hats were not worn for formal evening events. I did create a wonderful Edwardian coiffure with loops and puffs of hair on the crown of my head surmounting the two front sweeps from the front as they swooped around the base of the back of my head. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any closeups of the style. I feel it is necessary to encourage you by saying that the more often I practice my Edwardian hair styling the faster I am and the better the styles look. You, too, can have fabulous Edwardian hair! Practice! Practice! Practice!

I draped the pattern for the foundation, bodice, and sleeves. The underskirt is a mix of information from the usual pattern book culprits (Janet Arnold and Norah Waugh) that I took in and then kept in mind while flat patterning a knee high underskirt pattern. The outer draped layer is just that: draped. It was a good challenge–I would have a hard time creating a flat pattern of that layer. All I can say is that it is just one rectangular piece of fabric that was sometimes frustrating and draped with many references to my inspirational images.

It turns out that the evening gown is a mash-up of two gowns (pictured below) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I think I started by aiming for the pink dress but wound up moseying my way along to the pale blue dress. Do you see the influence of both the pink and pale blue dresses? I do…

1914 Callot Soeurs evening dress
Side/Back of the same.
1911-1914 Callot Souers evening dress.
Side/Back of the same.

Resource: The Bartos Collection

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Oh my goodness! This is such a cool and huge collection of photographs and fashion plates! Lauren over at American Duchess has been referencing images from the Bartos Collection for awhile now, but I didn’t get a chance to check it out for myself until just recently. It is WONDERFUL!

The collection focuses on the mid-19th century through the early 20th century. There are fashion plates and mounds of period photographs and pictures of extant clothing… If you love historic clothes and hats and hair you MUST VISIT! Here’s the link, again, because you must go visit and drop your jaw with me!

1910 Dress Inspiration and Classification Part II

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It is time to share my classification of the dresses from my recent 1910 Dress Inspiration and Classification post. It turns out that not very many of you commented with your classification of the Edwardian dresses up for review. I’m sure you had opinions and you simply chose not to share them… but maybe next time you’ll want to join in! Without further ado, here’s what I think.

1: Favorite! (I love the gold trim on this dress! It is just SO exquisite!)

1910 Ball Gown (The Met)

2: Almost favorite (I had a hard time choosing between this and the one above.)

c. 1910 Worth Evening Dress (The Met)

3: Beautiful, but not my style (I just don’t like the beading on this very much…)

1909-1911 Worth Evening Dress

1910 Dress Inspiration and Classification

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The next historically clothed event in my life is Titanic-themed and I have five busy weeks in front of me to prepare for it. I’m quite excited to see everyone’s clothes from a whole new era that is so different from the usual 19th century looks. I’ll share some of my progress on my emerging 1912 wardrobe soon, but for now here is a selection of inspirational dresses for your perusal!

In what order would you classify these dresses? You are welcome to create unique descriptions to describe the order you choose! I’ll let you comment and share my classification later (I want to avoid swaying anyone my way, you see).

1=Favorite! 2=Almost favorite 3=Beautiful, but not my style

1910 Ball Gown (The Met)
1910 Ball Gown (The Met)
1909-1911 Worth Evening Dress (The Met)
1909-1911 Worth Evening Dress (The Met)
c. 1910 Worth Evening Dress (The Met)
c. 1910 Worth Evening Dress (The Met)

Another Annabelle Adventure (Returning Heroes Ball 2012)

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Alliterative, agreed? Ok, I’m done… Honestly, the words just came–I didn’t spend long on them! Last weekend I attended the Returning Heroes Ball hosted by the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers in Holliston, MA. As usual, it was full of fun and laughs. There were fabulous dresses all around (because of course one of the joys of a ball is to observe dresses–old and new) and wonderful refreshments as well. I don’t have pictures of other people, but I have pictures of me!… You can see a variety of people in the photos on Antonia’s blog, Experiments in Elegance…

Me, in Annabelle. I really, really love hoop skirted dresses! And flounces! Whee!!!

I recently gained a new accessory: a deep purple burnout silk velvet scarf, big enough to use as a shawl. The shawl was decommissioned from a friend’s modern wardrobe because it is rather intense for a modern look; however, it works wonderfully as a 19th century piece, I think! I’ve been waiting for about three months to try it out with this outfit… I think it is fabulous and nicely complements the purple in the flowers.  Do you think it works for an 1860s look?

Ooo... Purple silk velvet shawl. So cosy! (and stylish to boot!)
Thanks for taking the photos, gentlemen (you know who you are)!

I’ve been trying out more complicated, poof-filled hair styles in preparation for early 20th century styling and I put some extra effort into this hair-do to try out more poof-ing. From the front my hair has it’s normal 1860s style with a center part where each from section is slightly poofed and rolled back to join the low rolled chignon at the nape of my neck (above, left and right)… but from the back this most recent style has extra poof-age!

See the extra poof at the top of my head?
Poof close-up

 In terms of the hair-styling itself, I think I like the extra poof as it gives more dimension and adds a regal feel to the overall look. Do you like the added poof?

I also decided to rework the hair wreath I’d made for the German Cotillion back in October (left). I’m not sure I like it as a giant mass of flowers, I might rework it again into a crescent shape like the flower piece that matches Belle, my other 1860s ball gown (above right). In terms of the flowers, giant mass or crescent shape?

Project Journal: 1815-1820 Regency Ensemble Part IX: Completion of the Re-made Dress! (1812 Ball 2012)

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I am so pleased with my re-made 1819 dress. You can get the background here or read the sewing update here! In short, the new style shares only the skirt with its former self. The new ruffles are all hand hemmed and hand sewn on. The dress seams are a mix of machine and hand sewing, depending on if I felt like digging out the sewing machine or not. All of the bodice seams are flat felled by hand. The dress closes in the back with 4 mother of pearl buttons. Oh, and let me not forget that the dress no longer has built in petticoats. Part of the re-make was to create a separate petticoat from one of the two petticoat layers built into the dress. The petticoat ties under the bust and has a single button to close the top of the bust. It is just a sleeveless, simple version of the gown. I’ll have to take pictures sometime so I can share them. But the dress… It fits! It is ruffly! It has so much more style than it did before! Just to compare, the first picture is your first glimpse of its current style, and below that is from before the re-make.

The re-made 1819 dress, with ruffles!
The 1819 dress in its first incarnation.

Isn’t it more stunning than it previously was? I wore it to the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers’ 1812 Ball (ok, so my dress was a little forward thinking… maybe I have a time machine?). I had a lovely time, as expected. I made some new acquaintances and renewed some old ones, I was able to wear my recently purchased kid leather opera-length (which means over the elbow) gloves and a beautiful shawl one of my aunts gave me a few years ago, I got to practice my historic hair styling techniques (more to come on that point soon), and I danced! But let me stop writing, because really this post is about sharing pictures.

The back view of the re-made dress.
Friends: don't we make a lovely group? Ok, wait, but there's a funny face...
How about this one? Same group, but now I'm making the funny face. Rather a severe expression, don't you think?

 I’d just like to insert a comment here: looking again at these pictures, all the ruffles on the bodice of my dress really manage to make me look much more busty than I actually am… Hm… there are a lot of ruffles going on there!

My friend made this beautiful fan to go with her dress! It's hard to see the detail in this picture, but it's absolutely lovely.
Front of her new dress. She also has the super cute tiara, that is much more sparkly in person...
Back of her new dress.

I’ll leave you with this image: a teaser for a soon-to-come post about the creation of this hair style!

Quite picturesque, I think. Thanks for taking the photos, Carly (and Mark)!

Project Journal: 1815-1820 Regency Ensemble: Part VII: Gown Progress

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I’ve been stitching away at the re-make of my 1819 Regency gown. The progress:

  • the bodice and skirt ruffles are all being hemmed by hand and there is only one skirt ruffle left to complete
  • the bodice has been put together, with the exception of sleeves and the finishing of the neck edge
  • the seams on the bodice are finished by hand (each seam is flat felled to hide the raw edges on the inside)
Skirt ruffles in progress: I've actually completed more than is pictured
The hem and join of one skirt ruffle
The bodice seams with ruffles inserted
The rolled hem on the bodice ruffles
Center front on the bodice has a double edged ruffle
The flat felled seams on the inside of the bodice
The flat felled seam used on each seam on the bodice and the hand sewn top stitching (which is only along these curved back seams)

Here is a refresher of the bodice inspiration image. My bodice looks like a reasonable interpretation to me. I am quite pleased with the progress and overall look so far. How do you think my interpretation compares?

The inspiration for my bodice

Lastly, here is the image of the sleeve I plan to use. I described the sleeve in my last post, an overview of my planned gown updates. The sleeve is on a page with many other sleeve variations from the 1830s, but I think that it will suit my 1819 Regency (pushing 1820s) dress quite well. I am debating the possibility of outlining the triangular inset with piping. Do you think that would suit the dress and be a faithful representation of the double line delineating the inset in the image? Alternatively, there is a possibility that I might use green piping or ribbon (the same shade of green used  in my 1819 spencer) to delineate that line. But then must I also use the green somewhere else to create visual harmony? Hmm…

From the first few pages of Janet Arnold's early 19th century pattern book

Project Journal: 1815-1820 Regency Ensemble Part VI: Updating the Gown

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Original construction

I have decided to remake my ivory 1819 cotton gown for an upcoming Regency ball. Originally, my plan was to add trim to the dress as it currently exists, but I realized there were many things about the dress I wanted to change: with my new late Regency corset the neckline tended to sit away from my body in front, the back closure was too tight for comfort, the bust line in front was so high that it was very hard to get it to sit below my bust, the sleeve openings were uncomfortably tight, the sleeves weren’t puffed enough, I wanted to separate all the petticoat layers to be individual layers rather than petticoats built into the dress, and I wanted to add ruffles to the skirt  to really bring it up to the years just before the 1820s. Indeed, the things I wanted to change were so numerous that I decided to just remake the dress!

In the end, the only thing that I decided to keep the same is the skirt base fabric… Using just one additional yard of the original fabric, I plan to complete the following changes: constructing an entirely new bodice with ruffled trimming, creating entirely new puffed sleeves with a cute v-shaped detail, making stand alone petticoats out of the original built in petticoats, and adding bias ruffles to the skirt.

From Ackermann's Repository 1822

My dress is from the period just before the 1820s and I felt that I needed to go more in an 1820s direction with the new trimming and adornment. The main feature of trimming in the 1820s is wide sections of trimmings on the skirt, in combination with corresponding trim across the bodice and sleeves. Thus, there two horizontal lines of interest with a simple, unadorned mid-section (as in the fashion plate on the left, from 1822).

Before I had decided to make so many changes, my original intention was to simply add ruffles to the bottom hem, along the lines of the dress (below) from the Kyoto Costume Institute.

c. 1820 Silk Day Dress (Kyoto Costume Institute)
Ribbon trim on 1819 dress before the remake

However, as I thought about it I realized that the ruffle style (above) just would not have a corresponding look to the current zig zag ribbon trim on the dress bodice (right). Those two styles did not make sense on one dress.

The logical step was to change the trim on the bodice. But remember that I had other complaints about the bodice as well… So came the decision to remake the bodice. But how to trim it to correspond with the ruffles on the skirt? I was not at all interested in the bodice trimming on the Kyoto dress for my dress, because the fabric doesn’t lend itself to that look. Well, I started researching trimming from the late 18-teens to see if I would be inspired. The image below is one of my favorites that didn’t make the cut, and there are more on my 1819 dress trimming ideas Pinterest board (thank you to Lauren, at American Duchess, for linking to her Pinterest board in a post and sparking my interest in this fabulous organization tool).

From Ackermann's Repository 1819

Many of my Pinterest images come from the same place: the blog “My Fanciful Muse” by EK Duncan. She has a series of posts that contain text and fashion plates from Ackermann’s Repository beginning in 1808 and going through 1828! Here is the link for the post on 1828: if you scroll to the bottom you will see a list of links to all of the previous years. It is absolutely fabulous! If you haven’t seen this yet you MUST visit! (Thank you for sharing, Evelyn!)

In the end, I decided on a combination of the two dresses in the image below: the ruffles on the skirt of the dress on the right (for some reason I really like the idea of ruffles on my skirt!) and the bodice of the dress on the left. The repeated use of ruffles on the skirt and bodice will produce the corresponding style I am aiming for. The sleeves will be a style from the first few pages of the first half of the 19th century Janet Arnold pattern book: a puffed sleeve with a triangular inset coming from the shoulder. I’ve wanted to use that sleeve style for months and now I finally have a way to use it that makes sense!

1820 illustration from Cunnington's English Women's Clothing in the Nineteenth Century (the illustration is based off of contemporary fashion plates)

 

1912 Dress Beading Motifs

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I am leaving the Regency period for now to focus on preparing dresses from 1912 to wear to Titantic-themed events in April. I’m hoping that by starting early I will be able to spread the workload out and include lots of beautiful details.

I am making the dress on the right side (the black one) and I plan to include beaded panels (this is why I am getting an early start!)… I can see a beaded pattern: the top and mid beaded sections appear to have an inner outlined area that mimics the exterior shape of the beaded panel and the remaining space appears to be filled in by zig zags. Similarly, the bottom panel appears to also be filled in with a zig zag pattern. (Or is it a pattern more curvy than a zig zag?)

(From Vol. 59 of the magazine Bon Ton)

I feel like I have a clear idea and can move forward with the beading, but at the same time I am doubting myself and thinking that perhaps I need to do more research on 1912 beading motifs. Do you think I can take creative license and go forward with the information I can glean from the Bon Ton image? I did find this example of an extant 1912 beaded dress that is similar on the one from Bon Ton.

1912 Beaded Ball Gown
1912 Beaded Ball Gown

I don’t own any books that are specific enough to assist me in this search and various online searches have been generally disappointing. And yet it seems that someone out there must have some good information! Do you know of any sources for information on Edwardian beading motifs? I hope to hear from you, if you do have any ideas!