HSF challenge #24: Re-Do

Earlier in the year I decided to make my mother a dress and two weeks before Victorian Ball I finally got to pick it up again!

For the literature challenge in May, I chose Hyacinth Kirkpatrick from Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. The gown is made from a purple/silver silk sari found on Ebay with over-sleeves of black silk organza. I ran out of the purple sari fabric, so the under-sleeves are made of a gray silk dupioni.

"...and it was her taste, more than any depth of feeling, that had made her persevere in wearing all the delicate tints — the violets and grays — which, with a certain admixture of black, constitute half-mourning. This style of becoming dress she was supposed to wear in memory of Mr. Kirkpatrick; in reality because it was both lady-like and economical."

My mother loved it so much she wore it to Dickens Fair

With each post or photo be sure to tell us:

The Challenge:  Re-do

Fabric:  Silk sari, silk dupioni, silk organza

Pattern:  Truly Victorian romantic era gown

Year:  1830's

Notions:  Thread

How historically accurate is it?  Machine sewn

Hours to complete:  Two weeks

First worn:  November 30th

Total cost:  ??

HSF Challenge 22: Masquerade or The Empress of India bodice

I ended up filling three challenges almost by accident. It is a widely known fact among my general acquaintance that I have no free weekends in that nebulous time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Aside from the two major holidays, my mother, Mr. G and I attend the Victorian Grand Ball, a friend's longstanding Christmas party, and lastly the Great Dickens Christmas Fair. We have a lot of fun, but it tends to generate a lot of event-specific sewing. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that for once a few challenges actually meshed with the events I needed to sew for.

I had already made a bodice to wear with challenge #14 and challenge #15 at costume college, but I wasn't really satisfied with it. Fortunately I'm the kind of pack-rat that saves every scrap from previous projects and so I had enough of both fabrics to make a new one.

Here's the original bodice:

And here's the remake! 

I call it my Empress of India gown.

Coincidentally the theme of this Victorian Ball was masquerade as well, and so I felt completely justified in draping this bodice in as much lace and trim as I could while still remaining upright. 

I used a bunch of vintage gold trim that I'd found at Costume College and accented it with a few gold ribbon rosettes and a little lace.

The Challenge: Masquerade

Fabric:  Silk dupioni

Pattern:  Umm... I've had i for so long, I've completely forgotten

Year: 1880's

Notions: Thread, gold ribbon, lace and vintage gold trim

How historically accurate is it? Machine sewn

Hours to complete: Once again, I wasn't keeping count

First worn: November 30th 

Total cost:  $0

Three non-HSF costumes, Two HSF challenges and a partridge in a pear tree

Merry Christmas everyone!
Wow. So I kinda wrapped myself up in a cocoon of sewing and school... and when I finally emerged, it was December.
But now that I have a little breathing room before the new year, I think a few photos are in order. I'll be making more detailed posts about these dresses in a few days, but for now, enjoy:

HSF challenge #17: the lumberjack dressing gown

I got this challenge entry done by it's deadline, but between altering a friend's bridesmaid dress and making a dress for a neighbor, I haven't had much opportunity to post.

I'm not too fond of this dressing gown, to be honest. My original plan was to make a banyan for Mr. G, but he was unable to find any suitable fabric in time and so I had to improvise. This is bare bones, seat-of-pants, last minute stuff made from what I had closest to hand at the time and it shows. When I first looked through my stash, it seemed as though all the fabrics I had planned to use either had insufficient yardage or were in hiding, so I was left with seven yards of red gingham homespun that makes me look like a lumberjack. 

Here's the back. Along with the annoying-as-hell-to-hem collar.

I will not lie, this thing is probably going to be buried in the back of my closet and never see the light of day again.

The Challenge:  Robes and Robings

Fabric:  Red gingham homespun

Pattern:  Period Impressions 1837 robe front day dress

Year:  1837

Notions: Thread and lace

How historically accurate is it?  Machine sewn, so not very

Hours to complete:  20

First worn: Never, and likely to stay that way.

Total cost: My sanity and dignity.

HSF Challenge #15: White

It's been a week and change since Costume College now that I'm A) suffciently recovered  and B) no longer being ambushed by a victorian seaside picnic (another story for another post) I find that I finally have enough brain power to post about my white challenge entry:

This 1880's overskirt (and it's matching bodice) was made to wear with the previous challenge to the Time Travelers' Gala. It's made of a white chiffon sari with gold sequined embroidery. It went together with a minimum of fuss and I'd say it turned out pretty well.

And here is the full outfit in action. Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of it.

The Challenge: White

Fabric:  Embroidered chiffon sari

Pattern:  Truly Victorian

Year:   Latter half of the 1880's

Notions:  Thread

How historically accurate is it?  Machine sewn

Hours to complete: Umm... I wasn't really keeping count

First worn:  August 3rd 2013

Total cost: $20

And here I am, a' singin' the old refrain...

The good news is, all my Costume College sewing is done save for the bodice of my gala dress. The bad news is, if I want it done by Saturday night, I'm probably not going to sleep at all.

I'm not terribly surprised. This gorram thing has given me more trouble than anything else I've had to sew. Oh where do I begin? Being unable to get any help fitting it during the first week of the time I alloted. The inability to find a good lining fabric in cream. Having to recut some of the pieces when the originals went missing. Wasting lots of time trying to incorporate the lovely embroidered gold border of the overlay only to find that the only way to make it work will be to cut out the border and applique it on. Dealing with a curved front closure. The list goes on and on, and I am fed up to the back teeth with it.

This has eaten up so much of my time that if I hadn't already made my other costumes beforehand, I'd be up a certain well-known creek without a certain implement. At the time of this post, the bodice has been thrown across the room ten times, had it's stitching unpicked six times and generally been screamed at, bled on, and cursed over more times than I care to count. I hate this fracking bodice with the passion of a thousand fangirls and the only thing keeping me from setting it on fire and dancing a merry jig around it is the knowledge that it is going to be BEAUTIFUL.

I could have rested on my laurels this year. I have a few evening dresses that have never gone to Costume College. I could have worn any of them. But I saw the opportunity to knock out two HSF challenges at once and just couldn't leave it alone. And while the dress's overskirt does work for the "white" challenge, the bodice was meant to be part of it too.

As it is, I'm packed and ready and I've got two days to sew the hooks and eyes onto the bodice and attache the sleeves. Wish me luck.

HSF Challenge #14 Eastern Influences

Wow, it's been over a month since my last post. Sorry about the radio silence, but between attending Old Ft. MacArthur Days and gearing up for Costume College, I suddenly got very busy very fast. I ended up skipping the last two HSF challenges in order to avoid sewing burnout and to give my hands a break.

Challenge #14 is an 1880's bustle underskirt made of sea foam green silk and is trimmed with a gold sari border leftover from another project.

charmingly modeled by Esca

closeup of the trim

The Challenge: Eastern Influences

Fabric: Silk dupioni and gold sari trim

Pattern: Truly Victorian

Year: 1885-7ish

Notions: Thread. Lots and lots of thread

How historically accurate is it? The skirt is machine sewn, the trim is sewn on by hand

Hours to complete: 20

First worn: Will be worn on august 3rd

Total cost: Don't remember. I've had this silk forever.

For the next challenge I will be making the bodice and overskirt that go with it. Here's a sneak peek of the fabric:

Of toiles, Costume College, and an apricot tree... Not necessarily in that order.

 While the last five days have not given me Hell, they've certainly gifted me with a quantity of mid-level annoying setbacks. For instance: 

 Yes, dear readers, this is what greeted me bright and early Sunday morning as I went to take out the trash. Someone in our apartment building left a hose running all night at the base of our apricot tree, and that (combined with our gardening service's complete inability to prune it correctly) caused it to sag and block the driveway.

My mother, her partner and I spent most of the day lopping off branches in an attempt to right it, and while we were successful, we lost about 90% of the fruit. Mr. G (my mother's partner) says that the tree is probably traumatized and that we'll have to wait and see if it recovers.

Further annoyance came when I went to start my next HSF challenge and realized that I was out of cotton duck, which I use to interline the bodices of my costumes. The nearest fabric store that carries it is two hours away by bus and had none in stock. I ordered some online and it should be here soon, but it's eating into my challenge time waiting for it.

I've also been getting ready for Costume College. I'm planning an 1870's/80's evening dress for the gala on Saturday night, which brings me to the next annoyance on the list: Toiles
I hate cutting out toiles at the best of times, but when the fabric seems to shred at the slightest provocation and the sewing machine decides to mangle it even further? That's when I tend to throw it across the room and the cat steals it and buries it in his litter box. There was just barely enough fabric left for me to cut another one out and so far it's behaving, but between this and waiting for cotton duck, I've spent very much effort for very little gain!
So having accomplished nothing this week, I'm off to make up for lost time and do battle with toile 2.0 once again.
Wish me luck.

HSF Challenge #11: Squares, Rectangles and Triangles.

I admit I phoned this one in. I had another project to work on and I could think of nothing more simple than a pair of undersleeves. I found some reasonably priced non-shiny black silk organza from Dharma Trading Company and when it arrived the sewing portion went surprisingly quickly. Afterwards I found that I had enough left over for a matching chemisette that I will eventually get around to sewing on my next spare afternoon. The chemisette and sleeves will be worn with the Hyacinth gown to the Victorian Grand Ball in November.
Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the sleeves on my arms as my regular picture taker was elsewhere.

The Challenge: Squares, Rectangles and Triangles

Fabric: Silk Organza

Pattern: Um, no.

Year:  Pick one

Notions: Thread

How historically accurate is it? It's sewn completely by hand.

Hours to complete: 3

First worn:  Will be worn in November

Total cost: 9 bucks plus shipping

Challenge #10: In which I fail on purpose, and a sneak peek at the cause.

So the literature challenge has come and gone, and I have no garment to show for it. Why? Well, the plain fact is that it took more time than I was expecting. Due to my mother's work schedule, I was unable to fit her until well into the first week and went through two different patterns before I could find one that would work. I did get the bodice fitted and sewn together and (if I pulled a few all-nighters) I'm relatively sure I could have finished it by the deadline. But I also had a side project, and I needed that much sooner than my mother needed her gown.
So the Hyacinth gown is officially on hold. Since my next challenge entry is a pair of under sleeves, I feel pretty confident in taking a week off to focus on my other dress:

This Sunday is the The Lanterman Summer Whites Picnic at the Lanterman Historic House in La Canada Flintridge. There isn't any set time period for this event, and since I don't wear much white, I found I was in need of a dress.

I've wanted to do a fifties dress for a while. I settled on Vintage Vogue Pattern 8789 and with a little modification, it suited my needs very well.

Here's the fabric. Doesn't it look like a china plate?

The bodice is already sewn together and all that remains is to pleat the skirt, hem the skirt and set in the zipper. Pictures soon!

The "Mother" of all dresses and why I hate toiles so very, very much.

The current challenge is literature, and when it was announced I was stoked. I had a million ideas of what I wanted to do from all of my favorite historical books. I thought the hardest part would be narrowing down my decision to just one dress from just one novel.
I settled on Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. My initial idea was to make Molly's gaudy "over-smart" plaid silk dress, but I realized that there was another member of my household who was also in need of new clothes: My mother.
When I got my new corset, Mom got one too and as a result, none of her old costumes fit properly over it. I got the bright idea to make her a dress and she graciously agreed.
In the book, Hyacinth Kirkpatrick, who is in the later stages of mourning for her husband, is described as looking very good in lilac, violet, lavender and grey, and continues to wear her half-mourning garb as a way of saving money. My mother's fabric stash yielded up the perfect offering

The piece is a grayish-lavender silk/cotton sari with silver trim that I gifted Mom for Christmas last year. I found it on Ebay (big surprise). As you can see Esca is helping to make it a costume.

                                                             
                                                                Closeup of the border.

The greatest challenge I have faced so far is fitting the bodice toile. The pattern I chose originally was Period Impressions 1830's Day Dress and Pelerine, but the pieces didn't match up which made fitting it impossible, so back to the drawing board went I. It seems that most of my time nowadays is consumed by the making of toiles. I have no problem fitting them, but I do so hate cutting them out as only available space for laying out fabric is our living room floor and it all that time on my hands and knees has done little for my back. I have high hopes for the next toile though. Good ol' Truly Victorian, you rarely let me down!

Next post: The saga of the Hyacinth dress continues

HSF challenge #9 second entry: From toile to dress in less than a week.

I found out three things last week: 1) That my mother and I would be attending the Romance of the Ranchos Festival at the Workman Temple Homestead Museum, 2) That the time period was 1840's to 1860's, and 3) that I didn't have a readily available day dress. My Pioneer Bodice and it's skirt were packed away somewhere unreachable, and the rest of my dresses were either evening wear or didn't fit with the new corset. And so, I did one of the top ten stupidest things in my life: I made a dress in six days from scratch... It's very possible that I might be insane.

The bodice pattern is once again from Truly Victorian, the sleeves are from a Period Impressions pattern. I fitted the toile on myself and am amazed that it came out so well. The belt is a piece of bright green velvet ribbon with an antique shell buckle. I am wearing my quilted petticoat and my split drawers under.

                                                                  View of the back

A closeup of the fabric. The vines are probably supposed to be roses, but I think they look more like little strawberries.

 Another view of the back, and of my bonnet. I've had this one for a while and re-trimmed it to compliment the dress.

And a slightly closer pic of the bodice.

The Challenge: Flora and Fauna

Fabric: Strawberry/striped printed cotton

Pattern: Truly Victorian and Period Impressions

Year: I'm going to err on the side of caution and say 1840

Notions: Thread

How historically accurate is it? Machine sewn, so not very.

Hours to complete: 50, plus an all-nighter

First worn: May 5th 2013

Total cost: Free. I once again raided my fabric stash.

Despite it being sunny all week, the day of the event itself was overcast and cool. I brought a wool shawl and was very comfy indeed. All in all, I had a pretty good time and I look forward to wearing this dress to many future events. 

Next time: A dress for mother aka Challenge #10.

HSF Challenge #9 Flora and Fauna or killing two birds with one stone.

I admit, this one was a happy coincidence. I found myself in need of a hat to wear with The Creamsicle Bustle Dress and voila! Flora and fauna!

The base is a shallow-crowned straw blank that came in a lot of hats that were gifted to me by a friend. It's trimmed with the same pleated ribbon as the creamsicle bustle dress, and adorned with flowers and a fake dove.

The original plan was to decorate the hat with a real dove or two. I was inspired by this scene from Disney's Fantasia:

But it unfortunately was not to be. You would not believe how hard it is to find taxidermied doves, (or really any kind of white bird) for a reasonable price, or at all. The closest I came was a pair of white parakeet wings from an Etsy seller in New Zealand and they wouldn't have arrived in time. With my choices being either to order the wings and attach them later, or buy a bb gun and go dove hunting, I bit the bullet and went to Stats where I found a serviceable fake. It'll have to do for now, but if I ever find a real one, I'm totally replacing it.

The pansies and the white flowers are from Gilding the Lily Vintage in Fullerton. The roses and the ribbon are from an estate sale.

And now, onto the particulars!

The Challenge: Flora and Fauna

Fabric: Um, nope

Pattern: Nada

Year: 1870-1875

Notions: Thread, ribbon, artificial flowers, artificial dove.

How historically accurate is it? More than fairly, all of the trim is sewn on by hand.

Hours to complete: 5

First worn: Will be worn with challenge #8 entry on the 28th

Total cost: $15

This is perhaps one of the girly-est things I've ever made, but I've had a lot of fun making it. Tune in next time for a challenge and a side project!

HSF Challenge #8: By the Sea, or another favorite gets a revamp

As is evident from the title, the latest challenge is Seaside fashion and I admit I was momentarily at a loss as to what I should make. As I have no intention of going into the water unless it's absolutely necessary, a bathing costume was right out. Fortunately, the new corset and an upcoming impressionist picnic saved my metaphorical bacon. I have never been more thankful for my new corset making some of my costumes nigh on unwearable, because it gave me the excuse to redo my seersucker bustle dress. And boy howdy was it ever in need of a makeover.

This is the dress before the redo (note my cheerful demeanor)

 

And here it is after: 

If I look a little rumpled, it's because I had to get dressed very quickly so my mother could take the pictures before the light faded. I'm also laced a little looser than usual so there are a few wrinkles that wouldn't usually be there.

The bodice and overskirt are made of cranberry, cream, and periwinkle striped seersucker with baby blue trim. Because my new corset is a vastly different shape than my old one, I had to construct a completely new bodice. The pattern is Truly Victorian 4100 (their 1871 day bodice) and I had a few fitting issues with the neckline, which was a low square. So low, in fact, that when I tried on my first mockup, you could see my corset and chemise! Thankfully though it was easily rectified and the rest of it went together fairly easily. It's accented with twelve vintage glass buttons and a lavender bow.

The overskirt is Truly Victorian 305 (their bustled apron overskirt) and I had no issues with it whatsoever. It was going to have a ruffle of cotton lace, but I didn't feel up to pleating fourteen yards of the stuff.

The underskirt is Truly Victorian 261 (their-four gore underskirt) and is made of vintage peach faille that I snagged last year at Costume College for practically nothing. It's trimmed with a ruffle of cotton lace and more of the pleated baby blue ribbon. I'm not sure it goes completely with the rest of the ensemble, but it was the only  fabric I had at the time.

Now, on to the specs!

The Challenge: By the Sea

Fabric: Cotton Seersucker

Pattern: Truly Victorian everything

Year: 1875

Notions: Thread, buttons ribbon and trim

How historically accurate is it? Not terribly, only the trim and the buttons are sewn by hand

Hours to complete: Wasn't keeping track

First worn: Will be worn on the 28th of April where, hopefully, I will get better, non rumpled pictures of it.

Total cost: $20 for the trim and buttons, the fabric was already in my stash.

Next Post: Killing two birds with one stone or Challenge #9: Flora and Fauna