After reading
part I I'm sure you're all eagerly waiting to read this one. I'll go through the dress process, which may take a large chunk of this post because it's been a long journey.
In the summer of 2015, before I got the beastie I live with, I ordered the Simplicity Victorian undergarments pattern and began to make the chemise, which wasn't as hard as I had thought it was going to be.
I don't know if you can see it in detail here, with a sneaky peek of the crinoline. Due to the 50m roll of tartan bias binding the sleeves were bound with it, but the neckline left plain due to not wanting to see it peak above the off shoulder bodices of the time.
Next onto the corset, and to show the world that I was serious here is a mock-up.
I even got to sewing the stitch in the ditch on the real thing, made of white cotton coutil and gold grommets, until I lost my patience and ripped all the pieces apart.....wish I was joking, think the carcass is still lying on the floor upstairs to this day. I bought one online instead and have decided to accept that I make corsets from necessity, not because I enjoy doing it. Each to their own.
Next is of course the elliptical crinoline. It was no competition between the round one of the 1850's and the elliptical of the early-late 1860s, I've always loved the latter.
Onto the petticoat. Unfortunately I don't have a finished picture, just the one I took before I put too many ruffles on it. This was by far the heaviest piece of ensemble.
Next onto the cutting of the expensive red silk taffeta, purchased from
Euro fabrics on ebay. They called it something different, but it was a lovely rich red. I'm not going to lie, one of the most nerve racking things I've ever had to do is cutting into expensive silk. Didn't help when I had a spillage of coffee near it....I've learnt my lesson.
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| Note the coffee stains my pattern now has |
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| pinning and cutting |
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| The beastie helping |
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| Butterflies added |
I always intended on having decoration at the back of the dress, taking inspiration from this example by Emile Pinsent:
I was pretty sure the black tails (that's what I'm going to call them for lack of a better word....curtain ties?) were just lace sewn onto the skirt in that pattern instead of just hanging loosely like mine are, but I wanted that extra level of swooshiness. I attached them to the belt to save thickness on the skirt's waistband. A belt I made with no pattern....I'm proud of this small achievement given my bad experience with pattern-less working. I don't think I put the tails as far back as I should have, and during the night they also kept turning to the wrong side so I may try to fix that somehow if I have the inclination in the future.
This all left the front of the skirt rather bare, and when I was looking for trim for the bodice on one of my go to sites I came across these little cotton butterflies and thought they would be nice and subtle on the front of the skirt. And this is where I named my dress....The butterfly dress. After adding some more white ribbon to the belt that was done, and next was the bodice.
I kept putting this off because it sounded so complicated in the destructions. 4 mockups later and I ended up taking the bodice up and inch, which was a bit of a mistake in the end because the sides were very short but the point really long, looked more like a 17th century pointed bodice. The shortening was because of the protrusion out the back, so I lifted it up a little.
I realised a little too late that I may have stitched the ribbon decoration on a little too tightly, as a result I couldn't lift my arms above my shoulders...oops, but worth it. So for the decoration I had originally intended on silk chiffon in the same red as my dress.....and I would have if I'd found it. I even looked at poly chiffons but none were the right shade. Since my colour scheme was red and white I thought a white/ivory gathered Bertha was just as nice, maybe even nicer, but it meant the reams of expensive white lace ribbon I'd bought for decoration would be banished to the "to use" drawer. As a result I bought poly satin ribbon, but kept the clear beads I'd intended on using, which were sewn on white ribbon. It's hidden under the thicker red ribbon, but it gave the dress another sound dimension as whenever I jumped up and down for a lively dance I jangled, as did my earrings.
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| The finished item |
I regretted putting sleeves on the chemise as you can see in the picture one decided to pop out for a photo bomb. The sleeves were also a bit of a disaster but since no one will ever see I'll leave it to your imagination what type of disaster it was.
My hair wasn't as disastrous as the picture below, but wasn't as voluminous as I was hoping, only to be expected with shoulder length hair, but I'll look into a hair piece for next time. Paper roses are bought.
As for the Victorian Ball itself, it was one of the best nights of my life. It was brilliant seeing the work everyone else had put in, and my wardrobe malfunction (one of my hoops popped out of the casing....and celotape I'd secured it with, another thing I'll have to fix) wasn't the only one which made me feel a lot better. It was nice dancing, and although different from a ceilidh was still a lot of fun. I met amazing people, and laughed a lot. It was a hot night and so to save me from dying (from lack of deep breaths of hear I couldn't tell) I only danced every alternate dance, but this till had me overheating under the corset. I can't wait until next year.
Once again I'd like to thank the lovely
Izabela from Prior Attire for organising the entire thing, and tell you to guard the dress you wore because I want it (I almost reached out and touched it when I was talking to you but then realised there is a thing called boundaries). Also thank you to Lucas for the photos (of the completed dress, the rest is my poor skills).
There will be a part III, but this will involve my many adventures of the Sunday.
