#victorian fashion

credit: elaramoon via Instagram

jewellery-box:

Evening slippers, 1890–99, J. Ferry. French.

Before i post stills of the finished prints, here is a little behind the scenes of a screenprinted illustration i worked on back in september ♫ It was fun playing around with neon ink and shimmery paper, it makes quite an eye-catchy visual !

I’m definitely thinking about selling some of these prints, would any of you be interested ;) ?

Making a Modernized 1890s Skirt - Part 2/2

Last time, I finished off with the insertion of the zipper, so now it was time to hem the bottom. Since the Anne With an E dress was a little longer than what I would like the skirt to be, I didn’t add any seam allowances and decided to shorten it in this step. For that, I folded over the raw edges and stitched everything down. Easier said than done, as the skirt flares out quite a bit in the bottom so the hem ended up really bulky at first, but I was able to fix it by adding tiny pleats to the left side of the hem.

Ironically enough there aren’t any visible in this picture (unless you take a close look in the bottom right corner) but I added one pleat to every panel and two to the back one because it’s wider than the others.

Next, I wanted to add the decorative bands. Now this proved so much trickier than I had anticipated, and I still don’t really know what exactly it was that caused the problem.

So this is what I wanted to do. Three rows of bands, and I actually thought this would be the easiest part. Oh boy how wrong I was. The first, thickest band turned out alright, but the second one ended up being super taught, almost as if my thread tension was too high, except I didn’t change a single setting. So I ripped out the seams again (quite literally) and just left the bottom one. I didn’t bother trying again at this point because it was very time consuming and besides, to make the thinner bands I had cut a wider band in two and the edges were starting to fray quite a bit.

Lastly, I added a button to the back above the zipper and it was done! And… I did a little photoshoot.

I love how the color of the blouse matches the fabric, I actually had this exact combo in mind when I decided for a brown skirt. So yeah, hope you like it as much as I do, and I’ll try to post again very soon!

Making a Modernized 1890s Skirt - Part 1

I spend a lot of time making historical costumes but I’m just never really able to wear them. In my day to day life I dress rather modern, with a few puff sleeve sweaters and ruffled tops, but overall it’s chain store with a small nod at history. For a while now, I’ve been wanting to make some modernized clothes I can wear on a daily basis, without needing a specific occasion to not look completely out of place (and time). So I decided a skirt was one, super quick and easy to make and two, a perfect way to give my outfits that much needed ✨vintage vibe✨.

This idea has been in the back of my mind since I watched this video by Bernadette Banner, I haven’t rewatched it since but I would say it is loosely based on it.

The idea was that I’d use the skirt pattern from the Anne With an E dress, as it was taken from an actual 1890s skirt pattern that I just shortened. So immediately when I received my package, I started working on it.

I didn’t need a mock-up as I’d successfully used the pattern before, so I cut it out of the fashion fabric right away - I’d bought 2 meters for this but honestly could’ve done with one. But having leftover twill is never a bad thing, there’s so much you can do with it!

As you can see, there are three pieces. Two of them I cut on the fold, so they’re double the width, and the third one is actually two seperate pieces, same shape but mirrored, those will be the side panels.

Next I stitched them all together and cleaned up the edges right away. So much easier to work like this.

Now it was time to pleat the back. I eyeballed it, pleating the entire back panel with pins and then tried it on to add some pleats to the side panels as well so it looks a little better.

I then decided to stitch down the pleats so I could take all the pins back out; it was impossible to add the waistband with them in place.

For the waistband I just cut out a rectangle, pressed it and sandwitched the raw edges and pleats between it. It was a little finicky but thankfully once pressed the fabric stays in place pretty well.

Next up was the zipper.

This was actually the first time I used a zipper foot, up until now I either sewed it by hand or used a regular foot, but it worked so well and i’m never not using a zipper foot again.

And that was it for one day of work. I’ll be finishing up the skirt asap and maybe even do a photoshoot, who knows!

Making an early 1900s corset cover

Hey everyone, I’ve been absent for so long and that has many reasons, my studies are definitely taking up so much more time than I had anticipated. I feel like I should mention that I am not studying dress history, so like I always say - costuming is a hobby of mine but please be aware that I might not always be 100% correct about things. But I am minoring in art history where we do occasionally talk about costumes so… it’s something? Anyways, a while ago I made a corset cover that I forgot to take pictures of when it was finished, so now I’m doing that. But first, this is what I was roughly going off of:

Having made some more complex things before I thought hey, this can’t be that hard? It’s basically just a bodice shaped piece of fabric with ruffles on. And surprisingly, I wasn’t that far off from the truth. I still severely underestimated the time that it took to sew all of those six pieces of ruffles on. That being said, here’s where I started:

Please excuse the fact that it’s not ironed, I was making it kind of in a rush.

I did make a mockup first that I tried on and made sure everything fits, but didn’t take a picture. Here you can see the mock up parts cut out of fashion fabric. I got out my french curve for the first time and was totally expecting to fail but it worked out really well! I used it to draw in all the curved lines. The reason only the back is curved and not the front is because I wanted the back to sit flat while the front would be gathered with a string and tied in the front, to help create that pigeon breast silhouette without having the back be puffy as well. As you can see, for that to work I’ve had to adjust the length of the side edges in the front so they had the same length as the curved ones.

So then I sewed all the edges together and cleaned them up right after so I wouldn’t have to do that later when it’s done.

I then cut out some rectangular strips for the ruffles and folded over and stitched all edges but one - the one that would be ruffled. Instead, I did a running stich that I could pull on to gather it, and then machine stitch it to the rest. Here’s where I began to struggle: I didn’t really know how to attach the ruffle so it would look nice. I didn’t necessarily want the stitches to be on top, so I initially stitched it upside down to the fold it over but that didn’t work at all, so I had to take it all out again and just stitch it down normally.

I kind of just eyeballed where I wanted the ruffles to go, used a ruler to rougly make sure the ruffled pieces are the same length and tried putting them all about three centimeters apart. I do like how the ruffles curve up on the sides, I thought the finished piece looks so much better like this.

Like I said, I wasn’t super happy with the top stitching, and since I had some white ribbon left I used that to cover it up.

Then it was time to insert the string, aka that same white ribbon. I originally wanted to add a separate channel for that but I thought maybe I can just use the cleaned up edge for it. I used a bobby pin to get that ribbon through this makeshift channel but it worked.

So then I added the buttons and made little “buttonholes” out of thread and sewed five buttons in place.

Here’s the finished piece. And you know what the ironic part is? It doesn’t fit me over a corset. And I have nothing but my own stupidity to blame. Thing is, I made this in order to wear under a dress that I’m going to make at some point, and I’m not really planning on wearing a corset with it (I want to modernize it a little), so I wanted something to help with the silhouette. So I never took my measurments in a corset, and I thought if I leave a little wiggle room it’ll be fine. No, learn from my mistakes and take your measurments! It’s not that big of a deal though because I did make it specifically with that dress in mind and having it fit over a corset would’ve just been a nice plus. And if I really try I can make it fit, it’s just a tiny bit small.

So, long story short, corset covers are great and not hard to make if you don’t make these obvious mistakes.

Making a 1906 Corset (Part 5/5)

And finally, I am happy to say that I finished this project. There was very little left to do from where I left off in my previous post, I just needed to add the eyelets, the binding and the lace. Something that’s quickly done, right? .

While I did finish it all in one sitting, it was quite a hassle to add the eyelets, for some reason moreso than with my previous corsets. But first, I decided to do the binding.

Finishing the raw edges like this is super easy, you just whip stitch a band in place and you’ve got a nice clean edge. But I’m also pretty sure this was my last one layer corset. It is really hard to whip stitch when you only have one layer, I had to constantly go back and fix some stitches because you could see them on the other side.

Next up were the dreaded eyelets, and now let me start this by saying that not only did pretty much nothing work the way I wanted it to, the eyelets are also of really horrible horrible quality. And I didn’t have anything to make holes in the fabric so I had to improvise.

Last time I made a corset, I figured out that if I just hammer the holes in it’s easier than trying to get the fabric to stretch using a nail. So I tried to hammer some holes but it ended up being super uneven. Long story short, it was back to the nail, then pencil, using a bigger utensil every time to widen the hole. Hammering the eyelets in also only worked up until the plastic handle broke, so then my dad made some makeshift eyelet pliers and we went from there. I think I spent about two hours on the eyelets alone, if not more, but then I was finally able to move on to my favorite part of the day - the lace.

Adding lace to a corset is pretty much the easiest step in making a corset. Much easier than adding the lacing. If you have a thread that’s the same color as the lace, it’ll be barely visible and you can pretty much just sew it on however you feel like. I just did a really quick hand stitch and it did the job. Super refreshing after spending so much time on the eyelets!

So here is my final product - it’s not perfect, in fact once I tried it on one of the steel bones kept poking out and I’ll have to fix it, but it fits me perfectly and gives me an incredible silhouette!

I don’t have the right padding just yet, but here are some photos where you can see what I’m talking about -

Now let’s talk crazy myths about tiny waists.

This corset makes me look as if I had a really small waist, especially in the third picture. Even when I looked into the mirror I was incredibly fascinated, and I got my measuring tape just to see what was really going on and what was solely due to the sheer shape of the corset. And guess what? My waist was just about 2cm smaller than it is without a corset. That’s not even an inch. But that just proves that corsets weren’t meant to shrink you down to nothing, I was perfectly able to breathe in it, in fact I wore it for about two hours, I did my hair in it and obviously took all the pictures and didn’t feel like I had to take it off at all when I did. At first it was a little restrictive, as it always is, but once I wore it for a few minuted it actually got really comfortable. Sitting down I noticed it put a lot of pressure on my stomach, normally I wouldn’t have cared but since I have stress related stomach issues at the moment I found it to be a little uncomfortable. But other than that it felt like a tight hug and didn’t hurt at all. This is probably my second most comfortable corset after the Pretty Housemaid! But is that really a fair comparison?

Hope you enjoyed my sewing journey and hope to see you next time when I actually start working on the ✨mysterious dress✨

Part 1|Part 2|Part 3|Part 4

Making a 1906 Corset (Part 4/5)

It’s been a few weeks but I’m back with an update. Sewing each and every ribbon on top of the boning channels by hand took so much longer than I had anticipated, but I am so glad I can move on to the rest of the corset and don’t have to hand stitch the ribbons anymore.

It was very therapeutic though, not gonna lie, but after a while I just wanted to be done with it. The corset was supposed to be just a warm-up for a bigger project coming up soon, but who knew it would end up being a month-long project on its own.

After I was done with the ribbons, I wanted to go ahead and do the binding but I almost forgot I hadn’t put in the spring steel boning yet! Turns out we don’t have bowl cutters, so cutting them was quite a challenge and I ended up almost twisting my wrist and still had to wait for my dad to cut it for me. If you ever want to attempt to cut through spring steel, be careful or use a bowl cutter.

In the mean time, I decided to add the waist band. For that, I just transfered the markings from the pattern onto the fabric. I didn’t really measure it on myself since the pattern fit me pretty well and I figured it was fine to just transfer it. While I was at it, I decided to stitch my initials onto the band as well. Super extra of me, but they would sometimes stitch the brand name onto the waist band and I wanted it to be a somewhat personilazed.

Then I also added my markings for the eyelets and I’m serious when I say do as I say not as I do. For some reason I decided to mark them on the front thinking they’re going to be covered by the eyelets anyways so it’s not a big deal. Well, guess what happens when you make a mistake? It’s clearly visible. I’m gonna have to see if I can somehow get rid of those wrong markings. Maybe I’ll just try to erase them. At this point, it doesn’t matter how I do it.

Finally, I was able to insert the spring steel boning. It was my first time using it and I’m surprised at how sturdy it is. I guess it’s to be expected as it is steel but I just expected something similar to baleen. I only inserted two of them per back panel, so four in total.

To keep the sharp edges from poking through the fabric we sanded them and then I put some teflon tape around it and put it into the channels.

This is what it looks like now.

I am very excited to finally finish this piece and move on to the bigger project. I will have to make the proper bust improver and a bum pad as well as a corset cover at some point to really finish this corset but I think that’ll have to wait because I’m too excited to work on the upcoming dress. However, I will need the corset cover for the dress so…. I might make it soon? I don’t know, we’ll see! For now, I’m gonna try to finish this corset this week and then we’ll see.

Part 1|Part 2|Part 3|Part 5

Making a 1906 Corset (Part 3/5)

I just want to start this post by saying do as I say rather than do as I do. I am incredibly impatient as it seems so I decided to just screw everything and jump right in and wing it. But the correct way to do it would be to make yet another mockup (or fix the existing one, whatever works!) or, if you’re lucky enough and your mockup fit perfectly by now, you’re good to go and start sewing the corset.

In my last post I was describing issues I had where the corset fit me, but didn’t have that effect that Edwardian corsets usually do. So what I did now was, I reprinted the paper pattern and went up a size in the bust and hip area, leaving the waist as it was. I would much rather pad it and have the shape that I wanted than have it be closer in size to my actual body. I know it probably doesn’t make sense, but Edwardian corsets were kind of made with that logic. Edwardians knew that their body wasn’t perfectly hourglass shaped (or s-bend shaped) so they mainly focused on the waist and kept bust and hips to scale in proportion and padded out what needed to be padded. Like this, it gave the illusion of a tinier waist because the rest was simply bigger in comparison.

Long story short, I skipped the mockup this time as I, like I said, am a very impatient person and frankly could not be bothered to make that. Obviously, I’m only doing that when I’m making my own garments, I would never skip this when I’m making someone else’s. So I cut it out of my cream twill and am now fixing the markings (half of the pieces don’t have markings because I cut two panels at once if that makes sense?).

Then I stitched all the pieces together and inserted the front busk. I made sure to cut four panels of the busk panel and the back panel to be able to insert the busk and have some added support in the back.

Then it was time to secure the busk. I still cannot understand how people machine stitch busks. I tried it this time and, surprise, it didn’t work. I didn’t break the needle this time but the stitches were very uneven, so I ended up hand stitching it. My seams are somewhat uneven as well but that’s okay. I feel like the front is acceptable for my skill level but the back is very uneven, I don’t really know what happened there. I even used one of those rotary cutter spike thingies that mark your seams and maybe I used it wrong but I wasn’t really able to follow the markings as they disappeared after a few minutes.

Then I made the boning channels and started inserting the boning. For the first time I used synthetic whalebone and I’m genuinely surprised. It’s pretty similar in texture to zip ties but it’s slightly sturdier, though much easier to work with. I could easily cut it with my fabric scissors and sand it. I used water blocking tape to secure the edges so they weren’t as sharp and inserted them.

This is what it looks like now -

It’s still lacking a few boning channels for the spring steel boning but I forgot to add them as I don’t have it right now, I’m going to the fabric store tomorrow to get it. But overall, I’m super impressed with the shape and I really hope it fits now! It’s crazy to me how small the waist looks even though it’s not. I knew this in theory but it’s mindblowing seeing it with my own eyes.

Part 1|Part 2|Part 4|Part 5

Making a 1906 Corset (Part 2/5)

And once again, I am facing some issues. So when I made the first mockup, I was super happy with it and thought it fit pretty well but then I thought that can’t be right, there is no way a standard size fits me so well, and… I was right.

For stupid reasons (laziness being one of them) I didn’t take my measurments beforehand figuring since I’ve made so many things before, I know all my measurments, it’s fine. But now that I’ve decided to put some eyelets in and actually try it on I noticed what I had already anticipated - it’s too big. I can lace it up completely, no gap and I still feel like I could lace it up tighter. I’ve had this same issue before and a corset like this is completely unwearable. If the instructions say you have to take your measurments, you take your measurments.

Turns out I’m right in between two sizes, so according to the instructions I’m picking the smaller size for the waist and the bigger size for bust and hips and I’m going to have to redo the mockup. I’ll also have to lengthen it a little which seems weird to me now because I felt like it fit so well but I’m learning from my mistakes and following the instructions.

A tedious day later I have my second mockup:

I am going to be completely honest with you guys. I am slightly disappointed. We’ve all seen these beautiful s-bend corsets and how they trick your brain into thinking the waist is super tiny when it’s in fact completely average and the rest is just padded out. I have completely tight laced the waist while keeping the back gap parallel and padded out the bust (couldn’t get any padding into the hip area) and I just don’t see this effect. Maybe I was actually hoping for a five centimeter waist reduction which didn’t happen. Maybe I was hoping to look like one of those silent film actresses in photoshoots which I know exactly have been manipulated to make their waists smaller. Maybe it’ll look better when it’s actually made from the twill (I said coutil in my last post, it’s twill I’m sorry!) and has the lace on it and the correct padding. I think I’m going to go back up a size for the bust and hips to really have this s-bend shape that I wanted. Making mockups sucks, because you’re essentially making the corset over and over again, wasting so much fabric and thread. But I really wanted this to be the first project to actually turn out perfect. I’ve sewed a couple of things by now but every single one is flawed. I know I’m still learning and things don’t have to be perfect but I just want to look at something I made and be like damn, this actually turned out amazing! And I don’t want to spend time months later fixing some stupid mistakes I made.

But that’s what this blog is about - it’s the adventure, you never really know what you’re going to get and you’re learning on the way. With every piece I make I learn something new. Hopefully, I can make a piece that is actually perfect someday.

Part 1 |Part 3|Part 4|Part 5

Making a 1906 Corset (Part 1/5)

It’s been a while since I’ve been on here and I apologize, uni has taken up so much more of my time than I had anticipated! As of right now I’m on my semester break so hopefully I’ll have some time to at least complete some of the projects on my to-do list. I have a much bigger project coming up but I still have to figure out the design so until then I decided to use some of my scrap coutil and make an Edwardian corset.

I’ve been wanting to make one forever but while I love Edwardian clothing I also feel like they are some of the most difficult ones to make so I always put it off. But now that I’ve found a free pattern from araneablack I’ve decided to give it a go!

This is the one that I’m going for:

(Apologies for the horrendous quality! I screenshotted that from a De Gracieuse magazine)

And this is my paper pattern.

I decided to go for size E which has a waist of 65 cm, I certainly do not have that waist size but I figured if it’s made for 5-10cm waist reduction maybe we can work with it. So I really hope the mockup fits, because let’s be honest, I have absolutely no clue what I’m doing.

First, I’m going to separate the panels again and cut them out of some old bedsheets. Up until now I’ve always sort of eyeballed the seam allowances on my mockups but for this one I wanted to be more precise. I know it’s gonna be less work in the long run!

I stitched everything together and quickly sewed some boning channels and inserted some cable binders. I didn’t cut them because i didn’t wanna waste them as I finally ordered some fake baleen and to my surprise found out that it is much cheaper than cable binders. I’m so sorry for ever recommending cable binders as a “cheap alternative”, I hope you were smarter than me.

Anyways, I tried it on to see if the length was alright and I think it is, then I pinned it onto my mannequin to see if the back fits and even with the padding inserted it seems to be fitting perfectly!

So I didn’t have the right padding and no bum pad (is that even what it’s called?), but I’m going to be making it. I inserted this makeshift padding just to see if it even works at all and it seems to be working out great! I’m obsessed with the shape and the silhouette and I can’t wait to see the final product!

I also didn’t have a front busk so I put in some cable binders as place holders but I’m gonna be ordering that soon!

Obviously, the mannequin is not a real body so I’m not sure how it’s gonna be when I actually pull it tight, I’m a little worried it might still be a little big. I might insert a couple of eyelets and test it out on the mockup but to be completely honest, I don’t want to waste sewing supplies so I might just go with it and hope it works out. I haven’t decided yet. I know the smart thing to do would be to insert the eyelets now and see if it fits. Oh well, I’ll decide tomorrow.

As for the final product, that’ll be one layer cream coutil with some coutil or canvas lining on the front and back pieces just for extra stability, the boning channels will be on the outside and I sort of want to do light blue coutil strips but I’m not sure yet. I have some blue lace I bought for a dress and never used and I really want to use it for this project. I don’t think I will be doing flossing just because it is so freaking tedious and I don’t think I saw it on the original, but maybe I’ll add some details if I feel like it. I’m also not entirely sure if I’ll add suspenders, it is the historically accurate way to do it but I don’t really have a costume to use this corset with so I think I could just add them whenever I need them.

That is it for now, I hope my supplies arrive soon so I can continue working on this!

Part 2|Part 3|Part 4|Part 5

For the longest time now I’ve been stuck in a creative block, so much so that my semester break passed without me even planning a sewing project. But a couple of days ago I was browsing the webs for some fabric because I wanted to redo my robe à la française when I stumbled upon some perfect silk taffeta for a time period I’ve never tackled before - so, needless to say, since I got a great deal on the fabric I decided to jump head first into an 1830s project.

I’m not sure what this dress is going to look like, I’m not even 100% set on which half of the decade I want to do. On the one hand, when I first started historical costuming, I was really fascinated by the early 1830s silhouette, but when I got familiar with the later styles I also really fell in love with those smocked/gathered sleeves that are more 1837-38ish. Here they are once again in comparison:

Personally, I think I like the late style slightly better, but at the same time I feel like I’m betraying the 1830s by not going for the more iconic and well known look with the huge sleeves.

I really like this dress for example even though it’s a little lowkey for the time.

At the same time I’m also obsessed with this one. I even had a dream once that I got this exact fabric to recreate it.

Also, it seems like silk was more popular earlier in the decade. There is also the possibility of making two bodices, one for day and one for evening wear. I think I’ll have to think about it and actually do some proper research in the next couple of days. But yeah, I think this whole project is going to take a while as I have to make all the undergarments as well and have no experience whatsoever in this era. I hope the construction is similar to 18th century gowns, that way it won’t be that difficult. I also have to make this happen in between uni classes, so please bear with me! I’ll probably document the entire mock-up process so I’ll have something to write about in the meantime. If you’ve made anything from this era before and/or have any tips and tricks, please let me know!