1863 Damask Rose Semi Sheer Gown

Yesterday I got to wear my 1863 Damask Rose dress to The Museum Comes To Life and I LOVED how it turned out!!  That is the reason for soooooo many pictures in this post!!  The whole outfit made me exceedingly happy and giddy and pretty!!  Can't wait for another event to wear it to!

My sweet Mama and I with President Lincoln.  I LOVE love love how her dress turned out!  We had fun in our sheer dresses!

I would love to have this painted...it reminds me so much of Tissot's paintings of ladies in their dresses!!

We Wear History  attends The Museum Comes To Life!

All in all, I was super pleased with this outfit!  I felt like a princess!

Blessings!

g

Wire Frame 1863 Bonnet: Covered in Tulle!

Since this bonnet will be relatively "open air", I needed to cover it with tulle as a base to anchor the silk and lace to it.  Happily, JoAnn's had their tulle on sale for $0.70 per yard!  I bought a bunch.  I had to work in many pieces for this bonnet.  Usually, I just cover the whole thing in about 3 layers of tulle, using them as one piece.

I used two layers as I didn't want the tulle to look too ivory. 

The first "layer" was the crown and crown top.  After getting that attached to the wire, I covered the top with a layer of batting to soften the wires.

Next step was to gather strips of the tulle to sew over the brim.

Completed, tulled covering!

Looking front to back....

Looking back to front....

Next stop is covering with the silk and lace.

Wire Frame 1863 Bonnet

I did it!  Yesterday I sewed for the first time since the day I tweeked my back!  Oh how delicious it felt!  I took it slow, used my comfortable folding/camp chair to sit in to sew at the sewing machine, did all the hand work on my comfy couch while watching Stargate the movie and Burn Notice season 6 with Cody.  It was so wonderful!  I had decided that I needed to get on with my life and if I moved with decided precision and calmness, I would be ok!  And you know what?  I am feeling good!

Anyhoo, I decided for my first project post back, I would start on my bonnet for my Damask Rose 1863 semi-sheer dress.  I fell in utter love with this example of an early 1860s hat on Pinterest which only showed the side view.  OHMYGOSH!  I loooooove the use of wire and lace and silk and tulle!  It is a beautiful confection!  And one that I believe would not only be easy to replicate, but light, airy, and cool-ish to wear in late September.  To my happiness, after clicking on the image on Pinterest, I was taken to Antique Victorian Clothing Blog where they also have a front image of the bonnet!  You can see the inside structure of the bonnet!  Huzzah!!!  Seeing only the side view one could think that the crown of the bonnet is buckram, but the front view shows it as being wire!  

So, I set about to make it!

I used Butterick 4210 for the base of the pattern....I have made many wire frame hats and bonnets in the past and have been very happy with how they turned out.  For this bonnet however, I wanted a form that I could use for the shaping.

After the buckram frame was completed (I plan on using it for my 1863 mourning bonnet so it didn't go to waste...) I began by molding the main wires to the bonnet.  I had the brilliant idea of taking red thread and sewing the wires to the buckram so that the wires would stay put..these could be easily cut and removed when all the wiring was sewn together.  These main wires were what I would sew the rest of the wires to, to fill in the shape of the bonnet.  I used the same techniques on this bonnet as I do for the rest of my wire base hats.  You can find those techniques here:

Wire Frame Hat How To 

A shot of the "main" wires.  One around the brim of the hat, one around the base of the crown, and one going North and South over the crown to both sides of the brim.  After these were in place, I was then able to attach the rest of the wires.

Yeah!! All the wires are measured and sewn together!!

Instead of a flat crown, I really wanted a slightly domed crown.

Oh how those little red thread anchors come in handy!!  Time to clip them off and set the wire base free!

Ta-da!!!  The ends of the wires have been bent and folded under and my bonnet is now ready for its covering!

I bent the brim wired up ever so slightly to emulate the inspiration/extant bonnet.

Back...

And front...

Today, I will be going to JoAnn's to purchase either some bridal white (don't want "blind myself" white) or ivory silk and start covering this!

I hope your Sunday is a great one!!

Damask Rose 1863 Dress: Planning Stage 2

Greek Keys.  I don't know what it is about them.  All I know is that I really, really, REALLY like them.  Like them a lot.  So, I am toying with the thought of adding them to my 

Damask Rose Dress.  I have contacted a source on etsy who sells silk ribbon and they have 1/2 wide ivory ribbon! They are sending me a sample and if it is that nice mellow, antique shade of white that my laces and the whites on my flowers are, I will seriously consider purchasing some for Greek Keys on my skirt and sleeve cuffs.  If it does not match to my crazed OCCD mind, then that will make up my mind as to whether or not I will be sewing yards and yards and yards of ribbon to the hem of my skirt!!

This dress was sort of what caused me to think about Greek Keys for this dress from the Met.  It is a very lovely shade of salmon pink a few shades darker than my fabric.  Of course my Keys will be ivory/white and these are black...still a very striking contrast....

A fine example of Greek Keys on a plaid dress from The Barrington House.  My fabric is window pane, very much like plaid and so thought it offered a great example for what I am wanting to achieve.

I love the double Greek Key design on this dress from The Smithsonian, however, my Greek Keys will only be single!

I found many examples of Greek Keys on fashion plates.  This one is from Pinterest and of course has no Title or source....

Another no source...

Le Petit Messager, November 1862

Village Antiques

I am really hoping that the silk ribbon is a fabulous match.  I like the idea of the Greek Keys in the soft white being there but not being there if you catch my meaning....

Have a great Thursday!!

Oh!!  I forgot to add these images!!!

I was playing around with ribbon that I had in my stash.  Here is 1/2" ribbon Greek Keys...yes, the ribbon in pink, but I just wanted to see what the 1/2 looked like.  I like this very much.

White 1" ribbon.  Don't like the wider ribbon very much and the stark, bleached white of this ribbon is just too much of a difference for my taste...

Damask Rose 1863 Dress: Planning Stage 1

The other day while chatting with my fabulous friend Josie, she asked me what project I was going to start on when I was once again spry.  Ah, spry...what a wonderfully charming word!  Anyhoo, I had to ask her opinion.  You see I have a couple of projects in the "not done as of yet" category that I had been working on in the anticipation of attending Costume College.  They are still on my womannequins, in various stages of done-ness.  One is the 1880s Green/Teal and Black Military inspired bustle dress.  One is the 1863 Mourning dress.  That one is the most done.  I only need to tack on my fabulous lace collar that Josie found for me and make white under sleeves trimmed in black lace and that will be finished.  Then there is the 1815 half mourning petticoat and gown that I need to make.  That one is a no brainer...haven't even started that one, but it is on the "to do soon" list.  I described all these to her then informed her that I "need" to make a sheer summer 1863 dress for The Museum Comes To Life that will be take place the last Saturday in September.  She, as I knew she would, suggested that I make the 1863 sheer summer dress as I have a definite date for when this needs to be completed.  Smart girl that.  I grudgingly agreed. 

At first I had planned on making a white sheer dress.  I found a yardage of fabulous cotton sheeriness at a local thrift store and have been holding on to it for some time.  There is not a great quantity of sheer here in the valley and no cotton sheer, so I am being very stingy with my sheer.  Do I want to make a Chemise a la Reine?  Do I want to make an Edwardian Lawn dress?  Do I want to make an early bustle Tissot painting dress?  Do I want to make an 1860s summer sheer?  ACK!!!  The choices are driving me to insanity!!!  I also don't have enough to make the 1860 dress....grrrrrrrrrrr...... For now though I have decided to make my 1860 summer sheer out of semi-sheer pale pink.  I found this fabulous cotton at Walmart!  Yes, you read that right....And it was only $1.50 to boot!  You can't beat that with a stick!!!  I brought it home and dug around in my flower, lace, and ribbon boxes and found the perfect trims and bits to go along with it!!  Josie came to the rescue again and gave me the incredible antique ribbon for my bonnet.  I could not believe how perfectly it matched the fabric!!!  Laaaaaa!! Thank you my friend!! More chocolate is owed you I can tell!  

Close up of the fabric.  It is a really lovely window pane with what looks like swiss dot in between the graphs...

I had purchased these Victoria's Secret slippers to go with a different outfit last year, and once again they matched to freakish perfection!!

I have decided that for this dress I really am wanting a "V" neck collar.  It is going to be in late September and in Idaho it is still rather warmish.  This dress style to me just has the appearance of "cool".  And happiness of happiness I found several extant dresses from the early 1860s along with a couple of fashion plates.

This one is from Christie's

The collar treatment on this dress from Augusta Auctions is rather fetching! 

Another lovely cool looking example from the American Textile History Museum.

A lovely fashion plate from The Barrington House collection.  They don't give a magazine name, but say the year is 1863.

Ladies Godey's Magazine, July 1863!  The two ladies on the left have "V" neck dresses on....yeah!!!

The Truly Victorian 447 is what I am planning on altering to create the Damask Rose Dress!

So, when I once again can call myself spry, this is what I shall be tackling!!!

Cheers to all of you of great health!!  Do a somersault for me!!!