1860s Elliptical Half Mourning Dress Complete!

The 1860s Elliptical Half Mourning Dress should actually be called "The Dress of a Thousand Hours" dress.  This thing has taken me sooooooo long to complete!  It looks so simple.  Well, that is totally deceptive.  The bodice was chock full of fiddley bits, like the fact that the upper sleeves not only boasted two puffs, but a mancheron!  Then there was all the beading.  Ugh.  I know that beading makes a project or dress look extra cool, but my eyes and fingers and hands were getting ready to disown me as I got close to completing the trim.  Sheesh.  I think I'm getting old because body parts are starting to seriously chat about rebelling against me and taking part in a coup.  Stupid aging!!!!!

Anyway, the dress is complete and I am so very thrilled with it!  The inspiration came from Whitaker Auctions.  It was dated to the 1850s, but looks more late 1860s what with the elliptical skirt and all.  Whatever the date, I fell in love with it when I was searching for inspiration for the silk that I've had for years.  I bought the fabric from a fellow costumer who has since passed away from complications of pancreatic cancer, so I think it only fitting that I chose to make a half mourning dress!

I am working on a lace and net day cap and a soft bonnet to wear with it.  So happy this dress is done as now I can add it to the line up of The House of Whyte's "6 Dresses in 60 Minutes" fashion show!!! (My ultimate costuming goal is to have dresses, with underwear and head wear, in all of the silhouettes from the 1830s to the 1930s!)

The Dress and Inspiration

My version of the Whitaker Auction dress.

Isn't this beautiful!  I so love the fabric!!  Photos of the original dress inspiration used with permission from Charles Whitaker. Thank you!!!

The two puffs and one mancheron per sleeve was a totally pain in the rear, but in the end was worth it!

The original's armscye was way down on the upper arm as was the way of a lot of the 1860s dresses, but because my shoulders are "claustrophobic" and because I have to use my arms in sweeping motions during my programs (you know, tie my hands behind by back and I can't talk) I chose to move the armscye up further on my upper arm/shoulder.  I really don't like that pinned down feeling.  But, I was happy to find many examples of shoulders that weren't as low in my research!!  Huzzah! 

I was thrilled when I sewed the bodice together to discover that the flowers on the fabric lined up perfectly!  Like the middle flowers are exactly down the center of the bodice!  Happy accident indeed!

I love the medallion on the back of the sleeve!  Isn't the fabric just stunning?  I love the blue and off white print against the silver!

In this view you can especially see the elliptical-ness of the skirt.

The original didn't have a belt or a collar so I had to use my imagination to complete the look.  I decided that a belt the same width as the sleeve cuffs would look good with a medallion that was the exact same as the ones on the bodice. I think it looks rather fetching!  I still need to make a collar and am trying to decide what it will look like.

Close up of the bead work.  The original used cord and beads.  I didn't have any cording, so used soutche which actually worked well with the beads resting in the channels!

The medallions were a pain to create as there weren't any tutorials on how to make flowers like these.  After 4 examples and around 2 hours, I came up with these!  The center beads were from my Great-Grandma's bead stash!

The Pattern(s)

Since this was a Franken-patterned dress, there were 4 different patterns used!!

Skirt:  Truly Victorian TV247 Elliptical Skirt

Bodice Body:  Truly Victorian TV466 1860s Darted Bodice

Sleeves:  Truly Victorian TV446 1860s Darted Bodice

Sleeve Puffs:  Simplicity 4400 (altered)

Mancheron:  Laughing Moon #114 Ladies Round Dress 1840s-1852 (altered)

Now to finish the lace day cap and decide if the making of a soft bonnet needs to be done....

Well, I hope you have a wonderful next week!!!

Blessings!

g

1840s Mourning Bonnet Complete!

Huzzah!!  With the bonnet complete for my 1840s Mourning ensemble, I now only have to tackle the dress before next Saturday!  I think I can to it!

I really admire the gorgeous bonnet from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and so decided that it was what I would use for my ensemble.  It is simple and elegant and conveys mourning perfectly.

I used all fabrics from my stash!  Huzzah for that!  I think this ensemble is going to all come from my stash!  Anyhoo, it is made of black cotton, black silk crape, silk tulle and silk dupioni.  I was happy to find some vintage flat black satin ribbon today for the ties!

Inspiration:  Museum of Fine Arts Boston

The original is made of silk and silk crape.  The ties are also made of crape, but I didn't want to use that for my ties as it seemed like they would have been a bit flimsy.

The website for the original doesn't have a view of the inside of the bonnet so I don't know what that looks like.  I decided I wanted to make the bonnet appropriate for half or second mourning as I have a really fabulous antique hair brooch I will be wearing with this ensemble.  Plus I want to use my cashmere shawl with the dress, so white on the inside it is!  I had seen on a few examples that there is a ruffle around the brim and thought it rather sweet and soft.

The curtain on the original is trimmed in crape, a fun accent! 

I was sort of stressing about the non-smoothness of the cotton on the top, sort of like wavey wrinkles.  Then I noticed that the original has them so I feel much better!  If the Victorians could have non smooth bonnets, so can I!!

I hope you have all had a really marvelous week so far!  I am going to sit back and relax and give my grouchy fingers a break!

Blessings!

g

1886 Half Mourning Dress

For the next little bit, I am going to be doing something new.  I got the idea from several places.  1) TBT...Throw Back Thursdays that is big on Facebook and 2) Katherine from A Fashionable Past.  She has been writing blog posts about previous dresses and I think that is a lovely idea!  I just started blogging 3 years ago, but have been costuming for 11 years.  I am also getting rid of some unwanted weight and really don't want to be making any outfits that won't fit in a bit.  That and it is the holiday season and really want to partake in fun holiday activities and not stress about costuming.  So, I am going to be doing a Throw Back Thursday of sorts on this blog!  Here goes!

1886 Half Mourning Dress: 2007

From the tender age of 10, I have loved the idea and ideals of Victorian Mourning.  While some may feel the whole thing a bit morbid and macabre, I feel the whole process a thing of beauty.  Especially with what has happened in my valley recently.  The teenage daughter of a couple I know died the middle of this month.  A very lovely lady who I have grown to know through costuming passed away just this evening of cancer.  My Mom and I visited with her before she left us and on the drive to and from her house, had many talks about death and dying and how we as people living in 2014 America handle death.  Since the advent of funeral homes, death has been removed so far from our homes, that I am of the belief that we don't know how to handle it any more.  Society gives us a few weeks or months to "grieve" or "handle" the death of a loved one, then it expects us to move on, return to work, get on with life. But the grieving process goes on for so much longer.  Society feels uncomfortable when we cry over a lost loved one, and the ones grieving feel the need to apologize for crying.  What a crazy world we live in.  We are not given the time to grieve, mourn, cry with gutteral moaning the pain our souls are feeling.

Not so in the Victorian Era.  When a loved one was lost, the whole of society knew about it by the clothing that was worn by the ones left behind.  They were given the chance to mourn the death of their loved ones.  When a widow went out into public in her Widows Weeds, people knew she was in mourning and didn't notice anything untoward if she was weeping...they didn't expect her to "get over it" or didn't feel uncomfortable with her tears.  The clothing and duration of the mourning period in a sense gave permission for the mourners to do what came very naturally to them.  Grieve.  I think that is what I find so beautiful about the customs and clothing.  Death was a HUGE part of the Victorian Era.  They were so much more close to it than we are today, and I believe this helped them to handle it in a more dignified and honorable way.

My very first mourning dress was a bustle dress from 1886.  I used patterns from Truly Victorian...1884 French Vest Bodice, 1885 Four Gore Underskirt, and 1885 Pannier Pannel Add On.  The fabrics were faux dupioni silk and poly taffeta.  I ruched strips of faux dupioni for the bodice and sleeves along with prairie points just to give it added interest.  American Duchess pinned this tutorial for making the Prairie Points on her Pinterest board.  This is not how I made mine, but this looks like it would be a very good way to make them...

Fan:  Purchased from Blue Moon Antiques Store in Hyde Park, Boise.  When folded up, it folds in half lengthwise and the tassel loop hooks over the fan top keeping it from opening.

Boots:  Side buttoning with Military heel.  Purchased from now out of business antique store.  They actually fit!!!

Photo shoot at the Idaho City Pioneer Cemetery.  It is absolutely beautiful there and is still being used.

Parasol:  I covered the parasol with black with white stripe cotton fabric.  I didn't have a pure black parasol, so this one fit the bill for the time being.

This family plot had daffodils blooming around the graves.  Family members still go and tend the graves of their ancestors.

Reticule:  Leather with silvertone hardware found at local antique store.

I love this picture because you can see my Daddy in the back ground.

Brooch:  ordered off of eBay.  I have since sold it.  Yes, I am upset that I did.

Bonnet:  found at an antique lighting fixture store in Spokane, WA.  It is made of wire and silk.  There is white pleated netting on the inside.  Ostrich plumes and a fabulous almost matte brooch adorn the outside.  Ties are silk ribbon.

Buttons on bodice are antique glass buttons found on Etsy.

Thus concludes my first installment of TBT on Beauty from Ashes.

See you next Thursday!

Be blessed my friends.

g

1815 Half Mourning Hat Complete!

My 1815 Half Mourning Hat is finished!!  Yeah!!  This is the first time I ever that I have not had to re-do any part of a hat!  This was a very fun project and I so cannot wait to wear it!

The Challenge:  #13 Lace and Lacing

The Fabric:  Black Dupioni Silk

Pattern:  My own

Year:  1815

Notions:  cotton thread, millinery wire, buckram, antique lace

How Historically Accurate is it?:  Um...the shape and look are as accurate as I could make it for just looking at a fashion plate.  I'm not sure about the dupioni silk.  I know there are 1860s dresses that were made from it, but I don't know if it was used in the early 1800s.

Hours to Complete:  14

First Worn:  Will be worn on the last Sunday in July

Total Cost:  Hat was made from stash left overs or things that have been in there so long I don't remember the cost....yeah for stash materials!  The only think that I bought specifically for this was the white netting for the underside of the brim....that came to $5.00