Port Townsend Victorian Festival: Friday

This past weekend, my Mama and I found ourselves in Port Townsend, Washington for their annual Victorian Festival.  We had a great, if not wind blown time.  Mom and I planned on wearing our Sailor Dresses (Seaside dresses) for the weekend, as hello!!!  Sea Port!!!  Interestingly enough, the theme for the weekend was Nautical!  Perfect!  We had a great time there and got to visit with friends that I hadn't seen since Coco in August.  Val LaBore of Time Traveling in Costume, Rebecca Maiten of The Lady Rebecca LJ and Vanessa Wood were there in their beautiful creations!

I have decided to break the blog posts about the weekend into the days that we were there so as to not blow up this blog with pictures...

Day One:  Friday

1912

Ok, so Friday was seriously windy....like so windy that I was afraid Mom's hat would take flight while she was wearing it!  It was only the night before, while sitting on my bed in the hotel room, that I decided to sew the huge white composite wings to the hat.  For a long time, they were just pinned on because I wanted to be able to use them on other hats.  I am so happy that I did sew them on, because on Friday there were times when the hat, while pinned to her wig with HUGE hat pins, literally lifted off Mom's head!  I am not even kidding!  It was quite impressive!

Needless to say, we didn't get any pictures of us in our seaside dresses along the seaside.  There's no telling what would have happened if we had been out in the open with our large 1912 era hats on!  The Flying Nun comes to mind....

I wisely took my hat off...Mom had to hold her hat down...

My collar performing its pre-flight check!

  

Wing flaps:  check

Landing gear:  check

Fuel gauges:  check

Cabin lights:  check

Oh ya...it was windy.  Sometimes it literally stole my breath away!  Oh! And it was a bit on the cold side!!

My Sassy face.

I was pretty happy with my hair on this day!

I thought I could get away from the wind if I was low to the ground.  Nope!!!

Mom's hat going through its pre-flight check...

I love this picture!  It shows the force of the wind!!!  Look at that dress billow!!

My Mama is so fabulously adorable!!

I think this would pass for a very good antique photo if we weren't smiling...but we both look stoned when we look serious!  So smile it is!!!

I hope you are all having a most fabulous Thursday my friends!!  Next up...Saturday Day, Bustle Day!!

Blessings!

g

Sailor Suit of Swear Debut....

 This weekend, Jennifer Rosbrugh of Historical Sewing was in town to visit family and while she was here taught a sewing class that was held at my Mom's house.  It was fabulous!!  Afterwards, we went to the Cottonwood Grille in Boise and had a delicious dinner.  Greg and I arrived earlier than the others so I asked him to snap a couple of photos of me wearing my outfit....of course I forgot to get any of the back...grrrrrrr.... At any rate, here they are!   

Here are Jennifer, Tammy and I hamming it up for the camera!  We had such a wonderful time!  I cannot wait to sit in on Jennifer's classes at Costume College!!  Yeah!!!

Sailor Suit of Swear is Done!!

Oh I am so thrilled!  It is finished!  IT IS FIIIINIIIISHED!!!  She said while tears of joy and relief streamed down her weary worn face!!!  The Sailor Dress of Curse is complete!  I can put away my sewing machine for a bit, clean up my room, re-organize the mess that is now my sewing cabinet and rest in the joy of another project in the "done" category!

Now all that is left to do is try it on and make sure it fits!  I took some photos of the dress today, attempting to emulate the way Contentment Farm photographed the dress....Edwardian Tennis Dress

So, for The Historical Sew Fortnightly that the Dreamstress hosts....

The Challenge:  #8 By the Sea

Fabrics:  Ivory dupioni silk and blue striped cotton for the fashion fabric

Baby blue dupioni silk and baby blue linen for the lining

Pattern:  Skirt:  Butterick 4092 Severely mutated

Bodice:  TVE41 1903 Plain Blousewaist, modified

Sailor Collar:  Drafted that baby myself!

Year: 1912

Notions: Antique shell buttons, metal hooks and eyes, Coats and Clark poly thread

How Historically Accurate is it?: Um...not too good with math so can't do a percentage, but I would say pretty accurate as I patterned it after an extant garment.  The thread, not so much.....

Hours to Complete: I honestly don't know.  I don't really want to know how much time I spent re-doing what I did that was oh so wrong....Way too many hours for a project I thought would be "Easy"!!!

First Worn: I plan on wearing this on June 8th of this year...

Total Cost:  All of everything that was used to make this dress was taken from my stash....but I do remember what I paid for everything because silk on sale in this city is most noteworthy!

5 yards of ivory dupioni at $8.00  per yard = $40.00

1 yard baby blue dupioni at $4.00 per yard = $4.00

3 yards baby blue linen at $2.00 per yard = $6.00

blue on blue stripe sheet at $5.00 = $5.00

Total $55.00

Sailor Suit of Swear Sleevils.....

Yesterday when I went to pick Cody up from school, I was regaling one of the teachers there with my tales of woe with this stupid dress.  She of course laughed through the whole thing, tears streaming down her face, doubled over in mirth....at my expense of course.  Then I said that for most of the making of this dress the air in my sewing room was blue from all the swearing I had done (not really....my ability to embellish a story for laughter sake is greatly known amongst my friends) and I thought she was going to wet her pants she laughed so hard.  Then she said something brilliant.  "Well, you are making a sailor suit dress, it only makes sense that you would be swearing like a sailor!!!"  

From this day forth, this dress will be know as the "Sailor Suit of Swear" dress.  Fits perfectly I think.  Even making the sleeves gave me issue.  Of course I couldn't use one sleeve pattern.  I didn't have one.  I had to use two pattern pieces from two different patterns  The sleeve top was from Simplicity 9699 and the sleeve cuff from Butterick 5232.  Because the pieces were from two different patterns, they didn't fit together perfectly so I had to mess with them....Why not!!  Nothing else has gone smoothly!!  

sigh...

Well, tomorrow, I shall tackle the sailor collar.  I already know that I'll have issues with it as I don't have enough silk for a whole piece...I'll have to piece it.  That's ok.  It is after all the "Swear Like a Sailor" dress!  

Sleeve set in.  They look pretty good...

Boy is this image glaringly white!  Next time I won't use the flash on my camera....

Starting to look pretty good!!!

Upper sleeves were made using this pattern....

Sleeve cuffs were made using the pattern piece for view B

Oh For the Love of Pete!!!

Are you kidding me?  Once more, my progress on this dress has been halted by stupidity on my part.  Grrrrrrrrrrrr-ness to the highest extreme!!  Wanting to stick to my resolution of only using stash fabrics, I decided to use scrap blue fabric for the skirt lining...Great!  It worked out fabulously!  But...and here is the rub, I only had enough of the blue fabric for the skirt.  So, I used scrap white fabric for the bodice.  Great!  Right?  OH HECK NO!!!

As you can see in the below image, the white of the lining of the bodice caused the bodice to literally GLOOOOOOOOOOW!!!  Ok, so maybe you can't see it too clearly in the image, but please believe me when I say it literally glowed.  Like a lightening bug on a swampy, humid Illinois evening!  ACK!!!!

When I discovered this, I was so despondent.  So incredibly down in the dumps.  I tried to ignore my OCD brain when it screamed, "Remake this you twit!!!!"  I tried to make myself ignore the fact that the top of the dress would glow like a brilliant sun on the darkest of nights.  I tried I tell you!!!

Alas, my attempts at ignoring were in vain.  My OCD finally won out and the night before Greg and I were to leave for Canada, (departure time was o'dark hundred....) I rose from my nice comfy bed, made my way downstairs with seam ripper in hand and proceeded to rip out ALL of the work I had done that day.  Never in my sewing life have I been delighted with the fact that my serger doesn't work.  I had used a zig zag seam to marry the fashion fabric and lining fabric together.  Thank you Lord!!!  Many hours (I finally made it to bed at 1:30) and thousands of miles of ripped out seams later, I was finally able to start again with the bodice.  I sacrificed some baby blue dupioni silk that was very similar to the skirt's lining on the alter of necessity.  Who needs powder blue dupioni silk anyway?  I'm not going to be making a robe d'chemise anytime soon and that was what I was saving it for.

Ugh...anyway, problem solved, sanity preserved, grouchiness still a bit intact.....I'll take pics of the remade bodice tomorrow....Right now, just gaze upon the epic fail number 2 of this dress....

Hopefully, you will be able to see how the top is glowing here....grrrrrrr...

On the right side of Emma (left side of picture) is the white lined silk.  On the left of Emma (right side of picture) is the blue lined silk....Biiiiiiig difference   

So lesson learned?  Always, always, always line your everything with the same color lining!!!!

Mock Up Tweeked and Oh So Much Better! Huzzah!!

Did a bit of work on the bodice today.   I think I am much more happy with this one...It is bigger, not as tight as a 1903 bodice in the back is.  It is taking more of a 1912 shape!  Yeah!!!

Oh so much better back!!!

1912 Sailor Dress Mock Up...

Dare I say it?  I don't know if I should as the evil witch of the sewing world may be listening.  Yes, I dare say it.  The bodice for the sailor dress is going sort of well!  I think maybe I will allow myself to get a little excited..

Since I don't have a pattern for this dress, I have decided to mutate the Truly Victorian 1903 plain blousewaist.  I worked for quite a while on it putting pleats where it looked like they were on the original.  Everything looks great, but it is a bit too small....I'll trace the pattern out in 2 sizes bigger so it is a bit more blousey....

I had some Minnie Mouse polka dotted material left over from Mom's corset.  I need to buy some sheets for mock up material...

Front seams look pretty ok... also, I will be dropping the front down a bit more.  The original pattern has the front really low as it is a pouter pigeon front, I whacked it off a bit too much...

Hard to see the back pleats.  I think they will work just fine however.....

Tomorrow, I'll start over with the bigger size.  I pray that the evil witch of sewing land stays away...

Sewing Room....We Have A Problem....

One of these days I will stop saying, "This should be easy to do!"  Those are possibly the stupidest words I can say when thinking about doing a project.  Why?  Because in my world it is a curse.  Somewhere in the whispy recesses of Costumeland, resides an evil witch whose sole job it is to hear these words.....joyfully, hopefully and erroneously muttered by every seamstress.  When these words reach her boil covered pointy ears, she extends forth her withered bony hand and in an ancient language long unheard, casts a spell on EVERYTHING that I feel "should be easy to do"!  Gah!  She is an evil crone I tell you!!!  Then her psychotic twin, the Queen of OCD gleefully takes the reins of insanity and won't rest until I have re-constructed an entire garment....sometimes up to 3 times.  

This was the case with the 1912 Sailor Suit.  Last weekend I thought I had the skirt of the dress all squared away.  I posted pictures here and was so excited about it.  I went to my Mom's house to get ready for Colton's birthday party and joyfully showed Mom the pictures and the inspiration...then I noticed that the side button placket at the bottom of the skirt was on the back.....not on the side as I had done....

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-ness!!!!!

After Colton's party, we came back home where I proceeded to employ my seam ripper to the offending skirt.  While the seams were out, I decided to add two more panels to the skirt as it was very hobbly in its existing state.  I tried it on after I got everything back together and the sides were really weird.  They stuck waaaaaaaay out as the pattern was intended to be a hobble skirt.  So, now I had straighten the side seams out.  This I had to do 3 times before the thighs ceased looking like jodhpurs.  Then I had the insane idea to put the hook and eye opening on the right side and not the back.  Fine.  Are we finished yet?  

I sure do hope so.   

Bottom button placket moved to the back....looks much better.

Side opening on the right instead of the back...

Now for the bodice.  I think maybe I'll say, "Man, I just know this is going to be a colossal pain in the rear!!!"  Let's see what that gets me!!