TBT: My First Sailor Dress! (Well Seaside Actually....)

I know it's Friday, but I haven't done a TBT for quite some time and I'm not ready to blog about my wedding underwear just yet.  Still waiting to find some pretty blue ribbon to make an 1890s garter belt!  BUT!  The rest is all done!  Huzzah!!

I was perusing my fabulous friend Kat's seaside images, and came across an image that I recognized and it reminded me that I had made it and that it was actually my first Victorian seaside dress!  Where I first saw it was in the book, "Victorian and Edwardian Fashions from 'La Mode Illustree'" by JoAnne Olian.  I was in SASS (Single Action Shooting Society) at the time and needed a new dress for Winter Range, one of the annual shooting events.  I fell in love with the fact that it was a sailor/seaside dress and decided that it needed to be made.  It is one of the few dresses from that "era" that I still own!  Look at how young I was!  Hahahahahaha!!  It was at least 10 years ago!  What a spring chick I was!

The poor parasol I still have but it is in pretty sad shape!

Love the image of the little girl too!  Maybe I'll make that as well?

I have since dismantled the hat and used the buckle on my Coca-Cola dress.

How kind of the people of Winter Range to paint the door the same color as my dress for me!  

Well, today we are watching "The Age of Innocence" for our literature portion of school, so I am off to drool on all the beautiful dresses and the food!!!

Have a marvelous day my lovely friends!!

Be blessed!

g

NFE Sailor Dress: Planning Stage

Ah finally!!  To be planning something to wear!  At the end of March, I have a mini fashion show that I will be putting on with my Mama ("6 Dresses in 60 Minutes") and I am in need of a dress from the Natural Form Era.  Since one of my costuming goals is to create a sailor dress from every silhouette era, why not kill two birds with one stone!  Hence the NFE Sailor!!!

Queen Alexandra is my all time favorite "days of old" royals (followed by Queen Maud of Norway, Empress Alexandra of Russia and Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain).  She was beautiful and had the best dresses and jewelry.  From the accounts I have read about her, she was lovely, gracious, and everyone knows that she put up with her husband's many, many mistresses, even inviting one of them to Kind Edward's death bed.  I have a Pinterest board dedicated to her that is filled with images of her loveliness, so I think it only fitting that my Sailor Dress for the Natural Form Era be one recreated from one that she wore!

 Source:  The Imperial Court Tumblr

(This image has been really hard to source, so I will credit the image to the Tumblr with the most information about it...I will continue to try find the first source.)

Here is also a link to the dress that has been color tinted!!!

Color tinted image of Queen Alexandra in NFE Sailor Dress

Years ago when I was living in Robie Creek, Idaho, I did a lot of research into Queen Alexandra.  At the time, the theme for the SASS Convention was Masquerade Ball and I had it in my mind that I could be Queen Alexandra in a court gown (see image below). I came across Alexandra when she was still a Princess wearing a fabulous sailor dress.  I downloaded the image thinking I would some day make the dress.....fast forward to 2016...almost 10 years later!!

Source:  Alexander Palace Forum

I laugh at myself now thinking I could even begin to recreate this magnificent dress way back then.  Ah well, my sights were pretty high weren't they?  Le Sigh...she is so beautiful!

I have since found this image of the same dress Queen Alexandra is wearing but in reverse colors!  Happily, it is a full length version of the dress so I can see how the hem is decorated!

So many of the NFE dress images for sailor dresses are fluffy and have lots of swags, puffs, lace etc.  To me, a sailor dress needs to be crisp and have clean lines.  This dress totally fits the bill!!

Source:  Antique Royals Tumblr

Back view of the fabulous dress.  I usually have a really hard time with the collars for my sailor dresses, but this one is going to be a cinch!  It looks like just an over the head, detached collar!! Huzzah!!  I even have the pattern!!!

I will have to do some research into pleated skirts because I have never done one, but the rest of the dress should be easy peasy!!  I plan on using the Truly Victorian TV 423 Two Tone Bodice for the bodice.  The apron and underskirt, I will have to put some thought into.  I have some white silk in my stash and will be seeing if the fabric store has some stripe fabric!!!

I am so excited about this project!  Another sailor to check off my to do list!

Have a most wonderful day and a fabulous weekend my friends!!

Blessings!

g

The Wearing of the 1896 FIT Sailor Dress

Today, I got to wear my 1896 FIT Sailor Dress to the Nampa Depot Days!  It was a fun day and the 101 degree heat truly wasn't that bad.  I do believe I will have to wear white or some shade of white to all summer events...it really is cooling.  Marilyn joined me there and we were 1890s Ladies!  She wore an outfit I made quite a while ago that was inspired by the movie "An Ideal Husband".  It is the bicycle outfit that Lady Gertrude Chiltern wore...I love that movie!  My only issue, as always, was my feet.  I am a flip flops or bare feet girl and wearing any sort of heels sends my feet into fits of apoplexy... But I am home now, shoes off, feet up and taking it easy!

My son, Cody, took these pictures for me.  I think he did a really great job!  Thank you son!

Inspiration dress:  The Museum at FIT

The sun and the off white fabric...not good playmates.  But the red did well!

 Three petticoats were worn to get the correct support for the skirt!

Aaaaaah....to sit!!!

Yes, I was really this tired!

Back to the pond at my parents' house I went for "sea side" photographs!

Need to get the boater straight!

Someone recently installed park benches around the pond!  I think they knew I would need a spot to sit while wearing my dresses and high heeled shoes!

The shoes of doom.  I truly don't ever, ever, ever want to wear these again!!

Marilyn and I with some of the beautiful cars at the Depot!

Aaaaaah....refreshing refreshment!!

I hope you are all having a nice, cool, comfortable day my friends!!

Be blessed!!

g

1916 Sailor Dress from Original Pattern!

Earlier this year, I declared on Facebook, that this year, 2015, would be the year of the return to the 1890s.

I think I need to get one thing straight with myself right here and now.  Please, for the love of all that is good and holy....

STOP DECLARING THINGS!!!

Why?  Because, even though these are things that I, MYSELF, declare, there is a part of my very DNA that is obstinate.  Like telling a 2 year old, "DO NOT stomp in that mud puddle!" or "DO NOT touch that thousand dollar vase that your Grandmother has carelessly placed within your reach!"  There is a part of me that, even when I tell myself to not do something or that tells myself, "We WILL do this!" stiffens my neck, digs my feet in and says, "Wanna bet?"

Therefore, I am going to politely ask myself if it is ok if we do such and such and not make demands or declarations!!

That being said, I am going to allow myself to sew whatever blows my skirt up at the time I am planning.  We shall see how this goes.  Knowing my mind and personality, I will probably be paralyzed creatively and won't be able to sew anything without a plan set in motion.

This is where I tell you my plans for making yet another Sailor Dress.  I am sure you have probably grown weary of my making them and talking about them ad nauseam...but as I said above, this is where my skirt is being blown up and this is currently what is making my heart happy.  I have grown tired of sewing against what makes my heart sing, and what I dream about at night.  It makes the whole experience tiresome and difficult to complete, and sort of causes me to resent the whole process.

Enter the 1916 Sailor Dress!!!  TaaaaDAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

Way back, oh about 5 or 6 years ago, a dear friend of mine by the name of Hilda Steiner, gave me a pattern (Hilda Dress blog post from 2011) that she thought I would be able to use.  I have kept it safe in my pattern file cabinet since then, taking it out every so often and petting it and whispering sweet nothings in its ear.  I wanted to wait for something out of this world to use it for/with and while perusing my Pinterest Sailor Suits board the other day, I came across some 1917 dresses that had the sailor dress bent to them and that got me thinking about Hilda's pattern!!  Holy Monkey!!  While waiting for my 1920s middy pattern, I can play around with this pattern!!!  I went to Walmart and low and behold, they had a 100% cotton with a linen like weave to it and I purchased enough to make the 1916 pattern!!

I'm sooooo Heppy!!! (That's Maid Marian from Robin Hood Men in Tights...)

I even found this most fabulous H. & W. Walker catalog of 1916 items on the Winterthur Museum Library site.  Ohmygosh...were my salivary glands working over time!!!

Aren't these delicious dresses???  I really love the one in the upper right hand corner...

Source

The precious pattern that Miss Hilda gifted to me!!!  I can't wait to start on it.  I have the fabric in the washing machine as we type!!

Close-up of the dress....isn't it adorable?

I really like the collar on the blouse in the bottom right hand corner...
Source

Well, there you have it.  My plans for my next outfit.  That reminds me....now I need to make a new, short petticoat....Rats!!!  Oh well!  That's totally ok if it means I can have a 1916 dress!!

Be blessed my friends!!

g

1895 Sailor Dress Complete!!

Oh my word.  With the exception of the Ruth DeWitt Bukater green boarding suit, this sailor dress has taken the longest time to make.  I'm not talking hours of construction...I'm talking, I started this very simple 1890s dress in April and I have just now finished it.  I even did something that I very rarely do...I stopped construction to make a whole different dress from an entirely different era!  Weird.  I even had a hard time taking it up again after the salmon 1920s dress I made for an event a few weekends ago.  I don't know if it was burn out, or the hot weather, or the fact that I was beyond exhausted, but I just didn't feel the desire to sew on this dress.  And that is so sad to me as I have been enamored with this dress for a very long time.

BUT!!!!!

It is now completed and almost ready to wear!  I just need to sew in a few hooks and eyes and I need the assistance of my Mother to do that, because try as he might, my fabulous husband just can't seem to make the placement of the hooks and eyes work.  It is however, done enough to photograph and blog about!  Huzzah!!!!

I am in love.

My sweet sailor dress in a representation pose of the extant dress...

Original from The Museum at FIT.

I LOVE love love this dress!  I would really like to see an image of the original owner wearing it!

All that soutache....

Can I just interject here a moment!  I LOVE how soutache looks on garments.  It is simply elegant and divine.  However....the sewing on of said soutache makes the back of my right eyeball hurt and oft times the air in my bed/sewing room to turn a lovely shade of cerulean blue....I'm just sayin'. 

The collar for this baby gave me some trouble as I had to draft it myself.  I had made one, complete with about 8 hours of soutache application, only to find out that it was waaaaaay too small!  Oh what a happy occurrence!  So, back to the drawing board I went.  Finally, I achieved collar joy and all was right with the world!

Well, now I have to wear it somewhere.  Don't know where, but I now have a fourth sailor dress in my collection!

I'm sooooo heppy!!! 

Blessings to all of you my lovely friends!

g

Josie Comes For A Visit!

I cannot believe that it has been a whole week since my most fabulous friend Josie Smith was here for a visit!!  I had such a wonderful time with her, dressing up, antique shopping, looking at all the things, and laughing our heads off.  Well, not really laughing our heads off, but close!  To put it succinctly, I had a most wonderfully fabulous time while she was here!!!

There wasn't anything planned, dress up wise, so I thought that We Wear History should host a Titanic Picnic at the Idaho Botanical Gardens.  We missed the sinking of the Titanic date by about a week, but that's ok.  It was still the month of April and the weather was sublime!!  We invited some lovely guests from anther costuming group, Style "N" Time and had a wonderful time eating our lunch under the shade of the trees in the garden!  On the menu was Broccoli and Bacon Salad, Chicken and Grape Salad, Herbed Egg Salad Sandwiches, Fruit, Cheese and Crackers, and Chocolate Mousse, all washed down with Iced Tea!

I hope that this picnic becomes an annual event for us here in the Valley!!!

The weather couldn't have been any better.  The air was soft and every once in a while we were blessed with a lovely breeze!!!

The ladies!  L to R:  Carole, Marilyn, Me, Tammy, Josie, Lana and Shannon.  I thought we looked like a lovely bouquet of spring flowers!

The gentlemen join the ladies...on the left is Ruben and on the right is Chick!  They are so much fun to be around and are true gentlemen!!

Edwardian/Teen ladies!

Love this pictures of all of our hats!!  Like yummy, fluffy confections!

Look at the buttons!!  We LOVE buttons!!!

Three shades of purple!!!  LOVE!

Below are some of my favorite pictures of the day.  I took over 300 of them and could have posted many, many more, but didn't want to irritate Blogger.....

 

We can't help it...we need to be silly!!!

I love this image above and took some serious ones of us ladies in the arch ways....they reminded me of Alphonse Mucha paintings and next post will be dedicated to those...they are fabulous!!!

On Sunday it was to Mom's house so she could capture images of Josie and me in our sailor dresses.  It was the first time ever that two of the three dresses were together in the same place!  We still need to get all three dresses together!  These two are missing their sister!

Mom and Dad have access to a subdivision pond and that is where we decided to have our photos taken.  And yes, silliness ensued!!

You didn't think we had monkeys in Idaho did you?  You were wrong!!!

I like big bustles and I cannot lie!!!

We LOVE stripes and tabs!!!!

I have my bubble thing...Josie had her Coke thing!!  It's a thing....

Love the colors in this picture!  Way to go Mom!!  You are a picture taking rock star!!!

Well, the time went waaaaay too quickly and before I knew it, my friend was on the plane heading back home.  We are so in need of a worm hole in this world!!!  I miss you my dear friend and cannot wait until we can wreak havoc on the tranquility of the world once again!!! Love you!

Be blessed my friends!!

g