1885 Sailor Dress....Or My Most Favorite Dress in All the World

 Hello Lovely Readers!  This TBT brings to an end my outfits for the SPWF.  I have, in my opinion, saved the best for last as this is my most favorite dress in all the world...that I have made.  This is so much my favorite dress that I joke with my husband that I wish to be buried in this dress upon my death.  He doesn't think it's funny.  He doesn't know that I am sort of, kind of, rather serious.  It is a reproduction of an 1885 sea side bustle dress.  

The last event of the last day of the SPWF, we decided that we needed to be a Steampunk Olympic Team.  All of us ladies chose a sport to represent and went to work designing our dresses around that sport.  Judy Smith and I actually traded sports as I started out wanting to be archery but couldn't find out a way to get a recurve bow on the plane from Idaho to New Jersey.  So we switched...she became Archery and I became Sailing.

Photo:  Kat Stelzer

Inspiration:

1885 Fashion Plate of a Nautical Bustle Dress

I fell in love with the overall yuminess of it all.  Not only was the color scheme glorious, but it had tabs!!!!  I ordered the anchor patches off of ebay and they were a perfect color and fit!  I wasn't overly fond of the apron/drape on the left side of the dress, so I left it off of mine.  I had hoped to recover a parasol to use with the dress, but I ended up using my left over ivory silk on another project.

I found this fashion plate waaaaay before I even met any of the ladies that became the Steampunk Olympic Team (I would like to point out that Beth and Josie also had this in their "I will make someday" file too.  We have each made our sailor dresses based on this fashion plate and will one day get together for a photo shoot...) I put it in my "will make someday" file and would bring it out and drool over it from time to time, but always put it back because I couldn't find a stripe fabric that made me happy.  In the end I, I spent 16+ hours sewing 1" blue satin ribbon to the dupioni silk to form the stripes.  CRAZY!!!!!  But it worked!

I found some incredible antique ivory and navy wings on eBay for the hat.

Patterns Used:

Bodice:  TV463 1884 French Vest Bodice

Underskirt:  self drafted...I needed a dress that wasn't cut on an angle, as I needed to sew satin ribbon to get the stripe look and didn't want to sew them on the curve.

Overskirt:  self drafted

Fabrics Used: Ivory dupioni silk

Navy faux dupioni silk

1" Navy satin double sided ribbon

Natural muslin

Gazing through the looking glass that Beth lent me....she of course insisted upon getting it back.  Brat.

If you look closely, you can see the good job it did in matching the ribbon stripes up on the side seam.  I was a little impressed with myself!!   hahahahahahaha!!!  Sometimes, things that I do actually end up right!

My hat was a navy blue straw instead of the natural color of the fashion plate.

The prerequisite immature picture.

Pictures taken on Emma

Lovely filligree ship I found on eBay

The Team

Needless to say, I thought all the ladies on our SPWF Olympic team looked beyond fabulous!  It was so fun to meet in the large patio area at the hotel and see the glorious dresses that the ladies had created!  We had medals that hung around our necks and either Beth or Kat had made the contestant numbers for our backs!  I cannot express what a fun event this was!!

All of the ladies on the Olympic team with our handsome judges.

Beth:  Shooting

Loved the colors of her plaid and all her buttons!  She even found antique shooting medals to pin on her bodice!

Kelsey:  Tennis

She has embroidered tennis rackets along the hem of her skirt!  Of course a tennis champion would not be complete with out her trusty racket!

Josie:  Swimming

Notice the octapus at her hip and of course her life preserver!  Adorable!  The color of her outfit was so refreshing!

Jess:  Equestrian

The color of her gown was gorgeous!  Her veiled habit fit perfectly on her beautifully coiffed head!

Judy:  Archery

She looks like a Steampunk Artemis, goddess of the hunt!  Loved all the pleating at the hem of the short skirt!

Kat:  Croquet

Pleats and tabs!  I need say no more!  Loved the shade of the red with the black lace!  Oh and her croquet mallet holder was pretty epic too!

Jason and Steve our Judges

I think they were a little biased.....

Our contestant number signs had gears to represent the 7 Olympic rings!  Such genius!!!

The End

Well, here we are at the end of the SPWF...also the backs of our outfits!!  This was such a fun adventure and event!  I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and can't wait until I get the chance to be with these incredibly talented and fun ladies!

See you next week!

Be blessed my friends!

g

1885 Black and Blue Ball Gown

TBT once again!

For the Saturday night ball at the SPWF, I was at a loss as to what to make.  I had some pretty blue dupioni silk and black moire in my stash and after a large quantity of time pouring over image ideas, I finally decided what dress I would make.  A black and blue ball gown!  There aren't a lot of good images of me wearing this dress as the ball was at night and my camera takes really horrible pictures in doors in bad lighting...so most of my pictures will be of the dress on Emma.

Inspiration

1885 ball gown

I loved the cross over bodice and the way the overskirt was different looking.  I didn't have enough lace to make the tiered lace panels, so I used my moire taffeta and cut scallops in the bottom instead.  For added texture and affect, I added a row of pleating under the scallops.

Patterns Used: 

Bodice:  TV460 Cuirass Bodice

Underskirt:  TV261 Four Gore Underskirt

Overskirt:  TV382 Asymetrical Add On

Butterfly Train:  TV361 Butterfly Detachable Train

Fabrics Used: Blue dupioni silk

Black Moire cotton/poly blend

poly lace

I purchased the laces from a store on eBay.  Unfortunately, I believe the store has gone out of business....

You can barely see that the lining of the butterfly train is lined in black.

For fun, I made the back of the bodice two toned!  

One of two good pictures of me in the gown....

Yay!  Here you can see the under lining of the train...it was a black taffeta.  

Hair ornamentation made of antique flowers and leaves....

Happily I have enough fabric left to make a day bodice for the dress!  I will hopefully be making that sometime this year!

Next up on TBT?  My favorite all time dress EVER!!!!!

Have a most wonderfully blessed day my friends!

g

1885 Tissot Painting Dress...or The Coca Cola Dress

We now continue our regularly scheduled TBT....

On Sunday for the Steampunk World's Fair, the ladies and I decided that we needed a theme...so someone chose "What's Black and White and Red all over?".  This theme conveniently fell in nicely with Sunday as the answer is a newspaper and the most widely read day of the week newspaper is the Sunday paper...Brilliant!

Most of our group did equal amounts of red, white and black, but me being contrary and having found a fabulous inspiration image, did very little black in my outfit...in fact the only black was the centers of the poppies on my hat.  In any case, this day was super fun and this dress still makes me so happy!

The Coca Cola Dress

Inspiration #1

The painting by James Tissot

Women of Paris: The Circus Lover

Completed in 1885, it depicts ladies and gentlemen enjoying a circus under the Big Top.  One would think that my focus would zero in on the lovely lady in the foreground in pink.  Nope.  My focus for whatever reason, zeroed in on the lady in white and red...

There she is.  It looks like her bodice is made of white with red polka dot fabric and what I believe to be red bows stretching across the stomacher.  I LOVE this lady!  She is of course smoking a cigarette.   No, I did not include one of those in my list of accessories...

Inspiration #2

The skirt.  I have no clue where I found this picture, but I LOVE the skirt on the lady on the right.  It has ruching and pleating and fun things oh my!  The painting shows the lady in white with red polka dots sitting so we have no idea as to what the skirt looks like so I chose something fabulous for my skirt.

Both of these dresses are over the top wonderful!  The skirt on the right however, grabbed me up by my shirt collar and screamed "MAKE ME!!!!!" in my face!  So I obeyed.

Fabric and accesssories for the dress.  Red dupioni silk and cotton eyelet.  

Patterns Used:

Bodice: TV463 French Vest Bodice

Underskirt: TV261 1885 4-Bore Underskirt (with bustling)

Bustling: self drafted

Fabrics: red dupioni silk

white cotton eyelet

white silk bengaline

I found the wicker basket at an antiques store in McCall, Idaho...I think it looked perfect with the velvet strawberries on top!

The rectangular cut steel buckle was found on one of my antique shopping trips...I believe it came from a store in Pocatello, Idaho.

Yes...all that ruching went all the way around the underskirt....

Close up of the miles and miles of ruching and pleats...sometimes I think I go into some sort of lack of sleep induced haze.  This is most likely what fuels my obsession for the things I do...like ruching and pleating.

Flowerpot hat using Lynn McMasters' 1600-1800 Tall Hat pattern.  That's right.  I used an 18th century hat pattern for my 1880s flowerpot hats!  It is the perfect pattern!  I ruched the under brim to tie in the ruching of the skirt.

Lots of great antique feathers and flowers!

Kelsey, Josie, Me and Beth!

Josie, Kat, Me, Beth and Kelsey

It seems as though Josie and I have been scandalized by something in the paper...while Beth looks on in delight....

Well, 3 SPWF dresses down, 2 more to go....I hope you all have had a most wonderful Christmas holiday and Happy New Year to you all!!

Blessings!

g

1884 Eggplant and Silver Day Dress

I have decided that for the next 3 TBTs (I would just like to point out that not one of my TBTs have been posted on a Thursday...), I will finish out the SPWF series of costumes as they are sort of a matching set.  This next dress just really didn't blow my skirt up and was my least favorite of the whole weekend.  What did I do with it when I got home?  I dismantled it.  Why?  I have no idea.  I think some sort of lunacy grabbed hold of me and made me do it.  Whatever the case, it is no more.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I still have it in pieces in a rubber tote in my garage.  I might put it back together...but the hat I can't.  I re-made it into a mourning hat for my friend Beth.

At any rate, this dress is another blending of two inspirations.  One a fashion plate, the other an extant garment...let's begin shall we?

Here I am looking very peeky.  I had just gotten over a fabulous bout of bronchitis and was still feeling a little under the weather.  But my antique reticule matches my dress perfectly and that's what counts isn't it?  YES!!!!

Inspiration #1

Extant Garment from Abiti Antichi.  I saw this dress and loved the bodice immediately.  I adore tabs and I adore buttons....HELLO!!!  The bodice has both!!  How glorious!!!

My bodice had hooks and eyes on the hidden center panel...I wish I would have taken photos....

Inspiration #2

From the LaSalle Library

Fashion plate from 1883.  The ruching on the side of the underskirt and the way the bustling in the back is caught up in a sweet bow over the pleating at the back of the skirt really made my costumer's heart quicken!!  I decided for the side front treatment to pleat instead of ruche and put velvet strips to separate the sections. 

Patterns Used

Bodice:  TV463 French Vest Bodice

Underskirt:  TV261 1885 4-Gore Underskirt (without the back bustling)

Overskirt:  TV382  (just the front draping)

Bustling:  Self drafted

Fabrics:  Silver Moire is cotton

The rest is synthetic

More pictures of the dress on Emma.  The color is much better her.

The inspiration for the hat came again from a fashion plate.  I loved the way the hat perched towards the front of the head.  The tall flowerpot hats had not come into vogue yet so I was delighted to be able to fashion this hat.  It is constructed of wire and covered with the fabrics of the dress and feathers.

I like to try to use antique or vintage feathers when I can, but at the time didn't have any gray or silver colored ostrich plumes.  I sewed together 3 new gray plumes and curled them to emulate the other ostrich plumes in my collection.  The small egret spray is antique...

I had the fun opportunity to try absinthe!!!  It was FAAAAABULOUS!!!!

Here some of are with Steampunk Boba Fett!!  He was so utterly awesome!

I thought I'd share the picture of more of us on the day I wore the Fushia Flower Day Dress...I should have put that in on the last post, but didn't even think of it!  I think we all look great in our pretties!!

Until next week my friends!

Be blessed!

g