Planning post: Victorian ice skating
Dec. 27th, 2024 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandie_rwBecause, again, thinking about sewing is much more fun than sewing! This is the outfit I should be working on. Um, well, I think I have most of the materials now?
Planning for my Victorian ice skating event the first weekend in February. There's a ton of charming skating wear in the late Victorian period, plus you can really wear whatever the hell you want as long as your skates won't get caught in it, but this image that I found on Pinterest kept sticking in my mind, so I finally decided on the lady in green from this print!
"Sisters on Ice" lithograph, c.1860-1870
I roped Robin into it because she was a willing victim, and I think they're just too cute! Also ridiculous.
The above image is clearly a digitally cleaned-up version of the print - I know this because I uhhhh found an original on etsy and decided it was a Merry Giftmas present to myself. (It wasn't absurdly expensive, just "this is an antique in a large frame" expensive.) The colors are a bit more saturated and the paper's yellowed, so I'm feeling free to "interpret" the details haha.
I love them both, but finally decided that I'd make the lady in green because I didn't want to figure out the derpy little wings on Red Lady's hat (even though they crack me up).
Theoretically I had a majority of the materials on hand, but ended up deciding I couldn't bring myself to waste half a dress length of the bright green wool flannel that I have in the stash, so ended up buying some of the nice midweight cotton sateen from Joann's in Kelly green instead. Not as toasty as wool, but I'll line it in dress weight cotton flannel and be fine (and can bring a wool cloak if it's actually cold-cold). I have a too-good-a-deal-to-pass-up ebay vintage fur coat that I bought ages ago that will work for the fur trim, and a bit of wool gauze that I can dye for the veil. May have to pick up something for the hat but there's a wool blend in the bottomweights section at Joann's that will work.
Skirt was a little harder (damn stripes) but eventually I decided to just use what I have on hand - I'll make the underskirt with some berry-and-gray narrow striped silk that I used on my first natural form dress skirt (it just kind of ends up reading grey to the camera at any distance, but o well) and then the skirt over that from some of the grey wool that I've had in my stash since the local Joann's closed down the smaller location to move to a bigger space. In 2013.
(Yes, it's the nice 100% wool suiting that they used to have. Yes, I bought all of it in all the colors. Yes, I've been hoarding it since then. Yes, I think I paid around $5/yard. Damn right I've been hoarding it!)
In terms of shapewear, it's fairly open to interpretation (being, you know, a lithograph and not a photo!), but it reads closer to 1870 than 1860 to me, with the skirt drapery and the hairstyle, so I'm going to make a knee-length prefab quilted petticoat with a small bum pad and call it a day. I suppose one could wear a short hoop, like the ones that seem to have been worn with some of the fancy dresses of the 1860s...but a short hoop seems very daring for ice skating lol. If I had an 1860s corset that fit I'd wear that; as it is I'll just wear my 1880s Redthreaded corset that I know fits. I do need a new 1860s corset but I still don't want to make it, so there. :P
Oh and also shorter, closed drawers. I usually wear the open-crotch drawers and I think I will not be doing that with a short skirt while ice skating. It's not THAT kind of party.
And...I should probably start working on this if I want it for the first weekend in February, eh?
Planning for my Victorian ice skating event the first weekend in February. There's a ton of charming skating wear in the late Victorian period, plus you can really wear whatever the hell you want as long as your skates won't get caught in it, but this image that I found on Pinterest kept sticking in my mind, so I finally decided on the lady in green from this print!
"Sisters on Ice" lithograph, c.1860-1870
I roped Robin into it because she was a willing victim, and I think they're just too cute! Also ridiculous.
The above image is clearly a digitally cleaned-up version of the print - I know this because I uhhhh found an original on etsy and decided it was a Merry Giftmas present to myself. (It wasn't absurdly expensive, just "this is an antique in a large frame" expensive.) The colors are a bit more saturated and the paper's yellowed, so I'm feeling free to "interpret" the details haha.
I love them both, but finally decided that I'd make the lady in green because I didn't want to figure out the derpy little wings on Red Lady's hat (even though they crack me up).
Theoretically I had a majority of the materials on hand, but ended up deciding I couldn't bring myself to waste half a dress length of the bright green wool flannel that I have in the stash, so ended up buying some of the nice midweight cotton sateen from Joann's in Kelly green instead. Not as toasty as wool, but I'll line it in dress weight cotton flannel and be fine (and can bring a wool cloak if it's actually cold-cold). I have a too-good-a-deal-to-pass-up ebay vintage fur coat that I bought ages ago that will work for the fur trim, and a bit of wool gauze that I can dye for the veil. May have to pick up something for the hat but there's a wool blend in the bottomweights section at Joann's that will work.
Skirt was a little harder (damn stripes) but eventually I decided to just use what I have on hand - I'll make the underskirt with some berry-and-gray narrow striped silk that I used on my first natural form dress skirt (it just kind of ends up reading grey to the camera at any distance, but o well) and then the skirt over that from some of the grey wool that I've had in my stash since the local Joann's closed down the smaller location to move to a bigger space. In 2013.
(Yes, it's the nice 100% wool suiting that they used to have. Yes, I bought all of it in all the colors. Yes, I've been hoarding it since then. Yes, I think I paid around $5/yard. Damn right I've been hoarding it!)
In terms of shapewear, it's fairly open to interpretation (being, you know, a lithograph and not a photo!), but it reads closer to 1870 than 1860 to me, with the skirt drapery and the hairstyle, so I'm going to make a knee-length prefab quilted petticoat with a small bum pad and call it a day. I suppose one could wear a short hoop, like the ones that seem to have been worn with some of the fancy dresses of the 1860s...but a short hoop seems very daring for ice skating lol. If I had an 1860s corset that fit I'd wear that; as it is I'll just wear my 1880s Redthreaded corset that I know fits. I do need a new 1860s corset but I still don't want to make it, so there. :P
Oh and also shorter, closed drawers. I usually wear the open-crotch drawers and I think I will not be doing that with a short skirt while ice skating. It's not THAT kind of party.
And...I should probably start working on this if I want it for the first weekend in February, eh?
no subject
Date: 2024-12-27 10:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-29 02:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-27 10:33 pm (UTC)Ded.
Also, those are some slutty lasses showing off their ankles with the potential for slipping on the ice. I may just as WELL be that sort of party!
no subject
Date: 2024-12-29 02:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-30 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-12-30 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-10 04:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-06 07:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-10 04:11 am (UTC)