mandie_rw | Entries tagged with z:19thc:1830s rainbow trout ballgown

The fates did a bit of conspiring against us, but we triumphed in the end, mostly because we don't take anything seriously and are determined to have fun No Matter What.

This is my favorite picture of me of the night - Rob took it and Robin instagrammed it (on the ride home, and this was probably the picture that made us miss our exit off 195, since our navigator was distracted, hehehe).

( One or two or ten naughty words here )

( And a lot of pictures )

All in all it was a fun night, and I think we all looked smashing! (Photobucket album!) I'm quite happy with the rainbow trout and I'll be chuffed to wear it again for New Castle. Now, to do a less swearword-filled blogger post...

ETA: Not sure if it's locked, but this is a video Tessa's mom got of the first dance. Just Jessica and I are dancing out of our group, but you can see the space (or lack thereof), the extreeeeeeemely long sets (yes, he cycled through that entire line to have everyone be top couple, omg), and an extremely ridiculous face on yours truly. We'd missed the explanation as to what dance we were doing, so that's why I look exceptionally stupid at the beginning...

Current Mood: good

I decided not to bother hemming the sash-bow. It's not getting tied and untied so it shouldn't fray too much, and if it does it's easy enough to take off. If you thought yesterday's bows were big and stupid, brace yourself: this one is much bigger and stupider!

And you may notice the crinkly slippers I'm wearing there - I attached the second sole, pasted the paper insoles in, and sewed the ribbon ties on, which means they are DONE, like the dress. And I haven't even gone to work yet. Got to be some kind of record.

...Shame it's supposed to thunderstorm tomorrow! As of now we're going anyway, because I already bought the tickets, dammit, and I'm tired of getting rained out of events! Maybe we'll get very lucky and it won't storm much. If it's very wet I won't wear the slippers, but the dress shouldn't get destroyed if it gets rained on - apart from maybe the taffeta, but I have more of that, worst comes to worst. (And I've had silk taffeta survive getting very rained on, so.)

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Mendelssohn; Song Without Words

Idiot shoulder bows, to be exact. I couldn't decide between roses and bows for the longest time - until today, when I realized how much faster bows would be, and that I was incapable of quickly making fabric roses that didn't suck. Bows it is! Silk taffeta I can tear and don't have to hem? Yes please!

I backed the pink bow with the same lace I used on the skirt, mainly so that lace didn't seem so out of place. This ties it in a lot better. (Ties it in, ha ha ha.)

The sash is the same pink taffeta, which isn't really exactly pink. Sort of coral, sort of rose, depending on the light. I made the sash of the same taffeta...only half-finished as of now, regrettably. I woke up with the definite beginnings of a head cold, and so slept very late and sewed very slowly. But the important bit of the sash is sewn on, the part that goes around the waist! I'm making the bow separately, so that can go on last. Or not at all, if I don't feel up to it.

Current Mood: sleepy

I realized today that it would be smart to fit the back hooks and bars before I put any crap on the shoulders, so I did that instead of the planned shoulder trimmings and sash. Getting a back closure fitted on yourself really requires a lot of wriggling...

Not the most fun I've ever had but I did get the hooks and bars all sewn on, despite my suspicion that the back of the bodice was a little too big being correct. I took two little fugly tucks in the front neckline to fix that a bit - it's hidden by the drapery so I'll survive. It still has a tendency to travel down to more off-shoulder than I intended, but...oh well?

Also tacked down the drapey sleeve swag-things, which was almost as painful as the back-fitting. One side went like a charm, and then I could. not. get. the second sleeve to even remotely resemble the first! I'm glad I didn't time how long that took, too depressing. But I did eventually get it to Good Enough.

So I just have to cut the pocket slits in the petticoat and the dress (well, the dress pocket slits are on seams so not really cutting), and I'm done for the day. Almost presentable!

Current Mood: sleepy

I'm less than 18" away from having the lace completely sewn on the skirt. Which is good, as this was the one task I wasn't really sure if I could get done in one day and so keep on schedule! It's not a large skirt, and the lace is only sewn on with running stitches - but it's wide enough that I had to tack it in three different spots so it wouldn't get floppy or bubbly. (And yes, I will finish sewing it on tonight!)

Last night I also got the ties sewn into the armscyes, so I can tie the stupid puffers in. Small but important thing!

I tried the dress on today sans corset, and I'm not entirely sure the back bodice isn't slightly too big....buuut I won't worry about that til I try the whole thing on with the correct undies!

Current Mood: good

Excellent progress made on the dress today: I gathered and sewed the skirt to the bodice. Purposely scheduled myself to do that on my day off, as hand gathering a skirt takes a chunk of time, even though this one's not a very big skirt, at 135". And then after dinner I started sewing the sleeves to the bodice. I've got one done, and shouldn't have any trouble getting the second finished tonight. I'm setting them in by hand, mostly because I'm lazy, and it's much easier to sew right next to the piping in the armscye by hand, than shove it through the machine and hope I got close enough, and then have to pick some out and redo it!

Yeah, I know I have a weird definition of lazy. xD

Current Mood: cheerful

I putzed around today, so I didn't get as much sewing done as I could have, but I still managed a decent amount. Sewed the sleeve bands on, made and basted on the armscye piping, and gathered the sleeve heads. I allowed myself two days for sleeves so I'm still on schedule!

Current Mood: sleepy

Be impressed, I picked the rainbow trout dress back up today! Did a couple of hand-tacking spots on the bodice that I forgot I hadn't finished, and cut out and started sewing sleeves. They are very large sleeves.

Same shape as the sleeves on the green lawn dress, except these are 6" longer, and some mysterious amount wider, too, which will allow for some kind of scrunching up and sticking of bow/flower on top of said scrunching.

I also found what I want to make for my New Castle day dress (yeah, I'm already planning for December!), in Englishwomen's Clothing in the 19th Century: an 1832 plate of a carriage dress. (Crappy cell phone pic, sorry.)

You can't really tell here, but I can assure you it's a striped pelisse. Over a muslin gown, which doesn't sound very appealing for Christmas-time! Currently my brilliant idea is to use a plum and ivory 1/8" striped taffeta I have for the pelisse, and acquire some purple wool for the dress. I might have to revise this eventually, depending on the availability and cost of purple wool that I like...but for right now I'm very chuffed with this idea!

Current Mood: sleepy

Ballgown: bodice is pretty much done. Still needs hooks/bars to fasten it, but I'm leaving that til after the skirt's attached. I had a fun time trying to make the front drapery look nice - and by fun I mean I had to recut the top piece after I screwed it up the first time. Good thing I didn't skimp on buying yardage!

I didn't take a pic of the bodice all together, but here's the front piece with the draperies:

I think it looks pretty nice on - the lining is the same as the green voile dress, just with the front neckline trimmed down 1.5". Which may have been a little more than needed to be trimmed, but hey, it's an evening dress!

I also FINALLY finished the stupid puffers. They are very stupid, indeed.

( Puffers! )

And there are now feathers all over the front lawn. And the neighbor's front lawn. The local birds are probably confused and suspicious. xD

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Offenbach; Overture to Orpheus

Yep, I'm still gonna call it the rainbow trout dress, even if it's not terribly rainbow trout-y...mainly because "the green and pink shot dress that looks kinda greyish overall" just doesn't sound as catchy!

I was fairly productive today, when I actually got around to sewing. I (machine) sewed the side seams of the skirt, hemmed it, and leveled it from the top. After dinner I cut out the white linen bodice lining (1830s is pushing it for a linen rather than cotton lining, but I really like my linen linings! pry them from my cold dead hands), and got the back draperies of the voile done. The bodice front is going to be a crossover, so a plain back seemed wrong, but I didn't want to go to the trouble of working out a back crossover. So the back has some diagonal pleaty-drapey-things going on, from shoulder to mid-back, just to echo the front. There's a late 1820s dress in CiD so I didn't completely make it up!

And this fabric photographs horribly in artificial indoor light, so you don't get any pictures of it yet. Boring post!

(Also, the sequins vote post is very nearly neck and neck. I am amused and take this to mean either gold or silver will be awesome.)

Current Mood: productive

I have decided how to trim my 1830s ballgown - around 1832 you see a horizontal band of trim/etc on the skirt at about knee height:

Since I am most emphatically Not Allowed to buy trim for this, I poked the stash a bit, and came up with the leftover lace from my 1860s satin ballgown. Sure, that works. The question is, I want to sew some scattered spangles on the lace (because it MUST HAVE SPARKLE. NO SPARKLE IS NOT AN OPTION), and should they be gold or silver?
(With and without flash)

[Poll #2048950]

Current Mood: thoughtful

Spent a good chunk of my time today packing up hats! Some went out today; the rest I couldn't carry to the post office with the other ones so they'll go out tomorrow. Boxes full of hats are big and awkward, haha.

I also spent way too long making the bottom flounce for the practical print natural form underskirt. Oh you silly Victorians and your love of trim...It's made of bright red cotton broadcloth (Kona), and knife pleated and pressed into shape.

The little knife-pleated red flounce at the hem is one of my favorite parts of the original dress; it's such a great throwback to the popular bright red petticoats of the mid-Victorian era. Two more flounces, made of the cotton print, will go over top of it, with only about two or three inches peeking out from the bottom.

I also got the rainbow trout fabric in the mail today (very prompt!), which is sadly not quite as rainbow-trouty as it looked in the picture. More of a greyish green at most angles (the green warp is the silk, which picks up the light much more than the pink cotton weft). I still like it though, so it's going to be a ballgown...just maybe not a rainbow trout ballgown. ;)

Current Mood: sleepy

I ordered the fabric last night, and it was apparently shipped today ~~despite it being a national holiday and therefore no post going out, so, suuuure~~...

I wanted some kind of fairly fancy fabric, because I got used to the idea of not having to do much embellishment when I was counting on the blue sparkle silk, and I've lost the drive to sew 8 million sequins on anything at this point in time. I have (and/or could buy) plenty of light-to-mid-weight silks that would be just fine for an 1830s ballgown, but I'd really set my mind on something sheer or just-about-sheer, so it can be worn to both Allaire in August (outdoors), and New Castle in December (not outdoors). So I happened across this pink and green silk-cotton voile on ebay...

...and said, LOL that looks like rainbow trout colors! Hey, I should make a rainbow trout ballgown, that would be funny!

So I'm making a rainbow trout ballgown, provided this fabric doesn't get lost in the mail, or somehow manages to be polyester upholstery fabric when it arrives...in which case I will give up on everything and just wear my green lawn to the Allaire dance, and try my hand again at a ballgown later in the fall!

I don't quite have a plan for the dress design yet, though if the fabric's as nice as it looks in the photo I'll probably go for an 1832-34 style, with little to no skirt embellishment and just a bit of drapery about the bodice, to let the rainbow trout-iness speak for itself. xD