mandie_rw | Entries tagged with z:19thc:christmas ballgown

(It's been two weeks since this event but...a good picture writeup takes time, and time is not something I have tons of these days. WHEN IS MY VACATION)

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We're hoping to maybe manage to get together for an Outdoorsy Christmas Event for the holidays, and then definitely a January winter outing at Longwood Gardens in Edwardian, barring another serious down-slide in the virus situation. Our group's all in agreement that outdoor events are the name of the game for now, and I'm happy to play dress-up outdoors in the winter! Costume winterwear is my FAVE. More on that later.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack

Still haven't finished those sleeves for the red dress! I only teach one (virtual) class tomorrow though, so barring a total crisis I shouldn't have a problem there.

Been poking away at the bonnets (one for me, one for Robin) since my last post...I ordered some (overpriced) vintage velvet leaves & flowers on ebay and they showed up yesterday, so I finished Robin's tonight. It's quite nice if I do say so myself!

My bonnet is covered in dark brown velveteen and I CANNOT decide how to trim it. I ordered some ribbon last week, which also came in yesterday, and decided I didn't like it on the bonnet after all (and it was 11 yards to the spool, only sold BTS, so now I have...extra ribbon lol), the only ribbon I have that I really like, I only have a yard of, and the trimming scheme I like best is green and pink, which are the two colors that look stupidest with a red dress!

So...have to trim that somehow tomorrow, too. May end up going with green and pink since I hate everything else, but I'll look through my lengths of silk to see if there's anything I can use!

And tonight I finally got around to making sure my dress wasn't too low-cut in the shoulder for my chemisette! That would have been very inconvenient, since it's going to be fall-ish temperatures, and I'd probably be cold with an open neck. It does indeed work, so that's a Good Thing.

Current Mood: sleepy

First thing I did this weekend was to see if I could find the leftover bits of fabric from my red Christmas ballgown; I knew I had enough to make a pair of long sleeves to baste into the dress to be able to wear it for day events.

Side note: I have a working theory that baste-in long sleeves were more common than surviving examples would suggest, from the late 1830s through about the mid 40s. Many of the sleeve styles of that era have some kind of decoration/frou-frou on the upper arm of the sleeve that make it really easy to construct the sleeve in a way to make the long part detachable. I've only got two examples on Pinterest - here and here - that are readily findable, but it's such a practical thing, especially with an expensive silk fabric, and it would be so easy for long sleeves to get lost if they weren't attached to the dress... I bet there are a fair few "ballgowns" in museums that used to have lower detachable sleeves that don't any more.

Anyway, I found the leftover taffeta easily and it was indeed plenty to make long sleeves, so that's what I worked on for most of the weekend.

Too puffy, but this is generally what we're going for.

IG post here with a couple more pics

I got to the point of repinning the lower part of the elbow puff twice, not liking either version, and deciding to put it down and look at it again next weekend. Still got time! Spent the rest of that evening wiring the buckram form I cut out in May (?) and sewing it together. "Coal-scuttle" styles are relatively easy to cover (they're fewer pieces than spoon or poke style) so I should have time for that and sleeves too!

Current Mood: accomplished

Aren't I productive...I wrote up my outerwear yesterday, and today I went out and took more pictures of the christmas ballgown, and got a post all written up, too!

(And threw a couple of filters on one of my pics from today and felt very Beauty-and-the-Beast! More original than yellow-dress, but...)

And now I really have to buckle down and focus on real-life stuff for the next week, so I probably won't be doing anything worth posting about. See you on the flip side!

Current Mood: cheerful

So, verdict on New Castle is very favorable; both the ball and tea were very enjoyable, and I think we all had fun wandering around town and being complimented by the locals! They were all duly impressed with us. ;)

I mean, we're terribly picturesque, aren't we?

( Pictures! Very many words! )

I hope this becomes an annual thing - it's a nice, not particularly stressful event, the New Castle crowd is very friendly (we felt very properly admired, haha), and is less than an hour's drive from me! Always love that. I'll try and get at least one of my two blog posts done tomorrow (red dress and outerwear posts), but at least the important one is done, right? ;)
Photobucket album is here

Current Mood: cheerful

Oyyyy those bias strips round the neckline took forever to sew on! Although I anticipated they would, so. Didn't do too badly today, so as long as I get up at a decent time tomorrow, this dress will have no problems being done for the ball.

Ended up doing seven strips of trim on the back, and nine on the front. Two more than originally planned, but it looked better with more!

There are joins in all the strips, but not to do joins would have wasted so much fabric! There aren't any front and center, and only one place two layers happened to have seams that awkwardly line up...and it's in the back. So, all good.

This is where we are currently. Right now I have to suit up (grumble) so I can check the hem. I'm planning a muslin facing - which means I ought to find that muslin, yes? Also have to gather and stitch some more lace onto a tape to stitch round the inside of the neck (and sew it on), and make, pipe, and attach the little flappy thingiemabobbers (technical term) that will "hold down" the neckline trim at CF and sides, in this general fashion. I want to get as much done tonight as possible, but as long as I get the hem done, at least, it's all good.

Current Mood: cheerful

Robin texted to wake me up at a completely awful hour this morning, to get me sewing! I grumbled, rolled over, and actually managed to drag my ass out of bed at a human time, which is unusual.

So! I sewed pretty much all-day-minus-hours-spent-at-work, which if I do again tomorrow, I may actually be able to get this thing done. Shock and awe.

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Current Mood: accomplished

I did get the skirt sewn to the twill tape last night, so I keep on truckin'. I'm at the point where I'm fairly sure I'm going to run out of time, but still want to see how close I can get. I toyed with the idea of leaving off the pseudo-bertha trim...but it's so bleh without something at the neck, I don't think I can do it! I can wear the rainbow trout dress if I have to, although I will be rather bummed as I bought my Dames a la Mode parure to go with a red dress.

Currently taking time off from the absolutely endless knife pleating of the sleeves to update here. I had a bunch of Not Sewing stuff to do today, and then had a piping implosion (who likes piping?? STUPID stuff), but I did pipe the bottom edge and armscyes, and got the sleeves mocked up. The lining is a very plain, straight sleeve, and then the silk is being pleated flat over that. A lot of work for a not-very obvious detail, but...that's how I roll, innit? ;)

Current Mood: okay

Currently somewhat doggedly sewing the skirt to twill tape...I wasn't quite as sewing-productive today as I needed to be, so I have to get this skirt sewn to its waistband tonight if I want to have a new ballgown. Lost some sewing hours today for attending mom's choir concert, but I always enjoy that so it's okay! Bach Magnificat, some nice Christmas songs, a cute violinist in my line of vision...time well spent. ;)

As I did with the cream poplin, the skirt's pleated in the front, gauged in the back.Gauging is such a pain in the ass but I do like how it looks, so I keep doing it. :P

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Beethoven; 9th Symphony

I finished cutting and stitching the boning into my bodice today, and got the top and bottom edges basted, so eyelets are up next! Tomorrow will be dedicated to a new quilted petticoat, though - I tried my unders on today and decided I really need more fluff for 1840! Plus the forecast is looking as though I won't mind a quilted petti for warmth on Saturday. Chilly! Won't especially want the warmth for the ball, but...I'm willing to get a bit warm for fluff. ;) I just bought a length of the prefab quilted cotton from the J, and will bind the hem and do the top few inches in plain cotton so it can be gathered easily.

I stitched the ends of the boning channels with green thread, because it's a Christmas dress, geddit? Hurr hurr hurr.

Also...I was exceptionally naughty last week and bought myself a fan to use with my 30th birthday dress. (Yes, that event is still over a year away and barely planned. Erm.) I was just browsing and I found a very good deal! The seller listed it as 1880s; I know basically nothing about fans other than "sure, that looks Victorian", so, sure. (I don't particularly care if it's really 20thc, either, so fan experts feel free to chime in!) I bought it knowing it would need some repair - it's in the happy medium of being in bad enough shape that I don't feel any guilt about taking it apart and fixing what I need to, to be able to use it, but not in bad enough shape that it's not worth the time spent to fix it. And considering the price of completely intact 19thc fans, I'm very happy to do some detail work on it!

I'm going to get some nicer pictures before I start fixing it up (no, not any time soon!) but here's a preview. I was thiiiiiis close to being late for work because I was happily poking at it as soon as I unwrapped the package, right before I needed to leave!

Current Mood: chipper

Got a nice chunk of sewing done today! I mocked up my new ballgown bodice from the cream poplin gown bodice pattern - it has the seams rather than darts in the front, which starts becoming more common in ballgowns once you start seeing the pointy front. I tightened up some of the seams, since the cream poplin bodice is a little too loose, lowered the back waist a little, and lengthened the front point a little bit more.

I cut the fronts on the bias, which I'll probably regret, despite quite a few examples in period (and, I believe all the '30s/'40s patterns in Arnold) being bias cut. I''m boning all the seams so hopefully it won't be too evil. (Ha ha ha.)

Anyway, I got it all sewn together, minus the shoulder seams as usual, since those need to be individually fitted. They weren't so into madly piping every damn seam so I managed to avoid doing that without feeling guilty! I'll still pipe the armscyes and pipe for edge finishings, but that's not nearly as bad as every single seam. Made sewing it together a lot quicker! Also started measuring and cutting the boning and casings, but didn't quite finish that before I ran out of stem.