A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Progressing nicely! Though I'm really not as far along as I'd like to be; I need to have it finished before the weekend so I can get pictures. Here's where it is now. Terrifyingly unimpressive. Pinning the fronts together for a picture would have been helpful, but too late now...

So! I have been sewing, a bit. Mainly hat-making, actually. I do have a tendency to make the hat to go with a dress before I've done the dress...which sometimes means I don't have a dress, but means I always have a hat! :D Did a mockup of the dress bodice last week, cut out all the pieces, and started sewing them together, then got distracted this week by the hat. Not based on any one particular hat, but inspired by a whole slew of fashion plates 1878-81. I used TV550 , which was lovely to put together (as always! Truly Victorian patterns are great). Wired buckram base, covered in flannel then navy silk. Fairly slubby dupioni, which is not ideal, but I really needed to keep to the stash for this, and it was hard to pick something to go with my blue and pink dress! I have a lot of red scraps apparently...

At least for me! I love late Victorian on everybody else (so many of you make really fabulous things!), but I've never been able to get excited about it. I have that one rather ratty striped cotton early bustle, but it never thrilled me, and I've started a couple other dresses that have been abandoned (oops). I even started and mostly finished a natural form corset last year, then abandoned that too (oops). But last week I somehow got a bee in my bonnet that I wanted to dress Victorian for My Birthday Outing - it's an excuse to play dress-up in whatever era I want, shhh - in early February. More specifically, natural form, as an illustration in Patterns of Fashion had caught my eye. And most importantly, I already had most of the underwear. So I've spent the last few days finishing my 1876 corset, and it's pretty okay. It will definitely do the job, anyway! I'll never make gorgeous perfect corsets like some people (ahem, Before the Automobile , ahem), but it...

And a finished stripey dress! Sort of finished, anyway. I knew I wouldn't have time to do all the trimmings I want on it before the first wearing, but that's all right. Still a lot of fun to wear! Yesterday I and a few friends went to a Colonial Ball in Trenton, and today to the Battle of Trenton reenactment. We were very lucky to have (relatively) warm, sunny weather for the battle! I don't need any more middling-class wear (at the moment...) so today's outfit was a rewear, but I did get a bee in my bonnet to make a new anglaise out of my $4/yd silk taffeta! You see, I have plenty of middling-class things, and my 1780s dresses, and my pink sack gown, but nothing to dance in, you know? Not that I did a terrible lot of dancing (I'm very bad at it), but it's the principle of the thing. And I wanted something short enough to keep clear of my shoes...

Just a very quick quickie post to say I'm working on a new dress for the event I'm going to the day after Christmas. There's a Colonial Ball in Trenton, NJ, and as it's cheap I kind of couldn't resist. I am always of the opinion we don't do enough 18thc stuff! The Battle of Trenton reenactment is the day after, and I'm going to that too, but don't need anything new for it (since I did just make that wool jacket for the last 18thc thing I went to...). I'm further along than this pic, but it gives you an idea of where I'm going! And the fabric. Don't know that I'll have time to do all the trimming I'd like, but I'm happy with "wearable"! My pink sack gown is my backup so this is a nice stress-free project. So far, haha.

I went to Pennypacker Mills with two friends last night for their Victorian Christmas tour; PPM is an 18thc house that was added on to and remodeled in 1901(ish?), and they did a great job of decorating for the season. Everything was lit by oil lamps, and they had Santa, a bell choir, and a candymaking demonstration in the kitchen. And free hot cider after the tour! None of us have any late Victorian or Edwardian winter-wear, but we've all got 1860s, which always seems very Christmassy to me. Most of the tour was too dark for my poor old camera so I didn't bother taking it out the whole night...at least til we got to Taco Bell afterward! That was well lit, haha. But we made sure to get pics of my new dress while it was still light.

I'm having an event-y sort of weekend this upcoming Saturday and Sunday, but I went on an impromptu window-shopping/historical society visit in an adorable little historic neighboring town today, with Robin . Of course we had to dress! Just my old grey dress, but we bundled up and felt very festive. People thought the town hired us. Quite funny.