Costumes

1865 Victorian
Elliptical Skirt from Truly Victorian Pattern TV247
Day Bodice Created and Made by A Wardrobe in Time
Evening Bodice Made by A Wardrobe in Time based off of Truly Victorian Pattern TV440

Having made the decision to go to Dickens on the Strand in Galveston, I needed something to wear. The decision--to hoop or to bustle. And then, I came across some pictures in a fashion book and discovered the Elliptical Hoop which is somewhat a combination of the two. Because I never do anything the easy way, my choice was made.

Thus began the saga of creating the Elliptical Crinoline Cage. You can read more about that here. I did not take many pictures of the making of the skirt because I was too busy making the skirt. Besides, it went together fairly easily and before I knew it, I was done. Scott did manage to get this one shot of his mother helping me set the hem. I cannot begin to say what a tremendous help having her in for the Thanksgiving Holiday was. She undertook the task of making Scott's day vest (Laughing Moon 1850 Vest Pattern) and did a fabulous job.

The fabric is wine silk essence. It has a lovely sheen, but is very thin. Thus there was much lining of the fabric. Marita Beth told me the bodice would buckle a bit, and it did, but she managed to make it in sucha way, it looked natural and actually enhanced it a bit in my opinion.

 

 

Things I learned on this project were how to sew in a pocket (very useful and I'm going to hide one in all my future costume skirts) and how to use hem tape (very pretty finish that I will use a lot on many future alterations). I also learned that outsourcing your bodice is a fantastic idea and should be done far more often. For that, I enlisted the services of Marita Beth from A Wardrobe in Time. I think I might have driven her crazy, but she perservered and presented me with two fabulous bodices with all the frills and everything.

And of course for the day, we had to have a day bodice that was a little less revealing. Unfortunately, we didn't take a picture of the back of the day bodice, which is absolutely adorable with the lace trimed peplum. My day hat was a last minute thing because we were getting poor. I dug out an old graduation gift which was basically an ivory crocheted hat with some big papery ivory flowers on the front. I added burgundy trim and some burgundy flowers and voila! Un chapeau! It's not quite period, but it's not bad for a pinch. My crocheted gloves were a gift from Arta as she had a spare pair. And speaking of gifts, Katrina gave/loaned me a corset which was fabulous as I never was able to complete the pattern I got from Laughing Moon. The book I am carrying is actually a fabric covered scrapbook that held my music. I also taped in a ziplock bag as I ran out of time to make a matching reticult. Between the pockets and the ziplock, I was able to get by without one. I'll fix that for next year.

Scott's outfit was much easier to put together. Aside from the three day long day vest saga, we bought all of his day tux (and evening tux jacket and vest) from Tuxedo Outlet in Ft. Worth. The gem was the morning coat though. Originally, we didn't think that we would like the straight across cut as we thought it might cut him and make him appear to short. Jim, the owner of Tuxedo Outlet, told us to give it a try. It looked fabulous. Naturally, it was more expensive than our other cut away coat that we were looking at, but what can you do? Allen found him a great walking cane with a sword inside. Of course, in a real defense situation, by the time he unscrewed the top to get out the sword, he'd be dead. I can't remember where he got his top hat from, but it was a Coachman style and fit the daywear look very well.