Monthly Archives: May 2013

Recycling a Polonaise into a Bustle Dress

Posted on May 28, 2013 by freshfrippery

In June I am going to the GBACG Tissot Bustle Picnic, but I do not have time to make a new bustle dress from scratch.

I am going to recycle an old dress into a newer one, which will hopefully leave me time to make accessories like a matching hat and reticule.

A few years ago I made a simple polonaise-inspired dress. It was a little sad and limp. I think I may have only wore it once because I am having trouble finding decent pictures of it. Here is one my friend Kim took:

I recently realized it might have a fresh new life as a bustle dress. I experimented with 3 different sizes of bustle pads and decided on a medium one:

I tucked it up on each side, added a petticoat and it’s already looking more bustle-y!

I did not have enough of the linen toile fabric when I made it to do pattern-matching, but I still have a few scraps left. (I had about 2.5 yards of 45″ fabric). I am going to do some fiddling around with the leftover pieces of fabric to add some more frill to the back, and also experiment some more with tucking and pinning.

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Gibson Girls at the Gaskell Ball

Posted on May 2, 2013 by freshfrippery

(Oops, I thought this was published May 2, but apparently it was in my draft folder the whole time!)

As promised, here are some pictures of me wearing the Gibson Girl dress, and all the gorgeous ladies at the Gaskell Ball who also did a Gibson theme.

I apologize for the lighting in the photos. I took these with my phone because I forgot my camera in my sewing room after taking pictures of the completed gown.

There were a group of 8 of us that did Gibson Girl dresses, with sleeves running the gamut from off-the-shoulder to giant fun poof!

A back view. I loved the variety of colors and textures!

We got a little saucy at one point.

Which caused one of the girls to faint.

But she revived.

And we had a lovely time!

Two things I would like to point out:

1. Half of us were wearing shoes from American Duchess, who makes comfortable, danceable, historical footwear. I am currently waiting to receive a pair of “Gibson” Edwardian shoes I ordered. I highly recommend American Duchess!

2. The lady in the very lovely dress with the roses is Natalie, and you can read about her gown at Frolicking Frocks. I love how detailed her construction notes are!

The rest of my photos are on my Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivien_misc/sets/72157633356227565/