Victorian Bicycling Outfit at Roaring Camp Railroads

Last month I went to a wonderful steam train ride and BBQ, hosted by the Greater Bay Area Costumer’s Guild at Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton, California. I wore a Victorian/Edwardian-inspired bicycling outfit with a boater hat.

Photo by Chris Wiener

Photo by Chris Wiener

Photo by Chris Wiener

The blouse, skirt, and hat were made by me (with construction details at the end of this post), and the boots are Tavistocks from American Duchess.

Roaring Camp Railroads was very picturesque, with a charming little Western “town,” and a beautiful ride through the redwood forest on a real steam train. I highly recommend taking your family!

There were plenty of places to lounge around, like our cowgirl Elizabeth did.

Natalie had fun balancing on the tracks.

There were also couples, like Kim and David, enjoying the day out.

It was my first time on a steam train, so it was quite the adventure!

A covered wagon was available for photos.

We went deep into the woods . . .

. . . to commune with nature . . .

. . . and to have Elizabeth eaten by a tree.

After the filling BBQ I relaxed by doing some fence-sitting.

There was quite the turn out of Victorians, steampunks, and cowboys!

Photo by GBACG

In a previous post I described how I made my blouse, but upcycling an ugly 1990s dress to take it back 100 years! Before and after:

For my skirt, I used the Edwardian Bicycle Skirt pattern from Black Snail Patterns on Etsy. The skirt was made out of a navy wool-blend fabric. (I started with almost 4 yards of 60″ fabric, and had about 1.5 yards left over that I turned into a cape that was too warm to wear at Roaring Camp that day).  The front and back of the skirt was accented with decorative panels made from the same fabric of my blouse, as well as matching fabric-covered buttons.

The hem was stiffened a little by a self-facing that was top-stitched in place.

I made my boater hat by my usual refashion of removing extra layers of braid in a cheap hat, hot-gluing the brim back to the crown, hiding the joins with ribbon and lace, and then adding trimmings. 

Project costs:

• 4 yards wool blend fabric: $45 including shipping from Facebook destash group
• Skirt pattern PDF: $6.16 from Etsy (bought during a sale)
• 1990s dress: $12 + $5 shipping from Facebook
• Boater hat: $2.80 from eBay (with coupon)
• Gimp braid, butterflies, ribbon, small & big covered button kits: $0 (leftovers from previous projects: Regency coat, Crimson Peak hat, a 20s dress, a Downton Abbey maid outfit, and a floral vest!)
• Thread, glue, misc. from stash: ~$3

Total cost: $73.96

This was a comfortable outfit for a day of traveling; I didn’t even wear a corset. 😉