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:

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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:

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

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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.

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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!

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

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We got a little saucy at one point.

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Which caused one of the girls to faint.

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But she revived.

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And we had a lovely time!

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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!

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

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Gibson Girl Project (Part 5): Finished Dress

Posted on April 28, 2013 by freshfrippery

My Gibson Girl dress is finished and I wore it to the Gaskell Ball last night. (The next post will feature pictures of a bunch of Gibson Girls from the ball!)

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Gibson Girl Project (Part 4): Bodice

Posted on April 20, 2013 by freshfrippery

I have some little tweaks to do but the bodice is nearly complete!

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As usual, I underestimated the amount of hand-sewing required. I also have some smoothing to do; I’m not entirely pleased with the little puckers.

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For more construction details, peek inside.

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Gibson Girl Project (Part 3) Underwear: Petticoat & Corset

Posted on April 5, 2013 by freshfrippery

I have been working on the Gibson Girl trained skirt, hand-sewing the hem on the train. Right now I am trying to figure out the lace flounce before I post some progress photos.

However, my undergarments are ready!

I sewed a petticoat out of a striped taffeta I’ve had for years. (You may recognize it as the lining to this coat).

Here is a side view.

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Keep reading for more pictures of the petticoat, and details of my beautiful new corset!

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Regency Dress

Posted on March 16, 2013 by freshfrippery

Earlier this month I attended a Jane Austen-themed Regency Ball. I did not have time to make a new dress, so I decided to retrim an old one. (I have not been posting or sewing much the last few weeks due to a series of eye appointments. It’s not easy to type or sew when your eyes are constantly dilated!)

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This is what the dress looked like before.

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It had a wine-colored sash and little ribbon bows along the hem. I wore it to a picnic, but decided I needed to dress it up for an evening party. I didn’t want to buy any new materials, so I used some black velvet fabric, velvet ribbon and cream-colored lace from my sewing stash. 

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The hem was just flat lace with the black velvet ribbon woven through the holes. For the neckline I pleated the lace and held it in place with the ribbon. Here’s a shot of it on my work table.

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And the top on my mannequin.

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I accented the black velvet around the waist with a vintage black and gold cameo I found at the Alameda Antiques Fair.

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I wore the dress with a green and black shawl that a friend of mine brought me from England, and a vintage opal and onyx cameo from my mother.

 

 

 

 

 

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Gibson Girl Project (Part 2) Materials

Posted on February 25, 2013 by freshfrippery

Yesterday I finished gathering my materials for my Gibson Girl dress. I will be using Truly Victorian’s 1893 Bell Skirt pattern (#TV292).

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I am using a periwinkle blue satin for the dress. (The fabric is darker than how the photo turned out). The hem will be trimmed with an embroidered black netting lace, and I also bought some lovely appliques from Britex to use on the bodice and skirt front.

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Steampunk Hot Air Balloon Skirt and Capelet

Posted on February 17, 2013 by freshfrippery

Yes, I know I should be working on my Gibson Girl dress, but as most crafters and costumers know, “Look oh shiny!” syndrome makes us easily distracted.

A while back I bought some fabric printed with hot air balloons from Spoonflower. I wasn’t sure what to do with it, but decided to do a quickie project to reduce the stash.

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The skirt is just a simple gathered one, with an elastic waist and serged seams. There are no pockets (or even a lining) so this was an extremely fast make.

The capelet was a little more fiddly because I had to piece it together from the scraps of the skirt. (I used 2 yards total for this whole project). The pearly thing in the middle is a jewelry clasp.

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The beautiful leather violin belt was a Christmas present from my husband. He bought it from Etsy. The blouse is vintage and the underskirt is a tiered cream cotton petticoat I made for my wedding a few years ago.

The capelet isn’t quite even so I need to make some minor tweaks.  Also, I still have to figure out what sort of hat or fascinator to make. I plan to wear the ensemble to a steampunk-themed lunch outing at a ice cream bar.

 

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Gibson Girl (Part 1)

Posted on February 7, 2013 by freshfrippery

My next major project is to make a Gibson Girl ensemble for an event in April.  I’ve been looking at pictures from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website, and I rather like some of the elements in this beautiful butterfly dress.

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(Source http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/80093882?img=4)

In particular, I like the use of appliques, and the embroidery around the bottom of the bodice. If you look carefully there are little rhinestones scattered about.

I am not sure yet about the dress design but I knew I wanted embroidered tulle lace. I decided to buy some great lace and then find a solid-colored fabric to match, instead of the other way around. My color scheme will be baby blue, accented by black. It reminds me of Alice’s dress in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.

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Robe a la Francaise (18th Century Lolita) Dress Project

Posted on January 24, 2013 by freshfrippery

My silk robe a la francaise dress is finished! I don’t have any in progress pictures because I originally made the dress before I had this blog, but recently revamped it for a fashion show. (I added an invisible zipper, Watteau back, ribbon flowers and front bows).

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This dress is a combination of 2 inspirations: 18th century French fashion, and Japanese lolita fashion. The dress is too short for the former and a little long for the latter, but my intention was to marry the two into something decadent but wearable.

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A side view:

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The bodice panel is salvaged from a vintage wedding dress. I love the beading! I added the venise lace, pleated neckline, ribbon roses and bows.

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More close-ups:

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The back of the dress features Watteau pleats in the robe a la francaise style. Historically, these would be sewn into the back of the dress but I made mine detachable so I could iron it. It reminds me of a super-hero cape!

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Here’s the back of the neck:

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The dress is two parts (an underskirt and an overdress). The underskirt’s hem has wide venise lace, which is also used for the sleeve cuffs on the overdress.

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The overskirt is edged with floral venise lace and little ribbon flowers. (It took a very long time to sew everything on by hand). The big silk flowers were salvaged from the vintage wedding dress.

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I wore the ensemble at a GBACG fashion show, along with vintage leather gloves with cutouts, and a sculpted clay tiara (that I had worn for my wedding).

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All the fabric for this dress was taken from a vintage silk wedding dress I found in a thrift shop. The middle panel with the beading was taken intact but all pieces of fabric in my dress were recut by me. Here’s a picture of it before I took it apart.

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It was an early 90s dress with a V back, puffed sleeves and a long waist.Image

Look at all that fabric in the train!

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I also used the lining from the dress to line my dress. I already had the venise lace and roses, so this project was very economical compared to buying many yards of new silk. This fabric was also very nice to work with. It is very crisp, ironed well and holds its shape. I would like to work with more silk taffeta in the future if I can find another cheap source of it!

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