Tag Archives: Downton Abbey

Costume College 2015 Friday

Posted on August 10, 2015 by freshfrippery

Friday was the first day of classes at Costume College! For the morning several of us dressed in our Downton Abbey maid costumes, and attended our very first class, a panel hosted by Lauren Stowell of American Duchess, Abby Cox of Colonial Williamsburg, Cathy Hay of Your Wardrobe Unlock’d, and Mela Hoyt-Hayden, milliner and costumer.

I previously posted more pictures and details about my outfit here.I was very excited to see Jen Thompson’s Grey Lady of Ravenclaw costume!

And Loren’s Rita Skeeter costume, complete with a moving Quick Quotes Quill, was another great Harry Potter costume!

I only wore my maid outfit for a few hours, because I changed into casual clothes for my Pomatum, Powder, Cushions, and Caps! class, taught by Abigail Cox, Janea Whitacre, and Nicole Rudolph. It was a great class, and we all left with a cushion for an 18th century hairstyle of our choosing, and powder and pomatum supplies. Plus, we had hair ready for the Friday Night Social!

The lighting washed out the details on my dress, but it is a silk dress inspired by 18th century fashion, but in a shortened version. It has faux pearl beading, lace, and silk and ribbon flowers, with a sack back super hero cape! I wore it with brand new, super pretty Dunmores from American Duchess. Abby helped me a lot with my hair.

Here is a slightly better photo, taken at home. I made this dress a while back, but this was the first time I wore it with panniers instead of round petticoats.

There were so many gorgeous outfits worn that Friday night! Here are Rebecca, Breanna, and Lauren, spanning several time periods.

Gretchen’s bustle dress was so sporty.

Amanda, Natalie, and Kaila always look lovely.

Abby’s large hat was full of awesome.Aimee and Loren wore beautiful Game of Thrones dresses.It was great to see Nicole’s jacket in person!Katherine’s entire ensemble was quite pretty.More of my photos can be seen at my Flickr account.

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Downton Abbey Edwardian Maid Dress (Part 3) Finished!

Posted on July 7, 2015 by freshfrippery

My Downton Abbey Edwardian maid outfit is finished! It was actually completed last week, but I didn’t have time to take and post photos.

Here are the front, side, and back views with the apron on:

Here are close-ups of the top and bottom of the apron, featuring the same antique lace:

The lace on the collar and cuffs are the same, and also antique lace purchased in the same lot as the apron lace.

Here is the dress by itself. Although I originally thought of using wool, I ended up using black Kaufman Kona cotton, which I found to be decently thick, and a good value. I made the fabric-covered buttons using a button cover kit.

I used Butterick B6229 pattern for the dress (but not the apron), which I recommend. I found the pattern to be true to size, and the pieces fit together nicely. I used the pattern mostly as-is, with a few small changes:

I made the cuffs smaller. I found them to be disproportionately large compared to my small hands.
I shortened the height of the collar. If I followed the pattern the collar would be rather tall, and cover most of my neck. Although you can find old photos of Edwardian maids with similarly high collars, I wanted the shorter collars featured on the show.
I lengthened the belt an inch or two; I found it a little short.

I normally don’t pay full price for a Big 3 pattern, but it was so new it was not in my local Joann’s or being sold for cheap on eBay, so I had to order it online. However, given how easy it was to work with I think it was worth it!

For the headpiece I sewed two pieces of antique lace together and gathered the center.

I sewed wig clips to the back to hold them in my hair. Project total costs:

Antique lace: $16.95 + $2.50 shipping (from Etsy)
Butterick pattern: $12.50 + $5.58 shipping and tax (from butterick.com)
5 yards black Kaufman Kona cotton: $24.82 including tax (It’s normally $5.98/yard from Fabric.com but I had a coupon, free shipping bundled with other items, and a bonus half yard for free)
3 yards white cotton broadcloth: $8.24 including tax (normally $2.98/yard at Fabric.com)
Button cover kit: $5.75 + $2.25 shipping (from Etsy; I still have buttons left over)

Total cost: $78.59. (I still have 2 yards white cotton, and a lot of lace and buttons left over for another project).

See parts 1 and 2 for more details.

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Posted in Costume College 2015, Downton Abbey and tagged costume, Costume College 2015, Downton Abbey, sewing. Bookmark the permalink.

Downton Abbey Edwardian Maid Dress (Part 2)

Posted on June 12, 2015 by freshfrippery

The apron for my Downton Abbey maid dress is finished! I made the bulk of it over the weekend, but decided to change the straps a little last night.

Although I am planning to use Butterick B6229 for the dress, I did not use a pattern for the apron. The Butterick pattern relies on ruffles and pintucks to add visual interest to the apron, but I wanted to use antique lace accents. You can see in the picture below that there is quite a lot of variation between the aprons on the show. There are different hem lengths, and different ways to arrange the lace on the upper part.

I sewed 3 strips of insertion lace into a V shape, then placed another strip of lace across the top, to make the center of the apron top. I then used 2 long pieces of wide lace to finish off the sides.

The bottom of the apron is about 44 inches wide. (I used the width of the fabric I had, which happened to be the same width as the lace left over from the top part of the apron). I added lace on the hem because it’s pretty, and to save me a few rows of pintucks! Pintucks aren’t difficult to do; I just avoid them because I’m a little OCD and it bugs me when they’re not perfectly straight and even.

Most of the aprons on Downton Abbey have plain, pintucked hems, but some have lace, like Ethel’s on the far right.

Instead of having two sets of ties (at the waist and upper back) I used one very long pair of ties. (They are about 2 inches wide, and 60 inches long, and probably too long). They come out of the shoulder lace, criss-cross on the back, go into loops sewn into the waistband, then tie at the waist. This way I only have one set of ties to worry about, and the straps across the back will hopefully stay more neatly arranged.

I wasn’t fond of the way the back looked in its first iteration . . .. . . so I pleated the lace where the straps meet, and I think it looks much better.

See Part 1 here.

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Posted in Costume College 2015, Downton Abbey and tagged costume, Downton Abbey, maids, sewing. Bookmark the permalink.

Downton Abbey Edwardian Maid Dress (Part 1)

Posted on May 31, 2015 by freshfrippery

My next project is an Edwardian maid dress, inspired by Downton Abbey. I plan to use a recently released pattern (Butterick B6229).

I couldn’t find a lightweight wool I liked so I ordered some black Kaufman Kona cotton from Fabric.com. My order came with this cute sticker on it!

I ended up with an extra half yard for free! I also bough white cotton broadcloth for the apron. It was a very bright white, so I ended up tea-dyeing it, then washing it in Oxiclean to get rid of the excess color. It still appears white, but no longer looks so stark next to the antique laces I am using. The fabric on the right is my broacloth, next to some pure white fabric voile for comparison. I purchased a group of 20s and 30s lace trims from Etsy, that I will be using on the apron bodice, the maid’s cap, and the collar and cuffs of the dress. If there is enough I might use it on the hem of the apron, since I really dislike doing pintucks. I hope this will be a very comfortable day time outfit for Costume College!