Thoughts on 19th century things

Now that my wedding dress is done and I'm in the middle of writing thank you notes, cleaning up my house, trying to plan our honeymoon trip, and finishing the painting from before Christmas...I think it's time for some new work clothes.

I've had plenty of time to think about the things I do and do not like or agree with.  While my views on the lack of historically appropriate clothing by and large in Columbia have not changed and I certainly do not mean that everyone associated fits into that category, I have not done my part to help the matter.  I think I tried to do too much at once and in the end discovered a few things to make my agenda more do-able.  Change has to happen slowly; perhaps trying to make clothing appropriate for an "upper middle class" English or French woman was too ambitious and the people around me were not ready.  Perhaps fashions inspired by Empress Sissi were mentioned too soon for the park.  They need to be broken in gradually.

I still maintain that the park does need to make a clear cut time limit and a much more concise mission statement of what they are intending to portray.  I do believe that the portrayal of a Gold Rush era town would imply that clothing should be kept before about 1859.  I also still believe that there should be a wide variety of styles, social classes, and that not all women who worked were dirt poor wearing sack dresses.  Women had quite a lot of power, though they may not have realized it and the modern world has forgotten it.  That's one of the main lessons I took away from my Introduction to Historical Analysis class with Prof. Katz: social and gender rules of the 19th century do not necessarily work in Gold Rush California.

I've decided to strike a compromise with the state of California though.  They seem to imply that women would not have had money for nice dresses or things if they were working or living in the area.  As such, that would mean that for some unknown reason they would have been cut off from any and all literature or examples of popular dress on the Eastern seaboard of the United States and the rest of the world.  This would require women to wear fashions that were "out of date."  As such I will be creating a new dress to adhere with these new guidelines.  I shall limit my fashion interests for work to the period of 1838-1850, leaving at the least a 2 year fashion lag with the date of 1852 that my boss goes with.  I'm not saying that this would be unreasonable or improbable for real women of the Gold Rush, but I do not think it was the only option for clothing.  I will be being more conservative in my fashion choices from now on and striving for the most accurate representation that I can manage despite the fact that I still maintain that it is easier to work in a blouse and a full skirt than a regular dress.

And for now, on to the research...

Wedding final photos

photo taken by my boss

I'll try to get a making of post together sometime soon.  I think I did Margaret justice though.

I disappeared into a frothy white mess

It's been very busy at my house lately.  Between work, life, printing wedding invitations, making dresses for various events, trying to paint the ceiling, and organizing the specifics of the big day I've become exhausted.  I still have the dress to worry about.  As of now I have the lining stitched to the satin and the organza is going to be edged this morning.  After that, I can start attaching the 70 yards of satin ribbon to the hemline.  I've made considerable progress, despite the challenges of the whole thing.  Some photos to share my creation of a Princess Margaret wedding dress recreation...

blue poofiness

Been lots happening lately, just not a lot of finishing projects.  I have an 1870s day dress on the dress form right now (new work outfit), half of a wedding petticoat done, and a ton of ideas.  Plus, Dena and I will be going to the Sonora Celtic Faire in a few weeks, which requires new attire.

I had to share the photos we took of the petticoat materials: silver slipper satin and navy tulle

My shoes

Pink and Poofy c 1950

Just had to share the good sights.  I'm not completely finished yet, but I am so very excited about the results.  This is my version of Butterick's "Walk Away" dress done in beetroot party taffeta with a black organza overlay.  The petticoat is white net with beetroot taffeta ribbon.  I'm planning to wear this for my rehearsal for the wedding.  Speaking of that, we ordered the tulle and silver satin for the edging.  Only 116 more days until THE DAY.

wedding update

Butterick's B5556:  1955 design

Princess Margret's 1960 wedding dress

I bought a pattern today (couldn't resist).  While it might not be the end-all deciding factor in creating Princess Margret's dress, I think it's very close.  The bodice of the pattern is cut as two backs and two fronts, just like the original.  It has the same collar, granted the pattern is much more of a stand up style than Margret's.  The amount of ease in the pattern's bodice matches pretty close to Margret's dress.  Margret's sleeves are longer, but that could be adjusted and the pattern has a shorter skirt.  The darts are in the same place too, although Margret's dress as two additional darts on the sides.

This means that I need to make an under bodice that's strapless and either wear it as a completely separate piece or attach the two somehow.

I did a bit more looking for a base pattern for my maid of honour's dress.  Found a few viable options:

Butterick's B5603: the blue dress

Butterick's B6582 :the yellow dress

Vogue's V1094

I'm leaning more toward the Vintage Vogue pattern, although I like the others as well.  Will have to noodle on that some more.

So much to do, so little time

Well life has been busy and I have done no sewing, big surprise.  I am forcing myself to finish a project for a former coworker that I did last Halloween and I have no motivation to finish.  I'm promising myself never again to offer to make corsets for other people and never to work for such cheap wages.  It's a lethal combination; I'm convinced of it.  Not to mention that my machine needs to be serviced and I nearly broke it trying to finish this stupid thing.  Bleh.

There is big costume/sewing news though.  I get to start on my wedding dress soon.  Behold the grand scheme:

Photo from madameguillotine

photo from madameguillotine

The maid of honour's dress (can't remember where I found it though)

The plan as of now is to recreate the dress as best as possible.  I'm so excited about it and I plan to document each step of the process.