PoF 5 Stays – Progress

Posted by Atelier Nostalgia

My first post about this project was back in 2019, when I patterned them. They aren’t done yet, not quite. However, they are at the stage where I can wear them, so it’s time for an update post!

A little comparison, how my stays look right now, next to their main inspiration:

In my last post about these, I left off with finalizing the pattern, and selecting my fabric. After cutting out the pieces, I set to work sewing the boning channels.

I took them with me to New Zealand when I was there for 2 months, and managed to finish about 2 panels (including one of the bigger front ones).

I sewed the lines with one ‘dummy’ 4mm bone in to make sure to get the distances right, and using waxed linen thread. Because I was sewing through 3 layers, I couldn’t put the needle in-out-in in one go, but rather every stitch was made separately.

For the following years, the stays became the type of project I picked up on occasion, working my way through the boning channels. However, it never had priority because of the lack of deadline, and I didn’t want a deadline because of how much work it still was.

So safe to say, it took a while to get to the end. I found I don’t actually have any pictures between me sewing lines in panel nr. 6 end of 2020 and starting the eyelets in summer of 2023, but somewhere between those I finally finished sewing the channels.

The eyelets were next, mostly because I wanted to be able to try the stays on, even if only a little bit with the panels still pinned together. These were hard work, mostly because trying to make a hole in 4 layers of linen canvas and 2 of wool with an awl was an absolute pain. I used 2 different awls, one smaller one to start the hole and a bigger one to make sure it got big enough in the end.

When the eyelets were done, I could start the main construction. This was quite exciting, as it finally (after 4 years) felt like I was actually making something come together, rather than just prepping.

First though, all the panels needed to be boned. This was actually a fairly substantial tasks given that the stays are fully boned with 4mm synthethic whalebone. All edges are melted to remove sharpness, and then pushed in. They’re quite tight in the channels, so it took some wrangling in places.

The seam allowances were then folded flat, and whipped to stay very flat in place with thin thread. After that, the panels were put edge to edge and basted with a big-small stitch pattern in thicker thread. And finally, the two panels are whipped together in doubled thick thread.

This took pliers, because with the doubled thread and sewing through 12 layers of fabric (including 8 linen canvas layers), my hands weren’t strong enough to pull the needle through anymore.

I sewed a couple of seams, leaving the sides to the last. I did fit the stays with some edges pinned together. I couldn’t lace them fully at the bottom because the pins would bend and come out (yes, pins were harmed during the making of this project, needles too). But it gave me some idea of the fit, and I did decide to take in the top just a smidge on the side.

After that, panels sewing could continue and the pliers came out again. The last bit to finish was the little ‘dart’ between the back and side back panel. It’s a little bit odd to see in the pattern, but what this basically does is that it holds the back in a bit, so it curves with your body better.

The first fitting after everything was sewn together was quite exciting, as this was the first time in 4 years I could actually properly fit this things. My mock-up wasn’t fully boned, and I did slightly shift sizes up and down in the past four years, but they fit really nicely! You can see a slight tilt in the back, which is probably due to one of my hips being 1cm higher than the other due to a longer leg (I get the same thing on busks in Victorian corsets). I chose not to adjust for that in this pattern (it was complicated enough as is), so this might just be something that will stay. I know where it comes from, and it’s not something that causes discomfort.

On that high note, I could start the binding. The top is bound with a cotton ribbon. The bottom, with a thin strip of soft chamois leather. For both top and bottom, I decided to run a small machine stitch right on the edge of the boning, which is there mostly to keep the bones in check. The binding is stitched on top, so this won’t be visible. Originals are mostly whipped around the edges, but I was afraid of my wool fraying a bit (I didn’t have anything in the house to stop that), and this seemed like a good way to save some time while keeping the fully hand-stitched look.

The binding can then be stitched on a bit more loosely, as it doesn’t need to keep the boning in place, just protect the edges. The top was fairly quick, the bottom obviously not as those include lovely sharp turns. Slow going does the trick though, and not trying to lay the binding flat on the right side also helps.

I was working full speed on these near the end of last year to get them wearable for an event, but unfortunately that was moved until much later. With that, the mojo disappeared a little again, and I stopped half-way through the binding to focus on the 1850-60s dresses for my visit to Bath.

After that visit was done, I decided to pick them back up again and make sure that the binding was finished. A couple of evenings saw the binding all sewn to the outside, and a couple more also finished on the inside.

So now the stays are officially wearable! They aren’t fully finished though, as there’s seam covering tape, reinforcement with buckram, busk/bust rail pockets and lining still to do. However, it’s really great to see these coming along. Because they’re now at the point where I can actually wear them, I can also start working on garments to go over them as I know at least fairly closely how they’ll fit. I’ve been putting off 18th century projects until these were done, so it’s exciting to go back to this century again. I’ve just finished my first ‘new’ 18th century project (for that ball which was moved), and I’ve actually worn the stays for a couple of hours for a photo shoot. Happy to report they’ve proven pretty comfortable so far!

Edwardian summer

Posted by Atelier Nostalgia

Beginning of August, I went away with friends for a weekend in Edwardian finery. While I have quite a bit of Edwardian pieces by now (or very late Victorian stuff that can pass), the majority is silk or wool, and not the most suitable for hot weather. So for this event, I wanted to make a new summer outfit. My main inspiration were dresses with pleats over the shoulder and lace inserts in the neckline, such as these:

For this dress, the pattern is in Patterns of fashion, which can be quite useful.

I also really like the style-lines of this one, especially with the shorter sleeves, wider pleats, and little contrast revers. It’s not the most summer-y in color, but you can imagine it in a pastel with white underneath instead of grey.

MNHS – Dress of gray floral print silk – 1905 – 1909

This dress has a slightly fancier bodice with more small tucks, which wasn’t my main goal, but I do really like the sweep of this skirt style. I’ve finally gotten myself a skirt lifter, which means it’s become more feasible to wear a trained skirt without having to constantly watch it.

MNHS – Grey silk poplin afternoon dress – 1908-1910

With this style in mind, I went looking for the perfect color fabric. I wanted something summer-like, but not too sweet. In the end, I went looking for a pale grey-blue color, as that’s one I like, and I know looks good on me. Multiple swatches were ordered, and many were a bit too bright, but I eventually found one.

Swatches! I went with the bottom option in the end, as I liked the slightly more muted tone.

For the skirt, I decided to go with a partial circle. Most skirts in this era are about 2/3 of a circle in circumference. Some then divide this into separate panels to create a little further shape, but you do also just see skirts with 2 panels, one left and one right. This is what I went for in this case, along with a fully fitted waist (so without pleats). I had to piece the fabric a bit in the back for the train, as this is a really big pattern piece, but they would have done this in the past as well.

The rest of the skirt is fairly simple, it’s attached to a waistband at the top, has a slit center back as opening, and a self-fabric facing which is stitched down by hand as a hem. The only downside to this style is that it’s hard to put in a pocket, as there’s only a center front and center back seam. But it does give a really nice sweep and shape with a super simple pattern.

For the bodice, I started with the TVE43 – 1908 Surplice Jumper, which is a loose over-bodice style. I fiddled around with the pattern to add a v-shape in the back as well and narrow the overlap in the front. My original idea was to make this a full pattern and use lace inserts in the neckline. However, after fiddling around with the pattern (i.e. struggling) I went back to my books. Patterns of Fashion shows that the pink inspiration dress has a fitted inner bodice lining, and I suspect that’s the only way to really make this style work if you sew the over-part and lace inserts together. I didn’t want to go through this trouble, also because that’d mean adding more layers, so back to the drawing board.

In the end, I went through my stash and decided to just make the over-bodice on top of an antique blouse I own. I’ve never worn the blouse on its own as the back waistline is too short. With a regular skirt, there’d be a gap in the back. However, with an over-bodice it will actually be wearable, and it’s a really lovely piece.

For the sleeves, I took the short sleeves from the pattern and made some small pintucks to add some interest. They were a bit wider than I’d thought about initially, but I actually quite like the extra volume.

I wanted a deep V back and front for the overlay. However, if you do this with a very loose over-bodice (which you want to get the typical Edwardian blousey shape), it will slip off your shoulders. So I knew I wanted a panel in the back to keep everything together. The front of the antique blouse is very nice, but the back is just a button band which can be hidden.

I had an antique v-shaped piece with lace and pin-tucks which I sewed in the bodice. It was a bit too long, so I rolled it up at the bottom to make it fit without having to cut it. You can barely see it’s a part of the over-bodice when it’s on, but it gives a really nice back detail.

This was a relatively simple ensemble, but it was lovely to wear, and with the sweeping skirt and antique blouse it has quite a bit of impact. It’s always nice to have something for the hotter days, so a good addition to the Edwardian wardrobe!

I wore this on a weekend away with friends, and made use of the lovely place we were staying for some pictures. Thanks to Birthe for lending me both the belt and the hat, and making the pictures.

1860s Summer dress

Posted by Atelier Nostalgia

In my previous post I showed the inspiration behind the summer dress, and once I knew what I wanted to make, it was time actually make the thing!

A peek at the finished dress, pictures courtesy of Timelight Photographic. Read on for the making off.

In the 1860’s, you start seeing more gored skirt patterns. However, there are still rectangle patterns as well, and I opted to go with one of those to make it easier on myself. I cut a large rectangle from my fabric, sewed the seams, and then the top was pleated to fit the waist. I used knife pleats towards the back, with a box pleat in the middle for the front. The back was then cartridge pleated to have a bit more fullness in the back. I first folded over the edge (for all pleats), and then ran three threads through to form the cartridge pleats. The woven check pattern on the fabric made it wonderfully easy to have the lines spaced out neatly!

When the top was pleated, it was sewn to a waistband. I interlined the waistband as the fabric is quite flimsy, and the cartridge pleats were sewn one one by one by hand.

For the hem, I determined the length on my dummy over the crinoline, then sewed on a wide white hem facing. This was ironed to the wrong side, the top folded over, and then hand-stitched to the main fabric to finish the hem.

After adding closures, the skirt was done! It doesn’t have any trimmings, so was fairly quick to make.

For the bodice, I started with the lining, which I also first made the mock-up out of. I used a white cotton lining for the bodice, which is actually a bit lower in the neckline than the outer bodice will be. For this reason, the neckline was finished first with a bit of bias binding. The back and sides have the same shape as the outer bodice, while the front bodice is a ‘regular’ pattern which meets & overlaps on the center front line.

The outer fabric of the front is a cross-over, so this I patterned first. This was the fit-check, to see whether it would work over the lining. I was quite happy with how closely I could fit it over the lining, so after tracing the location of waistline and neckline, I transferred this to paper as a a pattern.

The front was prepared before cutting, so I sewed all the pintuck lines first. This makes it much easier to determine the final size, as the tucks eat up fabric. When I’d sewn tucks into a good bit of fabric, I only then cut out the pattern. I followed the woven check pattern again when sewing the tucks, which was wonderful. It’s so much easier with a woven-in stripe to make straight lines, and these were the perfect size.

The front panel was sewn to the lining at the sides and shoulders, and then to the back/side panels of the bodice. I finished the bottom of the bodice by sewing it to a waistband, and the front/back by folding over the edge and sewing it down.

Then it was time for sleeves. The basic sleeves were the standard 2-piece sleeve pattern of the period. I experimented a bit to figure out how to get the little decorated sleeve puffs that were on the original I was copying. In the end, I ended up with a 3-piece pattern which is sewn together. The edges are rounded, so there is ‘extra’ fabric in the middle of the petal shape. When steamed a bit (without pressing down!), the fabric crumbles on itself to form a bit of decorative pleating/bulging. The edges were hemmed by hand first, and then lace was stitched around the outside.

The little puffs were sewn to the top of the sleeve, after which the sleeve was set in. My puffs turned out a bit wider than in the original, and they overlap a little, but I actually quite like that look.

And then it was time for closures! The lining of some originals I’ve seen was laced closed, or had hooks and eyes. However, I figured pinning would work just as well, and it gives easier adjustability in size. I don’t know how common pinning still was in fashionable clothes in the 19th century, but it was definitely used in the 18th century just fine. As no-one would see these, I opted for convenience.

The cross over front then hooks to the lining next to the side seam of the lining on the side that goes under, and to the waistband on the side that goes on top.

The final step was to add lace to the neckline. I actually ended up having exactly enough of this lace from my stash to also go around the bottom of the sleeves to finish it off. I hadn’t measured it up front, so that was a lucky accident.

And then she was all done! I wore the dress for the dance practice in Bath, as well as the Sunday morning after the ball. On Sunday it was a little chillier, so I paired it with my crocheted sontag when we were outside.

Pictures from the dance workshop:

And of the walk through Bath on Sunday

1860s summer day dress – inspiration

Posted by Atelier Nostalgia

When I finished my 1850’s ballgown 10 days before I left for the UK, I decided that might just be enough time to also make myself a new day dress.

I’ve been planning an 1860’s sheer cotton summer dress for a while, initially mostly with the idea to wear it to summer picknicks. However, Bath would also be a perfect opportunity to wear it, so I figured I’d try. I always knew I could also wear my ca. 1850 mourning gown again for the day events if I didn’t finish, which helped with the stress.

Although I ended up using one main dress as inspiration, I did look at a lot of sheer summer dresses over cinrolines when planning this project, and thought I’d share a couple here.

My main inspiration was this original gown.

There seem to be two sets of images of this, though neither is very high quality. Below is the second set of images. Different angles & background, but the placement of the pattern shows it’s the same dress.

I sort of suspect these are both auction images, and I don’t know where the dress is now. I haven’t been able to find a good source for either set of pictures.

What I really like about this dress is how it’s relatively simple, yet has some interest up top with the pintucks and crossover bodice. The 1860’s saw quite a lot of sheer summer gowns, and they are usually printed cottons or woven patterns, with fairly simple designs.

This is one with a very similar fabric, but more standard bodice which buttons up in the front. You can see in both of these examples that there’s a white lining. What isn’t visible, is if this is a part of the dress, or a petticoat and corset cover put on underneath on the dummy.

I’ve seen some examples which seem to show a fully sheer bodice and skirt, such as this one:

However, most are displayed over some form of underbodice, as they would have been worn. It’s hard to say whether this is always a part of the dress, but I found at least two examples which clearly seem to show a sewn-in lining for the bodice.

The first is this one, which happily includes some pictures of the inside, found via an auction page.

Although not 100% conclusive, these images seem to show the lining being part of the dress, and lacing in the front underneath the closure of the outer part.

The other I could find is this one:

This dress seems to show a lining which hooks shut sewn into the bodice.

A peek at the skirt seems to show the skirt isn’t lined. That makes sense, a gown like this would always be worn over petticoats and hoops anyway, so there’s very little need to add bulk in the skirt by adding a lining for that part.

That is echoed in this dress, which seems to show the same ‘bodice lining only’. Although they could, technically, have displayed it with a corset cover, but a black petticoat, this doesn’t make the most sense to me. In this case, the petticoat probably would’ve just been white as well. The main reason for a black petticoat is to show how sheer the dress is.

Most examples so far have been white or printed on white, but you definitely do also see colored dresses! While the sheer-ness is sometimes a bit less clear, they come in a whole range of colors.

White was a very popular choice though, something you also see in portraits of the period.

You also see them in photographs. Interestingly, I actually found a number of very dark ones in photographs, even though the extant ones are mostly white. It might be that they were colors which turned dark in the photography, but I do also quite like the idea of a sheer black dress.

To finish off this post, some other favourites! Next post will be about the making of my version.

1850’s ballgown project – final touches

Posted by Atelier Nostalgia

It’s time for the final post about the 1850’s ball gown. You can find the posts about the skirt and the bodice here, if you want to catch up.

After finishing the bertha the bodice was wearable, and I turned my attention back to the skirt for decorating, as that was left plain before.

The plan was to use the two antique black lace pieces to decorate the skirt. In the planning phase, I’d already roughly determined where on the skirt they would sit height-wise.

Because I want the lace to be removable, I decided to stitch it on by hand. This makes it a little easier to take out if that situation arises. The top was gathered slightly by machine, pinned on at the right height and distributed around evenly (that sounds quicker than it was, it always takes some fiddling).

I wanted to cover the top of the lace in white trim, to hide the edges and add a bit of interest. I went looking for inspiration online, and found this image:

And then I realized I actually own the book it was from, so I got that out, and looked up how to recreate it. The trim making took quite a bit of time, as it needed two lines of stitching, plus a row of gathering, and then the actual gathering up. Given that it had to go around the skirt twice, I believe I started with about 10meters of original cut fabric.

When it was done, it was sewn on top of the lace. This I did do by machine, as the silk layers would’ve been harder to stitch through by hand. Although the trim would also need to come off when removing the lace, you could pull on the trim first to get the machine stitching out, in a way you wouldn’t be able to pull the antique lace.

With the lace added, the skirt was fully finished! It makes a large difference for the final look. At this point, I decided that I did want to add some bows from my inspiration picture to the bodice.

But I also had a look at this image, which is a movie costume, but a very good one, and I liked the contrast edging around the bows.

So I decided to add this as well, which of course added quite a bit of complexity to the bows, the tails in particular. The main bows just have the white edge sandwiched between layers, but for the tails there’s corners to go around, and I ended up cutting it as bias edges to shape around the edges.

There’s quite a bit of steps involved, but it does make for clean corners.

The final touch was to add something to the inner neckline. You often see lace or pleated tulle in these types of bodices. I ended up adding a bit of eyelet lace with a narrow black ribbon through it for contrast. It can be pulled in a bit when worn, which is helpful with these off the shoulder looks.

And then she was well and truly done! I didn’t actually put everything on all together until the evening of the ball, but it fit nicely. I was a little bit scared of stepping on the hem, and the lace in particular, when dancing more actively, but it was fine length wise. So to conclude, some pictures of the ball itself. It was a lovely evening, with many wonderful people and beautiful outfits. Many thanks to Izabella from Prior Attire for hosting the event, and to Lucas from Timelight Photography for the pictures.

1850’s Ballgown project – Bodice

Posted by Atelier Nostalgia

After finishing the skirt base of my 1850’s ballgown, I turned to the bodice. I wanted to get this done before starting the skirt decorations just in case, as a bodice is more crucial for a wearable dress than skirt decorations

My main inspiration was this fashion plate. The skirt will be very similar, and I like how the bodice echoes the lace theme from the skirts, but includes a little extra interest in form of the bows.

I started from a TV 1860’s day dress pattern, as that’s what I had. After sewing the main base, I realized that in this era many ballgowns actually don’t follow quite the same pattern lines as the day bodices. While most era’s just take the same basic pattern but with a lower neckline, 1850’s/’60s ballgown bodices actually have a full ‘princess’ seam from close to center front to the top. The day-bodices have two darts instead of the one full seam, probably because they come up much higher.

It’s the difference between this (notice the seams running very close to the center front).

And this. Note the two seams starting further out from the center front, and stopping at the bust. Those are the darts.

You do see some evening bodices with the darts though, so I’m not too upset that I followed such a pattern. This is a good example. Although you cannot see how far up the seams go, it does look like 2 darts.

As usual, I started by making a mock-up of my interlining fabric (white cotton) to check the fit, and draw in where I wanted the neckline & waistline as I’m changing those from the original pattern. Then, I flatlined the silk to the cotton pieces. I left a really roomy side seam to allow the bodice to be taken out at a later date.

Before sewing the side seam, I finished the bottom edges with double piping. By piping first and then finishing the last seam, you make it a lot easier to take this out in the future. I make double piping by first encasing two narrow cords on two sides of the same strip of fabric. Then this is folded double and stitched so the two cords are nestled together. Then, the piping is sewn to the right side, the allowance flipped to the wrong side, the bodice is trimmed to the edge and it’s hand-sewn in place.

The Bertha is the pleated part at the top of many bodices from the 1830’s to 1870’s. In the ’50s and ’60s, these are very often pleated. However, sometimes they just look like pleats, but are made out of bias cut strips of fabric sewn to a base. I wanted a slightly curved style, which is much easier to do with the bias strips, so I went that route. I first patterned the base by pinning fabric on top of my bodice and tracing the shape. I then slightly gathered the top of folded bias strips to cover the cotton base, and sewed left & right sides together It was lined by sewing the lining piece around the edges and turning it inside out. I did this for front and back separately, and then sewed them together on one shoulder. The other shoulder is left open, as my bodice closes center back and you need to undo the bertha on one side to put it on.

At this point, my sewing machine broke down and the thread at the bottom kept looping up. I took it to the repair shop (service might also have been overdue…), and in the meantime started the hand-sewn eyelets in the back. The back is boned with synthethic whalebone to create some stability, and the eyelets are staggered for spiral lacing. Although corsets in this era are typically laced straight (eyelets directly across each-other), many ballgown bodices still show spiral lacing.

As the machine repair was going to take a little while (at the time of writing it’s still at the shop…), I was lucky enough to be able to borrow my mother’s machine for a bit. I had this machine for about 5 years before getting my own, so it was easy enough to get re-aquainted. I made little capped sleeves (which will mostly be hidden), with piping on the bottom edge, and set these in the bodice.

I finished the Bertha with a little fabric strip center front & back. You see this in originals, and the main reason to add it was that the pleats were just a tiny bit off in lining up beneath that. I decided to add black piping for a little contrast up top, and I like how it balances everything. The bertha is sewn to the neckline with small stitches, except on the left back panel where it’s loose so you can undo it. It hooks/snaps onto the shoulder to close.

It was also time to add the lace to the bottom! I had another piece of antique lace which was the perfect length. As I don’t really like cutting antique laces, this was perfect. However, it was a little bit too wide. I ended up folding it over, so it actually looks like it’s two tiers hanging down, and sewing it on the fold. I think it looks quite deliberate, and it saves the lace piece as it was!

With adding some boning center front (can’t have the point flipping up), the bodice was wearable! At this point I went back to the skirt for decorations. I did actually add bows to the bodice in the end, so I’ll share those together with the skirt trimmings in the next post.

1850’s ballgown project – skirt pattern & base

Posted by Atelier Nostalgia

For the Victorian ball in Bath in May, I’ll be making a ball gown out of white silk and black lace. It’s the perfect opportunity to finally use some of the antique lace I’ve had in my stash for a while.

Something like this is the plan:

However, I am somewhat limited by the antique lace that I have. I have one very wide piece 4,8m long, and one, slightly less wide, piece which is almost 3m long.

Most 1850’s skirts are rectangles, and have a hem circumference of about 4,5-5m. But this means that any piece of lace which goes all the way around the skirt also needs to be at least 4,5m long, or even a bit more. It’s prettier if the lace is every so slightly gathered at the top. My longer piece of lace has that, but the shorter one definitely doesn’t reach that length.

So the ‘simple’ method of using a rectangle and slightly gathering the lace in tiers won’t work, as my lace isn’t enough for that.

My back-up plan is to do something like this, but with two tiers instead:

This fashion plate is a little earlier (late 1840’s), but the way the lace on the blue dress is positioned would still work for the 1850’s. Although the ’50s loves tiered skirts, this seems like a good back-up plan.

However, the other option to get around this, is to draft a gored skirt instead. This means that the skirt is made up of rectangle-like panels which are narrower towards the top, and wider towards the bottom. I’d still get the ca 4,5-5m hem circumference to fit around the hoop, but towards the top, where the shorter lace will go, the skirt will also be narrower.

This type of construction is more common for the 1860’s than the 1850’s, but I did find some examples of round hoop patterns which seem to use this, so it’s plausible for a late 1850’s ensemble.

So, next up was to see: 1) what would the skirt gores need to look like for my narrow lace to fit? And 2) would this pattern still look ‘full’ enough around my hoop, and not be too narrow. I definitely want to avoid having a hoop too large for the skirt, and getting the look of skimping on materials.

I can imagine my process in figuring this out might be helpful for others, so I’ll take you through this step by step! There’s a little math involved, but don’t worry, it’s nothing more complex than multiplying or dividing things by 3.

To figure out 1), I drew a 3-gore pattern. I want at least 4,5m hem, so with 3 gores that means 1,5m per gore at the bottom. I want the top of the skirt to be at least 3x my waist size, so that I can pleat the fabric at the top fully. My corseted waist is about 70cm. I have 3 gores, so that means at least 70m at the top per gore. However, ideally, the top is a little bit more to allow for cartridge pleats at the back, which take a bit more fabric. So I chose to make the top of the gores 80cm in my drawing. See the red parts for the main pattern.

Next up was to determine roughly where on the pattern the lace would sit. For this, I pinned the lace to the petticoat on top of my hoop, playing until I liked the rough height of it, and then measured where the top edge sat.

Roughly pinning things in place to check the height of the lace. I’ve got a piece of silk just pinned underneath, to get a glimpse at how it’ll look together.

For the top lace, I ended up around 20cm below the waistline, and for the bottom around 60cm below the waistline. From this, I guess I could technically calculate how wide the gores would be around that point, but that’d take a lot of math. I’m not against that per definition, but just measuring my little scale pattern was a LOT easier, and gives me good enough an approximation. I drew the lace ‘lines’ on, see the blue highlights. Basically, for the top lace I measured about 90cm per panel, makes 2,8m. So that’s actually quite perfect for my 2,8m length of lace! This particular piece is actually slightly curved so it’s shorter at the top, so it should still hang over the skirt well even though it’s wider at the bottom of the lace. For the bottom, it’d be around 3,5m, which I already knew would work for the 4,8m length (as the hem is a little less than that).

So now I knew this pattern would theoretically work with the lace! Next up was figuring out if this pattern would still look good around my hoop. I didn’t want to cut anything to make a mock-up, though, as it takes so much fabric. So I ended up taking the length of cotton which I’ll be using as lining. I pinned the gores into this fabric, so I basically made giant ‘darts’ from the top. I then pinned it into a ‘tube’ to form the skirt, and just left the additional length hanging to the inside for now. This tube I roughly pleated to waist size at the top, and then put over my hoop.

Good news: it fits! I did then also drape my lace on top to double check if my measurements on the pattern were actually correct. It’s always good to double check! This, again, seemed to work out. So with this test, I decided this would indeed be my pattern!

Testing with the lace. This is definitely the fun part, seeing how it will look!

Next step was to figure out how to cut these gores which measure 1,5 at the bottom, 80cm at the top, 1,15 high from a 90cm wide fabric… My white silk is very narrow, so a full panel doesn’t actually fit. I did want to be as efficient in cutting the silk as possible, so I made another sketch. See the green lines in the picture.

This time, I drew the width of the fabric to scale, and then as much of the gore as would fit on one width. What remained I then drew underneath. It actually came out really nicely, and if I staggered the gores, I could fit exactly 2 ‘remainders’ of the gores next to each other on one width of fabric. So basically, I need 3x the length for 2 tiers. For the remaining tier, I need 2 lengths, but there’ll be a little ‘on the side’ leftover which I can use for the bodice later. Doing it this way does mean that I’ll have a slightly ‘off-center’ seam on each skirt tier. However, a lot of the skirt fabric will be covered in lace later, so I don’t might this slight asymmetry if it makes for more efficient fabric use.

So, after all of this, I could finally actually start making the skirt!

I cut the panels whole out of cotton (1,5m wide, so that actually fits), and in 2-parts out of the silk. I stitched the silk together along the selvage to form the full gore.

Cutting the silk. You can see how narrow it is, and that it doesn’t fit the whole panel.

All panels were then flat lined. My silk is very thin, and quite see-through. I used a thinner white cotton as well, but together they give the skirt a little bit of weight. They’ll be worn over petticoats, so those’ll make up for the last bit of see-through-ness of the skirt itself.

The skirt has a pocket on the right hand side, as I will need a place to store my fan (and phone…).

Pocket in progress. The top is silk, as that might show through the slit, but the bottom won’t, so can be only cotton.

After the main construction, I first did the hemming. There’s a cotton hem facing, which is machine-sewn to the outside and then whipped to the inside.

To determine the length, I tied a piece of tape around the waist of my dummy, on top of the hoop. I roughly pleated the top, and then pulled the skirt through the tape, until it sat even at the hem. Historical skirts are often evened from the top, and this tape-pull method makes it easier to do this on the dummy.

The top of the skirt is folded over to the right height, and then pleated. I pleated until around 2inches from the center back, and then cartridge pleated the last bit towards the back.

Basically, this means running several lines of stitching (4 in this case), with exactly the same spacing, and then pulling in the threads. I used the machine stitching at the top as a guide, and did 3 machine stitches per hand-stitch. The threads are then sewn into place and kept in the skirt to keep in the pleats.

Finally, the skirt was sewn to the waistband. The cartridge pleats need to be done by hand, just catching the outside of each pleat. This way, they won’t fold flat on wearing, and will stand out from the body nicely.

A hook on the edge of the waistband, and my skirt base is done! The lace and trimming will still make quite a bit of difference in the final look, but it’s already a functional skirt.

1850 mourning – photos

Posted by Atelier Nostalgia

I’ve been wanting to do a more proper photoshoot with my 1850 mourning dress (click link to see the construction post) since wearing it for the first time in Bath last year. Although I have pictures of the event, the dress just is so perfect for a moody Victorian shoot. The breakfast/rowing pictures of Bath are amazing memories, but don’t fully fit the heavy mourning vibe.

Yesterday, I finally managed to go out, and had my partner be ‘living tripod’ (keep clicking the shutter button while I pose). The late afternoon sunlight was quite nice for pictures, and the winter foresty vibe goes really well with the full black dress. I had a lot of fun looking through these and editing, so they deserve their own post! The undersleeves and mourning veil are antiques, everything else I made. I also took out the sontag (shawl/wrap garment) I crocheted a couple of years ago, and included some shots with that.

An 1850s Crinoline cage

Posted by Atelier Nostalgia

The first step towards making an 1850’s ballgown was to create a new crinoline cage. I have an 1860’s one, but that one is elliptical and rather large. Although fun, it’s not super convenient to dance in, especially if you’re dancing with another lady also wearing one (yes, I’m speaking from experience).

So for the Victorian ball, I’m aiming for an earlier, rounder, and slightly smaller type of hoop. I decided to use the TV 1858 crinoline cage pattern, as that was what I had on hand.

The main construction is to first make the bag for the bottom, and sew the channels in place while keeping the front top open. Then next you cut all the boning, put the bottom boning in the channels in the bag, and cut the boning casing for the top. You put the bones in the casing for the top, and then make the vertical tapes. Finally, you slide the boning through the tapes, and attach the bones to themselves on the ends to form hoops.

For this project, I decided to go as easy as I could make it on myself material wise. The bag is white cotton, and the bottom hoops are 11mm steel. Since we cannot get bone casing wide enough for 11mm steels, I got 6mm steel for the top hoops, as well as bone casing meant for bra underwires.

They’re a very tight fit, but they fit, and this was easier than sewing my own boning casing.

For the vertical ribbons, I got curtain tape, which actually has little built in ‘loops’ which fit the 6mm boning in casing exactly. This means no sewing tapes, and because they’re quite tight they don’t really slide on their own, which means I didn’t even bother sewing the tapes to the bone casing except on the ends of hoop 1 and 2, which are open.

To attach the hoop ends to each-other, I opted to just use ductape. It’s not the prettiest, and doesn’t look very historical, but so far it seems to hold up fine. Again, this was what I had on hand, and was by far the easiest option, so I call that a win!

The final step is the top belt, but at this point I first needed to lengthen my tapes by a good bit. I don’t consider myself very tall, for a Dutch women I’m below average, but at 1,67m TV patterns tend to be short on me, and I needed almost 10cm at the top here as well. If you’re taller than me, I would perhaps even recommend shifting the height of the hoops as well. For me, just extending the top a bit worked fine. I haven’t made a proper ‘belt’ yet, but for now the ribbon tied in place will work. I will probably try it on when next wearing a corset for fitting, and sew on hooks to close it that way.

So the first project of 2024 is done, and that opens the door to start the actual dress!

I also might make another petticoat at some point, as my 1840’s petticoat only just reaches the top of the hoop bag, so is a bit short. For my velvet 1860’s dress I used a black petticoat, but that won’t work with the white silk, so a proper white one will be necessary.

2024 plans

Posted by Atelier Nostalgia

After the re-cap, it’s time to look ahead!

As usual, I don’t really have the full next year planned out. However, I do have some events lined up, and plans are probably going to center around those events.

I’d been working on my 1780s stays to hopefully get them wearable for an event end of January. Unfortunately, the event has been postponed until later in the year. I’m quite close on getting the stays wearable though. Just the bottom binding to finish, so I’ll probably try to do that soon anyway.

After that, the stays still need all the stiffening, the bust rail, busk pocket, seam covers on the outside, and a lining. I’ll see how far I get on those next year, but that probably will be less of a priority. Below is the original they are based on:

For the event, I had been hoping to also make a new 18th century dress. I’ll probably still be aiming to do this, but for later in the year. My plan was to finally tackle this chemise gown, for which I’ve had the perfect fabric for quite a while.

In the meantime, I’ve decided to start on my project for the Victorian ball in Bath this spring. The theme is crinoline (1850s & 60s), and although I have a 1860’s hoop, I sort of want to do 1850’s instead. As much fun as the elliptical huge hoop is, it’s not the most practical to dance in.

So first up should be a round hoop skirt. I’m not planning on copying a specific antique, but to get the idea:

On top of that, I want to use some of my wide black antique lace and white silk. The plan will be something like this rightmost dress, with the lace in tiers.

I may not have enough lace to go all way around the bottom though (my longest piece is 4m), so I might actually do something like on this dress on the right and leave the middle open.

For the breakfast after the ball, I might just re-wear the 1850 dress I wore last time. However, given time I do also have fabric for a cotton summer gown which might be nice. My fabric and inspiration are below:

Another tentative plan is a cape/wrap, which would be nice both for the ball, and for the day after in case it’s a bit chillier. I haven’t really thought of designs yet, but there’s plenty of options, and I do have a shorter bit of green wool which could work for this really nicely.

The rest of the plans will probably depend on what I feel like, and whether other events will happen. I have plenty of fabric in stash with vaguely specific ideas on what it will be, but what gets done is determined by priority and what I get excited by.

Some options to close this blog, as the dreaming is always the fun part.

I’ve got this fun cotton, which is asking to be an 1830’s day dress

I bought this half finished 18th century petticoat from someone who wasn’t going to finish it anymore, made from an antique fabric. I still need to finish it, and would love to also make a chitz jacket to go with it for a full day outfit. Something like this image?