1870's Blue Bustle Ball Gown

I have actually been working on several projects and have been pretty terrible about posting them. So after a few "reminders" from people who don't actually follow blogs I promised I would do a better job. I thought I was curious... I never used to even read blogs except if I was pretty bored or if I was researching something specific and I could find a good dress diary about it. Now I find myself jumping to familiar blogs and mumbling under my breath about nothing "new" to read about..

I've been working on a bustle gown for a little less than two weeks off and on. Some of my inspirations are based on the Gowns designed by Charles Worth. Here is one of my favorites. This is a gown from 1872 which is the time period which I am basing my gown on.

I really liked the lines of trim on the underskirt of the Worth Gown, so I incorporated that look into my gown. I chose pleated trim with lace. I will have darker blue rouching above the trim. I found the trim on sale at Joann's for $.29 per yard and so I bought it all. To my dismay there was not enough to do more than two full rows of trim. So I will have a matching blue ruffle on the bottom of the overskirt and also the darker blue rouching.

Below are a couple of pictures of where I am with this gown. I apologize for the poor quality in pictures. I will get newer/better ones soon. These were the only ones I took at this stage, and my other lamp for the sewing room with MIA.

Here is the underskirt and side drape over skirt. Both patterns are from Truly Victorian. I love their patterns and have used several of them.

The back view shows the sashes that are part of this overdrape. I had some embroidered silk left over from a Renaissance gown that I made, and by some I mean over 5 yards... I thought it would look really cute peeking out, to my dismay the cream of the silk is off from the off white of the cotton that I lined the rest with. I couldn't bring my self to tear out that many stitches and redo it so my OCD just has to deal.

Unfortunately this gown is going on the back burner. I have other commitments so I will not be attending the event I was making for. Instead I will be focusing on my October projects. These include: finishing Anton's Hat, making an 18th century costume for my son, making an Irish outfit for Ashlin, and completing at least one of the Renaissance gown for myself for Folsom Faire. Also the vaulting team may need repairs or new items. I will try to remember to keep this up to date. Blogging is not my strong point.

Anton's hat...almost finished

Here is what the actual hat that I'm attempting to make looks like.

Here is my hat so far... The wool isn't staying as still as I would like, some starch will most likely help.

Top of the hat

Inside of the hat

As you can see, It needs to be lined and the bottom edge of the sheepskin turned up with the lining. I will then starch the heck out of it so it can be molded a bit more. I made this hat from scratch without a pattern so I'm fairly happy with it in general, however there is definately room for improvements. Also most of this had to be completely hand sewn so it took a bit longer than I had expected. It has been a good companion during the few television shows that I watch. Hopefully it measures up for Anton.

New bustle gown in the works

Ok, I am actually going to move my sewing blog from Live journal and leave my live journal for more about my horses, kids, and non sewing hobbies.

Current projects I am working on include a Hat for Anton and I started a bustle gown and a costume for Robert for the Halloween Gaskells.

This update is mostly about my bustle gown.

Originally it was supposed to be a polonaise gown like this one. This is actually one of the patterns that I have although I was going to alter it and change it up just a tad.

Here is the fabric that I was going to use. I found it at Triad on sale!

So I was going to find a nice blue or even a yellow for the underskirt and trims. Well Joanns had a sale on silk taffeta and I saw a nice blue that I thought would look perfect. Let me tell you I learned several lessons from buying that fabric. One I will not order fabric that I want to match with something online again. Two I will not order from Joann.com again, they had the worst customer service ever and when I went to track my package their system told me it had been delivered to Abu Dabi. I'm not kidding, it really said that. Also the silk was not nearly the quality that I would have preferred. The fabric came and the color was totally off.

However, the color itself was very nice. So I put the plaid polonaise aside for not and started on a different concept for a bustle gown.

Here is the beginning of the front apron. As you can see, the color is completely wrong. It was much darker in the picture on the website.

More to come later....