Holy hell I actually finished the Victorian project.

Alright! So, earlier this year I was hired to do some art for a card game, Moriarty's Machinations. Part of my involvement with the game was dressing up in character as Irene Adler to advertise at a couple conventions, including the Boston Festival of Indie Games. (We won the award for best indie tabletop game by the way, which was super exciting!)

It has been a long time since I posted about my Victorian costume. Check out the project's tag for all the related posts. I started it back in 2011, as an independent study course in college, and then didn't finish it after the class was done. There was only a couple things left to do by the time I got this job that required me to have a period costume, so it finally motivated me to finish.

Here's my original rendering. I think I got pretty close.

The fabric isn't authentic at all. I used a striped velveteen synthetic (it feels luxurious at least) and a heavy plum sateen (probably poly). I also didn't stick very closely to one part of the Victorian Era. The anachronisms aren't so strong that a casual observer would notice them.

Candy-colored heart-covered skirt and Victorian project news

A couple weeks ago I started this circle skirt and stopped working on it when I got to the hem, but last night I took a break from work for a few minutes and got it finished! The hem, waistband, and lapped zipper are all top stitched in pink to make it easier for myself (much less hand sewing) and add some detail at the same time. I wore it out today to run errands and got some photos while I was at it. I had made the top a while ago as well; it's sort of a fancy t-shirt.

I stopped by work dressed like this and my supervisor did a double take. It looks a whole lot different than a black shirt and jeans! Oh and the hair... that too.

Victorian project - update 3

I'm sorry I haven't been updating as much as I promised myself I would. There's so many (sometimes odd) things going on lately that sometimes I feel like I'm in an Asian drama, though that may be because I was watching one a couple weeks ago.

I have made some progress on the Victorian costume, but it still has a long way to go. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but the deadline has moved to May 26th, so at least I don't have to get this done by the end of the week!
Tonight, I made a bustle pad of sorts (following these instructions) to help fill out the back of the costume.  This is pushing it to a different year, but I'm okay with that since it makes the bodice sit better.

 
Last week (or the week before maybe), I got the back pleats of the bodice taken in, overskirt figured out, and added a waist tape to the inside of the bodice. The bodice is much lighter with the smaller pleats and feels much nicer when on, though the lining still peeks out.

Completed: Victorian hat

It is done! Well, mostly. I should sew some elastic or combs to the inside so it stays on my head better.

Here's a shot of the back to show the trim on the underside:

Before I could finish it, of course it needed to threaten me with more physical pain... I wasn't falling for it this time! (here's the previous post if you're wondering what I'm talking about). After pinning the purple trim on, I went to put the hat on my head twice, not considering the pins were sticking straight out into the inside, as seen below. Ouch! Glad I stopped myself both times, disappointed in myself that I didn't learn the first time.

The hat of pain and pattern of many pieces

In my last post, I wrote about purchasing this hat pattern from Truly Victorian and some millinery supplies. Well, the pattern came on Saturday and the supplies a day before, so I got to work on my hat all day Saturday. I probably could have finished it in a day, but got stuck because I don't have enough trim for the edge of the brim. (Why do I never have trim?)

The pattern is great though (it's not the pattern of many pieces, that one will be discussed later). I've been doing it a little differently than instructed, mostly because of the qualities of my fabric - not because I can't understand the instructions or think they make things more difficult than necessary, which can happen with commercial patterns. This fabric is not the easiest to work with, don't let its simple black appearance fool you. It's pretty drapey, so the edges of the frame were very obvious when I tried covering it. To remedy this, I added a layer of fleece over the buckram frame.

"So," you may be wondering, "how is this the hat of pain?"

Victorian project - update 2

I went shopping last week to find trim for the polka dot mermaid dress but was unsuccessful. That shopping trip didn't go very well overall - I got some bias tape for the Victorian costume, but nothing else from my list. ugh. So, I'm still stuck on the dress.
On the plus side, I made some progress on the Victorian costume last week. Except, well, the cuffs are done but sticking out oddly. I thought it was just a matter of pressing them but that didn't help. I'm not really willing to re-do them... maybe I will though. You can kind of see what I mean in these photos if you look closely.

To buy or not to buy...

Yesterday, I started thinking of some things I should probably buy soon. The biggest of these things is a dress form. I've never really wanted a dress form before because after working with the ones at the costume shop, I know my proportions don't match them very well (though, they don't match anyone very well do they?). Maybe it wouldn't really help me fit dresses and blouses, and definitely not pants, but it should help with skirts. Cutting circle skirt hems has always annoyed me because I can't keep them even. Being able to throw the skirt on a dress form would let me mark the hem with the bias stretched naturally, in theory getting a more even hem. Draping the overskirt for my Victorian costume would also be much easier. I could use it for photos of finished projects with less hassle than trying to take photos of myself. It could help with fitting and photographing commissions as well.
But...where would I put this thing? I'd need it to be accessible pretty much on a daily basis or there's no point of owning it, and I don't really have free space in my bedroom/sewing room. I guess I could move a box or two of fabric down to the basement to make space.
Probably the biggest issue - dress forms are expensive. The cheaper ones are $100 to $150. I don't really need anything more than a cheap adjustable form, but being unemployed, that's costly enough to make me hesitate. A little more and I could get a nice point-and-shoot camera instead. Though if I got some commissions that I needed it for, it would pay for itself pretty quickly.

Any thoughts anyone? Should I just go for it?

The other things I've been looking at are some patterns from Truly Victorian. I do need to make a hat to go along with my Victorian costume and I like one of the hat patterns they have. Of course then I'd need buckram and millinery wire too. If I ordered the hat pattern I might as well get a corset pattern at the same time, since I've wanted to make a corset for a while and have seen a lot of praise for theirs. I've never paid this much for patterns before, but it's not too bad, having to get the materials will be worse. I probably will go ahead and buy these sometime soon so I can make a hat in time for May 19th.

The Victorian Project - update

I've made a good bit of progress since the last time I took pictures of this outfit. I say "took pictures" because in the last post I mentioned the bodice was mostly cut out already and I had been working on it for a couple days before posting.
So, here's what I've done over the past couple weeks:
- put the main bodice pieces together.
- figured out the shawl collar, which was one of the parts I was least enthusiastic about doing. It's not perfect, but acceptable.
- re-cut and fit the sleeves. Again, I wasn't really looking forward to this part. Back when I was doing this project for class, I had fit and re-cut the sleeves so many times I don't even remember. They're still not perfect, but much better than any of the other versions.
- adjusted the darts.

The Victorian Project - in progress

I've always admired Victorian clothing and enjoy seeing people still make such things. Back in 2010, I decided I would make my own Victorian gown. To help motivate me, I turned the project into an independent study for college. Well, I graduated school and the outfit is still in way more pieces than it should be...
When finished, it should look something like this. The outfit is based on images from the 1870s and 80s, so it's not totally accurate for any specific year, but I doubt too many people now will pick out the anachronistic details.