Progress on the 1860s “Purple People Eater” Gown

I have a million things going at the moment, and two major projects on the table, with all their various bits and bobs and parts and bodices and trims and underpinnings – IT’S MADNESS!

…but I AM making progress, which is what matters…right?

Looking at the calendar, it’s Costume Triage right now. I have four Victorian Christmas Events coming up back-to-back, so I’m in a rush to get my new purple outfits done in time.

I’ve been hard at work on the day bodice. Here are my original reference points (you can see more here):

photo from eBay, but listing no longer available. I liked the trim and sleeves on this dress.

My sketches – the one on the left is what I went with.

Truly Victorian TV 443 – 1861 day bodice.  This is the pattern I’m using, but with some alterations, which I’ll talk about below.

I did the mock up, altered the pattern, and set to work. My fabric is a super thin silk taffet-ioni…that’s what I’m going to call it, because it’s not quite taffeta and it’s not quite dupioni. It needed backing, so I mounted it to a bottomweight mystery fabric I’ve had good results with on a prior project.

Then it was fit – buttonholes – fit – alter – fit…you know the drill. I’ve ended up with a very tight bodice on the dressform, but the bodacious curves of the corset are causing pulling across the chest, which I can’t really fix. Solution is to make a new corset that doesn’t require bust pads to fill out the cups … but that’s another blog post, another day.

I had two main trouble spots.

The first was the back. I deviated from the pattern, changing the three points in back to a smooth-fitting, squared-off tail. This required an 18th century trick of putting tiny godets at the top of where the tail starts to flair out. I also needed to tighten up the lower back through the side back seams, to get that nice smooth fit, and to bring the tail in to where it wasn’t buckling.

The back before re-working it – pulling in the excess on the side-back seams, and bringing in the seams on the tail, to get it to fit tightly and lay smoothly over the voluminous skirts.

The back after fitting – nice, tight fit at lower back, and a trim tail laying smoothly.

My second trouble area was with the sleeves. I found them to be *huge.* Baggy sleeves were the style at this time, but these were just way too big, especially in the sleeve head, which would have required gathering even under the arm. That’s a no-no, in my book, so I started cutting the sleeves down starting with the sleeve head, which I took about 6 inches out of. I followed that by slimming the sleeve down, again by about 6 inches. I’m really happy with the result – they’re still 1860s baggy, but are proportioned to my frame much better.

That’s where I am today – trim’s been put on (imperfectly, of course). I’m awaiting jet buttons in the mail, and I need to finish the hems and add the little white collar, but otherwise this bodice is very near done.

Thank goodness.

Then it’s on to the ballgown bodice and the skirt!