Seperates of the 1860's

I have have been stewing on this idea for sometime now of corsets as outerwear.  Now, this is a corselet meant to be worn as an accessory piece not necessarily meant to shape as a full corset would do.  This is of navy blue linen lined in black cotton with self piping of linen. I am very pleased on how this came out.  The Garibaldi blouse is from Truly Victorian.  I am working on another design variation of the corselet.

The skirt, well, lets just say that it is one hot mess at the moment.  It is pinned to an inch of it's life at the waist.

American Duchess:Historical Costuming: 18th c. Shoes: The Evolution of Our Heels

American Duchess:Historical Costuming: 18th c. Shoes: The Evolution of Our Heels: "I have been itching to update you with how things are going on the prototyping of the new American Duchess 18th century shoes. I haven..."

Stripe Ticking Corset

So I have had this ticking material hanging around in my stash for a couple of years now just begging for something.  So I said to myself, self make a corset.  I have been on a mid 19th century kick for a while and I decided to do the corset for the period.  So, red and natural stripe ticking, flat lined in unbleached muslin with ecru cotton lace as a trim.  The cotton lace was some that I purchased at a store that will remain nameless...... the lace edging the bottom is from my stash.

The back is laced with a satin ribbon.  I am not sure if the ribbon will hold up for any ordered items but I did read somewhere, and I wish I could remember, the designer us silk ribbon, so I took a cue and there you go.  Now, did notice a couple of thing.  First off, I forgot to put in the petersham ribbon at the waist and the second is that it is wrinkling a bit at the waist.  I am chalking that up to the fact that it is on a rigid dress form and not a human being.  All in all I am very happy on how this turned out.

The design that inspired me to start my blog.

I was looking through one of my books and came across this dress from Godey's Magazine from 1867.  I realized that I had a black and white patterned cotton fabric just begging to be made into a day dress.  

Not that you can tell, but the pattern on the fabric is of a Baroque style.  I kept the trim to just the simple soutache trim running vertically up the bodice following the style of the inspiration picture.  The bodice is of the standard style covered buttons with coat sleeves popular of the period.  The sleeves are trimmed with four rows of soutach to mimic the trim on the bodice.  I added the black grosgrain ribbon belt for a finished look. 

The skirt has four gored panels and the back is two widths that are cartridge pleated to a waist band ending with a train in the back.  The skirt is trimmed with four rows of soutache trim as with the bodice.  Underneath is a small eliptical hoop indicating that skirts were moving toward the back prior to the bustle becoming the new style.

A Study in Blue and Black

Vendela, a very dear friend of mine, wanted a corset for a photo shoot.  The theme of the shoot was distress and the corset reflects this mood.  I designed the corset so that it is actually two corsets.  One of a semi-sheer black fabric and the other one is of denim.  I used the wrong side of the denim because I wanted the contrast between the light and the dark.  I left the seams on the denim side raw and I "fringed" the seam allowances to give it a bit of a distructed look.