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A Brief Look at Men's Fashion in the 1870s
I was really surprised when my sweetheart said that he wanted to join me during the Victorian weekend that's coming up in February. I had figured he would want to attend the symphony, but not that he...
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A 19-Teens Purple Taffeta Dress
So, this is actually a dress I made a few months ago. I've been waiting for better pictures to surface from the photographer, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon, so I'll just...
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2017 in Review
What a mess of a year this has been. You know how everyone lamented how horrible 2016 was? Well, 2017 has been my own personal dumpster fire. Between trying to pay off a mountain of debts, find a new...
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A Turquoise and Silver Bustle Gown for Day and Night
Desperation sewing. I'm really trying not to do any this year, but somehow I always end up in a time crunch when there's an event on the horizon, no matter how much of a head start I get. When I began...
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1872 Green Embroidered Corset
Finally, a UFO that I can say I actually went back and finished! I actually started this new corset way back in December of 2016. I had found a beautiful blue embroidered corset online that I'd become...
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A Look Inside an Antique Natural Form Gown
I finally did it! I finally purchased my first antique gown! I've been wanting to really dive into collecting extant gowns for a while, but the price of the ones that popped up on eBay and the like was...
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An Experimental Black and Gold Brisé Fan
This wasn't a project I originally intended to take on, but I became mildly obsessed with these fans when I saw them on Facebook. I wanted one. I needed one. But, I am also broke 99.9% of the time, so...
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An 1877 Natural Form Ballgown in Aubergine
This is a story of a last-minute dress. But a less last-minute dress than usual. Back at the end of summer, I had randomly come across a great deal for a hotel in Galveston, right smack in the middle...
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An Early Natural Form Tournure & Petticoat
Whenever I dive into a new time period, I like to start from the inside out, making the foundations before I get started on any gowns. When I started getting interested in Natural Form, I knew I'd...
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2018 in Review
This has been a tough year for me. I was moved around from one department to the next at work, which was hugely stressful and made my extremely depressed. I ended up being moved a grand total of 8...
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A Look at my Favorite Extant Francaise Gown (c.1765)
I first came across this magnificent dress a couple of years ago, while I was researching a gown I wanted to make. It struck me immediately because, well, just look at it. At first glance, it may not...
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2019 in Review
Video Recap!Dresses UndiesBrown 1890s petticoatBlue damask stays Wow, I did a whole lot of nothing this year. I managed to finish a UFO pair of stays, make a new petticoat that isn't at all how I...
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A Victorian Christmas Lunch and Tour of Historic Homes
Back in December, my friend Liz (of The Pragmatic Costumer) and I were looking for some sort of holiday costume event to fill the void where our canceled trip to Dickens lived. Another local costume...
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1895 Red and White Plaid Dress
Man did I wrestle with this project! I first started the skirt back in September, when I was trying to put together a new outfit for the DFWCG's outing to the Kimbell's Monet exhibit. I started and...
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1850s Plaid Taffeta Day Dress
Many moons ago, I made a dress for a Civil War dance. When I made it, I had juuuuuust enough fabric to squeeze out the ballgown bodice, but I had to do some creative piecing to finish the bodice, and...
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2020 in Review
Video Recap! DressesAccessoriesShoes I know, I know, it's nearly March, and I'm just now doing my 2020 recap! It was definitely an eventful year, both in sewing terms and in just ~gestures around~...
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Some Costume Love for Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman
When I was a kid in the '90s I watched Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman pretty religiously. It was a program my parents approved of, it was fun to watch, and, best of all, there were The Boston Episodes. The...
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Planning a Month of Making Victorian Undies
I've struggled through two new dress projects since the fire (in case you didn't know, my apartment building burned down in March), and let me tell you, it was not fun trying to fit those things...
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Distracting Myself with 100+ Corset Patterns
So you know how I had planned to dedicate a month to rebuilding my Victorian undies wardrobe? Yeah, that didn't quite happen according to plan. I did start a few pieces, but I got a little overwhelmed,...
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2021 in Review
Well, what an absolute dumpster fire of a year!I wish I had a lot of awesome projects to show you all, but this year was just awful. In March, our neighbor set fire to our apartment building, and we...
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New Skirt Support Patterns! || Crinolines, Crinolettes, and Bustles
I've been working my way through rebuilding my wardrobe, and as I've been going, I've been extracting a lot of patterns from period sources. I haven't been using all of them, but they've been sitting...
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2022 in Review
Wow, this year flew past, and the projects just never really got off the ground. I started and stalled out on many, many things. I got more than a little overwhelmed at how much work it would take to...
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Organizing my Sewing Patterns
The more I make my own patterns, either from drafting, draping, or sizing up originals from period magazines, the more I realized I needed a good way to store them. I used to put my patterns in big...
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1590s Maternity Clothes - A German Loose Kirtle and Loose Gown
There's something about a looming deadline on an impossible time table that makes me want to make super elaborate things at the very last minute.With my local SCA's Baronial College a mere two weeks...
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2023 in Review
It’s been another quiet sewing year, which started with MANY plans and ended with only a few new undies and one complete outfit. I certainly didn’t intend for that the be the way of things, and I...
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