A Sewing Update
Some of you may be wondering what’s happening with Operation Doom Pleats. AKA my masochistic attempt to recreate this costume from Crimson Peak:
(Tilt your screen to the side or back to see the full detail, and let the horror of what I’ve gotten myself into sink in. We’re not even touching the hat or the little fingerless gloves at this point.)
It’s well underway, and I haven’t even started the dress yet.
Both these things are simultaneously true.
I’ve actually never done the era the dress is from, late 1870s-early 1880s, before. Which means I didn’t have any of the appropriate support garments before I started. I splurged and bought a more generic Late Victorian(TM) corset than the very specific 1860s one I use most often for dance events, but that wasn’t all I needed. If I’m going to put in that much work, half-assing the skirt silhouette is not an option. Therefore...
(The ruffles are rather disordered because it was sitting on a chair; pardon me. The hem IS even when it’s all set to rights.)
...it’s New Petticoat Hours.
Right now I’m working on a detachable train for the back. Because if you put a ton of effort, time, and money into a dress- or if you’re a penniless aristocrat who can’t afford new gowns and hates the current fashions anyway -you want to protect the dress skirt as well as possible. The petticoat train can be unbuttoned and washed, and that’s an excellent design feature.
Also, a lot less technical analysis is going into this than Operation Murder Sleeves. If you tell me “Natural Form day dress with a black velvet jacket bodice and swagged overskirt, and a black silk underskirt trimmed with pleated ruffles at the hem,” I pretty much know how that works. I’m using totally unmodified commercial patterns, even (Truly Victorian). The difficulties will be in attaching the trim- and making it, in the case of the eponymous Doom Pleats.
But I’ll try to update more frequently when the interesting stuff starts, if people would like that!
