A Little 1880's Bonnet

Oh, bonnets. So frilly, so silly. I love looking at them. I don't really love wearing them. They're just so frivolous. They don't keep your head warm, they don't shade you from the sun... But I kind of fell in love with the idea of a flowery bonnet for this outfit. 

The 1885 V&A Dress: Construction

This was a very fun, relatively quick dress to put together. I challenged myself to complete it as quickly as possible, without sacrificing trying to be as period correct as possible, to my current knowledge of the period. This meant not overthinking, over-measuring, over-pinning, over-seam-finishing... And guess what? It looked just fine!

It was actually quite difficult trying to remember how 1880's gown construction went, since I've spent the last couple years in the early 1900's. Inadvertently, I think the inside might be kind of a Victorian/Edwardian mashup, so if something looks weird in there, sorry! I wasn't double checking every technique.

The skirt started as Truly Victorian's Four Gore underskirt, and the bodice as Truly Victorian's Cuirass Bodice. I draped and altered from there to match the original as close as I could, with the amount of yardage I had. I didn't have quite enough fabric, so I had to get crafty. One great way to conserve fabric was using plain muslin for parts of the underskirt that wouldn't show. Another way was to make very shallow pleats in the ruffles.

An 1880's Dress for a Halloween Outing

Last month, my husband and I were driving home from California and stopped for lunch at Calico Ghost Town. Turns out it was Calico Days. We were so bummed we missed out on the opportunity to dress for it.

Well, we heard they were having a Halloween event so we decided to go up for it. We wanted to go 1880's, which is when the original town was from. Never mind that it was just a Halloween thing. Any excuse to play dress up! So I was like, oh this will be easy, I already have a couple 1880's dresses. Cool. 

Not cool. 

Nothing fit. Like, at all. Like how was I ever that small?! 

But it was ok, because it gave me the perfect opportunity to create something that's been on my to-do list for a while: this 1885 printed cotton dress that's been on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum for years. I took the below pics on one of my last trips, but click here for the Museum's link to the dress's page.