Tag: goth

Vaguely Victorian

I’ve been asked to work an extra day this week to help out with a school visit, for which I may have heard myself ask my boss “would you like me to come in dressed as a Victorian?”. The session goes with the Victorian part of our building, Palmer House, which was designed by Waterhouse (of Natural History Museum and Reading Town Hall fame) and built in 1880-82.

Paul, bless him, has managed to rein me in from “I NEED TO MAKE A COMPLETE PERIOD-CORRECT VICTORIAN OUTFIT BY TUESDAY” to “please can we have a look in your wardrobe first”.

Victorian-ish outfit

However, I may have used “dressing up as a Victorian for work” as an excuse to buy a corset. I chose a black brocade one which was on the “corset of the day” offer for £25. It ended up costing me almost £40 by the time I’d paid vat and extra for super-fast shipping, but I still call that a bargain. It’s not expertly made, but it’s no worse than any Vollers corset I’ve owned in the past, and it gives a “Victorian enough” shape under all those layers, so I’m happy with that.

The website was a bit weird – I kept finding other people’s things added to my shopping cart and at one point it kept telling me that I was logged in as somebody else, which made me very nervous about giving them my credit card details. But I placed my order at five to three on Friday, 3pm being the cut off for next day delivery, expecting it to arrive on Monday. The postman knocked on the door at 9:30 on Saturday morning, with my corset! So that was extremely impressive. (He also brought my lingerie-sewing book which I thought had got lost in the trans-atlantic post, so hooray for that too!)

Victorian-ish outfit

I posted on Facebook about making a Victorian outfit in a hurry, and Chris from Progress Theatre offered to lend me a bustle pad from their wardrobe. I replaced the worn-out elastic with cotton tape, and I think it’ll make quite an acceptable late-Victorian silhouette.

Victorian-ish outfit

Next I added my lilac petticoat, for volume, and a plain white vest to cover up the black dress and corset. I went for black foundation layers because I’d originally intended to wear a black blouse, but the two I thought might be suitable turned out to have inappropriate sleeves.

Victorian-ish outfit

Here’s a side view with the bustle. Is my bum going to look big in this? 😉

Victorian-ish outfit

Next layer: the ivory lawn pintucked blouse that I usually wear for being a rural Edwardian when I’m out with the clog dancers.

Victorian-ish outfit

I spent all day making this skirt, but unfortunately velvet doesn’t photograph at all well in poor light so I can’t show it to you properly. It’s Simplicity 2207, the same as my red and black stripy one.

Victorian-ish outfit

And for the finishing touches: a black wool man’s dress waistcoat, a length of black ribbon, and a marcasite brooch in the shape of an owl. I wear this waistcoat to work quite often, usually with the owl on the lapel.

Victorian-ish outfit

I must admit that I’m not completely convinced by the bustle, even though it’s much smaller with the weight of the velvet skirt on the top. I was looking at photographs of Victorian teachers and the more I see the less I’m convinced that a bustle, even a small one, was worn underneath everyday workwear.

I’ll try the whole outfit on together, and hopefully I’ll be able to get some better photos while I’m at work tomorrow. I can’t do much about my extremely un-Victorian hair and glasses, sadly, but I think this is not too bad, considering I had almost all of it lurking in my wardrobe already!

Black Linen Dress

Black linen dress

Okay, so I didn’t dive straight into the organic cottons, but I needed a new black summer dress and I had a piece of linen tucked away in the Shed. It was originally earmarked to become another Regency-ish dress, but I decided to try out a long version of the blue organic tunic instead.

The ruffle’s twice as deep, and I think I might go back and chop a couple of inches off it, because the dress touches the floor. I wanted it to be long, but that’s a bit too long even for me! I haven’t made a matching belt for this one yet – in fact I’ve been wearing it without – but I think it looks quite smart with the blue one.

Having worn it, I also want to go back and add pockets. It’s too late now to put pockets in the side seams (well, I could, but I don’t fancy unpicking overlocked linen!), so it’s going to be big patch pockets on the front. I just need to decide whether to make them in matching black, or whether to have the pockets and belt in a contrasting colour. Maybe I should keep the pockets plain, then I can choose whatever colour belt I’d like.

Satin Bustle Skirt

Bustly skirt - front

To go with the silk corset, I made a satin bustled overskirt. The idea was to have something that could be worn over several different skirts, and could be varied in style.

The top layer is from Simplicity 2207, with a bit of modification. Instead of using a single layer, I doubled the fabric to give a bit more volume. Rather than making ruffles, I gathered a pretty wide lace along the centre back and the lower edge.

Bustly skirt - back

The under layer is made from two widths of fabric joined together in a french seam and gathered in to the waistband. Left rectangular, all the edges were trimmed with the same wide lace, and then the sides were gathered tightly to create the draping at the front. The whole thing simply ties around the waist.

In between the two layers, below the waistband, are several plastic rings. These correspond with ribbons sewn onto the skirt. The ribbons can be pulled through the rings and tied in place to create different bustle effects, or left loose to create a train. I used six metres of satin in total, but because it’s such light fabric you get a lot of volume without too much extra weight.

The skirt, corset, pirate shirt and waistcoat all took a trip to the Summer Darkness festival, and I’m hoping to be able to show you some action photos soon!

Silk Corset

Alice's Silk Corset

This is a little underbust corset which matches the silk waistcoat. It’s made to a pattern that I drafted a couple of years ago. The only alteration I made to the original was that I boned the modesty panel with plastic rather than metal. This makes it much lighter to wear, and as the metal boning isn’t really structural in the modesty panel it’s probably superfluous.

I didn’t have quite enough fabric left to make matching bias binding for the edges, so it’s bound with satin. You can’t see the true shape of the corset on my dressform – it’s much more curvy in real life. Even though it looks very plain and simple, I’m really pleased with the way this corset’s turned out. I hope its new owner is too!

More skull shoes…

Lisa's Skulls & Roses shoes

This is the second pair of skulls & roses shoes – this time with an organza ribbon for a little bit of variety.

Skulls & Roses Shoes

Madeleine's Skull Shoes

This is the next pair of shoes – a pretty gothy pair with skulls and roses. I’ve actually made two pairs of these, and I’m extraordinarily tempted to make a third pair for myself

I don’t want to make eleven identical posts about the prototype shoes, so I’m hoping that the fabulous variety of fabrics will speak for themselves.

(Unless I keep making them in the same fabrics, of course…)

Butterick 4731

Butterick 4731, View A

I know I’ve already made one little jacket in this fabric, but when I looked at the whole outfit together on the dressform I wasn’t sure. S, I had a little browse on the internet, dashed down to the fabric shop, bought another pattern and made another jacket. As you do.

This one’s Butterick 4731. It goes with a very smart evening dress, and there’s also a pattern for another little bolero. The body of the jacket’s lined, but I didn’t line the sleeves as I wanted it to be very light. It was really simple to make, just five pieces, and no darts or anything. If I make this again I might actually add a couple of darts into the lower back to make it a little more fitted, but I want to wear this one first and see how easy it is to move in. It only uses just over a metre of fabric, so I think it would be fun to make lots of these in different colours of silk, and use them to liven up a plain outfit.

The unusual shape of the front of this jacket is really flattering, and I think it will show off the shape of the corset much better than the other one. It was a very quick and easy thing to make, and I’m really pleased with it!

Skull Print Skirt

Mini skull skirt

So, this is a bit of a departure from the type of thing I’ve been sewing lately – in fact it’s a skirt pattern that came from my first business, about eight or nine years ago.

There are four layers of skirt altogether, each with four panels for fullness. The inside three layers are black net, trimmed with red gathered lace. The top layer is skulls-and-roses print cotton, trimmed with the very last piece of black gathered broderie anglais in my stash. Fabric Land haven’t had any of this in stock for a long time, and I don’t quite know what I’m going to do without it. It really is absolutely my favourite kind of trim.

(Is it silly to have a favourite kind of trim? I do, anyway.)

The waistband is another favourite – red bomber-jacker elastic, also from Fabric Land. it’s made in the same way as all of my elasticated skirts – simply divided into quarters and zig-zagged into place.

I haven’t worn a skirt this short for years – in fact I’m not at all convinced that it’s actually long enough to cover my bottom, or that a person of my advancing years should be seen in it at all. I suspect I will be very grateful indeed for a pair of black leggings to wear underneath!

Bee Brocade Waistcoat

Finished waistcoat

I made this waistcoat so long ago that I’d almost forgotten about it! The pattern, as for the shirt underneath it, is Simplicity 4923.

Although this was already the shorter view, most women’s patterns are too long in the body for me, so I decided to shorten it even further. Men’s patterns are even longer, so I folded out about four inches from the front and back. I didn’t interface the brocade because it was already fairly stiff, and I wanted the waistcoat to be nice and light. It fastens with poppers, with decorative buttons sewn over the top. There are twice as many buttons as poppers!

The cravat is simply a piece of silver habutae, which I ran through the overlocker to finish the edges.

I wore this to a goth night, with leather trousers and silver Doc Marten boots. I had to go a choir rehearsal first, and as I walked in one of the Tenors exclaimed, “Bloody hell!”

I hope he meant it in a good way, because I absolutely love this outfit.

Floaty Velvet Skirt

Vogue 1170

This is Vogue 1170, another Rachel Comey pattern. I actually made this one first, and it inspired me to try the pink party dress.

You might recognise the design of the back – it’s pretty much identical to the dress, including the not-invisible zip! (This one wasn’t supposed to be invisible, but it should still be less visible than this.) I didn’t bother with the hem facing on this one – because the velvet has a slight stretch to it, I exaggerated the flared hem by simply stretching the fabric as I ran it through the overlocker.

Vogue 1170

You can’t really see the details on the front, but the skirt has the same angled seams as the dress. It also has tiny little pockets, hidden in the seam of the waistband. I don’t know that I’d bother with those next time. Normally I’m all in favour of pockets, but they were fiddly to make and they’re too small to hold anything useful!

You’ll just have to trust me that this one looks much better on a real person with a real bottom, than it does on my dress form.