Tag: outfit

Vaguely Victorian: Part Two

Victorian-ish outfit

Here you go – for those who were wondering, this is what the vaguely Victorian outfit looked like at the end of a long day, in a lovely Victorian staircase hall.

Contrary to a few people’s concerns, I did not boil to death with so many layers of clothes on. The skirt was quite heavy, but the bustle was so comfortable I kept forgetting I was wearing it and trying to squeeze through spaces that were impossible to negotiate with such an enormous bottom!

At the end of the day I also learned that it is possible to run for the bus in a corset and bustle – although I wouldn’t recommend it! In fact it’s not the ideal outfit for bus travel generally. You can’t get upstairs, for a start, and I was a bit worried that the driver would ask me to buy two tickets for taking up so much room!

I must admit that, without the complicated underpinnings, I’d actually quite happily wear this outfit (or something very similar) to work on any old not-particularly-Victorian day.

Outfit: 13th January 2012

13/01/12

In the spirit of trying to actually wear the things I make, and to wear more handmade things in general, here’s what I wore to work last Friday. (I don’t know why Paul, who is a good photographer, is incapable of taking a decent picture of me, but never mind.)

Cardigan: Colinette “Cate” in Rowan Polar. I love the style, but the yarn’s gone a bit bobbly and horrible. And it has an annoying tendency to fall off my shoulders.
Brooches: You can’t see them in this picture, but I used two little brooches to fasten the cardigan at either side of the waist. A Christmas gift from Miss Alice, they’re about the size of scrabble tiles, with pictures of bees on them. 🙂
Skirt: the herringbone one I made last week. Apparently it doesn’t photograph well with a flash.
Petticoat: Long lilac elasticated petticoat, with matching broderie anglais trim.
Lace shawl: Made by Lettice. I wear this A LOT.
Earrings: I made these for our wedding, from vintage beads given to me by Paul’s Mum.
Glasses: Gok Wan at Specsavers
Boots: Christmas gift from Paul, Dr Martens “Mel Martine”, limited edition colour from Schuh.
T-shirt: H&M, a few years ago.

I also arrived at work wearing a handmade coat and hat. Apparently I don’t have a picture of my pink silk Wurm hat. I should probably rectify this, given that I’m wearing it every day at the moment!

Comments from my colleagues ranged from “I had an outfit just like that in the 1970s” to “you look more Victorian than my daughter, who’s gone to school dressed like a Victorian for the day!”

I’d wondered whether wearing such a long skirt might be annoying at work, but it was fine. Bit of a nuisance going up all the stairs, but I escaped unscathed from the mess of the salt-dough-making (I wore a home-made apron…), and felt thoroughly comfortable. I think I can make the outfit look smarter by wearing a tailored shirt rather than a t-shirt, and I want to dig out my waistcoat patterns, and maybe knit a tank top or two. Useful when you roll up your sleeves a lot at work!

So, that was an enormously waffly way of saying that I mostly made and wore an outfit that I really liked. I feel a little bit better for that. Hooray!

Always Make A Toile.

Work Outft?

Yesterday’s lesson turned out to be “Always Make A Toile”. The waistcoat didn’t fit. Not even slightly.

So, this morning I went on a mammoth wardrobe clear-out, and took out everything that doesn’t fit me any more. I then sorted the remaining clothes into “suitable for work” and “not suitable for work”. This led to the discovery that I own approximately one million really nice tops, but nothing to wear with them apart from jeans. And one ankle length black skirt. And my grey suit trousers.

So, this week, I will be wearing my grey suit trousers and my ankle length black skirt, with an assortment of tops.

However, I can’t alternate between one skirt and one pair of trousers indefinitely, so my next mission was to go through my wardrobe again, and try on combinations of clothes that I hadn’t thought of before. That led to the outfit above, which I really like!

  • The pale pink shirt is a men’s one from Marks & Spencer.
  • The dress over the top is this black jersey one.
  • The long skirt is this seersucker one, that I made last year and have almost worn out already. The dress is long enough that the outfit would be fine without the extra skirt underneath, but I do prefer to go for ankle length these days. It looks much better with my new shoes.
  • The belt is one with a teacup print, but I don’t think it’s quite the right colour. It does work to break up the black though, which I like.
  • The necklace is this rose quartz and amethyst one, that I made at the beginning of the year. I like the way that the three strands work with the neckline of the dress.

I think for my first day I’m going to play it safe and wear my grey Marks & Spencer suit with a plain black top. Once I’ve seen what everyone else is wearing, and established whether there’s an official dress code, I can work out what I need to sew next.