I’m done! This pattern does not have the best instructions — not very clear in places, left details out until the end. Nothing that you can’t figure out if you read everything three times before starting and three more times as you go along. But it’s a real bother. Anyway, it’s complete, and now I
I’ve attached the bloomers to the blouse and done all the #@%&*! fiddly facing and belt bits. Very unnecessarily fussy, though I suppose it’s historical. Just didn’t seem practical to me to waste all that time on all the finishing bits when half of it will be covered by the skirt. Ugh. And there’s still
Finished the base of the skirt, including the cartridge pleating at the center back. And I took the GBACG’s parasol re-covering workshop, where I covered a reproduction Victorian parasol frame with the sushi fabric and red contrast. I bought some black venice lace from Cheeptrims to edge the parasol & the polonaise & for the
Finished the muslin for the polonaise tunic and started sewing the polonaise itself. The pattern was a decent fit, but needed some tweaks. Modifying the fit was made more difficult by the three long, lengthwise darts in the front of the bodice. I had to reshape and expand them a bit. Also had to take
This costume had been in my head since 1993. That was when I first saw Folkwear’s Victorian bathers pattern. I wanted to make it, but in a gothy fashion. That Halloween, I found a black and white skull-print cotton and promptly bought five yards. Some plain black cotton and a smidge of black PVC would
While I’d planned to buy the fabric from Repro Depo, I ended up buying the five yards of bright red cotton printed with rows of sushi and sashimi from an eBay seller. I’d had Past Patterns’ 1880s Polonaise With Walking Skirt pattern for years but never made it up. It seemed a good choice for