bustle dress beginnings.




This about draping, drafting, fabric buying, sore feet and getting it cut out. Oh, and Gwen now has a bustle petticoat.

1885 by Mrs Christie of London.

Task- select and source the style and shapes relevant for the 1880s, drape it on the stand over all the underwear we've been making, draft this into patterns, make a toile. and fit it to ourselves. then Work out yardages, set a budget and go buying. The chosen fabrics are now cut out and mostly flat tacked onto calico, waiting to be made up!

Hermitage Museum

I went for a day dress based on this little petrol blue number in the Museum of London. Not the bodice front but the skirt - asymmetric layers, contrasting fabric textures, so lots of interest without shouting about it. The worrying thing is that it is not relying on embellishment for impact but on the fabrics and cut - nowhere to hide. What is good is that the front and back are balanced - there isn't a distinct front and back separation. The only problem is the front seems  intent on broadening the shoulders and bust to narrow the waist - I do not need added emphasis in this area, so went looking for a different frontage - Maria Fedorovna (Dowager Czarina at the time of the Russian Revolution and original recipient of the Faberge Easter eggs-) to the rescue. This was an evening ensemble = red underdress and beaded over gown. Not at all compatible but I liked the shape of the front!  When mashed together it just about works - something like this.
The whole was to be draped on the stand in medium calico - working directly onto the mannequin without a paper pattern. To break us in gently we began with the foundation skirt to cover the petticoat. It was supposed to be simple - use the petticoat pattern, allow for the extra bulk from all the frills, the idea is to cover the petticoat with minimum fuss and without squashing or losing the general shape.  And construct. And then remodel it when the waist fits but the bottom doesn't.

foundation skirt, draped apron and bustle

Very little of the skirt is going to be  visible - just some pleats at the bottom.  The velvet apron fits smoothly over the skirt so the same pattern shapes will be used.
Then it was onto the radical bit - the draped apron hanging from the right hip.  This was a fairly drastic  60" square  at the beginning- on the cross- with the top corner cut off to make a waist.  It is now shaped like a rough map of Africa. The front edge has to hang in folds and the back is pleated high over the bum. Just to make life fun that front edge appears to be rolled under so the folds come from behind. Happy hours of muttering, pinning, more muttering and it was done. pinned, tacked, and oops - the tacking affected the hang so start again.........
On top of this comes a bustle piece - just a rectangle for this and caught up on tapes ( rather like an Austrian blind). It should have been asymmetric too but looked most odd- not quite big or bold enough to look deliberate without giving me the lean of the drunken sailor.

pinching pulling and pinning, shaping the fabric around the form to match the photos. First pattern.

This was meant to be the easier bit because now came the bodice - starting with a vertical centre front, pinning above the bust line and to the side and then pinching the fabric to create front darts to shape it in front.  The back is separate pieces- centre start and carefully mark first seam running up to the armhole and gradually build on the next side back pieces making sure that the grain of each piece is vertical. Sleeves were drawn up  as a basic block pattern and the modified to give upper and under pieces and the bend at the elbow. The front shirty bit is mounted onto separate little panels which will meet edge to edge as a closure, a bit like an  C18th stomacher.

Once happily pinned together on the stand, the edges of each piece were marked, removed. cut down to an inch seam allowance and it was made up and fitted on me - Ah. lots to play with - the two darts  have changed to a seam running up to the shoulder and a dart. The side of the front has been split in two to raise it at the waist, and the shoulder seam moved. Redrawn and remade and refitted.

the early front with frothy bit, final back, sleeve, and the revised pattern

Once the whole was satisfactory, the patterns were drawn up and yardages worked out - about 15-16m in total, in 4 different fabrics! - something plain for the bodice, bustle and foundation skirt (was hoping for something like silk twill) something understatedly fancy for the side apron (a fine damask or brocade?) velvet for the flat apron and cuffs, plus a contrast for the fake shirt front - lawn or fine, slippy satin?

We went down to Goldhawk Road- next to Shepherds Bush in London- on a buying mission -

drawn en route to Hammersmith!

 lots of lovely stuff, especially silks, but trying to find 3 key fabrics each with interest and who work together without arguing  was definitely a mission. It would have been easy to be completely safe - but I could have stayed at home for that, and the Victorians were 'robust' in their ideas of colour and pattern. Bit disappointed not to find a plain brocade like a fine damask for the apron- or even a matching stripe would have done,  and not to be working with delicate tones of brown pink or sage green or muted blue - they proved impossible to match and the mixing was horrible. So came away with a muddy greeny yellow silk, kind of a Prussian blue  velvet, crinkle gauze in yellow and blue and plans for white lawn for the fake front. Umm. Could look like a railcrash or could work really well. The two tone gauze is the jam in the sandwich - it will tie the two strong colours together and hopefully really give the flatness of the velvet some bounce and enhance the sheen and colour shifts of the silk. Umm.

not the true colours - less greeny but sadly shiny

We came back late on Wednesday, cut out on Thursday, spent Friday cutting calico and flat tacking it to the silk to support and stabilise it. Far too organised, so I managed to stab myself and bleed all over a skirt panel, squeaks and drama - don't mind me - save the fabric! Never mind.

As for Gwen - couldn't leave her out - returned to Goldhawk and bought a piece of dodgy second choice fabric to make her a bustle gown and then spent part of Saturday making a petticoat to go underneath it. Need to choose a style now - the rejected House of Worth green thing with train? Umm

Other distractions -
M&S swiss rolls.
Wandering around London at dawn(ish) and dusk - saw the Tower of London poppies, Phyllida  Barlow at Tate Britain, Breakfast in Russell Square,  went to say hello to the Lion Hunt relief carvings in the British Museum, found a great little foody street market behind Westminster, wondered why my feet are sore.
They still have low flying pigeons in the new sanitised and shiny King's Cross.
So many pin pricks now feeling like a tea bag.
Don't leave car and house keys  in unzipped pockets when hill walking - result = blind panic, having to walk the hills twice,  collapsing in heap when found them without any energy left other than for a very feeble whoop and slight waving of limbs. ( they were right on top of hill of course - at least it was down hill from there)


Emsay Crag - now known as carkeys hill. Thank goodness didn't go up Great Whernside as I first planned!