1880 walking suit in bluebells

1880 walking suit in bluebells

Bluebell Victorian 1880s (4)

As a part of my incoming book, The Victorian Dressmaker, I have been making a lot of new frocks. This one is one of the 5 or so different frocks representing the Natural form – and although the making up information, pattern etc will be remaining secret until the publication, I thought I would give you a sneak preview – and share some (ok, a lot of ) photos.

The photo shoot was a bit ad hoc – a friend of mine, Kelly who was working on her very first Victorian garments under my tutelage, finished the frock and while trying it on we realized that seasonal foliage would make a great background. a quick plan was made for a shoot in a few days time – and I decided to change my schedule a bit so that I could make use of the bluebells as well.

And since a Natural Form suit was on the books, and i had all the fabrics for it, and the colours would worked too, I went for it. with gusto!

This was the inspiration plate…

The dress is in silk faille – looks grey but in fact is a tiny white and blue stripe, from Renaissance Fabrics. It is paired with stormy blue silk taffeta.

I drafted the pattern for the jacket ( I hadn’t made a lot of jackets so far, this one was only a second one!), made a mock up, fitted and was ready to cut the thing. For once I had to be careful – I didn’t have much of that faille, and I wanted to have enough for all those pleats! there were some serious calculations going on before I cut the panels for the pleats…..

And this is what my freedrafting patterns looks like….. don’t worry, the book will have more user friendly versions….

Once jacket was assembled, it was time to do the pleats…. they are decorated with a middle stripe of the blue and lined with cotton lawn. And in a rare moment of insanity I decided to bind the pleats too…..

I had Merlin helping out – to his utter delight, since the dress was for myself and not for a client, he was allowed to take a more active role in the proceedings…

And in the last hour before the shoot I even managed to adapt a vintage hat to a fashionable 1880 shape. I even had a matching antique Victorian ribbon to spare!

Then we all packed ourselves into a car and drove to the woods. We had been scouting around for the best places and a bit of wood near Odell was deemed the best. The bluebells were amazing….

First we shot a few pictures of Kelly, wearing the first frock she has ever made, a transitional style between a crinoline and first bustle – worn on an crinolette ( basically a crinoline cage but with a bustle portion! ( low res images here – sorry! will update with high res as soon as hubby send over the correct file…)