My 'Young Victoria' Dress on Display at Blenheim Palace

Remember the Young Victoria violet silk dress replica I made last fall?

Something wonderfully exciting has happened. The lovely lady who ordered the dress, Claire, was able to obtain permission from Blenhiem Palace in Oxfordshire, UK, to do a photo shoot in the dress, in the rooms and grounds of the palace.

Blenhiem Palace was used by Queen Victoria, and can also be seen in the movie 'The Young Victoria'.

However, in return for the photo shoot, the palace asked to borrow the dress for their

 'Lights, Camera, Action' Display February 9th - April 1st, 2013.

So, currently the dress is on display at Blenhiem! (I'm rather still in a state of unbelief.)

 My friend Rebecca and her mother (on a fabulous European trip right now) were able to go by and see it, and take these pictures for me!

Soon I hope to be able to show you the pictures from Claire's actual photo shoot. They are beyond gorgeous. Right now the photographer tells me some other blogs have asked for exclusive rights to the pictures, but should hopefully get permission to post them after that. :)



Very Final Museum Dress Update

Remember the dress I made last winter for the Museum of the Confederacy?

Click here to read my orginal post about it.

Well, there has been a slight change discovered. This dress is not displayed at the museum in Richmond, VA as I had thought.

When my friend Rebecca and her family were traveling through Virginia on vacation in June, they did some searching and found the dress and its display at the Museum of the Confederacy at Appamatox!

 Read Rebecca's story here.

You can see more pictures on the Museum's website here, and be sure to watch the informational video linked on the front page - the dress is featured twice!

1860s White Shirred Bodice

A new-favorite 1860s item - delicate white shirred bodices. My first attempt at doing all-over shirring, and my first accurate 1860s white bodice. A bit scary at first, but it turned out well!

The Coker House

This piece was comissioned for a display at a museum house:

Representing what  the wealthy lady of the house might have worn.

The main inspiration - vertical shirred bodice, with some type of lacy trim at each shirring line.

More inspiration and research.

A preliminary sketch, once the basic style had been decided. A slightly more open neckline, plain but full bishop sleeves.

The finished product:

The lovely creamy-white barred sheer cotton voile and the delicate lace trim were both provided by the curator of the museum. Both were just perfect for the project!

The only major thing I changed up from the original sketch was putting hidden hooks and eyes at the front of the dress instead of buttons. I just worked better with the lining up of the vertical rows.

The white cotton lining is dart-fitted, and then the (much longer) sheer bodice piece was gathered in rows and then pulled up to fit. It took some fiddling and adjusting to get all the rows to line up even going over the shoulders and such, but all in all was much easier than I had anticipated.....

 

The bodice is shown paired with a plaid silk skirt and black velvet ribbon belt. When it is on display, it will be shown with a lovely rosy-pink silk taffeta skirt. (making that next...)

I'm thinking about making a sheer-shirred bodice for myself along the same lines at some point. I think a correct bodice/skirt combination would be a refreshing change at a reenactment event, and a fun alternative at 1860s dances and get-togethers, don't you?

Museum of the Confederacy Dress

In February I was contacted by a company about doing a dress comission for a display to be housed in the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, VA. Even though the request was a little unusual, I was beyond excited! The museum is somewhere I have wanted to visit for a long time.

The above dress picture whas what I was given to reproduce.

Slightly modified fan front bodice with a waistband, v-neck, bishop sleeves, pleated trim, and a box pleated skirt. The material really didn't matter, as it wasn't going to be seen (I'll explain...) So we chose a wool for the right drape, and for the sturdiness so it would stand up well to the treatment.

The below pictures is the type of treatment the dress will recieve for display: covered with resin that is let to harden, then painted white. The dress will be on a mannequin representing a mother sending her son off to war.

The dress was mostly machine sewn, as the treatment would obsure any tiny details such as handsewing, and I also didn't take time to match up the plaid pattern, since it wasn't going to be seen. I have to say it was a little strange working on a dress that 'wasn't actually going to be seen', but covered over with resin and paint....

I really did enjoy the project, as I always love doing 1860s era dresses - especially ones with a specific inspiration picture. Hopefully I will get to see pictures of the display when it is finished!

UPDATE! 3/15/12

 Just got some pictures of the dress/figure in progress - being covered, painted and posed.

Pictures of the finished work to come...

UPDATE 3/19/12

Finished!

Also, a picture of the entire display! I love it.....

UPDATE 6/12:

Well, there has been a slight change discovered. This dress is not displayed at the museum in Richmond, VA as I had thought.

When my friend Rebecca and her family were traveling through Virginia on vacation in June, they did some searching and found the dress and its display at the Museum of the Confederacy at Appamatox!

Read Rebecca's story here.

You can see more pictures on the Museum's website here, and be sure to watch the informational video linked on the front page - the dress is featured twice!

Historical Dress for 'The Oaks' Museum

This winter I was contacted by 'The Oaks' House Museum in Jackson, Mississippi about making an 1850s dress for display. Needless to say, I was honored and delighted as could be to take on such a wonderful project! As you probably already know, even though I do alot of costume work for Etsy, historical reproductions are my true sewing passion!

'The Oaks' is one of the few remaining houses in Jackson that wasn't burned down during the War Bewteen the States. Isn't it lovely? I'd love to visit someday!

The first sketches, trying to decide what style/years of dress to choose. In the end we decided on a fan-front style, similar to the green fan-front dress shown.

Eliza Ellis Boyd (a later portrait)

The target years decided on were 1856-7, when the lady of the house, Mrs. Boyd, would have been in her mid-thirties. We also decided to use sheer cotton fabric for the dress. Something that would represent a 'nicer' summer dress, but wouldn't be as stuffy (or expensive!) as silk or wool.

Inspiration pictures of 1850s-1860 original sheer dresses:

Fabric chosen: deep purple, yellow, and white cotton floral voile. Sheer fabrics are always so lovely!

Pre-sewing dress sketch:

Fan-front bodice, separate lace collar, double ruffle on full gathered skirt and pagoda sleeves, with white barred voile undersleeves.

I used a combination of Past Patterns Fan Front and Darted bodice patterns...

All seams and stitching visible to the outside were hand-sewn. That meant the hems of the 2 skirt ruffles too. Let me tell you, that's alot of ruffles....seemed like miles when I was in the middle of it!

The whole process was really great - I just loved every minute of it!! The material was great, and I loved doing all the little detail work.

The finished ensemble:

 

Fastens up back with tiny white china piecrust buttons.

The lace used on the collar and cuffs was sent to me by the museum curator - it's an absolutely gorgeous creamy lace netting - just perfect to finish off the dress!

I also used it as an overlay for the undersleeve cuffs:

I love the way the full pagoda sleeves drape! So elegant...

The dress was shipped off to the Museum just this week! I hope it does well in their display, it was such a pleasure and a priveledge to work on this piece!