Well, it’s certainly been a hot minute since I lasted posted. It’s not that I haven’t been sewing. In fact, I’ve been sewing a ton! But that’s part of the issue — I’ve been making so much that I haven’t had time to sit down and my computer and write about all the things I’m making! But last I counted, I’ve made over 10 things since the start of this year alone; nevermind all the things from last year that I still haven’t had a chance to post! But I’ve finally found some time, so let’s get to it!
First up is my Victorian Tea Dress which I wore to a goes-to event at the Legion of Honor for the Mary Cassatt exhibit. The event was arranged by my friend Vivien aka Fresh Frippery with the instruction to wear something that matched the era which Mary Cassatt painted. This actually gave a pretty wide range of late Victorian through about Edwardian which is early 1900’s and people chose to represent almost every style in that range!
The event itself was a total blast! Huge thank you to Vivien for organizing and to the Legion of Honor for such an opportunity! Attendees who were there just to see the paintings seemed to really get a kick out of us walking around in period costumes and many said it enhanced the experience for them. We had lots of folks asking to take photos with us and asking us about where we got our outfits to which all of us were very proud to say, “I made it!”
The exhibit itself was very interesting. I enjoyed seeing the evolution of her style. I always really like the drafts that they show for artists like this. It reminds me that even talented artists need to practice a bit before making masterpieces. Jillian and I both took pictures with the photos that inspired our looks. Mine is at the top of this post, albeit in blue, not pink. But that’s the same general style of dress.
So let’s get into the making of the dress itself. I opted to do a Victorian Tea Dress. Why? Well, first, I had the pattern already and it was the right era and matched a fair bit of the subject matter in Cassatt’s paintings. She painted a lot of women and children at home and a Victorian Tea Dress is basically like a house dress. Second, I didn’t have a lot of time and this seemed feasible since it didn’t need to be fitted like most Victorian garb. Third, I didn’t need to wear a corset under it (though I did wear petticoats) and we were going for tea afterwards so, yay, room for tiny sandwiches!
The pattern I used was McCall’s M8304. And I have soooo much to say about this pattern. Where to start?
I’ll start with the good. It was a good choice to make given my time constraints. All things considered, it was pretty fast to make. It was a week from buying the fabric to wearing it, working in the evenings mostly. It was also very comfortable to wear as predicted. But, I’d only recommend it with reservations because there was a lot that was iffy about the pattern.
First, the sizing. I measure at a 12 around the bust though I usually make a 10 in Big 4 patterns based on my upper bust. However, I had to size down to an 8 which I thought was good, but probably even could have gotten away with a 6. I didn’t make a muslin because I had a friend who had made it before and my friend Jillian (in the photo above) that had done a muslin so I was able to use their sizing data to gauge mine.
Second, the grading. You’ll notice that the shoulder wings are quite large on my dress. Almost comically so. I’m pretty sure I could have taken off if I’d gotten them to flap. But I’m a go big or go home kinda gal, so I also loved them. They don’t look nearly that large in the pattern photo. I’m not sure what size she made in the pattern photo, but from what I could tell, almost all sizes had basically the same size for the wings with only minor adjustments. Certainly not enough to compensate for the difference in dress shape between sizes. I was using a printed pattern, not a PDF, so I know this also wasn’t a printing error. At least not mine.
Third, the supply list. They tell you that you need 6 yards each of piping and lace for the edges. This is wrong. You need at least 10, possibly 12. This is why I don’t have lace on the inner flaps. I ran out. I just barely had enough for what I did do. Fortunately I had bought extra piping. One extra package because I like to be prepared and then 3 extra packages of the light blue because I wasn’t sure what color I wanted to use. But that’s also why you see light blue piping around the big flaps — because I ran out of the dark blue! Now, historical costumes are known for piecing things together and it totally looks like a design choice and you wouldn’t have even known if I hadn’t told you, but, still. I would expect this type of thing to be more accurate.
So yeah, the pattern worked out and overall it’s a decent pattern, but just go in with eyes open and read some reviews so you can buy extra.
I had orderd some fabric but it wasn’t going to be here in time, so I ran to Joann’s to pick some up. This was just a couple weeks before they declared bankruptcy so I’m definitely going to have to plan better going forward. This pattern calls for 9 yards of fabric for the main fabric so the sets you see above are the only ones that had enough of at least one fabric. I obviously ended up going with the blue. I was only able to get 7 yards of the dots after buying them out. I got extra of the florals and the light blue solid which worked.
The fabric itself was not the highest quality, but I could tell that in the store and the price certainly reflected that (pretty sure it was less than $4/yd). After washing, it got white streaks where there were folds from the dryer. Kinda annoying, but once the dress was on you couldn’t really tell. I’m just gonna tell myself it makes it look more historical. 😛
The pattern has you use the main fabric as the bodice lining and the facings of the collars, cuffs and flaps, but there’s no reason you need to use it for that. So I used my extra light blue for the bodice lining and the collars and cuffs facings, and I used the extra floral for the undersides of the flaps as well. So that’s how I made it work with the fabric I had.
The other thing I did differently was that I used some red organza (yes, I’m still going through the roll from the Minnie dress. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!) instead of the iron on interfacing. As I mentioned, a friend had made this costume and warned me that when you try to gather the flaps and sew it to the armholes, it becomes very thick. Not surprising. You’ve got 2 layers from the bodice, 2 layers from the sleeve and then 4 layers gathered from the flaps. Needless to say you don’t need to add another 2 layers of heavy interfacing.
Plus the organza gave it more body and lift than just normal SF101 or similar would have. I also really liked using sew-in interfacing in this case. I didn’t need to worry about bubbling or anything from fusible interfacing. I did use SF101 for the cuffs and collar, but kinda wish I had had some sew-in. Though it looks fine.
And indeed, it was a chunky seam! I had to use fishing line to gather it rather than normal thread because it was so thick that the thread kept breaking. I basted to the bodice first and then the sleeve to that. It was probably the hardest part of this dress.
Otherwise, the dress was fairly straightforward. Lots of nice big seams. Above is one of my first try-ons and when I knew I’d be happy with the look. They have you do french seams for all the long skirt seams. I did. I don’t know why I did. I guess it’s historically accurate construction, but historically accurate construction techniques have never been a real concern of mine. I should have just serged them. You can’t see them, so who’s gonna know? But they’re long and straight (mostly) and cotton is super fast and easy to sew, so it wasn’t that big a deal. But if you’re time constrained (as I usually am), just serge them.
You will want to read the instructions though because the assembly order seemed a little odd, or at least not what I’m accustomed to. Maybe it’s more historical? Or maybe I just haven’t run into it. But you sew the skirt to the bodice lining, add some trim, sew the necklines, add trim to the bodice outer, and then sew the bodice outer to match up the 2 trims. You’re supposed to sew that by hand.
I did not. I used lots very precise pinning and then stitched in the ditch with an edgestitch foot. I’m not a big fan of handsewing. My handsewing isn’t nearly as even as machine sewing or at least takes me forever if I want it to be that good so I found this gave me better, faster results and in my opinion, looked just as good since you can’t even see the stitching it’s so in the ditch.
And then I had to hem the dress. I put it on my dress form which is matched to my height and marked along the bottom. Then I laid it out and cut a smooth curve between the marks. I did this because I ended up taking off about 8″ in the back and only 5″ in the front. Still quite a bit. I did a 1″ hem.
Of note, you can see the buckle that I used. I got this at the Marketplace at Costume College several years ago (the last time I went was pre-pandemic). It’s an antique bronze and it was really just perfect. It looked great and happen to be the right size for the belt! I knew I’d need it eventually 🙂
And finally, I didn’t want to be that chick with the 21st century purse in historical garments (like I usually am, but I’m trying to be better) so I made myself a little matching purse. I believe this would be called a reticule, but I’m not entirely up on the differences between the types of Victorian purses. I freehanded this whole thing, so no pattern to share for it. It’s fully lined, and was just the right size to hold my wallet, phone, keys, and a few other bits, so I’m actually pretty thrilled with how it turned out!
Underneath the skirt I wore my Victorian petticoats (and also some leggings because it was freezing), but no hoop skirt since you wouldn’t have worn one just lounging around the house. The petticoats were a tad long for this dress since they’re meant to be over a hoop skirt which adds length. I was able to make them work but I did have to hike them up a few times.
But overall, very happy with how this dress turned out in the end, even if the pattern was lacking a bit. My friends and I regularly have costume events that often overlap the late 1800’s so I expect I’ll definitely get more wear out of this in the future!
Stunning creation! The photos are treasures out of time!
That was the goal! 😀