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Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

A Norland Frock for Miss Four

What do you do when you’re having a Georgian dinner and your littlest guest is very little indeed?

You make a Norland Frock!

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

Priscilla’s daughter ‘Tobie’ is now a little bigger than she was when she was Tobie to my Jareth, but she loves dressing up.  Like mother like daughter!

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

She was going to be at our Georgian Dinner, and that gave me the perfect excuse to try Virgil’s Fine Good’s Norland Frock.  I know Amber’s research is impeccable (that’s why I collaborate with her on Scroop + Virgil’s patterns!), and who doesn’t want the excuse to make adorable little girl frocks?

Fabrics

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

I asked Miss Tobie what her favourite colours were to choose dress materials.  I needn’t have bothered.  She’s a girl between 3 and 8.  Her favourite colours are pink and purple!

I don’t have a ton of either pink or purple in my stash, particularly not in the bright shades that the skirt wearing young fry seem to wear almost exclusively.

A thorough rummage did unearth just enough pinky-mauve silk habotai for a sash, and a scrap of coordinating cotton for an underdress.

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

The dress fabric is a cotton-linen blend that I had large scraps of left over from another project.

I didn’t have time to run the colours by mum or poppet before I started.  Luckily Miss Tobie approves.  She considered the colour for a while and decided it was ‘light purple’, not pink.  Priscilla, as it turns out, also approves.  She’s relieved that it’s NOT ‘five year old girl pink’.  She likes bright colours, but children’s clothing makers ensure that particular shade is unrelenting in Tobie’s wardrobe!

Making the Virgil’s Fine Goods Norland Frock

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

The pattern research is indeed impeccable, and the instructions are thorough, but I’m also pragmatic.  Miss Tobie is a child.  She gets grubby and she’s growing fast.  And Priscilla and I are both time poor.  So we cheated and streamlined the construction as much as possible, and machine sewed everything we could.

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

There’s even some overlocking on the inside.  (shhhhhh)

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

You can see the seams where I pieced the large scraps off fabric running down the front of the dress.  Luckily they work well with the design.

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

While we machine sewed as much as we could, some steps are still more efficient to do by hand, especially if you want a good result.  So there’s still lots of hand sewing.  Hand sewn tape facings:

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

And the sleeve straps, which are assembled like 18th century sleeves:

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

And, of course, on the tie ends.  My favourite part!

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

Hacking an underdress for the Norland Frock

The Norland pattern includes a petticoat to wear under the dress, which is meant to go over child stays (like the Elizabeth Stays by Willoughby and Rose).

We didn’t have time for stays, and Tobie is a very wriggly child.  So, to make the dress more practical, I hacked an underdress for it.

I used the petticoat included in the pattern for the skirt.  For the bodice, I traced off the shape of the pleated and assembled Norland frock.  I cut away a bit on the underarms and neck, to make sure it wouldn’t show under the dress.

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

I added straps for the shoulders, and a simple placket with buttons and buttonholes fastened it in back.

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

And that’s an underdress wrap!

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

And an adorable Norland’s Frock:

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

It’s a super cute pattern, and really fun and interesting to make.

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

Making the Virgil's Fine Goods Norland Frock thedreamstress.com

I need a friend to get married and want little Norland Frocks for all her flower girls!

A midwinter Georgian dinner thedreamstress.com

I also want a photoshoot with Miss Tobie.  Norland Frocks and Amalia Jackets amongst the spring flowers.  It’s going to be so adorable!  We just need a nice warm weekend now that spring is here…

A midwinter Georgian dinner thedreamstress.com

Changeable silk dinner gown, c. 1895, Brick red to olive green silk faille gown with gigot sleeves, sold by Augusta Auctions November 13th, 2019, NYC New York City

Rate the Dress: Draped for Dinner in 1895

This week’s rate the dress is fall themed, for all you Northern Hemisphere costumers getting excited about Autumn.  Perhaps next week I’ll post a spring-y pastel confection for us Antipodeans.

Last week:  a braid trimmed 1870s sports dress

Last week’s sports frock started out strong, and mostly got every ball through the hoop with minimal swings and maximum points – but a few of you weren’t quite so impressed.

In some ways the poor dress couldn’t win.  It lost points from some commentators for not being interesting enough, and from others for being too fancy!

The Total: 9.1 out of 10

Not so unbeatable that it completely dominates in its field, but still likely to win most tournaments.

This week: a ca. 1895 dinner dress in shot silk

This week’s ca. 1895 dinner dress is covered from chin to toe, but I’d venture to say there’s still something rather sexy about the dress, despite all the fabric.

The extremely fitted bodice is quite body-conscious, emphasising every curve.

The pleated draping and lines of velvet trim imply wrapping – and thus unwrapping.  I’m fairly certain that this dress opens in the front, under the pleating.  There’s always something a little more sensual about a garment you can get into and out of on your own.

The double-puff sleeves are an interesting variant on the fashionable gigot sleeve of the mid-1890s.  Together with the front fastening and muted colour scheme, they give this dress a slightly Aesthetic aesthetic.  It’s just a little more artistic, and a little less mainstream.

I do love that Augusta Auctions included close-up photos, so we can see the ribbed texture of the silk faille.

What do you think?  Does this dinner dress tempt your sartorial tastebuds?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

A reminder about rating — feel free to be critical if you don’t like a thing, but make sure that your comments aren’t actually insulting to those who do like a garment.  Phrase criticism as your opinion, rather than a flat fact. Our different tastes are what make Rate the Dress so interesting.  It’s no fun when a comment implies that anyone who doesn’t agree with it, or who would wear a garment, is totally lacking in taste.

As usual, nothing more complicated than a .5.  I also hugely appreciate it if you only do one rating, and set it on a line at the very end of your comment.

Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase 2021 thedreamstress.com

Costume Showcase 2021: Livestreaming 2nd Oct 6:30 NZDT!!!

It’s back!  For the second year in a row, Toi Whakaari’s Costume Showcase will be livestreamed!

Join us virtually on the 2 October, 6:30 PM NZDT

(that’s 7:30pm Friday the 1st in Hawai’i, 10:30pm Friday the 1st in California, 1:30am Sat the 2nd on the East Coast, 6:30am Sat the 2nd in London, and 1:30pm Sat the 2nd in Singapore).

What is Costume Showcase?

Costume Showcase is the culmination of the years work for the Costume Construction students I teach at Toi Whakaari The New Zealand Drama School.

At the start of the year the 2nd year students chose a costume design to bring to life.  It could be something from a piece of art, a costume design done for a film or show, a fashion plate, or something from a video game or anime, etc.  They just can’t be something they designed themselves (it’s a Diploma in Costume Construction, not Costume Design), and it has to be a design, not a made costume or garment.

Over the course of the year they research and test different ways to ‘realise’ their design.  They apply this research, and the techniques they have learned over the course of their studies, to their ‘Major Work’.

Come Costume Showcase, their creation steps off the page, onstage, and into life, with the help of a student model, and a mainly student cast and crew.

In addition to the Second Year’s individual Major Works, the First Year Costumers show their progress in two group performance pieces: one focused on a historical dress, and one that they have had to pattern and make from a design I create.

Huge amounts of the show are student run.  Student costumers, student models, a student stage management team.  The lighting design and movement director are both recent graduates.  What you see is really the students vision: we just provide support.

We focus on the learning being more important than perfection, but what they put together is still pretty darn fantastic.

What’s this year’s Costume Showcase going to be like?

Amazing!  (obviously).

There’s a Queen Guinevere reimagined as a Maori heroine, an exquisitely precise cosplay, a pierrette and a harlequin that are equally adorable in totally different ways, 1950s-does-1570s with attitude to spare, and tree elf that literally looks like it grew from a seed, and a drag queen of seriously epic proportions.

Also, SO many rhinestones!

The First Year’s 1830s dresses are everything you could hope for in the way of bonnets and big sleeves.

Plus, we’re extremely excited to be working with the New Zealand School of Dance and the Set and Props department at Toi Whakaari for the Patternmaking number.  Their dance number really brings our armour inspired dresses to life, as do the amazing helmets by Set and Props.

It’s a great insight into the work we do at Toi Whakaari, and what makes our school so amazing and unique.  You can see the collaboration between departments, and the specifically New Zealand flavour of the show.

How has Covid & Level 2 in NZ affected the show?

Covid has had such an impact on this years graduating costumiers.  New Zealand had its first major lockdown just a little over a month after their course started.  They were still settling in, and had to adapt to studying online, in isolation.  Costume Construction is not an ideal subject for online teaching!

Then, just when we were getting to the part of the year when the student’s really focus on their major works…we had another lockdown.

So significant portions of this year’s major works had to be done at home, on small domestic machines, with no specialised equipment, in tiny dorm rooms.

To say I am proud of what the students have achieved under the circumstances is an understatement.

Covid is also affecting the show itself.  Toi Whakaari is following best practice Covid procedures for Costume Showcase.  This means that our audience is limited to people who work and study in the building.  Even the costumer’s families can’t attend.

So we really hope that you’ll attend virtually, from wherever you are in the world!

But I want to see the details!

The best part of Costume Showcase is usually at the end, when the Costumers and their works spill out into the plaza, and the audience gets to see everything up close.

We can’t do that this year because of Covid, but we’ve got you covered!

We’ll be showing all the details on the @toi_costume instagram, AND one of our first year costumers is going to be taking over the @toi_whakaari instagram stories to give you a look backstage on Sat eve.

How long is the show?

Half an hour!  Perfection is short and sweet!

Just 3ish minutes per Major Work, and two group dance numbers featuring works by the 1st year Costumers.

Hope you can join us for a watch!

To finish up, here’s some photos I took backstage at last year’s Costume Showcase (which is why we aren’t masked in them!)

Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase 2020 thedreamstress.com

Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase 2020 thedreamstress.com

Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase 2020 thedreamstress.com

Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase 2020 thedreamstress.com

Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase 2020 thedreamstress.com

Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase 2020 thedreamstress.com

Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase 2020 thedreamstress.com

Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase 2020 thedreamstress.com

Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase 2020 thedreamstress.com

Toi Whakaari Costume Showcase 2020 thedreamstress.com