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Get your textiles on!

Published by The Dreamstress

If you are in New Zealand, and interested in costume and textiles, you should definitely know about the Costume and Textile Association of New Zealand, and you should definitely be hurrying to get your registration in for their annual symposium by Friday June 3.

The symposium takes place over the 17th and 18th of June in Tauranga, and will feature all sorts of fabulous talks about costumes and textiles (and probably some boring ones too, but hopefully not too many of those!) all with the theme of ‘Celebration’.

Best of all, it will feature me, in fabulous frocks both days, and giving a talk about a particularly fabulous frock on Sunday.

Here is a sneak peek at what I will be talking about:

Kerry’s steampunk burlesque bustle

Published by The Dreamstress

Kerry approached me after the talk on historical underwear I gave back in February, wanting a Steampunk-inspired bustle based on my 1870s bustle petticoat to use in her burlesque performances.

The inspiration - my 1870s bustle petticoat

After nailing down design ideas, we had lots of fun picking fabric.  Because Kerry is using this for performances, and needs to be able to have it cleaned frequently, we went for synthetics instead of natural fibres.

Together we found a really nice, heavy, bronze-coloured satin:

The base fabric

It is being contrasted with a truly lovely rayon with slightly irregular black and silver stripes:

The trim fabric. Aren't the imperfect stripes perfect for steampunk?

The whole outfit is about contrasts: shiny with matte, stiff with flowy, structured with draping, masculine and feminine.  Steampunk is the perfect foil for these contrasts, as steampunk is all about the contrast between modern technology and the less industrial, handmade aesthetic of pre-assembly line days.

There are lots of fun things going into the bustle:

Bias binding boning channel stripes

Cord gathering

Lots and lots of ruffles

Metres and metres of bias binding

And as the obvious follow on to that:

Some really clever hems finished with a variant on bias binding

I hope you enjoyed all the sneak peeks!  On Saturday for my finished project I’ll show you the completed bustle.

 

Rate the Dress: blue plaid in 1878

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week’s 186os child’s party frock created the usual divisions I’ve come to expect with historical children’s clothes: some of you liked it for a child, many of you thought it would be much better on an adult, many of you wanted it for yourself, and a few of you questioned if it was appropriate for a child.  But overall, you liked it, and it rated an 8.6 out of 10.  I agree, but only if you take off that hideous overskirt.  With the overskirt my vote is only 4 out of 10!

For this week’s rate the dress my jumping off point is last week’s poll which asked you what your favourite fabric colour was.  An overwhelmingly large percentage of you said blue (25 out of 52, compared to 11 out of 52, for green, the next runner up).  Now I want to know if this abstract liking of blue fabric translates into liking an actual garment, or at least helps you to like it more.

So I present this  blue trimmed  blue tartan princess dress from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  According to the LACMA it is a young woman’s dress, which I presume means they think it was worn by a teenager.  Or maybe it’s just very small in size, even for a Victorian dress.

Young woman's dress, 1878, probably English, LACMA

Other than the novelty of the possible age of the wearer, the dress is classic late 1870s: slim lines, slightly bustled train, and details and pleats galore.  Do you like it?  Would you like it less if it were red tartan?

Rate the dress on a scale of 1 to 10