All posts tagged: 1890s

Rate the Dress: Clovers & green in 1897

Last week Elizabeth of Bohemia in her flowered frock elicited lots of comments on early 17th century silhouettes, farthingales, ruffs, and the advisability of dressing children as adults, but overall the sumptuous fabric won out, and she got the best rating yet for a first-quarter-of-the-17th century gown, coming in at 8.2 out of 10. As it’s St Patrick’s day week I thought it would be fun to have a St Patrick’s themed Rate the Dress. What could be more Irish (only, well, it’s French) than this medieval influenced gown from 1897 from Les Arts Decortifs? It’s got clovers! It’s green! Is it adorably timely or just a bit too costume-y? Will this dress get lucky and hit the pot of gold (OK, I really need to stop now) or prove to be no more than Leprechaun’s treasure – where the gleam wears off when you try to grasp it (OK, I really, really need to stop now). Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

The Cymbidium Orchid corset for Madame Ornata

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve been working on a corset based on the 1890s corded corset pattern for Madame Ornata. She asked me to make a BRIGHT green corset for a Victorian Poison Ivy costume. There were lots of complications (it’s complicated) and ended up going with an 18th century take on the idea for the costume party. The brief for the corset was BRIGHT green. Unfortunately we just couldn’t find anything in visits to every fabric store in Wellington. We did pick up a cute ivy-leaf patterned green quilting fabric for the lining. And then Madame O found the outer fabric on her own. And it was BRIGHT green. Did I tell you it was BRIGHT? Yeah. It made the lining fabric look dull and brown. So I had a mad rummage through my fabric stash. I found a flowered pink cotton that was rather sweet. Too sweet in fact. It just couldn’t stand up to the green silk. Finally, I found a mid-pink quilting cotton. I’m not even sure why I own this fabric. I have no …

Finished project: the ca. 1890 black satin corded corset

Published by The Dreamstress

My 1890s black silk corded corset was actually done two weeks ago, in time for the Dr Sketchy talk, where it looked gorgeous on the model, and was immensely popular with everyone. Not only had the original corset sold before the event, but I got three further inquiries about buying it or having one commissioned. I guess I had better get used to cording! This was a time consuming and nerve-wracking corset to make. As I mentioned before, I wasn’t sure it would really fit and work until the very last, but the results are more than worth it. As always, I do have some tweaks to make to improve the next version though. If you want to see it on a model, there are Dr Sketchy photos here, and here.