All posts tagged: nautical

Rate the Dress: ’50s nautical Norell dress-off

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week I posted an 1860s seaside frock in one of my (many) favourite colour combinations: white, yellow and aqua.  Alas, the colours, combined with the waistless bodice (so characteristic of 1860s outerwear, but so anathemic to modern aesthetics) elaborate scallops, and long tails with pom-poms had you calling ‘circus marquee’.  The circus left town with a disappointing  5.8 out of 10. Intriguingly, of all the votes, only one of you gave it a x.5 score  – I guess you all had solid feelings about it! Today’s Rate the Dress has a twist.  I’m not just showing you a dress to rate: I’m showing you two dresses with the same theme, by the same designer, but with quite different silhouettes, for a Rate the Dress-Off. You’ll rate both dresses, and we’ll see how the overall look comes off, plus which dress you prefer. First, a sleek shift dress, with Norell’s classic sailor collar, red silk tie, halter back and blue trim: Then a full skirted sun-frock, with exactly the same bodice, but a gathered dirndle …

We must go down to the sea again

Published by The Dreamstress

I do hope everyone is planning something for the Historical Sew Fortnightly ‘By the Sea’ challenge!  There are so many gorgeous, fantastic nautically inspired garments to choose from. According to the challenge guidelines, you can make anything that would have been worn by or on the sea (or river or lake), from ancient Roman ‘resort’ wear to Cleopatras frocks for barging down the Nile, to warm wool and furs to keep exploring Vikings warm, to all the more traditional nautical looks. My favourite seaside looks tend to be a bit more modern and traditional and nautical.  Here are some that I love, and will get around to making…someday…. To start off, a Regency bathing costume may not be a very exciting garment in and of itself, but oh, what a fascinating scene it evokes! By the 1850s bathing costumes seemed to have developed into actual costumes: something a bit more defined than an all-enveloping shift.  This 1850s costume is pretty all-enveloping, but the buttons and bobbles and sleeve trims all lend it a certain nautical …

A nautical playsuit

Published by The Dreamstress

Remember the darling little halter-neck playsuit from last week? Well, when I sent the toile for it to S. she noticed how much it looked like a sailor suit in white, and liked it so much that she asked me to make her a second playsuit, this one with a nautical theme. I suggested mixing things up a bit, and using a different bodice for the top half of the playsuit, specifically this little cutie from my pattern collection: We settled on blue fabric with a detachable white collar with red trim, and cute blue buttons with ‘X’es on them that remind me of compasses. The bodice top married to the shorts from the original playsuit well, all I had to do was adjust for a back fastening rather than a side fasteningso that she could get in and out of it. To play-up the nautical inspiration I added little white piping at the front pleats. Like the floral playsuit, this one has a skirt to button over it.  I made this skirt a little …