The Industrious Lady

  Empress Sissi Dress: Side Story Diversity is what makes the world interesting. 10 people could look at the same painting and come away with 10 different interpretations of it. This was the case with the Winterhalter Sissi painting dress. However, Otto from facebook was different.  I posted the photos below in a sewing group on facebook, and my rendition of the dress was apparently an insult to him and an insult to his Empress. I had made the dress the wrong shape, the sleeves were too puffy, and I believe he called the tulle shawl a "fluffy abhoration."  Which is fine, he clearly loves his Empress. Otto from facebook is entitled to his opinion. Until about two weeks later. This man, all the way over in Italy and across the world tagged me in a facebook post. What was in this post? Otto's rendition of the Sissi dress and he had tagged me in it and expressed again how much he hated my floofy concoction and had made his own better version.  He had made a dress out of ...

Sissi Wedding Dress Part 3: Skirts and Floof So in the original Winterhalter painting, I can see two layer of fabric. First we have the base in a white or cream color, then the sheer overlay. For information on how the fabric was selected or a more in depth look at the research process follow this link  There are different ways of constructing historical skirts, my preferred method is the one used by Mrs. Marion Pullan in her 1860 book "Beadle's Dime Guide to Dress-Making and Millinery." Here Mrs. Pullan instructs "At the preset time a skirt should be at least four and a half yards around the bottom... Seven breadths of the ordinary 21 inch wide silks are sufficient for a skirt." At the time fabrics were only 21" wide and could not be made into the tube that we see today, instead the author writes that the fabric should be cut into breadths or panels as we might call them today. She also suggests that the skirts be made of 7 panels or 21 inches. Giving half...

  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/57843176451203674/ Unknown Pinterest source.  Painting appears to be late 1850's, and shows a lovely Jenny Lind fan in use. https://art.famsf.org/fan-jenny-lind-or-palm-type-mirror-19838336 Jenny Lind fan from the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. Dated to late 19th century but very consistent with 1860's and 1870's Jenny Lind styles. Bone Handle, the palmettes are referred to as being starched paper. https://art.famsf.org/fan-jenny-lind-or-palm-type-78688 Jenny Lind Fan from the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco dated to 1860. Total height is 9 1/16" tall, and is made of starched silk. I started with bare bones of an old tore up celluloid fan.  Using the length of the fan stick I drew up a floofy doopy shape. In this case my bones were 4.5" long so the pattern for the fabric was 5" long. The fan was already broken, so in this case I added a new piece of lace to stabilize everything. This is my new best friend, at least for us...

Bodice Bodice, who's got a bodice? THIS GIRL!! with a mockup complete it was just time to take it apart and reuse it for the lining. The idea was to use the tan cotton as a base, with the white silk as the fashion layer with the organza overlay on top of it all.  These back pieces are a little tricky, it needs to be top stitched.  I left one side of the cotton a little longer than the other. This allowed for rolling the long side under like this. Pinned it for posterity.            Once the bottom was pinned down I was                              able to iron the top part of the bodice down and sewed                                        through both layers. So both the top and bottom seem are  sewed down. 

 2021 was rough for the industrious Lady Blog and my dear followers you deserve an apology. In the spirit of being a poor adult who also has a certain addiction to silk, I spent the last year without active internet service or a working computer. Any posts that were made were done using the computer at the local library. As one can imagine, that made blogging and writing about projects pretty rough. And boy is there a lot to write about. The only thing that got me through was petting the pretty silks and chocolate, lots and lots of chocolate.  2021 might have been rough for writing but a huge new event happened that my dear readers don't know about yet, I got married. And of course in the spirit of industry and fun, I made my wedding dress. As I sat as a now engaged human, a choice had to be made, the choice of what kind of fun dress to make. And it had to be the perfect dress... the ultimate dress... and then it hit me. What dress in all of 19th century history is most close ...

 The Competition Dress that Never Competed Wait... That's Not the competition dress Yes, because it isn't. The competition dress is now just a dress.. When does one decided that an item needs to be demoted? The truth is that what started out as one of my best dresses, turned into subpar work. That conclusion reached me as I stared at the dress one night after taking a week break to clear my mind and de-stress. And the love of the dress was gone, too much had gone wrong, too much looked sloppy.  It wasn't about what the other people would think, it was about how I would feel as a seamstress, and as an artist about turning in something that I didn't have 100% confidence. Not even winning, but just being happy with it. And this dress was not it.  So it got pushed into the role of fun running around dress and as for the competition, the bustle dress from the tv pattern. But I still wanted to finish the dress. There is a yearly historical iceskate and how fun would it be to ...

 Foundations Revealed Competition Dress Entry Some of you may remember the TV Bustle Dress, it was the one out of gold striped fabric.  The post about the skirt is here .  The theme was "Once Upon A Time" and I chose the character of the traveler from the Poem by Robert Frost "The Road Less Traveled" Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less tr...

Part 2 Competition Dress Basque-ing in the Glory or making a victorian dress with 3 yards of Wool So I knew I needed to made something that would cover the white part on the skirt. I found a few ideas online from fashion plates that seemed to be in sport settings.  I really like the kids in this, and the pockets. Because every lady need pockets. Even thought this is a later era than I was shooting for (this is more natural form rather than mid 1870's). But something about it seems so relate-able. Maybe its the bag thrown over her shoulder, or her sweet alluring smile, or her relaxed lean against the fence that shows she just doesn't give a care. Also liked the length of her bodice and how it hits very nicely upper thigh.  Can we appreciate this for a minute. My girl is iceskating in a full skirt, bustle, and has her hair completely on point. Loving the side front closure with the rounded bottom. And the trim, a girl could die for trim such as this. I didn't have a really go...