Your Wardrobe Unlock'd

Jennie demonstrates how to draft different styles of sleeves (long and short), skirts, and finishes up the 1812 dress.

Sunny continues her examination of a black velvet evening gown with many of the characteristics of Teens high fashion.

Sunny examines a very complicated early Teens black velvet evening gown with  many of the characteristics of high fashion in this era.

Izabela studies and recreates, step by step, a sumptuous gown from this oft-forgotten period in English costume history.

Serena examines authentic skirt construction step by step, completing and adding the final flourishes to the gown.

A wonderful example of fashionable US Victorian day dress, composed of polonaise and trained skirt. Part 2 features the complete pattern.

In this final part of the series, we will complete the skirt to the gown and the hood and see Mistress Etty in her completed gown at Kentwell.

A wonderful example of fashionable Victorian day dress in America, composed of polonaise and trained skirt. Part 1: overview & skirt pattern.

For the Victorians, methods of folding and draping the fabric of a bustle truly developed into an art form. There were many different styles with assorted fanciful names like "The Waterfall", which burst in and out of fashion.

I'm going to show you how I created my ladybird gown's "Butterfly" bustle drape. It is very simple and needs no pattern at all, being created from just a rectangle of fabric.

Other dressmakers and designers have experimented with this style too, and it can still be seen in some museum pieces. It is made to be worn over the bustle cage and a plain skirt.

The bustle was allegedly invented in the mid-1860's when a society hostess's crinoline collapsed and her maid re-pinned the excess fabric to the back of the gown.

This story, while entertaining, is almost certainly apocryphal, and the design probably came about much more naturally as the train on a crinoline took on larger, more sweeping proportions.

Let me show you how to create a small boned cage, based very loosely on Hunnisett's 18th century pocket hoop pattern in Period Costume for Stage & Screen: Patterns for Women's Dress 1500-1800. This is not a totally historically accurate reproduction but it creates an exceptionally easy-to-wear support that gives a lovely period silhouette.

I've often been frustrated that there are wonderful Victorian patterns available, but there is very little information on how to put the pieces together or the other finishing details that go into making a dress.

My goal with this article is to address this gap by doing a photographic analysis of the construction techniques used in three Victorian skirts in my personal collection. Due to the Single Pattern Project, I'm most interested in elliptical skirts, but I only have one in my collection. Therefore, I've chosen a skirt from the preceding Hoop era, and one from the following Early Bustle era to compare to the elliptical skirt.

Vicky Clarke has a mission: to bring back historical fashion that flattered curvy women so well in the past, and make it practical and wearable for our 21st century lifestyles.

The skirt we'll be making in this article is a hybrid of original 1910s design, 1970s revival and design simply intended to flatter the body as it is.

We'll start by drafting a custom skirt block, which we'll then slash and spread to get the pattern we want. There are also instructions for an optional applique panel to accentuate the waist: another nod to the original Edwardian style.

When you’re learning to sew, it’s awfully easy to get discouraged. You have wonderful ideas, but in the execution something is lost and the result is shoved in the back of a cupboard.

It doesn't have to be that way, though. Here I'm going to give you three of the best and quickest techniques I know, three big head starts that’ll attract the maximum number of compliments with the minimum of blood, sweat and tears.

This, in short, is the best and simplest of what I’ve learnt in my fifteen years of sewing historical costumes and wedding gowns. Click the photo to see what's possible!