Loose threads

Various sewing projects. Mostly historical (or historically inspired) stuff. Varying levels of ambition!

Challenge 2020:7 The stash bustle skirt

Kategori: Allmänt, Historic Sew Monthly 20, Stashbusting, Victorian

It's highly unlikely that very many read this blog regularly, not least because any regular reader will have noticed that updates are anything but regular by now.
 
So. Yeah. 2020 is what it is. It seems crafters handle it in either of two ways: ALL THE SEWING or a massive crafter's block. I, alas, belong to the latter category. I mostly sew for events, and events... well. It's 2020. This year I have learned that while I am shit at getting anything done without a deadline/event at the horizon, I am even worse at getting anything done with a "maybe this event will happen" at the horizon. Even worse, that is, than "this is a project for nothing special at all". Brains are funny things.
 
I can't really blame the blog backlog on Covid-19, though, and I still have posts that should have been written in 2019. But now: a project actually finished in 2020. Unsurprisingly finished before Covid-19 struck and I did absolutely nothing crafty whatsoever.
 
After the bustle it was time to work on the rest of the outfit. After a bit of trial and terror, I found out that the leftover piece of blue wool I had since yet-another-thing-I-made-in-2019-but-didn't-write-about-yet was JUST enough to make a skirt and most of a French vest bodice. Hooray! Stash-busting is nice, and made the overall spending on this particular outfit easier to excuse.
 
Sorry about the image quality. My mobile phone had a bad day. This is the layout, though: do note who the leftover fabric to the right of the skirt pieces magically accommodate the bodice pieces. This is the kind of thing that makes me all warm and happy inside.
 
The actual scraps from the skirt: all big leftover pieces were kept for the bodice.
 
The pattern (Truly Victorian) was as straight-forward as the one for the bustle. As long as I do as the pattern says, there are no big surprises. I struggled a little bit with how to make the pleating in the back (over the bustle) look nice and not overly messy, but in the end it turned out ok.
 
Finishing the lining with hooks and eyes for closure. This is my go-to hack to make sure that the hooks and eyes match: I put chalk on the hooks...
 
...close it (you can see I marked the point where the edges meet when wearing the skirt)...
 
...and voilà, there are markings exactly where the eyes need to go.
 
And the closure is done. Poor image quality galore, and this is before the hemline was finished with the help of a friend.
 
(Oh, the times before Covid when having friends over for sewing weekend wasn't accompanied by much planning and hard decisions). Picture included mostly to show how the bustle behaves on me.
 
And the finished skirt, hemmed and all. As you can see, the bustle is less bustle-y on the mannequin.
 

The facts (for the Historic Sew Monthly)

What it is: A bustle era four gore skirt

Challenge: 7/July: No-buy. Everything, down to hooks and eyes and the twill tape on the inside of the hem are from stash.

Material: Wool

Pattern: Truly Victorian 261. I highly recommend it!

Year: 1880s

Notions: Cotton twill tape (on the inside of the hem, to make it a tiny bit less flimsy), hooks and eyes. Polyester thread :(

How historically accurate is it: Trusting TV as I am, I'd say about 85%. Machine sewing at least plausible.

Time: About three days/24 hours total. I am short of time*, so machine sewing is a thing. Hems etc done by hand, though. Single most time consuming thing was likely to pin the hem.

Cost: About 50 euros, counting the original cost of the fabric, notions and all. That includes the full yardage of fabric, though - meaning that the bodice will be a lot cheaper and that the total cost of the outfit will be more accurate than the individual pieces.

First worn: Not yet, except for trying it on.*

 

*But alas...

Yeah. 2020 being 2020, I only thought that I was short of time. The event, planned for May, was postponed until October. As I am writing this, the event was cancelled alltogether following a devastating fire (though thankfully noone was harmed) in the castle where the event was to take place. I am now the proud owner of a half-made bustle era day outfit, and have no plans for when to use it.