So yeah, my idea for #historymirrormonday has a Spaghetti Western soundtrack running in my head complete with spurs on the boardwalk. No new dress for me, so some scandal will have to do.
The Victorian Designer
What’s On
Lately, we’ve been on a big push to expand our wardrobe collection and in particular, 1870s and 1880s styles that can be used for both background as well as for principal characters. Because these are all day dresses, the basic fabric we’re using is cotton, either in stripes or small irregular patterns such as florals and plants. In some instances, we are also using silk taffeta for accent. In this example, the base fabric is a light blue cotton with an old gold/chartreuse floral pattern. For accent, we used a dark gold/chartreuse (depending on the light) silk taffeta for accents on the front and sleeve cuffs.
Here’s a close-up for constructing revers to be inserted on the fronts:
The green silk chartreuse velvet was a real pain to work with- it was constantly migrating and it took a lot of pins and basting stitches to keep everything in place. Below are close-ups of the sleeve construction:
It looks simple but there were a lot of steps involved, each requiring exacting attention to detail and taking a long time. In a future post, we’ll show more so stay tuned.
Off To The Getty Villa
It’s been awhile since we’ve been at the Getty Villa so today we decided to renew our acquaintance. We normally make it out to the Villa about every two to three months but due to a long-standing road closure and work in general, we’ve been unable to make it; normally, the Villa is about 20 minutes away but the major roadway was closed from March to June due to a landslide caused by heavy winter rains. So today the stars lined up and off we went!
From the looks of things, it appears that the gardens are under renovation and the grape vines in the arbor had been severally trimmed back.
The long pool and surrounding garden are some of our most favorite parts of the Villa and it’s easy to linger for a long time here and lost all track of time…not that we were any kind of a hurry. The weather was nice and cool, in the mid-70s which provided a nice break from the 100 plus temperatures we’ve been getting in the Valley lately. It was definitely worth the trip!
Designing For The 80s – Part 2
In Part 1, we discussed design approaches for early 1880s fashion, with a dash of late 1870s thrown in. In contrast with the early 1870s, the emphasis was on the vertical rather than horizontal with minimal bustling and trains. Today we move forward into the mid-1880s when the bustle seemingly returned with a vengeance.
Works In Progress
It’s been a year and I still haven’t altered this old thing…oh well. Life got busy. I’ll just shelf the bodice and start from scratch. Some day.
