So…there’s a Mad Hatter Tea Party coming up at my church, complete with hat competitions. And what says big, gaudy, fantastic hat better than Victorian? Well…Landsknecht…but that’s a whole ‘nother story and they don’t sell those big huge feathers at the dollar store. 
Anyway…so I’ve been working on a Victorian outfit for the Tea this weekend. Here’s a brief run-down of the bits and pieces and their progress…then I’ll talk about the hat. Please bear in mind that my concern is not being completely period…it’s looking nice and having a great hat.
Bloomers-swiped from an Antebellum gown I made 8 years ago
Chemise-My Italian under-corset chemise
Corset-My hemp-boned Italian corset…the lines are surprisingly close to Victorian, but I can breath in it
Corset cover-I haven’t even cut it out yet…this might get skipped for time concerns
Bustle-I found a picture of a “travel bustle” on-line and am roughly basing my bustle on it. Mine is a base of fabric, with ruffles sewn on it to hold the skirts out. My bum is pretty big so I don’ think I need a huge bustle.
Petticoat-the upper part of the skirt is sewn together, the ruffle for the bottom needs to be gathered into the bottom of the upper skirt, I need to figure out the waits pleats, and set it into the waistband
Skirt-ugghgghg…I need to pleat the skirt ruffle and I’m NOT excited about it. Maybe I’ll invest in a pleating machine…the main skirt pieces are sewn together, I need to figure out the waist pleats, set it into the waistband, and add the ruffle around the bottom once it’s pleated.
Bodice-the lining and outer fabric are sewn together. I need to add boning channels to the lining (I’m going to use bias tape for the channels, the boning will be zip ties), add the contrast guards to the front of the bodice, put together the sleeves, then put it all together.
And that brings us to the whole point of this exercise…the HAT. Now…let me forewarn you…a milliner, I am not. I’m faking it and just trying to make it look right. If you have millinery experience, I would welcome a lesson. I purchased 5 yards of buckram from Joann’s to be safe. I cut out the top and sides of the crown from buckram and sewed them together, basically make a pillbox hat. Here are the two pieces of the crown laid out on the outer fabric for cutting. After putting it together I decided that it needed to be half as tall.
I then started on the brim of the hat. It is currently standing at a 10 inch brim…the entire hat will have a 26 inch diameter. The brim will be a double thickness of buckram, with some sort of additional stiffening in it. I purchased 16 gauge copper wire and I’ll play around with that tonight. Then it’s just sewing together the outer fabric, covering the hat, and attaching the flowers, feathers, and ribbon. I purchased blue satin ribbon, peacock feathers, white/cream feathers, cream fabric calla lilies, and plastic grapes to decorate the hat with. I don’t know if I’ll use all of that, but I wanted to have it on hand just in case I wanted it.
I’ll be updating a lot this week as I force my way through this project. Hopefully I’ll get the skirt and bodice done tonight.
Andrea’s lesson of the day:
No matter how behind you are…always remember to eat.
