atherleisure | Entries tagged with 1881 wool gauze dress

Since there weren’t a lot of events in 2021, I tried to spend time on more time-consuming projects. I still made some quick stuff, but I didn’t feel that I churned things out.

( This year’s projects behind the cut )

I finished a new early 1880's dress last month. It's wool gauze lined with cotton and trimmed with silk taffeta and rayon satin ribbons. It's based on a museum piece at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The original is a dark blue wool gauze, and I think I did a good job of capturing it.

The underskirt foundation is from a skirt pattern from Fashions of the Gilded Age. I figured out how high the gauze needed to come and then cut panels 10% wider than the foundation and 50% longer than the finished length. The dress used a pattern from Bustle Era Fashions that I extended into a polonaise by matching the skirt to the waist of the bodice and generally following the lines of one of the polonaises in Fashions of the Gilded Age.

( More pictures behind the cut )

It's worn over a combination undergarment (chemise/drawers), a "Pretty Housemaid" corset, a corset cover, a low half-hoop, and two petticoats.

I pressed the back of my Eleanor sweater last night so now I just have a sleeve and a quilt square to press/block.

...And a hat and combinations to photograph and post about. And a dress to post about... Maybe I'm not so close to catching up except on my blocking.

I wasn't able to go to

marianme's online sewing circle for long so I only managed two repeats of the tatting for the combinations before I had to leave. I decided I wanted at least three for the day so naturally I did six more. That left me with 19.5 repeats finished out of 23. So today I finished the last 3.5 repeats, and that piece of lace is finished.

I still have the lace beading for the waist and another edging for the neck to do. I expect I'll start the beading next week at the sewing circle. I won't be able to finish it until I actually make up the combinations so I guess I'll have to get on that before too long. I'll put that in line after finishing the wool gauze 1881 dress and making up the lining for the 17th century waistcoat (I'll need that to figure out how much I need to add to the width of the body of the knitting since I'm a couple of inches bigger than the original owner).

I made a posterboard pleating board for the foot pleating on the skirt for my current sewing project, and I found it to be an abysmal failure. I did about three pleats with it, struggling to keep the fabric tucked in the board before deciding it wasn't worth it and doing it the old-fashioned way with a ruler.

At least I finished making up the pleated strip and got it sewn on on Sunday so the skirt is finished. I'm starting the polonaise now. I cut out the lining and need to baste it together and make sure it fits.

I'm trying to alternate weeks on my 17th century knitted waistcoat with weeks on my c. 1881 brown wool gauze dress. The week before last was the first full week of waistcoat knitting. Last week was the first week of the dressmaking. This week I'm back to the waistcoat.

I made good progress on the gauze dress, patterning and making the foundation skirt and sewing the gathered gauze panel to it. The strips are cut and seamed and ready to pleat for the foot pleating, and I expect to be able to make and attach the foot pleating on my next dressmaking week. Then the skirt will be finished.

I'm not sure how long I'll maintain this alternating weeks thing. It seems like a good way to continue to see progress on the waistcoat without getting tired of it.

I bought cotton broadcloth in that classic Victorian lining color to line a brown wool gauze dress with this morning. I had forgotten just how sheer my wool gauze is - it's really sheer - and while it had a cool iridescent sort of look, it was very definitely not Victorian looking. I'll have to go back and get a very dark brown cotton instead. And so I'm not starting that dress tonight.

As a consolation prize, I threw some light brown linen in the washing machine. I bought the Wearing History automobiling hat pattern this morning since it was on sale, and the pattern mentions an original of light brown linen in Lauren Meringola's collection. I guess I'm suffering a bit from costume ADD because going through the box to pull out the wool gauze, I was contemplating several of the things that I want to make with the fabric in that bin. So I might let myself do the hat, but I really should just get the right lining tomorrow and start on the dress that I've been planning and that the dummy is wearing the underwear for.

So tonight will be another night of knitting.

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At Her Leisure

An account of a lady's leisure hours

Entries tagged with 1881 wool gauze dress

2021 in Review

c. 1881 Wool Gauze Dress

Catching Up

Tatting

Tool Failure

1880's Dress Progress

Not Starting Tonight

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May 2025

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