Civil War area dress 1

At the end of last year I signed up for western style larp taking place in Czech republic. I was reallye xcited when I got my casting as I got to play high society lady and that meant I could do one of those fancy dress projects. The story takes place 1866 so I decided I will go with the civil war area dress as it should be almost fine. 

The LARP was inspired by TV series "Hell on Wheels" so my first source of costume ideas was from the tv series. I really loved Lily Bell on the show and would have loved to play her but its fine. Playing char (who to my knowledge has not been in the show) gave me more freedom to choose my costume. 

The costumes from the TV series were all very practical and quite simple. I do understand that as they were living in that wild west. So, I did not get any specific good ideas from shows screencaps.

I started with gathering some general idea of the dresses and fashion of the area. I first thought that I do not like those dresses or.. I loved ball gowns but for that kind of out door event I needed something more casual. I did a lot of sketching and I think I finally fell for the era's fashion when I saw photos of Ada's dresses from movie "Cold Mountain". I particularly fell in love with the following:

So that was my starting point. I loved the ornaments at the sides and I really wanted to add them.

Then I started to look for a pattern. At that moment I did not know that simplicity has almost perfect pattern (4900) for that costume and the pattern I found was 4510:

So, I did some sketching to figure out what exactly do I want. I went to the fabric shop with following sketches:

So, I decided to use the pattern I got and add the bottom part of the jacket myself. I tried different options for skirt but decided to go with layers of ruffles. I also decided not to make it as a dress but more like separate parts: jacket and skirt. As I had no idea what kind of weather awaits me at the start of May, I might have needed to add layers below the costume or I was worried it may be too hot to wear and I might want to remove the jacket and wear simple blouse under it.

I actually spent a lot of time finding suitable fabric. I went to different fabric shops and returned empty handed. I wanted something that wouldn't be very thin and would be strong. I wasn't sure about the color either. I love bordeux red but I was worried that on that time it would be more suitable for "other kind of ladies". The shot on the pattern was done using purple fabric. My boyfriend tried to suggest me dark blue. I was still amazed by that amazing green fabric I found for my robe ala francais dress. I was torn until I walked to that amazing purple fabric with amazing pattern and texture on the clearance sale. 70% off. Wow. It was very expensive fabric still but I thought it is perfect.

Fabrics used in the project

 The pattern also stated that i needed contrast fabric (I went with the black lining fabric I have used before) and organza for the sleeves. I managed to find amazing piece of organza with gorgeous embroidery that I used for the sleeves and decorative layer on the collar.

So, after the research I figured out I need the following pieces:

• Jacket
• Skirt
• Blouse with organza sleeves (pattern had the sleeves as stand alone but I wanted them to be connected to a blouse I could wear without the jacket)
• Underskirt
• Bonnet
• Corset
• Pannier

With the corset and the pannier I took the easy way out: I had that kind of cheap "made in China" wedding pannier on my costume stack. Actually, it was good choice as I needed to travel on plane and other girls were having horrible time managing to make their pannier fit into their luggage. With my "wedding pannier" I was able to wrap it around itself three times and fit it without troubles. I ordered a cheap white corset and first I planned to change the overall fabric on it as on the image it looked to be really reflective horrible white material. In the end, it came out, it was really nice and matte so I used it the way it was.
Next>>

Older project: Robe à la Française - planning

So, last year I did a project what was the most complex and the lengthiest thing I have ever done. I signed up for international larp in sweden and because Nordic larp has much higher costume standards than the ones I am used to, I wanted to make really nice and in some level historically accurate dress. The time period was 18th century (they had specific year that I cannot remember it anymore). So, after doing some searching of what kind of dresses were worn on that time, I found some fascinating pictures of Robe à la Française. I like that "cape" like thing at the back so I was sold even thought it looked so complicated. Why not. On that moment I had around 3 months till the event.

First thing that I decided was that I will need pattern for the dress. I would have improvised but I wasn't sure about the bodice nor the sleeves (I always think that I could improvise everything else, expect sleeves).

After googeling around, I found that Simplicity had amazing pattern (3637) that had right kind of dress.

So, I knew what kind of pattern I wanted but getting it was hard as it was out of print and not too many copies were around. In the end, I managed to find one from french ebay and I paid for it much more than I planned but I was fixed on the idea of getting this pattern - I had tried few simplicity patterns before and they were not that simple but it felt good to follow instructions.. And this whole project scared hell out of me anyway. Making that kind of dress.. :S What was I thinking (I actually even considered buying one dress from etsy at first but then.. I started to feel sorry for my money.. to spoilt it: I think I spent almost the same amount of money in the end for all the parts and pieces of this project + huge number of hours but it was worth it).

It was also sure for me at the beginning that it is not only going to be dress. There is going to be underdress, corset, panier etc..

First I planned to buy the panier as it sounded quite complicated to make myself and I wasn't sure I could get anything that would be suitable to make it. In the end, as the cost quite a lot, I decided to deal with it in the end. If nothing else works, the plan was to get myself the "usual" panier that wedding dresses have and use ribbons to force it to be in the (almost) right shape.

So, I knew I will be making four different pieces for the project but I had no idea what design the dress will have. What colors, what materials etc.. I ended up making a sketch for myself to get the concept of the char..

So.. that was the original idea. Black and red combination was crossed out by my mother who told that on those time no proper lady wore red so.. in the end.. I decided I will go to the fabric shop and see what I can get.

I ended up with a velvet like green fabric that looked to be more light but I needed to buy a lot of it. I think the pattern's envelope said I needed around 20 meters of 115 cm fabric. That sounded way too much for me. The fabric I got was 145 cm wide and I only got 10 meters of it. I actually planned to have more draps at the back than the pattern had (the drapping of the dress was the most magical part for me that made me wish to make it.. and when I looked the pattern and some projects other people had made, I thought no.. I want more.. and i found online tutorial that had more draps and used it.. in the end, I think, I decided I will have as many draps as much fabric I will have left). Anyway.. 10 meters was enough and I had two full lengths for drapping and for one set of unsuccessful sleeve cuffs. (and even if the fabric felt more light than real velvet, 10 meters of it is really heavy).

I also got really nice light white linen for the underdress. For the peticoat I got fancy silver/grey curtain fabric with nice little flower ornaments. That was actually great find. So the dress was changed from red/black to silver/green. Interesting choice as I would have never thought about it before but that was the best I could come up.

• corset 
• petticoat&panier 
• dress
• hat + final result