Category Archives: 1890s

About 6 months ago, I made the skirt of this dress originally owned by Francis Cleveland. Since Danse Libre will be performing 1890s dances with the Peninsula symphony, a daywear look with a blouse wasn’t going to cut it this year. … Continue reading →

The Challenge: The Politics of Fashion (Historical Fortnightly #11). I chose to make the skirt (bodice coming later) based on a skirt owned by Frances Cleveland, who was First Lady of the United States. As the married President Grover Cleveland … Continue reading →

Math! I know, again? And so soon after the last science lesson. So, this skirt has this big cutout to show an underskirt trimmed with lace. Time to figure out how big it should be. I used the INCREDIBLY SCIENTIFIC … Continue reading →

So this dress has the overskirt cut away to show an underskirt with some lace: No idea whether this was two separate skirts. I had always planned to line my skirt, but in order to avoid having to cut out … Continue reading →

Trying to figure out where to place the trim and the cutout on the skirt:

I ended up buying 6 yards of trim on ebay, after the very convincing argument of $0.97/yard. Here’s what it looked like: So I pulled on some rubber gloves and my best mad scientist expression: I used about 2/3 a packet of purple … Continue reading →

Continuing to make progress on the skirt. Really quite pleased with the Folkwear patterns instructions. Extremely clear, good markings including seam allowance written on the pattern, etc. Here is the placket on the opening of the skirt. First time I’ve … Continue reading →

Got beautiful fabrics from Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics up in Berkeley. So sad that it is an hour drive away, but it’s probably good for my wallet that it is. The main fabric is a silk cotton blend that I am … Continue reading →

So this dress has some whomping big trim on it. I’ve been looking for wide trims to go on my purple version of this dress, and came across a bunch of Indian sari-border trims which I’m kinda digging. Here’s the problem … Continue reading →