Victorian Attire - Dress the part!

Here is a quick run down for Guests who wish to dress up for the event. I will just remind everyone that Victorian dress is not required, just a fun option. I also encourage accessories or clothing that may be inspired by Late 19th century fashion such as hats, gloves, broaches, and lace. You may also want to incorporate styles from other periods such as civil war and Edwardian fashions. I will detail some ideas and resources below.

Buying Clothing and Accessories

• Ladie's emporium
• Gentleman's emporium
  Everything from top hats to trousers
• Recollections
  Great made to order outfits and pieces for Ladies and Girls
• Sacremento Dry Goods
  
• Etsy!  Find vintage or custom products of all kinds
• BootBarn - wonderful source for women's shoes and also the best prices! I got my Veil boots here!

Make Your Own Outfit

• http://www.trulyvictorian.com/ 
  This is where I bought most of my patterns (1880s style)
• Past Patterns 
• Pattern reveiws for various brands
  A great site to find out pattern difficulty and find photos examples

Costume Rental

• American Conservatory theater in S.F.
• West bay Opera in Palo alto 
•  Belrose in San Rafael

Renting can be a great affordable way to attain a high quality look. Most rentals are under a $100 and include fittings. I suggest seeking out theater and opera companies in your area.

Some Notes on Victorian Fashion
You don't have to wear a bustles and corset to get a Victorian look.Here are some basic suggestions.

Women

• high buttoned blouses - consider silk, cotton, ruffles, and lace
• You may wish to add a fitted vest or cincher belt
• A long skirt- ruffles or lace trim- solid color or calico.
• Jewlery- Cameos and lockets. Chandelier earrings
• Fans and parasols
• Hats- there are a huge variety of styles
• lace or kid gloves
• shawl, collar, jabot

I like this example from the recollections site because she achieved a great victorian look with only a blouse and ruffled skirt!

Men

• Your basics are Vest, Coat, and Hat! Match these with a basic trouser and your good to go.
• Accessorize with Cravat, gloves, and pocket watch
• You don't have to be overly formal - think picnic/park strolling

Hand made Invitations

Our invitations are 100% handmade by Adam, using his skills in paper making, letterpress operation, and wood block cutting. Its a very long and involved process. 

The first step was making the paper. Adam created pulp made of several different kinds of ingredients. After the fiber and plant matter had been cooked, rinsed, and run though a blender it was ready to use.
The pulp was than diffused in a large tray of water.A small amount of pulp was dyed lavender for our accent color. Using handmade frames and chicken wire Adam began collecting the pulp into even sheets which were placed on a flat wooden board. After some fussing the sheets were left to dry in the sun.




After the dry sheets were trimmed down they were ready to be printed. Adam assembled all the type in a frame and ran it through a letter press, which transferred the inked letters perfectly.

The embellishment was a wood cut- carved out of a block linoleum and than transferred by rubbing it onto the paper with the back of a wooden spoon.

Victorian Petticoat

 

Info on Pattern for Petticoat 

I just completed my first piece for the dress (not including the corset I had made a while back). The petticoat will go under the skirt and provide more volume and shape to the outfit. The extra room also makes it easy to insert a small pillow or bustle.

This is the first real clothing item I have ever sewn and i needed a lot of help with everything. It  is a good thing its underware though, considering all the near disasters I had putting it together Im not going to risk my final wedding pieces with these clumsy hands. I now officially turn this project over to Jillian. Heres looking to a finished dress by June (and the groom jacket and vest).

Hair!

Ive been trying to grow out my hair from a bob to nice and long for the wedding. One big reason for doing this is because my hair is fine and i have trouble pinning down my Victorian top hat when my hair is this short. Now I have less than a year to grow out my "crowning glory" . I went to the beauty supply store to look for some clip in extensions and i found the perfect piece marked down $50 off retail.
I clipped it in to test it out and i think it will be very doable, especially if i get a stylist on it. The only problem is that my hair is currently straight and the piece is wavy, but i plan on perming my hair for the wedding so everything should jive just fine.

Revisiting my Colors

Color by COLOURlovers

Well, these are my new wedding colors based off my new dress fabric and the news that my MIL will be supplying a large amount of lavender bouquets for the wedding.

Fabric!

So I finally found it: a rosy tinted ivory brocade with gold, silver, and brown embellishments. I will use it on my jacket and train (about 8 yards of the stuff). The skirt and accents will be ivory and gold. A little different from my original vision but I think I like the fact that the dress is leaning more towards non-traditional, though colorful dresses were quite popular in The Victorian Days. In fact, it wasn't until Queen Victoria had her wedding that white dresses became all the rage.

Anyways, found this little delight in Berkley at the discount fabric store, my friend was observant enough to pull it out of a big pile and show it to me while i was in the white section obsessing over the fact that there is no good ivory brocades. The fabric was also a great deal, about half as much as Id expect it to be.

Everything else will come from Joannes fabrics, so all in all i will probably spend under $200 on the whole lot of fabric. But this does not yet include lace and embellishments.

Dress Revisions again

A modified vest basque jacket with detachable butterfly train over fore gore skirt and apron.

Notice shorter sleeves and removal of closure at collar.