Welcome to The Victorian Alaskan
Hello fellow stitching and non-stitching friends alike!
It is currently New Year's Eve as I write, and starting new blogs and gym resolutions you don't intend to keep on New Year's Day seems boring, so I'll start this a day early!
As I'm sure you've guessed by now, I reside in the glorious state of Alaska. I am also quite proud of this fact, so you'll probably see it mentioned many more times as this blog progresses.
I have been fascinated by Victorian and Edwardian dress since I can remember. I would 'borrow' my parent's belt and stuff all manner of sheets, pillow cases, pillows, and even curtains into the belt to make the biggest, poofiest skirt I could. I would waltz up and down our house whilst my mother searched in vain for her living room draperies. Thought they were exceedingly heavy, I fell in love with the size, movement, and elegance of my skirts.
I had some sewing and stitching lessons as a child, and my mom would take me to our local JoAnn Fabrics and let me pick out a pattern to make. The very first costume I made was a faux medieval horror that I made with my mom's childhood sewing teacher. It was made out of purple taffeta lined with grey silk, and made the most glorious rustle whenever I moved.
All this backstory brings me to, relatively, present times. This past summer, I decided that I wanted a Real Victorian Dress. The yards of gorgeous fabrics, billowing hoops, and a silhouette to die for. After hours of forlornly staring at cheap, polyester imitation dresses, my husband asked why I didn't just sew myself a Victorian dress? I'm sure I needn't tell you how many hundreds of reasons there are to not 'just sew yourself a 150+ year old style dress.
However, my husband had stumbled onto something. Despite all my protestations, I couldn't sake the idea and kept coming back to the question of making myself a Victorian dress. After carefully saving and scraping and sweating, I bought myself a Brother sewing machine and serger. I also found a lovely cutting table someone was giving away, and a decent dress form. I procured some basic sewing tools, such a pin holder, fabric scissors, and other various, but necessary, accoutrements.
And then I purchased fabric. Yards, and yards, and yards (fifteen to be precise) of unbleached muslin. All of my meager research thus far advised buy muslin for both mock-up fabric and also making some easy, starter garments. I figured that even if my dress turned into an absolute mess, I could at least reuse or resell the fabric and recoup my losses. Ah, the joys of pessimistic thinking!
As of July 2019, I have begun sewing my very own Victorian dress. I have yet to finish it, because life is crazy. I have been looking for local historical sewing friends near me, but apparently when people want to sew historically, they don't do it in Alaska. So I began posting pictures and updates on an Instagram I began just to share my dress-ventures. I even toyed with starting a YouTube channel, but that requires too much work to video and upload, so I'll stick to a blog for now.
I don't know what shape this blog will take, but I hope you will join me as I detail my misadventures into historical sewing alone in Alaska! Please feel free to comment, question, or even share your own story. I hope this encourages someone else to begin sewing their dream dress.
What I can say is that I intend to share many, many photos and updates with all of you here. I also want to provide solid research and reference for how and why I do what I do. What this blog is NOT is a definitive, 'this is how it's supposed to be done.' This is just what works for me. Victorians didn't serge their edges; I don't have time/energy to hand fell all of my inner seams, so you're probably going to see some *gasp* serged edges. I hope we can all have fun and join in the journey that is historical costuming!
With that, welcome to The Victorian Alaskan! Happy New Year, and merry sewing!
Sincerely, your friend The Victorian Alaskan
It is currently New Year's Eve as I write, and starting new blogs and gym resolutions you don't intend to keep on New Year's Day seems boring, so I'll start this a day early!
As I'm sure you've guessed by now, I reside in the glorious state of Alaska. I am also quite proud of this fact, so you'll probably see it mentioned many more times as this blog progresses.
I have been fascinated by Victorian and Edwardian dress since I can remember. I would 'borrow' my parent's belt and stuff all manner of sheets, pillow cases, pillows, and even curtains into the belt to make the biggest, poofiest skirt I could. I would waltz up and down our house whilst my mother searched in vain for her living room draperies. Thought they were exceedingly heavy, I fell in love with the size, movement, and elegance of my skirts.
I had some sewing and stitching lessons as a child, and my mom would take me to our local JoAnn Fabrics and let me pick out a pattern to make. The very first costume I made was a faux medieval horror that I made with my mom's childhood sewing teacher. It was made out of purple taffeta lined with grey silk, and made the most glorious rustle whenever I moved.
All this backstory brings me to, relatively, present times. This past summer, I decided that I wanted a Real Victorian Dress. The yards of gorgeous fabrics, billowing hoops, and a silhouette to die for. After hours of forlornly staring at cheap, polyester imitation dresses, my husband asked why I didn't just sew myself a Victorian dress? I'm sure I needn't tell you how many hundreds of reasons there are to not 'just sew yourself a 150+ year old style dress.
However, my husband had stumbled onto something. Despite all my protestations, I couldn't sake the idea and kept coming back to the question of making myself a Victorian dress. After carefully saving and scraping and sweating, I bought myself a Brother sewing machine and serger. I also found a lovely cutting table someone was giving away, and a decent dress form. I procured some basic sewing tools, such a pin holder, fabric scissors, and other various, but necessary, accoutrements.
And then I purchased fabric. Yards, and yards, and yards (fifteen to be precise) of unbleached muslin. All of my meager research thus far advised buy muslin for both mock-up fabric and also making some easy, starter garments. I figured that even if my dress turned into an absolute mess, I could at least reuse or resell the fabric and recoup my losses. Ah, the joys of pessimistic thinking!
As of July 2019, I have begun sewing my very own Victorian dress. I have yet to finish it, because life is crazy. I have been looking for local historical sewing friends near me, but apparently when people want to sew historically, they don't do it in Alaska. So I began posting pictures and updates on an Instagram I began just to share my dress-ventures. I even toyed with starting a YouTube channel, but that requires too much work to video and upload, so I'll stick to a blog for now.
I don't know what shape this blog will take, but I hope you will join me as I detail my misadventures into historical sewing alone in Alaska! Please feel free to comment, question, or even share your own story. I hope this encourages someone else to begin sewing their dream dress.
What I can say is that I intend to share many, many photos and updates with all of you here. I also want to provide solid research and reference for how and why I do what I do. What this blog is NOT is a definitive, 'this is how it's supposed to be done.' This is just what works for me. Victorians didn't serge their edges; I don't have time/energy to hand fell all of my inner seams, so you're probably going to see some *gasp* serged edges. I hope we can all have fun and join in the journey that is historical costuming!
With that, welcome to The Victorian Alaskan! Happy New Year, and merry sewing!
Sincerely, your friend The Victorian Alaskan
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