The Victorian Alaskan

Hello stitching & non-stitching friends, In this post, I'll be going through the final steps putting together Truly Victorian's TV 244 1859 double skirt pattern. If you haven't read my previous post about my current project, I'm making a late 1850's, early 1860's dress out of yellow cotton lawn, lined with cream broadcloth, and trimmed with black velvet ribbon. I will be making a bodice with pagoda sleeves to match this skirt, and with the way this quarantine is going, I'll be finished pretty soon! Just for a reference, this is the bottom flounce of my skirt being hemmed. You can see how sheer the lawn is, which had my quite worried. I pinned my lining (ivory broadcloth) into a rough approximation of a waistband and put four pins equally distributed around the bottom to match up with the four pins equally spaced around the bottom flounce of my skirt. I matched up each quarter mark pin on my yellow lawn to a quarter mark on the broadcloth....

Hello again, both stitching and non-stitching friends! As I wait for my order order from Mood Fabrics, thanks coronavirus, I figured I would start working on my skirt so that all I have to prepare before starting on the bodice is two petticoats. Fitting the bodice on the petticoats, and even on the skirt itself, is entirely optional. Generally, bodices in the 1860's were worn over skirts, meaning that shirts weren't tucked into skirts but instead lay over top of them. So I personally felt better with measuring and constructing my bodice last (to get my sewing skills as sharp as possible) and to give myself my best chance at laying the entire ensemble together correctly. (Image source:  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/178595941452485881/ ) It is important to note that your bodice, and skirts and hoop skirt, should be constructed over and tailored to your body while in your chemise, corset, corset cover, and shoes. If you opt to not wear a corset cover (that's fine, n...