The Skirt
This is made from these instructions. There are measurements on there, but to get my own waist size I took my own waist measurement and divided it between all of the pieces. I then made a pattern out of plastic sheeting since I really don't like tissue paper for pattern making. It's cheap, and you can cut it as huge as you want. The only drawback is that you can't iron it and all you can really do is run your hands over it to get the wrinkles out. I also made myself a large graph board with 1 inch increments marked on it to help with accuracy, which I pinned the pattern to as I created it.
The front is one large piece cut on the fold and the back has 4 gores (I think!) to make it sweeping and froofy. I measured from hip to hip to start the construction and then divided the remaining inches into the gores, since it really didn't matter to me where those ended up in relation to my body.
The pattern doesn't include a waist, so what I used was some black fabric and interfacing cut in a rectangle to my waist size, doubled it over lenghtwise and sewed it to the skirt. I left one seam open for a zipper which is on my side since the skirt doesn't have a back seam.
I winged the lining. I really had no idea what to do with the lining since I had never lined a skirt (or dress) with a zipper before. My attire doesn't tend towards lined skirts, so I haven't ever made one. The skirt is lined with a thrifted sateen bedsheet, which is thick and luxurious and which also added a lot of weight.
The skirt had some serious body and weight to it from all the layers and the thickness of both fabrics.
The hem took me over 3 hours to do! The skirt itself took a few weeks working on it on and off, although I didn't time myself. It was a large job considering the amount of fabric I had to work with and I don't envy those thrifty Victorian women that had to sew skirts and clothes either by hand or with a treadle.
This is made from these instructions. There are measurements on there, but to get my own waist size I took my own waist measurement and divided it between all of the pieces. I then made a pattern out of plastic sheeting since I really don't like tissue paper for pattern making. It's cheap, and you can cut it as huge as you want. The only drawback is that you can't iron it and all you can really do is run your hands over it to get the wrinkles out. I also made myself a large graph board with 1 inch increments marked on it to help with accuracy, which I pinned the pattern to as I created it.
The front is one large piece cut on the fold and the back has 4 gores (I think!) to make it sweeping and froofy. I measured from hip to hip to start the construction and then divided the remaining inches into the gores, since it really didn't matter to me where those ended up in relation to my body.
The pattern doesn't include a waist, so what I used was some black fabric and interfacing cut in a rectangle to my waist size, doubled it over lenghtwise and sewed it to the skirt. I left one seam open for a zipper which is on my side since the skirt doesn't have a back seam.
I winged the lining. I really had no idea what to do with the lining since I had never lined a skirt (or dress) with a zipper before. My attire doesn't tend towards lined skirts, so I haven't ever made one. The skirt is lined with a thrifted sateen bedsheet, which is thick and luxurious and which also added a lot of weight.
The skirt had some serious body and weight to it from all the layers and the thickness of both fabrics.
The hem took me over 3 hours to do! The skirt itself took a few weeks working on it on and off, although I didn't time myself. It was a large job considering the amount of fabric I had to work with and I don't envy those thrifty Victorian women that had to sew skirts and clothes either by hand or with a treadle.
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Wow! Your costumes are amazing! Hey, I think you should wear the vest through the fall and winter...they've come back in style, you know. It fits you so beautifully.
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