Here There Be Dragons

Here There Be Dragons!



Some friends and I landed on the idea of doing a group of dragon-related costumes for the new Showcase format for Costume College 2019. I decided to flow with the theme of “what’s that fabric?” and made my dragon a fabric-hoarding dragon.  While I was at it, why not make a historical style I hadn’t attempted yet? I fixed on the 1870’s as an inspiration era, partially because I already had a bustle (purchased previously from Danielle McKinny) and a corset that will work.

I found an Actual Historical Dress that is similar to what I thought I wanted to do! (Pinterest, well known for being a reliable source ;D, states that this dress is “Day dress, 1880’s, From the collection of Alexandre Vassiliev” And my drawing of what I thought might happen. This did not get drawn right at the beginning, but not too long after I selected patterns.


I started by sending out a plea to my costumer friends for scraps.  Mostly silks, but other interesting fabrics as well, at least 4” square. Several kind friends including Chastity Senek, Twila Taylor, Val LaBore, Ruth Sofaer-Morse, Gretchen Schofield, Tanya Klowden and Mara Perry heeded my call and sent me some really great things. Some people sent me a couple of small samples, some larger bits and pieces and a few sent me hoards of jumbled scraps.  It was really fun sorting through all the fabrics. I also purchased some larger pieces of silk taffeta and dupioni to make up the bustle and perhaps the bodice. At this point, I hadn’t fully figured out how this was all going to come together, but I chose TV405 Vest Basque for the bodice and TV216 the Parisian Trained Skirt for the bustle.

While I was still in the midst of my final non-Costume College project (The Mayflower Suit) I spent some of my evenings with my rotary cutter and quilting ruler, cutting 4" squares. Some fabrics were so precious that I even used smaller scraps to make 2x4” pieces. By the time I was finished, I had a gallon-sized ziplock (carefully) stuffed full of so many colors and textures. I sorted them into main-color piles. I wish I had taken a photo of these but I didn’t. My red pile was at least 2 times the size of the others. I had gotten many sari scraps of various reds, many with bright gold metallic threads running through them.






I used my serger to join the squares into long ribbons of colors. Here was where I encountered one of my first problems. I managed to get a tiny bit of silk filament in my eye as the serger was trimming off the tiniest bit of edge when I joined them. I’m not sure if it was the silk or bacteria from my finger trying to get it out, but my eye was swollen and sore for about 4 days. Don’t be like me. Rinse with clean water or saline. Or wear goggles!

Then came time to pleat. I found my ruffler foot and tried it out, but I didn’t like the depth of the pleats I was getting. I probably did it wrong. I have yet to successfully use this appliance. So then I did fork pleats for a while, but they weren’t totally even and they seemed painfully slow, especially since they required careful placement and pressing after they were sewn. I remembered my friend Trish learning how to make a pressing board at a previous Costume College and thought that might be a good option. A quick google search turned up a tutorial and that ended up being my method for the remainder of the pleating.

My lovely piles of pleats sat while I finished up the Mayflower suit. Then I made the underskirt from some nice pale sage green ticking using the TV291 pattern (I am quite a bit larger than my dress form which is why it is overlapped in the photo.) I even put a pocket in it! It is fully wearable with a blouse on its own.

After some pattern alteration to accommodate my measurements, I made a mockup of the bodice and got help with fitting. (this part will be important later…) I ended up making the sleeves a little shorter and the hip of the bodice a bit wider. I used cotton twill for my mockup. Cotton twill has a little bit of give to it, but we were pretty careful to make sure we weren’t pulling it out of shape. (Queue dire warning music.)

Then I started on my headdress, which started out as a pair of black horns and some colorful craft foam. Another YouTube tutorial provided instructions on making the wire frame for the headdress. It’s a pretty decently easy and effective. Two wire hangers were sufficient to the task. I used a big long needle “threaded” with jeweler’s wire to wire the horns on and then I primered them light gray.  After the first light coat of primer it became obvious how prominent the molding lines where, so I carefully cut away as much as I could with a pocket knife and hit them with a second coat of primer.

Around this point, I realized it was two weeks until Costume College and that I’d been procrastinating getting this thing figured out. I started wildly wrapping my form with swathes of silk and ruffles until I got an idea of how it was all going to work out. I actually kind of like how the silk is hanging better on the back here than on my final product, but I didn’t know how to make that happen. Now that I understand how the bustle goes together, I could do probably do this. So I committed. I decided on a creamy, slubby, silk dupioni that my friend Therese had given me a whole bolt of. While not as rich as the fabrics I’d purchased, there was a LOT of it and if I needed to re-cut anything, there would still be fabric. Also, some industrious soul had already fused interfacing to the entire bolt so I didn’t need to worry about interlining! I cut out the front and side sections of the skirt (all but the bustle, really) and all the pieces of the bodice.


Starting with the pattern pieces for the skirt. I read over the  pattern instructions a couple of times, puzzling over a couple of bits the directions skimmed over without fully explaining. I put the skirt front and side fronts together and marked lines 2 inches apart for thick layers of pleats. This was assuming two rows of each color of pleats. (NEVER ASSUME! Dun Dun Dun….) when I got to yellow, I realized, I BARELY had enough for ONE layer of yellow, let alone two. Okay, second set back. But I was in GO MODE and I said screw it and switched to doing the pleats 3 inches apart at this point. I actually really liked the effect this ended up causing. I did single strips of both yellow and orange because they were too short for two. Since the colors in the two are so close, it’s not too noticeable. I finished up with the pinks and the whites.

Finally, I began building the bodice, playing with bits and pieces to see what kind of decorative elements I wanted. The pattern front shows a lovely wide edging that may or may not be binding. It is not discussed in the pattern. I decided I liked it and I chose a lovely raisin-colored silk for the edging. I had enough of the white pleats left over for the collar and pink ones for the cuffs. I got the main body pieced together. I built the vest fronts from a gorgeous heavy silk that might have been Twila’s, lined it with lightweight linen, and put the button holes in. I pinned it on my dress form and stared at it for a while again. I read the bustle instructions again. They still mystified me. There are ties marked on the pattern, but no mention of them in the instructions. Which ones were supposed to be tied together?  How long(ish) should the ties be?  NO IDEA. I called out to my Facebook Costuming groups and got some good tidbits but still felt a bit out of my depth. I went and worked on my headdress some more, cutting out secondary short horns and some scales, gluing and clipping edges together.

I put together the lining and the sleeves of the bodice and bag lined it, deciding as I did it that the whole thing really probably should have been flat lined with the seams finished on the inside.  It’s just easier to get really neat edges. When researching whether I wanted to put a waist tape in, I realized most of the extant bodices are flat lined. (And Yes, I put a waist tape in. It helps pull the bodice in tight at the back waist so you don't have as much strain on your buttons.

I stared at the bustle instructions some more.Then I realized this was right in the middle of Jennifer Rosbrugh’s (of Historical Sewing) wheelhouse. I contacted her on messenger and she told me you just have to put it together and adjust it until it’s right.  I built the side back panels, with some lovely sari bits and more pleats and bits of some really beautiful lace. I painted my horns.

Then I split the pattern pieces for the bustle and the train into 3 parts each (and added seam allowance) and cut into my beautiful silks. Once I got started building, it went together pretty quickly. Hemming each section of the skirt separately was odd but worked out well.

And suddenly it was pretty much done. The waistbands needed closures. The bodice needed its buttons. The headdress still needed something… I got myself into my corset and put all the layers on, pinning and marking waistbands as I went. And pulled the bodice together… (dun dun DUN)

It was too small in the hips.

**Dead**

I cried for a little while. I put the hooks on the waistbands (well, buttons on the underskirt). I added some texture to my headdress with a glue gun and painted it.

Then I carefully opened up the seams holding the false vest fronts in, pulled them out and added the extra I needed to my pattern. I re-cut them, but I was out of the linen I had used to line before, so they got a cute pink patterned quilting cotton instead. I made new button holes (with lighter-colored thread which I like better). I sewed them back in, having to stitch the lining side down by hand. I sewed buttons on, made a tail and suddenly, I was done. Which was good, because it was the day before Costume College check in and I still had some things to pull together for other costumes.

I had made an appointment with Tracy Gomez, The Historical Hairdresser to do my hair and makeup on Friday afternoon. SO MUCH GLITTER! And fun purple curls and I was ready to go.

I went up to my borrowed room with Val LaBore and Kristen Foggie to get dressed. I started pulling things out of my bag and realized I’d left the bustle cage at home!  A quick rescue was enacted by my wonderful husband Pierre and son Owyn and I was able to put it all together. (Poor teenage boy standing in the middle of a hotel lobby filled with crazy costuming women, holding a bright pink, yellow, and green bustle.)

The Showcase was fun, although there was definitely some stage fright!  Playing with my other Dragon and Dragon Rider Buddies was awesome!