An 1890s Skirt, but make it Frozen! #historicaldisneycostume

It's been an odd kind of summer. The calendar, usually filled with adventure, has been empty. Deadlines have evaporated, and with them all the drive to create. Although friends have helped, and amazing things have happened, we've all found things very hard. But life goes on, and eventually a spark lands somewhere, and new ideas bubble up, needing to exist. Onward then, a simple project that could be the start of something a little different. This project was inspired, as so many are, through the work of other artists. These gorgeous drawings by L'Atelier Amateur from Instagram, the iconic designs of Frozen 2, one of my favourite portraits. I'm finally ready to start an 1890s project, but make it Frozen. The iconic skirt of this era is of course the walking skirt. Practical, comfortable, everyday garment. But despite its current popularity, women didn't just wear one kind of skirt. The ripple skirt is much fuller, utilising a full quarter circle in each side piece to achieve that perfect 1890s A-line. For a pattern, truly Victorian to the rescue once more, with their downloadable patterns meaning I can start as soon as inspiration strikes. The fabric is a linen viscose mix. It's historically adequate, budget-friendly, and beautifully easy to work with. I'm just looking at the grain lines on this. This huge piece has the grain there. It's got the other pieces. These are the long panels that most walking skirts have, and you would expect to cut them long ways down the fabric. These two have the grain lines actually across that way, so they will actually be cut across the fabric. This one has the grain line that way. So this is the front, which is kind of normal. This is the side, is a quarter circle. This line is going to be vertical and this line is going to be vertical when you're wearing it as they hang down. So your grain actually swings, so these do make sense in that that's the front, so that's the front of the pattern, and then that's back and the grain line's here, so that grain line matches that, and that grain line matches that. Clever, huh? It's to be fully lined with tarlatan to give as much support to the shape as I can. Tarlatan is an open weave cotton muslin stiffened with starch. Lighter than buckram, coarser, and a lot cheaper than organdy. So one of the issues I've realised with tarlatan is it's not great to fold. So if you fold it, it's quite splingy, and I'm always concerned that that crease is going to stay around it if it gets crumpled. It tends to stay crumpled. I thought it might be safer for the pieces that are cut on the fold to actually draw with a pencil the piece, and then actually pick it up, line that up, and then we'll draw around the other side. Basting the tarlatan to the outer fabric is time consuming, but should help everything to hang evenly and leave to a much neater finish. So as is so common with older patterns, the fabric wasn't wide enough for the whole pattern piece to be cut out as one. All I've done is added an extra bit. I also had to extend the tarlatan because that wasn't wide enough either. So in this case I've actually joined those flat with a zigzag stitch because I don't want the bulk of this fabric. The instructions say fold the back into a single box pleat. I think we don't want to crease these pleats. We want as poofy as possible, so that one needs to be the same. Now the instructions say to put this straight into the waistband, but I think I need to pin it all first. Fold the side back into a box pleat with the side seam hidden in the middle of the pleat. So that's a two inch pleat. If you want to understand box pleats, do go and watch my pleating video. Peat the other side and we'll see how we go. I completely failed to get any footage of sewing on the waistband, but it was much the same as any other skirt. Time for a fit check and to mark the hem. This is a lot easier with a helpful husband. I have pinned the waistband, so this is the center front and this is the center back, and I've pinned them evenly so I can then pull straight the hems to make sure they are the same length because then both sides will be even. The front was fine, there was a bit of shenanigans here. You can see the mark there wasn't lined up. That bit is longer. I'll probably make this side unfortunately down here on the bias of the big curve, the hem has dropped, so I am going to basically have to re-hem the curved part, which is a bit of a pain, but it's one of those points where after all this I'd like to get it right. The original Something's Never Changed dress has the motif coming from the waist, but I couldn't find a single example of an 1890s skirt with the decoration at the top, so I'll put it at the bottom. How to apply the motif? Did you know painted gowns were a thing in the 1880s and 1890s? I have to credit the website victorianvoices.net for gathering so much research into one place. Then I went deeper. There are examples still in existence. This one from the Fashion History Museum of Ontario, this from Historic Richmond Town, one at the FIDM, and a few others that I'll link in the description. The trickiest part was placing the motifs to keep the feel of the original and create an elegant effect, but once they were marked up the actual painting was pretty straightforward. I wasn't sure my art skills were up to this quality of work. Maybe not, but I have an airbrush. Not period, but the effect is the same and a lot quicker than to research, I discovered that the airbrush did in fact exist in 1890. If you want to go down that rabbit hole too, the Airbrush Museum is the place to go.