Countdown to New Year No2: An 1860s picnic outfit

This outfit was planned for a Victorian picnic on the Isle of Wight. As mentioned in my previous post, I had chosen to make a Garibaldi blouse to wear with a crinoline skirt. I felt that this 1860s fashion was perfect for the relaxed atmosphere of a picnic as well as being light and comfortable for wearing outdoors in hot weather. I used Truly Victorian's TV441 1861 Garibaldi Blouse Pattern to draft the blouse and then added my own touch by hand embroidering the front yoke panels.

To do this I took another piece of the same cotton, wider than the pattern piece and created rows of tiny vertical pin tucks. Between these I removed some of the vertical threads to create drawn-thread embroidery. I then cut out the pattern piece from these prepared pieces of fabric and basted them to the plain cotton piece for support and made up the blouse as per the instructions.

 I finished the neck, yoke edge and cuffs with cotton tape that was box pleated with the edges of each pleat caught together in the centre to create a three-dimensional effect. This was based on some trimming ideas that I came across in an 1860s magazine. It took time and perseverance to complete but was well worth the effort in the end.

I wore the blouse with a very large pleated crinoline skirt. I miscalculated when I was cutting the skirt and accidentally made it up with four panels ( cut from the full width of my cotton-rich curtaining fabric) when I only really needed three. The result is a luxuriously full skirt that really captures the size and scale of an 1860s skirt even when worn over a smaller, round crinoline. It is heavy to wear but I enjoy the look that it creates. I finished the waist with a sash sewn from pleated cheap pashmina scarves.

And doesn't it look beautiful set against the sea...If only this photograph was a painting!
Perhaps something like this by Eugène Louis Boudin

The Beach at Trouville, the Empress Eugénie

by Eugène Louis Boudin

• Date painted: 1863
• Oil on panel, 34.3 x 57.8 cm
• Collection: Glasgow Museums

Countdown to New Year No1: an 1860s Garibaldi blouse

Last summer I decided to make a Garibaldi blouse or Canezou with drawn thread embroidery. Before spending hours on the embroidery, I made up a test version of the blouse using plain cotton curtain lining. As it turned out, this made a nice and lighter alternative to the fringed bodice of my walking costume and teams very nicely with the skirt. These are some of the pictures that we took of the ensemble at St Mildred's Church, Whippingham on the Isle of Wight, Queen Victoria's chapel when she stayed at Osbourne House.

A saucy afternoon at the seaside, sometime in the 1890s...

I don't know why I was thinking about New Year's resolutions the other day but it inspired me to make an Old Year's resolution concerning this blog. I have so many costume plans, designs and fabrics all waiting to be realised that I want to get started in January and try to complete at least one full outfit for myself every three months. And in order to keep my blog updated with these new costume adventures, I have decided to try and post all of my backlog of past costumes before the end of the year.

Now to anyone who has read my blog before this will probably sound familiar! This is not the first time that I have aimed to have all of my old photographs and costumes uploaded. However, I am going to give it a good try this time.

Today I have chosen a costume that I created for an event on the Isle of Wight two summers ago. It is not exactly appropriate for the current weather, but for those of you who are not enjoying the shortening days and descending temperatures this will be a reminder of sunnier days.

After a Victorian Picnic in the country park, with Her Majesty Queen Victoria in attendance, a bathing belles competition was organised on the beach. For this event, I designed this bathing costume using Folkwear's pattern 253.

Pattern by Folkwear

Although navy blue was a very common choice for bathing suits at this period I looked at as many fashion plates as I could find and white suits were also fashionable. This made this a very economical project, which was just as well as I had just made a number of other more complex and costly outfits. I used a fairly heavy plain white cotton, with a red cotton for the collar, red rick rack trim and tiny red buttons.

I designed the pattern for the shoes myself to complete the outfit. I used the leftovers of the red cotton, with leather encased inside the sole to make them more comfortable to walk in. I got the shape just by experimenting with pieces of newspaper round my feet, and although they were a little bit clumsy to wear in real life, they do complete the look in the pictures. I hope next time to be able to improve on my pattern. They are laced with some red cord that I found serendipitously in my Mum's haberdashery stash.

As you can see, my photo editing skills are fairly basic - many thanks to Paint for the disguising of the modern people who wondered into the frame!

To impress the judges, I was also very badly behaved (for a Victorian lady) and demonstrated the full workings of my costume by removing my wrap-around skirt to reveal the swimming bloomers (made in one piece with the blouse like combinations). Here is a shot taken later that shows the suit without the skirt.

And of course, dressed like this I couldn't resist having some fun! This included posing for some saucy postcard snaps. I was just messing around and my Dad was taking the pictures. Little did I realise, until I looked away from the camera, that so were a lot of other men all lined up behind him on the beach!!

And then there's this one...

Did I actually take a swim? Well, let's just say that I'm not sure that the red cotton is colourfast and although it was sunny it was a very windy day and I didn't fancy testing the water temperature or being swept away to sea!!