The Making of a Crimson Peak Inspired Ballgown

As mentioned in my previous post, the San Francisco Edwardian Ball is coming up in January.
This gives me plenty of time to make something new just for the occasion, and Crimson Peak is full of inspiring material.
Over the weekend, I was able to track down a lovely synthetic duchess satin that didn't break the bank, at $4.98 per yard. Though I wanted so badly to buy silk, I need to be frugal this year. On the plus side, since it's synthetic it will be easier to wash after an evening of revelry!
The other nifty thing about this particular weave of fabric, is that it behaves like a heavy silk and while slightly springier, it's without the overly shiny surface many polyester or acetate satin fabrics have. I'll just need to really utilize some good shirring and tacking stitches on the bodice to get it laying nicely if I do any pleats or gathers for texture.
Initially I planned on finding a nice pale gold, but the only thing I found that I liked, and was bright enough without being too saturated or dusty, was an expensive silk. So blush it will be...

Indeed, I could just do an all-out cosplay and make a copy of her ballgown, but there are things about it that didn't really woo me. The fit and length of her bodice for one. This gown is the one costume in the film I feel that could have been tailored more appropriately for the era it was set in. Everything else about it was lovely; the minimal straps were fine for the era, including the pearl decoration and that spectacular matching evening cloak.
Additionally, I kind of want to do my own thing with this.

 

After comparing a warm, super pale blush color, to a candlelight ivory (both similar to Edith's ballgown in the film) I decided to go with the ivory.
I also want mine to tell a different story. It's one that follows Edith's dreams after her escape from Crimson Peak; incorporating the stain of blood red on snow and skin, and her waltz with Sir Thomas. How does a person just walk away from a traumatic and heartbreaking experience like that, and start over? Simple answer; you don't, not completely. It haunts you, and like some sage advice given to me once on the subject of grieving and trauma, "You carry it with you. The trick is *how* you carry it".
Edith indeed has a strength and resiliency that we don't see much of in female leads, particularly in historical drama and Gothic romance. But while she will obviously be able to carry on and be happy, how have her dreams changed when she closes her eyes each night?

As you can see in the above on-set images, the color of her dress changes with the light; sometimes almost ivory and other times more pink, it's warmed by the candlelight in the room. Hers was a very soft ivory blush duchess silk satin, and the photo of my blush fabric isn't quite accurate either, and more pink due to lighting.
This is another reason I wanted to go with as pale a color as possible, like the candlelight ivory, to keep me from resembling a walking Valentine's day card. I'm combining it with a rich red velvet, and a few other details I'll divulge later.
Since I don't have a nice evening coat or cape earlier than 1940, I'd like to try and make a version of her cloak, too. Especially with that amazing shirred stand-up collar!

As for the patterns I'm basing this gown off of, I've decided on two by Truly Victorian.
The 1903 trumpet skirt (works for 1901 too) and possibly the 1890s ballgown bodice, the latter of which I'll alter a bit to fit my needs and be more Edwardian. I may not need it at all.
I nearly went with the 1893 Bell Skirt, but after having made that skirt up before, I realized it's a different silhouette than the sylph-like lines I want for this gown.

The paintings by Boldini were a big inspiration for me, and I imagine nearly all the gowns shown in the ballroom scene of Crimson Peak. If you look at more of Boldini's works featuring women, a good portion of them were represented in that one scene in the film. Particularly Edith, and the rival ladies vying for the attention of Sir Thomas. Even works by John Singer Sargent such as this one, acutely resembling the rival's mother.
It's always interesting when life, or in this case film, imitates other types of art in a wonderful way.

XOXO

Catching Up

It\"s been a while, once again, since the last entry here and seems to be a habit of mine. Especially as I go about gathering up materials and supplies for Dragon Con costuming.

Here are a few shots from way back in January, taken at the Twelfth Night Ball.

This is the ice blue ball gown I was working on, and barely had enough time to finish...and I still don\"t consider it totally finished. But, it turned out to be a gown "that would do" and is stylishly simple.

A surprise photo with Anders, Photo: Laurie Tavan

Tea-dyed satin slippers; they went from a glaring white, to this lovely candlelight ivory thanks to some English breakfast tea. They show up a slightly deeper shade in this photo than they actually are.

I wanted to add more trimmings made from the blue silk and gold trims, around the neckline for a faux bertha collar (as seen on some extant ballgowns). I\"m still hoping to give it a delicate helping of that, a little extra on the sleeves, and perhaps something on the skirt as well made from the taffeta and gold metal brush fringe. Something along the lines of this, instead of having the metal fringe straight along the hemline as I do now:

Still, I wish I had a good shot of the bodice front. With that said, the gown ended up very much reminding people of Cinderella, and that became my nickname for the evening ;-)

A little more boning at the seams is needed, too. Hopefully as the weather and free time improves, and I’ll maybe head up to Villa Montalvo for a quick photo shoot with this gown. The Villa is the same location we shot my Sisi velvet and mink ensemble, so it should be the perfect spot for a Cinderella-like set.

Striking a Winterhalter pose with Jenny Storm, Photo: Bill Watters

Dancing

Photo: Laurie Tavan

With Daniel and Laura, photo: Christopher Erickson

And then things just got weird...

Photo by Bill Watters

End-Of-Year Update Part I

Happy Yule to everyone!

As the holidays ramp up toward the new year, here\"s an update on what I\"ve been up to since I last posted here. Hold on tight, it\"s a long one. First up; the dress(es) conundrum...

Ballgown bodice pre-seam clipping, hence the bunching on the dart seams.

For Dickens Fair this year, I decided to take time away from participating as a cast member and focus on sewing. Even so, other performances and costuming ended up taking much of my time away from my goal of creating a fabulous pastel frou-frou 1830s ensemble. My friend Laura and I were planning on attending the final weekend together in these outfits. Unfortunately time ran out for me, but that really wasn\"t the final reason why I didn\"t use the pale blue silk taffeta for such a project. More on that in a bit.

On Saturday in the middle of the afternoon before Laura arrived to meet me (after spending the morning rushing to finish her outfit), Anders became violently ill.

He played Bill Sykes with the Oliver Twist cast this year, and was feeling right as rain Saturday morning. That is, until he ate some tainted food from one of the vendors for lunch. He was so sick I feared that I’d need to take him to an ER. When the worst of it passed after about 3-4 hours, I got him in the car and we just went home. I spent that Sunday looking out for any recurring symptoms that might surface, but he was almost normal by Sunday night. He’d had just four french fries on Saturday that made him feel "funny" about 30 minutes after eating them, then he blacked out, came to and was violently ill multiple times. Later we heard more than a few other people had come down with the same symptoms that same day, and it’s strongly suspected that it was botulism(!) from poor food handling and tainted ingredients.

So while we enjoyed those few earlier hours at Dickens on Saturday, Laura and I never had the chance to wreak Frou-frou havoc together.

It was also due to two other less intense factors:

1.) I had initially purchased the silk with the intent of FINALLY making myself an 1850s or 1860s ballgown, and while I could have made the 1830s day dress convertible into the 1850s ballgown, I would have had to do some major futzing that would likely compromise the design I wanted for my ballgown.

2.) After weighing the risks, I didn\"t want to wear this pale and wondrous silk fabric at Dickens, where patrons are walking around with drinks, the ground is dirty and hemlines suffer, small children and adults alike with grimy hands that like to shove in crowded areas and patrons are often walking around with food. I didn\"t want to subject my future mid Victorian dream ballgown to any of that.

Last year I had a pale colored dress and a patron spilled food on the skirt. I had to have it dry cleaned and even though they couldn\"t get all of the stain out, it was expensive. Luckily the stripe pattern in the fabric helps hide the faint stain, but I don\"t want to go through that again.

 If we do attempt the pastel 1830s madness thing again next year, I\"ll make it out of something more easily washed. I had initially thought about getting a synthetic taffeta for this, but cost-wise I\"d already spent my costuming funds on the silk.

Next year I\"ll make the 1830s dress in a good quality silk blend, or a lined sheer blue cotton. This isn\"t that I\"m a fabric snob, but synthetics get really warm at Dickens Fair and it can be downright sweltering indoors when the crowds are their thickest.

Natural, breathable fabrics are the way to go. As long as I can hand wash or put it through the delicate cycle in cold water and drip dry, I\"m comfortable with wearing an all-over solid pale color at Dickens Fair.
So in the end, I took this dress and made a few changes.

I removed the sleeves from the bodice, and replaced them with my own altered version of the gigot sleeves from the Truly Victorian 1830s dress pattern. I made them out of a slightly contrasting fabric to the dress. It used to be a grey pink shot taffeta skirt I\"d made 2 years earlier, and wore once.

Then I took some of the trim from the old sleeves, and used that to trim the gathered areas and the shoulder seams of the new sleeves.

The skirt received an update as well. With more of the left over trim from the sleeves, I applied it in a straight line down the center front. I also attached a bunch of lush bows made from the grey/pink skirt fabric for an 1836 skirt decoration style I\"d seen in a fashion plate.

I want to do something like this dress again, but in richer colors. This plum/dove grey/pinkish color scheme is lovely in daylight, but indoors or in the dusky lighting of Dickens Fair, it gets washed out easily. I at least had its pretty luster to save it. If I do a pale blue, I\"ll go for something that looks like a bright sky blue in outdoor light.

This bodice was also worn over a different corset this time, and while it was more comfortable than its predecessor, there is some wrinkling I\"ll need to fix on the bodice with a re-fitting and more boning.

As for the hat, stay tuned. That and the ballgown will get their own blog entries.

 

 Photo by Mary Anne Butler

 Photo by Laurie Tavan

What I've Been Up To...

Again I've been pulled away from you, dear readers, on various adventures with little time in between to post here.
Well I aim to change that today. This summer has proven to be full of Deco era events, with a bit of Victorian thrown in for good measure. Settle in folks, this is a long one.

Back in early August, I attended the Spirit Of '45 event in San Jose.
It was a great time to celebrate all the veterans of WWII, listen to some great music, get dressed up, be in a parade, shop for fabulous vintage hats, hang out in some beautiful vintage cars, and hang with good friends.

Laura and I in the ice ream parlor.

After that, the next adventure was even more glamorous.
My two best friends, Laura and Cait (of Curse Words And Crinolines) twisted my arm...well, it didn't take much twisting...to join them for a weekend aboard the Queen Mary.

It was the Annual Art Deco Festival, and everyone was dressed to the nines.
Friday afternoon had a bit of a rocky start to the weekend due to a major screw up of the hotel management, and a visiting camera crew filming a reality TV series.
After checking into our rooms, then unknowingly being checked out in the system so they could accommodate the film crew, we were finally checked *back in* and settled by early evening. We had a bite to eat then dressed for the cocktail party on the observation deck and lounge. It was the first time I wore this vintage 1930s evening dress; a cobalt blue number with silver beading on the low draped back. I pared it with a beaded silver lariat for a belt, as the original is of course missing.

 Later that evening, Laura and I ghosted around the ship in our nightgowns, on our way to the Pajama Party.
Being an old ship, there are lots of random switches and buttons, sometimes randomly located on walls and in corridors. We found one smack dab in the center of a beautiful likely-now-extinct wood veneer wall in the observation bar. Perhaps it was to call a waiter?
Would the wall flip around and expose some secret Nazi lair, a la Indiana Jones?
I was tempted to press the inviting little ivory button in its unlabeled brass plate to see if anything happened. I didn't do it....but there's always next year....

Saturday we strolled about, met up with more friends old and new, and checked out the vendor areas. We spied some black satin knickers embroidered with an amusingly steadfast phrase.

Before getting ready for the Grand Ball, Cait, Michael and I enjoyed the late afternoon lounging on the upper deck.

Once we were in all our finery, we gathered in one of the smaller event areas for cocktails before they opened the doors to the grand ballroom.

 

The Three Musketeers!

Dinner was amazing, and consisted of multiple courses. The live music, featuring Dean Mora of Mora's Modern Rythmists was stellar.
The three of us girls wore midnight blue; Cait and Laura in blue velvet and yours truly in shimmering blue sequined net.

 Of course, between dinner, desert and dances, hilarious hijinks ensued in the hallways, as per tradition...

 Like a scene out of 'The Women'.

 Left to right:

 Autumn Adamme, Dan'a, Cait, Patricia 

Lippert, Annamarie Von Firley, Me, Laura and Lily Mansfield center floor.

To wind down the evening, we retired to the observation lounge for a special treat.
The after-party was a one-night-only reproduction of how the lounge looked on the night of the Queen Mary's maiden voyage in 1936; The Starlight Lounge.
They brought out and set up all the original tables, chairs, china, silverware, linens, menus and star-scattered drapes on the windows.
The story goes is that they drew those heavy velvet drapes against the coming daylight, and literally danced past dawn while the band played until 7am.
In the years that followed, the restaurant lounge became a highly sought after place to dine and drink while traveling aboard the ship, and reservations were often fully booked 2 years out.
Once again, the band played until the wee hours, and I did a few turns on the dance floor until my poor feet begged for mercy.

Time warp.

 Next on the agenda, was the Sunday tea dance, and we all donned our Sunday best, for tasty treats and savory tea. I pulled out my vintage mid 1930s organdy striped dress and a little black straw hat, while Laura donned a crisp white summer dress and borrowed my burgundy hat. It paired well with the new garnet jewelry she bought during the weekend.

Fashion plate poses: Laura with her fabulous new shoes!

Goofing off with Cait...

 As an end to the weekend, Sunday night found us all gathered together at Sir Winston's; an amazing restaurant also aboard the QM.

 Many thanks to Annamarie and her husband David (seated at the far right) for a wonderful dinner and the perfect end to a lovely weekend with friends.

 Again with the buttons and little flicky switches! 

This time, Laura got brave and actually FLICKED ONE!
It did nothing, which was way more exciting, since we imagine it probably did something somewhere! We ran giggling, like two prank-crazed schoolgirls, down the hall a few doors to our room.

It was hard to leave the next day. It was as though the clock was striking midnight and my glass slippers were changing back to little black flats.

Fast forward to the next weekend:...

Once More,With Feeling...

Remember at the end of my last post, where I wondered what the hell I was going to wear to the upcoming Twelfth Night Ball?
Well, all I need is a new bodice! I think I can make it work in time, and I'm hauling on it, so I'm not too worried.

The Twelfth Night Ball is essentially the big wrap party for the cast of Dickens Fair. Yes, Dickens still has its claws in us weeks after it ends. What's nice about this ball, is that we can wear whatever era we want ;-)
So, since I have zero 1850s or 1860s formal wear, I'm going 1880s bustle since there is a lot of that going on in my wardrobe already. However, the only formal evening or ballgown style bodice I have is the one to my madame X gown. I've already worn that to so many of the dances that I need something new...and I'd like to wear something besides black.

I know, I know. The Sisi/Velvet Hussar project needs to be finished, and I'll finish that before I start any more new projects...but I need this ballgown bodice by this Saturday evening.
I already have the lower half of the ensemble from this 1880s promenade gown I made a few years ago. I might remove the lace apron for the ball though:

I was lucky enough to have plenty of the rich magenta silk faille taffeta left over to make a ballgown bodice from (it looks more purple in the above photo than is really is).
I'm using the Truly Victorian 1860s Ballgown Bodice, and making the point in front a little more long and sharp instead of the soft V the pattern gives me. Keeping the whole design fairly simple, I'm likely not adding any lace and utilizing the same green/rose shot moire ribbon I have on the skirt somewhere on the bodice.
I've also added a little peplum in back, to give it that much more of a bustle era boost.
Sleeves; It's one of those almost-off-the-shoulder styles, so I may leave that as is, and use the short puff sleeves that already come with the pattern...though I may widen them a bit for more puff, then tack them in a few spots to sculpt the puffiness. Working with this silk is a dream, and sculpting is the word that keeps coming to mind.
Here is the bodice after just starting it this afternoon. I had to crank the color of the image a bit to show the true color of this incredible silk. Each piece is flat-lined with a plain white cotton twill, darts are done, peplum is pepped...like I said, I'm hauling:

Tonight or tomorrow evening, I'll do the final fitting and decide if I want the closure in back or hidden in front under some sneaky trim/sash thingy.
Oh and, Happy New Year! XOXOX