September 2007

I have bought a beautiful chinese brocade and it would make a really lovely victorian gown. I have about 5 yards of this fabric and I want to use it for a corset, a bodice and an overskirt.

The overskirt will be the TV362 wash overskirt. The brocade will only be used for the front apron, the sides and back will be black satin. For the bodice I will use the TV410 polonaise pattern. I will only make the top of the polonaise as a bodice. After cutting out the fabric for the corset, I realised I didn't have enough fabric to make the bodice completely out of the brocade. So the sleeves will be black satin. To complete the gown I am going to make a TV201 underskirt out of red satin.

Patterns used:

TV410 1873 Polonaise

TV201 1870's underskirt

TV362 1884 Wash overskirt

Butterick B4254

Fabrics and trims:

The fabric:

Black/red blossom brocade, black satin and red satin:

Close-ups of front of bodice:

Sleeve trimming:

Trims on apron of overskirt:

More trims of overskirt:

The corset:

Pictures can be found here.