A New Dress - One Custom Order Finished!

Here is my latest Custom order dress. This was a ready made dress that I made some changes to to suit my customer! It's going in the mail today and I can't wait until she gets it. So that is one custom order and three to go! Hopefully there are more on the way. I just love this time of year.

This is an underpinning set. I have it for sell as a custom order in my Etsy Victorian Times store now. This is for a muslin set. I plan on listing it as a flannel set as well. Dickens people and civil war reenactors can get very cold while attending fairs and reenactments!

This is just the Chemise. It tucks in to the pantaloons. I am working on one of these today. I traded this for a very pretty necklace from another seller on Etsy.

I've got to get back to sewing. I thought I would update everyone with my new finished projects.

A Great Place for Cameos!

This is my busiest time of the year. I love working on all my custom orders and making new friends as I work on their dresses! But I don't get a whole lot of time for other things such as writing on my blog. I currently have three dress orders and more coming, but today I'm taking the day off! (I've got to get my house back in order before I start on another project!)

I've posted several wonderful Victorian Shops on Etsy the last couple of months, but now I'd like to post a new one I've found. I just love Cameos. My Grandma gave me all of her cameos before she past away, and I think they are so pretty. Cameos can be rather expensive, so when I found the following shop on Etsy I was pleasantly surprise to see how affordable the cameos from Conscientias Cameo. Here are a few of my favorites:

All is Golden Ring

Blush Necklace

Free Love Brooch

Hook Earrings w/ Black and Grey Cameos

(These are my favorite! Any of my family reading my blog this would make a great Christmas present! Hint, Hint!)

Conscientias Cameos can be found on Etsy as well as on blogspot. Just click on any of the pictures or the highlight words to take you directly to Conscientias Cameos or blog. Thank you Conscientias Cameos for letting me feature you on my blog!

I will try to post when I can. And I'll try to post some photos of my custom made dresses in the upcoming days.

Warm and Cosy

Here is my new dress. This dress is made out of soft and warm cotton flannel. It gets cold at some of the fall and winter reenactment events. When I bought the fabric for this dress I had the Dickens Christmas Fairs in mind. October is my big month for making Dickens dresses. The style of the dresses are the same as my civil war dresses only the colors are different. Most ladies I sew for ask for gem colored fabric (ruby, sapphire, and emerald) or dark Christmas colors (wine red and hunter green).

This dress is more of a ruby and sapphire colored dress. I have it listed in my store Victorian Times and I can't wait to see who buys it. This time of year it could be a civil war reenactor, a Dickens Fair reenactor, or even a Halloween shopper. Who ever buys it will stay nice and warm!

Here is a picture of the whole dress. It still needs to be hemmed. But I will hem it to the new owners measurements. Some people wear five and six bone hoops while I only have the dress on a four bone hoop. The bigger the hoop the longer the dress needs to be.

In the next few days I plan to feature some more Etsy sellers and some more wonderful Victorian items they sell.

An Update

Hannah's Handwork silk dress for 18"doll.

Just to let you know, I've been busy sewing some new dresses. I hoping to put some more items in my Victorian Times store. I'll post my new dresses just as soon as I get them finished. In the meantime I would like to inform you that Hannah's Handwork , an Etsy seller I featured last month has added some new items to her shop. The two pictures of the doll dress from Hannah's Handwork is the same beautiful silk fabric of the ball gown in my shop.

Here is a close up of the doll dress.

Here is ball gown that is featured in my Victorian Times store.

You can click on the pictures to take you to the shops mentioned. I think Hannah has some wonderful items in her shop. I love to see what is new! She is now selling hand bound journals and address books that are just beautiful!

O.K. So it's Not Quite Victorian

I just could not help myself. I think the Regency Dresses made popular by the Jane Austen novels are just lovely. I bought this blue fabric with the intention of making a Civil War Ball Gown, but the longer it sat the more I thought it would make a gorgeous Regency Gown. So here it is the dress I've been working on this week. The rest of the week I plan to go back to making Civil War dresses!

Side View

Back View

Front View With Sash

Back View With Sash

More of My Favorites!

Here are two more CDVs that I plan on keeping! The first one is a picture of a young couple. They are either newly weds or a courting couple! Look at the way they are holding hands! When my husband and I were newly married we went to Civil War reenactments together. We were given a lot of grief for holding hands and public and where told that only courting couples hold hands, and not at all the way we hold hands now. I have not had a chance to research the art of holding hands during the Civil War era but now that I got this CDV it is a good reminder to want to know more!

The second CDV is of a civil war family. Wow! Six girls and only one boy! I wonder if they ever had any more. The image has faded with time but it is still a wonderful treasure. I just love large families. I know back then that it was normal to have a big family but now it's just not so common. My husband is the 2nd of 9 children, and I just love his family. It is fun to get together now that the family is getting bigger with Grandchildren!

When studying my family genealogy I found that most of my civil war ancestors had big families. And being from the south, all the boys of fighting age and sometimes even the fathers fought in the civil war. A couple families in my genealogy had all the boys fighting in the same civil war unit! (Of course it made my research a little easier!)

I hope you like these CDVs. I have some listed for sale in my Victorian Times store and plan to be listing more later.

An Interesting Find

I recently purchased a CDV album, from the civil war era, filled with CDVs. Some of the CDVs I plan to sell in my Etsy store Victorian Times, while others I intend to keep for my own collection. When I decide to keep a CDV it is because of something unique in the photo. While looking through the CDV album I came across the first picture shown. This picture of the older woman has an article of clothing that is not usually shown in photos, and that is a pinner apron.

Pinner aprons are aprons that have a bibbed front that is pined to the dress hence the name pinner apron. The aprons where worn to protect the dress while doing housework and such. Rarely where pinner aprons worn to take a nice picture.

The second picture is of a pinner apron and a work dress that I made a few years back. I have some pinner aprons made and I hope to be listing them in my Victorian Times store soon.

I am making some new dresses this week and I can't wait to post them for you all to see! Everyone has been so encouraging and kind in your comments!

Victorian Silhouettes

On Monday I went to a Church Rummage Sale. The sale started on Saturday so I did not expect to find any extraordinary treasures. However, much to my surprise I found the black and white framed silhouette of the Victorian Gentleman and Lady. It was in the bottom of a box of Christmas decorations. I don't believe the silhouette is hand cut. It looks like it could be painted.

I bought the silhouette and when I got home I got out my craft paper and made a few silhouettes of my own. Only my silouettes are hand cut! Pictured is my first silhouette I have listed in my Etsy Store, Victorian Times. I titled it "Victorian Bride". The silhouette remind me of a Bride holding her flowers as she is about to get married. Although my silhouette is not quite as detailed, I like the way it turned out. And with more practice I hope to make more detailed silhouettes in the future.