Train Spotting

 

The largest piece of fig is her train / overskirt. In the illustration it is hitched up on both sides to reveal more ruffles, but I wanted to be able to wear it for more restrained 1890s styles, so I patterned it to look best down, and if I had time I would make loops to hitch it up by. And I ended up not having the time. The end result isn't as accurate to the illustration, but I think it's a very pretty silhouette. 

The pattern was made using a walking skirt pattern I had drafted using the Keystone Guide's dress skirt instructions (p. 82). I left out the center front panel, lengthened the back panels, and added flare at each section near the hem. Once I had put it all together, I realized I wanted the train to fall more smoothly on the ground, so I scooped out something like double ended darts from each seam, so the skirt fell closer to my body, and flared out even more near the ground. The waist band is in self, and closes with a skirt hook at center front.

The fabric for the skirt came from Mood in NYC, where they had matching taffeta and organza. Finding fabric online had been a pain up to that point, with my best option being $50/yard silk satin that I really did not want to have to buy. The taffeta had a really good body to it, and to reinforce it, the skirt was interlining in poly organza. I would have preferred to use silk, but I made concessions to budget when the layer wasn't going to be visible. Even if silk organza has a much better hand. 

The matching organza was turned into machine sewn lace leaves, that were hand sewn to the skirt around the hem. The color match was so good, that they're really hard to see. They add texture more than detail, but I'm still very happy with them. To make the leaves, I traced out images of fig leaves in Affinity Designer, printed them out on sticky solvy stabilizer, and stuck the stabilizer to the wrong side of the piece of organza I wanted to sew. I then put my sewing machine into satin stitch, and drew over the lines with the machine. Once it was all sewn, I cut out along the outside edge, dissolved the stabilizer in warm water, and ironed the leaf flat. Credit where credit is due, I got this idea from a Frieda Lepold instagram short, where she used a straight stitch on chiffon to make Ginko leaves for a dress. 

The finished leaves were pinned, and then hand sewn to the train. In addition to the tone on tone embroidered leaves, the illustration also had a line of three stripes a couple inches up from the bottom of the hem. Do the curve of the train I knew pin-tucks would not be a reasonable solution, and cording the hem would probably drive me insane. So I went for option three, which was tubes of self bias tape top stitched down along only one edge. 

From a distance they look a bit like impossible pin tucks, and the bias was able to follow the curve without bunching up or causing a fuss. I had made a little more than I needed, and end up using the leftovers to make a bow overtop of the big leaf at center back. With all the trim attached, the next step was to figure out how I was going to finish the inside. I had originally wanted to just do a wide facing with horsehair braid and dust ruffles under the hem, but I was in con-crunch mode at this point, and had to do what was going to give me the nicest finish the fastest. I decided on a full cotton poplin lining, only doing a hem facing for the front panels, and the bottom third of the side panel. This would help protect the silk from the ground, without the lining showing when the front opened up a bit. The dust ruffles would have been better, but I just did not have time. Something I can do in the future if I ever want to wear this to an 1890s event. 

In the end I'm really happy with the whole build, and the overskirt is as fancy as I wanted it to be. I probably could have extended the back another couple of inches to fully round out the back of the train, but I wanted a shape that caused minimal traffic problems in a crowded convention, so I feel like this wasn't a bad compromise. My biggest problem is figuring out where I'm going to wear it again. This big a project really should be worn more than once.