Sewing an 1870s Bustle Gown Part 2 Making the Day Bodice Jacket Afternoon Dress Promenade Gown

Hi everyone and welcome to the next installment of my 1870s bustle dress project. Today it's time to make the day wear bodice. So the elaborateness of my dress will be somewhere around an afternoon dress, a visiting dress, or a promenade dress. And the bodice for my 1870s dress will be based on this very basic bodice pattern from, I think, Harper's Bazaar, which is from the early first bustle era, which I found on Pinterest. I simply printed this image and then enlarged everything according to the little scale on the pattern. But if you do not have a scale on the pattern, just use your bust measurement as a guide, which is the best sample measurement to use when scaling patterns to size. It did take a while, but it was still a lot quicker than redrafting the entire pattern. It needed a bit of trusting in the process as well to keep following the pattern as it was, because I initially did not see how these weird sloped shoulder seams could work in real life. But once I tried on the mock-up, I was blown away by the seam placement. I made a mock-up from scrap cotton fabric, which later ended up being my bodice lining. And after trying on to make sure that it would fit me, it was time to cut out the bodice from the magenta satin. I'm using the same fabric that you've already seen in my skirt video, if you've watched that. And again, I'm using the wrong side of the satin, which is duller and slightly coarse and looks more like a heavy silk than a satin, which I think looks more authentically Victorian to go on the outside of my jacket. And I just love the color of this fabric. It's a very appropriate color for this period as well, because aniline or chemical dyes had just been invented a few years prior, giving people access to a range of brighter and more durable colors that were unthinkable in the periods before. So this gave people access to very bright blues, purples, greens and magentas. And my color shade follows a similarly bright theme and would have been very fashionable at the time. In fact, one of my main inspirations for this gown is this dress from the very early bustle era, I think it's 1869. And as you can see, the shade is quite similar to my fabric. The sleeves are made using two separate pieces rather than one, giving a more controlled, tailored look. Then it was time to pin the lining to the jacket and to attach the sleeves. I was a bit worried about the sizing of my bodice, but everything turned out fine once I tried it on with my corset. Here's the bodice pinned closed at the front and I'm very happy with the fit and the way it looks. So far we're missing decorations and closures though. After some more research on Pinterest, I decided on using more of the same fringe trim that I had been using for the skirt, to create a square illusion neckline, which is a nod to the 18th century fashions, which the 1870s draw so much inspiration from. Another length of trim was attached to each calf. I got these buttons at a local thrift store ages ago with this project in mind, but they're just a tiny bit too bright for this shade of magenta, so a black permanent marker quickly helped fix the issue and enhance the effect of the protruding bits of the patterns in the buttons. The bodice pattern I was using does not have a basque back, so I decided to make a belt that can also be worn as an additional accessory with my evening dress, which will give the appearance of a basque bodice. Again, my main inspiration was drawn from this magenta dress from the early first bustle period that my own dress is based on. I really like the way that the basque dress is kind of folded up onto the bustle, creating a zigzag effect. I tried recreating something similar by using a semi-circle with additional fabric attached to the side, and then trimming everything with more of the fringe trim, plus adding a bow at the back for good measure, which kind of held the whole thing together and adds a nice little detail. Now here's a little horror story that happened after I had finished both the belt and the bodice. They were thrown onto my sewing machine under the table and somehow the sewing machine oil bottle broke, and the entire belt and most of the jacket were completely soaked with sewing machine oil, and I do mean completely soaked, because that must have been at least half a bottle of oil that went into the fabric. Fortunately, a quick internet search revealed that you can get oil stains out with baking soda and dish soap, so I laid the garments in the bathtub before generously dusting them with baking soda and leaving them to sit for a while. And honestly, I don't know if that did much, but then I popped that whole thing into a bucket of warm water and dish soap and let that sit overnight. The reason you want to use dish soap is because that's specifically designed to handle grease, and then you can pop that whole thing into the washing machine and wash on a gentle cycle. To my delight, the oil stains disappeared completely, although a slight scent of sewing machine oil has remained so far. I thought I'd share this little horror story here, just in case something similar should ever happen to you, although I sincerely hope it doesn't, because that was really a scary situation. Overall, I'm really happy with how the bodice and the belt came out, and I can't wait to wear them out for the first time. Thank you so much!