> I'm gearing up to make a new dress, and was wondering if > anybody on here has made up the 1878 dress from Janet > Arnold's Pattern of Fashion 2. (ha - rhetorical question - > I'm sure somebody has!) I'm got a general idea of what I want > out of the dress, and this seems to be closest to what I want. > However, I want to shorten the skirt and remove the train, > and let the main dress be split up the front to where it > starts to button. I'll wear an underskirt underneath it. > > Should I break down and buy a Truly Victorian pattern or > something else like that? I'm 5'3" 32-26-35, corseted, and > this dress looks a bit big for me. > Not that resizing scares me, it's just that the design of the > pattern looks harder to get smaller by just fitting it down.
I have not made the 1878 Janet Arnold dress, but I recently made a variation on the 1870-1 one... And I did find it easier/faster to start from the Truly Victorian patterns and alter from there... They didn't have a peplum, so that required lots of fussing, but starting with a skirt and bodice that fit me and then altering them to the peculiarities of the dress Arnold documented was easier for me then trying to scale up the pattern to my size. Also, Victorian bodices are generally pretty standard in their cut - mid-late bodices almost always have 2 darts to fit the waist and bosom to either side of CF, a center back funky shaped piece and either a center front or center back opening (from my perusal of vintage fashions center front is more common, but if you look at fashion plates and high fashion center back seems equally common). Now that I look at the 1878 dress, I don't think it would be easier to start from a Truly Victorian pattern - their princess style dress (the 1882 tea gown http://trulyvictorian.netfirms.com/catalog/432.html) does not have the horizontal side-waist dart, nor the bustled back option, nor does the back have a large dart but is actually made of separate pieces. That said, the princess style tea gown goes together very easily/quickly - even if you're fitting yourself in the mirror rather then having a friend fit you :-) From your description, the way the TV pattern looks may be closer to what you want then the Arnold pattern. -sunny _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
