So this is an unbelievably late post for the challenge due on July 15th, but it was actually done on time :) And the delay was worth it because our new flat is AMAZING and has so much more space for sewing and picture taking! And did I mention the roof doesn't leak :D

Anyway, onto the challenge. Remember this post about the bustle dress I'd have made if I had time to do the stripe challenge? Well, the Eastern influence challenge came along and I figured if it was made from a Sari then that counted! The pattern was draped on my newly padded dress form (and actually requires a bit of taking in on the underbodice). The dress consists of a waistcoat/blouse of raw silk with cotton voile sleeves and vintage pleated organza trim at the neckline and cuffs, a jacket and a skirt. The jacket and skirt are trimmed with upholstery cord and tassles, a completely over the top look which I love

I had to get seriously creative with this one to get it all out of the fabric available, so if the design doesn't quite match the inspiration picture, know that its because I used every last inch of the trim! I have a richly embroidered sectioin of the sari left which didn't look quite right anywhere I considered using it on the dress itself, but which I will probably put to use making a reticule and a bonnet to complete the outfit.

This dress made its debut at the Rochester Summer Dickens festival - I hoped to enter the best dressed competition but unfortunately they'd moved it to the Sunday this year - maybe next time! I have a few finishing touches to do (more tassles, this time small ones on the jacket) and then I will take some detail shots for you.

 Well, as you've noticed I haven't been keeping up with the HSF challenges very well (but its ok cos my target was to do 10 out of 26!) That doesn't mean I'm not inspired by them though! So, for those challenges I can't take part in but would really love to, I decided I share my imaginary projects!
For the stripes challenge, I'd love to use this Sahri which I bought around 10 years ago when I was a student - believe it or not, I paid £10 in the charity shop for this beautiful piece! It's been worn a couple of times as fancy dress, and was hung up in my room as decoration for a couple of years, but until now I've never found the design worthy of the fabric.

But thanks to HSF I now know exactly what I want to make with it! I was flipping through the Harper's Bizarre Victorian fashion book and came across this plate:

It's perfect! I think I'll have to carefully plan the trim placement based  on what I have available, and probably mix in some plain pink fabric but I LOVE  it! This is now on the 'to sew list' and hopefully will get made some time  this year!

So, now I can tell you about what I've got planned for the next few  challenges on the Historical Sew Fortnightly. This is a picture of my great  grandmother, Florence Maud Dowding. Florence was born in 1896, and this  photograph was taken when she was 16 years old, so in 1812 or 13. Florence was 1  of 15 children, and we're lucky enough to have some of her memories, recorded on  cassette tape by a neighbour and lovingly transcribed by my mum (and believe me,  a lot of love was involved as my mum is not a fast typer at all!) She talks  about going into service at the age of 12, because she'd been very ill and the
doctors prescribed a change of air - the only way that could happen was to go as  a servant. Her mother took in laundry, and she talks about how the family were  always well turned out, and her mother would make clothes for them to make sure
they all looked smart. I love to imagine the story behind this photograph - how they probably saved up to have it taken, Florence and her mother probably worked  on putting together an outfit and maybe her sisters helped, or loaned their
jewellry or best gloves for the special occasion!

 I've always loved this picture and fancied the idea of recreating it,  and  that’s what I'm going to do for my next few challenges. Of course,  historical  accuracy starts with the correct silhouette, which means the  correct underwear, so this is how I'm thinking it's going to fit with the  challenges.

 Challenge #3, Under it All - a 1910s corset 
Challenge #4, Embellishment - 1910s combinations with lots of lace and/or embroidered chemise/collar and/or embroidered ribbon trim for the neckline and sleeve of the dress.
Challenge #5, Pioneers and Paupers - this is about  making a working class outfit, and I'm hoping I'll be able to complete the  dress by the end of this challenge.
Challenge #6 - I'm probably gonna  skip this one as I think I'll have some  catching up to do!
Challenge  #7 Accessories - time to try and make that enormous hat!

I think I'll  also need to make a petticoat and some kind of bust supporter  - I'm hoping  I can either squeeze these in or complete them after the dress - this is the wrong way round really so we'll see what happens!

Next post: The  corset

Historical sewing blogger "The Dreamstress" has organised a rather wonderful project for 2013 - the historical sew fortnightly. The idea is that every fortnight, there is a themed challenge to complete by the end of that fortnight. You can do as many or as few as you want, and the challenges are posted 7 challenges (so 14 weeks) in advance, and you can start as early as you want as long as its done in time. The themes posted so far have been really good - easy for anyone to come up with something that fits the theme regardless of period of interest etc.

The first challenge was to make something from the year XX13 - I missed that one, but it is the inspiration for my next few challenges - more on that later.

Challenge number 2 was to complete a UFO. While I have many USO's (new term I just invented: Un-Started Objects) I, once I've committed to a project 'm actually pretty good at sticking to a project until I finish it. So I only had one UFO to choose from. I cut out the pieces for the laughing moon train supporting bustle probably a year and a half ago (I think it was when I was handsewing lace on my wedding dress and decided I needed to do something quick and from pattern to regain my sanity). I got as far as marking the lines for the boning, making the lacing panels and sewing the center back pieces together, and that was it.

This project was pretty easy to complete, I decided I didn't like the idea of unfinished seams on the inside and as there were no instructions on finishing, I did flat felled seams. I cut my own bias binding to hold the steel in place, and the trickiest bit was getting the boning through the chanels. I need to research good ways of finishing ends of boning - I left them unfinished which means they sometimes catch, but finishing them would add bulk and its a prtty tight fit.

I'm not entirely happy with the end result. While the silhouette is good in theory, in practice the bustle swings forward, so the back is lower than the front. I wondered at first if I did something wrong, but after googling for pictures of how other's had done it, I noticed that they had the same problem (see here for a thread on carolinabelles).  I tried a petticoat over the bustle to see if this helped, but it actually pushed it further forwards and the front edge of the bustle could be seen through the petti.

I can think of two ways of fixing this. The first is to add weights to the front edge, to counter balance the extra steel at the back. I tried this (with safety pins and cutelry!) and it definately improved matters, the problem is that all this balancign would be have to be redone for each petticoat and dress - things could get very heavy! The other thing I considered doing was moving the lower panel forward - at the moment it doesn't touch my legs at all. I found the following on the farthingales corset blog which sounds like they did this with good results.

"I also found that I needed to move the lower panel that is at calf level. The  pattern instructions indicated that this panel be attached further to the inner  curve of the bustle but I found it bounced off my calves too much when I walked
  - this may not have happened if I had a skirt over it to add weight. I moved the panel to the front edge of the bustle and preferred  the balance this gave."

I think that's what i'll try, but for know I'm declaring this unfinished object done - I'll revisit it when I havea dress to go over it!

The Challenge: #2 UFO
 Fabric: Unbleached Poly cotton curtain lining from fabricland
 Pattern: Laughing Moon #112 Hoops and Bustles, view C
Year: (According to the pattern envelope) 1869-1876 and 1883-1889
Notions: 36 grommets, ribbon for lacing, rigelene and hoop steel
 How historically accurate is it? Not very - the materials are whatever I happened to have, the assembly is all done by machine and I'm not even sure if the pattern is accurate - most bustles I see online are wire and tape, but that may be due to the tension placed on the fabric meaning very few fabric bustles survive.
 Hours to complete: Forgot I was going to be asked this question so I didn't keep track!
 First worn: Not yet - it needs a dress to go over it!
 Total cost: Around £20 for steel, £3 worth of grommets and £3 for fabric, so £26 - but it all came from stash!