The Vionnet Star Dress

In October of 2018, my husband and I traveled on the Orient Express for the second time. The first time was in 2015, and I wore some beautiful modern evening gowns. I loved them, but told myself, if we do this again, I need to make my own.

2018: In Review

Jumping back in to the blog, I'm catching up with a brief review of 2018. 

The year started with a 1920's Robe de Style for New Year's Eve. Then I wore a remade, late 18th century dress for a Mozart birthday party. It was originally machine sewn, years ago. I took it all apart and remade it in a more period appropriate way.

Diving Back In!

For the last couple years, I've let this blog go. It's just so much easier to pop a quick picture up on Instagram, than write a detailed post (not to mention loading the pictures, as I live in a rural area and the pics just do NOT load!).

Well, I miss reading blogs. When I was first learning about historical sewing, looking up terms and techniques, and finding the answers on blogs was so helpful! And while more casual and frequent posts via platforms like Instagram have definitely brought the costuming community, worldwide, closer together, it is a hard platform if you're looking for specific information or tutorials.

I'm having a bit of an OCD battle, deciding whether to go back and post chronologically, or just start fresh. Perhaps a bit of both. Perhaps just the big costumes. I guess I'll see what I'm inspired to write about as I go.

So, welcome back!

The Tsarina Gown - The Jewelry

I searched high and low, near and far, for a coronet close to the one worn by Alexandra Feodorovna. To no avail. So, I made one!

Finding the elements wasn't too easy either. I ended up going to quite a few stores. Basically, I made a circular wire frame, and glued everything to it. I used SO MUCH GLUE.

The Tsarina Gown - The Dressmaking Details

The gown construction was pretty straight forward, as far as turn of the century sewing goes. The big challenge comes in handling all the layers.

I've already posted a bit about this dress, so, to view the finished gown, see this post. To learn more about how I planned and executed the sequines, see this one.

The skirt ended up being a foundation of silk satin, a chiffon layer, trimmed in lace, and then the sequined silk tulle. All the skirt layers were joined to one waistband. I tried to decipher as much as I could from photos of the original dress. What was not obvious, I filled in with instruction from period sewing manuals and other extant dresses from the era. 

The Tsarina Gown - Planning and Executing the Sequins

For anyone that's been keeping up with me on Instagram, you'll know that the bulk of my sewing this past year has been devoted to sewing sequins. Lots and lots of sequins. Twenty six thousand of them.

Haha not all 26,000... This was the sample order!

After Costume College last year, I was super inspired by the Royalty theme. I finally settled on a direction because of my husband. While taking the Orient Express a couple years back, his beard had earned him the nickname, The Tsar (not by us, but it stuck). Well, Romanovs it had to be! I chose this particular dress (designed by Lamanova and worn by Alexandra Feodorovna) because it stood out as something complex and challenging that I wanted to tackle. In truth, it didn't end up being especially complicated, but it did take a lot of patience and careful planning. And time. It took about 200 hours to sew 26,000 sequins. I diligently kept track. 

The Costume College Gala

Guys!! I actually remembered to take pictures this year! I always get so swept up that I completely forget to take photos. I made such an effort this year!

I'll share about my dress in the next post. For now, here's a bunch of pics from the gala night. Everywhere you looked there was such amazing work to see!!!