Alice's Crinoline

It was Tuesday evening, and I had known for four weeks that the coming Saturday was 'Alice Day' in Oxford. I had four weeks to mull over the idea of making a dress for the event and decide against it.

Then on Tuesday night it all went horribly wrong.

I've had about ten metres of blue polished cotton lurking around for a little while and had already settled on making a crinoline from it. I also have a lot - a LOT - of OTHER stash fabrics in the offing, not to mention trims etcetera. I also don't have a lot of money at the moment.

To cut a long story short, I've set myself an unlikely task - to make the 1861-1863 Crinoline Day Dress from Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 2, using only fabrics, trims etcetera I already own. I've set myself a strict budget for inevitable extras - thread, boning, the odd bit of lining or ribbon - of £30. I've also set myself a strict deadline for the first part, of Saturday, as sprawling project creep is my nemesis. I'm not crazy enough to think I can have an entire crinoline done in three days, so I've organised the project into three phases and laid out exactly what I plan to have done in each. Phase three is highly optional but somehow, strangely inevitable.

Phase One - to be completed by Saturday:

Elliptical Crinoline
Using the Laughing Moon pattern that is my best friend ever, some red and black striped fabric that I bought online and then didn't really like that much in person (It happens, more often than not), left over fabric tape and - more than likely - plastic tubing. The plastic tubing may swallow an unexpectedly large amount of my budget.

Petticoat
ONE petticoat, and it's not even allowed to be a fancy one! I haven't yet decided what fabric to use, but it may well be some sheeting I have lying around.

Crinoline Skirt
From the Arnold pattern, blue cotton with inserts at hem. I'm unsure of what fabric I'm going to use to make the inserts at the moment. Also unsure if I'm actually going to line it, or merely face the hem - the original silk fabric would have needed the structure, whereas I'm using upholstery weight cotton, which probably will not. I think I'm also going to leave out the pocket, which looks complicated, at least until Phase Two.

That's it! Not too bad, I think - the two skirts are one day projects each, I think (Although I say that now...) and I can usually run up a petticoat in a couple of hours. This will be worn with a corset and chemise I already own, a modern shirt and hat, and possibly a shawl. Not very historical but it will give me a sense of achievement.

Optional to Phase One otherwise Phase Two

Bloomers
Split legged drawers will make this dress masses more convenient, but they're not essential for first time wear as I dislike public toilets immensely and avoid using them at all costs even when not in hoops and petticoats. These will probably again be cotton sheeting, and may well end up being significantly re-trimmed in Phase Two if made in Phase One.

Phase Two - to be completed by a week Saturday

Chemise
The chemise I plan to use for Phase One is my Phantomhive Strip Tease chemise, and as such is sleeveless and short with a very fancy yoke. Really, I would prefer a full length chemise with sleeves. Probably loosely based on the Simplicity Civil War Undergarments pattern, I'm going to avoid getting bogged down in trims but a little whitework on the yoke may be inevitable at a later stage...

Pagoda Sleeved Bodice
Also from the Arnold pattern, in the blue cotton. I'm tempted to use some vintage white rayon velvet ribbons I picked up to do the pleated trim but I have a feeling I just don't have enough - only about six metres, whereas I have a sneaky feeling that when Arnold asks for 112" of trim for the bodice she means just the bodice. I also have some vintage silver Italian buttons I think would look great down the front.

Second Petticoat
What, you mean other people only wear one petticoat? This will also include the Trimming Of The First Petticoat.

Engageantes
Although I love the embroidered and drawn work engageantes in museum collections - as well as my own (I have a big of a thing for undersleeves) these are likely to be quite plain, at least for now.

This should, in theory, make up a full working outfit by the end of next week. Not bad for ten days work!

But of course, there is also;

Phase Three - indeterminate finish

Evening Bodice
Likely based on the evening crinoline the next page over in Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 2. In blue cotton with sleeves to match the inserts.

Corset
Every outfit needs a matching corset, right? Right? I'm actually very tempted to make this the ribbon corset I currently have many metres of blue ribbon with white hearts lying around for.

Extra embellishment
Of all of the above.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves - first things first, and that means the elliptical crinoline.