New(ish) costumes: mending and adjusting one costume to work as a different one.

vintage 1940s poster.

I've been watching the Historical Sew Fortnightly costume activity for a while; although I've never had the time to finish anything on schedule, it's fun to see what everyone else does.  The current (well, the due date just passed, but you still get full credit even if you finish late) project is a "Make Do and Mend" theme.  I have such a pile of mending, both costume and mundane clothing, so I've gotten out a few projects to work on for this challenge.

The first one was fixing my hooped petticoat.  It's one of the cotton petticoats-with-tucks-filled-with-hoop-wire numbers that have been around for years, and it's served me pretty well for over 12 years.  I had removed the top hoop wire (it's a 5-hoop petticoat) because the petticoat was too long for me, and threaded the drawstring through the now-empty space where the wire had been, shortening the petticoat by about 6 inches.  No hemming -- all was good.  Unfortunately the drawstring was not all that strong, and it broke on my friend, who had borrowed it to wear to the Dickens Fair.  While she was wearing it.  Thankfully, it had been slipping down all afternoon, and she was in a dressing room when the breakage occurred, but we panicked for a while!  She ended up buying a new hoop petticoat at the Dickens Fair, and I brought my old one home, and shoved it in the closet.  Until now, when I looked through my stash and found a length of corset lacing that I had bought years ago, that ended up not being nearly long enough, but was a good length for a waist drawstring.  I promptly took it out, found my bodkin (I love those!), and threaded it in the empty drawstring space.  My hoop is usable again!

Re-creating Pre-Raphaelite costume.

"Miranda: The Tempest"
by Waterhouse

According to Consuelo Rockliff-Stein, one of the founders of The Ladies’ Tea and Rhetoric Society, “Artistic gowns ... were never intended to be exact replicas of the clothing worn by models in Pre-Raphaelite paintings, nor were they intended to replicate clothing of the classical and medieval eras. These gowns borrowed design elements from all these sources, but were distinctly Victorian in overall effect.”  This led to vaguely historic-looking clothing, mixing elements from totally different periods in the same garment.  “Medieval”

"Venetian Ladies Listen To The Seranade"
by Frank C. Cowper

sleeves, “Elizabethan” ruffs and “Grecian” drapery could be found on the same dress.  The Watteau-back dress, a princess-line dress that had a fitted bodicein front, but a large section of loosely-pleated fabric from the shoulders to the floor in back, was inspired by 18th century French sacques, and was one way that Pre-Raphaelite ideas were absorbed into mainstream fashion.  It became a favorite look for the “tea gown”, which became popular in the 1880s as informal daytime social dress.