For Wondercon2018 I decided to do a cosplay of Sophronia Temminnick and her trusty sidekick Bumbersnoot, from The Finishing School series by Gail Carriger. I based it around my 1855 ball gown and added the relevant accessories. Sophronia’s black velvet reticule This is the reticule …
Read part 1 and part 2. Once I had made the bodice and skirt, I tried them both on together and discovered a problem. As soon as I started to move, the bodice popped out of the skirt. I puzzled over how to fix this …
Read part 1 and part 3. The blue underskirt is the basic skirt from Simplicity 1728, gathered all around instead of pleating the front. The aubergine overskirt is 6.5 yards of chiffon with three deep tucks in the bottom third. I calculated the tucks so …
For my 1855 ball gown I chose a royal blue cotton percale with an aubergine chiffon for the overlay, which turned out to have the most wonderful iridescent, colour-shifting effect. I used the same base pattern as my 1860s ball gown: Simplicity 1728. I shortened …