bustle skirt musings

I fiddled with the seaside skirt a bunch yesterday, and narrowed it down to a smoother shape, with no hem ripples in front or sides and only a few ripples of fullness in back. But it started looking so flat! So much more late bustle than early bustle. I just love that huge early bustle full skirt look. So I went to look at some fashion plates to get a really good idea of the shape I wanted.

Hm. It turned out that the huge early bustle shape I was envisioning was hard to find. My inspiration dress is dated 1872, and there really seemed to be a much smoother, almost triangular skirt shape at front and sides than I thought. See here, here, and here. Gored at front and sides for sure.

Definitely not the straight lines of late bustle, but narrower than I thought. Yay, because that's about how mine is looking right now.

seaside dress today

I think the skirt is working out (crossing fingers).  I need to finish seam allowances but then I'm kind of stuck until my trim arrives.

I ordered 40 yds each of light blue soutache and narrow braid from Farberbraid. I hope one of them works, but I won't know for at least another week.

I can't attach the linen accent bands until I level the hem, I can't level the hem properly until the waistband is on, and I'd prefer not to do the skirt waistband until I can make the back sashes (so they can all be sewn together) and I can't complete the sashes until the trim arrives.  Although I could always just baste the waistband in order to hem it and so on.

Anyway, I've moved on to the bodice. I finally printed all the source images so I could have them in the sewing room with me while I work (duh). I'm using the Truly Victorian basic 1870s day bodice pattern as a starting point, and making changes from there. I'm making the mock-up today and plan to fit it tomorrow; hopefully it won't need too many changes!