1890'S Peach Blossom Dinner Gown

This past April I attended a Victorian-themed birthday dinner party honoring my good friend Chelsea of Sartorial Statement. It was a weekend long celebration that truly was memorable and a lot of fun. Saturday morning kicked off with high tea, while later in the evening we donned our Victorian & Edwardian evening gowns for an elegant dinner and dessert. Sunday concluded with a nature hike nearby. 







While I couldn't make it to the other two events due to work scheduling conflicts, it was really great to catch up with everyone and celebrate the Lady of the Hour. 











To make the dinner gown, I looked at several examples from the late 1890's and early 1900's to decide just how I wanted the design and embellishments to look. After searching around for sometime, I decided on loosely replicating this style below. 



The 7 yards of peach silk taffeta fabric I have always held on to since 2020; originally this was going to be used for an Angelica Schuyler cosplay since Hamilton was very popular. But it sat in my fabric stash for 3 years. As soon as I located it again, I knew that it was meant to be something from the Belle Epoque era and elegant. I went ahead and purchased the evening gown pattern from Black Snail, and quickly got to work building the bodice; the trained skirt was one of my own design.  




The bodice was a challenge. First, I had trouble making it fit my dressmaker's dummy as well as my own body. . . While I did follow the sewing patterns instructions, something was a bit off, and made me wonder if I had made a mistake in the construction; So I added an extra piece to the front to make it fit close all of the way.... but then that didn't look right; the point in the front did not line up right. So I ended up shaving off the point. Ultimately, I wound up just sewing the front together and kept the back open, and include hook & eyes in the back. To decorate and hide the stitchlines, I decided to adorn the bodice with this gorgeous embroidery that I found on Etsy. Hand sewing it down onto both the bodice and the front of the bodice and the front of the skirt was a lot of work, but once it was finished, it looked absolutely amazing. I would like to incorporate more to the skirt, but you know the saying "less is more".   






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