1883 Tissot "Bridesmaid" Gown


When you look at a painting, there's always going to be some gorgeous outfit that inspires you to recreate it, right? I felt just exactly that when I came across James Tissot's painting, "The Bridesmaid." How could I describe this silk ensemble other than that it absolutely needed to be replicated? The Silhouette, the soft cornflower blue silk that really pops in the foreground, and the ruffles galore.! So, without hesitation, I got to work on making one for myself.





                                                                               BODICE

After studying the gown's features, I decided to start first on the most challenging part of the project (at least for me): the construction. After looking at the fitted jacket, I realized I would have to "Franken-piece" a few patterns together to give it an accurate shape and silhouette. I combined pieces from both JPRyan and Truly Victorian Patterns, plus a lot of guestimating and mathematics to piece everything together properly. Thankfully, I achieved the right look for the jacket; notably the peplum in the back. 



Next, was making sure that the darts in the front of the bodice lined up underneath the breast line to give it the right shape (especially since this is Franken-pieced, and would not have the same look as the TV pattern originally had). Once again, there was a lot of finagling and doing 1st and 2nd fittings to ensure it would close together in the front. The only caveat that I faced was that this jacket could not be worn over any traditional Victorian OR Edwardian corset, but my 18th-century stays (mostly due to the way it easily compresses my bustline rather than what a 19th-century or early 20th-century corset will do). Regardless, it was an easy solution that I really had no problem with. 
 


With that being said, the next thing that needed to be done was decorating the jacket. Now, here was the challenge. Because the painting of the Bridesmaid was only 2 dimensional and I could not see what the front of the jacket looked like, I had to infer the information given; the lace around the collar for example could be a separate piece such as a blouse or just gathered lace trim, the same goes for the lace around the cuffs. I also noticed that at the cuff, there were what looked like bows. So to experiment (and since I was also in a time crunch) I decided to decorate the jacket using plain lace trim and make bows out of the fabric I used for my skirt.




SKIRT & APRON

This...was . . . a challenge that really had me frustrated to no end! The reason is that when I first started making the base/body for the skirt (using Angela Clayton's McCall's pattern), I initially thought I had enough fabric to make the 5 layers of ruffles that mirror the original in the painting. . . . I was SO wrong. I initially thought that 5 1/ 2 yards of fabric for the jacket and the skirt, and ruffles would be enough. . . it wasn't, and to make matters worse, the fabric store that I ordered online from, was suddenly out of stock and remained out of stock for months. I had to think fast for a contingency plan. While I waited for the fabric store to replenish their stock, I purchased 10 yards of poly silk taffeta of a similar shade from Canada. On the plus side, I do like the dual-tone look of the bodice, apron, and skirt. 










                                                                    Accessories






                                         Created by Rebecca Burnham from Shockingly Bad Hats







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