Queen Victoria Dress

This project was so much fun! Have you seen the PBS show Victoria? I've watched it several times now, can't wait for season 2. After a friend of mine and her daughter watched it, they decided they wanted a Queen Victoria dress for Halloween.

Of course, that meant I had to watch it again for research purposes, lol! Here are some of the dresses I ended up using for inspiration.

I decided to go with the wide neck, puffed sleeves, lace trim details, and a belt.

I used McCalls 6420 for the bodice because of the puffed sleeves.

I cut the neck quite a bit lower and wider to get that Victorian neckline. I had more adventures in dyeing, using the same fabric I used for the princess dress, but going for a darker green. This actually ended up having a hand in influencing the design.

I had to dye in batches, and one of the batches turned out slightly different in color. I decided to add the overskirt to tie in the different colors a bit, as having the top and bottom a bit different seemed a little jarring to me.

So here she is!

I love cameo jewelry, so I decided to add a little piece at the neck, in addition to the lace, ruched trim, and bow.

I also made a hoopskirt for this one, and added some lovely pleated lace I found.

Just for fun I stuck this over the giant Ikea hoop skirt I bought a while back, there's so much skirt that it fit just fine, lol, though it was a bit too short.

So there's another fun period inspired dress done, I'm looking through my fabric stash for more to make!