1870s Plans+ I'M GOING TO COSTUME COLLEGE

I'll start this post off with my big news; I'm going to Costume College! I'm so excited to not wear modern clothing for an entire weekend! I'll be rooming with the lovely Breanna (of Mothball Fleet) and Chris (of The Laced Angel), and we're all CoCo newbies so it'll be a great adventure. I just signed up for my limited classes and the excitement is only building. And now I realize I have gaps in my wardrobe. Even though my philosophy for my first CoCo is "less is more", i.e. just enough really good costumes for events, I still felt like I was lacking something. Enter the early 1870s.

I love this period. I love the 1870s as a whole, but I feel slightly more inclined towards the early years. Possibly because more than half of the fashion plates from this time look like cupcakes.

All cupcakes

The most cupcake dress of them all!

Initially, I wanted to make the dress pictured above because I'm crazy. I've decided to save myself and do something more like this:

A nice, light cotton summer dress. I'm planning to wear it to the ice cream social at CoCo, so I knew the theme had to be somewhat confectionery. While ambling around the cotton section of Discount Fabrics replenishing my muslin stash, I fell in love with a blue and brown striped shirting. Having learned my lesson from the last time I took a swatch and pondered for a week (I went back and the fabric was completely gone) I bought it on the spot. All 11 1/4 yards. At least I got the roll price. Here's my initial sketch:

Note: I decided to make the entire thing in the stripe after finding that the blue was surprisingly impossible to match

To me, it feels very chocolate bonbon meets the seaside.

Onward!

-Kaila