How to Make A Victorian Style Dress?

The Victorian era is undoubtedly a very memorable era in British history. During this period, the Industrial Revolution reached its climax, and Britain's economic, cultural, and technological strengths all reached their peak. In addition, Victorian clothing also has a typical style, with many clothing styles that were refreshing at that time and now classic and retro.

But perhaps due to the long time gap, many of the ready-made Victorian-style women's clothing you can find now do not fully conform to the style of the time, and many have even been modified to be even uglier. And those truly exquisite Victorian-style clothing are often expensive. So, if you have enough time and interest, why not try to make a Victorian style dress yourself? In this way, you can incorporate your favorite elements and styles. Come and try it!

The Characteristics of Victorian Clothing Style

In order to make a Victorian style dress, We first need to learn something about the characteristics of Victorian women's clothing.

One of the most prominent characteristics of Victorian ladies' clothing is gorgeousness. Economic prosperity will naturally be reflected in people's pursuit of clothing. Think of the gorgeous dresses worn by the ladies in Pride and Prejudice. The dresses were often floor-length, tiered, and heavily embellished. In the Victorian era, one of the most favorite decorations for women was lace. Delicate lace can be seen everywhere on the hem, neckline and cuffs of the dress. In addition, the combination of layering techniques and ruffles makes the long dress have a sweet and delicate feeling. The gorgeous feature of a Victorian dress can be perfectly displayed at formal dances. The large skirt design will flutter lightly with the dance steps when dancing, showing an elegant posture. When attending a dinner party, a Victorian dress can also show the wearer's nobility and taste.

On the other hand, since the idea of gender equality had emerged in the Victorian era, women's clothing became more bold to a certain extent. Evening dresses, unlike everyday dresses, exposed shoulders or had deep necklines. Therefore, a shawl or pelerine became an indispensable accessory to an evening dress. During this period, women also began to engage in various activities that were previously only available to men, such as horseback riding. When riding, women like to wear shirts with high collars or stand-up collars, which, unlike dresses, highlights the heroic posture of women. The gigot sleeves and puff sleeves were also invented during this period. These extremely wide and inflated sleeves would cover the wearer's arms completely and make the ladies arms look slimmer.

In terms of patterns, Roses symbolize love, beauty, and nobility, and were a very common pattern on women's dresses at the time. In addition to roses, many other flowers are also widely used, such as daisies, violets, tulips, etc. They are either arranged alone or in bouquets, giving dresses different meanings and styles. Plaid patterns are also very common. Still remember the red plaid skirts that were popular in Scotland? The dress of English ladies was also greatly influenced by it.

Another characteristic of Victorian women's clothing is the morbid pursuit of slender waists. Women have long worn corsets to highlight the beauty of their waistlines, but in the Victorian era, this behavior reached its peak and became more and more deformed. Even some men joined the ranks of wearing corsets. The corsets worn by women became tighter and tighter, and some even suffered rib fractures and suffocation due to wearing corsets that were too tight. Therefore, this point is only for introduction and is not worth imitating by modern women.

Preparations before Making

Of course, making a dress is not an easy task, especially for beginning who have no foundation in clothing making, and especially to make a complex and gorgeous Victorian style dress. Therefore, before making, we need to do a series of preparations.

First, we need to prepare the materials and equipment needed to make the dress. The most important material is of course the fabric of the dress. You can choose the fabric of the dress according to your own preferences, but because of the gorgeous characteristics of Victorian style dresses, we recommend that you choose silk, so that the dress will be vibrant. However, if you are a beginner, it is not recommended to choose silk, which is a very expensive fabric at the beginning. Maybe you need to start with cheaper fabrics such as cotton, because you may need to rework many times, causing waste. The main equipment, as you know, is the sewing machine. In addition, you need some needles, thread and scissors, which are pretty easy to remember. If there are a lot of lace, pearls and other decorations on the dress in your imagination, you also need to prepare these things in advance.

The next important thing to do is to measure your own figure data, including height, waist, chest, hips and arm length. If these data are not accurate, the dress will be likely not fit. If you have difficulty completing these measurements by yourself, ask a friend for help. When measuring, make sure the ruler is level and close to the body, and the measuring posture should be natural and correct.

Of course, the most important thing is to design the style and patterns of your dress. Maybe you are not a professional designer, but you must have an image of this dress in your mind! What color is it? Light green or lavender? What decorations are on it? Lace or pearls? What style is it? Layered or floor-length? If you have the ability, why not draw it on paper to make it look more vivid! Don't forget to mark the measurement data of each part on your sketch or size chart to ensure the dress is well-fitting and comfortable.

In addition, there are also several other factors to consider:

- Silhouette: Victorian dresses can be either slinky or flouncy. If you prefer a more fitted silhouette, look for models with an obvious waistline and flared skirt. If you want a full and elegant look, choose a dress with a voluminous skirt and a wide collar.

- Length: Victorian dresses can be either long or short. If you want to create a classic Victorian look, choose a long dress that hides your legs. If you prefer a more modern and sexy option, you can choose a short knee-length dress.

Ways to Make a Victorian Style Dress Step by Step

After everything is ready, we can finally start making this Victorian style dress!

Based on your figure shape, we need to calculate how much fabric is needed for the upper and lower parts of the dress. After that, draw the shapes of each part that will make up the skirt on the fabric. However, be sure to remember to leave a certain margin for the sewn seams! Usually, the sewing interface needs to be about 1.5 cm, that is, the actual cut piece needs to leave 1.5 cm more than the calculated size in the top and bottom or left and right where it needs to be sewn.

All you need to do after that is assemble all the fabric slices together using your sewing machine. You need to lay the fabric out on a flat surface. Don't worry if you don't have a professional sewing table, a flat table will do. First, sew the front and back pieces of the bodice together at the shoulders and side seams, then join the hem of the bodice to the waist. The lower part of the dress is pretty simple. It's a rectangle of fabric gathered at the waist, with two gathering lines on the sides. To sew it, just simply set your sewing machine to the longest stitch and pull one of the threads after sewing.

Victorian ladies usually needed to tie many straps to fasten their dresses, but this is undoubtedly too inconvenient for modern women. Therefore, we can make some improvements and install zippers or buttons on the back or sides of the dress as a way to put one the dress easily. When installing a zipper, make sure the zipper is the right length and aligns with the opening edge of the dress. If you choose buttons, you need to mark the position of the buttons on the garment first, then sew the buttonholes and sew the buttons on the corresponding position. The size of the buttonholes should match the size of the buttons.

Hemming is the last stage of sewing a dress and is necessary to achieve a flawless look. There are several ways to hem a dress: machine stitching and hand stitching. Machine stitching is the fastest and easiest method, while hand stitching gives an almost imperceptible finish.

Finally, as decoration, sew the lace and beads you prepared in advance on the neckline and cuffs!

After the dress is completed, don't forget to check the details, such as whether the seams are fixed and whether there are any exposed threads. After checking, you can iron the dress as a whole to make it smoother and more beautiful.