I don't suffer from insanity,

Ok, so generally speaking, I'm not that into Edwardian, except perhaps very late. I don't like those huge puffy sleeves. It's the same reason I don't care for the 'Romantic' era, I think it's called. The 1830s & 1840s? Anyway, due to my general 'eh' feeling for it, I never did see coughing up the cash for a good pattern.

However, am I willing to cough up the cash for a Butterick pattern? You bet! I know Butterick patterns aren't historically accurate, but I really feel that this one captures the over all look well enough for me, especially since I'm not that into this era, anyway! I'm pretty excited about this pattern and will be grabbing one the next time there's a Butterick sale at Hancocks or JoAnns! :D

I stumbled across this pattern and was wondering if there are any historical references that anyone can find that resemble this?



The main reason it caught my eye is that it looks so simple. I don't have my heart set on it, but if I could just see some extant or fashion images of it, I may go ahead and buy the pattern. I already did some basic google searches and a pretty extensive perusal of De Gracieuse, but maybe I'm just not looking for the right key words. Any help from my friends would be really appreciated! :D

So, the Steampunk tea is coming up and I'm thinking I'm just going to wear what I wore last year to the May Frontier Fort Days. That way I don't have to really think about things. I will probably add an overskirt, as that would take almost no time at all. Matt can wear his British uniform or his Gunslinger/Pinkerton outfit. Vee can wear her 1860s dress. Then all I have to do is throw something together for Morgan. Sweet. To be honest, aside from being relieved that I basically have something for everyone, I am really looking forward to the event. It will be tons of fun.

What I'm really spending time thinking about is the Edwardian Picnic. I need to keep it simple because I'm going to be working on stuff for three people. Not sure if Matt will want to go, but if he does, then I'll come up with something. Luckily, men's fashion is pretty predictable.

So, plans.

I need to come up with a dress for Vee. Once I settle on what I'm going to do, it won't take much time, but I need to find a pattern first. If anyone has any suggestions for a pattern I can do, I would be really grateful. Maybe I'll search de Gracieuse, and enlist some help in enlarging a pattern? That's kind of scary. Fabric wise, I'll probably make hers out of one of the white fabrics below.

I'm going to make a jumpsuit/jumper for Morgan from a pattern that jenthompson is loaning me (THANK YOU!!!). Probably out of the white/blue stripey stuff below if there's enough.

For myself, I am going to cheat and wear Victorian underthings so I can concentrate on the outfit itself. I am either going to buy the Laughing Moon 1909-1913 Dress, or use the Butterick 1914 blouse and skirt patterns here:






These fabrics are ones that I have in my stash. Since the picnic is in like May, it'll be fairly safe to assume that it will be warm, maybe even hot. Here are some samples of the fabrics I'm thinking about.


I have a TON of this fabric (I used this fabric for my white bustle dress):


I also have a lot of this fabric (I used this fabric for mine and Vee's white regency):


I have six yards of this fabric, which I haven't used in anything yet:



The advantage of the Butterick patterns is that I already have them. That feeds my frugal side and I wouldn't need to wait to get started. The disadvantage is that I have no idea what to do with them. Maybe the skirt with the buttons in the white/blue stripey stuff and a blouse (I like the simple one in the top left) in one of the whites? Or a skirt with overskirt like the two on the right out of all white, with a matching white blouse? Or blouse and skirt out of all stripey stuff? I don't know. I think if I could visualize something, it would be really easy to go from there. As it is, I'm so inexpert in this era that I'm a little at a loss.

That's why the Laughing Moon pattern is so alluring. I could just use the day dress pattern and do the whole thing in the white/blue stripey stuff with a white undershirt. SO straight forward. Downside, of course, is that I have to buy the pattern and then wait for it to get here. The waiting, realistically, isn't that bad, since I tend to procrastinate anyway. I just have to wait for my allowance to cycle, heh.

So anyway, any advice or feedback would be appreciated!











Edit: Here's Vee's other Edwardian dress. If worse comes to worse, I'll just make this one again, and just size it up. And add more buttons, heh. This was from roughly two years ago.