Late 1800’s mish mash
First off, to all the Victorian fashion purists, I wholeheartedly apologise in advance for this mismatch I have created! I’m not sure if this question is more appropriate for the history bounding section or for here. So please forgive me if I’m posting in the wrong section!
In true ‘me’ style I jumped right in the deep end without much forethought.
I recently attended my first victoriana/steampunk festival, and having nothing to wear coupled with no idea of how to sew I thought… how hard can it be to make something Victorian….ish. The not knowing how to sew part quickly proved problematic. Running out of time, I repurposed and clumsily altered a brown top and two brown maxi skirts. Embellishing them with velvet ribbon, extra buttons and lace trim. All of my work was done in the wee hours while on nightshift. It wasn’t until too late I realised my skirts were two different shades of brown.
It was too late to change this before the event.
Next years event is themed “The Gilded Age”. And I’d really love to just keep working on this same outfit but jazz it up a bit more with extra trimmings.
Now to my questions:
I have found fabric that matches the main brown, should I redo the ‘apron/overskirt in the matching brown? Or should I just smother the current overskirt in lashings of trimmings and act like the paler brown was by design?
I’m intending to shorten the overskirt/bustle regardless, so it won’t take too much to switch the fabric out.
The top is very thin cotton. And as such it wrinkles a bit around the waist. Would adding interfacing to the interior stiffen it up to stop it wrinkling so much? Or would be better to add a little boning to stiffen it up. I’m in Australia so I don’t want to add too much as it’s very hot down here, which is why I chose a cotton top and skirt to work with.
Please don’t forget I’m an absolute noob at sewing and I don’t have, nor know how to use a machine. So any very simple/dumbed down solutions would be gratefully received.