The Ruffles of the Bustle-y Dragon Ball Gown

 Ruffles. So very many ruffles.

If I could go back in time, I'd choose a totally different skirt design for my Gryffindor Dragon Bustle Gown, because what in the world was I thinking when I fell in love with this fashion plate and decided to recreate it with all those ruffles.

Those ruffles would take forever to sew! Those ruffles did take forever to sew! And, they took a significant amount of pins as well. 

I'm getting quite ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning with the plan, the pattern, and cutting all the ruffles.

The above fashion plate from 1874 was the plan, and I decided to use the Truly Victorian 1875 Parisian Trained Skirt Pattern as my starting point. My grandma gave me this pattern for Christmas nearly a decade ago when I started planning the Gryffindor Bustle Gown project.

With some changed to the trim pattern, adjustments to the front drapery, and the addition of lots of ruffles to the back panel it would work admirably!

I began by cutting out all of the lining or base skirt pieces from a stashed piece of red polished cotton. I basted this together as my mock-up and tried it on over my bustle and other 1870's under garments.

It fit! The silhouette was great! 

It just needed lots of ruffles!

Time to cut my silk!

The first piece of silk on the chopping block was a red striped thrifted curtain. I don't recall when or where I got this curtain, but it was a magnificent heavy silk. I disassembled it with my seam ripper.

The resulting fabric would be used to cover the flat lining of the skirt between all the ruffles on the back. I had disassembled my mock-up and would be using that for the flat lining of the skirt.

In the fashion plate, on the back of the skirt, there were five sets of ruffles. Each one consisted of one wide ruffle with a narrower ruffle attached to the bottom of it. On my skirt the wide ruffle would be red and the narrow ruffle would be gold. In the fashion plate there are definite gaps between the ruffles, and that is the space my curtain silk would fill, as I wasn't sure I'd have enough of my silk yardage to fill in there after all the ruffles were cut. Once I started calculating I realized those ruffles were going to be insane fabric hogs. . .

 

So, I figured out how wide my red and gold ruffles would be, and I cut strips of the curtain silk to mount said ruffles to and fill in the gaps. For the top part of the back of the skirt this was very straightforward and easy.

The bottom half was more complicated thanks to the curved hem, but I got it done. 

After those curved pieces of curtain silk, I was very happy to move on to cutting straight strips of my red and gold silk for the ruffles themselves - for the first few strips at least. Then it just got tedious. So. Many. Strips. Of. Silk. So Many!

And once all the pieces were cut out, the project got shelved for two years, because children. (More details in my previous post.) This spring the box of strips of silk was pulled out and opened up. I figured out which strips were meant for which ruffles and started pinning said ruffles together. For the top half of the back of the skirt each ruffle would consist of two full widths of red silk. For the bottom half each ruffle would be four widths. And for the gold ruffles that would attach to the red ruffles, I had a different plan.

 I was finally going to use the birthday gift my husband gave me the summer we got married! 

Antique fluting irons!

In preparation my husband and kids got the irons all cleaned up for me with a wire wheel attached to a drill. 

Look at the difference between the cleaned up top iron and the still waiting bottom iron!

I meanwhile sewed together and hemmed all my strips of gold silk - by machine, because there was way too much to even consider hand hemming. 

Once the miles and miles of gold silk was hemmed, it was fluting time. The Quintessential Clothes Pen's blog post about using her fluting iron was invaluable, and I used her method to great success.

I warmed the first fluting iron on the stove in my cast iron skillet. One it was hot enough to sizzle water I pulled it out to use and put the second iron in the skillet to warm.

 

I drenched a small section of the silk with vinegar water then slowly rocked the iron over it, and I was left with me most delightfully fluted bit of fabric! I continued until my iron got too cool then swapped out the iron I was using with the one that was warming in the skillet. On and on it went. I fluted a few feet of silk every time I had a mostly clear counter and some time to kill. Whenever I appeared to have a long enough section fluted, I would pin it to one of my red ruffles.

To keep the gold silk fluted and ruffly looking when it was sewn on to the red ruffles I had to pin in-between each and every ridge. This took a very long time, and an awful lot of pins.

Sooooo many pins in fact that I had to go to the store and buy more glass headed pins more than once, despite the fact I'd bought a couple new boxes of pins before even starting the project.

I tried out every brand of glass headed pins easily available, as I needed them in a hurry and had to get them locally. I now have very definite opinions on which glass headed pins are worth using and which aren't and could right up an entire comparison on all of them. 

There were over 600 pins used in each of the big lower ruffles on the back of the skirt. I took those ruffles everywhere to pin together. Basement, living room, bed, deck, waiting rooms, in the car in school pick-up lines. Pinning the gold ruffles may have been the single most labor intensive part of this project.

Finally, once each ruffle was pinned, I would carefully sew it on with the sewing machine - making sure not to run over any of my precious pins, because I would need them all again for the next ruffle.

These were my pin cushions before pinning a singe large ruffle.

And these were my pin cushions after pinning a single large ruffle.

After all that, actually attaching the red ruffles to the skirt was a piece of cake! First I used my surger to finish the seam allowance between the gold and red ruffles - not historically accurate, but who cares? It's what I had the time and mental compacity to do after fluting and pinning all those ruffles. Then I gathered up each red ruffle and pinned it and sewed it to the curved piece of curtain silk I described at the beginning of this post. Finally I sewed the curved pieces of curtain silk to my polished cotton skirt base.

And at 12:15 am the day before  day of the ball, my ruffled back skirt panel was done! Now all I had to do was finish assembling the skirt. . .

  And everything would be fantastic!

A Bustle-y, Ruffle-y, Dragon-y Ball Gown

 We decided to host a dragon themed ball, my friend and I. This of course left me with a burning question, what would a historical dragon ball gown look like??

Now, to be clear, the ball was pure fantasy. I just like to take any excuse to make, or wear, a historical gown so I wanted to add some history to my fantasy and make a fantastical historical dragon ball gown. But where to begin???

Red and Gold. Those seemed like good dragon-y colors. An excellent starting point! 

Especially considering I already had both red and gold silk on hand.

Now why Red and Gold you ask? Because I'm a Gryffindor of course!

About 10 years ago, give or take a couple years, there was a trend going around the historical sewing community of making bustle dresses to correspond with one's Hogwarts house. At that time, I began gathering silk to make my own Gryffindor bustle dress. A silk plaid drapery remnant of 3ish yards featuring some red and gold, a gold crinkled taffeta remnant of 3ish yards from Fabric Mart, and 7ish yards of a red silk from Fabric Guru. 

I gathered these silks slowly, one length every couple years as I came across good deals on the colors I had in mind. I paid less than $10 per yard for each piece. As I gathered my materials, I daydreamed about and a designed my 1870's Gryffindor Gown between other projects. Finally, in 2024, I had all my materials, I'd picked a fashion plate from 1874 I wanted to re-create, and the red and gold gown was at the top of my project list. Of course, by this point Hogwarts themed historical clothing had fallen out of favor online, but I'd spent so long dreaming of this gown I was going to make it!

I figured out my base patterns from the Truly Victorian patterns I'd been given over the years and began cutting strips of red and gold silk to make the magnificently ruffle-y skirt from my inspiration fashion plate. And then. . .

And then, in a single afternoon almost two years ago, my life drastically changed. One morning I went to visit my parents and sister with my rolls of silk for this project hanging out in the back seat, and that afternoon I came home with three children in the backseat instead and the rolls of silk had been unceremoniously booted to the very back. 

Two months after being licensed as foster parents we had our first kiddos to parent, and love, and provide a safe and stable home for, and sewing fancy historical dresses was quite literally taking the back seat. The very back seat. The trunk actually, seeing as my seats were suddenly full of living, breathing, very active human kids.

Ok, yes, this picture has nothing to do with the subject at hand, but my brother took it at the dragon ball, and the colors are perfect! Thus, here it is.

Soooo, fast forward a year and a half, and my red and gold silk is sitting stuffed in a box somewhere. Somehow, we have learned how to be parents, added an additional child to the mix, and I have occasionally found time to sew. Wild.

And I need a dragon ball gown. Preferably historical. After brainstorming a few ideas I thought of my red and gold silk bustle skirt I'd had pretty much cut out before the kids arrived and I shelved the project. Red and gold were good dragon-y colors. What if I pivoted on that project and instead of making a Gryffindor Quidditch robe inspired day bodice to go with that fantastically ruffled skirt, I made a dragon inspired evening bodice?

The gold and red ruffles down the back of the skirt that I'd intended to represent the Gryffindor Lion could just as easily represent a dragon's tail. I just needed to pick the right bodice design to go with it.

The diagonal folds on this 1874 evening bodice made me think of  the texture of a dragon's belly. That was it! I'd finish the skirt I'd started, and make a bodice inspired by this one to go with it. I might be over dressed for a 2026 dragon ball, but it was going to be fun!

I ordered some dragon buttons for the bodice off Etsy, and I got started!

At long last, it was time to actually sew this red and gold silk gown. It was going to be different than I originally planned, but my entire life is different than originally planned, so that seems to be fitting.

  

Tractor Outfits for Everyone

 I did not finish everyone’s Easter outfits this year. The 4th of July outfits were finished 3 weeks late. I’ve already decided not to attempt to make everyone’s Halloween costumes and just buy those instead, however. . . 

The annual Steam Engine Show featuring old tractors and farm equipment? Yeah, I decided the week of that I was going to make alllllllll the kids (the 4 in my house plus my two nieces) matching outfits for that occasion.

As I obviously wasn’t going to have the time to make 6 complete outfits from scratch, I decided to start with a short cut - plain black T-shirts and tractor fabric pre-cuts from from Walmart. (Yes, I’m really feeling the loss of Joann’s. Half yard pre-cuts from a very limited selection does not satisfy the way picking just the right fabric and getting yardage cut does)

I picked up a plain black t-shirt in the correct size for each big kid, a plain black onesie for my baby niece, and 4 half-yard cuts of red tractor fabric. (We tend to be John Deere family, but I decided to go more generic this year to match the theme of the show.) I would cut out tractor motifs to applique onto the front of the boys' T-shirts, and I would do the same for the girls' shirts and onesie, along with adding skirts to turn the shirts into drop-waisted dresses.

The first thing I did upon unfolding and washing all the fabric was identify the best tractor motifs near the edges of the fabric cuts. From there, I figured out how much fabric I would have for the girls' skirts. If I cut everything just right I would have about a panel and a half of width to work with for each big girl's skirt, and the skirts should come out right around knee length. There should be just enough left over for a little skirt for the baby too. I cut the girls' skirts first then cut out each individual tractor from the remaining fabric. 

Next I picked a tractor to go on each T-shirt. I decided I liked the big rectangle patches best on the boys' shirts and the appliques cut closer around the tractors on the girls' shirts. The smallest applique still looked pretty darned big on the baby's onesie. 

Once each applique was picked and placed I began the long and tedious task of zig-zagging around each one to attach them to the shirts. The cat offered his assistance.

By contrast, making and gathering each skirt onto the girls' shirts was a breeze! But then there was the ribbon. Ohhhh the ribbon. The entire project almost failed with the ribbon, or rather the pursuit of acquiring the ribbon.

Upon gathering all the skirts, I decided to top stitch them with a zig-zag stitch onto the bottom edge of the shirts, just above the hem. I figured I'd cover the raw edge with ribbon and add off-center bows to finish everything off. Alas, my ribbon stash failed me. I did not have the correct color and width ribbon to do even one dress, let alone 4. So I did what one does and went to Hobby Lobby - their ribbon was on sale that week! I dragged my sister along for the outing, she and my mom were in town that day so my mom could attend the grandparents' day event at one of my kids' schools.

All started off well, I found some lovely gold ribbon that would work just right and my sister and I took our time browsing the store. The nearest Hobby Lobby to me is a good half hour away, so I rarely make it there these days and I try to make the most of it when I do. Upon making our selections we went to check out. As the person right in front of us in line was getting rung up the computer system for the entire store shut down. They couldn't do any transactions what so ever. We waited around for 20 minutes or so in hopes the system would be quickly restored. It wasn't. The poor employees were so stressed. We were told it would probably be a couple hours so they had us leave our phone numbers with our cart full of merchandise and said they'd call us when the system was up and running again. Thus, I left Hobby Lobby without the ribbon. And this was the day before the Steam Engine show. I had to get the dresses done that afternoon during nap time or they just wouldn't happen.  

My mom came to meet us when she finished at the school and we stayed in the area visiting a couple other stores to kill time. (I did manage to find 3/4 of the kids' Halloween costumes at one store, so the time wasn't an entire loss!) Not knowing how long it would take Hobby Lobby to call me back since they had a lot of customers to call once the system was back up and running, I tried calling the store after every stop we made. The phone just rang and rang. It was connected to the computer system, and obviously the system was still down. Finally, after we went to lunch my call went through - they were back up and running and we could return to get our stuff!

There was only one problem, it was time for me to go pick my kids up from school - I had no time to go to Hobby Lobby anymore, and once everyone got home from school it was unlikely I'd have a chance to sneak down to the basement and finish the dresses.

My mom came to the rescue! She offered to swap vehicles with me and go pick up the kids from school while my sister and I returned to Hobby Lobby. So that's what we did - now hopefully I'd find a bit of sewing time that evening.  

Thanks to my Husband getting home from work earlier than expected and taking care of the kids and dinner I did!!

The next morning the kids were thrilled to have new tractor clothes to wear to see all the tractors!

And oh did they have fun seeing the tractors! We arrived just in time for the tractor parade and the kids loved sitting on the hill, eating their picnic lunch, and watching all the tractors drive by!

 Once that was over it was time to explore!

The great big old steam engine tractors are great fun to see. . . and climb on!

Going even more old-fashioned than the steam engines, there were the draft horses - which my kids loved getting to see and pet!

We toured the old 1870's farm house, which is always one of my favorite things. Most of the kids found it a bit boring, and the one who found it interesting didn't understand why he wasn't allowed to play with the old toys on display. . .

Good thing there were more tractors to admire after that!

Through out the day we got so many compliments the kids outfits! And on a more practical level, having all the kids dressed alike made it super easy to do quick head counts to make sure we had everyone as we moved from one exhibit to the next. 

My parents took us kids to the Steam Engine show almost every year growing up,

And it was super special getting to share that with the next generation!