Summer Historybounding

Summer Historybounding Dresses 

Historybounding is a term coined by the incredible person that is Morgan Donner. It's a riff on the term "Disneybounding" where you incorporate elements of your favorite Disney characters without going outright costume. Historybounding is more or less the same thing! Incorporating elements of historical dress into your everyday wardrobe, without having to don a corset or petticoats or all the other trappings that make a garment truly historical 

Since all my favorite events have been canceled, I'm been looking to scratch my historical dress making itch while not making things that are too elaborate to actually wear. I've decided to focus a bit more on dresses since most of my fall and winter wardrobe is composed of heavy wool skirts and blouses. I like the idea of having things that are relatively light weight that I can just throw on without having to really think about how I would coordinate them. 

Until now, I had a grand total of... one! historybounding dress that I am actually excited to wear that is also suitable for summer. That's this one: 

These pics are a bit old, thus the much longer hair. This dress was made using Butterick 5970. I did make some pretty big changes to the pattern but this was my starting point. 

• I left off the lower sleeve completely. 
• I swapped the hook and eye closure for buttons 
• I attached a skirt directly to the bodice (the original pattern is a separate bodice and skirt) The skirt is just two gathered rectangles that are layered over one another 
• I stuck a ton of insertion lace on the yoke. 
• I had to do some witchcraft to the lining since the lining was a single piece that would have covered the insertion lace, thus defeating the purpose of it. You cannot leave the lining out completely since it helps control the poofiness of the top and makes the gathers lay nicely. I pretty much just traced the yoke on the lining pieces and cut off the excess. Be sure to leave a little extra for seam allowance at the top. 

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Well a single dress is not going to carry me through an entire summer so I decided to make a few more. I really loved the insertion lace on the other dress because it feels so historical and elegant, so I decided to do the same for my next Edwardian lawn dress. This one is much later Edwardian. I think this dress would have been suitable for about 1912. I'm not an expert nor am I especially concerned with historical accuracy so I don't know for sure. Feel free to better inform me in the comments :) 

This dress is made with Butterick 6610. The sample on the envelope is... tragic. Honestly, it really is an incredibly ugly dress. Most of that is the horrific fit on the model on the envelope, but to some extent

there are some problems with the actual dress itself, so I did some lighter alterations to this one to get it into a more presentable state. 

• Sleeve is shorter and actually fits the arm 
• Hem shortened to tea length. I wanted to preserve the silhouette, so I took the measurement out of the middle of the pieces so it would still have the same amount of fullness. 
• Not sure what the original pattern calls for, but I did buttons in the back. They really add to the elegance and historical factor. They're a little inconvenient since you need help to do them up, but in my opinion, it's worth it. 
• The little strappy things were completely flat against the body and looked... odd. This was a simple fix, and I just gathered the bottom so they came to a little bit of a point at the waistline. It makes a big visual difference.
• Overskirt: This is just a gathered rectangle, nothing special. 
• A few miles of insertion lace. 
• This is a simple but time consuming process. Using a tight, narrow zigzag sew the lace down close to the edges of the lace. Once  you've done a zigzag over each edge of the lace flip it over, and cut the fabric away from the back of the lace. The tight zigzag prevents fraying. 

Although I can't really express why, I'm slightly meh on this dress. It's cute, and I know I'll be wearing it frequently, but I just don't love it as much as the first dress. I think it might be because It's an era I don't normally do. It's definitely from a later year than literally anything else in my closet, so maybe I'm just not used to it yet! 

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This dress is the last one, and I absolutely loooooove it. I was really surprised. I wanted a quick and easy dress, and I anticipated myself wearing this with a belt or an apron since I tend to pretty consistently hate anything that doesn't end at the natural waist. I weep over the entirely unreasonable love that some people have for the regency era. I just don't get it. Anyway, I digress. 

This dress was made using Folkwear 201: The Prairie Dress. I made almost no changes to this one, just shortened the sleeve. I loved how quickly it went together and how adorably cottage core, Victorian child frolicking in a wheat field, putting lavender in a jam jar, and writing letters with a fountain pen I felt in it. It's just so cute. It's a whole vibe for sure. Ultimately, I probably will make an apron to go with but for now, I think it's cute as is. I loved it so much that I ended up making another one in a dusty pink swiss dot. The pink one doesn't hit quite the same, so it will  definitely need an apron, but I do love how pretty and easy it is. 

I did have disaster strike with this dress when I caught it on the corner of my potato drawer. Hopefully the only time I'll ever feel any ill will towards a potato. Unfortunately, the fabric was apparently pretty delicate, and I tore a huge hole in it. At first I thought of mending it, but I knew there was no way I'd be able to do a decent job of it. Ultimately, I salvaged the dress by doing a partial replacement of the side panel. It would have been better to replace the side panel completely, and I did have enough fabric left over to do it, but I would have needed to remove the sleeve and the yoke from that side which was going to be more work than I was willing to sign up for. I ended up just taking out the bottom half of the panel, and swapping it for a new piece. It now has an awkward seam running parallel to the hem, but it blends in well enough ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Thanks for reading!