Hoopskirt 1855-66

All hail the Queen.

Now let`s go to 1855-65.

In the 60ie`s of the 19 century the silhouette of the hoopskirt and therefore the skirt changed. All the fullness gathered more in the back and the front became flatter. You can see it in the famous portrait of Sissi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria. It`s from 1863. I have to admit, I `m a big fan of her Style and Story.
 It could possible be that i watched the Sissi Triology with Romy Schneider to often as a child. They are always on TV in Christmas-time or just on Sunday. This triology is very common here in Austria. Not like `The Sound of music`, which a lot of Americans believe to be `Austrian-Reality`. Even Bill Clinton asked during a stay with his wife Hilary here in Vienna to visit a staging of the book or the movie from 1965. Unfortunately, there wasn`t one at that time because no one knew it.

Sissi (1956) by Ernst Marischka


So i wanted to get that kind o shape and it worked out very well. Take a look:

And here with the skirt over it:

The dress you can see here is something like a `Dummy`-Dress. I tested lot of things here. First the pattern for the Bodice, which i changed afterwards because i found it to be a bit too big. Second the Technique. Working a corsett into the bodice, which is very common in the Theater an Opera world and a very good idea when you work in miniature. I found out, that one bone in the middle is not enough. As you can see its puckering. I also tried to sew in piping, which acctually worked very well. And i worked with a skirt pattern out of `Patterns of fashion 1`by Janet Arnold. It`s very easy to just copy it out in a size that fits Barbie. You just have to adjust the pleats a bit to the Bodice.

 I didn`t really want to feature this dress too much because I can see all the `flaws` or let`s call them `things-you-can-do-better-next-time`. But, acctually, i think it turned out very nice! And I wanted you to see all my process and, hopefully, progress.

The undersleaves are removable and just gathered with rubberband on the ends.

So here`s the Pattern or the Crinoline and the Bumroll, which gives the hoopskirt a lift to the back.

Have fun!


Be kind to on another,

Axel