Victorian Tennis Dress, Take Two!

Since I wore my Victorian tennis dress to Costume College this year, I thought I'd add some new details about it. While I went into a little construction detail, I didn't show how it was put on.

I'm actually taking the dress off in this series of pictures, but it's essentially the same, and much less hectic than getting dressed at Costume College!


The bodice fastens with a series of hooks and thread eyes that go diagonally from the right shoulder to the waist closure just to the left of the center front. The collar and bow at the neck close with two hooks and thread eyes. I fastened those last.


Just keep going until the waist, where the waistband closes with two hooks and thread eyes.


The skirt is very heavy since it's a front overskirt, back overskirt, and fully pleated skirt all on one waistband. After very carefully putting it on over my head, it fastens to two buttons in front.


It fastens to four heavy hooks and eyes in back, and then closes at the center back. The back overskirt then fastens over the center back closure, on the left side. I'm holding it out straight, and you can see the hooks on the left.


All that's left then is to add the belt (which closes with pins--I never got around to closures!) and the collar.

Victorian Tennis Dress

I fell in love with this tennis dress at the Met, and decided I needed my own version. And here it is!



I wore it over a chemise, my take on a Ferris Good Sense Corset, drawers, bustle, and petticoat. My shoes are Edwardian lace up boots and I knit my tam o'shanter from an 1885 pattern. The Ravelry page for that is here.



Twila and I wore these in the historic masquerade at Costume Con 30 and won best in show. It was very exciting :)



And what's a bustle dress without a side view?

Victorian Tennis Dress--Construction

I thought that after the spotty dress I wouldn't want to make another dress with a strange side closure/plastron thing, and after the pink and green bustle dress and pleated teens skirt of ages ago, I wouldn't want to make another dress with a full, ironed in, pleated skirt.

Wrong. I fell in love with this striped tennis, seaside, etc. dress at the Met.

The original dress is unlined except for the center back and made of corded cotton. The striped fabric extends past the waist and forms a little peplum of sorts. It now has a purple silk collar that was originally blue. It hooks closed on the left side.

The skirt has a built in bustle and hooks onto the bodice.

Though I was using a lighter weight cotton, I decided to leave mine unlined. I also used purple silk for the collar--in part because I had already bought the silk when I found out, and in part because I liked it so much. I also decided on a separate bustle because I prefer wearing a separate one to a built in bustle, and both are accurate for the era.

On to construction! I took fewer pictures than I should have, but there are so many similarities to the spotty dress. I tend to take fewer pictures when I've done something before.



To pleat the center back, I cut a strip of lining fabric based on the center back of the pattern. I then pleated the striped fabric to it, placed the pattern piece on top, and cut the striped fabric.




After the back was completed, I sewed the side pieces and the side front pieces on. I pinned the shoulders together to fit the darts, and then sewed the front pieces on. The front pieces became the pleated part.



And here we have a fairly large jump in construction. The front panels were pleated, shoulder seams sewn, the collar sewn over all the layers, and plastron sewn in. The waistband was sewn at waist level.



The sleeves were then sewn in, and now, it needed cuffs. Although the original had the cuff bands pointing in different directions, I decided to make mine match.



First, the cuff is bound with a wide bias band.



Then I made bands to put over the join in the cuff.



And the finished--except for the neck bow--bodice!



And for fun, pleating the skirt. I made the skirt portion three times the yoke so it would be easy to pleat. I ended up not using the ruler to do the pleats, but rather following threads to mark each pleat. It ended up being more accurate!

I don't have any pictures of overskirt construction. The front part of the overskirt though, was two trapezoids pleated to fit, and the back is a large rectangle that's pulled up in parts. The front overskirt is sewn directly to the underskirt waistband and the back overskirt is set on its own waistband which is then sewn on one side to the underskirt waistband and then hooks on the other side, covering the center back closure.

And that's the basic construction of this dress!