Making a 1860s Transformation Gown | Inspired by Little Women

This is another video I didn't post about ahead of time, but that's because I legally couldn't. This was sponsored by the new Little Women film (or more specifically, Sony, who created it) and I wasn't allowed to talk about it before the publish date!

But now it's out! So I can talk about it all I want. This was a doozy of a video, and just a huge project in general. I think I ended up with 300gb of files about making this, which is well over 30 hours of footage. 

The dress itself has dozens of yards of trim on it, and took twenty yards of fabric to construct.

I got the materials for this project at the start of March, and it was my primary project for about two weeks. After that I switched focus to other things, but was still adding final details up until March 31st, when the project had to be finished and submitted. 

This is definitely the most elaborate thing I've made in a long while. The construction wasn't as complicated as the 1630s gown I made over Christmas, but it was more labor intensive since it had SO MUCH trim, and binding, and hand work required in general. But I don't regret any of it, because I love the dress I ended up with. Or, rather, the skirt and two bodices I ended up with. 

My one main regret with this project is that I don't have better photos of it. I had done a lot of research into historic buildings on Long Island, and the historical societies they belonged to. I even made a short list of white Victorian homes that would make a good backdrop for this, and the associated contact information! But then coronavirus hit and ruined those plans before I could make them. Which in the grand scheme of things, is not a big deal AT ALL! But it meant I had to photograph this in my garage, where the lighting was weird and there wasn't really enough space.

Also - the trusty hoop skirt I made in my last patreon exclusive video betrayed me horribly. Or, the petticoat overtop of it did. The petticoat was so heavy it kept shifting to one side and making the hoop skirt jut out in the other direction. So a lot of photos were ruined by that. But I'm very happy with the silhouette it has on the dress form, and the fit of it when it's actually worn.

Hopefully I can get better worn photos of it in the future! 

ALSO! I filmed a video about making the headpiece. So that should be one of the patreon exclusive videos for this month.

I'm sure there is more I could write about this, but that is all that comes to mind right now! I'll be responding to the comments on this video later tonight, I was unfortunately sick the day I uploaded and am just feeling well enough to get back to work today (nothing COVID related, just an unfortunately timed mouth infection). 

Thanks for watching!

Angela