Refashioning old costumes + advice for beginner costumers | Failed Regency Dress to 1780 Accessories 

"You can't wear a dress you've never made." Me: side-eyes a huge box of fabric I have "plans for" but cannot cut into

When I look back a year ago - when I took up historical costuming - I have learned so much. Things that puzzled me are now second nature. It takes me 2-3 months to make an item and each one has leaped me forward. I'm lucky I've been really happy with everything I've made.

"You can't wear a dress you haven't sewn" - Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown

Love this video, it's brimming with empathy and positive energy. I've come to accept mistakes as learning opportunities-- the fear of messing up no longer holds me back 🙂

I'm a size 22, and just remembering all the alterations I have to do to modern patterns is what's stopping me from trying historical costumes.

Hi, I've been sewing for years but mostly household stuff and repairs, never real clothes, I just need to stop procrastinating.💖

Thank you so much for your kind words ! I’ve finally started my historical sewing journey last year but it took me several years to have the courage to actually start, because I was really afraid to make mistakes, not being able to sew right and being disappointed by the end results. The clothes I’ve made so far are not perfect at all but I’m proud of them.

Love this video - most of my sewing experience is upcycling things from charity shops so it’s lovely to see the same principles applied to your own projects! At the moment, carpal tunnel in both wrists is holding me back. Just a few eyelets and I’ll be done with my 18th century stays!

Id love to see that white striped dress redone. I just adore that fabric!!

I'd make a new back for the other dress. You can use the scraps of that one to make a reticule or a reticule lining.

I do deserve to get a hobby that will bring me joy.

Two things are holding me back: budget, other things I want to do too. The other activities are a higher priority to me right now, and I'm at peace with it, and I believe that at some point I will get into historical sewing also, just not right now. :)

Learning every craft inevitably passes through the "it doesn't look like that when I do it" phase. Learning knitting (and now, sewing) it seems like every new skill in every craft has to pass through this phase. I wish there was a shortcut, but alas. The only solution is to accept that people rarely put their failures on social media and just redo the thing until it does come out the way you want.

Mrs B here. Great video and great advice. I knew I had progressed as a costumer when I bought some nice linen to make a new shift and then made it too small. I laughed and immediately realized that previously I would have gotten upset and been mad at myself. Now I just feel silly for doing something goofy like getting simple math wrong. I think my comfort level has grown. That and I know historically piecing and recycling fabric was what everybody did so reusing a tiny shift is okay. I think what kept me from costuming for so long was the myth that something that looks complicated has to be complicated. I kept saying, "I could never do that," even though I wanted to so bad. Now I watch videos like this and nod in agreement. The sewing isn't that hard. Even making mistakes isn't that bad. I still see comments saying, "I could never do that." I know the commenters probably could. Sometimes I really want to start my own channel just to show that sewing is possible. I guess that's my next hurdle.

Oh my gosh this is THE BEST pep talk ever! "You can't wear a dress you haven't made" - I need that on a billboard!! Maybe I'll embroider it as a sampler for my sewing room 🥰🥰🥰

The apron looks so good! It wasn’t until the conversation about gatekeeping that happened last year that I felt I could join in. I always felt I wasn’t good enough and since I couldn’t afford silk I just wasn’t allowed to join in.

That outfit is so beautiful 😻 The white additions absolutely complete the look.

So, I think I've only just started watching your videos maybe two or three weeks ago? That said, you've certainly helped me in so many different ways. Your generosity of spirit and empathetic care has managed to carry me through the final difficult stages of making my first historical outfit as I binge-watched your videos at 2/3am while finishing my 1887 bodice. Suffice it to say, I only embarked, last year, on this historical fashion journey in actuality after watching 2 years worth of historical CosTubers! Research and toiles (mock-ups) absolutely helps. Thank you Dixie 🥰🙋🏽‍♀️🇦🇺

I recently made my first historical garment, and what stopped me from starting earlier on was a lot of fears. I really wanted to fully hand sew at least one garment in my life but I was afraid my hands couldn't handle it - I have lived my life giving up one hobby after the other as it became too punishing on my (weak) body, and I was afraid my hands could not handle the stress of hand sewing so much. But I did it! Little by little, I did. It hurt sometimes, but I gave myself the grace to take breaks and let my hands rest and it worked :) My other fear was financial, as I am poor, but as my plan for buying clothes for years has been "buy less, very very rarely, but good quality" I just skipped buying clothes for this half of the year and bough a beautiful fabric instead. My hope is that I can keep putting aside these bits of money to make another nicer garment someday soon, and look around for used fabrics once the world is a bit more normal again. Thank you for the lovely video and the inspiration to keep on going :)

This is one of the kindest and most inspiring videos I have watched in a long time. You’ve inspired me to try. THANK YOU!

please do the other white stripe dress next

Thank you for this! I got discouraged after a series of mistakes in several consecutive projects... but here I am still wanting to create my own wardrobe and character inspired clothing pieces

Lovely, inspiring speech! I have a pile of fabric sitting on my table right now that needs to become a 16th century Turkish-Venetian coat.

I took up sewing about a year ago, but I don't have the confidence to tackle historical clothing just yet. I'm grateful for the pep talk, it gives me hope that one day I'll get there, even if my sewing is very slow. I can usually only do one step per day before I run out of energy. A single project can take me months because some days I just don't leave bed. But I'm getting better with each project.

Love the freckles! You look Irish. I'm an orange-head with a gazillion freckles. I always hated people saying "oh, I'm so sorry you have that skin disease..." thinking freckles were like zits! sheesh. Now they're popular again! I've been costuming for 50 years! (agh!) My first "costume" was a Simplicity Edwardian dress that I made for an orchestra recital. By the time I was fourteen, I was doing costuming as a career. An unfortunate move to LA made that come to a halt. I kind of stopped costuming when I got forced off a bus for wearing a Shakespearean cape. They thought I was a witch and ganged up on me. Morons...but it was scary and I back off costuming, but still made my own clothes. Whenever I did history bounding I got rude comments. Now I live somewhere where I can wear Medieval history bounding and people think it's cool. I do 50's dresses, some late Edwardian (Erte!) Regency and Medieval. All that Victorian and Elizabethan-Georgian is too frou-frou for me. My outfits tend to look a cross between Japanese country and Viking-Erte. Lots of large sashes, straight lines, and full skirts in linen, mostly, but some hand-dyed cottons. I make costumes for other people, and try to push the limits of what they will wear, but sell on Etsy, too. My advice is to sew with fabric that sews with you: wool, linen, some cottons will bend and shape and steam and press and look just fabulous. Pay attention to the way things drape that has been my biggest problem: using fabric that was too stiff, too cheap looking, too slick or just hard to sew. Love your channel!

Love the make over. I'd like to see the blue dress made over next. I like the white one as is and think you should just replace the back panels. It is a pretty dress.

I love that roofy apron! And I'm a big fan of repurposing old projects that didn't turn out well, most of the stuff in my closet has been either fixed/improved some time after finishing it originally, or created from a failed project.

Thanks for this video! Undergarments are keeping me from getting started. Corsets, stays, all of it!!

GREAT video, nice message for newbies. I'm fairly new, but I took some private classes at a local shop (not only garment sewing, but actually working on a cosplay dress). I found having a coach early on helped me learn faster and having a cheerleader was very motivational. Recently I made my first 1787 outfit and I was generally ok with it, but I was rushing to make the event date and knew there would be lots of fixes to make later. I will be taking apart the pierrot jacket. Instead of being distraught about it, I'm experienced enough now where I see how much I will learn from the correcting process.

Awe this is great, heartwarming, and funny.

This is a great topic! Love it. :) Your videos are always so well put together.

this is such an empathetic and interesting video, I look forward to see what happens with the other two dresses!

Love love love. I have only to get started and your tips have given me more motivation. The only thing stopping me has been the exhaustion of raising twin toddlers! But I will have more time very soon once they start daycare! Thank you thank you for your advice and talking through the mistakes.

I’m in love with this whole ensemble and the apron choice you made was perfect! Thank you so always inspiring me and bringing a spark of joy into my creative brain.

I've basically been working on my first historical costume for the past year. I've had a lot of challenges (fitting!) but I think the biggest thing holding me back is the uncertainty/fear of attending a first event. I think I've been reasonably historically adequate, but I've been working mostly from online resources, so I'm honestly not even sure what I'm making is appropriate for the time period. I'm trying to be more active in historical FB groups to get some input, but this past year has been the worst possible time to need new friends!

I would love to see you fix the white stripe dress so you could wear it as a regency costume and for you to remake the blue dress

Paper mockups! I have a fear of cutting fabric, so I make a paper copy of the pattern and use that as the first draft. You can sew paper, get angles down and figure out how to layer or correct issues easily. Stich length and all other fun issues can be reviewed on paper first. Don't break the bank either. Most newspaper printers sell end rolls for cheap.

Thank you for this video. As a beginner I made my first dress with no pattern, but managed to be a little HA without realising it, by piecing my remaining fabric together to add more to the skirt back. I did have to look at an awful lot of photos of extant garments in order to work out what was what, so it didn't turn out too bad. I have since made the ubiquitous Laughing Moon apron-front dress which fits beautifully, and now I want to attempt to make some more dresses in different styles, based loosely on the LM pattern, but first I must finish the new linen chemise, and get started on new (LM) long stays. What holds me back? My own lack of confidence, and self-belief...and the fear of making mistakes. Silly, isn't it! Take a deep breath, and just DO IT!

I know I'm late to this party, but I love your advice (and your bonnet!)

Honestly the only thing keeping me from REALLY getting started, is budget. Fabric is HELLA expensive lol. I do some of things you suggested like using bedsheets and thrifted fabric. But there are times when you have to buy the $10 a yard heavy canvas for a corset and ain't no getting around it cuz you have a large bust and that bedsheet aint gonna do what needs to be done lol. Ima still do it, but money is funny and change is strange lol

Ah my old nemesis... the fear of failure

I love the apron! It looks so good with the dress!

What's keeping me from starting is the fact that I don't have a lot of time and I get frustrated very quickly if I don't see results or at least progress. I love making clothes for my 3 y/o nephew because I can finish them in half a day, so that's very satisfying - opposed to a massive dress that first needs proper undergarments, let alone way more skills than I currently have. I doubt that I would finish that project, I'd maybe make a shift or a petticoat and then abandon everything when I reach the corset or stays, because that's very scary stuff.

Just learning the new way to sew took me forever. Hand sewing, flatlining, then just this weekend screwing up an 18th century shirt cause I measured wrong! I’ve never screwed up a garment before. It’s a shocker.

Okay I’ll admit I was super frustrated… about 10 mins before I found this video I chucked my mock up across the room and decided I needed to watch some vids and find a new project. I came across this video and thought sure I could really use some advice. Not only did you pep talk help me out but as you worked on the gatherings it gave me the perfect answer! Fingers crossed my skirt doesn’t end up across the room again lol Thank you Dixie!

I love it!! An excellent use of a dress you would otherwise never use. 👍🏻 As for the conversation, I still very much feel like a newbie at historical costuming, even though I’ve completed several projects and have many more in the works. My disorganized and frustratingly ADHD brain oftentimes holds me back, but also my fear that I won’t be able to fit myself well enough and I’ll look sloppy and “Holly Homemaker” homemade. I find that I don’t do well without a deadline, like an event, looking in the future, and setting my own deadlines doesn’t work, because my brain knows it’s a trap, lol. I just want Covid to be over so events can start happening again!!

This is such a great video! It took me ages to get started with historical sewing. I pretty much procrastinated for a year coz I found it all really intimidating. Felt so good to finally get stuck in and just go for it. Also I'd like to see the blue dress reworked 😊

Blue

Thank you for the inspiration. I'm new to sewing/historic costuming (started about this time last year) and I still don't have a complete outfit. I keep getting frustrated and down on myself when I mess something up. I've been working on a fantail skirt mockup for weeks as I keep having week long (or longer) breaks between times working on it. But, I do have a rilla corset done, and some combinations. And I'm hoping I can use the skirt mockup as a petticoat for a while.

Loved your breakdown/explanation of the different stages of creation. I've been sewing for many years, but only recently got into late Victorian. I'm still working on foundation garments 6 months in, and can easily see why some would just give up (I had to give myself a 3 week break at one point). I've learnt new techniques, had to buy equipment I've never needed before, and yes I've spent a fair bit along the way. And at the end of this journey what I've made will be far from perfect, but that's ok.

Probably make the blue dress into something else and fix the bodice of the white one so you can wear it. It's always good to have the basic little white Regency dress! I do strive for historical accuracy in my costume making, but at the age of 70, "historically adequate" works just fine too sometimes. Just remember to have fun no matter which way you choose!

I still haven’t started because I dread the cutting. I found some fabric that is historically correct (batiste, twill, linen, cotton velvet) but it is very expensive. I want to do it right. I’m not afraid of handsewing (quilter) but making the first cut into real yardage... When quilting I reuse all kinds of old fabric and don’t feel so burdened. Once I bought a kit for a quilt for my best friend and that was scary too. I finished it and she’s very happy with it so I know someday I will be brave enough for this too. Please redo the white dress next, so I can watch and learn.

I’ve been sewing, even drafting patterns, since 1985. Historical sewing IS hard. Harder than modern dressmaking.

The first white dress just needs the back re-cut. Don't recycle it. The blue one - yes, 1920s. For me, it's the usual thing of the project asking too many questions, and it slows me down until I can think of the answer. Today, that question is, Now that the new, smaller pattern has caused more problems than it solved, how are you going to add ease to the underarm section of this finicky fabric-ed herjolfsnes dress? I already solved the problem of the narrower pattern -- I chucked it. Better, I suppose, to be EXTRA with a lot of flounce and swoop, than to be more conservative and have ease issues under the arms. As soon as I commit to the answer of adding a gusset (why I'm putting this off, I don't know), I can finish the hems. Until then, that dress is taking up space on my mannequin because I refuse to let it become another UFO. I'm trying to F my O's not add to them.

I want to get started on historical sewing adventures but I feel like I should finish my modern sewing projects first 😜

I find that if I make an outfit out of repurposed fabric, I have a dress that would be a working woman's outfit and I learn how to make the garment. Then I can make another version out of finer material. Right now I have an extensive working woman's closet. I have yet to try most of my outfits in nicer textiles. But I did buy a bunch of silk from a store in the LA Fabric District. The silk versions are dancing in my head. I have an irrational fear of using the silk. But I am getting there.

What keeps me from getting started? That I'm unhappy with my physical apperance (overweight) and I dread having to put a lot of hours and ressources into making something, that I will hate anyway just because it's on my body.

PS I vote for the blue dress to get the next makeover. :)

Do the Blue 1920's Daydress. - Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown

The frustration of things not fitting well after so many mock ups and alterations and time and effort is holding me back. I keep trying to fix the same problems instead of moving forward with maybe a different pattern or simpler projects. I end up sewing modern clothing projects as a palate cleanser because they are so much easier. And then going back to try and fine tune my corset or waistcoat. Again. Having a large bust can be super annoying lol.

I really hate simplicity sizing. I’ll measure up to a size 18, then have to cut down to a size 14, which is on the other sizing chart... now I just cut size 14 and pray.

I absolutely struggle getting bodices to fit. No matter how many mockups I do, the bodice always turns out wrong and I don't know why. Because of this, I am terrified to even try Victorian/Edwardian blouses or jackets.

I have looked but have yet to find someone in my local community who does historical costuming. It would be nice to find face to face friends.

I vote for the blue dress to be made over. I don't do any historical sewing as I would have no place to wear it. 😪

I bought a sewing machine because of you. I've been altering and taking in my modern day clothes! I love near colonial Williamsburg, VA and I want to go to some on their events. The catch is I want to do it in clothing traditionally worn by women. I feel like that would literally murder accuracy, but I want to take part my own way. Do you have any advice on navigating this without offending others or endangering myself

could you make a small bag out of the scraps?