White Garibaldi blouse and skirt

This dress is part of a partial restyling. You know I love to restyle my old costumes when and if possible because, due to wrong cuts, trims or lack of replacement regarding fabrics, this cannot always happen. Restyling is  not only economical (we all have to deal with budget) but it also allows me to see how much I improved in the years. And trust me, this is the most rewarding aspect of all the work.

I made this white, big skirt back in 2015. You can find the related post clicking here. The skirt was made in an accurate way with hem facing, pleats facing, side closure and so on but it was badly made. The pleats were not pressed and so the side seams, the skirt was too long and touched the floor making walking really difficult and the rectangles of fabric that form the skirt were not well aligned. A nightmare. I also lose lot of weight since I made this skirt so also the waistband needed to be changed. And so I did. I basically remade this skirt entirely, cutting again the rectangles, serging again the seams, pressing them, serging pleats facing (before it was left raw) and shortening the hem. It didn't turn out as new but at least it works now. I also added a lovely geometric trim that was waiting in my stash from ages above the hem to hide facing stitching.

Alas I couldn't fix the bodice. I used Simplicity 1818 for this and in my opinion there are huge mistakes in the design. I made this bodice twice thinking the issues were due to my lack in Victorian sewing but I was wrong; the front of the bodice is pretty accurate with darts, boning, dropped shoulders and pagoda sleeves BUT the back runs really long causing wrinkles and a very ugly loose fitting. 

I had to wear this restyled costume for a filming on January 11th 2019 and I realized just a couple of days before the shooting I didn't have time to make a properly fitting bodice. Panic. I didn't want and couldn't wear that wrinkled bodice for the movie so I run to my to my sewing books trying to find a solution. Then I remembered I had also made a loose fitting blouse after a Butterick pattern always in 2015 which really looked like a Garibaldi blouse. A Garibaldi blouse! A quick and easy project I could make in a day or two! 

I used a pattern in the Kristina Harris book (really recommended, you can find it on Amazon) and I was ready to go in a while. I used white cotton with fabric covered buttons from stash, that's why they are a little bit too large. I omitted the piping and trims due to lack of time. 

What is a Garibaldi blouse? A Garibaldi blouse was a loose fitting, comfortable, breathable garment worn by women in early 1860s as tribute to Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi. Originally made in red wool, they came up in a bunch of colours including black and white. They could be tucked into the skirt (like mine) or attached to a inner waistband to be more fitted. That's all. 

Gosh, I'm really broad in shoulders.

And so it was! I added to a black belt to emphasize the waist and add a little bit of contrast. The outfit looked perfectly on screen and on camera as you can see :) I originally planned to sell this white skirt since I want to make at least other two 1860s dresses but for now I will probably keep it. It looks so much better now and it's really delicate and feminine. 

The whole outfit can be ordered on my Etsy shop in a customized version.