When I first posted about the Victorian Strolls I was getting ready for, I had plenty of ideas but hadn’t done much other than internet research. Once I got into the actual construction, things got labor intensive, but it was so fun. Click through to see how I dressed each person in the family and where we found the costume pieces.

The Chaplain: A black dress coat and jacket he already had (on sale from Macy’s several years ago), a dress shirt and vest I made using Folkwear Pattern 202 Victorian Shirt and Folkwear Pattern 222 Vintage Vests. The shirt and vest turned out really well, although I had some trouble with the construction of the vest and it’s still technically unfinished. Unfortunately, both of those items barely showed at the strolls, but I’m glad I had the experience of making them, and I hope they’ll get used in the future.

The Chaplain wore a top hat I got from Amazon, and a cravat (I wanted to use the free cravat pattern from Folkwear, but I let Amazon take care of that, too, in favor of focusing on bigger items I wouldn’t be able to find online at my price point). He wore dress pants and shoes he already had, and wore his black leather gloves. The Red Herring: I wore an hourglass corset from Timeless Trends (on sale), a hoop skirt petticoat from Amazon (of the three I ordered, this one was the best quality), a linen shift I made for my 18th century costuming, a period skirt and sash from Etsy, with a maxi skirt I already had as a petticoat.

I wore an Anthro top that had a close-enough cut to the look I was going for, and made a Zouave jacket from this Period Impressions pattern. I used navy linen/rayon blend fabric (leftover from my Arenite Pants). The white trim on the jacket is from an sewing thrift shop ($1.00!), and it is lined with a weird fabric I impulse-bought in the Walmart fabric section. It had some stretch, which caused problems. On the upside, the lining fabric is very warm.

In between the two strolls we did, I made a reticule to carry a few items – it ended up holding hankies for the baby, who had a runny nose, and cough drops. I used the pattern that came with my Zouave jacket pattern. I initially used ribbon for the strap, but I ended up running to the craft store and getting brass chain to replace the ribbon and make it more durable. I made a second one for Two. The tassels are from the sewing thrift store, and the fabric were scraps I had on hand.One of my inspiration photos for Early Victorian Winter Garb:I found a Tibetan yak wool shawl on eBay, and wore my brown lace-up boots with Sock Dreams tall socks, and new, more historically-appropriate wire-rimmed glasses I got with our vision plan’s one pair of glasses a year.

I got an Amazon bonnet and trimmed it with ribbon, faux leaves and berries, white netting, and fake birds (two doves to symbolize peace) from the sewing thrift store and the craft store. I ended up with way more trimming supplies than I actually needed to finish the bonnets.

The hats Two and I wore probably deserve their own post, but TLDR? I saved them for last, feeling intimidated and planning to hot glue them together last minute. Instead, I ended up having to sew everything on to the hats because hot glue doesn’t work on felt hats OR tulle netting. So much for shortcuts.

Last but not least, I wore black fleece-lined gloves with leather outer bits that I found at Walmart.Two (girl, age 12): A linen cloak lined with flannel that I drafted as a larger version of the one we got with Three’s costume. Two wore a period skirt and sash from Etsy (the same as mine, but a different color) which I hemmed since she’s a little shorter than I am. We used a hoop skirt from Amazon (different from the one I ordered for myself. Although they were around the same price, hers was not as full, and during the second stroll, one of the hoops ripped out!), a shirt I already had, black gloves that are fleece-lined with leather on the back of the hands and fur around the cuffs.

Two borrowed my blue lace-up boots and the knee socks I wore when I climbed Mt. Hood (she is my Cold Feet Kid). She wore a bonnet from Amazon that I trimmed. I made her a simple cotton shift, which serves as an under layer and also works great as a nightgown. We used a maxi skirt to provide fluff and padding under the period skirt and to prevent the hoops in the petticoat from showing through.*

For the second stroll, she added a faux fur neck ruff I made from a scrap of the fleece blanket I used for her sister’s cape.Three (girl, age ten): I ordered a Dickens Christmas costume from Amazon. I knew the quality would be poor, but it would give us the look we needed. The costume came with a bonnet, a skirt, a cape, and elasticized eyelet lace to go at her cuffs. The cuffs looked surprisingly nice, but she wasn’t a fan and didn’t end up wearing them.

I used a faux fur fleece blanket from Walmart to line the cape for warmth, and replaced the Velcro closure with a couple of hook and eye clasps. Underneath, she wore one of her brother’s hand-me-down white dress shirts, leggings for warmth, a handmade cotton shift, a pair of my historical costuming above-the-knee socks, a hoop skirt (I ordered a kid-sized one, and it did the job, but wasn’t great), and a tulle skirt of mine to act as a petticoat. She wore black lace-up boots I found at Walmart. I dressed up her bonnet a little with some ribbon and trim from the sewing thrift shop and the craft store.

To keep her hands warm, she wore black fleece mittens and I made her a muff with faux fur fleece and flannel.Four (boy, age eight): One of his older sister’s dance costumes last year came with britches and a tweed newsboy hat. I altered the pants, which came with elastic suspenders, to fit him. We added tall socks, a dress shirt, a blazer, and a suit vest. He wore long johns for warmth, and a pair of black gloves. He had a 1″ black grosgrain ribbon bow tie. He looked really cute in the britches, but I’m a sucker for his look with black dress pants, which is one of the options we tried during one of our dry runs before the actual events. I was heart eyes over the checked shirt, too, but it was very thin, and he ended up wearing a thicker shirt for warmth for both of the strolls.

Five (girl, age six): She wore a tulle petticoat I already had, a hand-me-down Christmas dress with a velvet bodice and a tulle skirt, a hand-me-down wool dress coat and muff, and a floral scarf we already had. She wore a shift I made from a pillowcase, thick leggings with socks, hand-me-down boots, white gloves, and a bonnet I made for her sister a few years ago from this pattern. Six (boy, age 4 and a half): He wore a flannel dress shirt, dress pants, dress shoes, a newsboy hat from Amazon, the dress vest from this post, a blazer, and black gloves.  For the second event, he also had an underneath layer of a long sleeve shirt and pajama bottoms. He wore the same black grosgrain ribbon bow tie as his brother.

He was so cold for the first stroll, I spent Saturday night and Sunday morning in between the two events drafting and whipping up a period-appropriate jacket made of flannel lined with cotton, with the idea that it would keep him warmer than his blazer had. This was my inspiration photo. See the two little boys on either side of that precious mom with her sweet smile?The jacket came together quickly with no major hiccups, and I sewed the last button on just before we left for the second stroll. Unfortunately, even though the temperature was the same for both events, the windchill made it feel like 24 degrees the day of the second stroll. So, the jacket I made was adorable on him, I don’t think my efforts helped much against that kind of cold. Did I mention he looked great? Seven (boy, age two): I originally got this hat from Amazon, which was adorable and looked so good on him (see below). Unfortunately, my little guy hated the hat and refused to wear it for any length of time. Instead, I used a mitten and hat set one of the other boys got for Christmas as a baby. It was so cold that the warmer hat was probably a better choice. The set had an old-timey look to it even though it wasn’t strictly historically accurate.

He wore a hand-me-down dress shirt, hand-me-down navy corduroy pants (In my research, I discovered corduroy was out of style during the time period we were aiming for. It was considered poor man’s velvet and looked down on. I had him wear it anyway because they were his thickest pair of woven pants, and they were the right color), and a hand-me-down navy velvet blazer. He wore grey and white striped tights underneath for warmth (which looked so cute peaking out) and an extra shirt underneath his dress shirt. I used a plaid ribbon for his bow tie. (Period-appropriate for boys his age probably would’ve been a skirt rather than pants, but that would have been too much work and he might have just refused to wear it. As it was, I had to bribe him with Swedish Fish in order to get him dressed for the second event). I found black boots for him in the girls’ section at Walmart – they’re the little kid version of the ones I got for Three.

So, there you have it. I dove deep into this project and spent many hours and dollars on my efforts, but I’m really proud of the way everything turned out, especially the 11th hour little guy’s jacket, which really deserves its own post and may get one someday.

I’m still hoping to get individual and group shots of the kids, but it was just too cold to do any more than what you see here. Also, forgive my liberal use of black and white filters. I just couldn’t resist.

*I mentioned the petticoats for all of the females in our tribe. One of the main faux pax new or inexperienced costumers commit, according to the internet, is wearing hoop skirts without enough layers. The result is a lampshade effect at the bottom of the skirt, which looks silly and isn’t period appropriate. Here’s Two rocking the lampshade on one of our early dry runs:Ladies of this time period wore a LOT of layers. To get the look without the lampshade, there are a ton of options for modern costumers. We used tulle petticoats, hoop skirts with ruffles, and maxi skirts as petticoats, but the main thing is, if your hoops are showing, add layers under your main skirt to cover it up and save your screw ups for other areas of your costume. 🙂