Favorite Site Tuesdays!

Today's featured site is one of my all-time favorites: Truly Victorian! If you are a historical costumer who focuses on the Victorian era (as I am), then this is like one-stop shopping for all your pattern needs.

I have used several of their patterns over the years, and I keep coming back to them for one simple reason: of all the historical pattern companies I've tried, their patterns are the best, in instructions, ease of construction, and the way the pieces are drafted. Too often, I find that with other companies (and I am not going to be nasty and name names *cough cough*Alter Years) The pattern pieces just do not line up, or the sizing is completely off. Then, there is the circuitous or strange instructions I've found on even some commercially produced patterns (*clears throat* Vintage Vogue). So, it is refreshing to open up a pattern for what seems to be a wildly complicated garment and find it a dream to assemble, and Truly Victorian always does that.

My Edith Roosevelt ensemble was made using TV 101(bustle), TV 374 (Bordered Asymetrical Overskirt) and TV 460 (1885 Cuirass Bodice), along with a modified version of TV 298. I was new to historical costuming when I made this, and everything turned out perfectly. I have since used several of their patterns in various projects; the 298 Umbrella Skirt is a perfect underskirt for Natural Form to the Late '90's.

I am looking forward to usng them again in the near future, when I start working on my sister's Dinner Dress, and the Money Dress from Deadwood.