Dress #059: Victorian dress in blue and cream 1920s and 1930s dress Based on an 1811 illustration

Based on an 1811 illustration of The Great Anteater from ‘The Natural History of Quadrupeds

Based on an 1883 illustration of The Flamingo from ’Reptiles and Birds: A Popular Account of Their Various Orders

It was surprisingly difficult to find a historic illustration of a raccoon that looked right

of Massachusetts and is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession 2009

Dress #059: Victorian dress in blue and cream 1920s and 1930s dress Based on an 1811 illustrationThis hand stitched Victorian paper gown is based on an American mourning dress from 1872 1874. Though the original dress is black, it always looked blue to me in the photographs, so that is the colour Ive chosen here. The body of the dress is made from a Japanese paper embedded with strands of shiny rayon fibres, while the trim is an Italian paper. The fringes are simulated with Mizutama watermark tissue; glass beads stand in for the buttons on the