Starting Hetty from Ghosts

 This summer I started watching the US version of the series Ghosts, and I really liked Hetty's costume. I've always wanted a victorian bustle outfit, but I've never had the chance to make one and definielty not had any 1880's events to go to. 

Hetty ticked so many boxes, she's a redhead so I can use my own hair, the dress itself has a gorgeous teal/cerulean colour and it would be my chance to finally make the bustle dress that I've always wanted. Also taking it on as a cosplay project rather than historical costuming I felt that I would have more freedom to use materials that I had at hand and not be too sticky with them being what would have been used in the 1880s. 

A note though with underwear is that it's easy to have this idea of victorian underwear always being white and quite fluffy with lace and decorations, but looking at extant pieces they were a lot more colorful, and material wasn't wasted it was pieced and sewn together to get a finished garment rather than just buying new fabric.

Since I really wanted a bustle when I started with costuming I used to look at all kinds of victorian patterns and I knew that Truly Victorian would have all the patterns that I needed, and I made my fair share of TV patterns when I was a much more inexperienced seamstress. So to me Hetty doesn't seem to be a very complicated project. It's a big project with a lot of layers and fabrics, but it wouldn't involve buying patterns and not having to come up with drafting or modifying them by myself too much.

The costume will consists of a corset and shift, and those I already have, a wired bustle, a petticote, an underskirt and overskirt, a bodice and some hair pieces.