In Search of Victorian Elegance

Recently I decided that my newly acquired winter coat needed to be revamped. It's lovely, but I thought it could do with a certain additional air of finesse.

After traipsing to my new favourite antique shop and picking up some lace and green silk velvet ribbon, I also found a lovely little fur collar at my local thrift store (6 euros!) and decided to add ties to it while I was in the sewing mood.

While I sewed the cuffs on securely, I did not cement them on, with the intention that I could re-use the ribbon and lace elsewhere as needed or simply replace the cuffs next year.

I'd love to do some sort of melodramatic photoshoot in Pere-Lachaise to fully showcase the new look, but I'm afraid I don't have any acquaintances here who would be willing to follow me around a cemetery. So, for now, a few basic shots will have to do.


Here the cuffs are pinned and ready!




And here I'm sewing the first cuff. You can see that I arranged it so that the cuff doesn't actually meet at the backseam:




A finished cuff! This picture does a good job of showing the sheen of the ribbon:




Here's the whole coat, plus the collar and its new ribbon ties:




And a look at the collar:




I'm really pleased with these embellishments...and even more excited about taking the coat out on the town!