A Pair of 1860s Evening Headdress

Looking ahead to finishing the evening gown that will go with the day bodice I modeled after the original in my collection, I decided I needed a headdress for it.  I found this lovely painting of a lady in a black gown that served as the base inspiration for the piece. 

Portrait of Karoline Stiffel-Ecalard, n.d. by Friedrich von Amerling

To accomplish this piece, I ordered 2 yards of morning glory blue silk satin ribbon and 2 heather sprays in the mango colorway from Timely Tresses.  I also used some millinery wire and a faux tortoise shell comb from the stash.

To start off with, I arranged the heather sprays across the comb and attached it with millinery wire.  I used some hidden stitches to attach a few more silk leaves from the stash to more closely mimic the original inspiration.  To hide the joining of the two sprigs of flowers, I made a large bow with the blue ribbon and stitched it to the comb.

The second head-dress is meant to be worn with the lilac Chantilly dress and is technically two headdresses itself.

The first is a simple floral wreath, similar to the blue and yellow one above but without a bow.  I used two blush freesias from Timely Tresses and attached them to a faux tortoise shell comb just like the previous comb.  Simple enough!

Flowers were super popular for evening wear, if "Godey's Lady's Book" and other fashion magazines are anything to go by.

La Mode Illustree, 1867... later than our time period
but this was one of the only engravings that showed
the comb, too.

The second part of the headdress was a simple bow of the same silver silk satin ribbon with which I trimmed the lilac Chantilly gown.  I got the inspiration from the following fashion plate (lower right):

Magasin des Demoiselles, November 1861

I did attach the bow to a half faux tortoise shell comb so it can slide right into my hair.  Overall, a very simple project!

Enjoy!