How do you manage a train?

[Coffee Em]

No, Kid, CF, and Hugh, not a choo-choo train--the kind at the bottom of a skirt!

They look so lovely, and they're so common in the fashion plates of the early bustle and natural form dresses, even for daytime. I'd love to wear an evening dress with a bit of a train...but I'd be afraid to do anything but stand still in it. How best to navigate the crowded hall into the ballroom at the convention? And how, oh, how, do you DANCE in one?

I need to get my time machine fixed, so I can go back to 1880 and get my etiquette lessons updated (or would that be downdated?)!

[Kid Sopris]

EM! I get the distinct feeling that I have been profiled as a prankster ! :ty :lool :lool :lool :gg :lool :lool :lool :ty
Ah, But in researching your problem, I did find a way to contain the dancin chicken!

[Goldie]

Anyone tried out that new laughing moon bustle pattern with the train thingy? (really technical huh?:lool )

[Lady Fleur]

You walk, you swish and you attach a loop to the end on the underside to be pulled thru a small hole in the train to hold over your arm!!
No issues really!
If you feel someone accidently step on it you just stop then THEY plead forgiveness... LOL rarely happens !!!!

[Lazy K]

This is from http://www.oldandsold.com/articles/article218.shtml
"There were other accessories that milady considered necessary to her toilet. Trains were in vogue, and there was a clever little train-holder - a short chain with finger ring on one end, and a shell-shaped clasp on the other, which opened or closed by pushing a little slide up or down. This clasp could be pinched onto a fold of the train, the ring slipped onto a finger, and the train lifted gracefully from the floor, a special convenience for dancing"
I'm going with the loop over the arm.

[Greeneyed Gypsy]

you can also loop the train up on a button on the back of the skirt pulling it up as hign as need be to lift it off the ground....and off you go. Drop the train for the dramatic moments where you want to show it off...

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Engineer, brakeman, conductor............:rofl :lool :go









:chick :chick :chick :chick :chick

[Garnet Rose]

How best to navigate the crowded hall into the ballroom at the convention? And how, oh, how, do you DANCE in one?



I took a couple of pics of Alli dancing with my hubby at the convention. She had a loop on her train that went over her wrist.

[Garnet Rose]

She would pull her arm in close across her body so that her partner wouldn't step on the train as they danced.

[Garnet Rose]

As for walking into the ballroom, you could try to train El Husband to walk behind you to guard the train so that no one else but him could step on it. :go

[Goldie]

So much engineering in ladies clothing! We're fashionable tanks! You could always get a house elf to keep it up and perfect? :chick :chick There it goes again :chick :chick :chick

[Petticoat Betty]

I had a dress that was very very old, and it had a train with a little loop on it so you could put it on a finger and hold the train up while dancing/walking/whatever.

(alas, the dress died of fabricdisease, at first it showed little holes in the fabric, but at the end it simply fell apart.... poor dress...)

[Coffee Em]

Oh, poor dress, indeed--that's sad.

How do you figure out where to put the loop? If it's too close to the hem, you'd end up hiking it up and flashing your petticoat. So you'd have to take hold of some part of the dress and lift it up into position to see how the back fell...but which hand/wrist would you be suspending it from, and how would you account for variations in how high you raised your arm?

Hmmm--maybe I should settle for the button-on-the-dress solution; then I wouldn't have to worry about letting everyone know what kind of lace is on my undies when it's my turn to make the arch in the Virginia Reel.

[Iron Ed]

you can also loop the train up on a button on the back of the skirt pulling it up as hign as need be to lift it off the ground....and off you go. Drop the train for the dramatic moments where you want to show it off...

:) Sounds like a ponytail for your dress! :)

[Wallaby Jack]

What is the point of putting lace on yer undies if yer gonna go outa yer way ta hide it ?


:wallaby nevercouldfiggerthatoneout :wallaby

[Coffee Em]

Silly Wallaby--it's for those times when you catch a glimpse. The trick is to get the balance just right between the glimpse and the leisurely stare!
:gg

[Chihuahua Floyd]

Kid,
I agree, this smells of profiling. but I can't argue with the company.
Buck,
Good stand in. I reckon they can't list all of us.

Wonder why she did not include Wallaby in the listing???
CF

[Lazy K]

Ok. I think we all now know how to hike up our dress in a lady like manner. But what about the petticoat? I didn't see any sign of one in the photo of Ali. (great dress, by the way) I'm working on my first train dress and was planning on a petticoat with a train. If you put a loop on your dress to pull it up doesn't that leave your petticoat hanging in the breeze? Or would you sew the loop to the petticoat and pull the loop through the small opening in the train and pull it all up together? Like Goldie sez "So much engineering in ladies clothing!"

[Lazy K]

I'm waiting:tap :tap :tap

[Kid Sopris]

I'm waiting:tap :tap :tap

Yeah Me and Wallaby are waiting also !!!!!:tap :rofl

[Coffee Em]

Kid,
I agree, this smells of profiling. but I can't argue with the company.
Buck,
Good stand in. I reckon they can't list all of us.

Wonder why she did not include Wallaby in the listing???
CF

Lordamighty, CF, if I listed ALL the jokers 'round these parts, I wouldn't have room to ask my question! (I should have included more of the inveterate punsters, though; Garnet Rose is a repeat offender, for sure! :lool)

Lazy K, now that you ask, yep, I wonder that, too--how to deal with those trained petticoats (and yes, if you could train 'em, you wouldn't have to worry--you could just tell 'em what to do). (Ahem.) I like your loop-on-the-petticoat-pulled-through-the-skirt notion, though. That may not be How It Was Done, but it sounds as if it would work.

[Tornado Alli]

I don't personally have any trained petticoat, mine are all wild. :loolDang I just crack myself up this early in the morning.

Anyway, the way I determine where to put the loop is to either put it on the mannequin or try it on and just experiment with picking it up. The longer the train (that dress in the picture has about a six foot train!) the more critical the placement is. You have pick up enought to get it off the floor. For a short train, say 24" or less, I would use the button up method (also called "bustling"). Anything longer I would pick up. Hope that helps!

[Coffee Em]

I don't personally have any trained petticoat, mine are all wild. :lool

Oh, you are sooooooo on the Official List. Not that this surprises anyone around here. :rofl

Thank you for the train-hiking observations--aha, that makes sense. After all this, I might dare a trained skirt. If I ever get back enough time to :sewing...

[Garnet Rose]

Lordamighty, CF, if I listed ALL the jokers 'round these parts, I wouldn't have room to ask my question! (I should have included more of the inveterate punsters, though; Garnet Rose is a repeat offender, for sure! :lool)



And I never even attempted to derail the topic by mentioning your caboose, Em :gg

We drove up to see my Dad this weekend and Calico was programming some emergency numbers into my Dad's new cellphone. I had a good laugh, but no one else seemed to think it was funny that he has to press the pound key to summon animal control. :lool

[Coffee Em]

And I never even attempted to derail the topic by mentioning your caboose, Em :gg

Members of the jury, the prosecution rests! :rofl

We drove up to see my Dad this weekend and Calico was programming some emergency numbers into my Dad's new cellphone. I had a good laugh, but no one else seemed to think it was funny that he has to press the pound key to summon animal control. :lool

:rofl:rofl:roflNo one??? They're clearly unworthy of you!

[Garnet Rose]

:rofl:rofl:roflNo one??? They're clearly unworthy of you!

Could be I'm just more easily entertained :rofl

[Garnet Rose]

Members of the jury, the prosecution rests! :rofl



:rofl:rofl:rofl

I demand a retrial! :go There's more evidence to present.

[Coffee Em]

Oh, no, oh, no... Now I want to actually do that. Rats, why didn't somebody do a Southern Pacific Railroad dress for the masquerade last year? Arrrghhh!

[Kid Sopris]

Pardon me boys, is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?
(Yes Yes) Track 29!
Boy you can give me a shine
(Can you afford to board, the Chattanooga Choo Choo?)
I've got my fare
And just a trifle to spare
You leave the Pennsylvania station 'bout a quarter to four
Read a magazine and then you're in Baltimore
Dinner in the dinner, nothing could be finer
(then to have your ham and eggs in Carolina)
When you hear the whistleblowing eight to the bar
Then you know that Tennessee is not very far
Shuffle all the coal in
Gotta keep it rollin'
(Whoo Whoo Chattanooga there you are)
There's gonna be, a certain party at the station
Satin and Lace
I used to call funny face
She's gonna cry
Until I tell her that I'll never roam
(So Chattanooga Choo Choo)
Won't you choo choo me home.
Get aboard...
All aboard...
Chattanooga choo choo
Wont you choo choo me home :lool

[Lady Fleur]

Speaking of trains on trains...We once did a Clown wedding of some friends of ours who met at a international clown convention(long story)
Sumi the bride had a long train on and on a track on the end was a brightly colored train going around the track REALLY.
It was such a fun day ! The wedding took place under a big top tent in my parents back yard and the best man was clowning around the pool and fell in 30 minutes before the ceremony (300$ custom shoes got wet) Squish all the way down the aisle... My little sister was the ring bearer(pixie the clown)
I was the greeter (my name was clarabelle the clown I later became huggee the clown after clown college I *I graduated top of my class)
My mother the wedding singer. She sang the wedding of jack and jill for the bride to walk in on! and send in the clowns for the recessional!
We all rode in a tiny fire truck blowing bubbles in a city wide parade!
This was my second clown wedding I was a part of!
Yup me been there! Done that!