Sherlock Holmes was always a fascinating character for me. Not only his genius and his highly analytial mind but also his human (or should I say inhuman?) side appeals to me very much. He is arrogant, always needs someone to watch his genius deductions, but never takes actually credit when solving a crime. He is a manic depressiv and constantly needs to occupy his brain.

And what if he was a woman? In Victorian times it would have hardly been possible for a woman to be like that, but one can dream though ;-)

So this is my female version of the great Mr Sherlock Holmes and I call her Ms Shelley Holmes.
Since she is a detective, she would not wear some frilly things and trained skirts. But she would choose elegant clothes when going outside, just as her male counterpart does.

That is why I made her an dressy woollen suit and a warm coat to wear in the chilly London air.
To complete the costume I also made the Brown Leather Gloves.

Photos (Outdoor): Thomas Voigt (2017)
Photos (Studio): Faust (2018)
Jewellery: Sandra

* back *

This costume consists of the coat, the suit (that is a skirt and a jacket bodice) and the petticoat I made especially for this outfit.

The coat is made with the Truly Victorian TV500 Talma Wrap pattern. I did not make any changes to this pattern. I needed a very long time until I had found the right fabric for this, it took me almost one and a half years! The interlining is fleece to make it a really warm coat ;-)
The braid is sewn on by hand.

The patterns for the suit are TV225 the 1878 Fantail Skirt and TV428 the 1880 Jacket Bodice from Truly Victorian. There were no major changes made to the pattern. The skirt was very quickly done. The bodice needed some time, especially because my sewing maschine refused to make the last three button holes. These were too close to the boning. So I sewed these three button holes by hand! It me took ages!

I had a lot of fun making the petticoat :-)
The pattern is TV125 the 1879 Petticoat with Detachable Train from Truly Victorian. The back consists of gathered rows of netting caged inside the fabric of the petticoat. These petticoat intestines were so wiry that you could put them standing in the corner. The same goes for the caged thing, the whole back could stand on its own. I tried to capture this in some pictures, it was so funny when there was standing a petticoat in the middle of the room ;-)

Completed: 2016

Status: in my Klamottenkiste and I wore it for the first time in 2019 at the rainy Anno 1900 Steampunk Convention Luxembourg