1880s Gold Bustle dress – Bodices

With the skirt post done, it’s time to move to the bodices of the gold 1880s dress! I started the evening bodice after making the train base, and worked on the skirt/bodice interchangeably. I also planned the ball bodice at that time, but as this project had a deadline, I did finish the full evening version of this outfit first before starting on the ball version. In the end, I had enough time to finish both!

I used the Truly Victorian TV462 tail bodice as my base. Interestingly, the current cover of this bodice includes a keyhole neckline exactly like my target dress, but my pattern doesn’t have that image on the front, and neither does it have the keyhole on the pattern. It might be that I have an older version, but it meant I ended up drawing the neckline on me by myself. I also changed the back, removing the pleats. As TV patterns tend to fit me reasonably well, I made the mock-up out of the black cotton I also planned to use for the lining. After fitting, I cut the silk, flatlined all the pieces, and did the main construction aside from darts and side seams. The darts I did while fitting another time. The side seams I waited with until after I finished the bottom. This way, it’s easier to let out in the future if I want to, a theatre trick I learned from one of Redthreaded’s videos.

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I marked the keyhole neckline first when fitting, and then used a silk facing piece in the exact shape. This was sewn on right sides together, the neckline was cut out (this was scary!), the facing flipped to the wrong side and stitched down. I have no clue if this is a period way to do it, but it worked for me. I decided on a facing rather than bias tape because of the sharp corner, and I like how that turned out.

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The next step was finishing the bottom! I made my own piping by stitching a cord into a bias strip, and sewed this to the bottom fronts and back. After this was done, I could finally finish the side seam. It was a bit odd for me to use this order of sewing, as I’m so used to construction first, finishing edges second, but I do like the size flexibility it gives! The next step after this was to add the collar, and finish the neckline like that.

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The original garment has a lot of self-fabric covered buttons, and I decided I wanted the smallest ones possible. Of course, this meant covering a lot of little buttons, which was fiddly at best… The official mold for these self-covered buttons didn’t work too well with this small size (I’ve used it for larger versions without problem). So I ended up running a gathering thread (by hand) around the edge of the fabric to pull it in tight around the button that way. I do really like the look of the finished buttons!

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The final steps were button holes (sewn by hand, as I do really prefer that look), and to sew on the pearl trim. I decided to go with a plastic, pre-made pearl string. The original has very tiny pearls, and given the deadline I decided to not find individual pearl beads and string them. You can see the difference up really close, but I called this a ‘good enough’. I can always go and change the trim later if it does bother me in the future.

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And then it was time for the ballgown bodice! I designed this in photoshop based on some originals. My main concerns were: have some black; but the black should be removable if I ever want to wear this with a different underskirt. I ended up deciding to do a ruched black panel on top of a gold base. If I really want to change it up, I need to unpick some trim, but not deconstruct the entire thing.

For the pattern, I went with the adapted version of the evening bodice. As I tend to make any adaptations directly on my mock-up, I just traced pattern pieces from the bodice directly. Then I could cut the flatlining (white cotton) and silk fabric! Again, I fitted it again after flatlining and basic construction, and pinned the darts directly on the body.

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With the base done (I finished the neckline with bias tape), I could create the draped pieces. I did delay the center front and shoulder seams, as I wanted to make the trim disappear inside them. In the end, this didn’t actually work for the center front, as the ruched piece will go on top. I cut the basic shape for the draping out of cotton first, and then experimented with increasing the width to get the gathers. I cut two pieces of this, and draped it on the bodice, pinning it down in strategic places to get the folds to lay nicely.

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For the black ruched piece, I followed a similar strategy, cutting it out of cotton first, widening it so it could be gathered up, and then cutting and gathering the black silk. This panel was finished by turning in all the edges, and stitched on top of the bodice beneath the gathered pieces. (I made the gathered pieces first to determine the size of the black panel, but I did stitch on the black panel first, as it goes below the other one)

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To finish the bodice, I hand sewed eyelets around boning in the center back, and I finished the bottom with piping. There are a couple of boning pieces inside, the most important one which is in the front, as it keeps the center front point from flipping up. I also added very small gold sleeves (which I didn’t take pictures of…)

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And then it was time for final touches, the bows! I found a tutorial for fabric bows here. Basically, you create one long ribbon strip, and loop this to get a bow with two loops on either side and tails. I ended up using a bit of organza ribbon to go around the bow and tie it together. I originally planned on just having bows on the sleeve heads, but I also added one to the bottom of the gathered pieces, and I am really happy with how that looked!

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And then the whole ensemble was finished, with an evening version with long sleeves and train, and a ball version with short sleeves and train bustled up! Some pictures of the final ensemble on me and about the event will follow in a future post!

1880s Evening gown – Skirts

And then suddenly over 2 months have passed without a post!

I the meantime I have been working on the gold 1880s dress project that I talked about last time. In fact, I’ve now finished it, so time for some catching up. In this post, about the skirts!

I started this project with the train. Not because that made most sense per se, but because I knew it’d take the most fabric, and I wanted to make sure how much I’d have left.

I used the TV Butterfly Train pattern, in the shorter version. I cut the fabric on my living room floor, as it’s the biggest in the house and actually allowed me to lay out the pattern fully. I chose to slightly piece it to save on fabric. With the pleating in the train, it will be nearly impossible to spot when it is worn anyway.

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Cutting on the floor (spot the cut lines!) and piecing in the corner

I cut the silk, and seamed all the pieces together. Then I did the same thing with the lining. I chose to line it out of plain black cotton. While black isn’t the most historical lining fabric, I knew I’d wear this with a black underskirt and I wanted it to be the same in case the train flips over and you see the inside. It’s a bit less conspicuous this way.

Construction was extremely simple. It’s bag lined, so lining and silk sewn right sides together and flipped inside out. Then the two sides were pleated up, and the top left and top right part were attached to the waistband. The top center is finished by turning the edges in, and then it is pleated up from the center and attached to the center of the waistband. This creates the ‘butterfly’ effect like poof that the train is named after.

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Laying the silk on the cotton lining to pin it in place for the bag lining & a top view of the pleats attached to the little waistband piece.

The train has its own waistband which hooks unto the overskirt (as that needs to close center back, so under the train). I also tried out some methods to bustle up the train, as I also want to be able to dance in this dress. Eventually, I settled on attaching one ribbon center back, with two button holes. There are buttons lower on the train to button it up. Then on the sides, I attached ties, as well as a bit further down towards the center. These tie to each-other to bring up the sides. It shows a little bit of the black lining when bustled up, but I don’t really find that bothersome as the underskirt is the same color.

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Trying out how to bustle up the train with the lining fabric only & the train waistband which hooks onto the overskirt waistband in the back.

The front overskirt is of the same gold, and I patterned myself with a little help from examples in Izabella Prior’s the Victorian Dressmaker books. I mocked it up from a sheet, and basically played around with pleats and length until I got the look that I wanted. It’s a basic rectangle type shape which is pleated up the sides. I ended up pulling the bottom side points of the rectangle over the back of the bustle and attaching a hook to keep them in place there. This makes sure that the overskirt has the feeling of volume and pleats without hanging down too low. The overskirt is attached to a black waistband ribbon, closing center back, with eyes to hook the train over. The back looks a little funny on its own (and I have no clue if it resembles period patterns), but with the train on top it looks like I meant to!

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Patterning the overskirt out of an old sheet – the handstitched hem – the sides are pleated up and sewn down by machine (they won’t be visible), attachment to the twill tape waistband – the finished overskirt from the front – the finished overskirt in the back, this is covered by the train.

Then, finally, there was the black underskirt. The base was really quick to make, using the TV1880’s underskirt pattern, but of course adding a pocket. It’s made out of black twill cotton, as I wanted a solid base. Base, because the skirt is almost entirely covered in trim! I ended up taking inspiration from an other original 1880s dress, and settled on one row of knife pleats, two rows of stacked box pleats and a large ruched panel.

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To try out the design, I copied the underskirt of the original dress I liked and pasted it on top of my picture, painting it black. Then I could measure the height of the pleats and the ruching.

The pleats took a little time to make and prepare, and various calculations were done and re-done to ensure I had enough silk (I’m still not sure I did it right, but I had enough fabric, so it’s okay). The pleats were all hand pleated, pinned in place, sprayed with a vinegar/water mix to set the pleats, steamed, and taped in place with painter’s tape. This last step ensures that the pleats can fully dry and won’t be distorted when handling them later. The ruched panel is one large piece with gathering stitches running horizontally. I ended up not giving my piece a lot of extra length, so the ‘poofs’ aren’t quite as poofy as in the example, but I actually quite like this slightly flatter look. The entire panel was then stitched on the skirt, together with the pleats. Only after doing this, did I finish the side-seam, so I could include the ruched panel in the seam. It took some fiddling to then make the pleats match over the seam, and if you look closely you can see that the pleats aren’t quite the same there. It’s not noticeable if you don’t look closely though, so I really don’t mind.

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Pleating the knife pleats, stitching down the stacked box pleats, and gathering the ruched panel on the base skirt. This is why I didn’t sew the final seam yet, makes it a lot easier to lay it out flat!

And that completes the whole lower part of the outfit! I’m really happy with how luxurious the gold and black work together so far!

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A last-minute bodice

I had predicted that this would be a year of more sudden changes in plans than normal, and so far that’s proving to be true. I’m still waiting on the fabric for my vest to arrive, and in the meantime I decided to make a day bodice to wear with my green 1890s skirt.

I’m participating as an extra in a Dutch show about history, and I was asked to wear my green ballgown with a cloak on top of it for an outside scene. I suspect they just chose that outfit because they wanted darker colors, but a ballgown in the middle of the day is a bit odd. It would be covered by a cloak, so in theory invisible, but then the weather turned, and the prediction for filming day was -2 degrees. Not the best weather to have bare arms.

I didn’t have any plans in the weekend before (because, you know, covid), so I decided I might as well try my hand at making a new bodice. I still had plenty of green and black silk left, so this could be done entirely from my stash. The bodice will have long sleeves, which I could even wear extra layers underneath as well. I had 3 full days for this, as well as a couple of evenings after work, so I wanted a design that wouldn’t take a lot of figuring out or trimming. In the end, I settled on this dress as inspiration:

It’s interesting without being overly complex, and as a bonus, the Victorian Dressmaker book actually has a pattern for this. Not to my size, but with the Truly Victorian pattern I’d used for my ballgown bodice as base and the rough shapes in the book, adapting became a lot easier. I still have some black velvet from my 1860s gown, so the velvet details were covered as well.

So I set to work! I didn’t make a lot of pictures, but after day 1 I had the main bodice drafted, cut out, sewn together and fitted! This seems like the most work, but as it’s nearly all machine work, it actually comes together relatively quickly. It also helped that I skipped the mock-up. I’d used this pattern for my ball gown, so I knew it fit, and pinning the darts on the body allows for last-minute adjustments.

Day 2 was for the sleeves. These are fairly complex because they have 7 pieces of fabric each. An organza, dupioni and cotton layer for the inner sleeves, and an organza, dupioni, tarlatan and cotton layer for the outer sleeve. The outer sleeve lining was fitted (with slight gathers) to the armhole first, then the tarlatan was pleated and pinned in (this is just a small strip, meant to give volume), and then the large fashion layer with dupioni and organza was pleated down to fit the smaller lining. Then the inner and outer sleeve were sewn together, and the whole thing was set in by hand, as wrangling layers is just easier that way.

Day 3 was spent on finishing the edges. This dress has a collar and belt of pleated velvet. I pleated them and stitched down the pleats by hand to make them invisible. Then they were both lined in cotton, stitched on along the velvet edge, and then the cotton layer was hand-sewn in place to finish it off. The sleeves I bound in bias tape, finished by hand.

That was the end of my weekend, and it was nearly there! The main thing left was closures, as that’s really essential to wearing, this was done in evenings. It closes with a combination of hooks and eyes, hooks and bars and snaps.

Final touches were a big velvet bow on the back collar, and a smaller one on the belt to hide the closure. I also decided to add a strip of black velvet ribbon along the sleeves.

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All in all, I’m pretty happy I got this done within a week, and I can now wear my green outfit for day events as well as balls!

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1830s Pelerine

I finished another UFO! When I made my gold 1830’s dress, I also cut out the fabric for a pelerine, as my inspiration original had a matching one. However, I didn’t have occasion to wear my dress outside, nor did I have a hat to do so, so the pelerine didn’t have any urgency. It also had many scallops, so I left it. But I’ve been on a UFO finishing streak and I now have a 1830s bonnet, so it was time to finish the pelerine!

I chose to finish my scallops by lining them instead of binding them as it would cost less fabric and I thought it might be easier. I don’t think it was all that much easier in retrospect, but I’m happy enough with how it turned out. I did add the piping between scallops and the pelerine though!

I tried two versions of the scallops beforehand, and settled on the deeper scallops. In retrospect, I should have drawn them out fully, as the trick to clean scallops is that you can cut the seam allowance all the way to the point. Turns out that’s very difficult if your stitching lines are too close. I did this right in the sample, but in many places in the eventual thing I had to snip some stitching to make it lay nice (and then use fray check, which is definitely not what you’re supposed to do…). Drawing out the scallops would have helped to keep enough space between the stitching lines.

I’ve tried to illustrate this below. Red is how to do it, with the green arrows showing you could cut all the way between the red lines. Blue is how not to do it, as there is a large overlap of the stitching lines of both sides which will make the scallops impossible to turn around.

I like how I now have a pretty versatile set of 1830’s things. I have 2 dresses, one green and one gold. The gold has detachable lower sleeves, so can be worn for both evening (ball) and day wear. The green would work for (non-ball) evening and day activities as well, it’s copied from an evening gown but has long sleeves to work for day. I have a brown/white bonnet which will go with both dresses. I have an antique white cotton pelerine which will go with both (though probably looks best on the green), and I have a gold silk pelerine which would work both with the green and the gold dress. Ideally, I’d have two more additions to this: a white bodice/blouse to wear with the green skirt (as the gold dress doesn’t have a separate skirt/bodice it won’t work with that) and make it more informal; and a coat, for which I actually already have green wool fabric. Those aren’t up next though, because I’ll first be making an 1890s vest of the leftover fabric of my split skirt. I’ve already started on that!

Plans for 2021

After looking back, it’s time to look ahead!

Usually, my plans for a new year are pretty directly correlated to plans for events to attend. I want to make the things I can wear somewhere.

Obviously, that makes planning for 2021 a little bit different. Any events which are tentatively planned are those that got moved or cancelled last year. And mostly, I’ve already made the outfits for them.

This makes planning more difficult obviously, but is also an opportunity in a way, to tackle some projects that never happened because no events came up.

So far, I’ve already started on some UFO’s. I finished a winter dress I started last year, my 1830s hat, and an 1940’s dress which has been in my UFO basket for at least 2 years.

1940s style dress

I also want to finally make the 1830’s golden pelerine to go with my golden dress, which I’ve been stalling a bit because it has tons of scallops. I started on that last weekend!

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And obviously, I want to continue working on my hand-sewn stays. I’m getting an increasing itch to do more 18th century stuff, and it would be really nice if I could actually fit things over new stays. The good news on these is that I’m now on the back-panels, which are both the last ones, and the one with the least boning in them. So the end of sewing channels is actually in sight!

I’ve also been thinking of making a vest to go with my split skirt. I’ve already got the fabric and pattern for that, so it would be a really nice venture into tailoring.

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The final thing I’ve got plans for is slightly different, as I’ll be making my sister-in-law to be’s wedding dress! I’ve already started on it, as I wanted to make sure I’d have plenty of time to work on this. It’s a little different from what I usually do, but I’m very excited to work on it. It gives me the opportunity to work with different fabric and use new techniques, which is really exciting.

So, as you can see, I don’t have a lot of full-outfit plans yet! I’m taking this slight ‘lag’ in event-sewing as an opportunity to not plan quite so far ahead. And to do first whatever strikes my fancy first. I have plenty of long-term projects, a lot of which I actually have fabric for already. So some of that list might finally happen! Below are some inspirations of things that are floating in my mind somewhere.

Early 1850s Mourning perhaps? I have some lovely thin black cotton which would work well.

I also have white silk and black lace, which I want to make into a late 1850s ballgown. Though I’d have to check whether I have enough lace for this precise design, I do love it.

Of course, I’ve also still got green wool for an 1830’s coat

Or, if I’m in a mood for bustles, I’ve got the perfect checkered silk for this outfit on the left?

And, if I finish my stays, I can perhaps even finally start on that chemise gown I have the perfect fabric for….

Of course, a lack of events is also a chance to sew on a whim a little bit more, so we’ll see which of these actually happens. But it’s fun to cream of all the pretty things!

2020 – Looking back

I make one of these posts every year, looking back at my plans at the beginning of the year, and what I actually did. Obviously, the big difference with other years is that all of the events I planned to sew for were cancelled this year. Despite that, I did actually end up making quite a bit from my list. I couldn’t wear the outfits to events, but I did dress up and make pictures, and I now have some nice additions for my wardrobe when events can happen again.

My plans started with the 1890’s, wanting to finish my new corset, make a blue petticoat, and then a green/black silk ball gown.

I actually did all of these, although I think I never even showed the finished corset? I’m wearing it in the top two pictures, it matches nicely with my petticoat!

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For the day time, I planned to either re-make my Edwardian corset and tartan skirt to fit better, or to make a split skirt to go with a (modern, but fits the shape) sports sweater.

In the end, I did both. I enlarged the hips on my Edwardian corset, and added some gussets to my tartan skirt to fit my rib-cage. They aren’t the prettiest fixes, but definitely worth being able to wear them again.

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I also made the split skirt, and later in the year added a sport’s blouse for a more summery version of the sport’s outfit. (Even though I haven’t actually worn the sport’s blouse with the split skirt yet…)

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For the second half of the year, my plan was mostly to focus on the 1830’s, again for an event. I wanted to make a new dress, and then a white bodice for mix-matching and a hat, and maybe a coat.

In the end, I finished the dress, and started on the hat, which got done right after the new year. Because any urgency of an event was off, the blouse and coat never happened. I’d still like to make both, though.

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The final plan I wrote down was to work on my 1780’s hand-sewn stays. I did work on them, though they didn’t progress quite as much as I’d hoped, and I’m still sewing boning channels. These are definitely a slow but steady type of project!

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I did also make a number of things which weren’t planned. In April, American Duchess released a pattern for a lovely wrap cape, which I couldn’t resist making up.

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In May and June, I went on a bit of a Regency sewing spree. (At that point, I still had some hopes for a Regency weekend in November…). I made new stays, which fit me quite a bit better than my old ones, made two dresses, and altered two spencers and a dress to fit better again.

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Over the summer, I picked up an old project, for which I’d only done the drafting, and made my folded jacket.

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And finally, after finishing the 1830’s dress I made a stripey bustle gown. This really was a palate-cleanser type of project, using cotton and poly taffeta, and making the design such that I could use patterns without any adaptation. That made the whole process much quicker, and it is such a fun dress to wear!

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For the final months of the year, I took a step away from the big historical projects, and just worked on my bonnet and some unfinished stuff. The main thing I finished was a modern dress made from a fun panel fabric (adapted from “IJsvermaak bij een stad”, painted by Avercamp ca 1620). This project had been in the ufo basket since I had to change plans due to too little fabric. It isn’t the prettiest thing I’ve ever made sewing wise (and reminded me I don’t know enough about sewing knits…), but I’m glad it’s done, and it does look nice when worn!

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A new hat to start the new year

Happy 2021 everyone! With the new year, it’s time for the looking back & looking forward posts, but I thought I’d start with my first finished project for 2021. A new hat!

I started this 1830s bonnet after finishing my 1830s dress, which I took pictures of with my Regency bonnet. The styles are similar enough to work, but hats did grow a bit more in the 1830s to match the wider skirts and bigger sleeves. For my bonnet, I wanted something that’d work with both my green and my gold dress, and I settled on a white/brown combination of fabrics.

And, I actually used a pattern! That was quite helpful, as bonnets are complicated. Mine was the Romantic period bonnet pattern by Lynn McMasters.

My main inspiration for the trim and look was this bonnet from Costumes Parisiens (1834)

I found some ribbon which was perfect for the style, and set off to work. That took a while, as I don’t particularly enjoy making hats, so I worked on it on and off since October. I made the frame, wired it, mulled it, and covered it, and these last past days I stitched on the trim to finish it.

My bear kindly tried it on for me before I covered it

So now it’s done, which means I have a full 1830s outfit to wear to outside events as well. Hopefully I’ll be able to take these out on a picnic sometime this year!

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Back to the 1830s

At the beginning of the year, when I was roughly planning out projects, I decided to work on 1830’s things after the big 1895 project was done. The main reason was a romantic (so, 1830s) weekend in the UK I was hoping to go to. Of course, that weekend got cancelled, but I decided to just go ahead with my plans. My main inspiration was this dress from the Concord museum:

Satin Dress, 1834-6. Concord Museum. Worn by Harriet Tufts Russell of Arlington to the inaugural ball of Martin van Buren in 1837

I really love the bodice treatment in particular. You see a lot of pleats in 1830’s bodices, but I’d never seen this particular style which creates a diamond shape in the middle. I’ve since looked at fashion plates for something similar, but it seems to have been a fairly unique design.

While I was working on the base of the bodice, I also found a photo of the back. I’d only seen exhibition pictures up to that point, all taken from the front as the back was to a wall. But the museum actually posted the back view on their Instagram, which was super useful! It has this fun little ‘cape’ going around the back, which I never would have seen otherwise.

Satin Dress, 1834-6. Concord Museum. Worn by Harriet Tufts Russell of Arlington to the inaugural ball of Martin van Buren in 1837

I started this project in June, and first up was patterning. I wanted to achieve a couple of things with this. First, was to use padding and really strive for the very ‘wide’ off the shoulder silhouette. The second was to pattern everything before I started cutting, including all the pleats. That was mostly because my fabric was only 80cm wide, and even with 8m of it, it was going to be a bit tight.

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  The pattern pieces

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  They just fitted. That little space at the bottom is for piping strips.

The pattern gave me some trouble this time, and it took a while to get everything fitting like I wanted to. A big shout-out to the Foundations Revealed community here for helping me out. But, eventually, I got there, and had all the pattern pieces in place!

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  1. The main problem was the gaping at the neckline.

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  2. Trying out fixes. Either put in a dart, or lower the arm strap? The solution was a combination of both.

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  3. The top dart got rotated out in the end. This shows the placement of the padding (red outline) and where the neckline should be (blue top line)

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  4. Patterning the pleats!

I opted to use my silk only where visible. So there’s no silk underneath the pleats on the front, nor at the top back which is hidden by the cape. The sleeves had to be pieced, as my fabric wasn’t wide enough otherwise. That’s exactly what they also did in the period due to similarly small widths, so I am actually quite pleased with that.

The blue line is where the join in the sleeve is. The sleeve is cut on the bias, so this blue line runs along the fabric edge. The little red lines show the width of my fabric.

I started sewing with the skirt, which is fairly simple, just rectangles. The front is pleated with knife pleats, the back is cartridge pleated. The whole skirt is lined, as the silk is rather flimsy on it’s own.

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  Preparing the cartridge pleats

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  The final pleats

Skirt done, it was time to start on the bodice! I only cut those parts that would be visible out of the silk, so the front base is entirely out of cotton, and so is the top of the back. The side panel of the silk actually extends to the front to end where the pleats begin, and the center front ‘diamond’ is a square of silk whose edges are hidden by the pleated panels.

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  The front. All the light green parts will be covered by the pleated strips.

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  The top of the back is hidden by the little cape

The pleats are stitched down strategically in places by hand, just taking small bits of the silk under a pleat to make sure the attachment wouldn’t be visible.

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  Pinning on the pleats

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  The pleats sewn down

After the pleats were stitched down, I could add the padding. I’d already made the shapes out of thick flannel layers to fit my bodice pattern over. They were pinned in, and covered by a layer of cotton which I stitched around by hand.

This is the final inside, showing the padding. There is a bit over the bust, but the bulk is above and to the outside to give the smooth round and wide shape

Then came the sleeves. There’s a join in the silk, and the sleeves are again fully lined to give a bit more structure. There was a lot of gathering involved! I tried to get as much volume as possible towards the back, but in the end it’s pretty evenly gathered as tightly as possible all the way around to make it fit. I finished the slits in the sleeves first, by simply laying the lining to the silk right sides together and turning inside out. This gives a neat finish to the edge.

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  The best part about 1830s sleeves is that they’re symmetrical, so you can’t set them in on the wrong side!

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  Finishing the sleeve edge

The cape was piped with double piping, which was quite fiddly as it needed to go around all the points. I decided not to line the cape, as I was afraid the lighter cotton would show too much, and I didn’t have enough silk left to fully line them with that. So the piping around the edge is stitched down as small as possible to not show too much on the right side. The cape was stitched onto the neckline first, which was then finished by a row of single piping, with a slightly larger cord. It’s actually important to finish the necklines of these gowns with something non-stretchy, as you don’t want an off-shoulder gown to stretch and slip off.

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  Cutting the strips for the piping

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  The double piping is made by stitching a cord into both sides of the strip, folding it double and stitching the cords close together

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  One side of the cape pinned in place

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  The finished piping aroun the corners. This was definitely the most fiddly bit!

Final touches were the waistband, boning, and the hooks and bars. The back was finished the same way as my friend Nikki shows in her wonderful video here.

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  Hooks

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  The finished top

As a quick wrap-up, I made myself some sleeve plumbers from the AD pattern here. These are quite important for keeping the dress in shape, though I think I want to experiment a bit more on how to attach them best to the dress.

And then she was done! This project took some time, mostly as I took long stretches off to wrap my head around what to do next. With the bodice taking a number of drafts, and the layers of silk and cotton and pleating in the bodice all needing some figuring out, it took more brainpower than I had most evenings after work. I’m really happy with how it turned out though, and can’t wait to wear it out when it’s possible to have events again.

Meanwhile, I took it for a brief spin during our holidays near the forest, to get some pictures! I took my antique pelerine and Regency bonnet as accessories, because I’m still working on an 1830’s bonnet. It’s not quite big enough, but has an okay shape.

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The pelerine is very pleasant for covering your shoulders, but also effectively hides the most interesting part of the dress: the bodice pleats. So I also took some pictures without.

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A folded jacket from Zeeland

This post is about my latest project, which is a folded jacket in the style of Walcheren, in Zeeland. The most fun part of this traditional jacket is that it’s cut in 1 piece, and sewn into shape using clever folds and darts. The only seam is the underarm one, connecting the front to back under the sleeves. It’s such an interesting style, so it deserves some background info as well!

My finished jacket. The belt is ‘vintage’ style, but works quite well. The front is a little simple, as these jackets were normally worn with an apron on top, so the belt sets off the waistline nicely.

 

This is an original one, similar to mine:

Jacket from Walcheren, ca. 1900. Yes, this is cut out of one piece of fabric! (lining and outer fabric each, of course). Nederlands Openluchtmuseum

 

Zeeland is a province in the south-west of the Netherlands, with a number of large islands, and strong connections with traditional dress. Although current traditional dress in Zeeland knows many variations, they have all evolved from similar clothing between the 18th century and now.

Red is Zeeland

 

I own two books specifically about this costume. While the first book describes costume in general, including the societal and social connotations, this second book is about making it, focusing on pattern drafting. It’s actually one of the first books on traditional costume aimed at recreation, which I think is great as so much knowledge like this is disappearing. Today we still often wear older originals when showing traditional Dutch dress, but at some point you want to stop wearing antique clothing. Yet it often takes a lot of skill to properly recreate garments, so a book full of information on this is great.

This is the book!

 

The book includes information on how to draft you own pattern blocks, and how to use those to draft patterns for the traditional garments. It includes patterns for late 18th century stuff up to today, covering the whole range of different costumes in Zeeland today.

The most interesting chapter to me was the one on folded jackets. During the 19th and 20th century, two types of jackets were worn in Zeeland. The type that was cut in 1 piece and folded into shape, and a version which has cut pattern pieces. From the outside, they can actually look very similar, but construction is quite different.

These two jackets are both from Zuid-Beveland, the middle island in Zeeland. (I suspect both are from ca. 1950). The left is cut, and is from the east part. The right jacket is from Middelburg in Walcheren (the west part),  and is folded. The shape is quite similar, but they’re patterned and sewn up very differently.

 

In the book they differentiates between the two by calling the folded jackets ‘jak’ (jacket), and the cut ones ‘mantel’, or ‘mankel’ (current day translation would be cape, but in those days it was used for jackets). I don’t know if historically, this terminology was as strict, or if the terms were used interchangeably. Today, most museums just call the ‘mankel’ a jacket too, probably also because that word isn’t in use anymore.

The folded jackets were worn in multiple areas of Zeeland during the 19th century, but over time they were replaced by ‘modern’ dress in some areas, by cut jackets in others, and today they only survive in Walcheren (the western half of the middle island on the map above). As in all places, the costume is dying out, and hasn’t changed much since the 1950’s.

The full costume from Walcheren ca. 1950. The jacket is black, and over the years the neckline has dropped very low, giving room to show off the beuk (type of partlet) underneath.

 

The book describes extant jackets from ca. 1800 to today, and it’s interesting to see how many things have stayed the same during this period. The length of the peplum, height of the neckline, length of the sleeves and fabric choice all changed with fashion. Basic construction stayed much the same though! I don’t know how/when this folding originated, but I think it’s rather fascinating that such an old technique survived. It’s great for saving fabric, as you don’t cut away much, so if you change size you just unpick all the darts and fit it to the body again!

A folded jacket from Walcheren, I suspect from ca. 1800 (the book has a pattern from a similar jacket from this period. Especially the farmer society in Zeeland never really adopted the empire style, and kept wearing jackets and full skirts in the older style).

 

The jacket above is one of the earlier examples of a folded jacket (early 19th century). Compared to the black one above (I suspect a mid-20th century version), it has longer sleeves, a longer peplum, brightly colored fabric, a higher neckline and flaps to close center front. The folding pattern is pretty much the same though!

There are a couple of things you can directly trace back to 18th century fashion. The robings on this 18th century style have basically become ‘princess-seam’ like folds in the later styles that have a closed center front. The cuffs of the sleeves were cut separate originally because of the narrower fabric width, and some later styles kept this as a stylistic choice. And the little piece which finishes of the center back neckline still survives even after construction changed a bit and it’s functional use disappeared. On this little piece, seamstresses would sometimes leave a stitching pattern which was basically their signature, so you could see who made which jacket!

Girl’s jacket from ca. 1950. The little piece at the bottom of the back neckline shows the seamstresses ‘signature’ stitching. (Another fun note, around this time the jackets had a small ‘kerchief’ stitched into the jacket, the little white bit you see, another souvenir from the 18th century).

 

Of course, as the book offered instructions on how to make such a jacket, I wanted to make one! It gives instructions for both the earlier style with longer peplum and front-flap closure, and the shorter later style. I went for the second one, but made sure the neckline would be high enough to wear it without something underneath (the 1950’s version is the latest, and basically closes under the bust, so that was a no-go). The style of mine is now very similar to the style you see in the mid-19th century. I actually made up the pattern over 2 years ago when the book came out, but on a recent trip to Zeeland finally got inspired again to actually make the thing. And I picked up fabric there, which felt appropriate!

My jacket is made out of ‘Zeeuws Bont’, which is probably the only fabric which is typically found only in Zeeland. Jackets were made in printed cotton, silk, wool, and later velvet. Never in this Zeeuws bont though, which is cotton with a woven pattern. This fabric was used for aprons specifically (they also call it ‘schortebond’ for that reason). But because it’s so recognizable as being from Zeeland, and my jacket itself will probably not be recognizable to anyone but the real specialists from the cut alone, I figured it’d be a nice choice. I lined my jacket with thin black cotton from my stash.

This is the fabric I got. I bought it in Middelburg at La Vaca, who don’t have an online shop. But this shop sells it as well.

 

This pattern shows the lining fabric cut out on the fold (on the left side). The chalk lines indicate the placement of all the folds!

 

Making this was actually quite quick (after I made 2 mock-ups…). The lining & outer fabric are treated as one, and the folds are folded and stitched in, and the side/underarm seam is sewn. By this point, it has it’s shape!

 

After that it’s mostly finishing edges. I hemmed the sleeves by just folding them over and whipping them down, but the neckline and bottom edge I bound with bias tape. The fabric frays quite a bit, and this gives a clean finish. Originals often had the edges folded in on each-other as well.

 

The final touch was the maker’s mark! I did this with a little piece of wool. I like the little touch of black contrast, and the wool doesn’t fray, which means the edges don’t need to be folded under (that part’s just laziness…)

 

And that was it! I’m quite pleased with how wearable this came out, as it was also mostly an experiment with this style. Pairing it with a belt really helps to make it fit with ‘modern’ clothes, and gives it an almost 1950’s style. That makes sense, as the shape is mostly Victorian (and the 1950’s were absolutely a revival of Victorian shapes), and didn’t change much over the centuries. A good piece for historybounding!

1890s sports blouse

It’s been almost a month since my last post! August flew by, I was busy first with work and then with taking some time off. I did, however, finish a small(ish) project!

Shari from La Rose Passementarie has been hosting some sew-alongs, to get people motivated to start projects which might not have an event. This month, the theme was ‘1890s shirtwaists’. I didn’t have this on my direct project list, but I did have a pattern. And I sort of want to make a vest with the leftover fabric from my bicycle skirt, which means I also need a blouse to wear it with. That was enough motivation to get me started.

I used the Black Snail sport blouse pattern. I chose a simple off-white cotton for the blouse + collar. This will be a fairly functional blouse, and this way it’ll fit with almost anything.

 

 

It is a fairly straightforward blouse, with the tricky bits being the collar and sleeve split+cuffs. I definitely needed to read the pattern a couple of times, and it helped to see the collar construction in this blog. It’s technically a different Black snail blouse, but the collar pattern is the same. If you’ve made 2 piece collars before it might be easier, but those bits would make me hesitant to recommend the pattern to real beginners.

The only thing I changed was to hand-fell the seams, instead of doing that by machine.

 

I really like how this came out. For a next version, I might move the sleeves a little bit, as 1890s sleeves are fairly high up on the shoulder. But I am quite happy with the shape, it’s actually quite a flattering shape even if it’s not tucked into a skirt.

 

Shortly after I finished the blouse, we actually had our first event since January, a Victorian (distanced) picnic. I took that opportunity to wear the blouse with my 1890’s petticoat/skirt, and that combination worked quite well! These pictures are by Martijn van Huffelen: