Edwardian Picnics

A few Saturdays from now, our Ladies' Historical Tea Society will gather at White Hall, home of Cassius Clay, for an Edwardian-inspired picnic. It's for this event that I've been laboring over the lingerie dress, for which I made two skirts for other tea members, and helped a third with hers. To put us all in the mood for the picnic, I thought to gather a series of photos of people of the day lolling, or sitting politely, as the occasion demanded, at picnics and outdoor events of their own. The pictures are such fun to look at; I hope they draw you in as much as they did me! Many of these images are from a series of mostly outdoor photographs, taken in England, and collected by someone with the online name of Lovedaylemon and posted on Flickr. Here is an informal picnic of 1910 or after, as judged by the women's straight-silhouetted dresses and lower necklines. As described by Lovedaylemon on Flickr, this was "a relaxed picnic with cups of tea, sandwiches, fairy cakes and a substantal fruit cake. " You can see a bridge in the background. Larger version Here is a garden party of around the same period. It's a more formal occasion and may be cooler out...hence the women are wearing suits and hats. From Lovedaylemon on Flickr. Larger version These folks are having tea out in a fenced field. Lovedaylemon doesn't know if the tent is for sleeping or just shelter, but I would vote for the latter. The ladies hats are quite nice, and it seems a bit nippy out, as some women are in jacketed suits. Larger version Lovedaylemon titled this photo "Having tea by the sea". Our sitters must have been at a nice spot indeed, for they are very fashionably dressed, their hats ostrich-plumed, the lady on the right in a suit with lovely necklace, the lady on the left in an Empire-styled, high-waisted and very form-fitting dress. This photo would have been 1909-1912 or so judging by the styling. Larger version By contrast, these young people, who had their photo taken and turned into a postcard on August 3, 1906, were of a less fashionable bent. Do read the postcard on Flickr; it's really neat. In 1906, women's dress was still pigeon-breasted and pouchy in the bodice, and separate lingerie blouse and skirt combinations were very popular. Only one lady here wears a matched bodice and skirt. Hats are smaller, and here, at this seaside resort and worn by less fashionable people, are less bedecked. However, the ladies wear their white gloves (note the three lines of stitching atop the gloves of the lady on the left). Larger version Young people picnic in a rocky field, their table a big boulder. What a nice spread they have: a layered spongecake, something in a bowl, tea in pretty cups. This is probably before 1910, as some of the girls wear jumpers over their blouses, and the blouses are quite blousy and high-necked; some wear menswear-inspired shirtwaist blouses. Larger version This photo was in an album marked 1905 and was taken in South Africa. How dry the woods seem, but how comfortable the company. The pancake-like, tipped-up-high hats are neat, and all the women wear white blouses. By ookami-dou, on Flickr. Larger version This is a favorite photo. I would guess the family is washing their picnic dishes at a large lake or very rapid stream, judging from the little waves lapping the shingled shoreline. Whoever took the picture must have been on a dock or in a boat, or perhaps wading! It is such a happy scene, and the relaxed attitudes of those in the picture radiate peace. I'd date the photo after 1897 and before 1908, based on the pompadour hairstyles, the narrow-hipped, many-paneled and wide sweeping skirts, and the high necklines. Fullish sleeves were popular on and off through the first decade. Original posted by Otisourcat on Flickr. 

Edwardian "Lingerie" Dress Diary, Part 6: Referencing an Antique Dress in My Collection

Last I wrote about this project, I had attached the sleeves to the lingerie dress bodice and had added cuffs of antique whitework lace. 

The next step was to attach the bodice and the skirt together. By 1909 or so, from what I understand, dresses were beginning to be constructed with interior belting to which bodice and skirt were sewn. This belting could be in many widths, and often the bodice and skirt were merely tacked to it; the wearer added a sash to conceal the join. 

While the use of belting seems strange at first, it makes a lot of sense to me now because so many dresses and gowns were made of diaphanous or fragile fabrics that would have pulled or even torn had bodice and skirt been sewn to each other directly. The belting, made of stronger material, took the strain.

I've learned a lot about belting - how it was used, where to get it - while constructing a wool Beatrix skirt in 2008; you can get the details there. (By the way, thanks again to everyone on Sense and Sensibility: you all helped me understand belting so much better!) 

Today we can use petersham ribbon for the belting. However, as you will see in a bit, you might consider using a muslin band for some garments. To all appearances, this is what an original dress in my collection used. I used petersham. It doesn't come in as many widths as did the original belting, but because it is woven with picots at each edge, it can be shaped and curved to the body, unlike regular ribbon. Judith M Hats and Millinery Supplies carries it. 

Preparing Bodice and Skirt for Joining...an Unexpected Problem 

Before I started the joining work, I tried on the bodice and skirt for fit, with the help of my friend Jane. Yarggghh! The bodice was so large, and the skirt waist, too! It took a moment to realize what had happened. When I started the dress in March 2008 -- yes, more than a year ago -- I was still carrying baby weight. During the fitting I learned I'd lost some two inches at the waist and above! Happy me, sad me. Nice to be smaller, sad to see yet another obstacle to finishing this dress. Jane took two pleats at the back panels of the skirt and basted them in with red thread; you may see them in pictures below if you look carefully. Then we marked the bodice too, and I unpicked the French seams, redrew the fitting lines, and redid the seams. Resewing the seams meant that I had to remove the trim so carefully applied to the waistline. Growl. I should have waited until the bodice and skirt were joined anyway, before adding it to begin with. 

Fitting the Skirt to the Interior Belting

What follows is a visual essay in the art of fitting a full-length, heavy linen skirt to petersham belting. Essay it is, too. An essay is by definition a try, and this is a try at getting it right. As always, please click on the images to get a larger version. 

Examining Construction Using a Period Lingerie Dress

For how-to help, I turned to a period lingerie dress made, I think, of lightest batiste, which I bought last fall for a song...it's so damaged it cannot be worn but it's a pretty piece nonetheless and perfect for study. Please note that I did not take the original apart, so at one or two points I am guessing at construction, yet I think I have it pretty close. So, here we go. 

The above is an original white lingerie dress made of what looks like batiste or lawn, trimmed with wide lace panels. It's about 49 inches long and very small in the waist, and may have belonged to a teenager. It is damaged: a portion of the right sleeve is missing, part of the front has come unsewn, and it has several period darns. I am giving it a wide date range of 1910-1920, because I am having trouble dating it. It features the lower neckline of 1910 and after, and the shoulder bretelles so fashionable in the early 1910s, and the wide lace horizontal skirt trim of that date, too, but if it were made for an adult by chance, it would have to date later since it is not full length. Any help in dating it would be greatly appreciated!

The shoulder bretelles are hard to make out here: the lace panels (two widths of lace carefully stitched together) were originally gathered and tacked, none too neatly, at the waistline. Here above is the dress with the bretelles gathered into what would have been their original position. The shot above shows the back closure of the dress, with the bretelles casually tacked into place. Again, a sash would have been worn to cover up all this mess. 

A few years ago I would have said that someone with few skills had altered the dress, but having seen a number of garments online made the same way, I know now that this was just how it could be done. Here above is the interior of the dress, showing the belt in the position it would have been worn. The skirt fabric is folded over the top of the belt, with about 3/4" on the front of the belt, and the rest hanging down behind, and sewed down. The dress bodice is gathered, laid over the belt, and tacked down. The bodice fabric covers the portion of the skirt fabric that is sewn to the belt...you would hardly know it is there. 

Note: Just below the belting and just to right center of the photo, you can see a period darn made to the skirt fabric. This is one of several darns. The dress must have been well-loved: the worn or ripped spot would have been right on the front of the dress. 

   

Here above is the interior of the dress, with the belt flipped upwards. As usual, if you click on the image you will get a larger version. There is what appears to be a doubled band of batiste covering the belting, sewn down with giant basting stitches. I am not sure of its purpose. I have folded down a portion of this fabric covering the belting so you can see the belting itself. The belting appears to be a doubled piece of muslin, not a commercial belting or tape. It is very lightweight, very thin, of a loose weave. 

This is important. Texts I have read refer to using purchased belting, but here is a dress with what seems to be plain muslin belting. Certainly with a dress as lightweight as this one (it is nearly sheer and weightless), you wouldn't need something heavy to attach the dress to, just something stronger than the extra-thin dress fabric. Therefore, if you are designing a lightweight lingerie dress, making your own muslin belt may be an option. How I translated this apparent construction method in my dress is covered next. 

Attaching the Lingerie Skirt to the Belting 

First, I determined the relative height of the belting on the completed dress. I needed to try on the bodice and the skirt to do this. Sadly, I do not have an image. Then, as shown in the photo above, I set the skirt on my dress form up higher than it is supposed to sit...higher by the width of the belting. (When worn, I hope that the dress will sit about 1 inch above the natural waistline.) Leaving the skirt on the dress form, I traced a chalk line along the top of the skirt right on the dress form, and then removed the skirt from the form. In the photo above, I've finished making the chalk line, and have pulled the skirt down a bit. The lower of the two chalk lines marks where the skirt was set. 

I've looked at a number of original bodices and dresses, either in person or online, and have noted that the skirt back is usually a little higher than the front. That straight-fronted corset, which was beginning to go out in 1909, still had an effect on the set of the skirt. Therefore, I redrew the chalk line so that the back angled up a bit. In the photo above, that's the upper of the chalk lines. The higher set of the skirt in back, will, I hope keep the dress line from looking draggy when the dress is worn. Here above is a little side-trip...our kitty Ladybug, interested in the goings-on!

   

Then, as shown in the image above, I pinned the belting to the dress form, setting the top of the belt along the chalk line. After the skirt is attached to the belt, the belt will be folded down. That means that the waistline will still be above the natural waist by about one inch.  

After this I pulled the skirt, right side out, onto the dress form and over the belting, lining up the top of the skirt with the top of the belting. I pinned the skirt to the belting, and then basted the skirt to the belting, with good strong basting stitches. It helped to hold one hand under the skirt and belting to get the needle through both skirt and belting without sewing through the dress form cover, too! You can see the work in the photo above. 

I made sure that I pinned and sewed the ends of the belting carefully to the placket opening. I could have put the belting at the height I wanted it to sit, then have drawn the skirt up from behind the belt, folded it over the top to the front of the belt, and then pinned and basted it. Yet can you imagine trying to unpin a bit of belting from the dress form, tug up a length of heavy skirt fabric under the belt, fold it on top of the belt, pin it there, and then pin the belting back to the dress form, without letting either belt or skirt slip? I am not that talented. 

So I did it my way... After the skirt was securely basted to the belting, I removed all pins, and stitched the belting to the skirt about 1/4" from the top of the belting. Then I trimmed off the skirt fabric below the stitching. The lingerie dress I have appears to be done this way, and certainly it means one less layer of fabric at a key portion of your midsection.

   

The last picture, above, shows the back closure of the skirt. The skirt is right side out. Part of the belting has been folded down to the inside of the skirt, in the position it will sit when worn! Voila, skirt attached! The next step will be to turn the skirt inside out and to tack the bodice to the belting. I will leave that for the next post...since I have to actually do it.

Baby Pants Repair...on the Baby

One day last week Christopher sat on the deck.

Not a very extraordinary event in itself. However, he couldn't seem to get up.

I didn't think that extraordinary, either, since he is not quite two years old, after all, until I heard a faint ripping sound. And he stood up.

It dawned on me: the boy sat on a splinter or nail pop and now his pants are torn. Empirical experiment proving that true, I fetched scissors, needle and thread, put the boy over my knee, and mended the rear of his pants on the spot.

He was quite comfortable and when asked, chose not to get up for a little.

It seems he likes being repaired.

Antique Garments, Photographed

Multiple photographs of an antique garment that detail the garment's design, construction and interior are precious to costumers. There aren't so many quality good sources out there (more on that in a moment). That's why, whenever a new source pops up, it's cause for celebration.

Stormi Sourter, of Why Not Then, a newish costuming site, plans to photograph her entire collection of antique clothing, and she already has quite a selection up in the Original Garments section. Each set of photographs comes with garment measurements and construction notes, too. What a boon; thank you!

Photo: detail of the interior of the back closure of a circa 1850s plaid bodice

Other Antique Garment Photo Sources

As I mentioned, quality photos -- more than one two per garment, clearly shot and close up -- aren't over-plentiful. The Victoria and Albert Museum has reissued its Costume in Detail volumes, Linda Baumgartner's Costume Close Up covers a set of 18th century garments in magnificent detail, and Your Wardrobe Unlock'd, an online magazine (subscription only), is currently offering several super articles on 1860s' era clothing as part of its Single Pattern Project. Elizabeth Stewart Clark's forum has many threads that deal with the minutae of mid-century clothing construction, but be aware that one must search carefully for threads with photos. By the way, it was on that forum that I learned of Why Not Then. The Fashion Plate and Photo Resources section of this blog catalogs as many online sources as I've been able to discover.

Two Slices of Life, Please, with Lots of Love

One warm April afternoon, under the sprinkler...



There was a little snortle in there, as Mom talked of watering the wilac bush.

One cool May afternoon, with the frisbee...



That's the band Travis playing in the background. I was folding laundry and watching the play going on in the garden, when the song came on, and the song fit the play and the mood.

Yogurt in Springtime

One of the first warm weeks and the twins have begged to be outside as much as possible. Last evening Noah wanted to eat yogurt outside of his high chair and we acquiesced, on condition that he and his brother eat it outdoors.

Photo: Trying out the yogurt. Oh Christopher, your dirty little feet! Thank goodness Noah's are hidden.

They were neater about it than expected, and hardly needed the tea towel napkins we placed on their laps. Noah says, "I like Daddy-size spoonfuls!" Or would if he could say more than "milk" and "please" and "ball" :} And in fact, both insist on using regular utensils, baby spoons being for babies, you see. They are little men.

Sigh.



Photo: Noah shows he is big enough for his spoon. Let's
inspect his feet. Mmm, cleaner than Christopher's. Mr. C.,
what on earth did you get into that your brother, oh miracle,
did not?

Court Pomp: Court Dress in Europe 1650-1800 -- An Exhibition at Versailles

Who would like to purchase a plane ticket with me to fly to Paris and to travel out to Versailles to see the superb exhibition of court dress now on display?

Oh, we can dream, anyhow.

Meanwhile, the museum has thoughtfully posted a superb exhibition website, with pictures of some of the artifacts, from jeweled necklaces worn by court ladies, gowns with panniers so wide they'd never go through any of our modern doorways, and embroidery-encrusted men's coats. The pieces come from all over Europe, and to see them gathered together must be almost overwhelming, especially when set against the backdrop of Versailles rooms, overwhelming in themselves!

Photo: the exhibition homepage, or part of it. It moves...

The site is in French and English (look in the upper right corner of the screen to choose your language). "The Exhibition" section includes lots of information about the exhibition rooms and how the event was set up. "The Works" is a slideshow of items. Use the right and left arrows to move the images around (sometimes it starts at the end of the show, and you have to use the left arrow...) and click on an image to read more about the object shown.

Photo: Court dress worn by Sophie Madeleine of Sweden (1746-1813) for her coronation: bodice, skirt, and skirt tail.

Fair warning: the website uses lots of Flash and sometimes gets stuck. If it sticks on your machine, unstick it by heading to the homepage and then start over.

Visit Court Pomp: Court Dress in Europe 1650-1800 -- An Exhibition at Versailles >>

Springtime and a Christening in Atlanta

On a chilly spring Sunday morning my little nephew Tommy was christened in Atlanta. He was quite sunny about it, what with smiling family and church members all about him. After the happy event we all trooped back to his house for an indoor picnic. Who cares if the air smelled like snow? The boys still wanted to run about the front yard in their shirtsleeves.

Our dear friend Debbie, also a professional photographer, captured the day.

Tommy is christened.

Noah points at his cousins and friends, who are running about just beyond the camera lens.

Tommy leads Noah out to play.

Christopher being Christopher.

About Hobble Skirts

Those of us who love Edwardian fashion are often curious about hobble skirts. Their cut seems so modern and so antiquely confining at the same time.

The blog Edwardian Promenade has written up a fine, brief history titled, no surprise here, The Hobble Skirt.

Photo: La Soiree Toscane: Robe d'apres-midi de Doueille. 1913. NYPL image no. 824734.

After reading the article, I made my way to a favorite research resource, The New York Times site, and entered "hobble skirt" into its search engine. Turns out, the paper and the public were fascinated by the fad, too:

"'THE HOBBLE 'IS THE LATEST FREAK IN WOMAN'S FASHIONS; Skirts Are So Tight Around the Ankle That Locomotion Is Seriously Impeded and Speed Is Impossible" read one headline on June 12, 1910.

Freakish accidents and falls soon followed:

"INJURED IN "HOBBLE" SKIRT.; Mrs. E. Van Cutzen, While Alighting from Runabout, Falls on Pavement." August 5, 1910. Mrs. Van Cutzen belonged to the fashionable set, apparently, for she fell out of her electric runabout car in front of the casino in Newport, Rhode Island. Troubles continued: "Hobble skirt caused her death" read another headline, dated September 1, 1911.

There were those writers who praised the skirts as a method of instilling grace into what the writer considered the undignified striding about of American women."Walking in Hobble Skirts", published in 1912, reads more like a polemic than anything else.

The Parisian fashion world's claim that the fashion was American, and not their own design? Read this article by a non-plussed reporter: "HOBBLE SKIRT IS AMERICAN.; So Paris Man Dressmakers Declare After It Breaks Parislenne's Leg." August 14, 1910.

Photo: "Mother, you stand like last year." 1912. NYPL image no. 817969. In this image, two willowy daughters posing in the fashionable, willowy stance tease their mother, whose posture reflects the straight-front corset of previous years, which pushed out the chest and derriere at once, creating a "walking into the wind" sort of look.

Oh, and there's much more, if you continue the search: articles about women in Washington winning a fight to get trams they can climb into without tripping; the Pennsylvania Railroad barring them; Queen Mary's war on the fashion appearing at court, hobble skirt races, an actual bill introduced to regulate the width of the skirts, claims that the fashion hurt trade, and report after report of accidents.

And then the fad faded away, like the Dolly Varden dress, and so many fads before it and since then, and the editors went on to fresh and more important news...World War I.

Are You Looking for Hobble Skirt/Titanic Era Patterns?

There are many free sources online for skirt and dress patterns of this era. Here are a few of them:

• The Ladies Tailor, Vol. XXVII. No. 3. March 1911, London. On the Costumer's Manifesto site. These patterns are for jackets.
• Edwardian patterns from The Ladies' Treasury. An overcoat, evening dress, and suit.
• Thornton's International System of Ladies' Garment Cutting 
  (London, c.1912). Excellent resource with tons of patterns. I have drafted and made a pretty two-piece skirt from this collection. To draft the patterns, print them out at the largest size you are able: you may have to enlarge the images using Photoshop or similar program. The results will be pixelated but with care you can see most all of the text. On the Costumer's Manifesto site.
• La Couturiere Parisienne, 1900s pages. Quite a few patterns, including for underclothing.
• Shelter and Clothing: a Textbook of the Household Arts. (1913). Drafts of underclothes and gored skirts. On Cornell HEARTH site.
• Text-book on domestic art, with illustrations and drafts. (1911). Lots of drafts and excellent directions. I made both a lovely petticoat and a skirt from this book. On the Cornell University HEARTH site.
• Good Housekeeping. Fashion images and if you look carefully, there may be drafts and directions, especially for accessories. On Cornell HEARTH site.
• Cornell HEARTH site. Browse the selections from the Edwardian and teens eras to find gems, reproduced in their entirety. There is more than what I have shown above!
• The Human Ecology Collection: All Sewn Up. Millinery and dressmaking books in their entirety, a few from the Edwardian era and more from the teens era. From the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Constructing 18th Century Dress: Detailed Blog

Do you want to understand how to construct 18th century clothing from the inside out? Do you want to get close-up shots of cutting, stitching, and trimming details, photographed as the garment is created? Do you want to see an entire museum exhibition in its development phase? Then you might want to visit the "Rockin' the Rococo" blog. It's an oddly bouffant, pouffant name for a seriously researched project, but it fits.

The author is keeping her blog as part of her Master of Arts and thesis work. She is constructing a series of clothes that a middle-class woman might have worn during the period between 1750 and 1770, and will build a museum exhibit around them.

To prepare for her project, she examined garments in the deeps of the Museum of London for several months. She has constructed everything from stays and a breathtaking sack dress to a riding habit. To make the project even more fascinating, she is constructing them by hand, in costume herself, by daylight or candlelight.

Photo: the Rockin' the Rococo blog author at work.

Yet let me let her speak at some length, for she writes better firsthand than I ever could secondhand:

The next part is object-based research, most of which took place over the summer during my time in England. I spent 3-5 days per week over the months of July and August in the Museum of London’s costume stores examining extant garments one after another. I spent an average of 1 hour with each garment taking notes according to a template I drew up for myself and shooting an average of 10-12 photographs of the construction details of each artifact.

The third component is this project, including the exhibition that will be on display on-campus at the University of Alberta over March and April 2009.

This reproduction project represents experiential research and data collection. In addition to reproducing garments I am also replicating certain aspects of an early modern seamstress’s working experience. The garments are made from historically appropriate materials, and constructed using equally appropriate techniques and processes.

Beyond this, I do the work all by either natural or candlelight in order to get some idea of a pre-electricity experience of time and working conditions.

[Photo: a sample of her crewel embroidery in progress in an embroidery hoop.]

I also (and I know this is going to sound a little hokey) dress up in an outfit that is somewhat appropriate for a fairly successful seamstress of the time. While planning the project, I realized that being “corseted” would be important to the experience, as nearly all women of the period wore stays under their clothing (even the very poor). I also happened to have a costume/reproduction dress on hand that I had made (just for fun!) several years ago. The pattern for this dress was taken from Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion, and so derives from an actual artifact garment. I also wear 2 cotton petticoats, a neckerchief, stockings and a pair of period reminiscent shoes (ok, they’re really pretty and I just like them). I had inteded to make a linen cap to cover my not-so-period hair, but have just never managed the time for it.

For working I sit on an uncushioned wooden kitchen chair. And at the risk of sounding….uncouth(?) I don’t bathe on my sewing days - on purpose.

I work 10-12hrs/per day, 3 or 4 days/week, and am keeping a log/journal of the specs of the project along with thoughts, impressions, and questions that arise from the experience.

Navigating the Blog

The top portion of the left navigation bar, labeled "Pages", contains blog pages devoted to each garment, and to overviews of the project and the author's background.

The "Archives" pages contain more journalesque information.

Do have at least one visit, and marvel.

Photo: detail of sack dress the Rockin' the Rococo blog author constructed.

Happy Valentine's Day!

To all mamas and daddies from their sweet little tots,
To all family and friends, from their little buddies,
With love.

Photo: Christopher at bedtime.

Small-but-Interesting Acquisitions

First, hairpins! They appear to be made of a sort of plastic, but they vary a good deal in color and pattern, which I am not used to plastic tortiseshell pieces doing. The box, labeled "Imperial", isn't much help either. I have no idea how old they are but thought them fascinating. Photo: six tortiseshell-patterned hairpins from a box of eight. Second, a length of black bauble trim! It's fun to hold, as the cord is silky and the baubles, which are shaped like tiny short cylinders, bang around in a satisfying way. Again, no idea how old this is. Photo: length of black silky bauble trim.

Designing a Dolly Varden Dress

Note: As June 2012, this project has been on hold for some years, since Regency projects intervened, but I may take it up again.

Having the proper corset ready, courtesy Originals by Kay (Kay Gnagey), and having made the proper bustle with the Truly Victorian Grand Bustle pattern (TV 108), the next step in the Dolly Varden ensemble project to design the dress.

I've been playing around with various designs and every little while have examined fashion plates and photos anew to refresh and check the design ideas. It is quite apparent that there is no one Dolly Varden design...the term was bandied about loosely. Most dresses presented a vaguely eighteenth century look, featuring a polonaise or polonaise-style overskirt and brightly colored fabrics or sometimes striped fabric. Most dresses lacked a train, but some had them. See A Brief History of the Dolly Varden Dress Craze in this blog for details.

Photo 1: A Dolly Varden dress design...not the final one.

Design Options

Two basic design options emerged.

Design Option 1

The first design, which currently pleases me most, is dominated by a poufy overskirt. Have a look at the figure on the right in photo number 2.

Photo 2: pannier overskirt designs from Peterson's, January, 1869. Image courtesy La Couturiere Parisienne.

The pattern would be a variation of one published in January, 1869 and titled Pannier Overskirt, featuring a split front with a nice little updrawing just to either side of the hips, recalling panniers, and much poufing in the back.

The overskirt would be trimmed with bows. Bows highlighting updrawn side panels were popular in 1872, says Cunnington's English Women's Clothing in the Nineteenth Century. Again, following Cunnington, the back of the overskirt would be covered by a large bow with short tails, the bow attached to a belt.

The pattern published with the plate is actually for the figure on the left. Here are the original instructions (thanks to Couturiere Parisienne, again):

... made of claret cashmere, and trimmed with frills of the same and satin piping to match.
The tablier front is to be cut double, and without a seam down the center; a notch will be
found o one side of it, and a corresponding notch on one side of the rounded side breadth,
showing how these two pieces are to be joined together. The back breadth and side breadth
are joined by the corresponding notches. Both sides of the panier are alike; when the
breadths are all joined, the edge of the side breadth is to be laid in plaits from notch
to notch; there are in all five plaits... and a satin rosette added at the side where the
first (top) two plaits are arranged. A crinoline bustle should always be worn beneath this
kind of skirt.

Yet I can alter the panel to make the figure on the right! Take the front panel and split it down the center, and then extend the side panels across the back. Examine the two figures and you can see that this can be done, yes? Here's how I'd toile it, anyway:

• The side piece has tucks taken in it and then is seamed into the front piece, which itself is flat-ish. You can see this is true in both pictures.
• On the figure on the right, the front, instead of being doubled, is cut as is.
• The front piece appears to have just a little tuck made in it, too, so that it's drawn up a wee bit before it joins the side piece. This makes for a pretty drape as well as a tiny wrinkle, which the artist has rendered below the rosette.
• The placement of the rosette at the seamline on both figures I bet highlights the related nature of both costume designs.
• Otherwise, there is no real difference in the overskirt designs.

Google has placed the 1869 Peterson's volume online, so the pannier overskirt pattern is available. See page 77.

The underskirt in the pictured design is lovely but doesn't really suit the floofiness of many Dolly Varden originals: it's too severe. Therefore, I would probably include headered puffings with bias band trims (see the second design option below), which were so popular during the period.
I also like the way the bodice in the right-most figure is treated, although by 1872 the waistline had fallen a bit. It's rather clever: the bodice lines form a vee shape, reflected in the upside-down vee shape of the overskirt. Also, can you see the reference to an 18th century neckerchief in the wide falling bodice collar? I can. With some care, I could I would probably try to alter a Truly Victorian pattern to make the bodice. If I chickened out? Just change the bodice design to the ubiquitous square-necked design offered by Truly Victorian (TV 400).


For fabric, bodice and overskirt would be made in a an eighteenth century-ish beflowered pattern, while the underskirt and trimmings would appear in a plain French blue. Since a Dolly Varden dress is usually meant to be simple and informal, I am doing a first version in an inexpensive cotton waiting in the stash, flat-lined in more cotton to give it more body. I know that it will likely not give the drape that the original wool would give it.After all, wool drapes crazily beautifully, or a crisp silk, which drapes ditto, only crisperly, would do that too. I can only hope that making it up that with the cotton won't be depressing. Grrr.

Design Option 2
The second design of interest is more my own, and includes elements common generally that year, with only the fabric and the slightly bell sleeves with eighteenth-century style sleeve flouncing to mark it specifically as a Dolly Varden design. Have a look at photo number 1. Frankly, it's probably better for the cotton I have, being simpler and less reliant on drape, darn it. It would also look super in a flowered lawn or voile.

In this version, the bodice is a basic square-necked look(again, TV 400), trimmed at neck edge with a tiny tightly gathered lace or voile frill. The overskirt is the common apron-front design, gathered up at the sides and then falling in a fluffy, polonaise-y pouf in back. Both bodice and overskirt would be made of the flowered fabric; again the underskirt and trim would appear in the plain fabric.

Photo 3: Truly Victorian's TV 400 1871 day bodice pattern. I'd choose the view at top right.

Besides the apron and pouf, the main elements are the trimmings. Trim was what distinguished so many dresses in this period. It's been surmised that now-common sewing machine made making trims easier, so dresses began to be loaded with them.

In this dress, the trims are all variations on puffings. The neckline features a narrow puffing with a header on each side; in the center front, about the button closure, there is a small bow. The overskirt is edged with a wider puffing, the stitching on either side of the puffing covered with a blue bias band. Above the scantily flounced underskirt bottom is a similar puffing, even a bit wider.

Photo 4: An example of a large puffing applied to a sheer skirt. The puffing itself is the gathered puffy band in the center. To either side a band of insertion has been sewn to hide the puffing stitching. At the top edge is a gathered header; at the bottom is a very scantily gathered lace ruffle. Detail of photograph of a Mrs. Davidson, Montreal, Quebec, 1870-1871. McCord Museum.

Because puffings might get in the way, the sleeve cuff area features a simple gathered ruche, the stitching covered with the blue bias banding. The sleeve ends are flounced like they might be in the 18th century, with scalloping, and inside are faux undersleeves in white voile, similarly scalloped.

I've found a good overskirt pattern that has a fullish apron front, a nice lift up the sides (with tapes), and plenty of pouf and length in the back. The overskirt pattern in Jean Hunnisett's Period Costumes for Stage and Screen (plate 19, view F) will work, reports Heather McNaughton of Truly Victorian patterns.

Petticoat Patterns

I plan to set a fluffy, highly flounced petticoat over the bustle. I'll use the Truly Victorian skirt pattern TV201 as a base pattern, but trim it as lavishly as I can. De Gracieuse has several plates focused on petticoats. Here are two examples of trained petticoats from 1872. I like the version on the left with the pretty ruche with bias band applied to the center, but not having time at present to attempt a knife bottom flounce, would
replace it with the gathered flounce at the right, edged at bottom with Valenciennes lace.

Photo 5: 1872 petticoats from De Gracieuse. Memory of the Netherlands site, the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag collection.

Harper's Bazar Nineteenth Century Fashion: All Online

A red-letter day! Cornell University's HEARTH site put much of Harper's Bazar online...from the magazine's inception in 1867, in fact, until 1900. I am enchanted.

One of the sources for high-style fashion news in America, the magazine's engravings are superb, and the text is full of fashion news, sewing and needlework instructions, fashion plates, articles and poetry, and in every other issue, a full set of patterns, too. Sadly, Cornell has no plans to post the pattern supplements. I wrote to ask them about it and they replied the same day.

Here is a sample of text describing the carriage dresses featured on the July 18, 1868 cover:

1. Dress of blue silk, with tablier simulated by a puffing of the same, edged with narrow black lace, which begins at the waist, and sloping on each side borders the entire bottom of the dress, excepting the front breadth. Two similar rows of puffing, separated by black lace, are set above this on the bottom of the skirt. A row of silk bows, composed of four loops without ends, are set down the middle of the front breadth, in the manner of buttons. Large carriage mantle, with "full slashed sleeves, of black cashmere, lined with rose-colored silk, and trimmed with gold fringe and galloon. Black lace bonnet, with gilt diadem, and red rose and leaves at the side.
Fig. 2. Dress of changeable silk (gorge de pigeon) trimmed with a box-pleated flounce. Black lace mantelet attached to the bonnet. Corsage half low, with white muslin chemise Russe. Sleeves tight, trimmed with three silk folds. Belt edged with a bias fold of silk. Half long gloves of peau de Suede; changeable silk parasol, to match the dress, lined with white gros de Naples, with wide changeable fringe.

You see? Incredible detail.

Some of the plates and patterns in Harper's Bazar are the same as those in De Gracieuse of the Netherlands, and the supplements for that magazine are available online (see my Fashion Plate and Photo Sources list for details). Why are the patterns the same, you might ask? Because Harper's Bazar took much of its content from Die Modenwelt in Berlin, which in turn seems to have copied Paris fashions.* America still leaned heavily on Europe for fashion instruction in those days.

The posted pages are fairly well scanned, although many seem a little dark, and the text is fully searchable, a real boon.

See the magazine index.

* The book Producing Fashion: Commerce, Culture, and Consumers, by Regina Lee Blaszczyk (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007) states that Die Modenwelt was published across Europe, using the same fashion plates, in some 13 languages. De Gracieuse, I surmise, was one of these.

A Favorite Kitty, Happily Adopted

Several weeks ago my friend Polly told me about Sophie, a four-year-old cat up for adoption from the Scott County Animal Shelter. Polly had met her at Petsmart and thought she'd be a lovely companion for our kitty Ladybug. Sophie, she said, was sweet-natured and purry and pretty...and liked children! Inexplicably left by a family when they'd moved, she'd spent over four months without a home already.

I'd been so hoping for another kitty, and so I visited her page on Petfinder. Without ado, I fell in love. She's a dilute calico, long-haired, gentle-eyed. She wants to be cradled. She wants to remain close to her people all day. She needs love. We have plenty and more to give, I thought.

Photo: Sophie's sweet, soft face. Courtesy Petfinder.

We couldn't adopt her: family life here is so short on sleep and long on work due to the twins that my husband couldn't see adding another member just yet, so with regret, he nixed the idea.

I scrambled to see if a friend or friend of friend could take her in, not the first time I've done something like this. So many little kitties I've fostered, fed, socialized, found homes for with family, with friends. In recent years tiny striped Piper, named for his big voice, sat on the car armrest between my husband and I from Kentucky to Asheville to meet my parents, and then lapsat his way to Wilmington, North Carolina, to be their kitty. A year or so before that sweet-natured, floppy, sprawl-all-over-you Dixie flew with me to Atlanta in his own carrier to live with a colleague. And there have been others. I hoped to help Sophie, too.

Sophie Finds a Home...with Natalie

This morning I spoke with Polly, and what a funny thing, Providence heard me, for Polly saw her adopted. She'd been back to Petsmart with two kittens she's trying to place, and sitting there in the adoption corner, she watched a little girl and her parents arrive. They found Sophie's cage. They had it opened, the little girl picked her up, and fluffy Sophie settled in her arms. The girl had vision problems, Polly said, and looked like she very much wanted a friend to love. The little kitty, it was clear, wanted a friend too, and cuddled with the girl. And so she was adopted, and off they went. The little girl's name? The same as mine: Natalie.

Photo: Fluffy fur and diluted colors, and a playful paw, and that happy tail, like a flag.

Coincidence, say you? Hmmm. As my mother said, her Natalie (me) so wanted to save a kitty but couldn't, and already has Ladybug to love. This little Natalie wanted and needed a kitty friend, but didn't have a kitty, so the right Natalie for the kitty was found.

Last Saturday Sewing Circle: Materials for The Inaugural Meeting

We've done it! A group of us are trying out a period sewing circle, to meet on the last Saturday of every other month. At this inaugural meeting, we'll talk about the varied nature of period sewing, think about what each of us would like to make, and I will show a portion of my antique clothing and period-inspired and period reproduction pieces.

Photo: Pauline in her walking skirt, circa 1911. Photo courtesy Big Brown House.

Period-Inspired Skirts: A Fun Starting Project

Because many period-style skirts need fitting only at waist and sometimes hips, and because they're often made with straight seams, they make a good starting project. Fashionable and wearable they can be, too. Who doesn't like a little swish around the ankles?

Without getting too deeply into fashion history, I can tell you that in years past the term "walking skirt" meant a skirt that was easy to wear for, well, walks and rambles, shopping and informal occasions like snipping flowers. Walking length skirts were normal for working clothes, too, when you expected to become grubby and needed to climb or kneel without the pretty appendage of a tail -- a train -- trailing behind you.

Photo: Dame Nellie Melba, 1909, in a skirt with quite a tail...er, train. From State Library of Queensland, Australia, uploaded to Flickr.

Here's a video from 1904 with many shots of women in skirts of walking length: see how they move! (See also the post on Edwardian Promenade about the clip.)





Here's an original walking skirt with felled seams. Functional and pretty! See the blog post "Anatomy of a 1900-1911 Vintage White Heavy Cotton Skirt".

Some Skirt Options for Our Circle

Sense and Sensibility Patterns carries a pattern called the Beatrix skirt, that was inspired by the skirts that Beatrix Potter lived in on her farm. The style dates to 1909 and depending on the fabric used and how you cut the waist and hem, and how you sew the seams can go from outdoorsy and functional to the elegant clinging line of that year, complete with a small train. The skirt is fullish, but is not meant to flare out. Like most skirts of that year, it's composed of multiple gored panels: 9, in this case. The panels help shape the skirt around the body for a smoother line.

Photo: Outdoorsy version of the Beatrix skirt. Photo courtesy Sense and Sensibility patterns.

I've made this skirt several times and have helped friends to make it too, and each time it's a fun process. There was the dressy version, for instance, and now the version that will be incorporated into a lingerie dress. For our purposes, the pattern is especially helpful because Jennie Chancey, the pattern designer, has posted illustrated directions. What I can show is how the pattern can be altered and period techniques used to create different effects.

A 1911 Skirt That Flares More
You might also be interested in a plain five-gore dress skirt from 1911. That year skirts flared out around the feet a bit more...the last year long skirts would do so. This pattern for this one comes from a high school textbook of the era called Textbook on Domestic Art and must be drafted. You can download the entire book from Google and print out the pages you need.

The drafting directions are clear, and the process requires little more than large sheets of Kraft paper or newspaper, a yardstick, a pencil and eraser, and the ability to add and subtract. Detailed drafting directions for skirts as a whole, based on a five-gore underskirt (petticoat), start on page 74, with directions specific to the skirt itself starting on page 119. Now, since these patterns are based on proportions, we may have to fiddle with the initial draft a bit if you aren't proportioned like ladies of the era, and most women aren't: the textbook expected this. See my blog post on drafting and using algebra to get the right sweep on an underskirt from a pattern in the same textbook, for instance. It all ended well...

An Narrow 1912 Skirt

If you're willing to read teeny-tiny print and do some drafting, you can draft a narrow skirt, from 1912 from Thornton's International System of Ladies' Garment Cutting, available on the Costumer's Manifesto site. I made a skirt for my friend Denise using one of these patterns, called the "New Style Costume Skirt" and it turned out very nicely. Construction was easy since the skirt was only in two pieces, but if you decide to make this skirt, we'll need to cut the fabric somewhat large and carefully fit it to you because it is snug around the hips.

For directions, see page five in the series of scans and look for the New Style Costume Skirt image and its directions page .

If you wish to try another Thornton's pattern, or any other Edwardian pattern, for that matter, that will be fun too, but since I'll not have made those skirts, we will have to do some fiddling and thinking things out, especially if the pattern is to be drafted.

After We Meet, What Next?

If you use a commercial pattern, you'll obtain the pattern, and if you want to draft one, you can either try it yourself or we can meet and do at least part of it together...if you don't mind small children underfoot.

Then, it's on to cutting out and fitting, and basting...so in my next Sewing Circle post, I'll write about period manuals that I think cover these issues most clearly, along with some superb dress diaries, fully illustrated, that show all this in action!

See you soon, ladies!