1908 Linen Travelling Suit

For the 1909 Suffrage event last summer, I decided to make a summer traveling suit. For inspiration, I trawled magazines c.1906-1910, and decided to base mine on this 1908 illustration from Harper's.

"Gray Linen Travelling Suit with bands of old green linen and scarf and tassels of the green." --Harper's Bazaar, June 1908

For the pattern, I opted to draft a single-breasted coat and 9-gored skirt from The "Standard" Work on Cutting Ladies' Tailor-made Garments: A Complete Treatise on the Art and Science of Delineating All Garments for Women Made by Tailors by S. Gordon (1908). While the whole suit is not easily visible in the illustration, the placement of the stripes indicate that we're seeing a 7 or 9 gore skirt, which I interpreted as a 9-gore so that I would have two plain panels rather than striped panels meeting in the center back.

Early steps in the drafting process.

Unfortunately, things got a bit rushed, so I didn't have time to put the stripes on the sleeves, which I do intend to add later. I intentionally omitted the tassels, since I wouldn't be able to perfectly match them to the green linen used on the stripes and buttons. Both the green and grey fabrics are medium-weight linen from fabrics-store.com, with cotton grosgrain for the waistband, and the skirt fully flat-lined in tarlatan. I used cotton coutil for the interlining of the collar, which did give a nice crisp form, but also makes the actual fold of the turn-back a little bulky. The coat lining is light-weight scrap linen from my stash.

It looks a bit better when the dress form isn't stuck on a too-small setting.
That's why the shoulders are falling back at that angle.

All told, this was a really comfortable outfit to wear. It also relatively easy to fit. Despite the book describing it as "front slightly shaped, back moderately shaped at waist", my first mock-up was much too large through the waist. However, the bust, shoulder, and upper chest all fit well from start, so it was a relatively easy revision (taking in the back seams a little near the waist and the front seams a bit more).If I was re-making this ensemble, I'd move the stripes slightly closer together and position them lower on the panels, in order to more closely follow the original. However, I don't mind the placement enough to re-make the whole ensemble (the green bands were applied to the panels before I joined them, which finished the edges neatly, but makes alterations to the trim more difficult). I still intend to add the sleeve trim, but only after I actually finish the hat and make a better stock/chemisette to go with it.

Striped Dress, 1956

This project was drafted from the first design in the Haslam Book of Full Figure Draftings No. 3 (1956). 

The Goal.

I used a striped cotton seersucker (white and pale lavender); the three flower-shaped purple plastic buttons (recycled off a pair of pajamas my mom made me c.2001). As usual with the Haslam drafts, making/finishing instructions are sparse, so the sewing was up to my own interpretation. The main issues here was in the closure, which runs down the center front of the bodice, where the skirt is a solid panel. I took this as an offset closure, and made it with half of the front panel attached to a hidden waistband of white grosgrain. The bodice closes with three functional buttons, as shown in the drawing; I worked the buttonholes by hand, because I think they look nicer than my machine buttonholes.

Still need to fix the mannequin. The dress looks much better on a person.

Other than the waistband interpretation, my intentional change to the garment was adding a pocket in one of the right side seams. My unintentional change was not lining the lower bodice, which I was tempted to correct after-the-fact. However, I've found the dress comfortable and sufficiently opaque without it, though I wonder if the extra body would help the center front lie flatter. 

I was concerned that this dress's closures are all below the bust, though I've found that the fabric does stay put and provide decent coverage. Where it's giving me problems is actually lower down, as the fabric tends to gape between the buttons. I think I can solve this with the addition of some carefully-placed hooks and eyes. To get a fit more like the model, I'd need to bone the lower center front of the bodice, and possibly add shape-wear beneath it. Instead, I'm leaning towards keeping this dress unstructured, and easy to wash & wear.

Wool Crepe Dress, 1934

I'm finally catching up with documenting all the sewing projects from this month. Most of them were for a multi-era living history event about women in the railroad, so it was an exciting opportunity to branch out of my usual time periods.

First up: a 1930s dress for alleged train robber Laura Bullion. The only reference photos I could find for her were from 1901 (at the time of her arrest) or earlier, but as we needed an older impression looking back on her life, we decided to place the interpreter in the 1930s, when Laura was working as a seamstress and hiding her youthful affiliation with Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch. 

Including the pattern illustration because
the photographs really don't show the seam lines.

I chose this simple "tennis frock" from the 1934 Haslan Spring Supplement No. 4. This was my first attempt to use that drafting system for someone other than myself. I ended up needing to enlarge the sleeves (as usual), and somehow between the muslin and final fabric the bodice gained 4" around, but overall I found it much more positive experience than trying to customize a standard-size pattern.

The whole garment is made of brown wool crepe, which I think worked very well for this dress. The fabric drapes very nicely along the figure, if not on my poor dress form. I had originally intended to use a side zipper for closer fit, but found that the fabric stretches enough to fit closely without any fasteners. The one drawback was that the fabric rolled and flopped too much to construct the neck bow (even top-stitching around the edges of each tie couldn't stabilize it enough). Also the color, unfortunately, doesn't photograph well in any of the lighting I could contrive.

 

This is the best photograph I could manage.

Brown print yoked dress, 1850s

I could use another washable dress for dirty work at the fort, and haven't made an adult-sized yoke dress before. This should fit the bill nicely:

It really shouldn't show the dirt.

Full yoked bodice, bishop sleeves, and gauged skirt (all self-drafted). Fastens at center front with hooks and eyes, and at the wrist with shell buttons. The print is the brown floral from Marcus Fabrics' "historical stripes" line; lined with white muslin, scrap fabric facing.

Velvet Basque or Jacket, late 1850s

Inspired by this image, courtesy of Jessamyn:

This very long basque--or highly fitted jacket--appears to be made of velvet, based on the way the light hits it.  The color photographed dark (making white and blue unlikely candidates) and the lace is almost certainly black.

The waist-to-floor distance in the image is approximately 1/3 basque material, 1/3 lace and 1/3 plain skirt; with the 18" lace I had, preserving these proportions would give a dress almost 10" longer than I can wear.  To compensate, I decreased the top "tier" (ie, shortened the basque's below-the-waist length), which should give a visually balanced look while allowing me to walk.

I made mine up in black Manchester (cotton) velvet from Wm. Booth, Draper. After consulting with the lovely denizens of the Sewing Academy, I opted to flat-line the black velvet, and bind the edges with black silk; for now I skipped the front buttons, but may add covered buttons of black-silk in the future. Black silk was also used to line the open sleeves. I opted to not include the lace on the sleeve ends, as I didn't want to cut my piece of lace.

To start, I took a fitted bodice toile, and lengthened it to the desired basque distance.  Darts were let out below the waist, and the extended seams were curved outward, to accommodate skirt volume. The excellent Mrs. Repp fit this rough mock-up to me, making the pattern.  Sleeve was self-draped, cut with minimal fullness through the upper arm, but curving out toward the wrist into a large "pagoda" shape.

Following Miss Leslie's advice, the piping is done in the black silk rather than the velvet:

"Never use satin to cover cord. It ravels too much. Velvet and satin should be corded with substantial silk. If you cannot match the exact shade, let it be darker rather than lighter." -The Behavior Book, page 82

And voila:

After the Nisqually and Steilacoom Christmas events, I'll probably re-cut the center front to straighten the line below the waist (got wonky when I took in the waist). and will experiment with decorative button placement.

Red Fanchon, Spring/Summer 1865

And now, the second and final half of the fanchon-drafting adventure (started here, continued here and including the half-crown version here).

Crownless fanchon-shaped bonnet, decorated with self-fabric ruffles and ties, and trimmed with lace.

Based particularly on this original from the Met:

Full entry here

I also briefly messed around with attaching some flowers under the brim and along the crown, as per Peterson's April-May 1865 illustrations, but didn't like the effect.  I'll likely revisit this later.

Nice bonnet, but the disembodied head is creepy

Another concept which was considered.  

And here's an action shot, including the front of my bonnet as worn (thanks to Betsy, who snagged it off of C-SPAN):

The lady in purple with the straw fanchon is, of course, Miss Connolly.  Miss Middleton has the straw bonnet with the black veil thrown back, and the striped parasol.  Mama is on the far right, with the pink bonnet and black plaid dress.

Semi-sheer print dress c. 1865

And now, the final installment of the '65 dress adventure (which included two research posts and was aided by original images from members of the SA).

Please excuse the wrinkles; the dress was worn three days in a row and then traveled halfway across the country.

Elements specific to 1865 include:

• Coat sleeves (open, shirred)
• Gored skirt, longer and fuller towards the back
• En Tablier decoration on upper skirt
• Waistband, slightly elevated

Front

Shoulder and neck ruffle

Sleeve

En tablier upper

Skirt, side view

The narrow, self-fabric ruffle along the "collar" is seen on some sheer dresses. The bodice and sleeve are self-draped (shirred sleeve design from The Dressmaker's Guide). Gore layout and pocket based on an 1866-1867 dress in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion II; the gore-cutting method is from an 1875 diagram reprinted in the same book--originally from How to Dress Well on 1- a Day, if I recall correctly).  The en tablier piece is my own design, attempting to copy the originals linked previously, particularly this one.

And here's the dress as worn, complete with undersleeves, silk belt, mourning badges, and shawl:

Outside Union Station, Springfield, Ill

Black Plaid Cotton Dress, early-mid 1860s

Partial follow-up from the 1865 dress research post and redux: Mom's dress.

I decided to opt for a relatively plain and conservative approach to this dress, various reasons of persona, fit, and the wearer's comfort.

Classic elements of the period:

• Bishop sleeves
• Pleated bodice with jewel neckline
• Manipulating the plaid fabric for self-trim (waistband and cuffs)
• Piped neck and armsythe
• Skirts balanced at the waist; faced hem 

 Stylish elements for 1865:

• Small "stand up" white collar and narrow white cuffs (to be added)
• Waistband at the elevated 'fashionable waist'
• Skirts set fuller at the back than at the front; worn over petticoats set fuller to the back than the front (with a small tournure, or "dress improver" to help simulate the elongated cage of '65)

The skirt is knife-pleated (admittedly unusual for a cotton in the early '60s) to emphasize the plaid and to mimic the fashion for pleats in gored skirts, which are apparently ubiquitous by '65.  Gauging is falling out of favor, but pleating a non-gored cotton skirt is still sort of iffy, as far as I can tell.  The good news is that I can easily re-set the skirt with gauging for future re-use.

The front closure uses hooks and eyes.  One side pocket, taken from the design for a '66-'67 dress in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion II.  Bodice and sleeve custom-draped.

Fanchon Drafting, Part 1

Continuing from the research post, which got too long.

Bonnets from "Der Bazar", May 1865

So, spring 1865 fanchons, to recap:

• Have three corners, like a "half handkerchief"
• Have cheek tabs
• Sit close to the face at the sides and peak up at the top (but less than the spoon bonnets did)
• Have a little trim and some lace under the brim (but less than before)
• Have soft crowns (description, January, Peterson's)
• OR appear to be cut in one piece (images showing brim-crown combo; February-April, Peterson's)
• OR have no crown (May-summer, Peterson's)
• Have little to no curtain (may have a short ruffle or some trim along the back edge)
• Some bonnet ties continue either across the middle of the brim, or along the now-curtain-free back edge 
• Are "easily made at home".  The editor of Peterson's thinks this means the fashion establishment will keep pushing the "empire" bonnet, but didn't think a pattern useful to include.

Some poking around eventually produced a diagram of a '68 fanchon (courtesy of Cornell University's Library) in Harper's Bazaar for May 9, 1868:

Harper's Bazaar, page 436, 5/9/1868

(Just to annoy me, Google books finally turned up the same page; neither, however seems to contain the elusive "Fashion Supplement XIII", which promises a pattern)

Close-ups:

1868 Bonnet wire diagram, Harper's

1868 Fanchon frame diagram, Harper's

Der Bazar has some schematics a little closer to the target date (again, without the supplement which promises a cutting diagram):

Der Bazar, January 1865

Der Bazar, April 1865

The '68 images are crown-free, but it's still there in the '65 images, however abbreviated.

For the actual drafting, I started by cutting a triangular piece (like a handkerchief folded in half) out of newsprint, and fiddling with the length and depth until it sat properly.  I then drew in the cheek tabs, and tweaked those until a satisfactory arrangement was attained.  This suits for the crown-less "May" fanchons.  For the earlier winter-spring styles, I added a small semi-circular half-crown as in the January image from Der Bazar.  Small darts on the lower edge help to shape this piece.

c. 1865 Fanchon pattern with cheek tabs (self-draped)

The actual bonnet forms are cut of buckram, with millinery wire around the edges to help shape them (cotton crinoline bias tape covers the wires).

Fanchon form (no crown)

Fanchon form, partial crown

In comparison to the Der Bazar image, the partial crown should be deeper and a little less abrupt at the transition, but I haven't been about to make that shape work in paper.  Hopefully, the silk and trim will cover these minor sins. 

Regency Stays, Part II

Finally satisfied with the fitted mock-up, it's time to start on the real stays.

Using the mock-up pieces as a pattern, I cut all of the pieces out of linen.  Gores are being worked as single layers, straps and "body" pieces as double layers.

To conceal the seams between layers, I'll be working from the front to the back (more on that in part III). The first point of business is to mark the busk pocket, under-bust quilting, and gores.  After stitching through both layers to form the busk pocket, it's time to add the bust gores.

I've found Alysaundre's Perfectly Pointed Gore Tutorial very useful when it comes to setting gores by machine.  Those tacking stitches really help.  I tried two methods of finishing the gore seams on my mock-up: in the first, I use my normal felling method for a single layer: the two "body" layers are treated as one, the seam allowances on the body pieces are trimmed close to the gore seam, and the gore's seam allowance is folded over the raw edges and top-stitched.  In the second method, I attached the gore only to one layer only, pressed the seam allowances flat, then folded the raw edges of the 'lining' layer to the inside, top-stitching over the lot.  Working with two layers, I found this approach slightly neater and easier.

Basting the gore points

Gores attached to one layer only, before ironing the seam allowances

Fold raw edges of lining to the inside

Finished gores

With the gores completed, it was time to start in on the trapunto.  I found this tutorial particularly useful in figuring out how to approach it.  Inspired by several beautiful original corded stays, I decided to cord the under-bust area in a diamond-pattern.

I marked the diamond pattern in pencil on the reverse side (my fabric marker appears to be hiding). Intending to minimize the extraneous lines, I only marked one stitching line per row, and used the presser foot to make parallel lines at 1/8" and 1/4" to the marked line.  The area to be quilted was 3.5" tall (3" inside the horizontal border), with 1" between each 'line' (double row of cords, set in 1/8" channels).  The diamond pattern was measured from the center front, with the initial lines measured at a 45 degree angle to the busk casing.  I practiced stitching and cording this pattern on the second fitting mock-up, to make sure that it worked.

Mock up: corded trapunto quilting on the left, marked lines on the right

The cord is a cotton crochet yarn, ala sugar'n'creme, as I usually use in my corded petticoats and sunbonnets.  Not having a trapunto needle to hand, I substituted a blunt-end tapestry needle to run the cords through the sewn channels.  This worked sufficiently well, even sliding between the stitches where one channel crosses another (I tested this on the first draft to see if crossing lines would work or not).  The short length of the needle would prove severely detrimental over a larger area, but worked fine on this project.

Quilting the first lines.  The thread ends were tied on the back and clipped close.

Running the cords

One side quilted!

Contrast of layers: right side quilted, left side quilted and corded.

Close view: corded versus quilted.

With the trapunto finished, the last thing is to add the two short bones (1/4" spring steel) along the lower, pointed sides.  To accommodate the many things going on at the top of this piece, the bones along the upper portion of the side seam will be encased in between the layers of the side panels.

Completed Front Panel

Regency/Empire Stays, Part I

Picking up from last year, I'm finally making up the 1820s stays from Period Costumes for Stage and Screen. According to the notes, the original on which the pattern is based was made of double layers of cotton and linen.  It was also, very frustratingly, in almost my exact dimensions--but the schematic had been slightly sized-down for the book. :(

Step 1: Resize the book diagram.  The length, underbust circumference, and waist measurement are close enough to leave as is (for the first draft), but I definitely needed more space in the hip and bust. As a rough approximation, I took the difference between my measurements and the pattern pieces, divided by 4 (there being 2 gores per side at both bust and hip), and increased each individual gore by the resulting value.  To increase the gore, I slashed it down the middle, and pivoted the two edges out until the additional space was accommodated.

Front, Side, and Back Pieces (with wooden busk).  Not pictured: triangular gores and shoulder strap.

Slashed gore on right, expanded version on left

Step 2: Make the muslin.  This was made in 1 layer, except for the front (which needed two layers to form the front busk pocket).  Since I often need extra length over the bust, I used two different sized gores on the initial fitting: both were expanded to the width I expected would be necessary, but on one side, I lengthened the gores by an inch.  Featherweight boning was basted along the boning lines, where double layers weren't available to make channels, and eyelet tapes was basted along the back for trial fitting.

Exhibit A: In which I remember why I don't use eyelet tape.

Step 2A: Fiddle with the fit.

This got very frustrating, very fast.  (Lacing up a corset from behind, while wearing it, is enough to put anyone in a sour mood--I'll look into longer laces to expedite the process in the future). The obvious first problem was that the back hip wasn't full enough, while the front/side was a little too full.  So, I pinched out the excess in the side gore and slit the lower part of the back panel.  In draft 2.0, this new, third gusset was shifted to the side-back seam, as I prefer sewing gussets between panels.

The bust was a whole 'nother mess.  The main problem, I discovered (thanks to some help from the Oregon Regency Society's stays fitting advice) is that I was trying to adjust the bust before determining the strap length.  Need to reverse the order there.  In any case, even the lengthen gores were still 1/2" too short--and they also needed to taper slightly towards the top for a close fit.  Also, they were too far forward: all the extra room was going to the front, with none to handle side fullness. Frustrated with the re-drafting, I finally draped the needed cup-shape (lower half only) and expanded the triangular front panel so that the side seam falls to the outside of the bust (instead of awkwardly over it).  This was accomplished by measuring from the center front to the side bust along the underbust line, and then re-sloping the front panel through that point.  To get a better gore shape, I superimposed the draped 'cup' over half of the new front piece, and pinched out fabric until it lay flat within the boundary of the front piece.  I traced along the pinched out portion to get two darts (the difference between the needed amount of fabric and the portion supplied by the main body piece).

New, expanded front panel, with marks for busk placement, trapunto corded quilting, and bust gores.

Draped "cup" and resulting gores.  The remainder of the "cup" material will be provided by the sloped front piece.

Adding seam allowances to the new bust gores, I cut out new front and back sections (the side piece was alright), added the back hip gore (starting with the basic shape used on the other two), took in the side hip gores by the amount pinched out, and set in the new bust gores.  Most importantly, I fastened the straps, using string to make the front adjustable  for fitting.

Mock-up 2.0, front

Mock-up 2.0, side

Fitting Success!  Selfie not included.

And for some uplifting inspiration, here's a beautifully embroidered corset, circa 1820-1839 from the Met.  Next time, I just may have to try using single bust gores.  With embroidered birds.