A Day In The Life Of Maggie

     Several years ago my friend Amy made up the most adorable dress based on an image dated 1848. She recently sent the dress to me in hopes that Maggie could now wear it and I've waited several days for the chance to get some action shots. Amy's original post is here.

    For reasons best known to herself it didn't happen to suit Maggie to pose for pictures, she is pretty hacked off in most of them. Still, the dress is beautiful and these pictures do capture her as she actually is.  :)

Elisabethe in the 1830s

     Just a few pictures of Elisabethe's new 1830s dress that I mentioned in my last post. It was sewn by her big sister, Kate, out of a pima cotton check that we had from a previous project of mine that went awry. Though I detest sewing pima (and she did too) it does make a nice crisp skirt with lots of natural oomph. Coupled with a few petticoats to give it a nice bell shape and the look is perfectly lovely!

     She is thrilled with it, naturally, and would wear it daily if we let her. I love that about her, she loves and appreciates beautiful things just as she should. :)

Thanksgiving Dress in the 1830s Style

      Canning season is mostly over, I ended up with about 50 less jars than I thought I would since I never made applesauce, so we totaled out around 450 jars. After the weight of preserving is lifted then the I-Need-To-Sew-Clothes-Again urge hits, and off we go.

    The girls do keep a running list of whose turn it is to have a dress sewn next and as Elisabethe had her turn skipped a while back it was her turn. Katie took it upon herself to sew an 1830s masterpiece for her, replete with uber puffed sleeves, I couldn't be happier with it. One evening a week or so ago I began to think of all of the dresses that I've sewn through the years for the 6 girls and so we sat down one evening and tallied the number, we ended up at over 90 and are still occasionally adding to the list as our memory gets jogged. But we also noticed that some of the girls have fewer dresses still in their possession than others, I'm trying to remedy that as nobody wants to be the lone girl with 3 dresses when her sisters have 3x that number.

     I've had this fabric for years and have loved it since I bought it, but as it was only 4 yards my options were limited. After ruminating for a while it decided that it wanted to be a fan front, I promptly messed that up and it quickly decided that it would rather be styled into an 1830s bit of loveliness. 

     After her dress was complete I made up a bodiced petticoat based on this illustration from an 1860s Peterson's Magazine. The bodice and yoke are a light weight cotton and the skirt is a much heavier cotton that I hemmed with a "fancy" machine stitch. It gives a nice oomph to her skirts which I love. I basted some 100% cotton lace into the neckline as I love the look that gives; it wouldn't be terribly practical if she were to wear this garment everyday as the lace couldn't take the frequent washings required, but for this project it was perfect. 

     The only thing remaining was to whip up a diminutive pair of pantalettes. I put 3 half-inch tucks in each leg for pretty and truly the sight of them peeking out from beneath her skirts makes me smile. This is such a beautiful, elegant way for a little girl to dress!

     I've decided to begin a new tradition of having a 5x7 framed and hung on the wall every time one of the girls gets a new dress. I wish I had begun this years ago, but since I didn't I will start today. The picture above is the one that I chose to commemorate Magdalena's Thanksgiving Dress for 2014. 

     Too much cuteness is tiring, apparently. 

     Happiest of Thanksgivings from our family to yours! 

The $7.32 Regency Dress

Each of the girls are getting a new dress this spring: Maggie got 2 1860s dresses, Abby got a late 1830s dress, Elisabethe's turn was skipped because her late 1840s pattern isn't ready yet so we jumped to Rebekah's turn. I wanted to do something different, the same old era gets tedious dress after dress, so I decided to give the Regency Era a go.

I looked at fashion plates and consulted Costume In Detail and Nineteenth Century Fashion In Detail and finally decided to make a drawstring, lightly gathered neckline and smooth elbow length sleeves. I didn't want to make a plain white gown, though they are far and away the most common kind to find examples of. I ended up finding a fabric at Wal-Mart with a white ground and blue figures that was $2/yard. I did find quite a few original printed dresses and genre paintings of printed dresses, among them were these:

 

Portrait of Jane Ann Campbell 1820

 

Girl's Dress 1815

 

14 year old Mary Ann Gale painted in 1815

 

Cotton dress 1805-1810

 

I took Rebekah's regular dress pattern and made it up in scrap fabric and then drew the new, further back shoulder seams in magic marker. Then I drew and redrew the slanting back seams to get the placement and angle right. I'm used to the curving back seams that were popular in the 1860s, whereas Regency seams are more of a straight line. Then I tweaked the armscye, cutting it in deeply at the back to give the illusion of a "small back" that was popular in this era. I cut the bodice apart on the marker lines and redrew the pattern with it, adding seam allowances.

When making up the dress I lined the bodice in a light weight cotton and piped the back seams. There is a casing at the neckline with a tiny 1/8" twill tape drawstring and self fabric buttons closing the rest of the back.

 

The sleeves were the hardest thing to draft of anything I've ever tried. I drafted and tried half a dozen incarnations of this sleeve before getting even remotely close. I looked at my Patterns Of Fashion book, but it wasn't very helpful. In the end I traced the whole sleeve opening shape by laying the dress flat and tracing it onto paper. I then stared at that for about five minutes thinking, "well that was brilliant, what do I do now?" And then a little line here, a little curve there and I came up with something passable, though not perfect. They are elbow length sleeves with the small amount of excess held in with 2 pleats and a self fabric button as trim.

The skirt is smooth across the front and full at the back, slightly gored and just above ankle length. The back skirt opening is made from a solid length of fabric, sliced open about 5" and turned under in a tiny hem. This was nice because then I didn't have to sweat matching the print like I would have if the skirt back was 2 pieces seamed up.

She really seems to like it.  :)  She has a bonnet to go with it which is as of yet untrimmed, hence no pictures, but I'm working on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

Late 1830s Dress



Abigail's late 1830s dress is finally finished enough to get pictures of and blog about. Of all the historic eras that I've experimented sewing clothing for, the 1830s are by far my favorite. I love the wide necklines and gigot sleeves, it an aesthetic that I appreciate. Before the gigot sleeves were replaced by the slim sleeves of the 1840s, the gigot for a short time was banded or otherwise reduced at the bicep and flared out around the elbow. It doesn't seem like it's a very popular style to reproduce though, for whatever reason. I loosely based her dress on the 2 girls' dresses pictured in William Sidney Mount's 1840 painting The Blackberry Girls.



The
Blackberry Girls

I found this fabric at Wal-Mart for $2.50/yard and I squeaked it out of 3 yards. Romantic Era dresses really eat up the yardage.

The fabric is pleated at the bicep and then attached to the lower sleeve. There is self fabric piping at the armscye, between the upper and lower sleeves, at the wrist, binding the bertha collar and at the neckline. The pleats in the bodice are stitched in before the bodice is cut out, I don't know if that's a period technique or not.  :)

Instead of a ruffle I trimmed the collar with 100% cotton twill tape that I dyed dark brown. This is my first attempt at a bertha collar and I really like the way it turned out, it's a nice finishing touch.

There is a slim fitted undersleeve, cut on the bias, that the fashion fabric is tacked onto to give the pouf at the elbow. Without the undersleeve the pouf would fall down the arm and drag off the hand. Not the fashionable look we're shooting for. 

Godey's Ladies Book February 1838
 

Asa's Green Gown

I think that I mentioned getting Asa's image taken this Fall to commemorate his 2nd birthday; I decided that I wanted a gown that looked quasi-military inspired, decidedly boyish in cut and trim, and in a color that would hide dirt.

My taste in historic fashion tends to run toward loud and gaudy, two things that don't appeal to me in modern clothes. I chose a hideously garish shade of green with diarrhea yellow stylized flowers. Perfect. The trim is 100% cotton twill tape that I dyed bright yellow, it is sewn on with a running stitch and is easily removed if need be.

The bodice is flat lined with a light weight cotton and the sleeves are set in without much fullness at all. I also chose to pleat the skirt because it looks more manly than gathers, I think.

His chemise and strapped petticoat were sewn by the lovely and talented Brooke Whitaker. She did a fabulous job!

I have two of the four buttonholes sewn, I get bogged down at the end and just want to quit looking at the thing that I've been laboring on. :-( For buttons I'm using china ringers, the ring being black, it really looks well with the print.

Now hopefully he won't have outgrown this gown by September!

The Song of the Needle

Methinks it is a token of healthy and gentle characteristics, when women of high thoughts and accomplishments love to sew; especially as they are never more at home with their own hearts than while so occupied. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun, 1859

After an 8 month hiatus I have returned to the sewing machine. It all started innocently enough, I was thinking about Zoar and who will be there this year and then I thought about the daguerreotype that we had taken of Asa and Katie. And then I thought about having another taken this year to commemorate him turning 2 and became more and more enthralled with the idea of childhood milestones marked by wet plate images. However, having a wet plate image of all of the children really, really appealed to me and now boom! I'm back sewing. We had our own version of The Great Try-On and I found that Aleks and Levi have trowsers and vests, but no shirts and Micah has nothing. Katie is all set but the other 4 girls need dresses as does Asa. I've ordered Asa's fabric and will begin on his when it arrives but in the meantime I've begun a gown for Abigail.
I had the bodice and sleeves already cut for somebody, but I can't remember who. Elisabethe maybe? So I rewashed the pieces and trimmed some bodice length off for Abbie. I finished the neckline this afternoon and want to cut new sleeves out this evening. Hopefully it will be finished before the new fabric arrives. It feels good to have a needle in my hand again, I think I must have missed it. I have approximately three and a half months to get everybody ready and that seems somewhat daunting, but I keep thinking of the image that will preserve the memory. I'm thinking a full plate will be necessary, maybe a 3/4 plate? I don't know, that's nine people to fit in. I'm full of anticipation.

A New Dress Styled in 1850s Fashion

To obtain clothes was an even more difficult matter. Mothers of families sometimes said in despair that they supposed they would have to black their own backsides and go naked. They never quite came to that; but it was difficult to keep decently covered....

Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson

Well, I can almost concur with that though blacking children's backsides had never occurred to me before reading this. :-) I began Tabitha's first dress on Friday and finished it over the week's end, she has had the fabric waiting for almost a year so it was about time. The print is an 1850s reproduction that is loud, she really loves bright prints though (more so than my other girls) and she's happy that it's finally made up.

The bodice has 3 diagonal tucks on each side that meet in a "V", smooth elbow length sleeves set in the armscye with very little ease, though this is offset by them being cut on the bias, ruching at the elbow and a full skirt supported by 4 petticoats.

This is Anna Emerson Bowditch, she was 10 years old in 1850. I love her bodice construction. The bodices for 1850s are cut longer than they are for Civil War era clothes, can have a "dip" at the center front and the sleeves are relatively tight.

Sleeve ruching detail.

I never actually finished Rebekah's 3rd dress before starting this one, so much for that resolution. :-/ I am furiously knitting something in my "spare" time that is very needed before the mild days of Autumn pass, I can't wait to show you!

Antebellum Baby Shoes

Asa is ready for his first pair of shoes due to the cooler weather we've been enjoying. We are attending an auction tomorrow and I wanted to be assured that his little toes were adequately warm, so I made these shoes this afternoon. They are a proper shape for the Civil War era but the pattern is a modern one that several reenacting Moms have adapted, it can be found here.

They were cut from the bottom of a brown wool blanket that the boys use, they are unlined and the edges are stitched with embroidery floss. I *think* the embroidery is period appropriate but I'm not positive (Sarah Jane, do you know?). The main difference between the inspiration pattern and these are the squared off toe, modern shoes have rounded toes but shoes in the 1860s have square toes. I squared the toe portion of the sole and then cut the toe portion of the "upper" to match. The hardest part was getting the pattern tweaked to where I liked how it looked, the actual sewing can be completed in a jiffy. I'd like to make him a silk quilted pair so these served as my test run and will be his "everyday" shoes.

1830's Child's Frock

This is the 2nd of the 3 dresses that I am sewing for Rebekah. I asked her what she'd like and she wanted an 1830's dress with gigot sleeves, I'm always happy to comply with their wishes provided that I actually know how to sew for the era that they want. So far so good, nobody has yet requested a flapper dress! I'm doing the dressmaking a bit differently this year, instead of sewing a gown for each girl and then going around again with a dress for each girl etc, this year I'm sewing all of Rebekah's dresses and then I'll do all of Tabitha's and so on. I have the last of Rebekah's already cut out and a small bit of progress completed.

Rebekah's gown is actually an aqua and brown woven cotton but it "reads" green. It has an open neckline, but not so wide as to be immodest; across the bodice is a shirred piece cut on the bias and held in place by 3 fabric loops.

The shoulders are slightly dropped but not as much as would be the fashion 30 years later. I drafted the sleeve pattern for the gigot sleeves, but they are of a moderate size. Sleeves in the era could be enormous, but these are a practical and functional as well as historically accurate size.

The dress closes down the back, however in these pictures it is only pinned, I'm undecided on whether I want to make dorset buttons for it or opt for mother of pearl. She is wearing it with 3 petticoats to give her skirt the support that it needs to look well.

1863 Child's Wrapper

Rebekah's tenth birthday is this week. Every girl gets at least one new dress for her special day, it's a great matter of discussion and debate about what will be found hanging from their peg board or hooks on their birthday morning. That's generally how we do it, you awake to find your special frock made just for you to spend your special day in. I decided to make Rebekah a wrapper trimmed in a style I found in the "Children's Fashions" section of Godey's Lady's Book from February 1863. I don't know if a wrapper might have been worn to milk the cow but Rebekah wanted to show her brothers how she looked. :-D

A wrapper was worn for breakfast and other times when one might not want to be fully attired in the many layers required for the 1860's. It was also worn for times of sickness and invalidism.

The bodice closes with 6 original calico buttons that I've been saving for a special occasion.
It is piped at the neckline and armscyes and has coat sleeves cut on the bias with cuffs cut on the straight grain.

Since this wrapper is designed to show off the petticoat I wanted to make her something other than an ordinary, plain affair. I decided on a tucked petti, this one is made of cotton sateen and has 11 quarter inch tucks; one for each year we've been privileged to have her as a part of our family and one to grow on.

I will have other birthday photos later this week but it's supper time and I need to run. Have a lovely evening.

A new gown for a little boy

I finished Asa's first gown in a looooong time this past week. It's made in the "infant bodice" style that was very popular in the 1860's. I had to refit him due to his growth since the last batch of gowns that I sewed for him 3 or so months ago.



Though you can't really see it in these pictures, the bodice is directionally pleated on the red stripes. The neckline has a bias casing with a draw string closure for maximum adjustability and the waistband has a hook and eye, there are no other closures on the gown.
The bodice has one stripe of trim to hold the pleats in place, the waistband consists of 2 stripes and the skirt trim is 3 stripes. It is actually mid to lower calf length, not the floor length that it appears here.

It doesn't seem to slow him down any, I thought maybe since he's unused to skirts that it might. In other Asa news he finally has a top tooth, woo hoo! He has had all four bottom ones for months, he looked like a little lamb. But now, at last, he can bite me more efficiently. :)