1863 Jacket

Never the kind to have only one iron in the fire, I have yet another pattern on order. This time, it’s for a 1863 jacket from the Vintage Pattern Lending Library.

I am going to leave off the vest part for a couple of reasons. First, I want to wear the jacket as a historic touch with my modern clothing as well as with my Civil War era stuff, and it would work better for that purpose as just a jacket. Secondly, I’m too lazy to deal with adjusting the pattern to fit that much. This was pulled from an authentic 1863 pattern. Patterns of that time period were typically produced for a 32” – 34” bust line and a 22” – 24” waist. Having descended from a long line of 98 pound weaklings, the former is no problem. However, the latter is. Having hit my 40’s and the accompanying middle age spread, my waistline being that small is a distant memory. As in, there’s a reason why I’m starting to develop a love of the clothing styles from the 1920’s.

Anyway, I’m back to my usual dithering. I’m not sure if it will look right over my 1860’s dresses. The sleeves are going to be an issue. Some research is in order there. And if it would work , I would ideally like to make it in a color that would complement both the cadet blue and cream cotton print dress and the aubergine wool dress. I’m thinking it would probably work best in a nice deep green cotton velvet. That has its own issues. I am finding cotton velvet in green, but it’s a more medium tone, washed out version of hunter green. Of course if I can't use it with my dresses, that frees me up to make it in whatever color catches my fancy. The problem may be solved right there. I'll be able to tell more once I get the pattern in my hot little hands.

My First Steampunk Project

This isn't sewing, but I did complete a pair of steampunk earrings this afternoon.

I wish the gears in the center showed up better so that you could see all of the detail in them. Ideally, I would like to have had larger gears for the center, too, but watch gears are too small and clock gears are too big. But I'm pretty pleased, anyway. It's kind of nice that the dangle part is loose and can swing back and forth. The best part is, the watch faces glow in the dark.

Instant Gratification Cloches

If you ever need an instant gratification historical costuming project, I don't think you could do better than Vintage Pattern Lending Library's H001, 1920's felt cloche hats. All I had to do for the model I made was to cut out three pieces of felt, sew 4 seams, and voila! - instant hat! If I hadn't chosen to hand sew the seams, I could have had the entire thing done in less than an hour. Since it did not require much material, it was also quite inexpensive.

As with all of VPLL's offerings, this is a reproduction of an authentic pattern. In this particular case, it is actually a set of 5 hat patterns that were put out by the Western Felt Works company in order to get people to buy more of their products. The styles range from sporty to sophisticated, and all of them have a certain panache. It's a nice change from the basic cloche that seems to be the standard with other companies. The one I chose actually has a very modern feel to it, so it will look fine with either my period clothes or contemporary ones. I like that they mention what colors were in fashion in the instructions. Better yet, the hats are simple to make. In the instructions for the one I made, there was a step left out of the instructions, but it was easy enough to figure out.

The only real challenge I had was to find the right material for it. I wanted to make mine out of historically correct 100% wool felt and found the pickings on that to be mighty slim. When I did find a source, the dimensions of the piece turned out to be a squared 18" by 18", unlike the 9" x 32" elongated rectangle assumed in the instructions. I was barely able to fit the pattern on to the piece I bought. If I had wanted to make the larger size or one of the other hat patterns I would have had to buy 2 pieces of the felt. One of the pieces for view 2 is so large that it would not fit at all on the felt square I had. Be prepared to piece together your felt cloth in order to have a large enough section if you can't find the right width of felt. It looks like there are bigger pieces being sold now than were available when I ordered mine, though.

The end result is a nice, unlined felt cloche. I have made cloches before from other pattern companies and found the fit to be too tight. I mean, cloches are supposed to be close fitting and designed for short bobbed hair, but these were a bit too snug even with those considerations. In the case of this pattern, however, the 22" size fit my 22" head just perfectly. Please note that if you are buying it for the 23" head size, the pattern pieves themselves are for the 22" size with instructions to add a certain amount to the seam edges to make it for a 23" size.

Not that I really need more than one cloche, but I will no doubt be making a couple of the other views, too. When it's this easy and inexpensive, heck, why not?

Steampunk!

In the 1990’s, there was a short-lived science fiction/Western tv series called Legend that is one of my all time favorite shows. The premise was that a Jules Verne-esque writer of Western dime novels paired up with a character based on Nikola Tesla who could bring the scientific inventions he imagined in his books to life. It was set in 1876, one of my favorite periods for women’s fashion, so that was a plus. The series was a delightful mix of adventure, quirky humor, and gorgeous costuming, and it really captured my imagination.

Fast forward a decade or two, and I discovered the old BBC series Bramwell. Bramwell is set in the mid-1890’s. That isn’t a time period that normally fascinates me, but after watching many hours of the show, the look is starting to grow on me. It doesn’t hurt that Butterick re-released some of their original patterns from that era, and I was able to get them on sale for dirt cheap. My day job is in a historical society, so I can get away with wearing historically inspired clothing without folks thinking that I am too eccentric.

And now, here I am discovering this trend of steampunk fashion. Yeah, I know I’m late to the party, but I don’t claim to be hip. I’ve known about it for several months, but what finally hooked me was seeing the wonderful pieces of steampunk jewelry designed by Kay on her Pizazz Beads website. I can’t say that they ever wore anything like that on Legend, but the general feel of the pieces reminded me of that series.

It should be no big surprise what my next project will be. The timing on my interest in this is impeccable, too. Fabric.com just got in a huge shipment of 100% cotton dotted swiss lawn and plain lawn. They are already sold out of white and the softer colors, but they also have some bolder colors that are also quite historically correct for the 1890’s. I have already amassed a small stockpile of steampunk jewelry beads and findings from Pizazz, so I am raring to go.

The Whoops List

I plead guilty to being one of those costumers who, in the rush to complete a project for an event, doesn’t quite get everything done, then forgets to go back later and finish it up. This is biting me in the butt in a minor way while trying to get ready for a ball.

One of the local Civil War reenactment groups is having a ball at the end of this month that is open to the public. This delights me to no end, as I have been hoping to have an excuse to make a ball own at some point. I only found out about it 3 weeks in advance, though, which was not enough time to get appropriate fabric and make a ball gown for it. So now I am trying to make my best day dress as suitable as possible for evening wear. It is a raisin colored wool dress with trim in violet silk velvet – very elegant, if I may say so myself. It’ still a little staid for evening wear, even with the flowered headdress I am making for it, but the historic fashion police will probably understand that folks who aren’t heavy into reenacting probably don’t just happen to have proper ball gown or evening dress lying around. It getting it prepped for the ball, I realized that I never did get around to making a belt for it. At the time I originally made it, I was having trouble finding a historically correct belt buckle for it. The dress is acceptable without a belt, except for the fact that it strains a little at the bottom of the bodice, showing the hooks and eyes. I have since found a decent buckle at an antiques fair, so that’s on my to-do list for the weekend. It’s not a huge deal, but I wish that I had gone ahead and made the belt when I wasn’t under any time pressure.

A bigger issue is that I did not use horsehair braid on the hem, and the hem is starting to wear. That’s not a huge problem, as the hem could stand to be slightly shorter, anyway. I just am not looking forward to al the work involved in ripping the current hem open, sewing on the horsehair braid, and re-hemming the whole thing. This will have to wait until after the ball.

Another thing I have to plead guilty to is using a purchased bridal quality hoop skirt for the dress, again, due to time constraint from the event I made it for originally. It has an elastic waist which has suddenly lost all of its elasticity, a fact that became sadly apparent to me when I was docenting this weekend. Ideally, I will be cutting it apart, reusing the hoops and combining them with a couple more for a sturdier item, and making a new cage crinoline. Again, this will have to wait until after the ball. On the plus side, the smaller hoop skirt that I had made for another dress needs some parts to hold the hoops together better. I didn’t need any other supplies at the time I realized this, and couldn’t place an order for just $2.50 worth of parts. This gives me a reason to place an order for more supplies, so I can kill 2 birds with one stone.

And my final oops was the realization that when I made my mourning gown, I ran short of time and hadn’t made a collar for it. I borrowed the collar from my plum dress, which became an issue when I realized that 1 hour before I was supposed to leave for my docenting shift over the weekend. Thank heavens for little safety pins. The collar is interchangeable, but it would be nice not to have to worry about shifting it back and forth between the dresses. One more thing for the to-do list.

Projects in Progress and Miscellaneous Notes

Currently I am working on a Civil War era naim coat made from a pattern taken from Peterson’s Magazine. The basic pattern is pretty simple, but I decided to make a hand quilted lining for it. At the rate I’m going, it will be spring before I’m finished. I guess that doesn’t matter too much, as my opportunities to wear it are limited, anyway. I am not a reenactor with any large group. I work part time in a Civil War era historic house museum. We do very few costumed events outside, so I don’t have much need for outerwear. However, every April, we do walk several blocks down to the statehouse to reenact mourning for Lincoln while his body was lying in state there. The weather has ranged from bone-chilling rainy days to sunny, almost balmy late spring weather. You just never know. I may make a lighter coat or jacket, too, just in case. I probably ought to make a jacket, since there are some nice patterns available and they might be suitable for indoor wear as well.

At least my mourning bonnet gets a workout then and for the ghost tour in October. I got some advice from the ladies on www.thesewingacademy.org on making it a little more historically correct. Even though I used a period pattern, since I modified the frame, the shirring in the section closest to the face disappeared. In original drawn bonnets from the period, there were also often ruffles incorporated into the outer bonnet. I will add some to cover the last section.

I am happy to report that I finally have an excuse to make a Civil war era ball gown, too. I have been secretly wanting to make one for a couple of years, but have absolutely no place to wear one. Now the museum is planning a ball for April, 2015 to celebrate the sesquicentennial of the end of the war. I guess that gives me plenty of time to design and construct it.

And since an instant gratification project is always nice, I will be making a felt 1920’s cloche for daily wear. I was able to find some barn red 100% wool felt on eBay to match the winter coat I wear the most. Now I just have to wait for the pattern to arrive from Vintage Pattern Lending Library.

Octagon Ladies' Repository Drawn Bonnet

The Octagon Ladies Repository offers patterns taken from originals that had been printed in ladies' magazines from the Civil War era. I have access to some of the original magazines they were taken from, but frankly, I am delighted not to have enlarge and size them myself. As with the originals, they aren't the most detailed patterns in terms of the instructions and assume that the seamstress knows how to make some of the simpler pattern pieces that aren't included. However, they make up for that by being very low cost.

One thing to note about this pattern is that, like the original, it does not include a pattern for the "curtain" piece that covers the back of the neck. I made a pattern for it by making a rectangle 26" by 5 1/2". I marked a point 4" from each end along the top edge, then drew a softly curved line down to the bottom corners, so that the pattern piece looked kind of like a very long orange slice. I doubled that, although I understand that original bonnets from the period usually just had one layer of the outer fabric and underlined it with something a little stiffer. If you aren't familiar with bonnet making, it's the curved edge that gets gathered and sewn onto the lower edge of the bonnet.

The basic pattern went together very quickly. I used 16 gauge wire for the ribs and added and extra 1/2 " onto the lengths so that I could make little loops at the ends to thread the bottom wire through. Then I turned the ends of the bottom wire back around the loops of the front rib so that it would not poke through the fabric. Unfortunately, the instructions produce a silhouette that does not match the illustration on the front (a common problem with illustrations from that time period!). With the lengths of wire as directed, the side view of the bonnet fitted close to the head until the last section where it flared up suddenly. It reminded me of a 1930's baby bonnet. I wanted the gentle slope as seen in the illustration, so I replaced the second and third wires from the front with a 24" one and a 19" one.

They do include illustrations of other bonnets from the magazines to give you ideas on trimming. For the frill inside the brim, I used 2 yards of 5 1/2" lace. They don't give instructions on how to do that, but if you look at period illustrations, it isn't hard to figure out. Use at least 2 yards of ribbon, ideally 4 inches or more wide, for the ties. My ties ended up being unfashionably short because when I bought the ribbon, I wasn't planning on putting it around the crown as part of the trim. Since mine is supposed to be a first mourning bonnet, I did not add any trim beyond that.

I'm quite pleased with the end result. It looks very similar to a photograph I've seen of a period bonnet. My overall assessment is that I would not recommend this pattern to a beginning costumer, as the pattern requires some modification. They might be OK using my additional suggestions as posted here, though. As far as bonnets in general go, the drawn bonnet was much easier to make than ones using the standard covered buckram and wire construction that I've tried in the past. I would also suggest that anyone interested in making a Civil War era bonnet join The Sewing Academy and do a search on "bonnet" to find all of the discussions they've had on bonnet making there. Those ladies really know their stuff and were a godsend in helping me figure out what I was doing with this one.