Historical – Hopefully Creative

Split Skirt

Historically inspired pants that can turn into a skirt with an added panel.

I was thinking about secret pants, also known as split skirts, for a while. It probably started some time during covid lockdowns when I got into the historical sewing. It took a bit longer to commit, but in June of 2022, I purchased the Laughing Moon Mercantile #150 Split Skirt pattern. Printed it, cut it out, took all the relevant steps and then.. left it. The pattern was in the corner of my living room, waiting for me to decide which fabric I wanted to use.

Brown split skirt with old brass coloured buttons, front view

Brown split skirt with old brass coloured buttons, back view

It took two years and a bit to actually get myself in gear to make this thing. I chose a bottom weight brown fabric that I do not remember purchasing. Maybe a de-stash gift too? I made some minor changes to the pattern. The pockets seemed very shallow, so I added more length and the legs were very long so they were shortened. I added back pockets and belt loops. The fall front pieces were cut partially out of lining because they would not fit on the fabric anymore and they are hidden anyway.

Brown split skirt with old brass coloured buttons, no front panel, with lifted leg

Brown split skirt with old brass coloured buttons, with separate front panel

All the panels were serged and then sewn together on the Pfaff. I had to remove about three centimeters from the top of the split skirt to make them fit near my waist. The front panel was supposed to be lined with lining fabric, but that didn’t seem smart, so I chose to use the main fabric too. The buttons came from my stash, one of the few options that looked old-ish and that I had enough of. All the buttonholes were made with the Greist buttonholer on the 1901 machine. It took a while, but the results are so satisfying. One of the back pockets was absolutely perfect flat, but my butt isn’t flat so it does gape a little when worn – very disappointing.

Brown split skirt with old brass coloured buttons, button detail — Perfect pocket

Brown split skirt with old brass coloured buttons, buttonholes detail — Perfect pocket

The first pass of the buttons through the buttonholes was a struggle, but it’s much easier after a few goes. I like the fall front method of closure on these pants. It gives a little extra security. Since the legs are quite wide, I do have to pay attention to not get stuck on the pedals of my bike, but it’s not been a problem yet. All in all, this thing is fun to wear, with or without the front flap buttoned on. I do now also have an incentive to make a top that fits with this. There isn’t as much brown in my cupboard as I thought.

Empire Skirt

Wearing a 1900s skirt in 2022

A while ago, I found an image on Pinterest of the ‘Keursrok’ or corseted skirt from an old Dutch book called ‘Ik kan kostuumnaaien’ by Henriette J. van Wessem. I searched all over for that book and most of the time didn’t find or find quite expensive versions. I yet again ran a google search for it some day and lo and behold, there now was a digital version available! It is the 1908 version of the book and is available on Delpher. I had already found a physical copy on an auction site, put in an offer and forgot all about it, so I now also own a physical copy of the book.

Based on the mostly legible image of the keursrok in the book (page 142), I drew out the pattern as is on grid paper. The pattern indicated a waist of approximately 66 cm, which I figured was close enough to mine if I added enough seam allowance. I made a mock up of only the top part and made quite a few changes. Contrary to Edwardian bodies, my waist and underbust measurements are the same, so I had to remove a lot of the flare at the top of the skirt. I’m also short, so I had to take off some height. The side back part was really wrinkly, so I played around a lot with that and ended up with something that fit better.

The skirt pattern was cut from some 2 euro/meter wool fabric (I don’t know, Utrecht fabric market is weird) for the outside and I wanted to interline it with some cotton and chose some dark brown as that was what I had in the stash. After basting the different layers together, I picked it up and promptly started removing all my basting again. The thing was way too heavy for comfort. I settled on adding the mock up as a lining for the top part only and attached some rigilene to it in lieu of boning. I did use some of the brown in the deep hem.

I pinned it up on my mannequin to hang and droop as the full skirt is basically half a circle and might sink a bit on the bias. The length of the skirt was taken up and I had to remove so much. People from 120 years ago may have been a little shorter, but clearly not as short as I am. While the modern zipper wasn’t invented yet in the early 1900s, it was much easier to install one of those than the faff around with hooks and eyes in the crook of my back. So I settled for an invisible zipper, which is really quite invisible this time around.

I also added pear-shaped pockets to the seams between the two side panels because I don’t think skirts are wearable without pockets. Normally I also add belt loops, but since this one doesn’t have a belt or waistband, I added a little loop to the right pocket for my keys. While I started the project in October, I only finished it yesterday. There was so much procrastination happening the last couple of months. However, to celebrate the thing being finished, I wore it to work today and it held up great! The pockets work, the boning isn’t so aggressive that I can’t wear it for a full day, and I feel lovely and swooshy in it! I call it a success!

1880’s Corset

I made a start on a dream costume with an 1880s corset

A while time ago, I found THE outfit that I need in my life to fulfil my newly developed ultimate Victorian Librarian fantasies.

Walking Suit – ca. 1889, House of Worth, Accession Number: 2009.300.73a, b from the Met Museum

Of course I’ve since been scouring the internet for fabrics like this. Cut velvet dotted stuff for the skirt and jacket, and lace for the blouse and sleeve cuffs. I’ve not been able to find anything that’s remotely similar and in my price range for either. I did find one fabric at Mood that seems possibly close for the cut velvet but it’s in the United States (i.e. shipping is exorbitant) and it wasn’t there in any nice colours. For the lace, I haven’t even figured out what I’m supposed to use as a search to get what I’m after. So the only thing I’ve got going in that area is RSI from scrolling through Etsy stores. If you’ve got any suggestions, please let me know!

The difference boning makes, left with boning and right without

However, since old-timey outfits should start from the foundations outwards, I have made some progress in this project. I made the corset. The pattern I planned to use is a corded late 1880’s spoon busk corset from Norah Waugh’s Corsets and Crinolines. I had it all drawn out, copying and enlarging and generally faffing about. Then I discovered that Ralph Pink has a number of the corsets in the book available as free patterns, with seam allowances and everything. So I quickly printed that out, made a mock-up and decided to add some width, between 0.5 and 0.7 cm, to each panel, and cut a bit off the bottom.

It was constructed using a single layer red and silver (?) on black coutil with boning channels made of some vague synthetic fabric that was reinforced with interfacing. I used exactly 0.5 m of the coutil and basically have none left. Especially since I was also taking care to mirror the panels exactly, such that the corset is symmetrical. Next, the cording was sewn to the front two panels. Then I put the project on hold for months because I was scared to continue. During Eurovision I got myself to cut the boning channels and iron them to size. Then I waited a few more weeks before finally stitching them down, cutting and installing the boning and grommets and binding the edges.

It’s not perfect. The bottom edge sticks out too much in front. I had to unpick some of the boning channels because they were to narrow for the boning to fit through. The cording is close but not exact. It’s just a tad bigger than I thought it would be. All mostly nit-picky things. I think it would certainly improve from doing some more seasoning (i.e. wearing). However, I’m still pretty proud of myself for actually finishing the thing, especially after the amount of procrastination I’ve been doing on it. The one thing that is still missing is flossing, but with 14 bones per side, I’m not sure I’m up for that yet.

Corset Cover

The corset cover with mistakes at every turn. Luckily you can’t see those on the outside.

Sometimes simple projects take for ever to finish. I’m not sure what my issue with this one was, but it took me many a day and many a night to get myself into gear enough to get this little cover finished. I seemed to make it difficult for myself at absolutely every turn.

It of course started with deciding on a pattern. This took weeks, maybe even months, depending on how you count. I’d been sort of looking ever since I finally chose the blouse pattern. In the end I settled on the Wearing History E-pattern of a 1910’s Camisole or Corset Cover. I want to stay in the 1900-1908 with my Edwardian project, but this thing claimed it could work for before 1910’s so I decided it would do. Printed it out, taped it up and cut out the size 28 waist.

For fabric, I chose a white fabric with tiny leaves that I also used as the lining for my plaid jumpsuit (I still love that jumpsuit). I didn’t have a lot of that fabric so I figured that corset covers didn’t need much and it was a good way to use up scraps. I chose to cut it with peplum but without sleeves. So far so good. Now came the bad choices. It started when I sewed the bodice together and only then determined that I needed to finish the seams. I agonized over that and in the end decided to double fold the seam allowances (that were quite large) over and stitch them down. Ok, that turned out well.

Then, in my infinite wisdom, I decided to only sew the row of gathering stitches along the edge of the body and forget the one about an inch above. This was a problem because sewing gathering stitches evenly is much easier when the fabric is flat. However, I skipped that step and went to gather the bottom and attach the peplum to the inside of the waist. Next, I stitched a line at the seam allowance of the outside of the peplum and folded it over using the iron. However, sewing single layer had shortened the peplum so it wouldn’t fit into the waist anymore. I had to take my thread back out again. Luckily it stayed nicely folded over. Then I positioned the lace on top of the outside peplum on top of the regular peplum seam and sewed that down. Because this meant invisible sewing, it’s not neat on the inside, but it’s sewn down and that’s all that matters right? The top of the lace still needed to be attached, so I had to hand sew gathering stitches as there was no way to do that by machine anymore. I did manage to get it done.

Next I needed to figure out how to finish the armholes and neckline. The pattern called for beading lace, so I went to get some and didn’t get enough. I also didn’t love it enough to go back. So I gave up, cut 3 cm wide bias tape from some scraps and folded one edge in by a centimeter. I then attached the bias to the outside of the armholes and neck edge, stitched it down and turned it all inside and stitched it down again – effectively creating tunnels. I sewed little eyelets in the top of the neck for a drawstring and once completed, figured out I made them in the wrong spot. With an overlapping button band, you cannot put two exits on the same side where they overlap. It won’t work. So I made another eyelet at the back of the overlap. I’m calling the useless one a Design Choice.

Now the cover was mostly done, just the buttons and buttonholes to do. Cue days of staring at the thing as if it had done something wrong. Eventually I came up with another solution. I grabbed some of the tiny bit of ladder tape that I had left and created an ‘invisible’ placket. In built buttonholes, so no fiddling about with that. Adding the buttons to the other side went fine. They are spaced 5 cm apart. Then I tried it on and it gaped at the bottom. Solution, attach two ribbons so you can tie the bottom together. It might not be pattern but it works.

If you choose to make this, please don’t use my terrible construction as a guide. Think ahead and choose one of the countless methods that are faster and actually nice. I may have to make another just to prove that to myself..

A Spare Butt

To get the look ‘right’, so you sometimes need some unnatural enhancements..

I never thought I had a super small butt, but apparently the ‘fashionable silhouette’ of the turn of the previous century had a much different waist to hips ratio than I possess. This needed to be remedied. The pattern from the purple skirt also included a bustle pad. Effectively a flat-ish pillow that you tie around your waist to make your butt look bigger. So in addition to making a petticoat for the purple skirt, I also made myself a spare butt. I used the same fabric as the petticoat and 2 layers of 1cm padding and 1 half layer of 2 cm padding.

If I look at the images, it really does make a difference to add the pad. It feels a little bulky so I’m wondering if I should make a smaller one too. These pictures where taken way back when I first posted the white shirtwaist. The bustle pad was mostly completed at that time, it just needed eyelets. The pattern calls for metal eyelets to be inserted, but I really didn’t feel like doing that, so I handmade some eyelets after taking literal weeks to get round to it. I think it’ll work perfectly fine like this.

Only the corset cover (and a hat?) to go until I have a full outfit. Maybe socks? Who knows what I’ll end up doing.

Cycling Bloomers

Bicycle bloomers for the fashionable young lady, with anachronistic blue on the inside.

While making the cycling skirt, I also came across a free pattern for Cycling Bloomers from Bikes & Bloomers. I figured I needed one of those in my life too. So I googled around the internet for helpful blogposts, much thanks With My Hands Dream for all the helpful pictures. I then printed my pattern and got to work. I used the leftovers from the red graduation dress. Since this fabric frays quite a bit, I wanted to bind all edges. So I got the light blue leftovers from the animals quilt and cut those into more strips to bind the edges. I also used some bigger pieces to make the pockets. There is a little blue in the fabric, so I say it fits. It might be somewhat anachronistic, but I don’t really care.

The project came together easily, mostly. While there were no instructions, I managed to figure out the order of construction without too much difficulty. My pocket pieces did turn out to be the right size, where they were off for WMHD. I’d finished nearly all of it and then I had to make the button holes. This, as almost always, took me weeks to get round, because I just didn’t feel like doing it. In the end though, I did manage to get myself motivated to finish the thing.

I really like the details of this pattern. The dip in the waistline, the buckle there to tighten it if needs be. The four button closure on the sides and the buttons on the cuffs. There were supposed to be three buttons on the cuffs, but my buttons were to big. I had already put three loops in, but I just tucked on inside, no one will know. The pockets are nice and deep and I did a short test drive on my bike, and I can definitely cycle in them. (Mission Accomplished!)

There is a teeny tiny bit of this fabric left, but I haven’t a clue what I could possibly do with that but maybe I can squeeze some hat pieces out? Anyway, I like the pattern so much that I’m thinking about making it a full length pair of trousers. Perhaps without the buttonholes and just a zip. We’ll see where that ends up on the list of projects I still want to make. Even though I keep making things, that list doesn’t seem to get any shorter. I wonder why…

Tag: Historical