I was recently reminded of a really fabulous subject I’ve been thinking of sharing on the blog for years now (actually, a draft of this post with just bits of information was started four years ago!). The subject is the amazing collection of 19th and early 20th century historically clothed dolls that form the collection Les Petites Dames de Mode.
Created by John Burbridge, these dolls are not your average dolls. The dolls and their clothes are to-scale recreations of historic clothing, even down to the trims! I got to see these in person back in 2007 or 2008 when they were on display at Ventfort Hall and let me tell you how stunning it was to see a whole room full of beautifully clothed dolls who were about ⅔ my height! This is some serious attention to detail!
Here are some examples:
Stunning, right?!? They’re really awesome. There’s a book about them that is widely available. Here’s a link to it on amazon. I believe these dolls are currently privately owned by Mr. Burbridge, but that he is looking for a permeant museum home for them. I hope he is successful so that they are preserved and others will also get to view and appreciate them.
First, you have to pretend it’s still summer and the air is still warm. Once you feel the warmth, come back with me to the Regency period with a performance by The Commonwealth Vintage Dancers at the Salem Maritime Festival back in August. The day was cloudy, but not too warm, and was interrupted mid-afternoon by a bit of strong rain (during which many of our dancers had wandered off and I sat under a tree and watched the rain fall).
Opening the gate to our own historic house front yard performing space.I brought along the kites I’d made in 2013 and though we didn’t fly them they looked nice on our picnic blankets. The strings had become all tangled over the last 18 months and thankfully some others found the untangling task rather enjoyable.We were pleasantly surprised to be provided with two live musicians who not only played for us, but also sang.While visiting a neighboring house we took the opportunity to peer at the modern visitors just as they peer at us!Another participant in the day’s events snapped a few sneaky photos of us through the window of the neighboring West India Goods Store where she was set up for the day. Photo by Sew 18th Century.
Back in August at the Nahant Vintage Dance Weekend, I was able to attend a soiree at Egg Rock (see that post here) as well as attend the Grand Ball of the weekend. I wore my 1893 bronze ball gown that I made back in 2012.
Unfortunately, I have to say that the crowds and the August temperature without air conditioning conspired for a very sweaty evening, which was not to my liking. However, everyone was very nicely attired and tasty refreshments were provided. In fact, sorbet was brought out at one point and was a tasty and cooling treat! (Hard to imagine being that warm as fall settles in and the air outside is crisp and chilly! I’ve been slow to get to posting about this event.)
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?Dancing a waltz, I believe.This time I’m smiling!I happened to be standing in front of a fan while explanations of a dance were going on and I have to confess to laughing more at my flying shoulders than listening to the explanation…A view of the crowded ballroom.Another view of the room.Everyone looked fabulous for the event.This was my favorite new dress I hadn’t seen before. It was quite sunning, with the bi-colored sleeves and tall aigrette. And in complimenting the wearer I was able to meet someone new, which is always nice.TNG. That’s that.
The entire Nahant weekend made the New York Times via the delightful Bill Cunningham (who was in attendance taking pictures for the weekend). I can be spotted in a few of his pictures in the Evening Hours section from August 15. There was also an afternoon of events that I did not attend, but which you can see pictures of here and watch a video with Bill’s narration of here.
Really exciting things are secretly brewing amongst an international group of historical seamstresses, tailors, and costumers. They are strange, beautiful, unusual, fun, just plain weird, and detailed… and they are coming to life in 2015!
Join us on Facebook and look forward to more tantalizing posts here and around the historical clothing and costuming blog-world as we research, sew, and prepare to unveil this amazing project in December 2015. Do you Vernet?
Early in August, I was able to attend two events that were part of Vintage Victorian’s Nahant Vintage Dance Weekend. The first was a lovely late 19th/early 20th century soiree at Egg Rock, a lovely historic house with beautiful furnishings built in 1864 right on the cliffs overlooking the ocean (the second was the Grand Ball, but I’ll save that for another post). The event was quite elegant and included catered food and drinks. I’d like to take you with me to wander around the house, if you’re inclined. (I apologize for the slightly blurry pictures, the phone camera didn’t like the lighting much.)
A lovely staircase in the front hall greets us, as is is typical of a mid-19 century home.Beautiful architectural details grace all aspects of the house: see the lovely gold damask wallpaper and the decorative woodwork along the stair moulding?At the top of the stairs there is another split set of stairs leading up to a cute balcony and bedrooms overlooking the ocean.Standing at the top of the balcony we can look into the fabulous tall mirror down the stairs into the hallway below.Back downstairs in the entrance hall we can appreciate another lovely mirror, beautiful fireplace, and elegant grandfather clock.Off to the opposite side of the hall from the fireplace is a small ballroom with a distinctive wood floor. Dancers whirled in small circles here all evening to the tune of live music.The ballroom’s walls were adorned with large pastoral paintings which sadly were peeling and in need of conservation. There was also this elegant sofa on one side. I love that the colors in these dresses complement each other so well and that the attitudes of each person are so distinctive and pretty.And here I am, wearing my burgundy and gold 1912 evening gown, which harmonized beautifully with the colors in the entry hall. See that wallpaper? I love it!
I was rather undecided about attending this event until the last moment, so I did a reprise of my hair style from July using the beaded gold necklace as a headband, but did it hastily and without a curling iron, so the texture was my normal wavy frizz rather than defined waves and curls. I’m glad I attended, though, because I had a lovely time and really enjoyed the house. I hope you also enjoyed this short visit to Egg Rock!
It’s been over a month now, but back in July I attended a Ragtime ball that proved to be great fun. I wore my tried-and-true 1912 burgundy and gold evening gown (while it’s nice to have new things, it’s also nice to pull beautiful things out of the closet, too!). Despite wearing a dress I’ve worn before, I tried a new style with my hair, including a repurposed (and therefore new-feeling) accessory.
I was inspired by hairstyles like these from the early 1910s. There are more examples on my Hair: 1900-1920 Pinterest board as well, if you’re interested. What I took away from these images was the use of a headband of some sort, the rather large airy shape, and the defined waves and curls.
c. 1912 Lily ElsieLa coiffure française illustrée. (1910)
Of course, I decided to try this out the afternoon of the event so I hadn’t thought ahead in terms of what to use for a headband. After casting around a bit I thought of a bead necklace I’d purchased a few years ago that ties with a ribbon. Why not use that as a headband? In addition to the bead-necklace-as-headband, I wore my Downton Abbey Collection earrings, which are quite lovely and matched my dress very well in color and style.
It took rather a lot of time to create the front waves with my curling iron. The back loopy curls were time consuming, too, though fun until my arms started to hurt from being held up for extended periods of time.I love how defined the curls came out, though, and while I do think there’s a slightly flat spot at the back of my head I generally think the silhouette is what I was aiming for.Waves, curls, and earrings!
And here is the dancing in action! People were very well dressed and enthusastic at this event and really seemed to have a good time. For most dances there was hardly anyone sitting out! That’s great, especially when the crowd is a mix of ages.
This year, I paired my new parasol and hat with a pleated skirt from ebay (it was one of those things you gamble on when you order, and while I don’t like it for modern wear I think it worked perfectly for an early 20s look!), a new silk blouse c. 1922, my 1917 Knitted Sweater of Angorina (because I’m sure people didn’t wear their clothing only during one year!), and my American Duchess Astorias. It’s wonderful to have accessories and pieces like sweaters in the closet that can fill out an outfit without having to always create an entirely new ensemble.
My goal was an early 1920s look, when the skirts were still long and the clothes weren’t quite such bags. In terms of overall clothing style, I was aiming for the yellow lady in the image below. In terms of accessories, I was aiming for some of the looks which you can see in this past post about making my parasol.
The Delineator Magazine 1923
The blouse I made from white silk crepe the afternoon before the event. It’s all one piece, with the gathered sections on the sides. I used short sleeves, as in view A, but omitted the bow, as in view C. This was partially due to fabric restrictions, as I used fabric left over from another project and I only had an odd shaped piece to work with. I’m not entirely pleased with it, because, being 20s, it is rather a bag, but it was very comfortable, which I did like. I think I would like it better if it was an off white rather than a bright white, because it would have complimented my outfit better. But my hand knitted sweater is ivory and I was really pleased to wear it over the blouse, because I liked the color and the length better. It has such nice proportions with the skirt!
My inspiration for the blouse. Butterick pattern #3779 from 1922 at COPA. I used the pattern layout as a general guide for creating my blouse.My 1922 blouse. (…that is a bag!)
In no particular order, here are a variety of pictures taken around the estate of the entire ensemble. There were quite a few that I liked, for the movement of the fabrics, or the pose, or the background. The wide hat brim was great for hiding my face. Useful, since I am really good at making weird faces and not always the best at making good picture faces.
Looking out over the ocean.In the sunken garden.At the gate to the secret garden.At the beginning of the wooded path.Exploring the wooded path.Appreciating the gnarly trees.Ascending the path.
Of course, sometimes I was the person behind the camera as well (it’s only fair that if I want lots of pictures of my outfits that I also reciprocate!). Here are a few other pictures just for fun. I took all of these except the last one.
Capturing the ocean and the lovely parasol.The house is surrounded by a lovely terrace with stone walls.Through the gate to the secret garden was distant view of marshes.
And, lastly, a bit of humor to end the parade of pictures.
One section of the lawn had a great bootlegger setup and I was particularly amused to see the (modern) police hanging out right next to it.
And there we are! All of my recent 1920s accessories have been worn/used and documented in my complex photography files. That’s it for 1920s for awhile.
One of my recent projects lined up with an HSF challenge! I’m excited! My new hat qualifies for the HSF #15: The Great Outdoors. I enjoy making hats, partially because it is always nice to keep my hat making skills in use so I don’t forget them and also because I like putting those skills I’m practicing and remembering to use. The more you do things, the better you do them and the easier it is to remember how to do them!
c. 1920 wide brim sinamay hat
The crown of this hat was pulled over a wooden form and then liberally brushed with sizing multiple times before being removed. The brim is a circle, wired on the outside edge, covers with French elastic to keep the poky edge bits from being poky and then bound in bias cut sinamay. The brim is also well sized. There is an inner millinery grosgrain hat band which covers the join between the crown and brim. The exterior hat band is made from bias cut cotton scraps from my stash. The flowers are some of those I purchased awhile ago for super cheap.
Here is my only in progress picture, of the crown just after being removed from the hat block. The bottom edge was eventually trimmed off to make it even.
Fabric: ½ yd or so of sinamay* yardage.
Pattern: None.
Year: c. 1920.
Notions: Millinery wire, French elastic (½” wide bias cut tricot), millinery grosgrain, cotton scraps, faux flowers, and thread.
How historically accurate?: Let’s go with 90%. Sinamay has been produced for hundreds of years and was certainly known and used in America by the early 20th century. I don’t know for certain that it was used for hats at that point, but I have encountered images and extant examples of hats which certainly look like they could have been made from sinamay or some other similar looking material. The style of the brim and trimmings are consistent with the variety I’ve found in 1920s hats.
Hours to complete: 5ish, spread over about 3 months.
First worn: To the Crane Estate Lawn Party in Ipswich, MA at the beginning of August.
Total cost: Entirely a stash project, which makes it free! I probably paid about $5 for the amount of sinamay I used about six years ago when I bought it, but I used such small bits of all of the other materials that it is pretty hard to estimate how much they cost.
* Sinamay is a natural fiber woven from the processed stalks of the abaca tree, a banana palm native to the Philippines. It is woven in a variety of weights which produce a variety of qualities from rough to very fine, but regardless of the weight and quality it is always very strong. Historically, it was used to make twine, rope, and cordage because of its strength and resistance to salt water. More recently, it has been used for specialty items such as the production of tea bags, floor mats, and furniture, as well as for clothing, and hats!
This picture was taken using a Petzval lens, which produces the unique blurred effect.I shaped the wire to create the slight curve down on the sides which I’ve often seen in 1920s hats.
You can see some inspiration here, in this post about making my long handled parasol. And here are some more examples: c. 1920, c. 1925, and 1927. I’ve got more pictures of my whole ensemble, including my new long handled parasol, which will be coming soon!
We performed on George’s Island again this year and were quite thankful that the weather was slightly cloudy and at least 15 degrees cooler than last year! It was a great opportunity for all of us to wear our cotton print day dresses again and it was neat to see the entire dance troupe all wearing cotton dresses with a pattern (no solids to be seen!).
I wore Georgina just as I did last year, the only difference being that I took a little bit of time to make a collar for this year. I had wanted to last year but ran out of time. It seemed more important to have the dress than to have a collar without the dress… But it was entirely feasible this year to add just the small item of the collar and I do think it really completes my outfit quite nicely.
New collar!
This year, our friend with the camera had purchased a new, special, Petzval lens (you can learn more about it and 19th century photography here at her blog). It’s a modern digital version of a historic lens. I love the pictures it produces! I’ve been told that the background is sort of swirled when the picture is captured, but to me it just looks nicely diffused and out of focus. It’s a lovely contrast to the foreground, which stays nicely in focus. All of these pictures were taken in color, but some of them are much more stunning in black and white.
This one captures the breeze and a bit of sun squint…This one a burst of joy and laughter…This one the tired desire for food during a picnic break…And this one just a simple stroll across the lawn.
This last one made use of a special part of the new lens. There is a piece which can be changed out and which creates the interesting background variations. All of the previous pictures were taken using the piece which blurs the background, but this last one was taken using the piece which causes the light in the background to be star shaped. Isn’t that neat?
Fixing my wind swept and straw hat frizzed hair… with stars in the leaves!
The collar is constructed from 2 layers of ivory cotton from my small bits stash (at least, it’s likely cotton… I don’t remember where it came from and there was the perfect amount, so I just went with it without knowing the details). It is edged with ivory lace. I made the pattern directly on Georgina’s day bodice so that it would fit the neck perfectly. It’s mostly machine sewn with hand finishing. It is lightly basted on to the piping at the neck edge of the bodice so that I can easily remove it if I want to in the future. I’m quite satisfied. I like the scale, the lace, and I think it adds a nice 1850s touch, completing the ensemble.
Over the last few months, I’ve been chipping away at creating accessories for this weekend’s upcoming 1920s Lawn Party. Today, I’m going to show you how I turned a standard ebay Chinese parasol into a long handled parasol. I’m curious to know what you think about it!
I started with a child size parasol. I picked it because I really liked the design (gold flowers on orange). I didn’t really want a plain color and I didn’t like the other design options as much. I also didn’t mind the smaller canopy size (adult size parasols are about ⅓ larger across the canopy).
Parasol as I received it.
But… the handle was so short! And I really didn’t like the tassel on the end… but that was a small issue. “Haha,” I thought, “craft time! I’ll lengthen the handle!” First, I got Mr. Q to saw off the original orange handle. Turns out that the main part of the handle is actually bamboo, but I didn’t realize that at first, not that it matters. Second, I bought a new end piece and gold acrylic paint online for about $5 (I didn’t feel like driving around to craft stores and it fit in with other amazon things to make a full order with free shipping!). Then, I went to Home Depot and bought the supplies I didn’t already have at home. I already had Gorilla Glue, but I needed a dowel to make a longer handle and a piece of something to connect the two pieces. I also decided, while at the store, to get some wood stain to try to make my dowel look more like the bamboo of the original handle in terms of color.
I bought two different gold paints because I wasn’t sure which I would like better in person and they were about $1 each. You can see how light colored the dowel was when I bought it (this is before I used any stain). It really looked different than the bamboo. The two little pieces in the middle are the new end piece and the copper pipe that I used to join the dowel to the bamboo parasol handle.
I laid out a paper bag for my work surface and started painting! First, I painted the end piece and copper piece gold. While those were drying, I started staining the dowel. I just used muslin scraps to apply the stain, which worked wonderfully. As I was going along, I decided to paint the top solid orange bit of the parasol gold, too, to match the other gold pieces and because the edges of it were starting to flake from when I opened the parasol all the way.
In order to keep the orange top part from continuing to flake off, I wrapped a piece of plain old masking tape right around the edge of the base before painting.
I decided to use both gold paints. First I used the more antique gold paint until I had a solid opaque surface, then I used the brighter gold paint lightly over top to really make the paint shine like the flowers on the parasol cover.
The three painted pieces after applying both shades of gold paint.
The final part was assembling the pieces. I used Gorilla Glue, which is super sturdy when dry. The thing to be aware of, though, is that Gorilla Glue bubbles and expands while it dries. In this case, that actually was very helpful. The first part I glued was the copper joiner onto the dowel. The copper piece was a bit roomy, so I put a ring of glue around the inside and let it partly dry so it had expanded, then added more glue and put the dowel in. It worked perfectly and when dry, the dowel had been solidly glued about to the halfway point of the joiner.
After that, I glued the end piece on the other end of the dowel. Turns out that the opening on the end piece is actually close to 1″ across but the dowel is more like ½” (you can see the difference in the picture with all the supplies laid out). I did a little bit of letting the glue expand, but I also took Mr. Q’s suggestion and stuck broken bits of yellow toothpicks (I only have colored ones in my house and yellow matched best…) on four sides of the dowel to keep it from wobbling in the hole. Again, it worked perfectly and once the glue dried it was super solid. I didn’t fill in around the toothpicks, actually, and if you look straight down the dowel you can see them, but one would assume that my hand would be there, or that whoever is looking at me is far enough away not to see such small details.
Finished!
And this is the result. The dowel and bamboo don’t match perfectly, but I spent enough hours painting, staining, and glueing that I don’t really care. I plan to have more pictures of this in the next few days, so you’ll see it again soonish, and from more angles. In the meantime, here are some inspiration images of long handled parasols in and around the 1920s.
Anna Q. Nilsson and Ethel Clayton – 1919Josephine Dunn – c. 1920c. 1920Mary Pickford c. 1920Anna Pavlova, Ivy House, c. 1927
The Quintessential Clothes Pen 