Tag: 19th Century

When The Dress No Longer Fits (1815 Tree Gown)

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I’ve loved my 1815 Tree Gown ever since I made it in 2013 (here is the link to the original post about making the dress) and have worn it many times, most recently last summer for a Regency picnic which I posted about here. It was clear at that point that this dress needed to be updated to fit my current shape!

Making a plan

I finally had the brain space to deal with it this summer (and the added encouragement of wanting to be able to wear it in June). So, accordingly, I dug out the small bit of fabric I had leftover from originally making the dress.

Then, I took stock of what was needed. In a fitting, I realized that not only were the sleeves now a bit too tight, but the shoulders were also not quite wide enough for my now-broader shoulder width, which was also contributing to the dress wanting to fall off of my shoulders. Ugh!

There was no easy way to deal with that second problem except to make the back wider… So, I took a deep breath and decided to replace the back panels.

Making it happen: taking the dress apart

I had seam ripped the arm seams last year after realizing they needed to be let out, so the sleeves were already in that taken-apart state.

As I was taking apart the back, I remembered that I had taken a tuck in the finished dress to make the armsceye a little smaller. Alas, letting this out was not nearly enough to prevent me from needing to replace the back panels.

Making it happen: forming a new plan

Fast forward through a bit of seam ripping (French seams make for a lovely finish, but also mean double the seam ripping!), and I had a bunch of loose panels flopping around. I used the original back pieces and my desired new measurements to cut mockup pieces of what I thought the back should become. I safety pinned those in and tried the dress on to make sure I was on the right track.

Here is the old back piece laid over the mockup. It’s not a huge difference, but that 1″ or so on most edges made a huge difference in terms of fit.

I also made a pattern piece for the arm gusset I needed based on the measurements I wanted the new sleeve size to be. In the end, I decided to extend the gusset all the way down to the cuff opening, as I figured a little extra room for my hand to get through was a reasonable idea (it was a tight squeeze otherwise!).

Then, I used my minimal scraps to cut out the new pieces. I’m super pleased that even with small scraps I was able to match up the block printed areas!

For the back pieces, the image below shows what I had to work with. Not much! I could fit both pieces if I didn’t maintain symmetry in the block print, but… I did such a nice job matching it up when the dress was made! I just couldn’t bring myself not to make the re-do match, too! But I couldn’t get two pieces with matched patterns out of what was left.

It was too much to think about late at night and I knew I only had one chance at cutting to get it right…

So I took a break and came back to it another day. And I had a brainstorm! The way to make my goal happen was to piece one of the pieces somewhere. I could have placed an extra seam in a shoulder area, but that seemed more obvious than my second option given the sheer fabric of the dress. The second option that I decided on is a vertical seam in the white space near the center back opening. There was just enough fabric to make it happen!

Making it happen: putting the dress back together

With my new back pieces cut, it was just a matter of putting them back into all of the seams (including the armsceyes, shoulders, side back, and waist). I was able to reset the sleeves without any of the original gathers, which allowed for the extra circumference my new back pattern had created. Then, I created a new drawstring channel along the neckline and re-applied my closures… and the update was complete!

Here is the new back view of this dress, with the pieced seam on right (but with symmetrical block printing!).

I used a French seam to attach the pieced bit, so that it would match all of the other seams in the dress and stay nice and tidy with no fraying edges.

I also made the right side of the drawstring come out before the center back edge, so that the overlap with the hook can still function properly while the drawstring pulls up the excess width across my shoulders that I included. (There was extra in the original version, too… but I maxed that out years ago!)

Here’s another view of the lovely, tidy interior of the dress with the updated back.

And finally, here is a photo of the finished sleeves with the added gussets. Where the block printing is located the seams blend so well you can’t even see them! It makes my heart pitter-patter with glee!

The final step after putting in the gussets was to re-hem the cuff openings.

And then… this dress was updated! Now it’s a story of ‘when the dress fits again!’

Playing Parlor Games

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Part of the goal of the spring outing I recently posted about was to play parlor games with The Footwork & Frolick Society at the Boutwell House in Groton, MA. This was a fun public outreach event during which we invited guests at the open house to join us in parlor games from the mid-19th century.

Many parlor games from this period are somewhat sedate and word based. Others are more active, such as passing a ring around a ribbon in a circle while someone in the middle tries to guess who is hiding the ring.

There is also a game in which a person has to go around to everyone in the room and ask for something to take on an imaginary journey. It can get a bit silly as people add items to the imaginary traveling trunk.

I didn’t participate in every game, but I greatly enjoyed observing guests having fun even when I wasn’t actively participating.

A second dress of mine made it out of the closet to attend this event, too! You can read all about the construction of Georgina (a cotton print dress from 1858 pictured below) in this past post from 2013.

Even the volunteers at Boutwell House enthusiastically joined in with our games, providing a wonderful atmosphere for guests.

I had great fun, and even laughed myself into tears trying to do a quadrille figure ‘blindfolded’ (we did it with our eyes closed). There is video evidence of this amusing attempt here, on the F&F Instagram page. Yes, dancing a quadrille blindfolded is, in fact, an official published parlor amusement from the mid-19th century!

Photo credit for the last four photos: Steve Lieman

1817 Duchess Gown in Bridgerton Style

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The Footwork and Frolick Society hosted a Bridgerton themed ball in May! Here are a few atmospheric shots.

For this event, I chose to wear my 1817 Duchess Gown (you can read about the inspiration and making of the dress, here). I love this dress and haven’t had a reason to wear it in years. Plus, I figured the neutral color would pair well with a few nods to the colorful style of Bridgerton costumes.

In the past, I’ve had fun pairing this gown with other colors and accessories, as well! You can read another past post where I show multiple wearings together here.

The dress is a sheer striped organza, which is fun because I can show off fancy historical underwear with it! I usually wear my 1814 Vernet petticoat so that the fancy trim around the bottom can be shown off (in addition to a second petticoat to make the ensemble fully opaque.) The second petticoat is functional more than decorative, and is the one I recently posted about that needed a size update to fit properly again!. Wearing it with this sheer dress for the ball was the push I needed to make the petticoat fit really well–I didn’t want odd lines showing under the sheer Duchess Gown!

In addition to the decorative Vernet petticoat, other accessories for this wearing included clocked silk stockings from American Duchess, white flats purchased from a consignment store about ten years ago, a gold bead necklace that ties with a ribbon that I don’t wear often (I usually gravitate towards other more sparkly jewelry), and three nods to the colorful style of Bridgerton.

My nods to color included a green organza sash (that I’ve worn with this dress before–see images in this past post from 2019), green and gold earrings (from the Downton Abbey collection a number of years ago), and flowers in my hair, including some vivid pink ones. I’ve had these flowers for about 25 years and rarely wear them. They’re pretty bright! But for the Bridgerton theme they made perfect sense!

The company at the ball was charming and the dancing was enthusiastic! My Duchess Gown even had an old friend visit in the form of my 1811 Elusive Blue Gown worn by a friend! I love that these garments are getting to be worn again!

Photo credit for this last photo: Lucas Clauser

Sophie In Springtime

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The lilacs were blooming in May, joyfully spreading their scent to all who passed by.

Photo credit for this photo: Steve Lieman

I was grateful to be able admire their beauty and celebrate spring with an outing in Sophie, my trusty 1861 twisted stripe cotton print dress. I made this dress in 2016 and posted about the construction in this past post.

The overcast sky didn’t dampen my spirits!

The diffused light was actually quite lovely and I enjoyed whirling around in the fresh air.

I hope your springtime held unexpected joy, as well!

When The (Regency) Petticoat No Longer Fits (HSM #5: New Clothes From Old)

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While we’re on the subject of updating clothing that no longer fits quite right (this is continued from my last post about updating a pair of 1860s drawers, which you can read here), I have another post about updating a layer of historical underwear for fit.

A few background thoughts

In the past 15 years or so that I’ve been making historical clothing, I’ve also changed sizes and some of the clothes I made early on just no longer fit. The usual culprits are the waist, bust, and shoulder width. (It’s not necessarily all for the worst. My shoulders and arms are bigger because I’m gaining strength and being active, so that’s a healthy change!)

I’ve been able to wear more of my historical clothes recently and the more I wear the older ones, the more I realize just how much my shape has changed.  Because I have some lovely garments that I still want to be able to wear, I’ve been updating these garments to better fit my current shape.

Background on this particular garment

I made an early 19th century bodiced petticoat in 2012 (here is my post from back then sharing research about this type of garment). Since then, I’ve gained inches in the bust, ribcage circumference, and in the width of my shoulders. So despite wearing this petticoat and making do, I finally reached a point where it became important to make this fit better.

Here is the bodice portion of the petticoat before my alterations, from the front and back.

I determined that I needed a whole new front piece–one that would be wider across the bust and with more gathers to condense to the ribcage size. I also realized that it would be helpful to make the side back pieces a little more substantial, with a taller side seam to match the new front.

Update details

Thankfully, I keep lots of fabric scraps! And in this case, I actually still have yardage of the fabric I made the petticoat from. So no problems there — I was able to easily cut out a new front with updated dimensions as well as bits to add to the side pieces to extend them (I didn’t feel like replacing them entirely — this petticoat already is a bit pieced at the center back, where I had previously added fabric in order to help make it a little larger a few years ago).

After cutting new pieces came the boring part of unpicking the original front. Ugh! I don’t enjoy taking apart things that I’ve made! But I did it.

I thought I might machine sew the new pieces on, but I was more inclined to complete this project while not near my sewing machine, so I did it by hand instead. I replicated all of the same seam finishes from the original bodice front (because I like consistency, but not because they are historically accurate, in this case).

Here are the results!

And here are closeups of my very pieced method of creating larger side back pieces (you can also see the extendo I added to the back at some point about 6 years ago).

Unfortunately, when I tried on the adjusted petticoat I realized that the armsceyes were uncomfortably small. I was not going to be able to deal with that! “Get it off!” was my exact though. To fix that problem, I added strap extender bits to the front of the straps.

This worked great! And now, I have a petticoat that fits again! It covers my current bust size AND fits across the back (in fact, I made it even a little too wide across the back because I figured that might be helpful).

Here is a photo of the inside of the new front bodice piece. Both the old bodice front and the new one have a drawstring along the top edge. And you can see that I left additional strap length for theotrical future of letting-out.

I’m calling this my entry for the Historical Sew Monthly 2024 Challenge #5 New Clothes from Old:

Make something new out of a worn-out garment or accessory. Or make something using recycled materials.

I believe I’ve recycled a worn-out garment into something new and ready to use again!

Just the facts:

Fabric/Materials: Scraps of white cotton.

Pattern: My own.

Year: c. 1812.

Notions: Thread.

How historically accurate is it?: 100%. It’s completely reasonable to extend the life of a garment like this by altering it.

Hours to complete: 4? It took some time to seam rip and then I was meticulous about stitching the new pieces on. I didn’t really keep track.

First worn: On May 4.

Total cost: Free! Materials were scraps left over from the original project.

It took a bit longer than expected to hand sew all of the updates I needed to make, especially with the late-to-the-party addition of the strap update. I was pleased to finish this the day before it was needed! (More on that later!)

Eleanor At The Boutwell House

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My 1860s evening gowns have had far fewer outings in the last few years than they used to, which it made having a reason to wear one a few months ago particularly exciting!

The question was which to choose??? I wore Genevieve (my 1863 apricot-colored covered in lace and pleats silk gown) sort of recently, in April 2022. Other dresses in my historical closet that might still fit (Georginia from 1859, Annabelle from 1859, and Evie from 1864) haven’t been worn recently, but for some reason, plaid was sounding like fun… So I chose to wear Eleanor (my 1862 purple and green silk plaid dress)!

I’m still very pleased with the fabric of this dress and the way I cut the pieces to create interest in an otherwise pretty basic dress. The little details like tiny piping on the bodice, matching hair flowers, and a well matched set of jewelry (earrings and necklace from In The Long Run Designs, as well as a mix of modern and vintage brooches) also bring me joy.

I also had a lovely setting in which to wear the dress. The Boutwell House in Groton, MA was built in 1851 and is now home to the Groton History Center. The Footwork & Frolick Society partnered with them for the town of Groton’s annual WinterFest activities, which included inhabiting the house for an afternoon to give visitors a small view into activities from the period.

I enjoyed being able to wear an 1860s dress again. I’ve always loved the magic of a cupcake shaped hoop skirt–and this was no exception!

Proof Of A Regency Picnic

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Historically clothed events continue to be somewhat sparse on my calendar, but I have photographic evidence of having gathered with friends last summer to partake in a Regency themed picnic. We were rained out of the original date and the alternate date was very hot, so we decided to mostly stay indoors. But we did go outside for a few fun documentation-of-our-gathering photos.

Did I mention it was hot? I was kind of melting. But I did really enjoy getting my 1815 Tree Gown out of the closet and giving it a wear. This continues to be one of my favorite early 19th century dresses! I still love the patterning, which creates a comfortable and elegantly shaped dress, as well as the lightweight block print cotton fabric. At least I had a cool fabric to wear in the heat!

Made in 2013, this dress has held up to 11 years of wear very well; however, I did notice that the forearms are very tight these days… so tight that they don’t let the armsceye seams sit where they should, causing the shoulders to constantly be pulling down my arm! And sadly, even with the 1/4″ French seams I originally made, they don’t have enough circumference to be let out.

On the bright side, though, I keep everything and I have scraps of this fabric in my stash. So for now, the forearms have been seam ripped and the dress is, metaphorically in the pile of things-that-need-alterations, awaiting my action of actually digging out the fabric scraps so that I can adjust the fit (it’s metaphorical because it’s actually hanging in the closet not in a pile!). This will assuredly become a When-The-Dress-No-Longer-Fits post… someday!

Summary of 2023: Looking Forward To 2024

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Time just keeps flying! It feels like 2023 started with a bang and the momentum hardly let up. All of a sudden it’s time to look back on this year’s accomplishments and start looking ahead to next year. Crazy!

Projects I completed in 2023

July: c. 1785 Hand Sewn Natural Linen Stays of Success!

August: Updates To The 1933 Dramatic Evening Dress

September: Ravenclaw Quidditch Sweater

October: Copper Colored 1790s Sash (HSM #3)

November: 1790s Organza Cap With Gold Stripe Trimming (HSM #5)

December: c. 1770 Pink Panniers (HSM #12)

December: 18th Century Blue Petticoat (HSM #8)

General Blog News

I participated in my 11th year of the Historical Sew Monthly. This year I completed 5 of the 12 challenges. That’s three more challenges than last year! It’s been wonderful to have a little bit more time to sew.

Also, in May the blog hit 500,000 all time views! Wow!

Event Recap

I attended 1 ball (as part of a weekend event), 3 other events (picnic, croquet, outings, etc.), 1 dance performance, and participated in 1 weekend event (that included dancing, games, teas, picnics, winter activities, and grand house tours).

To Do Lists

I kept last year’s Definitely To Do list quite short, so that I could feel accomplished when completing it. And success! I completed both of the things on that last (The Stays of Fail/Success and updating my 1933 Dramatic Evening Gown).

I didn’t fully complete any of the items on the Maybe list from last year, but I did make substantial progress on two of the four items. In fact, they’re almost done! A new 1790s petticoat and dress… and they just need hems! I was derailed from finishing those at the end of the year because I was inspired to start (and finish!) a new 1940 dress that I’ll be blogging about early in 2024.

So, my ‘definitely-do’ list for 2024 includes:

  • Finishing a 1790s petticoat and bum pad (started and mostly finished in 2023)
  • Finishing a 1790s dress (started and mostly finished in 2023)
  • 1770s yellow sacque/Robe à la Française (started in 2023)
  • Under petticoat for the yellow sacque
  • Stomacher for the yellow sacque
  • Shortening the hem of Eleanor, my 1862 Plaid Dress
  • Updating the waist size of my 1860s drawers
  • Updating the trimming on my 1893 Bronze and Pink Ballgown to better go with the size updates I made in 2022 and posted about in 2023
  • Replacing the zipper in my Happy Clover Dress

And my ‘maybe’ list includes:

I’m very pleased to have achieved my goal of finding more time to sew. I hope to continue that next year. That seems reflected in my to-do lists!

I’m very grateful for the many kindnesses and gifts in my life. Thanks to all of you who have continued to read, comment on, and appreciate this blog. Wishing you the very best in 2024!

1830s Holiday Cheer

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For the holidays last year, friends and I decided to have an 1830s-clothed dinner at a local historical inn. We had a lovely meal, enjoyed the company, and had fun looking around at all of the lovely seasonal decorations!

There were new vignettes around every corner, with everything from human-sized nutcrackers to animals and greenery. These owls, perched up on a rafter, amused me very much!

In another, more modern part of the building, we paused to take photos with a tree whose decorations matched my 1832 Velvet Gown and 12 Days Of Christmas bells & berries hair accessory. This dress is always fun to wear–lightweight, despite the velvet, and with a silhouette that is always entertaining.

I hope your holidays are full of joy, friendship, and gratitude!

1875 Reception Dress Photo Shoot

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I was really excited to spend lots of time working on and finally completing this dress during the summer of 2020.

At that time, there was no option of finding a fabulous indoor place to take photos, so I had to make do with the outdoors. Don’t get me wrong, I have lovely photos from that short outing, but they didn’t have as much background ambiance as I was hoping to find, someday.

But last year, I had the opportunity to actually wear this dress for an activity! And I was able to convince friends to take oodles of photos so I could better document the dress in appropriate surroundings for its reception status. So now, I present many photos of this dress.

There are dramatic back views, of course.

And front views showing the bust, waist, hip dimensions I worked very hard at in the patterning stages. This is created/augmented with padding. You can read more about that in this past post.

There are also views trying to show both the front and back. A side front view, if you will. This also captures the hat very well. I wrote a detailed post about making it, which you can read here.

And a few more sitting photos, as well. These are great for showing off the train and the layers that support it (this is my past post about constructing the skirt and this is about the balayeuse that supports the skirt, if you’d like to know more).

It was hard to choose favorites! I’m very pleased to have so many photos that capture the glory of this dress in an appropriate location.