Historic Clothing Tips
Newly Released: The Dressmaker’s Guide to Making Collars
Have you been needing to upgrade your personal accessories? Here’s the perfect assistant: The Dressmaker’s Guide to Making Collars!
Click through to see the full description and purchase your own copy! Instant download access… purchase today and begin sewing today. Make scads of lovely things for yourself, or gifts for family and friends in the most stylish manner.
Pressing Matters
Frere, Pierre Edouard, 1858; The Laundress; Haworth Art Gallery
I’m working on a fun commission and decided to do some tracking to see if I could verify something I’ve thought about, which might prove helpful to anyone else who is plotting some sewing shenanigans.
My theory: if I’m machine sewing, I spend 2-3 minutes pressing for every 1 minute sewing, for a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio of pressing to sewing.
Some results, with me sewing and pressing at a comfortable pace, not zipping along at industrial speeds.
- 70″ petticoats for toddlers: pressing run & fell seams: 15 minutes (3 seams). Machine sewing the run and then fell: 10 minutes (3 seams) 3:1 ratio pressing to sewing
- 130″ petticoat for teen: pressing run & fell seams: 21 minutes (3 seams). Machine sewing the run and then fell: 15 minutes (3 seams) 3:2 ratio pressing to sewing
- 70″ petticoat: pressing hem: 6 minutes; machine sewing: 4 minutes 3:2 ratio pressing to sewing
- 130″ petticoat: pressing hem: 14 minutes; machine sewing: 7 minutes 2:1 ratio pressing to sewing
- 70″ petticoat: pressing 3 tucks: 14 minutes; machine sewing 3 tucks: 8 minutes 3.5:2 ratio pressing to sewing
- 130: petticoat: pressing 3 tucks: 40 minutes; machine sewing 3 tucks: 20 minutes 2:1 ratio pressing to sewing
This is exciting! My sense of how I use my time sewing versus pressing was more accurate than not! I find it very interesting that the overall ratio holds up even when looking at the differences in hems and tucks versus seams. I anticipate there will be relatively less pressing to sewing time as I move into bodices and sleeves that don’t use run-and-fell seams, so I’m continuing to track. And of course, the handsewn elements have a very different ratio than machine sewing!
Pressing is an exceptionally useful tool in sewing. With heat and steam, I selectively shrink extra fullness caused by ripping skirt panels to size, restoring the edges of the fabric to very straight grain. I can get a nice crisp initial and final fold on a hem, for accurate, even hems that are easy to stitch. Tucks are simple and straight and evenly spaced because the fabric is smooth and flat and on-grain. I can work 1/8″ wide run-and-fell seams easily, because they’re pressed well. With good pressing, I can usually sew without the use of straight pins.
When pressing a run-and-fell seam, here’s my process:
- Stitch the seam with a 3/8″ allowance
- Press the seam as-sewn on both sides
- Press the seam flat to one side
- Press the seam flat to the other side
- Press the seam flat open
- Trim the allowance that will be enclosed, by half
- Press the overlapping seam to cover the trimmed allowance
- Tuck the raw edge of the overlapping seam under
- Press firmly to create a nice folded edge, even width.
- Stitch the folded edge
- Press whole seam flat.
Yes, that’s a detailed TEN steps, and SEVEN are pressing steps.
There is a big visual difference in finish projects that have used good pressing throughout construction, versus those where pressing has been neglected. Good pressing allows you to have even, unpuckered seams, hems, darts, and facings. Your cuffs don’t go on skewed, or your bindings twisted. Hems don’t suddenly have a gathered look in the last 4″, or diagonal folds creased into the lower edge. Seams match up well, and lay flat, with no odd ridges of fabric along the sewn edge.
If I am tasked to list the topmost sewing tools I use to good advantage, I’d say they include: sharp, fine needles with a good eye (I like S Thomas & Sons crewels, #10, for all-purpose handsewing, and I buy them by the multi-pack from Wawak.com); a good thimble that fits well; beeswax; quality all-cotton threads; fresh sewing machine needles changed every 4-6 hours of sewing time; a good basic steam iron with a steam burst function and no auto-shut-off (I don’t like waiting for it to reheat when I’ve just stood up to press again.)
As I’m also a bit of a klutz, I use $20 irons from Waldemart (The Store That Must Not Be Named), currently a Sunbeam model, so I don’t spend too much when I’ve knocked it onto the cement four too many times.
If you need to get some good pressing time in, consider adding petticoats to the history wardrobe trunk, for anyone who wears skirts! You’ll find the free Petticoat Project in the Compendium (scroll down to download the PDF, excerpted from The Dressmaker’s Guide), as well as a tutorial for sewing growth tucks in the blog portion of the site. And as always, let me know how I can help you!
I hope it helps others to gauge their use of sewing time by anticipating their pressing needs. It really will improve your experience and results!
Quality Standards
Recently, I was contacted by someone who bought children’s clothing items from a maker who publicizes themselves as “historically accurate” and holds forth as an authority. Normally, I’d be celebrating both things, because that’s just what we need: makers who have authoritative knowledge and apply it with historical techniques, to the benefit of their customers!
However, the reality was… very frustrating.
Non-period fabric print, poor techniques done very ill indeed, bad cutting that led to impossible fit, poor construction in any era… it was a mess, and there’s little avenue for rectifying or remodeling, unfortunately–there is no additional fabric, and the maker will not remake it or give a refund.j
All that is very negative.
But I prefer to be positive!
So, let’s talk a little about historical qualities in dressmaking, as seen in extant garments and recommended by period primary sources! These are things you can strive for in your own work, and ought to demand from anyone purporting to be a professional.
Choose a Good Fabric.
It’s a basic thing. Period clothing should use period fabric. Not sorta-kinda. Not “if you squint.” Not low-standards almost. Actual period prints are available. There’s no excuse for fobbing off non-period fabric on anyone, ever. It can be a simple plaid, a lovely print cotton, a solid fine wool, a gorgeous smooth silk… there are so many options, at all price points, there’s just no reason to settle for less than good.
Stitching Should Be Tidy and Not Puckered.
Take your time, whether by hand or by machine, and make sure the stitching is not so tight that it puckers the work. This won’t press out, so don’t equivocate: just unstitch as needed, and make the stitching even and smooth.
If you work by machine, make sure you use quality thread, a fresh needle every project or every 4-8 hours of stitching time, and adjust your machine tension properly.
If you work by hand, it can be helpful to pin the dominant-hand side of your work to provide a bit of tension, securing it to the arm of a couch or chair, or clamping it to the edge of your work table. This lets you work more efficiently, and get a more even, regular stitch as well. Check back for a project tutorial for making your own sewing brick!
Secure Threads in a Period Manner.
Period sewing guides suggest a small backstitch knot by hand for securing threads, as well as leaving a tail long enough to form a knot by hand, close to the work. You can do the same.
Period machines cannot reverse stitch. So, don’t do that, particularly on elements that are visible when worn, such as hems. Instead, leave a thread tail, draw both threads to the wrong side of the work, and secure them with a little, tidy square knot, then trim neatly.
This prevents sections of overlapped, wonky stitching where you stopped and started, makes taking out the stitching for future remodels much easier, and removes one glaring modern tell from your wardrobe.
Trim Threads As You Go.
Seriously. Just do it. Trim things neatly, as you go. Right after you finish a seam, secure the threads and trim them neatly! Once the threads start to be crossed over by other seams, you’ll find it much harder to trim them precisely, and you put your finished work at risk of stray snips. Trim as you go, and you skip all this risk!
Press As You Go.
Never not press.
Finger press, at the least, to help crease and open things. But a bit of a hot iron will smooth and set seams beautifully, aid in even stitching for tucks and hems, and create a much nicer, non-bulky finish in nearly any portion of a garment.
Even if a garment is stored wadded in a corner, the difference in pressing during construction versus not pressing during construction is visible and enduring.
Hems and Tucks Should Be Even.
There’s a magical invention called a hem gauge. Or a ruler. Or a yardstick. Or a measuring tape. Or a piece of card with some lines inked on. Or a 3×5″ index card folded up to suit. Or your thumb width.
All of these can be used to make accurate, even measurements for turning up hems, and for marking tucks.
While examples of very uneven hems and tucks can be found in extant items, that’s not the norm, nor should it be an expected part of reproduction sewing. Basic tools will make it very simple to get a nice result.
Tucks for Growth Adjustment Are Done AFTER the Skirt Panels are Joined Up.
Growth tucks have to be adjustable and easily removed to actually function as growth tucks. So, they need to be done in the right point of the construction process, which is: seam skirt panels; set hem; work tucks; measure for balance; hem skirt placket; set fullness. If a skirt is only partially seamed, then the tucks and hem made, these are no longer easy to adjust, and there’s a lumpy, thick seam somewhere on the skirt. Ungainly and non-functional is a lousy way to live.
Do it the period way, and you get all the goodies, none of the fuss.
Take Care to Actually Catch Down the Facing.
It’s understandable that you might miss a section of facing edge if you’re sewing down the waist by machine. Instead, work by hand as they did in the period, and pay attention… or be dedicated to repairing your stitching precisely if you miss by machine.
Repairing means not backstitching to secure, as it will be horrifically visible on the outside of the garment. The stitching must be picked out, threads drawn both to the wrong side, knotted by hand to secure them, then the new stitching placed to precisely intersect with the last threaded hole, and the drawing-knotting process repeated. On the right side, this will mean there is no visible break or overlap in the stitching. It should be evenly distant from the seam, too, not wobbling and crossing everywhere.
Honestly, whether you’re sewing for your own household, for friends, or for a customer, it’s often a lot more time-effective to fell in facings by hand. You get a no-bulk finish the first time, and have total control over stitch placement, for a much nicer finish in general, and a lot less fussing. It’s also much easier to remodel the waistband in the future!
Plan for Fastening (Circumferences & Finishing).
If your wrist measures 6″ and you cut a wristband 6″ long, it will be 2″ too short to fasten at all. You must always allow 1/4″ on each edge to turn in for finishing, plus an extra allowance to have the band overlap and close, plus a bit for wearing ease… so a band for a 6″ wrist will usually need to be cut about 8.5-9″ long in order to be functional when finished entirely: 7″ for wrist and ease, 1/2″ for turning in the ends, and 1″ to 1-1/2″ for overlap and closure.
The same concept applies to waistbands: a band that finishes 28″ will fit a waist measuring 26″. With buttoned closures, the entirety of the buttonhole needs to be overlapped with the buttoning end, so the skirts don’t gape open in the placket; the button will sit a bit back from the end of its band or facing, not right on the edge.
Buttonholes need to be worked through two layers of fabric. Make all facings and bands deep and wide enough to fit the entire buttonhole plus at least 1/4″ before and after it. Period buttonholes are handmade, and “face their stress”–horizontal holes for anything closing a circumference of the body (bodice, waistbands, wrists), and vertical for anything suspending vertically (primarily buttonholes that suspend a child’s petticoat from an underwaist or stays, not typically done for adult clothing.)
Plan for Fastening (Number of Closures).
You’ll want more closures, versus fewer, generally. For bodice fastenings, whether child or adult, plan a button or hook position at the neck and waist, and distributed every 1″ to 1-1/2″ on center between. If there is a yoke, plan for one fastener at the top, and one at the bottom, and if the length between is greater than 3″, one or more in the middle, too–and spaced evenly down the rest of the garment bodice!
Hook placement is far more variable, as the hooks are hidden, and can be arranged entirely for figure needs, versus regular spacing.
Closing Thoughts
I was gutted to not be able to offer much hope to this particular person; the “period seller” took their funds on a garment that was in no way up to basic standards for period sewing or professional sewing. I was only able to confirm the buyer’s sad summary, and offer some assistance to help them get their child dressed well and comfortably.
If we have well-educated buyers, we can expect the general tide of historical sewing standards to rise. If we are working on our own sewing, we can patiently and with determination improve our own work to better match that of the era. We have nothing to lose by wanting better!
Ten Things That Make You Look Historic
Look Like History, No Matter Where You Are! (My Middlest Girl, at a museum event in December.)
We talk a lot about a goal of replicating the Original Cast: those people who actually lived during our preferred historic era. It’s a worthy goal, and barring dysentery, we can actually get pretty close to them.
Most lists of this sort would be written in the negative: Ten Things That Are Making You Look Modern, for instance. But here at The Sewing Academy, we believe the best results come from training the eye to recognize historical examples, not modern flaws.
So here are Ten Things…. that make you look like the Original Cast!
1: Understructure In Place
A well-fitted, era-specific corset will do amazing things for your overall look. Don’t hesitate to refine and upgrade until you get great support, comfortable shaping, and your silhouette mimics those of the Original Cast, no matter what your body size and composition.
2: Textiles In Harmony With Style Choices
There’s nothing more charming than a well-chosen cotton print, fitted neatly, and worn well (even if well-worn!). You cannot beat exquisite fit and styling in a pristine silk. The joys of a fine wool dress with delicious “wool dress style” details are unparalleled. Suit your clothing to your pocketbook, and your styles to the textiles you have access to. It’s an amazing way to look Just Like They Did.
3: A Good Hair Style
Practice, search, practice more! You CAN accomplish an excellent historical hairstyle. Just recently, I gave an early 50s spin to my own short hair, with a delightful little confectionery cap set on a good wire frame, and three little ringlets in front of each ear, with the rest drawn back and hidden in a distressingly tiny knob under a hairpiece that needs to be scaled down… so that’s my next step in Good Hair Style: scale down the fake bits to suit me better. You can do it, too. Find your era-specific style and master it.
4: Appropriate Spectacles
Seriously, decent repro specs are a game-changer. Join me in changing the vision game this year! (It’s also period-appropriate to not correct poor vision, if you can do so safely in your historic settings.)
5: White Accessories in Harmony with Style Choices
Simple white lawn can be worked up plain or less-plain. Invest in great real lace, even if it’s just a touch of it. Get over to cottonlace.com and see what Luc has. You still need to know what you’re looking for to harmonize your era with the styles of lace now available, but you can make gorgeous white bits that harmonize with your dresses, and you’ll be splendid. Period magazines often have diagrams for new and pretty collar and cuff styles; size them so the pages are about 7×9″, and give them a test in muslin or tissue paper—those period shapes WORK.
6: Additional Accessories in Harmony with Activity & Style Choices
Again, your wardrobe needs to suit your accessories! If you’re cold, make some warm accessories. If you’re hot all the time, get your protection gear in gear, and try out hot-weather construction strategies like sheer and semi-sheer cotton or wool, and half-high linings, and single-layer corsets… Add something to accessorize you comfortably!
7: Harmonizing Clothes to Activity
We don’t do gross stuff in fine clothes. We don’t wear grubbies to the dance party. Dress to your activities, and then forget your clothes and go make history.
8: Skip The Mod Cosmetics
Seriously, what you look like is none of your business. A tidy personage and a positive attitude will beautify you plenty. It’s okay to have no eyebrows in the past. Don’t worry about it. There are mild period-styled cosmetic preparations you can try, but skip the modern makeup and you’ll improve your look ten-fold.
9: Consider Your Petticoats
Because you probably need another. It’s a very rare instance that you cannot be improved with a better petticoat. Use period techniques and geometry, and good cloth (not utility muslin), and enjoy the beauty that is a great set of petticoats for loft and loveliness.
10: Footwear!
You’re going to want to kick up a frolic, now that you’re looking so very splendidly-period. It’s worth your time, and maybe selling some blood plasma, to get decent historic shoes that work for your own interpretive needs. Get your shoes and sock in good shape, and stomp forth to be historically awesome!
Testing: RedThreaded’s 1860s Gored Corset Pattern
Redthreaded has been making quality historical corsets for quite some time, but their home-sewing patterns are a newer addition to their lines. It’s rare I use a commercial pattern, but it is time to re-do my foundations for the later 1850s/1860s, as well as for the 1840s, and it’s always fun to try something new! So this time, rather than custom-drape, I’m testing a newer pattern release from a great corsetiere, and sharing the details of my experience with you, the Sewing Academy members!
I chose the downloadable pattern in a size 22 (the link goes to the paper pattern–look for the downloadable link in the description); purchase was simple, delivery immediate, and it was easy to save the file to my drive. Printout was very simple: 22 pages, zero scaling, all black-and-white… took about 2 minutes, including shuffling through the toys in the front room to get to the printer and retrieve my printout.
It took me a moment to suss how the printed pattern tapes together. It was simple when I started from the last sheet. Rather than putting together one huge grid, there are five tape-together sets: the last two pages are the gusset, busk facing, and back lacing panels, two sheets taped together; then the hip gore, two sheets taped together; a single sheet for the mid-back piece; and four sheets each for the right and left front/side corset shapes. It only took a few minutes to tape each set up neatly, and cut out the pattern.
Right off, I like that grainlines are noted clearly (and do note that they are not visually up-and-down—there is some great use of graining that adds to the comfort and stability of the design!) and the seam allowances vary in width. There is no sense cutting a 5/8″ seam allowance on an edge that will be bound! RedThreaded gives a sensible 1/4″ allowance on bound edges. The seam allowances are clearly marked on the pattern itself, and the notes include mention of cutting them off entirely and marking your own preferred allowances on the cloth itself.
This pattern does include some modern technique options suited to modern theatrical or cosplay use, so I’ll be retro-fitting to mid-19th century techniques (no serger, etc).
It does include a waist stay, which is not in every mid-century corset, but is a nice technique on single-layer corsets, and I’ll be using that. I tend to be overly warm most of the time, and I’m excited to give a single-layer corset a go!
The instructions use photographs rather than line drawings. There are some processes I’ll swap (I’ll be binding last, for instance, instead of binding the lacing placket and main corset body separately).
First Alteration: I prefer to have a whipped-in busk, versus machine installed, so I’m using the process in The Dressmaker’s Guide instead, altering the facing pieces a tad at center front. Because the fronts are largely on the bias, using a straight-grain facing for the busk installation is necessary.
Second Alteration: The pattern sizing is very close to my actual measurements, but I know I want significant bust lift, which will require shortening and possibly narrowing the bust gussets. I’m both fat and vain, so I’ll be using increased compression in the front torso.
Potential Third Alteration: this corset has relatively few vertical seams, to opportunities to create compression or alter it quickly are lower. This means careful fitting is a huge key to success for my figure.
Fourth Alteration: Looking back, and taking into account my Very Squishy Flesh, I should have ordered a 20, which advice is right there on the ordering page from RedThreaded! Note to Future Liz: take my own good advice and hearken to the designer!
Fitting Test 1:
First mockup material? Poster board. Yes, you heard right! Poster board and tape! This gives me a quick non-stretchy look at the shaping, and how I might need to change it up for myself. I traced, cut, and taped the fronts, back, and back lacing panel, to see how the overall shape will sit to my waist.
The first thing that became very obvious is that I’m taller in the waist and ribs than the pattern really serves as-is. That’s normal information for me, but important–without it, seating the corset properly at my waist, the whole upper edge would fall 1-2″ too short for my bust, and since I do like that to be supported, it makes a big difference.
I also noted that I want to drastically shorten the gusset depth, and I may not be using the side-bust gusset position at all. For those who have breast tissue distributed further around the side, the side-bust gusset may be vital. I anticipate either eliminating it entirely, or else making it more narrow.
Fitting Test 2 & 2.5:
This time, I traced the pattern onto test cloth, marking a higher top edge under the arms and into the bust. I don’t have much “back fat”, so I’ll blend the risen areas into the as-drafted back piece. I’m testing support with cut-down plastic zip ties basted into strips of cloth for boning channels; I’ll use steel in the final version.
This test went rather well; I got great uplift for the bust by shortening the gore placements, and with just one gore in place up front, got fairly nice positioning and volume as well. The waist position was precisely where I needed it to be. The zip ties were annoying, so I started swapping them out immediately.
I had initial qualms about the size and shaping of the hip panel, but it fit in precisely, and had plenty of room for my lower abdomen, hip, and non-existent upper-back-hip flesh. Anyone with actual bun meat may need to plan to slice and dice the back of the hip panel for more flare there.
I did notice a distinct change from two layer to one layer, in the bust area: I needed a bit more boning support than anticipated, to make up for the lesser-support of a single corset fabric layer. This is very easily fixed, of course, with some additional angled boning channels from the side bust toward the front of the body.
I may go back to add a small additional bust gore, quite slim, for a bit more room. And, I could stand to raise the side-front bust a tad more as well. With a good chemise to help control the flesh that’s at liberty, it’s not a present problem at all.
It took some time to draw and stitch on casings for each boning position, but the work was not difficult, and the shaping of the corset helped identify great angles for that boning, too.
Remember how I noted above that there would be very few alteration points once the main seams were together?
Yeah.
I was right.
I ended up needing to take about 4″ out of the mid-back of the corset, from waist to the top edge, between my shoulder blades, which I was able to pinpoint once all the boning was installed. Thankfully, I’m happy to Frankenstein a corset. Pinching out a long dart from nothing at the waist, to 1″ deep at the upper edge, right next to the lacing placket, is a good temporary fix for the issue. I stitched it wrong-sides-together, placing that dart on the outside of the corset and felling it down flat. In a final-final version, I’ll correct the entire angle and shape of the mid-back piece, and will be pleased as custard! For now, it’s functional and not lumpy under my thinnest dress.
True Confessions:
I entirely forgot to install the waist stay, and inserted the hip panel inside out, so there’s a raw seam on the outside of my test corset. The test boning is a mix of 1/4″ flat spring steels of varying and assorted lengths, American and Canadian, harvested from previous corset iterations. I added a binding, tossed the corset in my suitcase, and determined to find it charming.
Life Test:
This rough draft corset, completed in less than two days, had a 5-hour dress test at the Citizen’s Forum Conference in Maumee Ohio, 22 March 2019.
Donning was easily achieved; I did have some lacing adjustment help from a friend, but no one cried.
I found the shaping to give excellent and comfortable compression, with very acceptable room for my guts. I nibbled and sipped with great abandon. I knocked over small decorative elements, and retrieved them from the floor. I felt firmed and supported, and loved having my bust in a nice historical location that denies the effects of gravity and the space-time continuum.
Upon doffing, I did not need to heave the Busted Can O’ Biscuits Sigh… I was still comfortable! My corset showed exactly what I wanted it to show: some heat/perspiration molding in the bust and hip without loss of support, and ZERO significant stress or fitting wrinkles near the waist. Being able to cut and refine right to my actual sudden waist point, with a nearly 90* hip angle, made a HUGE difference in my comfort and overall shaping!
Summing Up:
I like RedThreaded’s 1860s Gored Corset Pattern. Quite a lot.
The drafting and scaling are precise and excellent. Markings are clear. Instructions (even with the modern arrangements) are quite good.
I would recommend it for a more experienced corset fitter, as it will take some pre-calculation to make sure sections are adjusted to suit the figure (particularly for anyone long in the ribs, like me, or taller than average.) The side-bust gores, in particular, will need careful attention for correct fit and depth to avoid bosoms that migrate to West Armpit.
Having a minimum of piecing, it goes together quickly; having a minimum of piecing, there are fewer fitting adjustment points, and they can be hard to get to without deconstruction. As with all patterns, at least one test version is mandatory.
Follow the designer’s recommendations: if you are one with soft flesh, DO order down a size. This pattern does *not* have ease added, but squishy flesh will squish, and you’ll end up with too much corset left over. My measurements were squarely in a 22, but with what I ended up removing in circumference, a 20 would have been a better start point, with my own alteration for greater length waist to upper edge.
This shape of corset is ideal for anyone with sudden hips! I can’t recommend the separate hip panel enough. Being able to cut the waist to precisely my waist length, and have the hip go at a nearly 90* angle away from that, is so very comfortable! Depending on where your hip/belly/butt flesh lives, you may need to alter the hip panel for more flare.
For those with little to no hip shelf, this pattern can still be a very excellent one; you can create cotton-covered wool roving pads that baste into the corset hip, which creates a stable and comfortable hip shelf. The padding rests on you and fills out the corset shape; your clothes are then supported by the filled-out corset exoskeleton.
Do not fear altering your bust gores. Lift their starting point. Narrow or widen the gores. Refine the shape to echo the volume placement of your breasts. Reduce the outer gore or eliminate it altogether if your breast tissue does not reach that far to the side.
For $20 invested in a good pattern, this is one of the most comfortable, easy-to-wear corsets I’ve had in the last 28 years!
And no, I have no pictures. Because I am really quite dreadful about that. I am determined to find that a charming quirk, rather than a blogging failure.
Vintage Sewing Advice & Why It’s Not Stupid
Herself
About every six months, a short piece from Mary Brooks Picken rolls around the sewing interwebs, to great and derisive guffaws.
About every six months, I get crabby about that.
Now, Mary Picken is well past my preferred era. The piece she wrote that gets passed around wasn’t published until the 1940s. However, she’s an astonishingly productive and well-skilled woman (NINETY FIVE BOOKS!), and her advice is not for naught.
Here’s the quote from 1949:
Prepare yourself mentally for sewing. Think about what you are going to do. Never approach sewing with a sigh or lackadaisically. Good results are difficult when indifference predominates.
Never try to sew with a sink full of dirty dishes or beds unmade. When there are urgent housekeeping chores, do these first so your mind is free to enjoy your sewing.
When you sew, make your self as attractive as possible. Put on a clean dress. Keep a little bag full of French chalk near your sewing machine to dust your fingers at intervals. Have your hair in order, powder and lipstick put on. If you are constantly fearful that a visitor will drop in or hour husband will come home, and you will not look neatly put together, you will not enjoy your sewing.
And this gets all manner of negative commentary.
But let’s break it down a little, and I hope you’ll see how much benefit you’ll get in your mid-19th century sewing endeavors from just following a few 20th century Mary Picken notes.
Prepare Mentally
Seriously, do this. Read the pattern or project through. Walk through it in your mind. Make samples of new techniques or skills. Don’t start with a grudge. Arrange your space for mental and emotional calm and even happiness. Don’t go for slapdash–you’ll make mistakes that are uncomfortable to wear, or take time to repair.
Good Environmental Conditions Count
If the kitchen is a wreck and the house is in chaos and your bed is a heaped pile, fix those things to basic and tidy first. You’ll avoid things like:
- Butter marks on your good cloth because you brushed against it in the kitchen, didn’t realize, and then bent over your lovely silk or cotton or wool and transferred the oils right to the middle of your bodice or skirt pieces. Had the kitchen counters been wiped down, and things put in their places, you’d have no crisis.
- Needing a warm beverage and not having a single clean mug. So it’s either suffer for want of a beverage, or stop your productive work and try to scare up something that won’t give you cholera.
- Needing to take a break and stretch out, but not having any space to do that because the couch is covered in laundry and your bed will take a week to sort out… or, you know, two minutes to make up after you’re out of the shower.
- Hangry and Hanxious You and any other household members. Hangry-Hanxious Me makes mistakes. Stupid ones. And gets mad about it. And tossed projects, and wastes materials and time and effort. Not a fan of her, actually. One of the best things I do when starting into a spurt of sewing is to make and shop for a simple meal plan, and kit up things, so I don’t have to spend any time prepping, making, or cleaning up meals for myself. I can turn it over to household members, or if it’s just me, cater to my own needs without interrupting my productive time or forgetting to do things like rehydrate, fuel my brain-jelly, or visit the loo.
Functional Project Space Counts
I don’t have a dedicated sewing studio. Haven’t had in 15 years, actually. This may shock some of my readers to their core. HOW CAN IT BE?
I work at the kitchen table, or in my very pleasant bedroom (cross-legged on the bed in the afternoon light–it’s amazing), or in the front garden under the porch and tree, or in the living room in front of the big window, or in the car on drives, or in airports… pretty much anywhere can be my functional project space, because I work best in tidy settings, without too much visual chaos, and I don’t subscribe to the idea that Creative = Chaos at all. The visual overwhelm that typifies many casual shots of other peoples’ creative spaces makes me itchy and panicked.
I very honestly do best at my work when my thread bits go into that little pile by my right hand, and get tossed every time I stand up to refill my water or take a personal comfort break. When I press along the way and there’s nothing piled on the board that has to be moved in order to do it. When my cut fabric is folded up neatly and not getting mangled or stretched from being in a heap. When my supplies are right at hand in a compact, tidy way. When I’m not distracted by debris on the floor that makes my feet feel gross. (Seriously… that’s a huuuuge sensory ick for me.)
When I’m on top of my game, and wrap up a project, I take 20 minutes and get everything actually put away. All the tools and supplies go back to their respective containers. Scraps go to the donation box, or garbage. Usable “cabbage” (thanks Bernadette Banner for this charming vocab!) goes into the appropriate container (sorted by fiber and era, usually). Measuring tapes get rolled back up and popped into their little storage container. Flat surfaces wiped down, floor swept up.
New project to be started? All that same stuff needs to happen, so I can then pull out the tools and materials and supplies needed for the new project, pop them into a project bag or bin, and have everything in one contained, tidy, organized spot. No Frantic Me. No Frustrated Me. No Take-Over-The-Whole-House-With-Chaos Me. It’s kind of awesome.
Functional Me Counts
In addition to having a functional environment both for the continued sustaining of life and household sanity, and the sewing stuff, having a Functional Me is kind of amazing.
Put on a clean dress/powder/lipstick: this is not a joke, actually!
Dude.
Shower. Moisturize. Put on clean underwear. If you have breasts, add a bra. Try some jeggings and a comfy tunic top. Dry your hair and toss it into a bun, ponytail, whatever. Wear some cherry chapstick (and stop it with your bad habit of snipping threads with your teeth, because it’s hard on your teeth and leaves chapstick residue on your project.)
We’re not talking a full face of makeup and glam hair and an evening dress. Mary Pickens mentions clean clothes, basic hygiene, and a non-greaseball face, plus something to make it look like you have lips on your head instead just a vast expanse of blended flesh from shoulders to nose. This is not extreme.
We’re talking “don’t get featured on People of Walmart” because you’re in basic human comfortable clothing that looks decent if you have to run out and grab anything, or if someone you care about pops over for a visit, or if you get a surprise chance to do something awesome. Zero stress about personal appearance, even if you’re not a person who stresses a lot about it. I like that.
If you’re in fitting mode for a historical project, jeggings or yoga pants or a skirt plus a tank and light top make it really easy to pop into a corset and do a fitting, but you’re still Quite Dressed for everything else.
You’re not sitting there greasy, lank, stale, and sporting Ozark Bosoms somewhere near your waistline. You’re not going to get stale sweat on your new, clean project. You’re not going to transfer butter from breakfast toast to your good fabric.
It’s a lot easier to feel good about your work when you feel decent about your ownself, so basic human upkeep ranks high on my reasons why Mary Picken’s advice is highly applicable today.
Be Willing To Learn From Good Sources
As with many historical things, don’t fall into a trap of “presentism”–assuming that our current practices and beliefs are the pinnacle and be-all, end-all of all human development forever.
One of the coolest things about sewing for living history is the chance to really experience archaeology! To try out the full systems and see how they feel. To learn to appreciate antique systems and habits. To experience, for a little while, a different world, and bring back into modern life those elements that appeal to us, that comfort us, that support us well. To share those experiences with others in the hopes it will also appeal, comfort, and support their modern lives.
Mary Picken was essentially awesome. She had good advice in her era, and much of it very directly applies to getting her same exceptional results in our current world.
Don’t diss her. Give her methods a whack. See what supports you. Test it long enough to make a habit, and enjoy the results!
If you’re naturally more chaotic, upgraded practices will let you avoid Overall Chaos, and focus on your creative chaos instead (and if you’re going to a limited-space workshop, tidy work habits will make you a class favorite with your fellow participants. Don’t be the Chaos Person who makes the whole thing awful. Contained Chaos is much nicer.) If you’re more like me, and require tidy, well-organized spaces to be at your most creative, these basics will support that as well.
Mary Picken. She’s awesome like that. Go be awesome like Herself.
Corsetry Toolkits!
I’m working on finishing up a full (and largely positive) review of the new RedThreaded 1860s corset, but while I’m finishing up, I wanted to share some tool resources that can help you dive into home-corsetry for the mid-19th century!
Grommets are a big deal. You need the 2-piece style, with a grommet and a washer, not the one-piece squashing-splay jobbies at Joann’s. And they need to be of modest size, to better suit the look of metal grommets used for lacing in mid-century corsets. You’ll also need a way to squash them together. A way that doesn’t kill your hands forever.
For under $12 *including shipping*, you can get a box of 100 sets of 000 or 00 metal grommets, plus the “hammer and anvil” that goes with the size, from Gold Star Tool.
The “hammer and anvil” set is inexpensive, effective, and lets you get a really good smash on the grommets for permanence and durability, without needing any sort of hand strength or grip strength. (This is a big deal for me. I cannot open jars without outside assistance. Grommet pliers are just Straight Out Nope.)
Now, you’ll also want a smacking tool… it needs to be hide, or dead-fall, or rubber mallet style, not metal. Metal will rebound in your hand, skitter around, and up your risks of smashing fingers and inventing all new Sewing Vocabulary that will likely get you Darned to Heck, where it is always Uncomfortably Warm. Let’s not.
Hit up Harbor Freight. A 1 pound rubber mallet runs under $3. And they have stores everywhere!
I’m often asked about the German Artificial Whalebone by Wissner (made from the baleen of artificial whales grown in the stock tanks at Wissner, of course)–does it work, etc? I’d say a hearty YES, actually! It’s an extruded polymerized polyester product with many remarkable properties.
It provides good, flexible support with far more stability over time (and with body heat) compared to lesser plastics or too-light steels, it can be twin-channeled with bones right next to one another when you want additional support, it’s lightweight, it can be cut with regular scissors and shaped with a nail emery, and it’s available by the yard/meter, so you can custom-cut your boning lengths as needed.
I prefer the 7mm (1/4″ wide) size, and I like ordering through Farthingales in Canada, though there are plenty of US suppliers. Burnley & Trowbridge have the 6mm at $2.30 a yard; Corset Making Supplies has a variety of thickness and width options by the roll, still under $3 a yard. (Burnley & Trowbridge have the very slender 4mm version, should you need something to mimic superfine baleen!)
German whalebone from Wissner is particularly useful if you’re corseting growing girls through their teens; you can go from test to finished corset as often as needful, without spending on repeated shipping.
Even with German whalebone for the majority of the corset, though, I still prefer to have 1/4″ flat spring steels for supporting the grommets at the back placket.
Coutil is not your only corset fabric option, nor is it a be-all, end-all. It’s just a French word for Twill. You can successfully corset with nearly any fabric, provided it has a firm, fine weave (too coarse and bones work through quickly), is a natural fiber (no heat-stroke death for costuming. It’s a low standard, but it’s my standard.), and has zero to very minimal cross-grain stretch. If you do want coutil, though, check out what Tutu.com has… $15 a yard for 60″ wide in white.
There you have it: a short list of useful things to contemplate while I wrap up my review of the new corset pattern and get it all loaded up!
Getting Better: A Short, Encouraging Rant.
by George P A Healy, MET collection
When it comes to replicating mid-19th century items for living history use, the closer we can get to the original, the better.
But sometimes, we hit a wall. We’re doing… okay. But the stuff we’re making isn’t quite cutting it. We might look like a reenactor, versus one of The Original Cast (and yes, I’m still regretting introducing The Original Cast as a term about a decade back, but I still find it highly useful, so I’m still using it.)
How do we break through, get over, or just tear down that wall?
Surprising no one, I have some thoughts.
Look at Stuff
… and by Stuff, I mean Original Stuff. Thousands of items are being shared in on-line archives daily. Do some digging in local historical archives, regional museums, private collections, on-line collections, antique guides, and other real resources, and really look at them. Are you seeing what you once thought you saw? Or has your eye been slowly refined by casual looking, and now you’re seeing more? Take notes.
Don’t Look at Stuff
… other repro stuff, I mean. There are some amazing replicators out there. I’m pleased to be friends with a whole stack of them. But if you’re copying somone’s modern repro project, you’re going to end up with a copy of a copy, and the more times it’s been copied, the more risk you run of getting make-believe, versus history. So be inspired, perhaps, but don’t copy. Look carefully to see where the replication and the original are twins, and where a repro items perhaps fails. Take notes.
Retrench
Take a bit and reexamine what you have and what you do. Are the elements of your impression truly harmonizing, or do you have an atypical stinker wrecking things up? Have you been skating by doing so-so, half-done semi-historic techniques? Now’s a great time to learn or refine something.
Perhaps you need to get really comfortable with making and applying fine piping: just do it! Perhaps you need to learn to really find your waist: just do it! If it means you end up taking apart and refining existing projects, awesome! (Caveat: so long as the fabric is a really spot-on one for your era. Don’t waste time on poor fabric choices.)
Sometimes, we get poor results just because we’re skating on some basics, like pressing a project as we sew, or paying attention to period grain placement when we cut, or skipping making a test bodice, or testing trim scales. Slow down a speck. Take the steps. Pay attention. Be tidy as you work. Press things. Make the muslin. Press the muslin, too. All the small habits really do add up to a more successful finished project.
Get Comfortable
… with a bit of historically-accurate tedium. You can spend your time fussing over the miserable slog of sewing on hooks, or hemming by hand, or hand-gathering, or any of the hundred mundane tasks of replication… or you can find your little zen pocket of the universe, and settle in to make the most of the time.
Simply choosing to add a pleasant aspect to a mundane task–like listening to period music, or “watching” a costume drama while you work, or taking your work to the sunniest spot in front of the window, with a fragrant cup of tea by your side–along with a determined attitude and a reasonable pace of work, can have a profound effect on the quality of your finished items, and a decrease in blasphemy, profanity, vulgarity, and general rage with which you may have previously approached your least-favorite tasks.
Sometimes, the mere swapping-about of the work process can help! For me, I make and prep my skirts first, directly after cutting everything. Seams done, hem in, balanced and gathered, gauged, or pleated, ready to go—it’s a psychologically easy start for me. Then I prefer to focus on doing up my sleeves–since I can baste those into my muslin to test them, because YES, I MADE THE MUSLIN. Once the sleeves are truly sewn and finished, they get neatly folded on top of the tidily-folded skirts, and I start my bodice. Projects where I’ve started the bodice first? OH LANGUISHMENT. OH WOE. OH TEDIUM.
If your sewing process has been a drag on your work, consider switching it up and finding a new comfortable work order!
Get Uncomfortable
Learn to use your thimble. Seriously.
But beyond that, get out of your project comfort zone! If you do mostly sewing, try another period handwork–knit something very badly. Paint a few horrific watercolors. Embroider something terrible. Build a rickety shelf with handtools. Make lumpy cream gravy. Learn a period ballad and caterwaul in the car.
Stepping outside of your normal project range to experience other aspects of mid-century life can refresh the soul, and bring new depth and context to every avenue of living history!
Read Stuff
Read any primary sources, and good secondary resources, that you can get your eyeballs on. Whether it’s a period novel, science treatise, travel story, missions report, newspaper, or business directory, you’ll gain context. Read What The Original Cast Read.
Don’t Read Stuff
… but don’t get too caught up in the politics of modern hobby chat on-line, or you risk getting bogged down in all that mire, or getting used to seeing fairly mediocre work praised instead of examined, or any of a number of distraction and misinformation risks we are all prone to. On-line lists and such have their place! I adore them! Just be wary of the echo chambers, and think sensibly about the information you find. Evaluate, critique, search, and make up your own mind: is what you’re hearing and reading consistent with The Original Cast stuff you’ve also been reading?
Set Ambitious Goals
If you’re used to doing modern double-layer collars, set a goal to make a fine-hemmed single-layer batiste collar, and maybe edge it with really good lace. Choose one technique to focus on with your next project, and take some notes on the learning process. Learn to use teensy double-points to knit something. Look at budget-friendly ways to set aside money for the Really Good Bonnet, or the Really Historic Glasses. Set a goal that pushes you, and work in small increments to get there.
Celebrate Small
Take the time to notice and be pleased with your progress. What may not seem celebratory to others might be a very big small deal to you! It is very encouraging to pull out something, on which you’ve done your best, and notice afresh how much care you put into improving your pressing skills or buttonholes or tidy button stitching that isn’t knobby with drool-covered knots… your upgrades matter. Celebrate them! (And if you come across something you can now improve, go ahead and do that! It’s Quite Reasonable to snip off all your buttons and re-stitch them with the better techniques you know now, or pull off a mangled patch and re-do a mend in a more period manner!)
What will you improve this year?
Mahaffie Sunbonnet Sewing Review
Only a few weeks after we debuted the new free sunbonnet pattern, made possible by the lovely folks at Mahaffie Stage Stop and Historic Farm, one of our lovely Sewing Academy readers and long-time Forum member, Betsy Connolly Watkins, has completed her very own, and was very happily willing to share the experience with all of us!
You can read her post, and see how charming the results are, right here.
And, for the record, I agree with all of her comments! This is not the very-very-simple style suited for very new historical sewists. It is not hard, but it does have multiple steps that may feel unfamiliar even to someone with the years of historical sewing experience those like Betsy have.
The process of back-engineering the original in the Mahaffie collection was a lot of fun for me, simply because of the interesting order one needs to take to replicate the results of the original. It was a series of “OH! So then… no, but first.. oh, and then… nope, this other…” I spent a good two hours muttering to myself in delight, sketching, and measuring. And then even more hours thinking through it all, and turn it into a step-by-step project and test out the sequence.
While you could make a Mahaffie-style sunbonnet in any sunbonnet-appropriate textile, I really love that Betsy used a woven check very similar to the original extant bonnet. The checks show off so wonderfully in this style, as would any linear-design fabric. This is one style that really needs the smaller, linear motif to show off best; a larger print, or a non-linear floral would not have such distinctly charming arrangements in the bias-cut frill, and in the seaming/piping of the front/back bonnet sections.
Excellent work, Mrs Watkins! May you wear it happy, deeply shaded, and in excellent health!
Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Petticoats, or Making A Mend
In the Petticoat Evaluation post, I discovered a petticoat I’d made for our oldest years ago that just needed a bit of repair and button movement to make it suited for our youngest this season. Said youngest has actually been using the petticoat for generalized dress-up for about a year, and there is visible damage from her tenure. I’ll definitely need to “make a-mends” to get this petticoat into shape!
Mending is a grand use of my time. With just a single 20-minute sewing session, I’ll restore an entire petticoat to hardy use, saving myself a few hours and several yards of cloth to make a full new one.
Mending is also a very common mid-century practice, and to get a great fix, I can use two different options.
I could darn the ripped area, using stitches to draw the edges back together and make a new, small-scale weave to strengthen the area. When done well, this is very nearly invisible, and quite strong.
However, my youngest is a very active girl, and I anticipate a lot of rough wear on her petticoats! Another period mending choice is to patch under the area. This will give me a fresh piece of fabric stabilizing the ripped area, and the whole thing will take heavy laundering without a hitch.
This is the rip; it’s on-grain, vertically (I have no idea how she managed this, but a tree and climbing were likely involved). There is a second small rip not far from it.
You can see that the edges are a little shredded from being laundered a few times before mending, but not too badly. I’ll definitely want to “make a-mends” before any further laundering, or this rip will grow!
I don’t need to match the fabric exactly; I can get into my scraps for a 3×2″ piece of basic white cotton. This is a very utilitarian item, and since our interpretive needs are working class and western emigration, a tiny bit of visibility can actually be a great interpretive point for us!
With a bit of steam and a hot iron, I pressed each edge of the patch to the wrong side.
Using pair of small, sharp scissors, I cleaned up the edges of the rip, and pressed those to the wrong side very gently. (The picture was taken just before I clipped out those long threads in the middle of the rip.)
Laying the patch on the inside of the petticoat, a quick felling stitch attached the pressed outer edges to the body of the petticoat.
You can see the short stitch perpendicular to the edge of the patch in the photo to the left.
The needle and thread move diagonally up to the next stitching position, so on the inside of the patch, there are short perpendicular stitches over the patch edge, and on the outside of the petticoat, there are tiny diagonal stitches outlining the patch position.
Another round of felling secured the tucked-under edges of the rip to the underlying patch. I used the point of the needle to “sweep” the raw edge under just a bit, which turns a long, gapped slit into a slender oblong with finished edges.
All done!
Now the petticoat is ready for a nice long soak to remove old stains, and a good line-dry (with the help of friendly hens, of course!)
A good starch and press, and re-positioning the button to sit more securely at her waist, and this petticoat is ready for action for one more year!
Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Petticoat Evaluation
I do have a small stack of petticoats the girls inherit from one another. Because each was made with period techniques and decent fabric, I have some evaluation to do, to see if I can recycle any of the Inheritance Stack for this season’s use.
Three that came easily to the top of the pile include:
Inheritance Petticoat #1: Waist 26″; length 17″ max (there is a single 1/2″ tuck still in place); circumference 106″. The circumference is great for a small girl, but even with all the tucks dropped out, this petticoat will be 5″ short of the smallest length I need, and I’d need to re-set the waist to be 5″ smaller, too. Too short, too wide. This one is a good candidate for selling off to another family, or donating to the loaner closet at our local historic site.
Inheritance Petticoat #2: Waist 26-27″, depending on moving a button; length 21.5″ max; circumference 86″. Again, the circumference is good. It’s going to be a bit short and wide to work for my youngest, so my time is probably best used making her something she can wear for a few years going forward. This will be another that gets cleaned and pressed to pass along or donate.
Inheritance Petticoat #3: Waist 24″; length 22″ with a single 1″ tuck remaining, for a potential max length of 24″; circumference 84″. This petticoat has one small mend, and one larger mend (2″ long vertical rip) that will need mending.
I can re-set the waist to suit my youngest girl, who needs a 22″ band over her stays. I could also potentially just add a second buttonhole and button position, and save myself the re-setting time, as the waist difference is a meager 2″. The length will drop out to 24″ by simply taking out the remaining growth tuck; she needs skirts of 23.5″to hit her mid-calf, so I will leave the length as-is (it’s 22″ long with the tuck in place).
Just a few minutes measuring and inspecting this petticoat, and with a short 20-minute session to mend the rips, and I’ve saved myself the entire process of making one petticoat for her! I’ve also identified two potential re-sales or donations that can save other families some time and effort.
Taking stock of clothing at the end of each interpretive season, and again a few months before each interpretive season, saves time and effort. What do you have? What do you need? It’s the same process as done in the 19th century: practical, frugal, and functional!
Tuck Into a New Year (Growth Tuck Tutorial!)
Growth tucks in children’s clothing are a great way to add versatility and foil the wee beasties who insist on growing nearly every single day, despite bread-and-water rations and heavy books on their heads.
And, if you’re inheriting hand-me-downs that are a bit long, a quick tuck will lift them without removing the length forever–letting out tucks is as simple as a few minute with fine scissors to get out the thread, and then a quick press.
You’ll find this tuck technique illustrated in the dolls, infants and girls patterns, as well as in The Dressmaker’s Guide, and if you’d like to learn in person, do register for any of our upcoming workshops!
Tucks for functional length control are put into a skirt after the side seams and hem are finished. Even if the skirt is already set, you can add tucks to shorten the length, though it will be a bit fiddly and you’ll need to do measuring and pressing in short sections to keep everything flat. Press everything well at each step.
To get started, determine how much length you need to take out, and give the skirt hem a good press.
Garment wrong-side-out, hem pressed
Decide On Your Tucks
Each tuck will take up twice its depth. So, if I want to remove 1.5″ from the length of a skirt, I need a tuck that is .75″ deep when finished.
The photos here use a .75″ tuck depth, and if I were to keep the tuck in the dress, it would be 1.5″ too short for my gangle-of-a-10yo when I was finished.
Measure For the Tuck
Turn the garment wrong side out, and arrange the hem flat on the ironing board (you’ll be working around in sections.)
We’ll take our cue from original garments and the Original Cast: tucks look best if they are not jammed over the hemline or overlapping one another.
Many original garments have a tuck spacing equal to the tuck depth, meaning there’s a gap of plain fabric between the hem stitching line and the tuck edge, and between the tuck stitching line and the next tuck edge.
I like things very evenly spaced, so I’ll mark the tuck fold line 2.25″ from the hem stitching line.
This will give me .75″ gap, .75″ hidden by the tuck when finished, and .75″ for the backside of the tuck itself.
Turning the hem edge up toward the waist, I measure 2.25″ from the stitching line of the tuck to the fold I’m arranging.
Measure from hem stitching line to fold.
Press this fold neatly in sections all the way around the garment. This pressing is your key to success!
Stitch the Tuck
Measure from the pressed fold, one tuck depth. This will be the stitching line for the tuck.
Measure the tuck depth.
Don’t get too dainty with your tuck stitching.
As with a period hem, you want a single thread that will readily give way if the fabric is under too much strain. It’s far easier to tack up 6″ of tuck stitching or hem if the thread breaks, versus trying to mend a shredded fabric weave if the thread holds and the fabric doesn’t!
A simple running stitch is ideal.
I’ve used a single cotton thread in a fairly deep brown, so you can see the stitches more easily, and I’ve zoomed in a lot; the individual stitches are about 1/16″ each, just little nibbles out of the weave.
A Quick Running Stitch
At “wearing range”, these entirely disappear on the dress!
You could also sew by machine, using a plain straight stitch at about 2.5 stitch length.
These are designed to be removed at some point, so don’t make yourself crazy with super-tiny machine stitching!
I’m stitching .75″ from the fold.
Press And Done!
When you’ve gone all the way around the pressed edge, tie off and press the work flat, then turn the garment right sides out and press the tuck toward the hem edge. DONE!
Press tuck toward the hem. Repeat for more tucks!
Tips from the Original Cast
Taking note of common elements from original garments and original images of the era:
Tucks are usually decently large. The 1/32″ pin tuck era is still several decades in the future. 1/8″ in decorative tucked panels do happen, but 1/2″ to 1″ depths in functional growth tucks (and many decorative skirt elements!) are really common.
Tucks usually happen in odd numbers. If you need to lift out 6″, do it as three 1″ tucks. The human eyeball likes to find a mid-point.
You can also lift out fabric in one larger sewn fold (one 3″ tuck, for instance, will lift out 6″ of length), but you won’t have the gradual flexible extension of releasing one tuck.
Don’t worry overly much about fading lines or perma-creases along let-out tuck lines. Sure, they’re the bane of every littler sister everywhere, but the Original Cast didn’t seem to worry too much. Don’t fuss with adding trim to a utility cotton to hide a removed tuck. Just press it out as best you can, and use it as an example of the recycling/upcycling mindset so common in the 19th century. It’s not a flaw, it’s an Interpretive Feature.
On the Care and Feeding of Your Sewing Friend
Image from Library of Congress
We all of us have a Sewing Friend at some point in our sewing days… that Kind Friend with more experience that we have at the moment, who has a broader grasp on the intricacies of historic sewing techniques and research application. The Sewing Friend who talks us out of bad purchasing choices, and encourages us to grow, expand, and try new things.
Here’s a short list of thoughtful things you can do to ensure your Sewing Friend loves hearing from you, and remains eager to be on your resource list for year to come… a Care and Feeding tipsheet, if you will!
(We’re using “Her” as the generic target pronoun, but substitute your Sewing Friend’s appropriate pronoun as needed. The concepts are universal.)
Be Considerate of Her Time
Your Sewing Friend has a Real Life, much as she might prefer to be immersed in historic pursuits full time. Being considerate of her time includes planning your projects with substantial lead-time, so your questions are not asked in crisis deadline mode, and she can plan pockets of time that fit around her real life responsibilities.
Phrasing your requests in considerate ways helps a lot, too. “Is there a good time in the next three weeks to come over for about half an hour and have you show me that thing you mentioned about fitting the waist? Or is it something we could do on video-chat at your convenience? Is there already a tutorial on-line you could recommend?” tends to be more favorably received than “I’ll be over tonight at 9:30 for you to fit my bodice for me.”
Be Willing To Work Beforehand
Ask her what portions of the project you should have prepped before you meet. Then prep those. Ask for tutorial recommendations or resource recommendations, then give them a whack yourself, even if the results are imperfect. In fact, give everything a whack, on scrap fabric! It’s far easier to give suggestions for improvement, corrections to refine the technique, or ideas on alterations when your Sewing Friend can see where you’re at with skills and applications. And, you might surprise yourself at what you figure out solo!
Working beforehand includes doing some research. It’s not your Sewing Friend’s job to do research into what’s most appropriate for your interpretive needs. You’ll want to have a firm grasp on the context of your impressions and activities, and a list of What I Need Clothing-wise To Make It Work. Doing your own research into textiles and prints, then bringing images of three choices you think could work, is far more useful than expecting her to spend hours of time researching options for you to pick among.
Be Willing To Work During
Unless you’re paying your Sewing Friend skilled-labor rates to do your project as a commissioned job, you should be the primary hands on your work. During a sewing-together session, be prepared and willing to patiently work through each step of your project, asking for help as needed. You may end up needing to pick out and re-do something; that’s normal, and part of the learning process. Asking for a confirming opinion before going ahead with a construction step is a far more useful thing than sitting on your Sewing Friend’s couch, expecting her to do the work of sewing for you.
Be Willing To Work After
Your Sewing Friend will reasonably ask you to do some work independently after your session. Give it a whack! If you’ve learned to sew a plain seam during your sewing session, you can independently sew all the plain seams before your next session. If you’ve learned to put a hem in during your session, plan to put in all your hems before the next session. Carving out time to make progress between your sessions together shows your Sewing Friend that you take her efforts to help you seriously, even if it’s in 10-minute segments each day!
Provide Your Own Stuff
It’s not reasonable to expect your Sewing Friend to provide notions, fabrics, or machines for your use. If you do not own a machine, you’ll need to expect a slower pace via hand-sewing, or else save up for a good basic machine and lessons (from the seller or user manual) in how to thread and use that machine. Ask your Sewing Friend for suggestions on where to buy good notions, then follow those suggestions. Pop your supplies into a nice tote, and bring them every time. Don’t expect your Sewing Friend to give up her own project time or machines for your use, or to loan them out to you.
If your Sewing Friend offers up a bit of fabric from her stash, be prepared and willing to reimburse her monetarily. She cannot replace the fabric using her own good looks or sparkling wit. She will probably offer you a bargain deal on it. It’s a kindness to not dicker with her over price. Your Sewing Friend’s textile expertise is not Haggle-palooza time. If the textile on offer is not in your budget right this minute, thank her kindly, and say, “No, I cannot”—or ask if you can save up over time, and take it home or cut it up when you’ve bought it fully.
Provide Some Good Stuff For Her, Too
If you’ll be working together for an afternoon, or even for an hour, it’s a considerate thing to bring along something pleasant to share, like a bouquet of fresh flowers from your garden (or a $4 bouquet from the grocery store), a box of tea you think she’ll like, some homemade (or bought!) cookies, fresh bread, a contribution toward lunch or supper, a library DVD to watch while you work, a great music playlist to listen to while you work. It doesn’t have to be expensive—free is awesome—but it’s a nice way to thank your Sewing Friend for devoting time to your needs, and enhances the companionable time you spend together.
Pro Tip: Don’t toss bags of castoff stuff at her, though. While your neighbor’s mother-in-law’s cousin’s stash of 1970s crochet lace might have some value somewhere, your Sewing Friend doesn’t usually need or want it. Ask, with photos attached, before hauling anything over to her house for “sharing.” Be aware that when she says, “Oh, that’s cool, but it doesn’t really suit my current needs,” that’s a firm NOPE NO WAY, and find somewhere else to fob the stuff. And home dec “faux silk” is not even suited for burning, due to the off-gassing. Just don’t even ask about that.
Say Thanks
In addition to doing considerate things, use your words! It’s amazing what simple expressions of genuine thanks can do. “Thanks for being willing to help!” “Thanks for setting aside time for me!” “Thanks for opening your home to me!” “Thanks for encouraging me through this step!” More than just a generic “Thanks, bye!” tossed over your departing shoulder, these specific and focused Thank You Words let your Sewing Friend know you recognize the value of her efforts. You don’t have to be excessive or effusive. Sewing Friends do want to help, and don’t expect trophies or press conferences in reward. Just remember to add a pleasant, sincere “Thank you for this!” when you’ve worked together, and at any point you feel grateful during a working session. .
Look for Reciprocity
Do you have a historic skill your Sewing Friend might like to learn? Offer reciprocal lessons or guidance! Do you have a Real Life Skill (versus historic life skill) that would enhance her Real Life? Offer it up! If your Sewing Friend is spending a chunk of time away from her Real Life Responsibilities in order to help you, look for ways you could help restore her time.
Be Diligent
No one is required to become an Expert Historic Sewist. And truthfully, you don’t need to be expert to do some really solid mid-century sewing for yourself, sewing that holds up under the demands of interpretive use, is consistent with history, and highly functional. With some diligent effort on your part, and the kind assistance of your Sewing Friend, you can do good, useful work, without ever needing to put in the thousands of hours your Sewing Friend has in pursuit of mastery. It’s okay if you don’t hit that point. Diligent effort over time is perfectly useful!
Say Thanks
This is not an unwitting duplicate. Really. Express gratitude verbally, in actions, and in body language. Most of us who are Sewing Friends get a really deep and satisfying kick out of seeing others meet their goals, and the expressions of gratitude are the delicious gooey chocolate ganache on the dense fudge cake of accomplishment.
The frequent and judicious application of a sincere thank you prevents burnout, enhances friendship, and is the life-blood of Sewing Friends everywhere!
Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Supportive Measures
In the midst of kitting up with chemises, drawers, petticoats, dresses, and all the other pretty things of a functional living history wardrobe, one element often overlooked or skipped “in the interests of time” is a stay or corset for a dress-wearing child.
That category of person-to-be-clothed includes tiny toddlers, through middle childhood, through the tween years, and into the teens, so it’s a significant population, and there are some good reasons to add stays or corsets to a child’s wardrobe.
First, though: definitions and functions.
A child’s corset (or stays; the two terms are used quite interchangeably in primary sources, and there doesn’t seem to be any differentiation as to one being stabilized with cording, the other with steel, etc) is designed for support, light control, and a platform. By that, I mean this: children are quite often “Eggs on Legs” (to borrow from Karen Crocker), and a child’s stay or corset provides some firming up to the squidgy torso, a way to move support of garments to the shoulder (through the use of straps) rather than trying to find a waist point, and also gives a spot upon which to button skirt supports and fullness.
Beyond those aspects, a stay also provides bust support for developing figures, and functions in the same way as an adult corset, distributing the wearing stress and weight of increasingly-full skirts around the entire body, rather than hanging from pinchy points on the back hip.
For my own two girls, stays do this:
1: For the younger one, age 8, who is build like a very thin noodle, and has some very mild sensory challenges: we’ll get a place to tack clothing onto her body, and prevent her skirts always sliding down to her knees in front, without having a narrow band of pressure from waistbands that will drive her to tears. She does very well with all-over pressure, so the stays not only function well from a historic-dressing standpoint, they ameliorate some modern challenges in a period-appropriate way! She also likes complex dress-up, so it’s satisfying all the way around.
2: For the older one, who is getting her early-teen curves at 11, the stays will simply firm up her torso for a tidy look in period clothing that matches what she’s seeing in original images. It doesn’t take much to notice that those 40s and 50s images of girls are showing some well-stabilized torsos, and she has a deep desire to present an identical look. Her stays will also accommodate her bust development, while giving her another layer between her own self and the world (which helps the very body-modest girl a great deal.)
What About Growth?
I’m not actually too worried about growth measures in either stay, and here’s why:
1: Noodly-girl has, at 8, a waist that is more slender than her own waist at age 2. Her waist has been a constant 21″ since she was about 4 years old. She’s healthy, but very reedy, and tends to do quick jumps up in height, without getting much wider at all. I need her to get the summer out of these stays—I anticipate two interpretive seasons at the very most before she’s 3″ taller and needs a new shape—, and then I can pass them along to other families. So, I’m fitting them to her needs now, with a slight bit of overlap for her buttons in the back, and about 1″ extra length in the straps for some growth room. She won’t be happy if they’re not comfortably snug.
2: My older girl is on the petite end of things, but is hitting her growth, and for her, that tends to be very little upward, and we’ve been seeing a refinement of curves in the last year. Her waist is lengthening a bit, and narrowing a lot; her hips are getting a little width, and her bust is developing. I can accommodate all of her needs by adding a lacing placket at the back, and keeping buttons in the front to aid self-dressing. Having dressed girls through their teens before, I’m comfortable with the idea that new stays are going to be an item every single year from now to about 18 or 19, when her figure starts to stabilize. Because she already has a good hip-to-waist ratio, I can make her stays without straps; she has enough hip to move to adult-style support without a problem.
Materials
As for adult supportive undergarments, I need 100% natural fabrics that are firmly woven, with good body and stability, but without being heavy or bulky. I’ll be using a combination of cotton twill and cotton sateen (a satin-weave cotton) for the corded stays my youngest will use. It’s a light-weight, low-bulk combination that does very well stabilized with close cording, and because she will not have a lacing adjustment, there’s no problem with the corded areas trying to squash to the waist.
My older daughter gets a more stabilized garment, suited to her support needs. I’ll be using a layer of coutil with some steel stays and German artificial whalebone (a high-grade product harvested from artificial whales of the inland lakes in Germany) in casings, to keep the garment as light and breathable as possible for a child who turns pink in the heat like her Mother. She’ll still have a buttoning front, but we’ll have a lacing placket in back, with metal grommets (not eyelets–size 00 two-piece metal grommets for durability).
Patterns
I’m using the stays pattern from our Girl’s Linens pattern for each; it’s a simple one to cut for different lengths and circumferences, and I’ll be customizing the fit at the side seams for the younger one, and by creating some curving seamlines at the bust as well, for the older one. As she gets a bit older, I’ll switch to doing custom-draped corsets for her, following the methods in The Dressmaker’s Guide. Since the pattern accommodates her largest body measurement (bust), I can simply adjust things for now.
Preparations
Remember, we’re doing the sewing sessions in 20-minute increments, to show how progress can be made even when time is tight for a modern family.
My first work session is actually just pre-washing my fabrics; there’s about 20 minutes of labor involved, with tossing it into the wash and hanging on the line later. We don’t have to stare at the cloth while it dries.
Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Chemise Finishing
With the plackets in two chemises finished, we’re nearing the finish line on all four!
The majority of chemises with fullness at mid-century seem to be handled with gathering to fit a yoke or band. Since that seems to be the most common, that’s how I’ll be handling the fullness at the neckline.
In reproducing chemises, you could opt to machine sew gathering stitches. Keep your machine’s settings at a regular straight stitch, rather than a longer basting stitch. Run one row of stitches about 1/8″ away from the edge of the fabric, and another about 1/4″ away from that, stopping and starting to avoid the run-and-fell seams. They will be a bit bulky to try and pull gathers through, otherwise.
When dealing with the relative minimal fullness involved for a chemise neckline that I’ve already scaled down to suit my girls, machined gathers will work well enough, and they will be a bit faster than the option I’m choosing: hand gathering.
Sessions Nine thru Fourteen
Gathering by hand, using two rows of fairly small running stitch, is one of the most low-bulk ways to control fullness. I actually like the rhythm of the stitching, and I really like the fine results, so it’s satisfying and worthwhile to me to gather all four neckline edges by hand.
I do “hop the seam” with a longer stitch on the outside of the chemise at each of the run-and-fell seams. I’ll be positioning them flat when I sew the bands, and don’t want to have to drag thread through them when I gather. My smirched purple thumbnail is hovering over a “hop.”
The gathering takes me about 30 minute per chemise, which means I do need to be willing to sit down for six 20-minute sessions of work. In reality, this translated to snuggling into the corner of the couch, grabbing my needle and thread and watching three episodes of one of my favorite shows on Netflix (Supernatural, in case you wondered. It’s what I consider the modern equivalent of reading Bronte, or Shelley–Gothic horror/romance ideals in a modern setting. The nature of Man, redemption, brotherhood, all that lot.) I don’t consider that a hardship.
I’ll wait until I get everything pinned to the neck bands to decide if I’ll be sewing a regular seam, or finishing the necklines with stroked gathering; if the gathering density is sufficient, I may well choose stroked gathers, because I do like the way they look. (Spoiler Alert: I decided to do regular seams to attach the bands, and I did them by machine, too!)
Session Fifteen & Sixteen: Straight Bands
There are several ways to handle a straight, non-placketed band. I could choose to make each band a two-piece band, seamed at the bottom to the chemise, and to the band facing at the top. This is very stable, and allows me to sandwich in some nice whitework edging if I’m so inclined.
However, the particular miss I’m making these two chemises for has some mild sensory-processing quirks, and she is very likely to declare all of that “too stiff” to be worn.
Instead, I’m making the band double the width I want, seaming it to the chemise, and making a simple folded-and-stitch finish. A bit of topstitching along the upper fold gives it stability, without “stiffness” that might antagonize my particular young lady.
The basic construction process:
Seam the band at the short ends. Match quarter marks to the chemise and draw up the gathers to fit. Stitch a 1/4″ seam to join them. (This is my personal preference; you can make a deeper seam allowance if you prefer, and then trim the extra to reduce a bit of bulk inside the band.)
Press all the seam allowances toward the band, then fold the band into place on the inside, covering all the raw edges. Topstitch very close to the seam “ditch”, and again about 1/16″ to 1/8″ away from the fold at the top of the band. Done!
Session Seventeen & Eighteen: Placketed Bands
For the placketed bands, I chose to round off the upper edge of the bands. This is a lot easier to sew if each band is in two sections: the outer band, and the band facing/lining. I follow the same process for matching quarter points, drawing up the gathers, and sewing with a 1/4″ seam allowance to attach the band. However, I make sure the band extends about 1/4″ beyond the edge of the plackets, so I can attach the facing/lining easily, and have everything mate up smoothly.
Once the band is on, I can press all the allowances toward the band, then pin the band facing/lining right sides together with the outer band, and stitch from one curve, across the top edge, to the other curve.
A bit of trimming and notching to make sure the curve turns nicely, and I can press the whole facing/lining into place on the inside of the band. Again, topstitch to finish all the way around the band.
With the last bit of my final sewing session, I worked a buttonhole in the overlap end of each placketed chemise, and sewed on a neat little 4-hole white porcelain button (these are very common on undergarments at mid-century.)
Chemises: The Final Tally
Including the three side-bar sessions I spent on tucks and hemmed plackets, I’ve used twenty-one 20-minute sewing sessions to take purchased yardage to four finished chemises for my girls, using a mix of period-appropriate hand and machined construction techniques. That’s averaging out at 105 minutes per chemise… a bit more than an hour and a half each. Not too bad!
If I were only able to sew 20 minute a day, I would be done with all four chemises in 21 days. If I can carve out an hour a day, my time to complete four quite nice chemises drops to about one week of 1-hour sewing sessions. Or, I could choose to fall down a Black Hole of Making, and blitz out four chemises in one day, if I plan some meals ahead. From yardage on the laundry, to four chemises finished!
