All posts filed under: Sewing

Things I sew – historical and modern

A preppy Scroop Miramar

It’s summer here in NZ, and that means breaking out the knits and lightweight cottons and rayons, and making a bunch of Miramars & Henrietta Marias. I’ve always wanted a sky blue Miramar, but couldn’t find the right fabric last year. At the end of spring I finally found some fabulous pique knit in the perfect sky blue, and whipped up a Miramar that very night. I love the pique knit: it’s polo shirt fabric, so, combined with the colour, the Miramar feels very preppy. I feel like I ought to be wearing it with a grosgrain belt and driving mocs (sans socks, natch). Since I don’t have either of those (I guess I have lots of grosgrain, and belt findings, so could have made one!) I paired it with my clamdigging shorts (suitably preppy name, and eminently practical for the occasion), my favourite sunnies, and bare feet. I did actually wear shoes for most of the outfit’s outing. I was wearing this for a walk through the Karori Cemetary with the Wellington Sewing …

TVEO1, 1900s Edwardian corset thedreamstress.com

Time to be my own hero: adventures in Edwardian corsetmaking

Published by The Dreamstress

The 1900s ‘Touch of blue’ corset that I made recently was the first 1900s corset that I’ve finished, but it wasn’t the first that I started. (brace yourself for a long post, full of problems!) I’ve had the TVE01 Edwardian corset pattern in my stash since shortly after it came out, but hadn’t gotten around to making it up. Then Lauren of Wearing History made a gorgeous version of it in green brocade back in March 2014. I fell in love, pulled out my pattern, and immediately started my own version. I had green on my mind thanks to Lauren’s version, so I picked a silk taffeta in pale spring green, and a midweight herringbone twill cotton for backing and support. Lauren had mentioned that she must have measured wrong, because her 1900s corset came out quite small. So I measured very carefully, and checked the pattern very carefully, and was a little generous in picking my size. I flat lined everything, sewed everything together, added stunt bones, and a stunt lacing strip, and tried …

1913-1916 Sunshine & Roses corset thedreamstress.com

A 1913-1916 Sunshine & Roses corset

Published by The Dreamstress

Thanks to the total and abject failure of my 1910s non-travelling corset, and the super-comfortable but slightly too big-ness of my 1916 black and white corset, I decided I needed to make a new 1910s corset to go under my 1914-15 spiderweb evening gown for Costume College. This may not have been my brightest idea ever, as I was already pushing it to get the evening gown itself finished in time, but 1910s corsets are pretty easy, so… I used the same 1916 corset pattern from Salen’s corset book as I’d used for the black and white corset, only this time I adapted the pattern pieces slightly for an earlier ‘teens silhouette: reducing the waist to hip ratio, and cutting the front into a lower dip. I kept the higher scoop of the lower back edge of the corset as it is, although it’s an unusual feature on corsets before 1914, because it’s so comfortable, especially for sitting. Because the black and white corset was as big as it could be while still fitting me …