All posts filed under: Sewing

Things I sew – historical and modern

A circular cardigan with a vintage twist

Last spring I bought myself some delicious Karen Walker wool-blend knit in camel brown, and I immediately thought it would be perfect for a circle cardigan. I envisioned something with a bit of a 1950s twist, with the fold-down of the circle mimicking a shawl collar, and the volume of the cut evoking a late 50s swing coat, with the goal being to elevate the cardigan from ‘slouchy wear around the house wear’ to ‘looking glam while still being super comfy’ status. Mission accomplished! I used an altered version of the sleeves from my cardigan pattern, and then did the rest based on a few measurements and some trial and error. The fabric had a lovely picot edged selvedge, so I used it to form the binding – much simpler to accomplish than a full folded binding, and I love the way it looks. I’m wearing the cardigan with a Stella skirt, a commercial blouse that I love because the neck pleating reminds me of a lei, and one of my Grandmother’s hats. The photos …

The Scroop Henrietta Maria dress with elastic waist thedreamstress.com

The Woodwold Henrietta Maria

Published by The Dreamstress

Quite a few Henrietta Maria’s got made as I finalised my pattern, and many of them got left in the PHd pile, finished except for hems. (fess up, who else gets to that part and just can’t quite I make it happen…?) I’m slowly reducing the PHds, and adding the Henrietta Maria’s to my wardrobe. At this point my Costume College packing is going to be entirely Henrietta Maria dresses and historical frocks! Every time I finish a Henrietta Maria I love it more than the last one, and this one is definitely no exception! This is the Scroop Henrietta Maria with an elastic waist (tutorial here), in a poly crepe chiffon (it’s a very high quality polyester, and, thanks to the weave, breaths well). I’m calling it my Woodwold dress, because the print reminds me of the description of the amazing wrought-iron gates of Woodwold in Robin McKinley’s Spindle’s End. There are even tiny roses hidden in the print! This is one of those prints where no matter how you arranged the fabric, it …

HSM ’16 Challenge #5: an autumn cardigan

Published by The Dreamstress

I had grand plans for the Historical Sew Monthly 2016 Challenge #5: Gender Bender. I was going to finish my 1916 Wearing History jacket, and give it a few twists that made the correlation between the jacket and menswear even more obvious. But life, as it so often does, got in the way, in the form of unexpected overseas visitors and exciting opportunities. With the month coming to a close, I was in a bit of a panic. What did I have on my sewing list or in my UFO pile that wasn’t going to take 20 hours to finish, and that was for a man, or that showed the influence of menswear? How about a 1920s cardigan? Perfect! Even better, I realised I had a half-finished blog-post on the history of cardigans for my terminology series sitting in my draft folder. I could cross two UFOs off my list in one go! The cardigan is made from midweight merino knit in black, with buttons in black and light brown. Although black became a fashionable …