All posts filed under: Sewing

Things I sew – historical and modern

Children’s sizing – help a sewist out!

Apparently it’s kiddie week on the blog – on Monday it was children’s fashions from the early 1920s, and today I’m hoping to get your help with a children’s sizing question. One of my sewing students is making children’s fashions, and she’s noticed a gap in the sizing charts which affects how she sizes patterns. In order to understand the gap a bit more, we’re taking a very informal survey. Do you have access to a child between the ages of 2 & 11? Could you take two measurements on them and tell us the following: 1: The child’s age, gender, and: 2: The measurement from the top of their head, to the point where the neck joins the shoulder (taken straight, as if you were holding a ruler from the shoulder up past the ear to the top of the head) 3: The child’s torso length, from the hollow in the centre of their neck, to their true waist. I’m doing this as a leave-a-blog-comment survey, rather than using a survey form, because I …

Ridiculous adorableness: Wearing History’s 1917 combinations

Published by The Dreamstress

Wearing History just came out with a new late-teens combination pattern taken directly from a period pattern. Naturally, I was super excited about it because I want to expand my 1910s wardrobe this year. I was even more excited about it when Lauren asked if I would pattern test it. Yes I would! (so yes, I got the pattern for free, and yes, I’m a total Wearing History fangirl, but I wasn’t paid anything for this post, any opinions are totally my own, and if anything, as everyone knows, I tend to be hypercritical of patterns.) The print-out e-version of the pattern was very easy to put together, and everything matched up perfectly. I chose the view with the scooped neck and buttoning-over under-extension (because hey, as long as you are making totally crazy 1910s, underwear, let’s go whole hog!). For my fabric I used an old cotton sheet – unfortunately I got my sheets mixed up at the last minute, and cut one I’d set aside for toiles only, because it was quite worn, …

ca. 1800 Recamier gown thedreamstress.com

Getting things right: my foundations pledge

Published by The Dreamstress

Update: Please do read this post and comment on it, because it’s interesting and pretty and important, but don’t leave your links to your HSF/M Foundations challenge blog posts on this one, because that’s not what it’s for! They belong on yesterdays post. 🙂 Five years ago I made this ca. 1800 dress, inspired by two portraits of Madame Recamier: I managed to make it in one day, even though it is predominantly hand-sewn. Unfortunately, in the rush to make it, I didn’t double-check Janet Arnold, and I made a rather big mistake. Can you see it? It’s the front-skirt to bodice join. I gathered my entire front skirt to the apron bodice, where there should have been almost no gathering, and the sides of the skirts should have hung over, and wrapped around the back, thus eliminating that enormous fold running down the side of the skirt, and the weird gathered-front but flat sides effect. I realised the mistake almost as soon as the dress was done, but didn’t fix it. Every time …