All posts filed under: Sewing

Things I sew – historical and modern

A pair of ‘crap, these probably aren’t right at all’ drawers for Nana (and bonus stockings)

Other than finishing the corset, the last piece of my Nana ensemble to assemble was the drawers. The drawers are now done, only well, they are slightly problematic. How so? Well, look at them: And the back view: So. Ummm, yeah. Sexy they are not. Now, the whole colossal camel toe + super saggy bottom thing is just kinda how most mid-19th century drawers fit, but this pair is taking it a little to the extreme. The problem is the cut. 1870s closed drawers were just open drawers with the centre seam sewn up, and so they have this weird quarter-circle shape with lots of extra fabric in the crotch area. Looking at Manet’s Nana, the line of her chemise is quite smooth over her front and hips. With such bulky drawers, that simply won’t happen. So how to achieve Nana’s look? Well, one possibility is that she isn’t wearing drawers (I mean, she is Nana!). However, the way the lace is falling at her hem makes me think she definitely is. The other …

The sorta-maybe-kinda ’20s cardigan

Published by The Dreamstress

Back during the Historical Sew Fortnightly ‘Black & White’ challenge in addition to a white item, I also whipped up a black item. This: It’s a sort-of, maybe, ’20s inspired cardigan. Granted, it looks a lot more 1920s if I pair it with a ’20s skirt and thick stockings and ’20s shoes! Confession time: this cardigan did not, at all, start out as an intentionally even remotely historical piece. It started out because I noticed that there was a new cardigan pattern out: McCall’s M6803. I love cardigans, and have been on the hunt for the perfect cardigan pattern (though the goal of my search has gradually downgraded from ‘perfect’, to ‘good’, to ‘reasonable’, to ‘not completely awful’ as I work through the options). Obviously I had to try this one. Let me tell you, M6803 is not perfect. It’s not even good. Or reasonable. In fact, it’s completely awful. (in fact, they are all so awful I’ve sucked it up and drafted my own – but more about that later) The big ‘Unisex’ sticker …

A luxurious late-1870s chemise for Nana

Published by The Dreamstress

Another bit of my Manet’s Nana inspired ensemble is done. I’ve finished her chemise. It was done save for a bit of the lace trim before I got sick, but got put on hold while I slept for days on end. I used the free 1880s chemise pattern at Tudorlinks as a starting point. It’s a decade later, but chemise shapes didn’t change a great deal, and the basic shape is a good for what you can see of Nana’s chemise in Manet’s painting. It also matches the few extent late 1870s chemises that I could find that look like even slightly like Nana’s I’ve spent a lot of time trying to decide if Nana is wearing a corset with straps, or if she simply has blue ribbons in her chemise. I’m leaning toward the chemise theory for two reasons. First, strapped corsets seemed to have been viewed as more practical, less decadent corsets in the 1870s, and Nana is clearly not a practical woman! Second, there is another Manet painting which almost certainly …