The Dreamstress

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Rate the Dress: a 1910s suit

Last week’s steel buttons and hat trim weren’t popular with most of you, and I know that this week’s buttons, and buttons, and buttons won’t be popular with at least one of you! So apologies to anyone with koumpounophobia. However, if you are a fan of buttons, maybe you’ll enjoy this week’s Rate the Dress.

Last Week: a 1780s redingote in purple silk

Alas, as fun as I find fashion plates, you don’t find them very fun to rate – there . There were things to like about the ensemble though: the rich colour, and jaunty collar. No one was a fan of the long torso and the scalloped peplums of the redingote, just like no-one liked them on the yellow 1780s number we looked at a few months back. And the hat definitely wasn’t winning friends and influencing the rating in a positive manner.

The Total: 7.8 out of 10

Not terrible…but certainly not great.

This week: a 1910s suit with all the (button) trimmings

This week we’re going from a late 18th century suit, to an early 20th century suit.

Suit, ca. 1910-14, linen with braid trim, Kent State University Museum 1983.001.0256 ab

This 1910s number is typical of early 1910s fashion. It features a slim silhouette, with just enough fullness to make walking easy and practical. The asymmetrical effect of the overskirt is balanced by the wrap collar and the asymmetrical buttoning of the jacket.

The buttons-and-more-buttons trim, and contrasting striped collar and cuffs, are classic bits of 1910s whimsy.

Despite the quirky use of buttons, the suit is generally quite conservative. Since last week’s extremely moddish ensemble was considered a little too devoted to style, perhaps you’ll prefer this one: fashionable, without being faddish.

Do you like it?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

A reminder about rating — feel free to be critical if you don’t like a thing, but make sure that your comments aren’t actually insulting to those who do like a garment. Phrase criticism as your opinion, rather than a flat fact. Our different tastes are what make Rate the Dress so interesting. It’s no fun when a comment implies that anyone who doesn’t agree with it, or who would wear a garment, is totally lacking in taste.

(as usual, nothing more complicated than a .5. I also hugely appreciate it if you only do one rating, and set it on a line at the very end of your comment, so I can find it! And 0 is not on a scale of 1 to 10. Thanks in advance!)

Felicity the Sewing Cat and the Scroop Augusta Stays thedreamstress.com

Felicity helps with the Augusta Stays

Published by The Dreamstress

Something fun for the end of the weekend: a little documentation of how much Felicity helped with the Augusta Stays.

From the cutting out:

To making buckram:

Making linen buckram: gum tragacanth vs xathan gum thedreamstress.com

To boning the stays:

And to all the hand-sewing:

Including the unpicking of handsewing…

(note sad kitty)

So much work! Look at how exhausted she is:

What a helpful kitty!

@jessicajquirk in her Augusta Stays by Scroop Patterns and Virgil's Fine Goods

The Augusta Stays: Tester Makes!

Published by The Dreamstress

I always get a bit gushy about how amazing the pattern testers for Scroop Patterns are (with good reason), but the testers for the Augusta Stays deserve an extra round of credit.

The Scroop Patterns & Virgil's Fine Goods Augusta Stays scrooppatterns.com

The Augusta Stays are by far the most ambitious pattern I’ve ever attempted, and they took Virgil’s Fine Goods and I easily 4x as long as any other pattern.

An ambitious pattern for the maker means an ambitious pattern for testers. Stays are no small undertaking at any time. We’re incredibly grateful for the wonderful sewers who were willing to check a new pattern, and to work with it when it still had rough bits to be smoothed off.

Thanks to the testers, the Augusta Stays are a much better pattern. Their input helped us to refine the fit of the stays, and make the instructions clearer and easier to use.

And the testers made some beautiful stays. I’m very envious of all of them! They are a little different than the final pattern that we released. Some of the testers tried slightly different materials and techniques than those recommended in the pattern, which allowed us to see how they worked, and how feasible they are.

Here are the tester makes!

Alex of @kasukiswelt and Steinchenwerkelt

Yellow was a major theme amongst the Augusta testers. Obviously I’m a fan! Alex made the View A Historical stays, in size 44, Curvy, in gorgeous butter yellow. Her binding is so beautiful!

@kasukiswelt in her Augusta Stays by Scroop Patterns and Virgil's Fine Goods

Katie of @diystopia

We gave the Augusta testers the option to combine views. Katie made the View A Historical stays, with machine stitched channels to speed up the process, in size 34, Straight. Isn’t the result lovely? The blue grey she chose is so elegant.

Jessica of @jessicajquirk

I always learn interesting things asking for testers. One of the things I learned with the Augusta Stays is how many amazing historical sewers there are in Indiana. We couldn’t use all of them because we need testers from all over the world, but it was fantastic to have Jessica as a tester. She made the View B Theatrical stays in Size 36, Curvy. And in another wonderful shade of yellow, which goes beautifully with her sunflower background…

Jessica used cable ties instead of synthetic whalebone for her stays – to make this work you just need to make the boning channels a little wider to accomodate the different thickness.

Cait of @willoughbyandrose and Willoughby & Rose on etsy

You’ve already seen Cait’s stays, because I got to use her as a pattern model, but she was officially part of the testing group. She made View A, Historical, in Size 46, Curvy. Her fabric is a fine wool twill from Burnley and Trowbridge.

@willoughbyandrose shows off The Scroop Patterns & Virgil's Fine Goods Augusta Stays scrooppatterns.com

Cait could have gone up a size, but prefers a wider lacing gap. She also made a couple of other alterations based on her stay preferences: adding reinforcing tape to the back lacing, and using cane instead of synthetic whalebone. If you’re experienced in working with cane, this is an easy adaptation to make to the pattern.

Eloise of @eloise_faith_gladrags and Linen and Lining

Eloise decided to do the View A, Historical, with all the bells and whistles. She cut a size 34, Straight, as she wanted her stays to lace completely closed.

@eloise_faith_gladrags sews Augusta Stays by Scroop Patterns and Virgil's Fine Goods

She bound her stays in leather – this is another thing that is easy to add to the Augusta Stays if you know how to do leather stay binding.

Molly of @avantgarbe_ and Avant-garbe.com

And finally, for the last one, something a little bit different. Molly hadn’t quite finished her Augusta Stays at Costume College, and she had a day when she needed to have her hair curled for the evening event, so she turned the two into an awesomely wacky outfit! Molly made View A, Historical in size 36, Straight, graded out to a 38 at the waist. She opted for shorter front lacing. I love this and can’t wait to see them fully finished!

@avantgarbe_ in her Augusta Stays by Scroop Patterns and Virgil's Fine Goods

Thank you to all the awesome testers! We are so grateful for your input!