The Dreamstress

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Cape, 1873, American, wool, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009.300.2732

Rate the Dress: an Ube Boba cape – 1870s style

I haven’t done a Rate the Dress since last October. And the time before that was July. And I can’t promise the next one won’t be July again, or worse. But I can hope and try.

And today’s pick is just too unique and fascinating not to show you!

Last time: A 1908 Paquin ensemble

Ratings were all over the place for the Paquin ensemble. First there was a solid runs of 8s and 9s, and then a perfect 10, and then 4 and 1 and 6s! Every rating but a 5, so I guess no one thought it was average.

Huge thanks to Daniel for identifying the original design it was based on!

The Total: 7.3 out of 10

Not great. But it leads so well into today’s post…

This time: A 1873 cape in aniline purple with bobbles

Today’s Rate the Dress isn’t a full ensemble. It’s just a cape.

Cape, 1873, American, wool, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009.300.2732

But oh, what an interesting cape!

Cape, 1873, American, wool, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009.300.2732

It’s knitted from purple wool dyed with one of the newly invented and very fashionable aniline dyes, and decorated with bobbles in ivory wool.

Cape, 1873, American, wool, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009.300.2732

It’s definitely one of those things that if you saw in a period film you’d assume the costume designer had lost their marbles.

It’s so ’70s!

And actually ’70s.

(I guess some decades never change, no matter the century)

Cape, 1873, American, wool, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009.300.2732

The colour and bobbles remind me of ube boba tea.

(and now I’m having an absolute 12 year old boy brain moment, because boba means nipples, so it’s the nipple cape with nipple tassels. I think it might be bedtime…)

To give you an idea of what it might have been worn over, here are some early 1870s fashion plates:

Woman’s dolman mantle, front & back views. Harper’s Bazaar, November 1871

A dress featuring a ‘Watteau’ back, September, 1872 – The Young Englishwoman

Fashion plate, 1875

What do you think? A fun and cozy addition to an early bustle era wardrobe? Or just a little weird?

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.

Scroop Patterns Nina Blouse scrooppatterns.com

Meet the Nina Blouse

Published by The Dreamstress

For almost eight (!!!) years, ever since I put out the Fantail Skirt pattern and it was a smashing success, my friend Nina has been asking me to make an Edwardian or Victorian blouse pattern to go with it.

Nina’s not just my friend: she’s my pattern editor (any mistakes are my fault from tweaking things after she edits a pattern), my confidant, and my brain to bounce pattern ideas off of.

So, when I found the perfect extant ca. 1910 blouse to base a pattern off of I knew exactly what to name the blouse!

Better yet, I had another Nina already on my list of inspirational and interesting (not always necessarily both, but this one is!) people to name patterns after: Nina du Bois.

Nina du Bois (July 4, 1870 – July 26, 1950) was an American civil rights and peace activist. Along with her husband W.E.B Du Bois, Nina Du Bois was involved in the early 20th century Pan-African movement, which sought to end colonial rule and racial discrimination, to improve human rights, and to create a world economy which provided equal opportunities for all groups.

They believed that ending colonialism and imperialism, both in Africa and around the world, was critical to achieving a more peaceful future. Initially Nina Du Bois’ work focused on supporting her husband’s activism, running their household, managing admin, and raising their children. Later, she was active in her own right, helping to organise the fourth Pan-African congress in 1927.

Nina Du Bois is illustrative of the many women throughout history whose support and management of all the household and life admin allowed their more famous husbands to achieve what they did – and who thus should also get recognition and credit for that work..

Oh, and what’s more? There’s a ca. 1910 photograph of Nina du Bois in a bodice that could easily be hacked from the blouse pattern!

So, meet the Nina Blouse pattern!

The ca 1910 blouse the Nina is based is a classic example of a late Edwardian lingerie blouse, with an all lace twist!

The pattern includes instructions for making it in all lace, like the original, making it in fabric with lace insertion, or making it entirely in fabric.

Basically, the design possibilities for the Nina are practically endless.

And whatever fabric and trims you choose, the fit will be perfect with the help of the handy fitting guide.

Like all historical Scroop patterns, the Nina Blouse comes with extensive information on period accurate sewing techniques, and the materials and trims used on this style of garment.

The Nina Blouse is perfect worn over the Persis and Rilla Corset & Ettie Petticoat and tucked into a Fantail, Seatoun or Kilbirnie Skirt.

Max (in blue) is wearing it with a Fantail Skirt, and Kezia (in lilac) is wearing it with a Seatoun Skirt over a Rilla Corset. Theresa (in black) is wearing it over a Persis Corset. And they are all wearing Ettie Petticoats!

I’ve wanted Theresa to model a Scroop Pattern for years, and the one time we managed it, for the Fantail Skirt, I had a catastrophic computer crash and lost all the photos. So when she announced she was making a trip to Wellington just when I was scheduling the Nina photoshoot, I knew I had to include her!

We combined the photoshoot with a late Edwardian picnic, and everyone looked delightful and we had delightful Edwardian food, and I hope everyone who makes a Nina blouse has equally delightful events to wear it to and friends to wear it with!

Kororā penguin Wellington NZ thedreamstress.com

A Fairy Penguin Penguin Fairy Godmother

Published by The Dreamstress

One bright, hot sunny day shortly after New Years I went for a walk with my friend around the Wellington coast.

As we admired the blue of the sea and the red of the pōhutukawa we spotted something you don’t expect to see near shore at midday: a kororā (little penguin, also known as the little blue penguin or fairy penguin, although technically those are a slightly different subspecies (?)).

After following it and watching for a while, and meeting another woman (we shall call her Penny) who had been studying it with some concern we realised it definitely wasn’t swimming or acting right.

So what do you do when you spot an injured native animal? Usually you’d call the Department of Conservation, but everyone goes on holiday right after New Years, and we couldn’t get ahold of anyone. The SPCA was also understaffed, as was Wellington City Council, so neither of them could say when they could send someone.

Then Penny’s stepdaughters showed up, and what do you know, I instantly recognised one of them (we’ll call her Verity), and she recognised me. She works for my vets, and saw a lot of me in the last year of Felicity’s life.

(meeting up with people who you know in another context is VERY Wellington!)

Verity had had penguin handling experience, so we came up with a plan. The next time our kororā came very close we’d try to get between it and the open ocean and herd it to shore. But we’d have to get wet.

I discovered that I’m not too old and dignified to strip down to my knickers and a T-shirt by the side of a public road with a small crowd of onlookers if there’s an animal I can help.

I ended up fully swimming and got COMPLETELY soaked, but we managed to push it to shore where I used all my duck wrangling experience to nab it and successfully avoid its very sharp beak.

Verity had a bucket so we popped it in that with some seawater. I climbed back into my clothes, my friend had a spare shirt (bless her!) which I traded my soaked T-shirt for. We covered the bucket with a towel, put the whole thing in my car, and took the little kororā to Kohanga The Nest at the Wellington Zoo.

They told us we had done exactly the right thing (whew!) and any kororā that lets you herd and grab it as easily as we did definitely needs medical attention. They inspected it and discovered it had an injured wing and was severely underweight. The wing is probably why it was swimming in circles.

It will be getting the best possible care at Kohanga, but they did warn us it might have damaged organs from starvation, so a recovery isn’t guaranteed.

But at least it had a much better chance now.

Hopefully we’ll see our little kororā waaaaaaaaay out in the harbour swimming properly again some day, or if not that, it can join the wee group of too-injured-to-release kororā at Wellington Zoo.