The Dreamstress

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How to add a jabot tie to the Scroop Selina Blouse

Lots of you enjoyed my Selina Blouse with added jabot tie. It’s a fun variation to the basic pattern and really plays with the possibilities of the waistcoat-effect front of View A. Here’s how to add your own!

You’ll need:

A finished Scroop Selina Blouse, View A.
Two 20”-30’/’50-80cm long pieces of 2.5” wide soft fabric ribbon. See this tutorial to make your own

You can cut/finish one end at a pointed angle if you desire.

About my tie:

My jabot is made out of silk crepe de chine. Crepe de chine drapes beautifully, and also gives a nice fullness to the bow. I used 23”/60cm long lengths (measured to the long point), and I’m wearing a size 38 Selina Blouse.

To add your own jabot tie:

To create a bow that is full and lush, without the tie being bulky and super wide as it frames the neck, the width of the ribbon is sewn together for the part of the length that extend from the faux waistcoat, to 1.5”/4cm above the corner turn of the front:

Measure this length (the size 38 is 15cm/6”), and then machine zig-zag or hand whip-stitch together the two finished edges of your ribbon.

Tuck the top edge of the ribbon under the lapel of the faux waistcoat, and sew it in place:

Working from the wrong side of the blouse, use an angled basting stitch to sew the ribbon along the angle of the V neck of the blouse. The straight ‘across’ stitch of the angled basting stitch will hold the width of the ribbon in place:

DO NOT catch the outer layer of the folded ribbon in your stitch. You want the stitching to be invisible, so the ribbon floats along the neck:

When you reach the bottom of the sewn-together ribbon (1.5″/4cm above the ‘corner’ of the bodice front) use 3 or 4 prickstitches across the ribbon to hold it securely in place:

Repeat on the other side, and your tie is attached to your blouse!

Put on your blouse, button it up, and tie your jauntiest bow!

How to make your own silk ribbon

Published by The Dreamstress

Silk ribbon adds the perfect finish touch to lots of historical garments, from bows on the front of the Amalia Jacket, to ribbons on 18th century caps, to jabots for the Selina Blouse.

But silk ribbon is expensive, not many places carry it, and sometimes you need an exact colour or weight that’s simply not available.

I solve this by making my own. It means I can have ribbon in any colour and weight I can find fabric in. It’s really affordable too. 1m of 120cm wide $30pm fabric makes 24 meters of 2”/5cm wide ribbon. $1.25pm of silk ribbon? Not bad!

(plus, you know, thread, and labour… And I’ve never actually turned an entire meter of fabric into ribbon. But the concept is sound! And most fabrics, even silk, are less than $30pm, even in NZ.)

The way I make silk ribbon uses a sewing machine. It results in a finish with a slightly stiffer edge along the sides of your ribbon: a bit like the woven edge of real silk ribbon.

I like that this technique looks more like ‘bought’ ribbon (which most women would have been using historically), and is more durable than hand-hemmed silk.

Is machined hemmed ribbon that looks and behaves more like woven-edged ribbon produced on a loom more or less historically accurate than hand hemmed silk? I guess that’s up to how you think about it.

So on to the technique!

You’ll need:

Light-midweight silk fabric (taffeta, charmeuse and other light satin weaves work well) cut into strips 1/8”/3mm wider than you want your finished ribbon to be.
A sewing machine set to a zig-zag stitch with a moderately high stitch width, and a very narrow stitch length.

To make the ribbon:

Zig zag along the long edges of your silk strips, allowing the needle to fall just off the edge of the fabric on one edge, so the zig-zag stitch wraps over the raw edges, and folds in the edge slightly.

If you want the ends of your ribbon to be finished, leave tails of thread at the end of your stitching, to help you pull the ribbon through the machine when you start on the next corner. Then knot off the hanging threads to finish each corner.

Tips:

Always test your zig-zag stitch on scraps of your fabric, to make sure you like how wide and dense it is.
Experiment with cutting your fabric along the length, or across the length: you’ll get different drape and curl to your ribbon each way. I usually prefer fabric cut across the length, with a selvedge at each short end of ribbon.

And that’s it!

Use your ribbon to decorate dresses, trim hats, tie up your hair, etc, etc.

A Jaunty 1910s Seaside Ensemble

Published by The Dreamstress

I showed a few peeks of my jaunty seaside ensemble in my post on fossil hunting, Edwardian style. Here’s a detailed look at it.

I couldn’t justify making a whole new outfit for the because I’ve made so many 1910s thing this year. But I decided I could spruce up some of the things I already have, and give them a new life.

I love adding new twists to old looks with quick re-makes. Sprucing up is totally historically accurate. Museums are full of dresses of every era that show evidence of re-making. Antique fashion magazines are full of articles on making last seasons looks fresh again.

Remaking and sprucing things up also feels right from an environmental perspective, and as a way of respecting my own work and time. Making new costumes that I only wear once would be so wasteful from so many different angles. All that fabric and time! Much better to make an old thing exciting to wear again.

So, here’s how I made a few old (or at least previously used) things new again.

I’ve wanted a jaunty mid 1910s seaside ensemble for ages:

The Deliniator, July 1916

Who wouldn’t want to look like their only care in the world is not having their hat blow off in the sea breezes!

I didn’t copy any look exactly, but took inspiration from the colour combination of the blue and yellow ensemble, and the pairing of pattern with solid that you see in all of the outfits.

The blouse is the polka dotted seersucker Selina Blouse that appears on the front cover of the pattern. I added a yellow silk jabot to it, and will be doing a tutorial on how I did it.

The skirt is from an antique 1910s pattern in my collection, with the addition of the front placket from the Kilbirnie Skirt (this make is very similar to the skirt that comes with the Wearing History 1910s suit, although the amount of flare is different). It first appeared on Elisabeth, sans pockets, when she modelled the Selina Blouse.

The pockets are from another pattern. Nina recommended pockets for fossil hunting, and while the outfit isn’t super practical, I still wanted it to be a little practical. When in doubt, always do pockets!

I picked the pockets because they remind me of ice cream cones and sailboats. What better motifs for a day at the seaside!

The skirt is linen, and by the time I took these photos it had gone through two 40 minute car rides on the way to and back from fossil hunting, fossil hunting and lunch at the seaside, and was looking a bit crumpled.

The whole thing is topped off with a rather smashing (if I do say so) new topper.

I looked at a bunch of 1910s fashion plates for the hat, and an article on trimming a hat for a seaside holiday. The base shape is a re-shape of a basic straw hat that was both too small, and unattractive. I crowdsourced opinions on brim binding and crown ribbons. I’m delighted with the result, and will show you it in more detail.

All in all, an excellent re-fashion. New pockets, new jabot, new hat, and it’s a completely new look!