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Scroop Patterns Nina Blouse scrooppatterns.com

Meet the Nina Blouse

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.

On Cats & Cuddles & Changes

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve been very silent here on the blog lately. The world has been very overwhelming for the last few years, as has my personal life. While the first still terrifies me, the latter, thankfully, seems to be settling down.

Some things are changing because of what happened and is happening. Here’s what they are:

First, I’m going to be moving myself, The Dreamstress blog & Scroop Patterns off of Meta owned platforms as much as possible. Instead of FB and Instagram, I’ll be redirecting my energy (when I have it!) back to this blog. So hopefully that’s a good change!

Second, if you get the Scroop Patterns newsletter you would have heard about the changes to the free Frances Rump pattern. Because of bot attacks I’ve changes it from a free pattern to a ‘choose your own price’ pattern, which are less likely to be subject to attacks.

So now, you can choose any price from free ‘Students & Artists in Garrets’ to a supremely ridiculous price with the label ‘Look I just really love your patterns and want to pay an insane amount for this one’. Whichever you choose is fine!

One of the price options is ‘Treat the darling furball who supports the patternmaker by paying for a supersize pack of cat treats’.

So, what furball is this now that darling Miss Felicity has passed on?

Well, I’m not ready to have another full time cat, but I still love cats and miss having cuddles and something to take care of. So I’m fostering!

Over the holidays I fostered four super friendly kittens. They are, counting their heads from left to right: Mimi, Faith, Wendy and Murray (all girls).

Wendy & Murray came first. They are sisters:

I taught them how to be good sewing cats:

Then they were joined by Mimi, the runt of her litter who stayed too small to spay long after her siblings were big enough to fix and adopt out:

Mimi was well named. An operatic diva with cold little paws. She did not like to be left alone and had a VOICE to tell you her displeasure if you did.

Last to come was Faith, a kitten who got sick and lost a lot of weight after being spayed. She had to fostered while she recovered before she could be adopted out. Note her shaved tummy.

Faith was technically the naughtiest of the kittens but effectively the least naughty. She would lie on all the things she wasn’t supposed to (like my stays), but never scratched them. She figure out how to get into the food bag, but just sat there and enjoyed the fragrance. She worked her way out of the sleeping cage, but quietly curled up on the couch and did not wake us up by rampaging around the room, quite unlike the chaos Murray caused the night she broke out.

Faith was the first to figure out how to get on to the tops of the high dresser and mantlepiece, but she delicately wound her way through the photos and lamps, and didn’t touch the plants.

Once her foster siblings, on the other hand, managed the same feat they knocked down lamps and pictures, and tore all the leaves off my maidenhair fern!

(and Mimi has zero remorse! Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth!)

I had the kittens for over a month, and while it was delightful, I was glad when it was time for all the little rascals to go to other homes. What mayhem!

After the kittens I asked for a quiet adult cat, and I certainly got what I asked for!

Miss Connie was a feral or abandoned mama cat. She was caught when pregnant, had her kittens and raised them to a good age. Once they were adopted out she came me to continue her education in trusting people.

It’s a slow process. She spent most of her first few weeks hiding under the couch all day. She’s only just in the last week agreed to be out in the same room as me during the day, and even then she’s only move about if she thinks I’m not watching. Still, progress is progress!

Connie was briefly joined by Hugo, a feral kitten who came from a colony with calicivirus and couldn’t be with other kittens until they were sure he wasn’t infectious.

Before me Hugo had never been in a house. In three days he went from scared, timid kitten to entitled little snuggle bug.

He expected at least three hours of interactive playtime and two hours of snuggling every day! And decided he was only willing to sleep on the finest of cushions.

He was desperate for friends and absolutely adored Connie. She, for reasons you can see in the photo below, wasn’t so sure about him:

Once it was clear he was well Hugo went off to a foster where he could spend time with other kittens. Much Connie’s relief as she was tired of being tackled by an ecstatic kitten every time she ventured into the open. Now he has friends to tackle – and to tackle him!

So now it’s just me and Connie. And while I don’t get to snuggle her, the extra treats the sales of Frances Rumps fund are helpful for convincing her that humans are good.

In fact, I can hear her crunching on some temptations right now.