40 Search Results for: 1916 fortnight

Gossard Corsets ad, The Designer Oct 1916, thedreamstress.com

Building your own 1910s & WWI Wardrobe: The Undergarments

It’s less than a month until Costume College 2018, and my instagram and facebook feeds are full of people panic-sewing for the event. I’m not going this year, but all the excitement has reminded me of the talks I did last year, and how I’ve never put most of that information online. In a timely coincidence, a number of people have asked me recently what my favourite Edwardian & WWI era patterns are, and how I built my wardrobe for my Fortnight in 1916 living-history project. One of my talks at Costume College last year was ‘The Great War Wardrobe‘: an in-depth exploration of WWI era home-front fashion, along with a guide on how to build a complete wardrobe from the period. I’m still working out how to turn the fashion history side of the class into workable blog posts, but will (hopefully) get those sorted and polished soon. For now, here is a quick series on where to get patterns to make a 1910s (with a focus on 1914-19) era wardrobe. Other posts in …

An Edwardian Evening Gown Interlude, with complications

Published by The Dreamstress

Theresa came to Wellington last weekend, and as usual, we did a photoshoot!* This photoshoot was our trickiest yet. The weather had been beautiful for weeks. It was, in fact, way too beautiful. It was so hot I cancelled my 18th century plans. Even with icepacks in the paniers (yep, I tried that!), silk franÃ§aise were just too hot. Instead I decided to go with 1910s Edwardian evening gowns: Theresa in the Laurel & me in Cobwebs. Slightly lighter. Also, as it turns out, slightly tighter. Theresa is slim, but I was really slim when I made the Laurel. And, thanks to the Fortnight in 1916 and the amazing weight-loss properties of a 1916 lifestyle, I was slightly slimmer when I made Cobwebs. Things were…snug. The weather had been beautiful for weeks. It was beautiful all day. And then, just when we finished dressing, masses of clouds rolled in and wiped out the late afternoon sunshine. So the lighting was terrible, and fading fast. We’d planned to go to the Botanical Gardens, but there was …

Sewing palate cleansers

Published by The Dreamstress

I love a good super-involved, super-massive, super-elaborate sewing project (who, me?), but sometimes I need a break from all that super. For that, I have what I call sewing palate cleansers – simple little projects that I don’t have to think about too much, and that give me a break and a refresher between brain-breaking sewing marathons. My five favourite sewing palate cleansers: #1: Wonder Unders I can never have too many singlet camisoles and knickers! And, at under 1/2 an hour a project, they are a great break when I still have to jump back into full-on-sewing. Get the pattern here #2: Drawstring bags: I use these for sorting all sorts of things, for travelling, and as gift packaging. Another one always comes in handy. And they give me a good opportunity to use really cute craft cottons I otherwise don’t have a lot of reason to play with. Bonus! Find the tutorial for making your own here. #3: Leggings Thanks to the Cake Espresso leggings pattern, I’ve gone from being anti-leggings, to loving …