All posts tagged: 1900s

Emily’s dress: recreating a 1903-1904 evening dress

I’m working on a very interesting, and challenging, new project. This is Emily’s dress: It was made for Emily Jane Whitley, the daughter of a wealthy Auckland storekeeper, between 1902 and 1904. Emily wore it to balls and parties on Auckland’s social scene in the years before her marriage to a Manuwatu farmer, Percy Mildon, in 1905. We even have a photograph of Emily in her dress: It’s a fascinating dress because we know its history, and can make a reasonable guess at how it was made. The Whitley store sold fabric, and probably had an attached sewing workshop, so it is very likely that the dress fabric came from the family store, and was made up by the store seamstress. So what’s my project? Well, I’m attempting to recreate not just Emily’s dress, but the whole process of making Emily’s dress. I’m using my 1903 peddle sewing machine, a late 19th century guide to dressmaking, and a period pattern available in a NZ magazine. I’m even wearing a corset and the type of outfit …

A faux-ribbon corset

Published by The Dreamstress

To go with yesterday’s sparkly pink tipped corset bones, I’m making a little underbust corset. The goal of this corset was to make Jill Salen’s ribbon corset using ribbon the same size as that used in the original. Problem: I couldn’t find fabric ribbon in 2 1/4″ widths Solution: take fabric, cut it into 2 1/4″ strips, and bind the edges. While I was scouring the fabric stores for ribbon, I picked up a cute black and white floral remnant. It went perfectly with some spotted fabric in my stash too! I’d actually had my eye on the black and white floral for a while. It’s a gorgeous 100% cotton grosgrain, so soft and lovely to work with! The cartoon-y aspect of the flowers dissuaded me from using it for a larger project, but I just couldn’t resist the last half metre (and on half off too). To make my ribbons, I cut 2 1/4 strips of the floral, and the polka dots. Then I cut the strips into the correct lengths, as I was …

Wow madam…those are some shoes

Published by The Dreamstress

Some vintage items really challenge our cultural perceptions of an era. Take these boots. We think of the Edwardian women as status and propriety bound carryovers of the Victorian era, clad in layers of white and pastel frills, and encouraged to be eminently retiring and delicate and feminine. These boots turn all of that on its head. They are feminine, that’s for sure, but there is nothing retiring, pastel, or frilly about them! They are so loud, and high, but the lack of ornamentation is also very elegantly restrained. And the curves! They are basically the shoe version of Camille Clifford’s figure! Can you imagine the sensation that Camille would have cause if she had worn these? My legs certainly don’t have the right curves to pull them off! I wonder who did wear them, or what market they were intended for? Perhaps they were the sort of shoes that ‘nice’ women would never consider. Hehe, turn-of-the-century slapper boots!