All posts tagged: WWI

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

The Ideal WWI era figure: Part I

As a celebration (slightly belatedly) of the release of the Scroop Rilla Corset, over the next few weeks I’ll be doing a series post about the ‘ideal’ figure from 1913 to 1921 – the period covered by the Rilla corset. I’ll be covering how the figure ideal changed from 1914 to 1921, how corsets and other undergarments were used to achieve the ideal figure and ‘correct’ the less than ideal figure, and how to wear a 1910s corset if you are ‘large above the waist’, and how to fit the Rilla to your figure. Of course, in any era, beauty is in the eye of the beholder: what the ideal figure is depends on who is describing it, so there are lots of variations.  Part of the reason I really love the 1914-1921 period is that it covers a vast range of fashionable silhouettes within that 7 year range, even within a single year, and with so many different waistlines, necklines, skirt silhouettes and overall ‘looks’, there is a mid-teens style for every body. To …

The Anzac Day Wearing History 1916 skirt

April 25, Anzac Day, honouring anyone who has served in New Zealand’s armed forces, is probably  New Zealand’s most widely commemorated holiday. Waitangi  Day is just awkward and slightly anger or guilt inducing. Almost everyone does something for Christmas, but New Zealand is a mainly secular nation, and few people really celebrate or commemorate it.  Boxing Day is an excuse for sales, Guy Fawkes an excuse for fireworks, and New Years an excuse to get drunk (or set off fireworks – hopefully not both!). Easter is just a really awesomely long weekend – with the benefit or drawback of closed shops, depending on your views. But Anzac Day is marked by almost everyone I know, regardless of their religion, politics, ethnicity, or age.  Every news presenter, shop assistant, and person on the street wears a poppy, and almost everyone I know has, at least once, gotten up to go to the dawn service, if they don’t make an annual event of it.  Sporting events in New Zealand and Australia have moments of silence before the …

Working on the Wearing History 1916 Suit

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been plugging away on the Wearing History 1916 Suit.  It’s going pretty slowly, because I’ve got a lot else on, but progress is being made. For one thing, the skirt is done! Actually, it’s been done for over a week, but I’ve been too busy/sick to blog about it, and haven’t managed to wear it or take proper photos yet. If you are making the full suit, the Wearing History pattern prints out at a whopping 100 A4 pages of pattern pieces – plus instructions. Worth it though: look how fabulous it is! For my fabric, I polled people on The Dreamstress FB page on fabric choices, and settled on a lightweight worsted wool in black with charcoal stripes (the other options were a black & white rayon check and a brown linen). Then I settled down to tape pages together.  And tape.  And tape. I rather like taping print-at-home patterns.  It’s quite meditative, and you get into a rhythm.  Here is how I do it, if you …