Glove Cases and Shoe Bags

It's time for some of the more obscure projects in "The Workwoman's Guide".  While often overlooked by living historians, these projects especially are quite useful even today.

First up were the shoe bags.  I first wondered about shoe coverings last time I was at Landmark Inn.  I had stuffed my shoes in my carpetbag to transport them.  As I was walking quite a bit outside, the shoes managed to get quite dusty and dirty throughout the weekend.  Putting them back in my carpetbag with all my other things at the end of the event made me really think about getting something to cover them with next time.  Low and behold, "The Workwoman's Guide" has a project for that!

The book actually contains two different shoe bag directions.  I went with the second option entitled "Another Shoe Bag".  I liked the design much more than the first one.  It seemed simpler to whip together.

No dimensions were given (probably because it would vary by shoe size) so I had to guess at the measurements.  Made from polished cotton and edged with silk ribbon.  They close with a simple button and buttonhole closure.  I did end up making them a bit bigger than they needed to be, but they work.

The next project was a simple glove case.  I have a very hard time keeping both gloves in a pair together.  I can always manage to find exactly one glove for each pair-no actual pairs.  I thought that keeping all my gloves in a case would help that situation.

I won an auction on Ebay of twelve pairs of vintage gloves all belonging to a single woman (who happened to share my glove size!).  While not all of them were appropriate for early Victorian, I did manage to get about eight pairs of usable gloves from the set plus a few very long pairs of kid gloves for 20th century if I ever go back into doing that.

Gloves in the 1830s seem to be wrist length, just like for the 1850s and 1860s.  Some of the originals in museum collections are embroidered.  Others were plain.  I did find some references to gloves in several 1830s etiquette books so I have included them here.

"Etiquette for the ladies: eighty maxims on dress, manners, and accomplishments" (1837) states that "Gloves ought always to harmonize with the rest of the dress. When colored gloves are worn, the most delicate tints should be chosen.  Nothing is so vulgar as an incongruous glaring-colored glove."

"The Ladies' Pocket-Book of Etiquette" (1840) states "If you meet a gentleman in the street who is upon such a degree of intimacy with you as to warrant the offer of his hand, you will retain your glove, although he most likely will take off his.  The same observation applies to any other situation in which a gentleman offers you his hand when you have gloves on."  The same book says "Ladies do not wear their gloves during dinner" in a later section.

I made my glove case up with three pockets-one for white gloves (on the very bottom so they have the least opportunity to get soiled), then black gloves, then colored gloves.  The case closes with a china button and hand worked buttonhole, just like the shoe bags.

Simple, quick projects are fun!  And these are quite useful!

Enjoy!

A Pointed Velvet Belt

So after finishing the pink silk dress, I decided to go ahead and make the belt that we see in the original paining that served as inspiration for the day dress.

From the painting, we can clearly see this is a pointed belt.  But I don't think it's a diamond shaped one-the top point (the only one visible to us) is off to the side of her center front.  Assuming her belt isn't lopsided, that leads me to believe that the top of the belt is double pointed.  Often these double pointed belts come with a single point at the bottom of the belt.  That led me to the design I eventually chose.  But first, let's look at some original pointed belts (and some corselettes/Swiss waists).

Peterson's Magazine, 1860

Der Bazar, 1861

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1860s (35.5" waist)

Image from Ebay

Image from Ebay

Fenimore Art Museum

The design I eventually chose was a double pointed top and single pointed bottom front, with a double pointed bottom back.  It closes up the left side.

The belt is stiffened with buckram and boned in all five points.  The belt was then lined with brown polished cotton which was whipped onto the edge of the buckram.  All that was left was to attach the black velvet (really, 100% cotton velveteen, which is more similar to original velvet in my experience) to the front and stitch it all together.  And add hooks and eyes, of course.

Enjoy!

Fixing It - The Pink Silk Dress

Next 'to do' in fixing all the wonderful incomplete garments in the closet is a pink silk dress.  I apparently never wrote up a blog post for it at all, which may be because I just made the skirt and a very plain evening bodice.  I wore the skirt with a white waist and silk jacket to Welbourne in 2018 but that was the only time the dress has come out.

I really had no inspiration for the dress-pink is NOT my favorite color, however, when you find a solid silk taffeta at $8/yard, you snap it up regardless of color.  You typically find plaids and the occasional stripe for such a price-almost never a solid.

Taking out the dress, I was quick to figure out that very little needed done to the skirt-it had an appropriate waist treatment for my target year (1862-1864), a self-fabric waistband, watch pocket and skirt ties.  The only thing I did with the skirt is to replace the self-fabric pocket with one of polished cotton, as is most typical of the period.

Next, I took out the excess fabric from the stash and started on a day bodice.  I found this lovely painting that spoke to me in regards to trim:

Le rendez-vous galant, 1865 by Auguste Toulmouche.
I don't know what that young man is telling her, but I do know
that she is not buying any of it!

I had never seen a pink silk gown that I liked before finding this painting.  The painting itself has become one of my favorites just because of her facial expression!  Now this painting is a little later than I was going for, so a few changes needed to be made.  First, the little stand up collar with trim around the neckline had to go.  In its place, I placed a flat collar embroidered with black silk.  I got the idea from Godey's Lady's Book, which occasionally talks about embroidering collars and cuffs in colors (particularly in blue or red-both color fast cotton dyes in the period) but this particular article discussed embroidering the collar and cuffs in black silk (silk was apparently more color fast than cotton).  I had plenty of silk buttonhole twist so I went to town and did a chicken foot stitch (which I like to call the coral stitch) around the edge of the collar and cuffs.

Other than that, I kept true to the design.  The skirt was already pleated in knife pleats, which look like the painting.  I made up a high bodice with narrow coat sleeves, although I did add undersleeves to mine and put the cuffs on the undersleeves.  I can't quite tell if the painting put cuffs directly on the sleeve or if she has undersleeves as well.  I also broke out some gorgeous black buttons from the Button Baron.  They have this lovely gold flower design in the center and I think they look great with the pink on the gown!

The top of the bodice is meant to close with a brooch, so no button there-this is the same treatment we see on my 1860s original black silk bodice.  I opted to not put a button on the bottom so that a belt will sit better.   The last two buttons were used to close the cuffs.

As of right now, I am wearing my normal black velvet belt with a wheat belt buckle done by Beth Miller Hall on Etsy.  I do plan eventually to make a pointed belt similar to the painting-you do see those types of belts earlier.  That's a project for another day!

And with that, the day bodice was done.  It was time to move onto the evening bodice.  The bodice itself was basically done-but as I intended this to be a ball gown, I did take out the neckline piping and lower the front neckline about an inch or so to make it more appropriate for a period ball room.  But nothing else really needed to be done to the bodice itself.  It was time to move onto decorating.

I had a former set of undersleeves and bertha that no longer fit but had this gorgeous original Maltese lace embellishing it.  I picked the old bertha apart to make a new one and used the lace on the undersleeves to finish out the gown's double puff sleeves.

The bertha was modeled after several originals-it's a style that shows up frequently.

This is actually the same gown as directly above.

The original bertha that I made was modeled after this original, sans the lapel type things at the end.

My bertha has a base of white silk taffeta, over which is laid a shirring of white silk organza.  Little strips of pink silk were put over the seams that shirred the organza and my original lace was put on top of that.  The bottom of the bertha was finished with more lace and it has hooks and eyes that close it over the left shoulder.

The only other thing the ball bodice needed at that point was a tucker.  Tuckers are little bits of netting and lace that function much like a collar-they protect the edge of the dress and are meant to be disposable.  It also helps snug up the top of the neckline to prevent any gaps.  For my tucker, I chose some cotton netting with some lace beading and a tiny scant 1/4" lace edging.  I found some pink silk ribbon in my stash to lace it up with.

And that was that.  Another dress done.  Technically this is my only true ball gown that I own, which I suppose is helpful even though I don't often attend balls.  At least now I have one.  The day dress will certainly get some use when we start having events again.

Enjoy!

Fixing It - 1865 Edition

I'll be the first to admit that I'm often a procrastinator in getting my sewing done for events.  It is not at all uncommon to find me stitching instead of sleeping for the week before an event.  As such, occasionally, things get slapped together or basted together rather hastily and therefore do not last.  In an attempt to get my wardrobe ready for when events start back, I went through everything and put notes on every item that needed assistance.

This week, I worked on my late war wardrobe as there wasn't a lot to do and I felt I could get it all done in one fell swoop.  I had a petticoat that I wanted to fanc-i-fy, a bodice to bone, and a dress to refit and fix.  Not all that difficult.

First, the petticoat.  I made a plain over-the-hoop petticoat for the red dress several years ago.  Somehow, I managed to misplace it at one point and made a second plain petticoat.  After finding the first petticoat (I had left it at Liendo), and not needing two plain petticoats, I resolved to add some whitework to make one of them a little nicer.

The process was fairly simple.  I just took out the hem, and added the whitework and cover the raw edges.

As most petticoats were gathered with stoke gathers instead of pleating, I took out the waistband (while I was fixing things anyway) and re did that as well.

Then it was onto the dresses.  I currently have two 1865 dresses-both silk.  The green dress was nearly prefect, but needed a bit of boning in the bodice.  Easy fix!

The red dress needed a bit more work.  It was the first dress I ever hand stitched and I really did not know what I was doing when I stitched it!  I used a fairly large running stitch instead of tiny backstitches and I had seams ripping out.  Running through all the seams with a machine easily fixed that.

I also refit the bodice as it was a bit small.  It mostly included extending out the front a bit and repositioning and boning the darts.

Then it was on to the evening bodice, which just needed some reinforcement of the seams and boning in the darts

And lastly, the skirt, which had some problems.  I used a polyester ribbon for the waistband, so I took that out and made one out of polished cotton.  I also added a watch pocket while I was at it.

The skirt pocket was in rough shape as well so it was recut out of polished cotton and added in place of the self-fabric one.

I also found that I needed to add skirt lifters in twill tape to replace the polyester ribbon ones.

The red dress also needed new collar, undersleeves, and handkerchief.  I found a pattern for an embroidered butterfly for those exact accessories in Godey's Lady's Book, 1865.  There were lots of butterflies to choose from-it seems to be a popular motif!

And that was the end of my 1865 sewing adventures for the week.  Yay for a fully functioning late to post war wardrobe!

Enjoy!

An 1840s Sunbonnet

Ah, the 1840s.  The only decade where I portray the regular common class folk.  Although I do have plans for an 1840s buckram bonnet for nicer wear, a sunbonnet is a practical and cheap choice for every day wear.

Now I am NOT a fan of slat bonnets-not having vision on the sides of my head rather freaks me out.  So I was going for a softer, corded bonnet.  This one from the MET caught my eye.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1840.  Notice how the brim is cut on the bias and it is self-lined.  If you blow the image up, you can see there is piping where the crown meets the brim.

I decided that with very few changes, I was going to make that one up.  I chose a brown cotton (although not a plaid) for my bonnet as well because I liked how neutral it looked.

Sunbonnets are easy things to make you own-there are so many examples out there from plain to fancy.  Let's take a look at some of the other options you can add!

Nantucket Country Antiques.  Notice the ruffles on the brim, curtain, and crown.  This is a slat bonnet, not a corded bonnet.  Also notice how it is all cut on the straight grain (even the ruffles).

Nantucket Country Antiques.  Ruffles on brim and bottom of curtain.  Notice the extra bow in back.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1845.  Notice both the vertical and horizontal cording lines.

Whitaker Auction, Tasha Tudor collection.  This bonnet appears to be cut entirely on the bias-brim, crown, curtain, and all.  It also looks like there is cording on the crown.

I'm going to stop there but there are so many more variations-long and short curtains (although I think that has something to do with time period and things going in and out of fashion and such).  Brim shape and poofiness, cording amounts and placement, etc.  Most sunbonnets it seems are made from cotton but I've also seen some silk ones (although the silk ones I have seen have all been solid dark colors (black, very dark blue, etc.).

If you can get a basic sunbonnet (or cap) pattern, it can be quite simple to modify what you have to an original you are copying.  For 1850s and 1860s, Godey's 1857 sunbonnet can be a good choice.  Fair warning-the image does not match up to the pattern!

But you can see the shapes and how one may be able to modify them to what you need.  The above pattern has rounded curtain corners but all the 1840s bonnets (okay, all four of them) have had straight corners, so if I were to use this pattern that is a definite change I would make right away.

If you aren't up to fully drafting your own based off images, Elizabeth Stewart Clark has two lovely sunbonnet patterns on her website, The Sewing Academy.  The simple sunbonnet pattern could be made up in an afternoon but the other is slightly more time and skill intensive.

But I'm up to drafting my own.  Partially.  As I don't have the actual bonnet in hand to take measurements, we're going to use some other information to cheat a bit.  Now the Workwoman's Guide doesn't have a lot on bonnets (as the author states-the styles change so quickly based on the ever-changing whims of fashion that it would be impossible to include them all in the book) but she has quite a few caps that have made up to fit me quite well, so as I already have the pattern made up, let's use that to make our sunbonnet pattern.  I think the easiest pattern to modify to a sunbonnet shape would be the dress morning cap on page 126 using figures 9, 10, and 11.

If you want fuller crown, figure 17 might be a good fit but I can't recommend the brim bit for that cap as it is shirred and cording it would prove to be most difficult (and historically inaccurate).

The first step into making this appropriate for a sunbonnet, was to widen the brim and also make the cheek tabs straight across instead of downward sloping.  Then I widened the top of the crown to make it more poofy for lack of a better term.  Then I had to make a large rectangular pattern piece for the curtain.

Per the original, the curtain and crown were cut on the straight, but the brim and brim facing on the bias.  Then I stitched the brim and brim facing together and added cording channels.  Along the edge of the brim there are 11 channels and in the center, 3.  Then I added the cording.  I used Sugar'nCream 100% cotton yarn in white.

It was then that I noticed that the original had piping along where the brim and crown meet so I cut a strip of piping, corded that as well, and attached it to the edge of the brim, leaving the brim facing free.

Knowing that I would need back ties to fit the bonnet to my head, I went ahead and cut those as well as the larger front ties.  The back ties were cut 1.5" by 15" and the front ones 3.5" by ??".  A narrow hem was done all around both sets of ties.

After running gathering stitches along the edge of the crown, I fit the piece to the brim and stitched the two together securely using a back stitch, adding the back ties 1/2" (a seam allowance's width) away from the bottom edge.  For all interior seams in the sunbonnet, a back stitch was used however, per the original, the cording channels were stitched with a running stitch.  The brim facing was then brought to hide all the raw edges inside and stitched securely down.

Then it was time to attach the curtain.  I first hemmed the curtain all around except for the top.  I used a 3/8" hem over twice for the sides then a 1/4" turn over then a 1" turn over for the hem.  Next, a gathering stitch was run along the top and the curtain attached to the brim and crown.  After those pieces were securely stitched together, I did a run and fell seam to hide the raw edges as it appeared the original did.  Next the front ties were laid on and stitched down securely.  The last step was to starch the brim so it stood out from the face and the bonnet was done!

And now the pattern.  I have included it here with some minor changes from mine to improve upon my 'mock up'.  I only uploaded pictures of the crown and brim but the rest of it is below.

Cut:
2 brim pieces (put in Word with 0x0 margins, it should print the right size)
1 crown piece (put in Word with 0x0 margins, it should print the right size)
1 40" x 11" rectangle
2 3.5" x 30" rectangles for ties
2 1.5" x 15" rectangles for back ties

And because I've already gone over the steps to put it together, I'm going to leave you with an appropriate period explanation of directions to make up the bonnet-

Any seamstress of reasonable skill will be able to make up the bonnet from the picture.

Enjoy!