I started a quilt for my mom from pieces my grandmother made 50 or 60 years ago.This should not be bad, I think, since most of the blocks are done, I just have to put them together in a pleasing pattern- a good winter project.It’s still laid out on a spare bed, not put together…
Then, the niece announces her nuptials will be in July. OK, I think, I’ll make her a quilt and incorporate some really weird star blocks (only three)grandma made that are pure 1930s, colors of orange, purple, burgundy, green-I’ll use them since they have Va tech colors and both are alumni and very into VA tech. I began trying to come up with a pattern. Not a good idea, very time consuming.
Then,a friend whom I’ve sewn for before asks if I could make an 1830s dress for one of her students to wear for her History Day presentation. This presentation is Saturday! She figures the girl will go on to nationals and wants the dress for later but I wonder if I can get it done in time for Saturday…( a challenge!)
Soooo, since I’d planned on taking today off to recover from the mail count, I spent it getting material and have sewn since I got back home.
1830’s dresses were weird. Now I need the kid for a fitting.
Here’s the dress I’m making-
Take pictures. I won’t need such high quality pics that I’ll be able to inspect your stitch work, but I would like to see what you did. Quilts fascinate me. No, I don’t sew or quilt but it was my job growing up to mend the family’s clothes. My family believed in specialization. Once someone learned a task, no one else had to learn that task, and the other kids learned other tasks. I had 4 brothers and Grandpap lived with us. There was no women’s work and men’s work in our house, just work. Anyway, back to you. I would love to see the works of art.
I agree- there is 7 1/4 yards of material in this dress. The pattern is from an existing dress of a Lowell Mill Girl. I wonder why they used so much of the stuff in these dresses?There were some old photos and several pages of history about the Lowell Mills in with the pattern. One of the photos showed workers whose skirts were hemmed up 14" from the floor- safer at work.
The Lowell Mills stuff is interesting. Quite a social/labor experiment-
It’s a good thing I’m not looking to make my living with piece work sewing- eight hours today and not a lot to show for it, but a lot of the tedious stuff is done. I had a stroke of blind luck in picking the fabric- I chose it because it is cotton, wasn’t too expensive and I thought the pattern looked right for the time period. It was only when I started to cut out the pattern pieces that I found printed on the selvage edge- “A Little Bird Told Me” (name of print pattern), 1840-1860. It was a reproduction material.
I thought this sleeve the strangest thing before it was sewn up at all-
here it is after pleating and basting the top of the sleeve
and this shows just how much material is in the skirt- in this picture I’ve sewn all but the final seam that will turn this into a round piece. Then the top will be pleated like the sleeve tops.
What is so strange to me is that the big old rounded end is the TOP of the sleeve.
That small bit that is straight across is the wrist end of the sleeve.
Oh and Izzy, guess what was playing on the sound system in the store as soon as I walked in?
Alanis’s Isn’t it Ironic
I just burst out laughing. That should have clued them in to my mental condition…
It seems very strange, but when you look back at the picture, it makes total sense with the style of the whole thing. All that ballooning out at the top, and then really, REALLY narrowing at the forearm and wrist. I especially love the top of it…the way it’s all pleated. It looks very cool.
On the pattern, are they the same dress entirely, or the same basic pattern with some differences? It looks to ME like you are making the lighter of the two (that’s the one I like the best )
And maybe thrift. A good number of the labour were migrants from Quebec, some of whom stayed* and others would work a few seasons and go back home. Using a lot of fabric in their dresses might have meant more loot to take home.
Jack Kerouac’s grand or great-grandparents among them.
My take on it is that it’s all part of (a) Climate Change and (b) Style of Life.
No Central Heating. If you wanted warmth, somebody had to light a fire, or light a stove.
No cars with heaters. If you went outside, you were your own heating. Heat the factory? Nonsense! Waste of money! We don’t want to mollycoddle the labourers! Anyway, if you make it too warm it spoils the cotton.
Also, I’m convinced it was colder then.
BTW, are those “leg-o-mutton” sleeves? Or was that later?
I noticed the ladies in the pictures have flying shuttles in their hands. I was not familar with the Lowell Mills, all the girls, weavers, in my family will be interested to hear of that.
You are correct your Izziness, I am making the lighter one, with the pleated down sleeves- I don’t like those big old puffy things
Correct again! In the pattern they are called “leg-o-mutton” sleeves.
Y’all are just too smart! I know personally that these reproduction dresses do keep me as warm as wearing a big heavy coat in winter. Warmer actually, since the dresses come almost to the ground, so there are no drafts. I wore that victorian outfit I made a few years ago on a very cold day and I didn’t even need a coat-odd since I freeze easily. When you think of all the layers they wore, chemise,stockings, bloomers, corset or stays(depending on the point in time), bodice, usually two, three or more petticoats, at least one skirt- sometimes an overskirt too- yes, the stuff is warm.
The material used also was a gage of social/economic standing. For example at one time cotton was only for the wealthy.
The victorian men of say 1880s or so felt that how their women dressed was a direct reflection on their economic success- hence, the more do-dads, frills, etc. the better for the men’s reputation. She was his walking advertisement of his business success.
And now that my power is back on, I need to go sew…
Not much progress today- Here’s my evening’s work.
Gathers in sleeve seams, started 1 1/2 inches below bottom of pleats and gathered a five inch section into a three inch section on each side of the sleeve seam line.
Folded and sewed the pleats into the top of the skirt. The blue lines are my marks for the pleats- marking that stuff took way longer than doing the pleating. The blue ink will disappear when I spray it with water.
I’m at a stand still now until I can get the kid that will be wearing this over here for a fitting.
The bodice and bottoms of the sleeves have to fit like a glove or it won’t look right.
It must drive the clothing industry mad. Men seem more resistant to trends in fashion, so the same shirt will be fine to wear for longer than a year, and yet we want shirts that are sized to our necks and arm length all for below 20 bucks. No mater how sexy and muscular the model, I think many men are reluctant to spend more than $10 on a pair of underwear*.
Nice work cowtime, I never had the attention to detail to do that kind of work, I’m lucky if the sleeves of a shirt are the same length.
WWII boxer shorts? That was the kind of thing I was selling in my Dad’s old Draper Shop in Belfast. Sadly, it is long gone. But the re-enactment people have a good internet presence, with a lot of clothes patterns. There will be some WW2 Re-enactors out there, I betcha.
Yeah, there’s bound to be a pattern available somewhere.. If I had time, I’d look…maybe later tonight. I’m waiting on supper, then I’ve got to go to my oboe class, then back home and the youngun is suppose to come over here so I can fit that bodice and hopefull sew the thing up!
I had a stroke of blind luck in picking the fabric- I chose it because it is cotton, wasn’t too expensive and I thought the pattern looked right for the time period. It was only when I started to cut out the pattern pieces that I found printed on the selvage edge- “A Little Bird Told Me” (name of print pattern), 1840-1860. It was a reproduction material. 
That’s a lot of fabric! You never cease to amaze me, Betsy!! 
I would have died laughing too…bwahahahaha..
I know personally that these reproduction dresses do keep me as warm as wearing a big heavy coat in winter. Warmer actually, since the dresses come almost to the ground, so there are no drafts. I wore that victorian outfit I made a few years ago on a very cold day and I didn’t even need a coat-odd since I freeze easily. When you think of all the layers they wore, chemise,stockings, bloomers, corset or stays(depending on the point in time), bodice, usually two, three or more petticoats, at least one skirt- sometimes an overskirt too- yes, the stuff is warm.
