…I recently joined the Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge hosted by Leimomi Oakes on her blog The Dreamstress and the Facebook page dedicated to the challenge. The goal is to follow the events Leimomi posts for a fortnightly goal to make a historical article of clothing or accessory, historical being pre 1938. I started of really well, I was eager got a plan together for the first eight fortnightly events, I even made my first submission, and 1830ish chemise, but didn’t upload it to the Facebook page, mostly because after my semester and school started, I suddenly found I had no time to do anything!
However, I am starting to make time for everything I do at the moment, including sewing, so I am excited to try and enter the event due on the 21st of April called ‘By the Sea’. I was going to make a muumuu, which is a dress sometimes used for bathing by Hawaiian women. I was going to use on the the patterns by Victoria Jones, some of which can be altered to make a fairly authentic copy, I think. I wanted to use this one:
However, I don’t currently stock this patterns, so was thinking of altering one of the patterns I do have. I am also partial to this beach pajama pattern from Wearing History. I love it, and think I my make more use of this for lounging on the beach than a muumuu. It’s a hard decision, I like the romantic idea wearing a beautiful, cool, flowing muumuu while sitting under a coconut tree (I’m an urbanized Samoan so this is a long time dream hehe), however I like the sophisticated, elegant feel of lounging on deck chairs, sipping cocktails and eating tidbits from one of those little trays the stewards bring around on a cruise ship! Okay, will have to make both.
Anyway, if you are interested in historical sewing check out the Facebook page and blog, and even if this period isn’t for you, there is some great information about the history of fashion, which is always great reading.
This is my first offering, not very exciting, and I did use a non historical blue, polyester ribbon instead of the proper neck cord. But I mostly hand sewed it (what!! lol), some of those long side seams were so BORING to sew, so ended up using the machine for those. Actually, the hand sewing was very calming, and I plan to make use of it even in non historical clothing, it also allowed me more control of the garment, especially in the gusset area. Sorry about the photo, took it tonight the lighting was terrible, and this is the best I could get! Will try and get a better pic tomorrow!
I used the Regency underthings pattern by Sense and Sensibility. It was easy to put together, only the underarm gusset was a bit confusing, but there is a tutorial available on the Sense and Sensibility website that makes the process a bit easier.
P.S. Being the 200th anniversary of the publishing of Pride and Prejudice, this is a great year to start on your historical sewing goals, I love the costumes in both the 1995 BBC television mini-series version and the 2005 film, plus the book is a must read.
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