A Little More on Handkerchiefs

Does anyone else have a long list of unfinished blog posts? I know I do! Today's post, one of many started then buried in my draft folder, is short but I thought it high time to share! I've written a few times in the past about 18th century handkerchiefs. Today I'd like to show you a few handkerchiefs I came across in my research as well as a few references to them in historic newspapers. There are endless references and it's a lot of fun discovering them!

A neck handkerchief is a necessary article of clothing for every living historian as well as a great (and simple!) way to dress up or change the look of your historic clothing. Burnley and Trowbridge has a nice selection of lovely printed handkerchiefs and fabric to make your own.Wm. Booth Draper and  Sign of the Golden Scissors both offer a fine selection of fabrics too.

Some 18th and early 19th century handkerchiefs in Museums.

From the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston 

White with red border - MFA Accession Number 16.391

Blue wool plaid - MFA Accession Number 44.804
Blue and white handkerchief - MFA Accession Number 51.1992

MFA Accession Number 34.126

From the Victoria and Albert Museum

V&A T.173-1921

V&A IS.166-1950

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art

MET C.I.38.85.2

Lady's Repository Museum- Child's purple and white printed handkerchief, c. 1785

From Christie's - Red and white showing rates for Hackney cabs

From Colonial Williamsburg - Reproduction handkerchiefs

And more ...

Boston Evening-Post, August 3, 1761  
- "Imported from LONDON and GLASGOW, ... strip'd and flower'd border's lawn handkerchiefs & aprons, ... spotted & flower's India bandanno handkerchief, lungee romalls, china taffaty handkerchiefs, cross bar's silk ditto, flower's culgee ditto, check'd & flowered linen ditto, cotton ditto"

Boston Gazette, September 7, 1761 
- "lawn handkerchiefs with flower'd & strip'd borders, ... gauze handkerchiefs of all colours; bandannoes; negligee & rosset silk handkerchiefs"

The White Lightning Dress

On March 28th I attended the Greater Boston Vintage Society's White Lightning Ball. Like last year, the event was held at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum. What a fun time! I had a few people tell me how much I looked like Lady Edith from Downton Abbey. That was fun to hear because she's my favorite character. Cori looked rather dapper in his vintage suit and boater. And later in the evening he and a small group staged a police raid! The bootleggers bribed the policemen and everyone returned to having a good time.

One big highlight of the event for me was being asked if I would participate as a vendor. This was certainly a learning experience for me. Although I have a few things on Etsy, which for me is essentially an online yard sale at this point, I really do want to expand in the future and offer more. (Including more ready-made items!) Over all I'd say it was successful as I did sell a few things. One of my favorite (thought sadly too small for me) pair of shoes went to a knew home and most exciting this dress was purchased by the singer from Baby Soda! 

My embarrassingly large collection of stuff to sell

I made a new dress using a 1920s pattern I purchased over the winter. I used a lovely ivory silk that I purchased from Deletable Mountain Cloth during their winter sale. Visiting that shop is such a treat! Soooooo many pretties! Fabrics and buttons oh my! You can order from them online but it's best to call if you are looking for something specific, or even better to visit the shop in person. Trust me, you wont be disappointed! I had every intention of picking out a colored fabric for my dress but I kept going back to this particular silk. I really liked the design and feel, it struck me as very Art Deco. I have enough left over for another small project, possible a blouse, so I might try dying it. I'll play around with the scraps first. :)

I really wanted to order these gold 1920s style shoes from Amazon to go with the dress. The reviews are mixed but I really liked they way they looked with Katherine of The Fashionable Past's 1922 Harper's Bazar gala dress. However, shipping for these shoes was going to take up to a month. I didn't want to wait that long and take the chance of them not showing up in time. :( While far from perfect these pink and brown heels have become my go to shoes for any 1920s and 1930s outfits but sadly are not the most comfortable to wear. I really need to invest in a good pair of black reproduction1920s style shoes. The Cicero style Exclusives recently offered by American Duchess would have been perfect but were out of my price range. I do love that Lauren is offering these one of kind shoes.

So on to the construction details! I used a cotton muslin to test the pattern. It looks rather odd because I didn't have enough fabric to cut the full length of the right front panel. Not really an issue though as this was just a mock up. The dress is made from a back panel cut on the fold with little darts at the neck, a left front, a right front, girdle, as well as bodice and skirt cascades. I left the sleeves off . The right front crosses over the left and attaches with a series of snaps on the bodice and hips. The girdle is sewn into one side seam then wraps around the back and attaches at the opposite hip. I added a few extra snaps for good measure. Because my silk was rather delicate I made little cotton patches to go behind the snaps for extra support. 

The dress made up in cotton muslin to test the pattern.

Here is a good look at the bodice and skirt cascades. The pattern gives you the option of either hemming the edges or trimming off the seam allowance and adding a binding. I knew I wanted to add a little color to this dress some how so I opted for the binding. My original plan was to only use a yellow/gold trim because I wanted to pair the dress with gold shoes. But as my search for the perfect shoes hit a road block I decided to use a combination of yellow and pink to better match the shoes I already had. (That I didn't end up wearing after all.)

The dress before the colored binding was added

The binding was sewn first to the right side of the silk then folded over and pressed and hand sewn in place. 

And a few more shots of the finished dress. The lighting was not very good for pictures which is why all of mine look dark or washed out.

Outfit Details

1920s Silk Dress - Made by me using Vogue 9010

Shoes - umm Payless?

Girdle and silk slip - Etsy

Seamed stocking - What Katie Did

Jewelry - Antique store finds

Summary of the Pattern
Fabric: Silk from Delectable Mountain Cloth
Pattern: Vogue 9010
Year: 1920s
Notions: Snaps, thread, pink and yellow China silk ribbon for binding
How historically accurate is it? Very.
Any tricky parts to the pattern? Not really
Did you change anything? Left off the sleeves for more of an evening look. Shortened the hem about 1 1/2". I also added some additional snaps to the waist/hip area and some extra shirring to the girdle. The dress was a little high under the arms so I cut the arm holes a little deeper.
Time to complete: ummm, hard to say. I worked on it off and one for about 2 weeks.
First worn: March 28th, 2015 for the GBVS 2nd White Lightening Ball at the Larz Anderson Car Museum
Wear Again? Yes.
Notes: Due to the cascades and overall feel of this particular style, this pattern does need to be made with fabric that drapes nicely. One should also avoid fabrics with an obvious right and wrong side. My mock up was made using a cotton muslin which didn't really hang right. It worked well for determining the overall fit of the pattern however and allowed me to mark up the fabric as needed. If I make this pattern again, which I would like to for day wear, I might try it with crepe and a contrasting cascade.

Cori's Outfit Details

Vintage 3 piece suit - Purchased from a vendor at the Reading Air Show last summer

Shirt, Tie, Cufflinks - Thrifted

Straw Boater - Etsy

Suspenders - Who Is Sylvia?

Shoes - 1930s reproduction shoes from the DanceStore.com

1940s LADP Uniform
This uniform was pieced together from a number of vendors. Some pieces like the buttons and badge were special ordered. Most everything else came from Ebay or Etsy.

Christmas at Hildene

I can't believe it's December already. Where did the year go? It's certainly been a busy one that's for sure. Today's post has been sitting, mostly finished, in my draft folder for a year now. Why I never posted it last December I'm not sure but as the holiday season is now upon us I decided it was worth sharing. :)

Hildene, the summer home of Robert Todd Lincoln

 Last December, about a week before Christmas Cori and I visited Hildene. Located in Manchester, Vermont, this beautiful historic house was summer home of Robert Todd Lincoln. Robert was the only child of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln to survive to adulthood. Robert visited Vermont with his mother during the summer of 1864. In 1902, he purchased 500 acres of land and a year later began construction of the house. Today the house and grounds are open for tours and there are a number of historic displays throughout the house. While President Abraham Lincoln never visited Hildene (he was assassinated in 1865) you can view one of the few black silk top hats known to have been owned and worn by the 16th president.

The view walking from the Carriage Barn/Visitor's Center up to the main house.

Photography is not allowed inside the house so the interior photos I've included in this post are all from the Hildene Facebook page. All the rooms are furnished as they would have been during Hildens's hey day of operation. During the Christmas season the house is beautifully adorned with Victorian trimmings. Visitors are greeted by the sounds of a Aeolian Pipe Organ. This particular organ is believed to be the oldest residential pipe organs still in working condition in the U.S.

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It was a chilly day! But We did manage a few quick photos outside. In the spring and summer months the gardens behind me are overflowing with color. Not so much this time of year!

A short walk from the main house visitors can enjoy the recently restored Pullman Sunbeam train car. Robert served as general counsel for the Pullman Palace Car Company under George Pullman. He became the company's new president in 1897 after Pullman's death. The Sunbeam, one of the finest examples of a wooden luxury care made by Pullman, was built in 1888. It was used by U.S. Presidents McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.

Wedding Photos Soon, But First...

Hello all, I'm back! So much blogging to catch up on! And so many wedding photos to look through! :) But neither of those are bad things.

Everything went smoothly for the big day last Friday with only a few minor hiccups, which of course, in the grander scheme of things are hardly worth mentioning. I would like to say for the record that although we started 10 minutes late, it was not my fault! The girls and I were ready to go with plenty of time to spare. But the guys lined up without their boutonnieres and had to send someone to get them from the car. Anyway, pictures soon I promise. And there are lots of them!

So Friday was the wedding, Saturday was spent with family and friends. But on Sunday we managed to escape for the day and drive to the Collings Foundation for their annual WWII event, Battle for the Airfield. (We went last year as well, you can find that post here.) Due to a lack of funds and vacation time, we are not going on a honeymoon until sometime next spring/summer.

I like my airplanes and tanks to color coordinate with my outfits. :) I actually didn't plan that. We just thought it was funny the yellow matched my sweater.

Outfit details:

Skirt - US Navy WAVE uniform skirt from ebay 

Shoes and stockings - Etsy

Sweater - Fab Gabs

Jacket - Morning Glorious Vintage

Corsage - 1940s Style for You

Hair Flowers - Made by my friend Monica at Cutie Clips (and more)
Lipstick color - Red Velvet by Bésame

WWII Cotton Blouse & Linen Slacks

Back at the beginning of June, Cori and I traveled to Reading, Pa to the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum for a WWII event. I talked a little about it in my last post where I shared with you my Red Birds Dress. That was my outfit for day one. Here is what I wore on day two! We had so much fun and met so many great people.

Another staff car photo! I was trying to recreate this photo from last fall.

First up the fabric and the patterns. The blouse is made from Hollywood 1530 using 100% cotton with a cute retro style print. I'm not sure if it qualifies as a true 30s/40s print but I think it's pretty close. Plus I liked it best out the options I had in the stash. Actually, this came from my mom's fabric stash, as did the fabric for this year's birthday dress and red bird dress. There should be an extra 2 inches of fabric on either side of the blouse fronts but I didn't have enough fabric. As you can see looking at the pattern pieces laid out it was a tight squeeze! Surprisingly this didn't have a huge impact on the fit of the blouse, I feared it might turn out too small but it was just fine. The only other change I made was to add a second pocket, but really that was because I accidentally cut two pocket pieces and didn't want to waste the fabric!

Sadly, the short sleeve piece is missing from this pattern. I replaced to using the short sleeve pattern piece from McCall 3306. (There is a copy of this pattern for sale here.) Both patterns are late 1930s so I felt this was a good substitute and I really like the little pouf that McCall 3306 creates at the top of the shoulder. It's one of those little details that I love about the 1930s and early 1940s. :) The green fabric you see is the same as my 2014 Sew For Victory dress. There was juuuust enough to make a blouse with the remainder of that fabric as well.

Getting ready to cut! Always the scary part. :)

Here you can see the part of the blouse center front that I had to eliminate.

Summary of the Pattern
Fabric: Blue cotton from the stash
Pattern: Hollywood 1530
Year: late 1930s or early 1940s
Notions: Thread and buttons from the stash
How historically accurate is it? Very! The fabric is pretty close to period prints. The buttons are modern but look just like vintage ones. I'd give the blouse a 9 1/2 out of 10.
Any tricky parts to the pattern? Button holes.... enough said
Did you change anything? Not much. The short sleeve piece was missing so I used one from a different pattern I added a second pocket because I cut an extra one and didn't want to waste the fabric. I didn't have the exact amount of fabric so the finished blouse is a touch shorter and narrower but still fits great.
Time to complete: Around 8 hours I think
First worn: June 2014
Total cost: Everything but the pattern came from the stash, so less then $5!
Notes: Love this blouse. I need more separates!

The slacks were made using Simplicity 1306 and linen left from an 18th century project. There is a discount fabric store near by that occasionally gets 100% linens and wools. I stop in every once in a while to see what they have. It's one of those places, like a thrift store, that if you see something you like you'd better buy it because there's a good chance it will be gone soon. I tend to "stock up" when I find good linens and wools there.

Simplicity 1306

I find the fit of Simplicity 1306 is much better than Simplicity 3322 (reproduced by Eva Dress and the Vintage Fashion Library). I used Simplicity 3322 to make a pair of slacks last year for Sew For Victory but was never very happy with them. Although both patterns are very similar in cut and style the main difference, other than a zipper front and side opening, is the treatment of the slacks front. Simplicity 3322 has front darts where Simplicity 1306 has small pleats. Both patterns have darts in back. Slacks from the 40s are meant to be baggy but sometimes this style can be really unflattering. I found that by extending the length of the front pleats a little more helped create a smoother fit Next time I use this pattern I will need to make some minor adjustments to very top of the slacks and waistband. I ended up making two small tucks in the waistband so the slacks would stay where they needed to at my natural waist.

I completed my look at day with a red scarf, victory rolls, and my Army/Navy E-award pin and another WWII era victory pin. You can see close ups of the pins here.

I really wish I good recommend the vendor who sold me the sunglasses I'm wearing, but sadly I cannot. It's a long story and not one that I want to go into detail here. Let's just say the costumer service started great but ended poorly. The glasses don't fit as well as I would like them to and I can really only wear them for short periods of time.

Summary of the Pattern
Fabric: Brown linen left from another project
Pattern: Simplicity 1306
Year: 1940s
Notions: Thread, zipper, and buttons from the stash
How historically accurate is it? Very! I'd give the pants a 9 1/2 out of 10.
Any tricky parts to the pattern? Button holes and zipper placket.... enough said
Did you change anything? Not much. The pattern needed to be shorten, no surprise there. I also needed to take them in at the waist.
Time to complete: Around 10 hours I think
First worn: June 2014
Total cost: Everything but the pattern came from the stash, so less then $15!
Notes: Love these pants. I need more separates! I need to make them a touch shorter next time but I will be using this pattern again. :)

By the way, I'm having another sale on Etsy. Use the coupon code FLASHSALE to save 15% until July 5th. I'll be adding some more items after the holiday weekend.