Dressing Girls Sew-Along
Pressing Matters
Frere, Pierre Edouard, 1858; The Laundress; Haworth Art Gallery
I’m working on a fun commission and decided to do some tracking to see if I could verify something I’ve thought about, which might prove helpful to anyone else who is plotting some sewing shenanigans.
My theory: if I’m machine sewing, I spend 2-3 minutes pressing for every 1 minute sewing, for a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio of pressing to sewing.
Some results, with me sewing and pressing at a comfortable pace, not zipping along at industrial speeds.
- 70″ petticoats for toddlers: pressing run & fell seams: 15 minutes (3 seams). Machine sewing the run and then fell: 10 minutes (3 seams) 3:1 ratio pressing to sewing
- 130″ petticoat for teen: pressing run & fell seams: 21 minutes (3 seams). Machine sewing the run and then fell: 15 minutes (3 seams) 3:2 ratio pressing to sewing
- 70″ petticoat: pressing hem: 6 minutes; machine sewing: 4 minutes 3:2 ratio pressing to sewing
- 130″ petticoat: pressing hem: 14 minutes; machine sewing: 7 minutes 2:1 ratio pressing to sewing
- 70″ petticoat: pressing 3 tucks: 14 minutes; machine sewing 3 tucks: 8 minutes 3.5:2 ratio pressing to sewing
- 130: petticoat: pressing 3 tucks: 40 minutes; machine sewing 3 tucks: 20 minutes 2:1 ratio pressing to sewing
This is exciting! My sense of how I use my time sewing versus pressing was more accurate than not! I find it very interesting that the overall ratio holds up even when looking at the differences in hems and tucks versus seams. I anticipate there will be relatively less pressing to sewing time as I move into bodices and sleeves that don’t use run-and-fell seams, so I’m continuing to track. And of course, the handsewn elements have a very different ratio than machine sewing!
Pressing is an exceptionally useful tool in sewing. With heat and steam, I selectively shrink extra fullness caused by ripping skirt panels to size, restoring the edges of the fabric to very straight grain. I can get a nice crisp initial and final fold on a hem, for accurate, even hems that are easy to stitch. Tucks are simple and straight and evenly spaced because the fabric is smooth and flat and on-grain. I can work 1/8″ wide run-and-fell seams easily, because they’re pressed well. With good pressing, I can usually sew without the use of straight pins.
When pressing a run-and-fell seam, here’s my process:
- Stitch the seam with a 3/8″ allowance
- Press the seam as-sewn on both sides
- Press the seam flat to one side
- Press the seam flat to the other side
- Press the seam flat open
- Trim the allowance that will be enclosed, by half
- Press the overlapping seam to cover the trimmed allowance
- Tuck the raw edge of the overlapping seam under
- Press firmly to create a nice folded edge, even width.
- Stitch the folded edge
- Press whole seam flat.
Yes, that’s a detailed TEN steps, and SEVEN are pressing steps.
There is a big visual difference in finish projects that have used good pressing throughout construction, versus those where pressing has been neglected. Good pressing allows you to have even, unpuckered seams, hems, darts, and facings. Your cuffs don’t go on skewed, or your bindings twisted. Hems don’t suddenly have a gathered look in the last 4″, or diagonal folds creased into the lower edge. Seams match up well, and lay flat, with no odd ridges of fabric along the sewn edge.
If I am tasked to list the topmost sewing tools I use to good advantage, I’d say they include: sharp, fine needles with a good eye (I like S Thomas & Sons crewels, #10, for all-purpose handsewing, and I buy them by the multi-pack from Wawak.com); a good thimble that fits well; beeswax; quality all-cotton threads; fresh sewing machine needles changed every 4-6 hours of sewing time; a good basic steam iron with a steam burst function and no auto-shut-off (I don’t like waiting for it to reheat when I’ve just stood up to press again.)
As I’m also a bit of a klutz, I use $20 irons from Waldemart (The Store That Must Not Be Named), currently a Sunbeam model, so I don’t spend too much when I’ve knocked it onto the cement four too many times.
If you need to get some good pressing time in, consider adding petticoats to the history wardrobe trunk, for anyone who wears skirts! You’ll find the free Petticoat Project in the Compendium (scroll down to download the PDF, excerpted from The Dressmaker’s Guide), as well as a tutorial for sewing growth tucks in the blog portion of the site. And as always, let me know how I can help you!
I hope it helps others to gauge their use of sewing time by anticipating their pressing needs. It really will improve your experience and results!
Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Petticoats, or Making A Mend
In the Petticoat Evaluation post, I discovered a petticoat I’d made for our oldest years ago that just needed a bit of repair and button movement to make it suited for our youngest this season. Said youngest has actually been using the petticoat for generalized dress-up for about a year, and there is visible damage from her tenure. I’ll definitely need to “make a-mends” to get this petticoat into shape!
Mending is a grand use of my time. With just a single 20-minute sewing session, I’ll restore an entire petticoat to hardy use, saving myself a few hours and several yards of cloth to make a full new one.
Mending is also a very common mid-century practice, and to get a great fix, I can use two different options.
I could darn the ripped area, using stitches to draw the edges back together and make a new, small-scale weave to strengthen the area. When done well, this is very nearly invisible, and quite strong.
However, my youngest is a very active girl, and I anticipate a lot of rough wear on her petticoats! Another period mending choice is to patch under the area. This will give me a fresh piece of fabric stabilizing the ripped area, and the whole thing will take heavy laundering without a hitch.
This is the rip; it’s on-grain, vertically (I have no idea how she managed this, but a tree and climbing were likely involved). There is a second small rip not far from it.
You can see that the edges are a little shredded from being laundered a few times before mending, but not too badly. I’ll definitely want to “make a-mends” before any further laundering, or this rip will grow!
I don’t need to match the fabric exactly; I can get into my scraps for a 3×2″ piece of basic white cotton. This is a very utilitarian item, and since our interpretive needs are working class and western emigration, a tiny bit of visibility can actually be a great interpretive point for us!
With a bit of steam and a hot iron, I pressed each edge of the patch to the wrong side.
Using pair of small, sharp scissors, I cleaned up the edges of the rip, and pressed those to the wrong side very gently. (The picture was taken just before I clipped out those long threads in the middle of the rip.)
Laying the patch on the inside of the petticoat, a quick felling stitch attached the pressed outer edges to the body of the petticoat.
You can see the short stitch perpendicular to the edge of the patch in the photo to the left.
The needle and thread move diagonally up to the next stitching position, so on the inside of the patch, there are short perpendicular stitches over the patch edge, and on the outside of the petticoat, there are tiny diagonal stitches outlining the patch position.
Another round of felling secured the tucked-under edges of the rip to the underlying patch. I used the point of the needle to “sweep” the raw edge under just a bit, which turns a long, gapped slit into a slender oblong with finished edges.
All done!
Now the petticoat is ready for a nice long soak to remove old stains, and a good line-dry (with the help of friendly hens, of course!)
A good starch and press, and re-positioning the button to sit more securely at her waist, and this petticoat is ready for action for one more year!
Make a Girl-Worthy 19th Century Coral Necklace
In among all the fun of clothing a girl, it’s important to consider some of the elements that are often overlooked, like accessories that include jewelry!
With a bit of minor effort and hand dexterity, you can create a lovely bit of period-appropriate jewelry for your favorite girl (infancy on up) to wear in historic settings.
Coral bead strands show up with fairly good frequency in stories, advertisements, fashion notes, letters, and photographs, as well as in engravings and paintings, and in every case, there seem to be variations that suit a working class setting.
There are some very ornate mid-century pieces, but my focus was on the simple styles well-suited for a child or teen.
Many images show a necklace that’s a bit more generous than a choker, but is definitely not a long dangling strand. I chose a length that would curve neatly around the collarbones, without hanging low or feeling “chokey.”
Natural coral has a lovely heft and coolness to the beads; definitely use semi-precious natural materials, versus anything plastic. The end “drape” of the necklace has everything to do with the finished period look.
To make your own, you’ll need:
Coral Beads: I chose 6mm real coral beads (talk to Elizabeth Aldridge about getting your own strand); original coral strands vary in size, so you could opt for smaller beads or graduated beads, and still be very consistent with originals. Plan to spend about $15 on a strand long enough for a girl’s necklace.
Some coral harvesters use unsustainable practices and have poor track records with human rights. If you can’t get responsibly-sourced natural beads from Elizabeth above (her stock won’t last forever), consider using a natural semi-precious stone round bead, or a ceramic bead, that can mimic the weight, smoothness, and color ranges of natural coral.
For instance, this Etsy seller has smooth red jasper beads in a 6mm size, with a fine hole (they are imported from China, so there may be additional issues there); Fire Mountain also carries deep red jasper beads in 6mm in 4mm sizes.
Dyed red carnelian beads are another option for a mid-century girl’s jewelry; if you’ll recall from Little Women, Amy has a carnelian ring (fiction is not what we base historical impression on, but Louisa May was not making up her details from thin air!) Less-marbled pink rhodochrosite and deep coral pink or red agate are interesting visual choices, too. (Avoid overly-marbled, pearlized, crackled, or matte options for any bead.)
Silk Beading Cord: after looking at recommendations on-line, I settled on Bead Buddy #4 silk bead cord, which has a fine beading “needle” (a fine wire that slipped through the bead holes effortlessly) attached already–handy! I found it at Joann’s, of all places, for about $3.50 a packet. One packet was enough for two necklaces. For the style of necklace I chose, I needed a cord that would knot large enough to hold without sliding into the hole of the bead, so I looked for something that was about the same diameter of the bead’s hole, knowing that a simple overhand knot would then be sized just right. And while it’s described as “cord”, this stuff is very fine. (Silk has the strength and rot-resistance advantage over pearl cotton or other cotton threads.)
Period-Passable Clasps: none of the clasps currently sold market themselves as “antique replica”, so I went on a visual hunt to look at clasp styles on original simple bead strands. Flat “bar” or “box” clasps, and round slide-in clasps both showed up pretty consistently, as well as a few other styles. I found a set of 10 clasps from Hildie & Jo (again, at Joann’s) for under $4, and got four “period unobtrusive” clasps for historic purposes (plus a few that will work for modern use). Avoid lobster, toggle, and magnetic styles–these will not hold up well to the weight of the coral beads, and also look entirely modern. (Fire Mountain Gems and other jewelry suppliers have great options; WalMart does not.)
A Straight Pin: this is my main tool for getting the knots close to each bead without any fussing or cussing. Any straight pin will work, but I found a ball-headed pin worked more comfortably for the knot manipulation, without putting big dents in my fingers.
Some Time: about two hours. If you’re wanting someone else to make one for you, plan to pay them skilled rates on top of materials. While you can make one yourself for under $30, you should expect closer to $60 for someone else to make them for you with the same methods described here.
Key Technique: Individual Knotting
Placing a single, snug overhand knot between each bead gives the whole strand more stability, making it less likely to kink or knot, and should the silk cord break at some point, you’ll lose at most one bead.
The knot between each bead also cushions them from clacking against one another, which can crack or damage them over time. The extra time needed to do the knotting is well worth it!
An overhand knot is the first one most of us learn: it’s the foundation of tying your shoes. The trick to placing them very close to each bead is accomplished by using a pin in the knot’s open area, and gently pulling the free end of the cord as you move the pin snug to the bead. When the knot is snugged to the bead, you can remove the pin and firm up the knot.
Attaching the Clasp
I used the same overhand knot (well, three of them, around the last bit of cord between the clasp and bead knot) to attach the clasps. A bit of modern Fray Check or period gum arabic helps keep the cord ends intact and knots firm over time.
Then I trimmed the excess cord off.
And then two little girls ran off giggling madly into the sunset, wearing their very lovely coral necklaces.
And then the one with pierced ears came back to request some coral drop earrings… for which I’ll share notes another time.
Renewal, Restoration, & Research!
Just a quick note to say HELLO to all the lovely Sewing Academy readers, and give you a peek at my project stack for the coming months!
Lilly Martin Spencer; The Little Navigator
I’ll be dressing my own daughters (and baby grandson, thanks to that old-married Eldest girl of mine!) for the upcoming season’s history tours at the small regional history park where we volunteer, so look for some sew-alongs and tutorials related to dressing infants, pre-teens, teens, and young adult women.
Sewing Academy member P. Thacker, of the Pacific Northwest Contingent, has sent in some great process photos for fitting and completing a lovely corset for a young lady, and that’ll be coming up soon, too.
I have permissions in hand for not one, not two, but THREE amazing and totally bog-common mid-century sunbonnets from private and site collections, to add as project sheets in the Compendium! These will all be for personal use only (courtesy to the owners who have been awfully gracious in allowing us to share them!), and are not to be used for items that will be sold. I’m excited to see what gorgeous sun protection you’ll all make with the project sheets–corded and slatted variations included. They each have features to delight the maker and the wearer.
We’re in the planning stages for workshop weekends in Minnesota and the Pacific Coast in the early fall of 2018, and talking about some fun options in Arkansas or Ohio for 2019.
Great Auntie Maude’s Favorite Cloth Doll will be coming out as a digital-download very soon! The fun everyone is having with instant gratification and the Cloth Girl pattern is encouraging, so we’ll be making more published items available that way.
I’m even working on a digital version of The Dressmaker’s Guide, so it’ll be easier than ever to get hold of your copy, whether you’re US or overseas.
Tiny, Tidy Things (a fun set of pointlessly decorative items from US publications in the early 1860s, including full-size templates, original text, and illustrated instructions for replication) will be available very soon as both a workshop option (we had so much fun with that in Gettysburg!) and as a stand-alone project book in print and digital download.
We’ll be doing a large-scale revamp of The Sewing Academy @ Home forum, with an eye toward making it far more mobile-device-friendly, and will be rolling out some fun group research “dogpiles” and other virtual activities you’ll want to read.
Basically: 2018 promises to be a busy year of renewal, restoration, and fresh research to enhance our appreciation of the mid-19th century! I’m glad you’re along for the ride, and can’t wait to see what we all do together!
Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Petticoat Evaluation
I do have a small stack of petticoats the girls inherit from one another. Because each was made with period techniques and decent fabric, I have some evaluation to do, to see if I can recycle any of the Inheritance Stack for this season’s use.
Three that came easily to the top of the pile include:
Inheritance Petticoat #1: Waist 26″; length 17″ max (there is a single 1/2″ tuck still in place); circumference 106″. The circumference is great for a small girl, but even with all the tucks dropped out, this petticoat will be 5″ short of the smallest length I need, and I’d need to re-set the waist to be 5″ smaller, too. Too short, too wide. This one is a good candidate for selling off to another family, or donating to the loaner closet at our local historic site.
Inheritance Petticoat #2: Waist 26-27″, depending on moving a button; length 21.5″ max; circumference 86″. Again, the circumference is good. It’s going to be a bit short and wide to work for my youngest, so my time is probably best used making her something she can wear for a few years going forward. This will be another that gets cleaned and pressed to pass along or donate.
Inheritance Petticoat #3: Waist 24″; length 22″ with a single 1″ tuck remaining, for a potential max length of 24″; circumference 84″. This petticoat has one small mend, and one larger mend (2″ long vertical rip) that will need mending.
I can re-set the waist to suit my youngest girl, who needs a 22″ band over her stays. I could also potentially just add a second buttonhole and button position, and save myself the re-setting time, as the waist difference is a meager 2″. The length will drop out to 24″ by simply taking out the remaining growth tuck; she needs skirts of 23.5″to hit her mid-calf, so I will leave the length as-is (it’s 22″ long with the tuck in place).
Just a few minutes measuring and inspecting this petticoat, and with a short 20-minute session to mend the rips, and I’ve saved myself the entire process of making one petticoat for her! I’ve also identified two potential re-sales or donations that can save other families some time and effort.
Taking stock of clothing at the end of each interpretive season, and again a few months before each interpretive season, saves time and effort. What do you have? What do you need? It’s the same process as done in the 19th century: practical, frugal, and functional!
Tuck Into a New Year (Growth Tuck Tutorial!)
Growth tucks in children’s clothing are a great way to add versatility and foil the wee beasties who insist on growing nearly every single day, despite bread-and-water rations and heavy books on their heads.
And, if you’re inheriting hand-me-downs that are a bit long, a quick tuck will lift them without removing the length forever–letting out tucks is as simple as a few minute with fine scissors to get out the thread, and then a quick press.
You’ll find this tuck technique illustrated in the dolls, infants and girls patterns, as well as in The Dressmaker’s Guide, and if you’d like to learn in person, do register for any of our upcoming workshops!
Tucks for functional length control are put into a skirt after the side seams and hem are finished. Even if the skirt is already set, you can add tucks to shorten the length, though it will be a bit fiddly and you’ll need to do measuring and pressing in short sections to keep everything flat. Press everything well at each step.
To get started, determine how much length you need to take out, and give the skirt hem a good press.
Garment wrong-side-out, hem pressed
Decide On Your Tucks
Each tuck will take up twice its depth. So, if I want to remove 1.5″ from the length of a skirt, I need a tuck that is .75″ deep when finished.
The photos here use a .75″ tuck depth, and if I were to keep the tuck in the dress, it would be 1.5″ too short for my gangle-of-a-10yo when I was finished.
Measure For the Tuck
Turn the garment wrong side out, and arrange the hem flat on the ironing board (you’ll be working around in sections.)
We’ll take our cue from original garments and the Original Cast: tucks look best if they are not jammed over the hemline or overlapping one another.
Many original garments have a tuck spacing equal to the tuck depth, meaning there’s a gap of plain fabric between the hem stitching line and the tuck edge, and between the tuck stitching line and the next tuck edge.
I like things very evenly spaced, so I’ll mark the tuck fold line 2.25″ from the hem stitching line.
This will give me .75″ gap, .75″ hidden by the tuck when finished, and .75″ for the backside of the tuck itself.
Turning the hem edge up toward the waist, I measure 2.25″ from the stitching line of the tuck to the fold I’m arranging.
Measure from hem stitching line to fold.
Press this fold neatly in sections all the way around the garment. This pressing is your key to success!
Stitch the Tuck
Measure from the pressed fold, one tuck depth. This will be the stitching line for the tuck.
Measure the tuck depth.
Don’t get too dainty with your tuck stitching.
As with a period hem, you want a single thread that will readily give way if the fabric is under too much strain. It’s far easier to tack up 6″ of tuck stitching or hem if the thread breaks, versus trying to mend a shredded fabric weave if the thread holds and the fabric doesn’t!
A simple running stitch is ideal.
I’ve used a single cotton thread in a fairly deep brown, so you can see the stitches more easily, and I’ve zoomed in a lot; the individual stitches are about 1/16″ each, just little nibbles out of the weave.
A Quick Running Stitch
At “wearing range”, these entirely disappear on the dress!
You could also sew by machine, using a plain straight stitch at about 2.5 stitch length.
These are designed to be removed at some point, so don’t make yourself crazy with super-tiny machine stitching!
I’m stitching .75″ from the fold.
Press And Done!
When you’ve gone all the way around the pressed edge, tie off and press the work flat, then turn the garment right sides out and press the tuck toward the hem edge. DONE!
Press tuck toward the hem. Repeat for more tucks!
Tips from the Original Cast
Taking note of common elements from original garments and original images of the era:
Tucks are usually decently large. The 1/32″ pin tuck era is still several decades in the future. 1/8″ in decorative tucked panels do happen, but 1/2″ to 1″ depths in functional growth tucks (and many decorative skirt elements!) are really common.
Tucks usually happen in odd numbers. If you need to lift out 6″, do it as three 1″ tucks. The human eyeball likes to find a mid-point.
You can also lift out fabric in one larger sewn fold (one 3″ tuck, for instance, will lift out 6″ of length), but you won’t have the gradual flexible extension of releasing one tuck.
Don’t worry overly much about fading lines or perma-creases along let-out tuck lines. Sure, they’re the bane of every littler sister everywhere, but the Original Cast didn’t seem to worry too much. Don’t fuss with adding trim to a utility cotton to hide a removed tuck. Just press it out as best you can, and use it as an example of the recycling/upcycling mindset so common in the 19th century. It’s not a flaw, it’s an Interpretive Feature.
Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Supportive Measures
In the midst of kitting up with chemises, drawers, petticoats, dresses, and all the other pretty things of a functional living history wardrobe, one element often overlooked or skipped “in the interests of time” is a stay or corset for a dress-wearing child.
That category of person-to-be-clothed includes tiny toddlers, through middle childhood, through the tween years, and into the teens, so it’s a significant population, and there are some good reasons to add stays or corsets to a child’s wardrobe.
First, though: definitions and functions.
A child’s corset (or stays; the two terms are used quite interchangeably in primary sources, and there doesn’t seem to be any differentiation as to one being stabilized with cording, the other with steel, etc) is designed for support, light control, and a platform. By that, I mean this: children are quite often “Eggs on Legs” (to borrow from Karen Crocker), and a child’s stay or corset provides some firming up to the squidgy torso, a way to move support of garments to the shoulder (through the use of straps) rather than trying to find a waist point, and also gives a spot upon which to button skirt supports and fullness.
Beyond those aspects, a stay also provides bust support for developing figures, and functions in the same way as an adult corset, distributing the wearing stress and weight of increasingly-full skirts around the entire body, rather than hanging from pinchy points on the back hip.
For my own two girls, stays do this:
1: For the younger one, age 8, who is build like a very thin noodle, and has some very mild sensory challenges: we’ll get a place to tack clothing onto her body, and prevent her skirts always sliding down to her knees in front, without having a narrow band of pressure from waistbands that will drive her to tears. She does very well with all-over pressure, so the stays not only function well from a historic-dressing standpoint, they ameliorate some modern challenges in a period-appropriate way! She also likes complex dress-up, so it’s satisfying all the way around.
2: For the older one, who is getting her early-teen curves at 11, the stays will simply firm up her torso for a tidy look in period clothing that matches what she’s seeing in original images. It doesn’t take much to notice that those 40s and 50s images of girls are showing some well-stabilized torsos, and she has a deep desire to present an identical look. Her stays will also accommodate her bust development, while giving her another layer between her own self and the world (which helps the very body-modest girl a great deal.)
What About Growth?
I’m not actually too worried about growth measures in either stay, and here’s why:
1: Noodly-girl has, at 8, a waist that is more slender than her own waist at age 2. Her waist has been a constant 21″ since she was about 4 years old. She’s healthy, but very reedy, and tends to do quick jumps up in height, without getting much wider at all. I need her to get the summer out of these stays—I anticipate two interpretive seasons at the very most before she’s 3″ taller and needs a new shape—, and then I can pass them along to other families. So, I’m fitting them to her needs now, with a slight bit of overlap for her buttons in the back, and about 1″ extra length in the straps for some growth room. She won’t be happy if they’re not comfortably snug.
2: My older girl is on the petite end of things, but is hitting her growth, and for her, that tends to be very little upward, and we’ve been seeing a refinement of curves in the last year. Her waist is lengthening a bit, and narrowing a lot; her hips are getting a little width, and her bust is developing. I can accommodate all of her needs by adding a lacing placket at the back, and keeping buttons in the front to aid self-dressing. Having dressed girls through their teens before, I’m comfortable with the idea that new stays are going to be an item every single year from now to about 18 or 19, when her figure starts to stabilize. Because she already has a good hip-to-waist ratio, I can make her stays without straps; she has enough hip to move to adult-style support without a problem.
Materials
As for adult supportive undergarments, I need 100% natural fabrics that are firmly woven, with good body and stability, but without being heavy or bulky. I’ll be using a combination of cotton twill and cotton sateen (a satin-weave cotton) for the corded stays my youngest will use. It’s a light-weight, low-bulk combination that does very well stabilized with close cording, and because she will not have a lacing adjustment, there’s no problem with the corded areas trying to squash to the waist.
My older daughter gets a more stabilized garment, suited to her support needs. I’ll be using a layer of coutil with some steel stays and German artificial whalebone (a high-grade product harvested from artificial whales of the inland lakes in Germany) in casings, to keep the garment as light and breathable as possible for a child who turns pink in the heat like her Mother. She’ll still have a buttoning front, but we’ll have a lacing placket in back, with metal grommets (not eyelets–size 00 two-piece metal grommets for durability).
Patterns
I’m using the stays pattern from our Girl’s Linens pattern for each; it’s a simple one to cut for different lengths and circumferences, and I’ll be customizing the fit at the side seams for the younger one, and by creating some curving seamlines at the bust as well, for the older one. As she gets a bit older, I’ll switch to doing custom-draped corsets for her, following the methods in The Dressmaker’s Guide. Since the pattern accommodates her largest body measurement (bust), I can simply adjust things for now.
Preparations
Remember, we’re doing the sewing sessions in 20-minute increments, to show how progress can be made even when time is tight for a modern family.
My first work session is actually just pre-washing my fabrics; there’s about 20 minutes of labor involved, with tossing it into the wash and hanging on the line later. We don’t have to stare at the cloth while it dries.
Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Chemise Finishing
With the plackets in two chemises finished, we’re nearing the finish line on all four!
The majority of chemises with fullness at mid-century seem to be handled with gathering to fit a yoke or band. Since that seems to be the most common, that’s how I’ll be handling the fullness at the neckline.
In reproducing chemises, you could opt to machine sew gathering stitches. Keep your machine’s settings at a regular straight stitch, rather than a longer basting stitch. Run one row of stitches about 1/8″ away from the edge of the fabric, and another about 1/4″ away from that, stopping and starting to avoid the run-and-fell seams. They will be a bit bulky to try and pull gathers through, otherwise.
When dealing with the relative minimal fullness involved for a chemise neckline that I’ve already scaled down to suit my girls, machined gathers will work well enough, and they will be a bit faster than the option I’m choosing: hand gathering.
Sessions Nine thru Fourteen
Gathering by hand, using two rows of fairly small running stitch, is one of the most low-bulk ways to control fullness. I actually like the rhythm of the stitching, and I really like the fine results, so it’s satisfying and worthwhile to me to gather all four neckline edges by hand.
I do “hop the seam” with a longer stitch on the outside of the chemise at each of the run-and-fell seams. I’ll be positioning them flat when I sew the bands, and don’t want to have to drag thread through them when I gather. My smirched purple thumbnail is hovering over a “hop.”
The gathering takes me about 30 minute per chemise, which means I do need to be willing to sit down for six 20-minute sessions of work. In reality, this translated to snuggling into the corner of the couch, grabbing my needle and thread and watching three episodes of one of my favorite shows on Netflix (Supernatural, in case you wondered. It’s what I consider the modern equivalent of reading Bronte, or Shelley–Gothic horror/romance ideals in a modern setting. The nature of Man, redemption, brotherhood, all that lot.) I don’t consider that a hardship.
I’ll wait until I get everything pinned to the neck bands to decide if I’ll be sewing a regular seam, or finishing the necklines with stroked gathering; if the gathering density is sufficient, I may well choose stroked gathers, because I do like the way they look. (Spoiler Alert: I decided to do regular seams to attach the bands, and I did them by machine, too!)
Session Fifteen & Sixteen: Straight Bands
There are several ways to handle a straight, non-placketed band. I could choose to make each band a two-piece band, seamed at the bottom to the chemise, and to the band facing at the top. This is very stable, and allows me to sandwich in some nice whitework edging if I’m so inclined.
However, the particular miss I’m making these two chemises for has some mild sensory-processing quirks, and she is very likely to declare all of that “too stiff” to be worn.
Instead, I’m making the band double the width I want, seaming it to the chemise, and making a simple folded-and-stitch finish. A bit of topstitching along the upper fold gives it stability, without “stiffness” that might antagonize my particular young lady.
The basic construction process:
Seam the band at the short ends. Match quarter marks to the chemise and draw up the gathers to fit. Stitch a 1/4″ seam to join them. (This is my personal preference; you can make a deeper seam allowance if you prefer, and then trim the extra to reduce a bit of bulk inside the band.)
Press all the seam allowances toward the band, then fold the band into place on the inside, covering all the raw edges. Topstitch very close to the seam “ditch”, and again about 1/16″ to 1/8″ away from the fold at the top of the band. Done!
Session Seventeen & Eighteen: Placketed Bands
For the placketed bands, I chose to round off the upper edge of the bands. This is a lot easier to sew if each band is in two sections: the outer band, and the band facing/lining. I follow the same process for matching quarter points, drawing up the gathers, and sewing with a 1/4″ seam allowance to attach the band. However, I make sure the band extends about 1/4″ beyond the edge of the plackets, so I can attach the facing/lining easily, and have everything mate up smoothly.
Once the band is on, I can press all the allowances toward the band, then pin the band facing/lining right sides together with the outer band, and stitch from one curve, across the top edge, to the other curve.
A bit of trimming and notching to make sure the curve turns nicely, and I can press the whole facing/lining into place on the inside of the band. Again, topstitch to finish all the way around the band.
With the last bit of my final sewing session, I worked a buttonhole in the overlap end of each placketed chemise, and sewed on a neat little 4-hole white porcelain button (these are very common on undergarments at mid-century.)
Chemises: The Final Tally
Including the three side-bar sessions I spent on tucks and hemmed plackets, I’ve used twenty-one 20-minute sewing sessions to take purchased yardage to four finished chemises for my girls, using a mix of period-appropriate hand and machined construction techniques. That’s averaging out at 105 minutes per chemise… a bit more than an hour and a half each. Not too bad!
If I were only able to sew 20 minute a day, I would be done with all four chemises in 21 days. If I can carve out an hour a day, my time to complete four quite nice chemises drops to about one week of 1-hour sewing sessions. Or, I could choose to fall down a Black Hole of Making, and blitz out four chemises in one day, if I plan some meals ahead. From yardage on the laundry, to four chemises finished!
Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Adding A Chemise Placket
With the tucks in place, it’s time to create a center front placket in the chemise. This is an option outside of the Girls Linens pattern, so we’ll walk through step-by-step here. You can also use this technique on adult chemises, as it’s a common feature!
Side-Bar Session Three
There are several historical ways I could handle a center front placket on these chemises.
This chemise, from the MET collection, has an embellished, shaped yoke, and the placket below the yoke is a simple narrow-hemmed slit.
This one, with an interesting faggoted double band, appears to have the placket with one faced edge, and one narrow-hemmed edge.
Here is another with a faced-and-overlapped placket, where the placket forms a bit of a pleat at the base. This is the style of placket I’m leaning toward, as it will take a bit more abuse than a simple hemmed slit, and gives a functional spot for additional buttons and buttonholes if desired, if you plan the center gap wider than I did!
One thing I’ve noticed when looking at chemises with a faced placket is that the placket is often installed, and then the neck band attached and finished. This two-step process is fairly easy to replicate.
I’ll zip through the steps, and let you view the images as a slide-show again.
I measured down about 6″ (this is fairly arbitrary, but it will expand the neckline edge a whole foot for donning/doffing, and my 11yo is not a very large person), and cut a slit in the center front. Then, perpendicular cuts at the base, half-way across the gap in the middle (about 5/8″, in this case.)
Press each flap back, tuck the raw edge under, and press well.
Remove to the machine, or hand-stitch a hem on each pressed edge. Then it’s a quick “stack-em-up”; I folded the extra fabric in the base into two layered pleats, and pinned everything neatly. One pass of stitching just at the base of the folded placket, and another about 1/4″ below that, across the folded extras, and we have a tidy little placket all done!
(Well, actually TWO little plackets, all finished in one 20-minute sewing session!)
Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Tucked Front Chemises
Gathered chemises are perfectly lovely, but sometimes it’s fun to do something that’s both period-correct, and a little fun! Fine tucking across the front of a chemise is one option. It takes no more fabric than a gathered chemise, and only a bit of time.
Generally, tucks at mid-century are not the ultra-fine “pin tucks” of the later 19th century or early 20th century. When used decoratively, they’re still fine, ranging from about 1/8″ to a scant 1/4″ or so, and typically have a gap that’s about equal to the width of the finished tuck between each folded-and-sewn tuck.
I’ve yet to handle an extant tucked chemise that has visible machine back-tacking (that “reverse stitch” we have on modern machines.) Because I like to mimic originals as much as possible, I chose to skip machined back-tacking. At the end of each tuck, I simply left a bit of a thread tail, drew both threads to what would be the underside of the pressed tuck, and tied a little doubled square knot to secure the threads before trimming off the tail. The upper end of the tucks will be secured inside the neck band, so I don’t have to back-tack there, either.
The other interesting thing I’ve noted on originals is how very often the tucks are pressed to face center front! This is opposite of our modern notions of arranging vertical tucks. Pressing to the center is one of those fine details that really takes a modern repro garment back in time, and it’s no trouble at all.
Side-Bar Sessions One & Two: Tucks!
It’s easiest to make tucks if you have the aid of a hem-gauge. If you don’t have a metal one, you can mark your desired intervals or measurements on a bit of cardstock, or just use a ruler or tape measure.
Because I’m making a placket at the center front, I want to leave some room to install and overlap that area. I placed the first folding line for the tucks 1-1/2″ away from the center front line.
After that, it’s a simple repeated process of stitching, pressing to center front, measuring and pressing the next line (3/4″ distances from one stitching line to the next fold line will give me 1/4″ tucks with 1/4″ between them) and repeated that until I have the whole front of the chemise tucked down to a measurement about 4″ wider than my daughter’s finished front chest width, measured from armpit crease to armpit crease.
Two 20-minute sessions have all the tucks in, and I’m quite pleased!
Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Chemises
Every girl needs chemises. They should be made of fine but firmly-woven white cotton for the 1840s, 50s, and 60s, and tend to sit either on the very edge of the shoulder joint, or entirely off the shoulder. Hemmed to about the knee, this base garment absorbs perspiration and is very easily laundered.
Generally, a girl will need a fresh chemise for each day of your interpretive interval (or of the week, if you were dressing in the period), plus a spare or two. And, if you have similarly-sized girls in your home, a simple initial for a laundry marking makes sisterly spats far less likely, and laundry headaches far fewer!
Our girl’s linens pattern has templates and instructions for chemises; you can take additional inspiration from original extant chemises, and diagrams and engravings from period magazines.
Remember: we’re breaking this up into 20 minute work sessions, so even families with tight schedules can see their potential progress! And, these work sessions encompass working on four to eight of the same type of garment in one go (two chemises, two drawers per girl, etc). If you’re new to historic sewing, it may take you a bit longer to do each step, but you’ll get faster with repetition. If you have someone to help with pressing, it may take you a bit less time in each session. You can and should adjust your work to suit your own schedule!
Session One & Two:
20 minutes labor saw the white cloth yardage (bought with a 50% off coupon from a chain fabric store, for a total of 10 yards, $35) into a hot water wash, and onto the line.
Another 20 minutes put a quick press on the yardage, using a hot iron and steam. It’s far easier to work with pressed fabric! The simple expedient of line drying helped remove most of the laundry wrinkling to begin with.
Session Three: Measure & Cut
Each girl gets a her own measurement card, which I keep in my sewing box during construction. These get dated, too, because most children have a disconcerting habit of growing overnight.
Since I’m starting with chemises (always work from the skin out!), the primary measurements I need for each girl are:
Bust
Circumference around the shoulders (for the fitted chemise band)
Depth of armscye (too short, and it’ll be pinchy! I can compare this to the templates in the chemise pattern, and customize the sleeve and chemise body to suit my child.)
Length of sleeve (again, I can customize! I want these chemise sleeves to be only as long as the upper bicep.)
Bicep circumference (a comfortable one, with a bit of ease; I’ll adjust the chemise sleeve template to suit our needs.)
Overall finished length (to about the knee. When stays are added, the chemise will still be about mid-thigh length.)
Style Alterations
One of the alterations to the basic girls linen pattern that I know one of my girls wants is a chemise band that has a placket. This lets me get a nice snug fit around the shoulders, while still being easy to get off and on. So, I’ll be adding a center placket to the front of the chemise, and adding a placket there, plus buttons to close it.
The same daughter has also expressed interest in tucks to handle the fullness over the bust of the chemise. I don’t need to make any special changes to the shapes or fullness of the body of the chemise, but I will want to mark, press, and sew some fine tucks to suit her. The style differences, plus laundry marking, will help a lot when it comes to washing and storage!
Cut Versus Rip
Since the chemise requires very little actual shaping, I’ll be ripping sections to length, and using my adjusted templates from the pattern to do the bit of shaping needed in the neckline and sleeves. Ripping panels for length allows me to work quickly, and things are still on-grain, for easy pressing and sewing later.
A “thrift” measure I’m taking is to make the chemises more narrow than the full width of my fabric. I only need 30″ widths for the front and back of my slender 8yo’s chemises; I’m seaming two sections of “leftover” width into one back piece (shown in the photo), and using a third “leftover” for cutting two sleeves. The other two sleeves are cut from the “leftover” strip on the larger chemises (which are cut to 36″ widths). This bit of thrift lets me cut four chemises out of seven “drops” of yardage, rather than eight. It’s a small thrift, but significant!
Session Four, Five, Six & Seven: Run & Fell Seams
Once I’m past cutting, I’m usually very eager to get sewing! The seams attaching the sleeves, and side seams of the chemises are sewn with a run-and-fell seam, for sturdiness during laundering and low-bulk during wear.
If the underarms required extreme curves or shaping, the felling on the seams would be easiest to do by hand; with some careful pressing and a bit of care, I can finish these by machine. Great news: a lock-stitch on a modern machine is formed in the same way, and looks the same, as one formed on a mid-century lock-stitch machine!
Now, using up four sewing sessions just for the main construction seams on chemises may sound like a lot, but remember–I’m making four chemises at once, and my sessions are only 20 minute bursts. You can get quite a lot of progress if you have carved out more time.
Session Eight: Hems
You could finish the hems at the end if you like, but once the side seams are in, I personally like to get the hems in; it just feels like the projects finish up faster at the end when I do it that way. So I took another 20 minutes to press and machine-hem all four chemises. That involves an eye-balled 1/4″ fold and press along the edge, then a measured-with-hem-gauge 1-1/2″ fold, press, and stitch. Easy peasy!
If you are hemming by hand, a simple running stitch is all you need.
In the next Sew-Along post, I’m going to take a short detour and show you how to do a tucked front for two of the chemises, and then take a few sessions to finish up the chemises! For now, remember to take some breaks as needed. Around here, that usually involves one or more of the henfolk…
Dressing Girls Sew-Along: Planning
Good planning makes for far less craziness in life, and I’m very fond of a quiet, pleasant time, personally. Here’s a quick look at some of the planning that’s going into my own process of re-dressing two little girls for our living history interpretive season.
Plan For Real Life To Continue
If the head sewist falls into a Black Hole of Making, everyone gets crabby, filthy, starving, and naked. This is not conducive to positive family relations. So we make some plans that allow real life to continue! This includes some grocery shopping for foods that many members of the family can prepare, pre-cooking or batch-cooking some dishes, crock-pot meals, etc. I also plan to take work breaks and do things like push laundry. And, before sitting down to sew, I do make sure I’m dressed, and the house is reasonably tidy. It sounds odd, but I’m a lot more productive and no one hates me. So, it works!
Plan for Realistic Work Segments
If a 48- or 72-hour Black Hole of Making is not realistic for your household, then plan something else. This sew-along is broken down into 20-minute working segments. If you can do three of those in a day, wonderful! If you can only do one of those, great! You’ll still make progress, and can get quite a lot done over time!
Plan for Efficient Time Use
I know that it takes only about five minutes more to cut an extra chemise or pair of drawers, as to cut one. So, planning my work to allow enough time to cut multiples, or do just one step on multiple garments at once, allows me to use my time efficiently.
In my case, I know we’ll be volunteering 1-3 days a week. I would prefer to do only one or two big loads of washing and pressing, so planning for each girl to have two chemises, two drawers, and a full complement of 1850s petticoats, plus one or two dresses, a sunbonnet, and two or three pinafores and aprons, will let me accomplish my interpretive and laundry goals, without overrunning my realistic and efficient sewing time allotment.
It makes sense, then, to cut all four chemises in one go, and “railroad” the work, completing each step on all four garments in one session, as often as possible. My hands will work more efficiently, and the work speeds right along!
Planning for efficient time use also includes making sure I write up a measurement card for each girl, and keep them in my sewing box for easy reference. This saves me a lot of hollering, since this time of year, they’re more likely to be found out with the chickens in the coop, or up a tree, than inside our little cottage.
I am making sure to have a plentiful stock of the supplies I’ll need: a fresh packet of machine needles (the cheapest and best investment you can make in a sewing project!), a few spools of nice white 100% cotton thread, a fresh beeswax, sharp scissors, several thimbles, and the white china buttons I’ll use, all handy to my sewing space. I work at our kitchen table, so everything gets tucked into a cloth tote bag between work sessions. It’s compact, portable, and keeps everything together for easy start-up at each sewing session.
Plan for Thrift
Though my local chain stores don’t tend to have a lot of usable historic fabric, there is one grade of “premium muslin” that works very nicely as period “long cloth” for undergarments, so I planned ahead and purchased ten yards of it with a 50% off coupon, for a total expenditure of $35.
I’m also hauling out the miscellaneous pile of current petticoats, giving them all a good soak in oxygenated bleach (Oxi-clean is my drug of choice), and a nice long line-dry in the sunshine to brighten the fabric. Then we’ll evaluate them: most will need waists reset, tucks and hems adjusted, etc, but I can re-make and re-use my previous labor, saving my new fabric as much as possible. This is only realistic because the previous items were made with good period fabrics and techniques. Those initial investments pay off!
Another thrift measure is tailoring undergarments to the needs of the individual child. My current 8yo is very slender; chemises made on a full-width of 45″ would drown her tiny frame! Instead, I’ll be cutting her chemise fronts and backs on only 30″ of fabric, and using the remaining 15″ of width to cut bands, sleeves, and frills. Scraps will be used as pieced linings in bodices, too. My goal is to have only the merest scraps of white cotton left!
Plan for Style
My base pattern for the girls’ things is our SA-200 Girls Linens pattern. However, my girls have different stylistic preferences, and we’re also targeting an early-middle 1850s look for our interpretive work this year. So I’ll be modifying the base pieces from the patterns, using different trim options, and otherwise customizing the look to suit both our living history needs, and each girl’s personal style. It’s grand to be able to have a unique look that’s still 100% under the umbrella of Period, Everyday, and Common for the era!
It looks like the fabric is ready to pull off the line and give a quick press… and then it’s on to dressing my girls!
Tips for Dressing Daughters
We’re about to start dressing our own little girls for a new interpretive season, and we thought it might be fun and useful and instructional to do a quick series on Dressing Girls… you’re welcome to sew along if you like, or come back to these posts as needed. Subscribe to the blog updates (see the side-bar) and you’ll get each “episode” delivered to your inbox.
First, though, a few tips on general attitude and how to make the good stuff happen. It is entirely possible to dress our girls so well, you could transport them back in time and expect them to excite no notice whatsoever.
Of course, these are the sort of hooligans I’m working with…
(Twirl-ability is an obligatory function of all mid-century girls clothing. Always. Even if you’re just going to the neighborhood park.)
Help your girls pinpoint the mid-19th century look by correcting these commonly-seen problems:
Make it Easy
One-fabric dresses, with the skirts attached directly to the bodice, seem to be the most common garment for girls in the mid-19th century. They are also the most convenient for dressing, and easiest to wear during active play or work. Do your girls a favor, and dress them in one-piece dresses with a gently fitted waist. Cut the skirts in widths similar to their petticoats (70″ for bitty girls, 90″ for girls in childhood, 120″ for tween and young teens, 140″ to 180″ for teenage girls). They’ll look wonderful, and have the freedom and ease they need for a great event or interpretive day.
Start With Good Shapes
If you don’t start with good historic shapes, it’s very hard to get a good historic result! You’ll be happiest with a dress pattern that also focuses on historic techniques. When you combine historic shapes, historic techniques, and historically-consistent fabrics, your girls are always going to look their best. Visit our Shop to view our line of historically-accurate patterns for girls.
Fiber Sense
Use 100% natural fibers for your girls! All-cotton prints in period designs and colors, or good grades of tropical and summer weight wool in solid colors, will keep your girls accurate and comfortable year round. Do not dress girls in man-made fiber blends! It’s both a history faux pas, and a modern health and safety danger.
Anticipate Growth
In the mid-century, girls did tend to grow up. Oddly enough, ours do, too! Historically, dresses were designed to grow with girls, and we can use the same tricks today! Growth tucks are a great way to extend the skirt length potential of a dress, and period techniques for faced waistbands allow you to hide extra bodice length in the waistband against future body growth as well. Use both to get the most out of your girl’s dresses. Our Sewing Academy/Historic Moments patterns do teach the historic techniques you’ll need.
During the Dressing Girls Sew-Along here on the Sewing Academy, we’ll also take a look at recycling things you may have already made, or purchased used from another family. Our youngest is a spritely, slender thing, more-so than either of her elder sisters, so re-cutting this handed-down dress is on the list:
Add Skirt Support
Girl’s clothing works over a system of skirt supports similar to an adult woman’s clothing. Your little girl needs petticoats! Cut full (70″ for bitty girls, 90″ for middle-size girls, and 120″ or more for older, teen girls), then hand-gathered to a fitted waistband, petticoats will do more to improve the look of her clothing than just about anything else! Petticoats are inexpensive, too (under $5 complete in an inexpensive white cloth). One or two petticoats, well starched and worn alone or over a small cage (or corded petticoat for the pre-hoop years) give her the right skirt shapes.
Watch Your Hems
Photographs from our era show a wide range of girls’ dress lengths, but they tend to fall between the upper calf and middle/lower calf for girls under 13 to 15 years. Petticoats and drawers should all be hemmed in the same general range (not designed to peek below mid-calf). Keep in mind that ankle-length drawers are not a mid-century style! It is perfectly acceptable for a girl’s stockings to show to mid-calf. Too-long hems hamper a girl’s ability to play and do active work, and are not consistent with the aesthetic of the period.
Get a Good Ratio
As with adult clothing, undergarments and pinafores (see our free patterns here!) should be the main focus of your young lady’s wardrobe. If funds are limited, you’ll get more good use from one dress, paired with three sets of undergarments and three inexpensive pinafores, than from three dresses and one set of undies! Be sure she has enough underwear for a fresh set each day of your longest event, plus one for spare. (Petticoats can be worn several days running, so she’ll need only one set of those.)
When it’s all put together, you end up with “history kids” who walk around with this sort of happy:
And of course, always study as many original images and extant garments as you possibly can! It’s exciting to see snapshots of living history children, and realize: we look just like the Original Cast!
