BLACK PETTICOAT- HEATHERBLOOM 1907-1910

Last weekend I was in a Halloween fashion show and the dress I was wearing, although not all black, was a dark green and black, so I decided to wear my black “mourning” petticoat under it so a white one wouldn’t show.

The next day while I was getting ready to put my costume pieces away, I noticed a label inside the petticoat and thought, “hmm, I wonder if I could find out anything about it?”.  A search on the internet immediately brought up ads and articles about the brand, “Heatherbloom”. They were dated from 1907-1910. Its likely a mourning petticoat but could be part of a fashionable black outfit as well.

 

This was one article I found about them. 1908 Heatherbloom 

   

  

 

It would be interesting to find out what fabric blend they used to make their "Heatherbloom taffeta" since none of them mention that. Later I did a search for the fabric name and it says "Heatherbloom taffeta was a popular early 20th century artificial silk fabric —often used as a cotton or synthetic-blend faux silk—best known for making women's petticoats and skirts during the Edwardian era."

I bought mine about 15-20 years ago in an antique shop in La Mesa, CA. I only paid $20 which was about all I could afford at the time. And then today this one popped up on ebay for $237, and I realized my $20 investment was a treasure.  **My friend said more likely its value is around $80, but still a fun buy.   ebay $237

I apparently bought a 2^nd black petticoat at one time, but it doesn’t have a label and appears to be earlier than this one. But more on that in a bit.

Mine is in excellent condition, although to be able to wear it, I took out the waist ties and let out the waist, then turned down the top fold since it was tearing and created a new channel for the ties. It’s made of silk taffeta and has that lovely crinkly sound when you move it. It has a lower panel sewn to the top portion with four 3” rows of broderie anglaise ruffles. All the seams are finished with French seams.

The original waist when let out is 40” wide. Its current length is 36”, after taking up 1 inch for a new tie channel. This is the right size for a petticoat of the early 1900s skirt widths.

I think this petticoat needs a new everyday or mourning dress to wear it more often now.

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 On to my next black petticoat, which I found I had in my armoire with the other one. I didn’t realize I had two. I have quite a few white cotton petticoats I’ve collected over the years, and do wear them depending on their condition. This one is made of a sheer black cotton voile. I probably paid the same amount for it but don’t remember where I bought it. I soaked it in cold water when I bought it, and the water turned  brown from it. The underside of the ruffles shows the embroidery stitch threads lost their black color.This one also has multiple rows of 6” broderie anglaise ruffles along the bottom. It also has French seam finishes. There was a small patched hole on it (circled in blue). The original length was 38” which I shortened to 36” to fit my height. The waist on this one when fully opened was 56”, and the skirt is really wide. This leads me to believe it from an earlier date of much fuller skirts. I can probably use it for 1870s or later 1880s.           

 

 

Since I love black dresses, especially mourning, both of these will have new lives someday in my wardrobe.

A 19TH CENTURY VICTORIAN FASHION SHOW

A couple months ago I was contacted by the Old Poway Park (CA) manager asking if my group, The Historical Dressers, could possibly put on a fashion show for their Rendezvous event in October with a time-period of 1840-1900. If anyone knows me well enough, they know I don’t like to do any events in the summer because I don’t like the heat. And I know October is notorious for being especially hot. But I said if they had an air-conditioned building we could do it in, I would see if I could get a group interested.

It turned out they did, and it was in fact a cute historic building, the Templar Hall, in the middle of the park with a gazebo nearby and a lovely park setting. The rest of the park has a train museum and train rides. https://poway.org/452/Old-Poway-Park

                                              

I began putting out queries to all my available models and got about 12 who were interested, although 2 would also be running a vendor/demonstration booth at the event. Other than the requested time-period, I left it open to whatever one they wanted to do. Once it looked like most were filled, I took the open 1850s spot. It was also the coolest dress I had that I could wear, made of cotton voile.

About two weeks before the event, I drove out to the park and met with the manager to get familiar with the area, check out the parking, and look over the interior of the building to get an idea of what we would be working with. It was a decent size, well lit, with a small stage with only two steps up. It had a small room in the back behind the curtain that a couple ladies could use to dress in but it wasn’t big enough where we could be back there, and one by one come out on the stage. So my plan was to have them seated along the sides of the stage and just step up onto it. The manager also gave me a flyer they would be posting around the park about our first 19^th century Victorian fashion show. It was a nice one too! She was really excited about having us.

                                

I was happy to find out one of our previous young models was excited to be returning and joining us again for her 4^th show, wearing a new dress her mother made her, who was also in the show. Another young girl would be doing her 2^nd show with us, wearing a dress her grandmother made her, who was also modeling, and then her older daughter was pulled into the group too! One of my other regulars was sadly going to be out of town and had wanted to be in it, and she generously offered her 1860s green plaid ballgown to her friend to wear in the show. So our group was up to fourteen models.

As the next two months moved on, I began writing everyone’s descriptions as their information came in. I was still writing some of them the week before the actual show, as that’s how these often run. Dress choices change, sizes change, accessories change. And as I feared, our weather forecast for that weekend was dire with extreme heat warnings. Each day it was saying it would be 97d, then up to 101d, and on the weekend, THE Saturday we would be there, it was now going to be between 103-104d. I wasn’t happy. The manager fortunately worked with me and would coordinate with my finding a close parking spot, hopefully a handicap space, and would help carry my things in. We would also have to contend with the Farmer’s Market closing off part of the road that day and would have to maneuver our way in. But it sounds like most of them found decent parking spots not too far from our venue.

                                                         

When I arrived on the day at 10am it was already 97d. But I didn’t have very far to walk, and the manager was very helpful bringing my things in. The room was all set up, with lots of chairs for the audience (I think around 50) and chairs for the models. While the ladies who had to get dressed were behind the curtain, some of us were putting last minute additions on to our costumes there in the room when people started showing up at 10:30 to get out of the heat and get a good seat. Oh well. I just started pulling up my hoop and even got some questions about what I was wearing underneath my dress. Even though that information would be part of the show, I humored them and showed off my undies.

                                                    

Finally it was time, the room was full, and thankfully the a/c was handling it well. As I read each of the model’s descriptions, some of them chose to walk the stage and some stepped off and walked down the middle of the room, as we often do at some shows. I hadn’t given any direction of what to do, so this was their choice. And I think it worked well. I was busy prior getting everything together, so I didn’t have time to take any candid photos of the ladies like I usually do, or even during the show. But two of my friends braved the heat and came and took photos for us. So I’m grateful to Susan D. and Lauren M. for sharing these photos they took. And we got some nice group shots of us.

                                 

 

And also thankfully, we got some nice individual shots of us too. These are in the order of their time periods.

      

        

         

       

    

       

We’d been considering cancelling our second show due to it being the hottest part of the day but one of the Farmer’s Market vendors who was there begged us to stay as the Market was winding down and more people might come then. In fact she went back and started telling everyone there about the show and the “carrot”, it has air conditioning. LOL! Some of our models went out front and were also announcing it to people walking by. So as some started showing up early again, we decided the show would go on. We only had half a room this time, but everyone still enjoyed it. I opened it to questions from the audience at the end and we got a couple, then some stayed after to ask us more questions about our costumes.

Afterwards the manager came up to me and was so excited about how well it went. And she started talking about “next time”. So it sounds like we’ll be getting another invitation in the future.

In the meantime, I don’t have a lot to report on my own costume sewing. I did start a new 1750s caraco and skirt. I started the skirt first and got that done, and now that the fashion show is over, I will start on the caraco. I’m planning on making a brown market bonnet to go with it.

                                          

My next two occasions to wear a costume are both related to Halloween. On October 17, I’m going to a “Witches Tea” with friends and will be wearing my Disney Haunted Mansion maid’s dress, and then on October 31 (on Halloween) I’ll be in a fashion show at the Harvey Girls Museum in Perris with our theme of Halloween & mourning, etc., for their fundraiser tea. On arriving home, I’ll keep it on and wear it handing out candy to the kiddies. So I guess that’s three times!