HAVING FUN WITH 1890s SHIRTWAISTS FOR COSTUME COLLEGE

I often take the easy way out when I need multiple costumes and this year was no different. You’ve read of my assembly-line method of cutting out 2 or 3 of the same pattern at a time, partially sewing up the main seams, then finishing them as needed, so it seems like they appear out of nowhere, and I can blame it on the magical sewing mice.

When our mini-themed costume group started up for the Friday Night Social at CoCo, “Casino Royale -Our Favorite Spies”, our group decided to go as the Ladies of the Pinkerton Detective Agency.  After the organizers of this theme, Joyce & Kristen, did some research on what the ladies were wearing for the Agency in the 1890s, they designed a “uniform” for all of us to copy. And copy we did; we were all twins! We all purchased red/burgundy velvet or whatever anyone could find, and a dark grey fabric for our skirts. We all bought the Pinkerton badge sets available on ebay and split them among us. I decided to be easy on myself and ordered a white 90s blouse from Wild West Mercantile.

We had a variety of choices to make our vests, and many of us tried using the crossover vest from Truly Victorian’s riding habit jacket, but many found the lapel and collar was too bulky, so removed that and just made it a center buttoned vest. The back tails were also cut off straight. The walking skirt was Truly Victorian 291. 

We were all going to wear boater hats, and I had just bought an antique one off ebay from England. They’re not easy to find but later Joyce found some at Party City for $9, and they worked pretty good for the others. We all tied a black ribbon around our necks for a bowtie. And of course, you know me, I added a watch pocket and wore my watch and chain with it.

Because of the simple skirt, a white 90s shirtwaist, and vest, it was an easy outfit to make, and this got finished about one week before CoCo. I was feeling pretty flush by now. Just some last minute things to do, like buttons and buttonholes on a couple other skirts and shirtwaists. *Did you notice I jinxed myself? Right after I announced I was done with everything, the Wednesday night before I was leaving for CoCo, I tried my two skirts on to see what petticoats would work best with them, and both skirts were two inches too long in the front! I had pinned them up on my dressform, which is supposed to be set to my height with the short heels I wear. But I think the last time I had to take it to a fashion presentation, it got readjusted and grew a bit. So I was up until midnight fixing the one, and then to midnight the next night at Costume College fixing the other. Don't EVER say you're finished, or you will jinx yourself.* 

**Here is an additional photo taken by Jeanette M. 

I decided to make two other similar outfits to wear, one during the day when I taught my class, and another for the Sunday Tea, using the same patterns. But I zinged them up a bit.

The patterns I used were Truly Victorian TV E494 for the shirtwaist, and the TV walking skirt. The shirtwaist is extremely easy to make, and I wrote about making my first one while I was visiting my Mom in WA on this blog entry. http://timetravelingincostume.blogspot.com/2017/04/1894-scissors-shirtwaist.html

Last year after shopping in the Garment District, I saw this black and white cotton fabric with scissors at Michael Levine’s, and knew it had to be a 90s shirtwaist. I made a black gabardine cotton walking skirt to go with it, and made a black silk taffeta corselet belt from Truly Victorian TV 492 to wear also. I’ve seen a black leather belt in photos of the ladies wearing the shirtwaists so would like to find something like that for it later. Or I may make it a little narrower.

It turned out to be my favorite one of the weekend, & got a lot of compliments. I managed to ham it up when I was able to get my hands on a pair of scissors too. 

I was really at a loss of what to wear for the Sunday Tea, “Tea at the End of the Universe”, celebrating vintage science fiction. I wanted to wear my usual historical dress so was going to go with another 1890s outfit. But Cindy suggested making the shirtwaist from a science fiction fabric, and we chose The Jetsons, still one of my favorite cartoons from the ‘60s.

I’m still waiting for those push-button kitchens, and maybe one to make fabric?

So, accessories were needed for this. I decided I wanted antenna like “My Favorite Martian”, another 60s TV show, but had no luck finding some. I thought I would have to buy two car antennas and attach them somehow to a headband. Or make something like this.  That was my backup plan if nothing else worked.

Then just before the 4^th of July, I was shopping at Party City, and saw the “wall of wild color party accessories”. Rows of hats/wigs/plates, all matching colors of yellow, lime green, orange, red, purple, royal blue, and hot pink. I saw a hot pink wig and a light bulb went off! That wig would match one of the colors in my fabric, AND I wouldn’t have to even think about what wig to wear. And it was only $14. While looking at their catalog for other things I saw a glitter ball antenna headband, but sadly they were out of those. They claim it’s a Xmas/New Year’s only item. L So, I hot-footed it over to a costume store in another nearby town, and got one, the last one, with a couple sequins missing (hard life) but I could fix those. Et voila!

So now my mish-mash of costume needed a purse. I was on a roll. I first thought of making one, using an old handbag from a thrift store, and covering it like a book from a favorite SciFi book. After some thinking, I wanted it to look like the Tardis, the time traveling police box from Doctor Who. When I started thinking about this, it was just before the 4^th of July, and I was starting to feel the crunch of getting everything done. 

So, I again wanted to make it easy on myself, and just did a little searching on the internet for a Tardis purse. Yes, they have those! Except it would be coming from China, and wouldn’t be here until AFTER Costume College. Then Cindy found the exact purse on Amazon, and it could be here in two days for the same price. I ordered it the day before 4^th of July, and it arrived the day after. It was $35 and some of the reviews said they loved it, it was bigger on the inside ;) and well made. Others said some of the color peeled off, or the zipper separated. I decided to be very careful with it, as I needed it perfect for one day and didn’t want it to explode on me. Good thing I did, because by the end of the day, yes, the zipper did separate. So Amazon got my review about that. It’s a cute purse but needs work.

I wore my whole outfit with the black skirt I’d made, and the same corselet. I had a lot of fun wearing it to classes on Sunday morning, as this is not something I normally dress in. I ran into a Smurf; my guest teacher, Jez Roth; and the Doctor. 

The wig wasn’t behaving as nicely as it did the first time I wore it. It felt stringy, and I think it needs a better haircut to shorten it a bit. It was a lot cooler than a full wig though.  I saw someone else wearing a similar one and she had cut it in a nice bob. How do you take a $14 hot pink wig to a hairdresser and ask if they can style it, without laughing? With your Jetson’s blouse and antenna on, that’s how.

The last day at Costume College on Monday, I did my shopping for my costume fabrics in the Garment District for next year, since I already knew what my theme for the year was, "Dressing the Royals", and I had plans for what I wanted to make. But we all know that gets thrown to the wind when you hit all the fabric stores. I came home with more than what was on my list. My plans do include multiple fabric cutting of the same pattern but none will look the same when they're done. 

Hope to see you there next year! 

****Val****

1894 SCISSORS SHIRTWAIST

After I finished the last 1894 Brown & Aqua Polka Dot outfit, I decided I wanted to make the same blouse out of a white cotton with scissors designs on it I had. It could go with another grey skirt I was working on for yet ANOTHER secret outfit for Costume College. Isn’t that what many girls did, have multiple blouses for multiple skirts to mix and match?

So this was the pattern I used, Truly Victorian #494. And this was the fabric I bought at Michael Levine’s in the Garment District in Los Angeles. At the time I bought it I already knew it was going to be a 90s blouse.

 I was up in Washington state visiting my Mom for two weeks, and I always bring a/some sewing projects with me, so materials for this blouse and a vest for another project came with me.

It’s always a bit hard to do sewing projects in places other than your home when it’s not set up as a sewing area. So I had to make do with a large desktop to cut out my fabrics. Also, not having your own sewing machine you’re comfortable with has its own problems. I’ve fussed at my Mom for a couple years about the inexpensive plastic Singer she’d bought after her absolutely fabulous 1950s Pfaff sewing machine motor finally gasped it’s last breath. The little farming town she lives in doesn’t have anyone that can do repairs or replacement parts like it needed, and she’s at least two hours away from a major city that might. But since she wasn’t sewing much anymore, she didn’t think she needed anything expensive to replace it. So I’ve dealt with a clunky noisy machine that doesn’t like me much either.

This time I decided to check around town and see if there was any place that I might rent a machine. They’re really big into making quilts and there were two quilt supply stores there. But sadly, no rentals. *sigh* So Plastic Singer and I compromised and we didn’t do too bad this time and played nice.

Four days before I was leaving for home, we stopped in one of the large thrift stores and I was looking for large white sheets to use for cutting out patterns and making my muslins from. Used queen-size sheets here go for $2-$4 dollars each, and usually can get you about 10 yards of fabric, so that’s much cheaper even than the $1 a yard muslin I get in Los Angeles, or worse when I’m home. *grumble JoAnn’s grumble*. There must have been a lot of Spring cleaning because I came away with four Queen-size sheets, plus Mom dug a few out of her closet for me. *Score!*

 And I usually check the sewing section to see if they have any old patterns, keeping some of my vintage friends in mine all the time, or hooks & bars, wide bias tape, etc. In the past they’ve had a couple antique sewing machines, and sometimes a treadle one. So it’s a fun place to check out. This time two table-top machines caught my eye; a metal case Kenmore for $45, and a metal case Singer for $22. $22! You’ve got to be friggin’ kidding me! Both had tags on them that said it had been tested and ran perfectly.     Hmmm… Should I? “Yeah, Mom, coming now!” So off we go home. That night I thought about it. It was cheaper than renting a machine. It wasn’t THAT heavy if at some time I’d have to take it home on the plane, or even ship it via UPS. A really, really heavy one my Dad had mailed to me years ago only cost $60. I talked to Cindy about it the next day and made up my mind to go back. If it was still there, it was meant to be. I even considered maybe buying the other one in case any of my friends around here needed an inexpensive one too.

And it was!

I did some test stitches on it, and it ran like butter. Then I eyeballed the Kenmore. But alas, they didn’t know where the cord was. They said they get them stolen some times. So the Singer it was! And it had a carrying case with it.

Back home I was confronted by Mom with it. She said since it was my birthday she’d pay for it. Yay, Mom!

I was able to finish my blouse on it up to where it needed buttonholes, which I’ll finish at home, and sewed as much of the vest as I had time.

While at the JoAnn’s in town (note* it's 30 minutes away), I bought some black dome shaped buttons to go on the scissors blouse, and they actually had enough cards on them. And I found the pewter grey metal buttons I wanted for my vest. Gotta love small towns. Sometimes. The black and white scissors fabric with the black buttons goes very nicely with my grey twill skirt that you can see at the bottom of this photo.

 I finished the blouse as much as I could there before I flew back home, and will be finishing it later today doing the buttonholes and hemming the sleeves. I think I’m going to take a couple more tucks in the front where it goes into the peplum like I saw in a photo somewhere. And I think a little black bow tie might finish this off very nicely too, like this lady in the old photo. At some point, maybe a wide black belt with a buckle might be nice too, if I can find a wide enough buckle.  I may need to go hunting for more boater hats too.

You know how sometimes you come up with ideas when you wake up in the middle of the night? I had an ahah moment about how I line my sleeves with two layers of netting sandwiched between my fabric and flatlining. I’ve been cutting out a full size sleeve of the netting to keep it stabilized. My idea is to only go to the elbow next time but when I top stitch it to my flatlining, I can sew straight across to stabilize it to that, then sew the whole thing to the inside of the sleeve. That stitch line won’t show except on the inside. It doesn’t save much netting but it also doesn’t make stiff cuffs. 

Chloe didn’t waste any time moving into my sewing bag when I came home.

                                                                  ~~~Val~~~