The Vintage Nerd Sews

 Last weekend, I was able to get together with a very talented friend and take some photos of my completed ensemble. The photos are...perfection.  Setting a spooky mood, courtesy of the lack of snow Look at that beautiful hand-stitched back! Mid-twirl I didn't really have a thought-out plan as I put this ensemble together, which will shock no one who knows me in person. The sage colored petticoat is from last winter, and the brown wool of the gown was a clearance purchase with no specific project in mind. The red cloak was always something I wanted, and the blue mitts are from strap wool in my stash. The handkerchief was a surprise Etsy find that beautifully ties the colors together. It was freezing out, but I was really quite comfortable in all my wool! I look forward to more opportunities to wear this before spring arrives.

  Shortly after I finished my cloak, I realized that I'd need mitts to ensure full protection from the elements. The first attempt, in scraps of a blue windowpane check wool, was something of a measure once, cut twice situation. I won't say I do it all the time, as I have grown and learned to take my time as a seamstress over the years, but I will say that I still do it often enough to keep myself both frustrated and humble. For the second attempt at cutting out my mitts, I was much more careful of my dimensions, and successfully cut out mitts in a solid blue melton wool. For linings, I used scraps from my failed short gown, a cream cotton with blue palempore print.  I enlarged the pattern found in  Costume Close Up , and because the instructions there are comparable to the instructions on a Week 8 Bakeoff technical, I used the instructions from the American Duchess  Guide to 18th Century Costuming  to actually put things together. Once again, I love the inclusion of phot

  It's been over a year since I really got this project underway. Due to my project funk from struggles with the JP Ryan English gown pattern, I didn't get any sort of gown, long or short, finished for summer. I've decided to move forward with working on the winter needs for my ensemble. The chocolate wool gown, was my starting point. However, that's not enough to keep a body warm in the winter out here! According to my research, red cloaks were ubiquitous in the mid to late 18th century, and worn even into the early 19th century, although they had generally fallen somewhat out of fashion toward the end of the time we see them referenced. They were most common in the country, and could be plain or dressed up with trims. They were first worn by the "landed gentry" in England but their easy importability to the colonies made them popular and common in the US by the late 18th century. Looking through the list of extant examples (many with images) on  Larsdatter&#

While I love to sew, I have no desire to ever pursue sewing as a full-time job again. However, I am fascinated with the job of seamstress or tailor throughout time. One of the constants are the tools of the trade: needles, thread, scissors, pins. These were particularly important in the 18th century, as all sewing was done with these tools--no machines to be found. I've not put my sewing machine up on the shelf permanently, but I have begun transferring some of its work to more old-fashioned methods as I assemble my 18th century wardrobe. For Christmas, I received a few of these tools, as seen in the photo below. All of these came from Samson Historical.  L-R: Shears, bone thread winders, bone bodkin, and bone awl When it comes to their uses, the bodkin is perhaps the most unusual for modern sewists. It's not so much a sewing tool as it is a tool for getting dressed. When lacing up stays or the interior of a gown, by threading the lacing through a bone bodkin, the job can be do

 My first attempt at a gown was stressful and disheartening. Even with help from experts, I wasn't able to get things right. I trashed the muslin and took a longer-than-planned break from working on the 18th century project. When fall semester started, the break was extended, as I'm not only working full time and going to school full time, as of the beginning of the school year, I'm also teaching a sewing elective at the K-12 school where I work. I love it, and my class is fantastic, but teaching is new to me, and definitely added a lot of stress in conjunction with everything else. With the completion of my grad school semester, I began to get my creative energy back.  For my birthday, I had treated myself to the new pattern from Scroop and Virgil's Fine Goods, the Angelica Gown. Then, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I found a sizeable amount of lightweight chocolate-colored wool at Needle & Thread. Using the glorious free time I had over Christmas break (worki

Finishing the basics of my 18th century ensemble last summer was thrilling. I decided to go ahead and do photos of the bare-bones ensemble without a gown (see issues in previous post), and I'm so glad I did. My wonderful husband acted as photographer, and we used a local historical farmstead and nature park as the backdrop. Standing between the garden and the summer kitchen A better view of the oven in the summer kitchen Standing in the shade of the ice house Resting against the stone wall framing the property Filling a canteen in the river Since taking these photos, I have made several alterations to the ensemble, including shortening the length of my petticoat and apron to be a more suitable length for that of a working woman, as well as adding sleeve bands to my shift. I have also purchased and made several more useful pieces, including shoes and stockings, and am putting finishing touches on a gown.

The second part of my posts on accessories covers those I made myself! There aren't quite as many of these, but they are no less important to the ensemble. Cap Cap, modeled here by my lovely mannequin I think that the cap was the part of the ensemble that gave me the most flashbacks to my junior high costuming misadventures. I will forever be scarred by Butterick's costume version of a mob cap--a big, fat floppy circle of cotton with elastic running through it, more akin to a shower cap than the elegant caps you see in portraits of the era. You know, this one. I would have avoided a cap if I could, but they were an important part of a woman's attire, one purpose of which was to help keep the hair clean and protected from the dirt and dust of the day. The various historical costuming accounts on Instagram were a huge help in allowing me to visualize what a proper 18th century cap should and would look like, and after much deliberation, I decided to use the "Bess" c

Straw hat, block printed handkerchief, and pottery water jug  Handkerchiefs I purchased my first handkerchief at Wm. Booth, Draper, during the Ft. Loudon Market Faire earlier this summer. As a note, this was my very first Revolutionary War event. I attended as a spectator with some friends, and it was a wonderful experience to visit the various vendors and talk with them. Everyone was friendly, knowledgeable, and kind. As you can see, I have since expanded my handkerchief collection, with a beautiful blue and yellow handkerchief gifted to me by a friend, and my newest, a vivid multicolor on white purchased from Historical Hat Lady on Etsy. I love 18th century handkerchiefs not only for their vivid but simple designs, but also because they can be styled in a variety of ways! Slightly smaller ones make wonderful turbans for 1940s workwear and casual looks, and larger ones can be made into backless halter tops for a summery 1930s look.  Straw Hat Trimming in progress The hat also came fro

When it comes to the jacket or gown or whatever you want to call it, I've had a difficult time up until very recently. First, I tried a short gown. The pattern by JP Ryan seemed straightforward to put together, and it was. However, I didn't compensate for my waist length when cutting the pattern out. I have a lovely cotton short gown in a blue on white palempore print that hits about three inches too high in the waist, and the flare around the hip is overall too wide to suit my shape. Lesson learned. I can make it work with an apron, but why wear something that doesn't make you happy? The short gown now hangs in my closet until I can either repurpose it or pass it along to someone else.  I next tried to make a long gown, using the J.P. Ryan "Robe a l'Anglaise." To say there were some fitting issues would be an understatement. Some are construction errors on my part, like incorrectly pleating the skirt to fit the bodice, and not making my customary length adjus

When I first began working on this project, it was still winter, so my first petticoat is actually a sage green wool. However, it waits in storage for cold weather, and the petticoat I debuted was one of navy blue linen. It's back to cold weather again now, and I'm working on completing a gown at last (more on this elsewhere), so I pulled this petticoat back out. It hasn't been a full year, and already I've learned a few things that I need to change. I did make lovely, precise pleats, but they didn't reduce the amount of fabric down to actually fit my waist properly, leaving odd bunching at the sides. I also have discovered the necessity of a rump, and will be putting a new hem in this petticoat accordingly (also more on false rumps elsewhere).  As a note, what we think of as a petticoat today is more akin to a slip than the petticoat of the 18th century. The petticoat was the exterior garment that a woman wore over her shift, stays, and underpetticoat, covering her

Things started to feel like they were coming together at this point. Shift The shift for my ensemble was made using the same Simplicity pattern from American Duchess as my stays. The fabric is a white, lightweight linen, a lucky Jo-Ann's find. When I had enough of my ensemble together to photograph, I shared photos with a trusted group of reenacting ladies for helpful critiques. One of the main improvements they mentioned, in addition to a bedgown, was to add cuffs to my shift, as women's shifts still had cuffs at this point in history. Using scrap fabric, of which I had just enough, and antique bone buttons, I added a narrow cuff to the gathered sleeve.    You might notice that there is not much of a placket or buttonhole on my cuff. This is because I definitely cheated it. I undid the seam at the edge of the sleeve, gathered it, and added a cuff band. The fabric is such a loose weave, that undoing the felled seam and putting in a buttonhole seemed like a disastrous option. Fo

As I began this project, it was important for me with my middle school sewing induced costuming PTSD and my natural ability to overthink anything, to do my research before I got started. Here is a non-exclusive list of books, members of the costuming community on social media, and blogs that I've used. *As a note, this list will be constantly changing as I add to my collection and utilize the various resources. A list of all the books in my costuming library is on my Pinterest board.* Books The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking and Guide to 18th Century Beauty These are both good introductory guides to 18th century costuming and style! Photographs abound, as do gridded patterns, construction troubleshooting tips, and a stitch guide. As a beginner to the era, I highly recommend this to other newbies. It does help if you have some previous sewing experience, but everything is laid out so nicely that this isn't necessarily a must, however.    Costume Close-Up: Clo

The right thing to do when you begin a historical costuming project is to start with the undergarments. An unpopular opinion in the historical costuming community, but making undergarments is the part of historical costuming that I dislike the most. I dread it. So much plain white fabric and straight seams! And trying to fit corsetry with my long, narrow torso and slightly flared ribs is full of frustration. My 1910s and 1900s projects have never gotten off the ground because I hit fitting roadblocks with undergarments, and then just bundle the whole thing into the "maybe I'll return to it later" pile of lies. As frustrating as foundation garments can be, they are what make the silhouette of a historical era. Stays and corsets also help to support the often heavy layers of a gown, distributing weight onto the hips so that the whole thing doesn't pull at the shoulders and fits as it should. Using linen repurposed from a failed wrap dress project and American Duchess

 Hello all! My name is Lexie. I'm a wife, a food dispenser to three cats, a full-time graduate student, a full-time office manager, part time teacher, and seamstress, among other things. I initially created this blog with the idea of walking through the Mary Brooks Picken dressmaking books from the 1910s-1920s and documenting my adventures. However, before I really got started, my husband's job moved us out east, to the land of early American history. Most of you probably know me from my Instagram account, which features my primarily 1930s-1940s true vintage and me-made vintage wardrobe. My focus has been inching further back in time for a few years, but with our move in the summer of 2021 to the East Coast, my first-love historical era has been everywhere.  The Revolutionary War era was my first historical interest, thanks to the American Girl dolls. While I've loved the 1940s almost as long, the 1770s were the decade that first sparked my passion for history. Starting bac