Spring For Cotton – project finished!

Pattern: vintage Simplicity 1430, size 16 (bust 34”).

Fabric: bright red cotton.

Haberdasheries: four cover buttons, five snap fasteners.

Yes, I know, if the deadline for a sewalong is 30 April, that doesn’t mean you can’t post the project before 30 April! :P I actually had this blouse nearly finished at the beginning of this month, but then other things got in the way. It’s finished now, though!

This wasn’t my most inspired bit of sewing ever; I would have liked it to turn out more neat. The fabric was a bit strange – it changes colour when I iron it! Luckily it does change back when it cools. Also, the weft and warp don’t seem to run perpendicularly, which made it impossible to cut the pattern pieces on the straight grain in both directions. Meh.

It was a nice, relatively quick project though, because I’d already used the pattern before. I didn’t need to make a toile, and already knew I had to lengthen the blouse by 6 cm and add a snap fastener below the bottommost button :). I really should use patterns twice, more often! I did do one thing differently from the first time I used this, for some variety: I made long sleeves. But that didn’t make things very difficult.

I’ll post another photo once I’ve worn this!

1915 hat

Pattern: none, I improvised.

Fabric: a strip of buckram, natural coloured linen for lining, black cotton velvet.

Haberdasheries: six turkey feathers, 35 cm of black lace.

Finally, a post I can tag ‘millinery’! =) I’ve made quite a few hats, but I find it really difficult to decorate them in a nice way, so they tend not to reach the ‘finished’ state and I don’t post them. I really like how this one’s turned out, though.

I’m making a 1915 suit, and wanted a modern hat to wear with it, not one of those large Edwardian ones. Lots of images of 1915 fashion had cylinder-shaped hats like these:

So I decided to make a simple cylinder out of buckram, line it and cover it with black velvet in pleats. Then I’d add some turkey feathers I already had, in a fan shape on the side.

Searching for 1915 hats, I also found several which had crazy feathers!

Hm, these ladies don’t all look equally happy with their hats… I certainly wasn’t planning to make anything like this, I just saved the images for fun. But somehow the upright feather stuck, and I ended up making this:

I wore it to the event at Passchendaele Memorial Museum last weekend. It is NOT handy when getting in and out of a tent! Or when walking through the dugout part of the museum, for that matter. Of course I didn’t think of that, but holding my hat in my hand worked well enough.

Spring For Cotton

Last year I participated in Lucky Lucille’s Sew For Victory sewalong, and made a green 1940s dress. I was hoping there would be another Sew For Victory this year, but there isn’t. However, Lucky Lucille is hosting another sewalong, Spring For Cotton, which involves sewing with 100% cotton. As it happens, the project(s) I was considering making for Sew For Victory involve cotton fabric, so I can make them for Spring For Cotton instead.

I will be making a red long-sleeved 1940s blouse using Vintage Simplicity pattern 1430, which I also used for my first 1940s blouse.

I had a seasonal colour analysis, as I believe it’s called in English, done recently, and found out I’m a deep winter type. That means cool colours suit me best, but moreover, the more intense cool colours (see colour palette on the right). I had this red fabric in my stash because I wanted some brighter coloured historical clothes, but after the analysis I assumed it was not a suitable colour for me. However, it turns out it’s rather a cool shade of red (yes, that is apparently possible – it means it’s not a yellowish red). So yay.

I’m tempted to make a second blouse for this sewalong as well, but I don’t really need more 1940s clothes at the moment because I made quite a few last year, so I should really give some other projects, for other eras, priority!

World War I VAD uniform

The Sew Monthly Challenge: February – Colour Challenge Blue: Make an item that features blue, in any shade from azure to zaffre.

Fabric: Blue 100% cotton chambray, 3.4 m white cotton for lining and 0.5 m for the sleeves, 50 x 56 cm white cotton lawn, thicker white fabric, red wool.

Pattern: Burda 125 Cassaque, heavily modified.

Year: 1914-1918 (the duration of WWI).*

Notions: Dress: 11 mother of pearl buttons, 0.65 m thin white cotton band. Cap: 70 cm twill tape, 80 cm thin white cotton band. Sleeves: two white buttons. Brassard (arm band): 9 sq. in. red wool, two safety pins. Apron cross: 20.25 sq. in. red wool.

How historically accurate is it? We certainly tried to make it as accurate as possible. Our research included period sewing instructions for this specific uniform, photographs of originals, and period photos of VADs wearing the uniform.

Hours to complete: Dress: I'd rather not say. Too many. Cap: unknown, I made it before. Sleeves: 3 h 15. Brassard: 1 hour. Apron cross: 6 minutes.**

First worn: Nurses and stretcher bearers training weekend on 7-8 March.

Total cost: €39.60. About €15 for the quilt cover, €10 for the lining fabric,€3 for the lawn, €3.60 for the buttons,and €8 for the leather belt. The rest of the materials I already had.

Last year I and the other nurses in my group made a World War I QAIMNS Reserve nurse’s uniform using a chambray quilt cover from H&M. Later we decided to make voluntary nurses’ (VAD) uniforms as well, mainly because besides the grey chambray, H&M had a light blue version as well, which was just perfect for a VAD dress.

QAIMNS nurses were professional military nurses who had had extensive training. VADs (Voluntary Aid Detachments, or Very Adorable Darlings, as they were also referred to by the troops), however, were volunteers, often from the middle and upper classes, who were often frowned upon by trained nurses and initially had to do non-medical tasks such as cooking and cleaning. A shortage of trained nurses resulted in VADs being allowed in overseas military hospitals though, and actually doing nursing work. As the VADs became more skilled, the trained nurses also became more accepting of their presence and work in the hospitals.

We’re going to do hospital displays this year, so it seemed nice to be able to portray both QAIMNS nurses and VADs.

This fabric is so pretty, a lovely sky blue or baby blue, and also nice to work with. I like it so much that I have bought an additional quilt cover to make a modern dress out of it, as well. The VAD dress itself is a bit less charming – it’s basically a sack! :P We used a simple Burda pattern which had a similar shape, but altered it to meet the original regulations we found, which said, for instance, that the dress should be 1 m wide (on both sides, so 2 m in total) at the bottom, and how much space the tucks required. So we really only used the arm hole and sleeve parts of the pattern, and even altered those.

There is an original VAD uniform in the collection of the Imperial WarMuseum. The close-up photographs of the dress show it’s quite hideously sewn – these dresses were clearly mass-produced at low cost. I didn’t attempt to match this ugliness, though it came in handy sometimes. I’m a perfectionist, but when I found myself considering doing a seam again because it was not quite as neat as I’d like, I’d think ‘still neater than the original!’ and just carry on =).

Besides the dress, the uniform consists of a brassard, black leather belt (worn when the apron is not), white fabric belt, cap, apron, collar and over sleeves; the latter four need to be starched. The apron is the same I wear as a QAIMNS(R), but with a red cross sewn onto it. The collar and white fabric belt are also the same.

We’ve got a training weekend coming up during which of one of our nurses’ boyfriend, who is a male nurse in real life, will be teaching us old-fashioned medical techniques and also some contemporary first aid. I’ll be wearing my uniform there, and will post pictures of the uniform in action, and detail photos, afterwards! I'll also have ironed the dress better by then... ETA: Photos added! I love the look of this uniform, it's so much cuter than the QAIMNS one. The cap is quite flattering, I think :).

This is what the dress looks like without the apron. It's basically a sack!

When off duty, the sack could also be worn with a black leather belt. As you can see, the front box pleat has an opening to accommodate the belt.

This is the cotton lawn Dora cap laid flat. Hasn’t it got a simple shape? Yet just starching it and tying the strings makes it into a cap.

We are also knitting bandages to use in our displays. You can see mine on my Ravelry page!

* Note on year: after 1915 this uniform was worn with a veil instead of the Sister Dora cap, so next year we will change this. The same goes for the collar, which also changed at some point.

** Note on time to complete: these are rough estimates. I tried to track the time, but am apparently rather hopeless at that. First I tried writing it down, but that didn’t work. Then I installed a time-tracking app, but that still didn’t work all that well, since I kept forgetting to either switch it on or off! Once I was driving and realised the app was still running. Once I was in the theatre after dining out, and realised the app was still running and had thus tracked several hours too many. Also, there was no pause button, so things like making tea are included. So as I said, rough estimates :P.