Category Archives: Edwardian

1890´s Ladies Vest Tutorial Part 1 – preparing the back

This is another tutorial to support my customers when sewing with my patterns. This time I´ll show you many details sewing the View B of my 1890´s Ladies Vest pattern (comming up soon). In general ladies vests from around 1890 were made in the same way as gents´ with an interfacing supporting the front, so this tutorial is full of classic tailoring techniques, like flatlining, sewing in interfacing and how to attach bridle tape.

When browsing the internet for research about vest fabrics, I fell in love with this silk brocade fabric. Brocade fabrics are not easy to sew, for non-experienced sewers I recommend sewing with plain fabrics like satins from cotton or wool.

Originally a twill cotton fabric (Silesia) was used for the back and lining, but feel free to use any light to midweight cotton fabric.

Let´s start sewing!

The back is made up the same way for View A and B of the vest. Join the back parts along the center back, right sides together and finish as a flat felled seam: Press the seam allowances to one side and trim back the lower one to ¼” (7mm). Fold over the wider seam allowance and press before edgestitching from the wrong fabric side.

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19th century welt pockets

19th century welt pockets where made different from modern welt pockets. In this tutorial I´ll show you the period correct method.

Baste a piece of linen or cotton to the wrong side of the left front, covering the pocket opening. Mark the pocket opening with a basting thread, clearly visible on the right side of the fabric. Cut your welt from fabric, matching the pattern of your fabric, with a 1/4” (6mm) seam allowance added to top and bottom and a 5/8″ (1,5cm) seam allowance added to the sides.

Fold the welt in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, press the edge and reopen. Attach a cotton tape along the fold to the inner half of the welt with a catch stitch. Sew the outer pocket bag to the inner half of the welt using, right sides together, stitch exactly between the marks of the pocket opening and press open the seam allowances.

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1890´s Jacket with puff sleeves

Another illustrated tutorial for my newest sewing pattern #0120, showing some steps a bit different than I explained in the sewing instruction´s, just because you can make things different.

A bit about the jacket: It is a typical double breasted jacket from around 1890, with puffed sleeves and large lapels and cut narrow at the waist to emphasize the 1890´s hourglass shape. As this jacket is mentioned to be made from a lightweight fabric like silk taffeta (shame over me, I used polyester taffeta – but it served well for the event I made it for) I flatlined the entire jacket with a midweight cotton fabric. The fabric was quite hard to take good pictures from, especially with artificial light. I do not have a picture of every step described in the sewing instructions, but from all more complicated ones. Let´s start!

Here you can see the back, flatlined and sewn together, with the self-made piping from my fashion fabric lined up with the bottom edge until reaching the mark (5). I did not make pics from the piping making process, as there are so many great video tutorials on the internet. Just search for PIPING and choose your favorite one.

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1890´s Fan-Skirt Tutorial

The Fan-Skirt pattern (#0414) still is my best selling pattern, so I´ll show you how I made my new skirt with that sewing pattern.

But what happened to the old one, why do I need a new one, or what´s the difference? I made my old skirt a few years ago from a single layer of a midweight dark brown woolen fabric, the sewing pattern was one of the first I published under my pattern label. I have worn this skirt frequently for cycling and winter activities like walking and skating. After all this years, the skirt looks well-worn, with several marks of a bicycle chain and srubbed up at the hem.

Plannig my first visit at the Wave Gothic Festival 2019 in Leipzig, I decided to make a new skirt and jacket, inspired by the motion picture Crimson Peak. As the skirt was thought to be worn on a festival I choosed a polyester taffeta, lined with glazed cotton. (That was a wise decision, as my husband emptied a glass of prosecco all over my skirt).

You´ll see pictures of two different skirts, made from different fabrics in this blogpost, as I forgot to take all pictures needed for this tutorial while sewing the Fan-Skirt.

After cutting all pattern pieces from fashion and lining fabric, I prepared the hem interfacing, cutting about 8″ (20cm) wide hem-shaped strips from a stiff, but lightweight canvas. For a hemline of several meters , I needed to piece the strips of interfacing, joining them with a simple overlapping seam.

Placing the lining pieces on top of a table with the wrong side up, I marked the hem line and lined up the interfacing with this line.

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A Muff Tutorial (Georgian, Regency, Victorian….)

I muff is an accessory which you never should omit wearing an historical fall/winter costume. The advantages are obvious. You´ll never get cold hands and you can hide all that things a modern women needs, like your car keys and of course your cell phone! With a cord or a loop attached to secure the muff around your neck or wrist you get your hands free.

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